Well, the English 103 test was certainly anti-climax. After all my musings on Hamlet of yesterday, and the amount of study of the text, all the answers were on a little "study guide" the Prof gave us on Monday. :P It's weird...I feel gypped. I wanted to write something. Something along the lines of what is here in my blog. Oh well, that will have to do.

I am not prepared for this pre-test in Math 114. I'm actually not prepared for the actual test that counts. Richie really doesn't have the time to give me to help...he's too busy with students and bands. I had a fairly productive session with Prof. Carthew on Tuesday during his office hours, but I don't know how much that will help. I have let the Woodbury Connection people know about my predicament and they say they might have help for me next week. Too late for this test, but thankfully Prof. Carthew drops the lowest test grade. The combination of the cold/flu thingy I had earlier this month and increase in math anxiety and avoidant maladaptive coping behavior (yes, that's a mouthful) has really put the hurt on me.

One thing I did accomplish last night: my redo of the kimono collar was 100% successful. Basically the instructions on Dindrane's goth website are fairly accurate save for construction information (which Jess didn't need) and the need for an extra step on the front flaps. The extra step is this: after attaching the front flaps to the back piece and sewing the sides and top (leaving the arm holes) you have to fold the flap fabric in, like dog-earing a corner in a book, until the flap makes a proper right triangle. This assumes you haven't flipped the fabric from "wrong side" to "right side"...if you did that, flip it right back before you do this step, because basically you are creating an angled portion of the flap. The long side (hypotenuse) of this right triangle is the angle you want the collar attached to.

This step, of course, means that the cutting step for Measurement F needs to be reassessed. However, this piece of fabric might be useful as a self-belt for the kimono that can be used in place of or under an obi. The way I did it was to measure the two angled sides of the front flap, plus the part of the back piece not attached to the side flaps, and sum those measurements together. You take that measurement as the length of the fabric you need, then give this strip a width of about 6 inches. That's the collar. Proceed as directed with the collar, but bear in mind it only will extend as long as this angled portion of the front flaps. Make sure you hem the side that has selvage, and sew the selvage edge to the "wrong side" of the front flaps and back. A piece of fusible interfacing roughly 4 1/2" wide by as long as the collar piece length can be ironed into the collar piece before folding it over and attaching it to itself. The seam made by attaching the collar piece should be completely inside the collar...it also adds the body needed for the collar to stand up right.

If you do the collar right you have a pretty accurate kimono. I have a couple of hems to do and then I am done. I think I might contact this person Dindrane and tell him/her about my findings. It really is handy to do this by measurement instead of by pattern. Considering how expensive patterns get, and their essentially fungible nature unless you take great pains to preserve the pattern, this would probably be the best way to replicate this project. I really can't see a good way of doing the collar by machine, because the best way of attaching it is an overcast stitch that I'm not sure can be properly done with a machine. But all the other seams are doable by hand or machine...I'm not using the machine I have on this project because I'm still klutzy with machine seams and I don't want to screw the kimono up.

I will have pix here when it's done. I want to also do an insta-Obi based on some of the patterns I have, and I want to do it with a solid color as opposed to the cute, but busy Hello Kitty-chan print fabric I have. The Kitty-chan print would be nice with a solid color kimono or one with print on discrete areas of the kimono...vide Fuu-chan from Samurai Champloo for what I mean.

If this Dindrane person is cool with my revising her instructions I'll write this all up. I think that some instructions for attaching the pieces would be helpful too.

One last thing: Mother Teresa was not a feminist. So this "feminist of the day" entry today is 100% wrong. Oh yeah, I have something to say about feminism and the newly trendy rediscovery of needlecraft. I want to elaborate on this at length, but suffice it to say for now that I don't think this is a reaction against feminism but rather the reclamation of something associated with traditional femininity by feminists. They don't call it Stitch and Bitch for nothing. :-)