I found a 1999 Chanel haute couture pants suit in a thrift shop. Yes! It fits me, but I had to let out the waistband. Seeing the layers of support inside, all hand stitched, was a religious experience. Duplicating it in the extension was a privilege!

I have made the duct tape forms twice--once for me and once for a student. They work great. I covered them in a heavy knit, and applied twill tape lines. On stuffing: I tried the spray foam, and it seemed fine for a day--but then began to collapse, and I had to bridge over the resulting dimples with more tape. I had better luck with wadded newspaper. For the stand, buy a floor lamp at your local thrift shop, cut it to the right length, and attach it to the (plywood) bottom of your form with a pipe flange. Floor lamps have a nice heavy piece of cast iron in the base that keeps the form stable.

The word "awesome" is overused, but it certainly is apppropriate here! I hope you will be entering this in a contest!

I'm going to try cutting synthetic organza ribbon with my hot knife--that should seal the edges nicely and make for a more durable flower. Absolutely gorgeous! Thank you!

I,ve been looking for a way to use those lovely Martha Stewart ribbons I see at Michaels--this is it! Thanks, Kenneth!

Love the way the piecing lines keep the eye flowing! I have upcycled felted sweaters, but hadn't thought of using sweatshirts. This looks like a good way to upcycle leather garments, too.

Oh, when you move out, be sure to leave no forwarding address--here's why: The starch remaining on the wall, while not visible to you, or probably to the painters, may cause the next coat of paint to crackle. You may want to try to wash it off, or just quietly disappear. In my apartment days, I attached fabric with push pins, or made a rod pocket and hung it from a rod mounted close to the wall. This is especially good if you want to gather the material for a sumptuous look. you can add extra support by installing additional hooks along the length--they hardly distort the gathered fabric, just keep the long rods level.

On reviewing the book, I now see most of the patterns--gotta try some st 1/2 scale! When I made the anatomically cut jacket, I traced the pattern onto gridded mylar and used an overhead projector to blow it up. That makes any distortions caused by the projection easy to spot.

Where did the sewers get the patterns? I recognize some from the Vionnet book, but not all. Please tell, so we can play, too! I made the "anatomically-cut" jacket from the pattern in the book, and as far as I can tell, it refers to the jacket's mimicking the body's contours, so that if one could stand it up, it would have a distinctly human shape in the arms, sides, and back (the front hangs straight from the shoulder.

I am speechless (but not quite). Spiders produce a sticky silk which holds prey until the spider can immobilize it, as well as a non-sticky structural silk. They walk on the non-sticky lines to avoid being ensnared themselves. What I want to know is, how do you persuade the captive spider to produce only the non-sticky kind for weaving??

I love my Viking 940 (20+ years old), and since machine embroidery doesn't inspire me, I plan to keep it forever. My favorite foot, the edgestitch foot, has a little pin that rides along the edge of the seam and ensures that the zigzag or overlock stitch goes precisely over the edge; no tunnelling. Since I trim almost all my seam allowances to 1/4" before cutting out, this foot turns my machine into a serger!

Wow! John's creations just opened up a new world for me! Now I can't wait to try out a jacket with an angel on one shoulder, devil on the other...jacket covered in peppermint candies..things climbing out of pockets..oooh! Thank you, Judith!

Love the idea of handpainting jacquard motifs--I'm going to try this on some old damask napkins for a similar effect. Thanks for the inspiration!

I am trying to post my entry photos and am having a problem. My photo file says that my photos are 3-something MB, while the contest instructions say files must be under 4 mb. If MB is megabytes and mb is millibytes, then I will need to go find a 10-year-old to help me solve this. However, there is a 1,000-fold difference in resolution implied here, and it seems to me that reducing it that much would just result in fuzz. Any advice?

Beautiful! Instead of singeing the edges with a flame, I'm going to try cutting out the units with my heat tool (a stencil burner/soldering iron/pyrography tool, depending on the tip used)