critters

Bunny

I've been meaning to upload fabric pics and write some stash posts, in the hopes that it will encourage me to do some of the projects I've been meaning to do. Then I caught the bunny. I'd actually been trying to catch a bunny last year, I'd gotten a live trap and baited it, but didn't manage to trap that one. Then this year I started seeing another tiny bunny, this one with an adorable white spot on its forehead, living under the next-door neighbor's shed. By this time, the trap was no longer set, but had been outside for quite awhile, grown over with weeds and all and generally blended into the surroundings much better. So we set it.  I've approached and talked to this bunny a bit before, so I wasn't a complete shock to it. And I'd had time to observe it. It would never let me get too close, but wouldn't immediately run away, either. I could get close, and then it would move away a bit, and it wasn't until after doing that a few times that it would run under the shed. I was going outside to bait the trap with some bread, and the bunny was already outside. so I kinda eased closer to the bunny, approaching from angles away from the trap, so that when it moved away from me, it moved towards the entrance to the trap. So I actually got the bunny to go right into the trap without baiting it. The trap didn't actually work--probably a combination of rust and the bunny's tiny size-- but since it would have had to come closer to me to get out, I was able to just close the trap myself. I covered the trap with some fabric and talked to it ("it" being the bunny, not the fabric; I'm not sure if the bunny is male or female yet.) and we put the big animal carrier together to put the bunny into. We brought the trap inside and let the bunny out of that and into the carrier. He actually got loose in the kitchen first, but we managed to get him back into the carrier. (Yes, I realize I've started saying "he." It sounds better than "it" even if I don't know if the bunny is a he or a she. And we haven't come up with a name yet.) And so, here's a picture of the bunny in the carrier! I didn't use the flash, because I didn't want to scare him even more, so I used the manor/museum setting and then played with the picture a bit in GIMP to brighten it.

Chiffon

Now, onto the fabric. I've developed quite a stash of chiffon. I'm not totally sure if chiffon counts as "fabric" it almost seems like it should go more in the "trim" category. Several times I've gotten chiffon in mystery bundles, and there was one specific chiffon bundle that FabricMart had for a little while last year, and one time when I ordered it from Fabric.com I actually got it. I intended to use some last year, but then never got to it. I'd really like to do some chiffon over-shirts, big loose sheer tops that I can wear over camisoles or corsets. Ideally I'd like such a top to open in the front, but I'm not sure if that would be too much structure for chiffon. Not all of them are exactly the same texture, though, so perhaps I could pull that off with one of the slightly sturdier and less crepe-y ones. And of course I'd also like to use chiffon in the "normal" way, as an overlay built into a garment. I'm always just so hesitant to use silk, I don't want to ruin it! Using some of a silk that I got a bunch of cheap (like the green shantung) isn't so bad because I have more, and using some for a corset isn't so bad because corsets use so little fashion fabric. But using silk, even increadibly cheap silk, to make a blouse? That's scary!

..and Cara is enjoying the couch, too!Conked Cat: Cara, conked out on the couch