Scattered Links

The most awesome (concept prototype by an Industrial Design student of a) sewing machine ever. It’s called Sue and Core 77 have done good reviews on this and another concept sewing machine from the same exhibition, lots of well presented historic + current sewing information. Full portfolio for the Sue on Behance.*

Aaaand, back to the good stuff: because the Olympic Edition had such an awesome response, (but mainly because I’m a very visual person) most adorable Olympian ever (yes, he’s an Aussie and he does have an adorable butt XD) and the relative cost of going to Mars vs that of hosting the Olympics (hotness doesn’t come cheap and to be fair, this is kind of an oversimplification of two very complex things but..).

Speaking of towels this edition’s blogger feature is thematerialgirl’s tea towel skirt: love the idea, love the colour combination, wish I’d thought of it during the last Markit– there were heaps of cute tea towels to choose from but I splurged on paper products instead (and tights of course).

And because of the natural progression of everything Internet– first dirty photos from Mars (sigh, I know-but worth linking for all the easily irritated people on your Facebook page XD).

An interesting article on the cool everywhere but in Japan behemoth that is Uniqlo (they’re pretty high tech in their work flow and regularly feature collaborations with big names like Orla Kiely and Vena Cava).

Has anyone been to the Hitchcock costume designs display yet? Would be awesome to have a proper review from a sewist’s perspective. Also in the same vein, the Original Sartorialist (the Edwardian Sartorialist?).

A lot of lingerie making (well specifically bra and undie making) going on round the sewing blogosphere lately. Segue: Medieval bras! Not too shabby.

I’m getting into the whole bra-making too, got my first kit from Merkwaerdig (Awe-tastic) and a Pinup bra pattern (which I got really shitty about after realising that a couple of measurements are Metric while the rest are in fractions of inches WTF? Wrote to them mentioning that it might be a good idea to mention their lack of Metric seam allowances given that they sell on all of the European lingerie-making websites in countries which all use the Metric system of measurements! Got back a stock response saying they’ll be updating the patterns soon enough. Oddly enough I didn’t feel at all compelled to respond with “Coolbeans! I’ll just wait and buy one of those patterns then!” No response to my query on whether current buyers will get pdf updates of the Metric version, either. Which I interpreted as, “Oh Hell no! You just gonna pay, again, suckah!”).

Any recommendations for alternatives? Found these bra patterns recently but I don’t want to risk ending up with another expensive pattern I can’t use (international shipping is the nemesis of the Australian populace..) so any suggestions would be massively appreciated. My taste in lingerie is inspired by European lingerie style: more here (50% sale yea!) and here (and if you’re loving those you need to subscribe to petite-coquette’s blog). Oz/ US brands unfortunately lean heavily towards padded and push-up styles which I’m not into. This is the perfect basic style.

Back to regular sewing with another French site for social sewing fun (with free patterns/ tutorials-although most seem to be aimed at beginners).

And.. Two jackets I’d really like to draft/ sew (if I had the time). This one looks like either a draped scarf type deal-y-o with sleeves or an asymmetrical kimono sleeve style wrap. I also like this one by Australian label Monologue, which looks like a standard issue collar-less boxy swing jacket with 3/4^th flared sleeves I think Burda November 2009 had something similar (or similar enough to hack, into this style).

Moneybox app for Etsy sellers (anyone tried this out yet or has everyone ditched Etsy for Bigcartel already? XD). And an oldie but a goodie: pom pom small animal pin-cushions, make your own!

And now for some (pop) Science: Godwin’s law (every internet argument eventually devolves into someone calling someone else a Nazi/ Hitler and then the discussion thread gets locked down. Etsy Is an exception to this law because there are no discussions in Etsy threads only fawning/ drama. That’s right. Bring it.

Also, because it made me laugh, incompetents that think they’re awesome.

Lastly I want to say a big thanks to those of you that left such positive comments on all my recent makes, I really appreciate the feedback. And for those of you that wrote asking about the animated gif I made you can do it on a Mac with Preview or download an app like Giffun. And with that, I’ll leave you with some links to other sewing-related animated gifs I’ve spotted since, by kazzthespaz, dixiediy and elisalex.

*EDIT: Just realised Elizabeth of Sewnblog posted about (a Threads article on) the Sue sewing machine and her comments section is aflame with how lame people think the design is – looks like a lot of people didn’t realise that:

a) This is a model made by a student. Having been through that process and all the time, effort and stresses it entails, I think it’s a frikkin’ awesome achievement, especially considering they had to pay out of their own pocket for getting all the parts made and had a lot of limitations with regards to time and availability of materials.

b) It’s a first prototype (like the first prototype of the Curiosity rover which didn’t actually make it to Mars, because that is not the point of a prototype).

c) Being a not very well informed maelstrom of reactive negativity can be hilariously entertaining but not in a way that encourages people to go check out your blog. XD

This is (quite possibly) the last edition of Scattered Links on the blog (for the foreseeable future) as I tend to just post links to the cool stuff I find directly to my Twitter feed.

All images remain copyright of their original owners and are used here for the purposes of illustration and discussion.