random thoughts – Day 2,122 (Wednesday) – ice and seams

Driveway looks like a trap.

The sky was releasing some sort of precipitation when I went to bed on Tuesday night. It was hard to tell exactly what was falling, but whatever it was made no noise on the skylights. This morning, the outside world looked cold, slick, and inhospitable. The asphalt of my cleared driveway looked shiny and like it was waiting for a victim. It might have been better off with the snow left on it but the neighbor came over yesterday with the snow blower. I called Mom and asked if she wanted to go ice skating. She declined my generous offer.

Impressionist ice painting.

By mid-morning, it was warm enough that the icicles along the roof were dripping and morphing into interesting glob-like formations. When I opened the front door to remove the wreath in the next phase of Operation Stripping Christmas, the lower part of the storm door had a coating of ice on it and it looked like the textured glass cutting board in the kitchen. Or an impressionist painting. Or like someone needs glasses.

Time was spent sketching (poorly, with a not sharp pencil)  and mentally redesigning the dance dress idea. Minimal cutting/sewing effort and maximum design impact are the current goals, but that could change 10 more times before anything actually happens. Another pattern was found in the drawer that has an interesting sleeve shape and now there are too many ideas to proceed. The dress form was brought to the dining room where there is more space and the lighting is better than the still not fully functional and poorly lit craft studio room.

One technical question of the day was, “will seams in silk provide stability or add stress on the fabric?” Also, “what is the best seam technique for silk?” (I generally prefer having enclosed French seams but not doing them because they are more work.) These answers would surely have been learned in my 20s had I enrolled in the fashion design school I was accepted into, but I didn’t go and that is another sad story for another day. Today’s brief self-study at the Worldwide University of the Internet tells me that the answer to the first question is that seams can provide both stability (yay!) and stress (on, no!). Stress can occur if the seam is not done correctly or the fabric is pulled or stretched while sewing. The best seaming technique is indeed the French seam in this case, because unfinished seams can ravel (and cause stress). Good to know.