Pseudo-Post

So I shouldn't be doing this right now, but I'm dying over here. I'm stuck on page four (out of ten) for a research paper due at 10am... I have four and a half hours until I have to march into that classroom and slap this paper down on the table. Goodness save me.

But I realized this as I was doing some reading for my research paper on Italian fashion during fascism...
Della (my cat) has a sort of Italian name... not really... but in Italian, della means "of".
The phrase "della moda" means "of fashion", or modernity which is represented by fashion.

I might have to change the standing title of my blog... I was thinking the straight "Della moda" (of fashion) or maybe "Della della Moda" - Della of Fashion.
I am getting to be a crazy cat lady and think it is too cute of a play on words to ignore.

Okay so off I go. I'm hoping I can at least get 8 pages if not ten... wish me luck. Or sweet dreams when all of this is over. I loath finals week.

Curtis OUT.

Terminology

For my costume construction class, we were given a list of terms to define. I found some great websites for help with terminology and technique:

SewingWeb.com (straight definitions)
BurdaStyle (if you search a term, there will be a definition and any related projects, patters, or discussions)
Lord of the Rings Costuming (very comprehensive construction tips and distressing/aging techniques)

Next week I'll be diligently working on my final sewing project for costume construction and plan to get some photos of the process and fabrics and such. I'm still draping/tinkering around, but I've already purchased 5 yards of fabric and 5 yards of lining. I just gotta make my final design decisions soon!

Well, I'm hopefully going to visit someone before Chemistry class. Again, I keep promising to be better about posting, but it's really not going to happen until finals are over.

Curtis OUT.

Long Time No See

As my friend John pointed out,

I haven't posted in a while.

This won't be too meaningful, but I do have some stuff planned to post- I just need to get around to it. This is the last week of class for the semester, and next week are finals. You'll see more posts after that.

Happy Wintertime and end of the semester!

Curtis out.
<3

Plural Clothing

Pantalaine
"Provisioners of America's Finest Plural Clothing"

Need I say more?

Class Projects

So here are some projects that have been spawned from my Costume Construction class. The purple dress and red patterned dress were both flat patterns. The dress on the dress figure was a draping project done with a partner (I didn't include her in the picture because I didn't think to ask for permission to post the pictures).

A. Purple Dress:

I had some problems with the purple dress. It was my first sewing project in about six months, so I was kind of shape for sewing. The fabric I chose was a cotton jersey, which is stretchy and soft.  I hadn't worked with such a stretchy fabric before so it was hard to line everything up to sew without tweaking things out of place. When I chose what size for the pattern, I looked at the waist size instead of the bust... So the top is way too big. I kind of deviated from the instructions for the sleeves because we had a specific time frame to get them done. The fabric was also heavy, making it even harder for the too-big-top part to stay on my shoulders. BUT- It has pockets!

B. Basic skirt:

This was a bit of a sad process. I found the cutest pattern for a jacket, bought the fabric, and found out I bought the wrong sizes for the jacket. I went back to the store I got it from and they didn't have my size. So I had to find a different pattern that used the same amount (or less) of fabric. I also have been stressed with school and such and decided to... cop-out, if you will. I chose a simple skirt with a gathered top. It has only one pocket and the inside isn't finished quite right because I ran out of fabric, but you can't tell that from the outside. The gathering part is the only 'difficult' thing (aka time consuming), so overall it was an easy-peasy project.

C. Draping Project:

eHow's article on draping fabric!

This was a fun in-class partner project. Justine works in the costume shop and was my partner. She chose the fabric before I even got to class, so we started on our merry way pretty quick. We started off with a one-shoulder strap, and ended up with what you see in the pictures. We weren't allowed to cut the fabric, and we weren't supposed to put any pins into the dress form. We were allowed to embellish (hence, bow and ribbon trim). At the end of our draping time, we had to "grade each other" with 1 A, 2 Bs, 2 Cs and 1 D. We weren't particularly actually getting those grades, but our teacher wanted us to really look at everyone else's projects.

Well, I'm off to finish my breakfast bowl of cereal and to jump in the shower. I've got a long day in the library ahead of me to finish this biology paper.

Sidebars: 

-It was kind of snowing last night and this morning!!!

-Future post on "Waiting for Superman"; Nick and I went to go see it last night. Brilliant. Not fashion related, but very important. It tied in wonderfully with my Intro to Teaching course.

Curtis OUT!

Halloween, part II

So, here are a few pictures that show me (and Nick!) in my Halloween costume for 2010!

photo by Madeline M.

We were going for a '70s look and were told we looked like 

Sonny and Cher... 

(please note the chained necklace, stiff collar, and manly chest hair on Sonny and the straight hair on Cher)

As far as my costume, I was aiming for a 1970s go-go disco theme. Sequins and blaring white shirt for disco, tall red boots for the go-go! My costume construction teacher also mentioned that the page-boy hat was totally '70s... My pink hat wasn't quite page-boy, but kind of similar. My hair is also naturally wavy/curly, but most of the big stars of the '70s had long long long straight hair... so I straightened my hair as well! 

So a recap of my costume with sources:

- pink hat : purchased from Spencer's a few years ago

- white shirt : purchased from... maybe Belk a few years ago

- sequin skirt : $3.75 from Goodwill (original price, $375 from Sax Fifth Ave.)

- belt : hand-me-down

- red boots : Emily E. let me borrow them!

So there it is... the wonderful Halloween post! Any thoughts?

 I'll be putting up another post soon (tonight, tomorrow morning???) with the costume construction projects that I have completed so far this semester.

Curtis OUT.

I Can't Help Myself

I can't help myself... I can't stop thinking about my soon-to-be final project (see prior post for info). 

I've found some photos that are similar to what I want to design.

A Celine piece.

1940 McCall's pattern

1943 Butterick pattern

I like the overlapped front of the Celine design and Butterick pattern, and the apparent comfiness and hood of the McCall's.

'40s floral

And while there was a lot of focus on floral prints for home dresses and such, I couldn't make a long jacket out of fabric like that (TOO much pattern). I'm thinking a green for the base color.

Also, I'm hoping to honor the floral-ness and plan on doing a felt+embroidery giant flower on the overlapping side, with the center of the flower being a pocket.

I can't wait to get back to my apartment to break out my colored pencils and attempt my first real design sketch! I have a penciled one on the back of a chemistry mock exam:

I gave in and took the picture with Photo Booth, which is why the word 'pocket' is backwards.

So yeah... this is the first of probably ten bajillion for my final potential project.

I haven't even started on my "Fashion during Fascism" paper yet, so I might get even more influence from the '30s-'40s for this.

Alright, well, either paper writing or sleeping. Either way, that means NO MORE BLOGGING. What an addiction.

Curtis OUT.

madgirl world

madgirl world - A cute designer, originally a theater kid.

Otherwise, I'm working on a design for my costume construction class. We have to make a 'final project'. We have to present on Nov. 23rd what we want to make... I'd rather figure it out now and start prepping for it. I want to do something "big". Not size-wise, but challenging-wise. I have a sketch drawn, which I would post, but my camera on my phone is broken :(
But soon enough.

I might be auditioning for RENT with Asheville Community Theater at the beginning of December... I'm currently trying to decide whether it would be too embarrassing and not worth it...

Tomorrow is Halloween! Pictures of my costume will be up soon!!! Huzzah! Everyone be safe and have fun...

I'm supposed to be working on a paper for my Biology lab. Oi vey.
Paper writing, here I come!

Curtis OUT.

Asheville Fasion Links

Push Asheville Fasion - I missed the fasion show that occured in July. Sad. Maybe next time.
Asheville Fashion Conspiracy - The webiste is a bit out-dated, but cute.
Eco Friendly Clothing : Asheville, NC - I'm in class right now or else I'd actually watch the video. But in the video info box there are links to sustainable clothing stores in Asheville.
Mountain Xpress : Street Style - Similar to my ideal blog concept, they take photos of cutely dressed people in Asheville.
HATCH / HATCH facebook- A non-profit that supports creative innovators. At their gathering this past year, there was an activity called 'Fashion Groundbreakers'.

11:11am, make a wish!

Again, off to chemistry.

Curtis OUT!

Halloween, part I

Last night Psych Club sponsored 'Psych Night'. I'm part of that club, so I dressed up like a nurse and helped pass out 'pills'- better known as candy.
I helped make phobia boxes... Mysterious boxes with unknown contents. You are supposed to overcome your fear of the unknown and touch what's in the box. Then, there is a creepy feeling thing inside and some people have crazy imaginations about what they feel.
We also had paint and paper to make Rorschach blots. Fun stuff!

After that, Madeline and I went to the Sigma Nu club party. They provided a shuttle to an unknown location. Lots of dancing and being ran into by drunk people, but it was fun.

So the picture in this post is what we wore to the club.

My next opportunity for being costumed is Halloween night at Madeline's party, where I will indeed get a photo of my '70s get-up. Nick kind of matches with me.

Alright, well I should be using these valuable minutes to study for my chem exam, but I've kind of given up hope.

Post on Monday!

Curtis OUT!

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For the Love of Cats

Cat People Are People Too

A charming and sweet blog (via NYTimes) about owning cats in NY and how people are judged for that. Especially women who own cats and live alone. It's not as crazy as you think!

I'm hoping to have a post up about my Halloween costume by Saturday night (the first Halloween party of the year!). Wish me luck on that.

Curtis OUT.

Agnetha, Part II

As promised, the Agnetha Faultskog blog post. A blonde, slightly bucktoothed beauty, compliments of Sweden. Within twenty years after her birth in 1950, she had topped the charts in Sweden of her own accord. In the summer of 1969, she met Björn Ulvaeus and the groundworks of ABBA was born. 

Anyways, this is just to show some of the more accessible photos of her and to describe how her fashion fit in the with the trends of the 1970s.

The female hairstyles of the early 70s were natural and long, with natural bangs (if any).

There was, of course, the disco fever: hot pants, spandex, stretchy sequined tops, lycra, belled sleeves and pants, gold lame, jumpsuits, platform soled shoes, and much more. Basically anything that would look flashy under a disco ball and bright lights.

Shorter skirts and dresses embraced the idea of greater female independence. Flowery prints of all types (this one looks like it could be upholstery for a couch or curtains...?) were frequently used. Full calf-length boots (platforms or not) were also very popular.

Sadly, I cannot fufill all the 1970s ideals for fashion, but I'm going to try my best. I will have a post up at least by next weekend of my costume for Halloween- Nick and I are going to a costume party Saturday night, so I'll have to be ready by then!

Time to write a paper about anti-Semitism in Italy in the mid 20th century and study for a biology lab practical. Oh, and take a chemistry quiz. Huzzah.

'Til then, my dears.
Curtis OUT.

Goodwill, 10-11-10

So Nick and I went to Goodwill in search of costume pieces for Halloween. When I was giving up hope, I found this size 6 skirt mixed in with the 10-12 sizes. We mutually decided that this skirt HAD to be a part of my costume. 

It wasn't until we got to the register (having both the cashier and the woman behind me gushing about the beauty of this skirt....?) that it was pointed out the original price was triple digits. If you can see underneath the $224.90/111.90 price sticker, there is another sticker with the actual original price- $375.00

If you notice the Goodwill receipt, a certain "PINK WOMEN SKIRT" cost only $3.75, and, as my good friend John pointed out, I paid only 1% of the original price.

Now, why was this skirt so expensive back in the day? Here are my guesses:

-It is 100% silk (besides the sequins obviously).

-I found contradicting information about when the company was founded (1980 or 1995? Big difference.) but either way, it looks like it's targeting older spunky women with money, and the price tag has the Saks Fifth Avenue logo on it.

-The designer company (Chetta B - Evening) has a particular style of upscale clothes- 

An exquisitely detailed modern line. Chetta B is the ultimate in elegant versatility for sophisticated woman catering to day and evening with delicate and unique fabrics, each garment will be treasured. Available at Dillard’s, Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom’s, and other fine specialty stores. Price ranges from $120 to $300 retail (Castle Hill Apparel Inc.).

-And... It's just awesome! Wouldn't you pay $375 for a fine piece of sequined clothing as such?

As usual, I'm procrastinating things that actually need to get done... like getting myself dressed and walked to school.

As always, more updates later, and I still owe my post related to my 70s costume. 

(If I 100% decide to use this sequined skirt, I'll probably end up cutting off the bottom and turning it into a miniskirt, true 70s style).

Curtis OUT.

A Food Blog and other random ramblings

So... I did a Brittany Curtis version of StumbleUpon...
I was trying to find help via google images for the Lewis structure of aspartame (FML chemistry) but was intrigued by the other strange images that happened to be next to molecular structures... Such as wounded Iraqi children, how uranium has affected children, and a bunch of other random images (centered around cats mostly) from a blog with the url http://sweettaterblog.com/. So, instead of reading about the disfiguring affects of war or uranium, I checked out the blog that had lots of cat pictures. I am also super behind on my long list of things I should have been doing today... such as:
-MasteringChemistry (online chem homework thing)
-Chemistry flash cards
-Interview questions for my teacher observations
-Typing up my observations/insights from teacher observing
-Studying for my Biology Lab Practical (FML)
-Starting data analysis on the biology mosquito lab info
-washing my hand-wash-only clothes
-sweep/dust the rest of my room
-I'm sure there are a bajillion other things

Part of the issue was I got distracted by wanting to perfect my ideal for my Halloween costume. Hopefully I'll put up my findings tomorrow AFTER I get all of my random things done. (Or maybe late tonight, computer in lap on my bed, when I should be asleep).

Alright, I'm dog sitting for Nick so I must go attend to Zeek the dog.

Curtis OUT.

Halloween is Near...

Agnetha Fältskog

So, I'm posting this here and am planning to edit it later with more information. I'm doing a 1970's style costume, and Agnetha from ABBA is a good role model for that.

More info later! Chemistry class now.

Curtis OUT.

10-9-10, 5:30 p.m.
Adding some more links (more for me than you... teehee!)
Some related to my other inspiration, Christina Lindberg:
http://www.myspace.com/christinalindberg/photos/680209
http://mrcollinsgrindhousemovieblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-i-love-christina-lindberg.html
General 1970s stuff:
http://www.pastreunited.com/id192.html
http://www.imdb.com/chart/1970s

A test...

I have a droid x, and I'm trying an app that is supposed to let me post from my phone. Hopefully it will work!
I've attached a picture of my cat to see if the photo uploading works too.

In costuming class.

Curtis OUT.

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Lies

I lied in the post before last, saying the last post would detail my potential (and probably dream-like) plans for this blog. So I apologize for the lie, but want to make up for it with my 'plan'.

Part One
What I would love to do is find people willing to basically be interviewed about their clothing- I take a picture (with my 8MP camera phone) and ask them questions about what they are wearing. Such as:
How important to you are the clothes you are wearing? (simple answer or maybe a scale from 1-10)
Describe your style (if you feel you have one) in three words.
Do you know what brand your clothes are?
Do you know where your outfit pieces were purchased from?

Blah blah blah. I could go on forever. But yeah, I'd track people down, take a picture, ask questions, post the results as a blog.

Part Two
Choose either a part of one of an outfit of someone I interviewed, or a popular fashion trend, and explain its origins. Where it came from (place and time), who originally wore it, where it was worn... What kind of fabric it is traditionally made of. Basically mini-research articles. Or maybe cover a new designer or something. General information.

Part Three
Similar to Part Two, but definitely NOT relating to anyone I interviewed... This would be a critique of a style, trend, fabric, clothing combination... And I obviously would not want to blatantly be rude to people who took time out of their day to answer my arbitrary questions. But basically me being a fashion critic, probably fully based on my fashion sense opinion. Slightly dangerous.

So, that's the outline. I'll probably do an article or two related to the general information/historical background stuff before delving into critiquing and interviewing.

Alright, actually need to do chem work now. Wish me luck.

Curtis OUT.

Activist

So today I took part in the Education Rally sponsored by sds (students for a democratic society). It was based aroudn the concept that the money spent on the occupation in Afghanistan could have been much better spent on education. I gave an impromptu speech about my mom losing her job due to budget cuts. It was intense. Then we marched around campus and shouted the education related slogans.

Sidbar: I was super nervous the whole time because I left my backpack (and my $350 cell phone) in the blatant open and was seriously hoping that no one was going to be an asshole and steal my stuff.

The head of the club asked if I'd like to be put on their special 'discussion' email list; it's for people who want to help organize everything. I said yes, of course.

There is a little bit of activist in everyone I think.
Mine got sparked today. I like giving speeches about things like that, instead of a speech about a book I read or explaining facets of fascism in front of the class. I'd much rather talk about emotions...

This blog post serves two purposes:
Noting my participation in a rally, which is a new thing.
Procrastinating the chemistry work I have open in a different tab.

Curtis OUT.

The quick update

I think the last actual post was in March... or May, one of those M months. I actually had my old blog posts exported and imported onto this account (the url username being brittanyanncurtis now as opposed to the old brittanycurtis username, now associated with my gmail account instead of yahoo). So I'm doing ANOTHER 7 month update.

I finished second semester at Catawba College, made the Dean's List. Said tearful goodbyes and watched my good friend John (among others) graduate. I went home to our rental house in downtown Brevard and started working at Rockbrook Camp for my second summer. A kitten adopted me as her mommy, and I'm the proud parent of Delano (aka Della since she is a girl). In July, we moved back to the house we own on Island Ford. Stressful but necessary. Wrapped things up at work, moved to an apartment in Asheville less than a mile from campus. Now attending UNC-Asheville. I am taking 5 classes with a total of 18 hours.
The classes are:
General Chemistry (3 credit hours)
Gen Chem lab (1 credit hour)
Ecology and Evolution (3 credit hours)
Eco and Evo lab (1 credit hour)
Intro to Education (3 credit hours)
Intro to Educ. technology lab (1 credit hour)
Costume Construction (3 credit hours)
Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini (3 credit hours)

I also work at the student calling center on campus about six hours a week in the evenings, three hour shifts. Basically, I call alumni and friends of the college and ask them for money. Difficult on the self-confidence but usually rewarding.

Still lacking in the close friends department. I have my boyfriend, Nick, and my best friend, Madeline, but other than that... just people I see in class and occasionally have conversations with.
I am also volunteering at Mission Hospital (St. Joseph campus) on Fridays for three and a half hours.

Well, time for chemistry lab. IGKM.
Next post will detail some possible acutal plans for this blog.
Huzzah!

Curtis OUT.

A 7-Month Catch Up

Of course, I haven't been keeping up with this blog. I have trouble keeping up with pretty much anything over an extended period of time. A horrible personality flaw. Oh well.

So- since July...

I started school at Catawba College, my roommate's name was Laura, she was an undecided major. I took part in the First-Year show, and that was pretty fun. Nutella was involved. I did fairly well in my classes; A's and B's in "Analysis of Dramatic Literature", "First year seminar: Performing all our lives", "French I", and "Social Problems". But a D+ in "Calculus... oops.
First semester wasn't very good to me. I hated living in the dorms partially because it generally sucks and I also had pranks pulled on me and money stolen from my room. Lame.
Christmas break was awesome. I got to go to Washington state and visit a lot of family and friends. I even got to go to the Science Fiction Museum and Experience Music Project. Cool stuff.
I decided that I no longer wanted to be a Theater major and started investigating therapies; physical, occupational, and speech. I was able to shadow my friend's mother, who is a PTA. It opened my eyes to an entirely new world of satisfying job options.

Second semester has been fine so far- started playing ultimate frisbee, joined women's chorale, have some challenging courses in biology and anatomy & physiology. My roommate left before school started, so I have my room to myself. It's been nice.

I'm currently at home on my spring break. I have to write a paper and catch up on some studying but I'm glad to be home.

About to run off and meet up with some friends for dinner in Brevard. Maybe I'll find some time to update pictures and this post with a bit more detail.

<3 ~B