Crossword Fabric

As promised, here's the crossword fabric available at Spoonflower:




A few notes:

-- the blacks (and other dark colors) tend to wash out & fade really quickly on digitally printed fabric. I don't know how to fix this -- anyone have hints for keeping them dark?

-- this design is optimized for the upholstery-weight fabric. I haven't tested it on other weights. (That fabric is slightly off-white, too.)

-- this fabric was designed for me by Beth Keller. She's awesome. You can check out her Etsy site, KellerDesigning. I don't know if she's taking commissions now, but you could always ask ...

Enjoy!

Extremely Short and Quick Post: 2010 Crossword Dress

So, quickly:

here's my dress from the 2010 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. I broke 500 for the first time!



Thanks to Jan for taking the picture (on my cell phone).

Also: this is one of those BurdaStyle Heidi dresses. I'll post a better picture of it later in the week.

Also: the fabric is from Spoonflower. I'll make it available this week too.

Also: yes, those are hot pink patent penny loafers.

Also: that's it.

It's That Time Again

Crossword puzzle stunt dress time!

Yep, today's the ACPT tournament, and I'll be wearing this:



I haven't sewn down the facings yet in this picture, so they're a little lumpy. Can you see what else is wrong with it? No?



How about now?

Yep. I cut the ENTIRE THING OUT UPSIDE DOWN. (Insert forehead-slap here.) When I figured this out I was hopping mad for about ten minutes, but I didn't have enough time OR fabric for a do-over, so then I just laughed. It's funnier this way, and of course, from MY perspective (that of the WEARER), looking down at the dress, it's right-side-up! So that's how I'm going to think about it, anyway.

It's a Duro Junior (Simplicity 3875), which I think of more as a summer-type dress, but I'm just going to wear it with a black tee underneath it and tights and just hope it's not as cold as the weatherfolk say it's supposed to be. I'll be inside, solving (or, in my case, often NOT-solving) puzzles most of the day anyway.

I found this last stash of Michael Miller crossword fabric at Britex months and months ago -- for next year's dress I think I'm going to get some custom fabric made up at Spoonflower. Probably an easy NYT Monday puzzle solved in red ink and tiled to fill the yardage, or maybe even as a scatter print. What do y'all think?

Oh, and tomorrow -- check out my last column filling in for Jan Freeman in the Boston Globe; I'm writing about my inadvertent coining of the word "Duro" (and how cool you all were to use it, making it "real").

More Stunt Dressing: Crossword Dress #2

The ACPT (otherwise known as the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament) was held a few weeks ago in Brooklyn. You all might remember that I made & wore a crossword-puzzle themed dress for last year's tournament; this year I resolved to do the same. (It was much easier -- and much, much more likely -- than resolving to win!)

Unfortunately, though, my Quasi-Evil Plan to have some crossword themed custom fabric printed went awry (through lack of planning on my part -- I didn't leave enough time to get both the fabric AND the dress made). So, I wondered, what else could I do?

I did this:



I can't remember what pattern I used -- some vintage 1960s Simplicity thing -- I can dig up the number if anyone's interested.

The black and white fabrics are both quilting cottons (which, in part, explains how rumpled and mussed it looks -- that stuff is a pain to iron!). The black lines are black bias tape.

What I did was cut out all the dress pieces and do about half the construction -- darts, the major seams of the skirt -- and then put on the black squares, which are secured to the white fabric by the bias tape.

I did NOT do a good job of matching the blocks across seams, as you can see above, where the waist blocks don't meet the skirt blocks very well (darn pleats!) and here, on the back:



I would have tried harder on the back, but I was still finishing it very late the night before we left, and the only zipper that was right length was an invisible one, and nothing on earth will make me take out an invisible zipper once I have it (mostly) in. My rationalization was "It's Brooklyn in February; I'll be wearing a cardigan over it anyway."

I was also going to use the embroidery function on my machine to do numbers in all the appropriate boxes but it got really boring watching my machine embroider numbers, and again, late at night, so I quit after about three:




In spite of the construction bobbles and my laziness, I think this dress was a qualified success ... although it was just slightly too subtle, especially when compared to some of the other crossword-themed clothing at the tournament. (Although it was nice to feel tasteful in a stunt dress, for once.)

Any ideas for what I should do next year?

Solve This Puzzle

Héloïse sent me a link to this eBay auction -- the picture is not of the best, but really, do you need to know any more than "1950's crossword-themed dress?" before you start mousing around for the "Bid" button?

It's 36-26(ulp)-39, and the bidding right now is about $25.

As you know, I already am the proud possessor of a crossword-themed dress, but I'm keeping an eye out for more crossword fabric -- the tournament does last three days, after all.

I can't tell if the buttons are little squares or not, but it looks as if they are. And it has pockets, to hold your pencils! What more could you ask?

Click on the image to visit the auction, as usual.

4 Across: Prepare for Roasting

I am not a puzzle expert. People are sometimes disappointed to learn this, because, obviously, as a lexicographer, I should be good at everything to do with words, including crosswords, Scrabble, and handwriting. (Note: I am not good at any of the preceding.)

I enjoy crosswords, but I'm not competitive, and if it's a choice between spending two hours hurting myself with the Sunday puzzle, and making a new skirt, I usually go for "make a new skirt."

So why am I wearing this dress (RIGHT NOW, I'm wearing this dress) at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament?

Well, it's complicated, but it boils down to "I'm working for some folks making a words documentary and they got me to talk puzzle-guy-extraordinaire Francis into making a crossword with a bunch of underused words in it for me, and they're filming people solving it tonight."

Of course, once I knew I would be attending, the important question was "what will I wear?" Then I saw this fabric and, well, I *never* turn down a chance to make a stunt dress.

This is roughly the same pattern as this dress, which I made last year, but I couldn't find the skirt pattern pieces, which I think I had reassigned to another pattern last summer. So I Frankensteined it up with a different skirt pattern with has a scalloped bottom. (Which: never again! I had to HAND-SEW the edge binding on it! The skirt sure looks cute, though, so I'm sure I will eventually forget what a pain in the ass it was to do and try and make it again someday. Although you can't really see the scallops in the picture.)

Anyway, since I'm here, I thought I may as well compete, and thus give a whole lot of people the joy of beating a real, live dictionary editor in a crossword puzzle contest. Perhaps next year I will extend my altruism to the Scrabble tournament, where I would also be roundly shellacked.

Here's a closeup of the bodice (which is not exactly perfect, just like my puzzle-solving ability!):


The piping's a bit uneven (again, like my puzzle ... you get the idea).

I'm having a great time here so far, though! Although that's probably because the contest hasn't actually started. I expect to be tearing my hair out and groaning within the hour.