Roller Derby, I'm Taking my Life Back

My boyfriend and I saw this jacket on Parisian Gentleman the other day, which prompted his question, "Remember when you used to make clothes?" To which I replied a very sad and deflated "Yes. I'm gonna start sewing again, but I'm just so busy with roller derby." There it is. The excuse for not sewing. Roller derby. I love playing roller derby, I have so much fun doing it, but I also love sewing, and I want cool jackets like this one, and I want to finish all the designs I have in my head, and I want to blog more, and I want to create more sewing tutorials. That is not going to happen if I devote all of my time to roller derby, which is what I feel like has happened.

I've decided to scale back my roller derby time. Normally, I would practice most Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Now I am just going to practice on Monday and Thursday, which gives me an extra night during the week to spend sewing or blogging. I've debated for some time about trying out for the all-star team, but they practice on Wednesday nights, which would just add another day back in. I also forgot to mention that I am captain of my team, The Swarm (updated photos coming soon)! So now I am thinking about roller derby all the time: plays, drills, uniforms, rules, what to coach during practice, attendance policy, watching footage. . . I need to dedicate "roller derby thinking days" as well, because I can get sucked in to looking up all things roller derby on the internet, and before you know it, there went an entire evening. "Roller derby thinking days" shall also fall on practice days.

Ok, roller derby two times per week, done. Now what about my sewing classes? I am only teaching one class on Tuesday mornings, which is fine, but that is also one of my days off of work. The class is over in five more weeks, and I am going to put teaching on hold for a while.

So, in five weeks, I'll have a lot more time to play around with. Less derby and no sewing classes. More time to sew cute things out of my current stash of dress/shirt fabric:

I am not allowed to buy any more new fabric until I have made something out of every one of these fabrics, with one exception that I have been eying at the fabric store for months, I just haven't bought it yet. I'll post a picture of it when I buy it.

This is my suiting stash that I hope to get under way after I have completed several dresses/shirts from the fabric above.

I also have bolts of fabric that I am going to sell by the yard. They will be priced at $4-$5 per yard, so be ready for that stuff soon.

No more excuses, my friends.

Workin Clothes

I don't have a victory garden or anything like that, but I am sure I could find a use for these overalls:

Some leather working perhaps? For bags that I have been meaning to make for a while.

My goals for this year:

Make more clothes for myself (and blog about the process).
Finish a god damn pannier for my cool bike (and ride it more often).
Teach more classes. (Holy crap! I am teaching a beginner sewing class right now and I love it!)

In February, I will find out which roller derby team I am on, and that will decide which nights I go to practice, and which nights I can spend sewing or posting. Just give me a little more time, and I'll be back.

Roller Derby

I always have big lapses of time where I don't post, and I always have an excuse as to why I haven't been posting on this here blog. This time, well, roller derby took over my life.

I left my roller derby story back in May, but a lot has happened since then.

In June I graduated from boot camp, and soon after I got recruited to a team. (Holy crap, things were moving fast!) Then in July I went to Las Vegas for RollerCon which is a huge roller derby convention/training camp where I learned so much, hung out with other Derby Dolls, did not drink or gamble, of course, and even roller skated the strip.

In August I played my very first roller derby bout (which is what a game is called) against the Humboldt Roller Derby Widow Makers in Eureka, CA. We flew into Sacramento and then drove another 5 hours up the coast of California, stopping at swimming holes and themed rest areas along the Avenue of Giants. It was a beautiful drive. And we won the game.

In September I went back to little ol' Seneca, Kansas with my family for a wedding and to visit my brother. While I was there, my team played a home game that I missed. But that is ok, because I will be playing another game here in San Diego on December 8th. My first banked track home game. I am so excited!

Anyway, during all that traveling I was practicing three nights a week, running the Derby Dolls flickr account, recruiting photographers to shoot at our bouts, volunteering with other Derby Dolls at various community events, skating at the beach and handing out flyers to promote who we are and what we do. And now, because apparently I can't get enough, I am part of the training team. Which means I am one of several Derby Dolls teaching the boot camp practices now. Cool.

I love doing this, and I plan on doing it for a while, I just need to strike a balance between derby and sewing. It is hard because roller derby becomes very addicting. I feel like I am in the best shape of my life, I've got some nice muscles in my legs that I never knew existed, I've made a lot of friends with some really cool people, and rolling around on 8 wheels is just fun.

Our league's main goal for next year is to find another facility to bout in. Currently we practice in a facility downtown, and we play our games in Del Mar which is not central at all. And, because we only rent the facility in Del Mar for one night, we have to build and take down the track every time we have a bout. It is this big production that could be remedied by having our practice space and bouting space in one central location.

Which is where you, dear readers, come in. We are raising funds through indiegogo to get our new facility. If you can, please donate to our cause. Every little bit helps. And I promise I'll have some sewing related posts soon.

Run Away!

When I was 10 years old, three of my friends and I decided to run away to the creek for three days. We were all set for our adventure, had written letters to our parents, and may have even gathered up some stuff for our survival, but in the end I called it off. My mom was pregnant with my sister and due any day, and I didn't want to miss her arrival, also I didn't want to stress my mom out, or make her think she or the new baby was the reason I was running away.

I wonder what would have happened had we gone through with it. Clearly we would have been fine, judging by the list of supplies we were going to bring:

It says:

Dear Mom and Dad,
I'm running away with a few friends. Don't worry and please don't get mad but whatever you do don't ever call the police, and don't panice and call a serch party to come and hunt me down!
I'll be back in 3 days
I brought every I need:
old clothes
warm clothes & blankets
tent
lots of food
lots of water
fishing poles & nets
pillow
sleeping bag
flashlight
sandles
brush 
soap
shampoo
underwear
hat 
toothbrush & toothpaste
lotion
bug spray
toliet paper
walkietalkies
bikes
gloves
string
clothes pins
watch 
borax

See don't worry or get mad think of it this way I'm camping. I'll be back in 3 days I promise! If I don't I'll miss you TO MUCH. I'm not alone. This is just to prove I can take care of myself.

With love from,
Sugar Dale


I think it is pretty cute that I signed it Sugar Dale. I probably thought that would make the letter seem a bit sweeter.

Pretty funny.

Alan Flusser gives some really great pointers on how to dress the man, just check out his book Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion. But how does one dress like a man?

1. Buy a boy's dress shirt. Or make one.
2. Wear a cool tie, and learn how to tie it correctly. (I prefer the four in hand.)
3. Steal your boyfriend's tie bar.
4. Tuck in your shirttails.
5. Don a pair of Philip Johnson-like glasses.
6. Ditch the purse and just carry the essentials in your pockets.
7. Put a tidy part in your hair.
8. Keep it feminine by wearing a skirt.

Yep. That's how I do it.

Hair

I has occurred to me that I don't really look like this anymore:

I had this haircut for about 5 years

Or like this:

Halloween 2010 I shaved all my hair off

 I spent a brief time looking like this:

September 2011 haircut

And this is my current state:

Not really sure what to do with my hair

But most often, I look like this:

Usually these glasses, and my hair in a bandana

After I shaved my head bald for Halloween, I decided that I would grow my hair out just for fun. And let me tell you, it has NOT been fun. I've had a few weird lengths (currently in one), most of the time I am wearing a helmet (either practicing roller derby or riding my bike) which can really ruin a hairdo, and, honestly, I just don't know what to do with this shit. It blows in the wind, it needs to be brushed, blow dried, curled, straightened, bleh. So why am I continuing this farce? For a very stupid reason really: another Halloween costume.

Come October I hope to look like this:

I've got the glasses, and I'll make the costume, I just need another couple of inches to achieve this look which I'll hopefully have by October. Man my hair grows so slowly. In 18 months, I can only boast 7" of hair. Geez.

Back to the Drawing Board

Mikey and I have moved into a new studio space (same warehouse). Mikey is going to be doing some work for his boss in our studio, so we got a bigger space to accommodate his boss's things as well.

This is my current (temporary) setup:

We are still waiting till we get everything in the space before we rearrange, but you can be sure that it will be as cute, if not a bit more workable than my last space.

 I've decided to get rid of this piece of furniture:

While it looks nice and all during openings, it became a thing for me to pile crap on, and it looked messy most of the time. I think having two tables will suit my needs better.

I am going to paint the walls as well, but I am over the green. Some black and white striped walls, perhaps?

Readers, what do your sewing spaces look like? What does your dream space look like?