Christine DeMaio-Rice's Blog, page 6

What to Wear to the Apocalypse (if the Apocalypse Involves Dragons)

 

Rain Mauri – Dragon Wars by shea-macleod featuring a genuine leather jacket

MuuBaa genuine leather jacket

330 - liberty.co.uk

MICHAEL Michael Kors patchwork jeans

$120 - net-a-porter.com

Jeffrey Campbell studded shoes

$240 - solestruck.com

All For the Mountain cuff jewelry

$230 - bonadrag.com

It's 25 years after the apocalypse, so you can't exactly pop down to your local House of Targét for the latest designer knock off.  What's a girl to do?
Rain Mauri is a Tracker for the compound of Sanctuary.  That means comfort comes first.  Don't want to break a heel while exploring underground bunkers or fighting off dragons.  Rain can usually be found sporting a pair of well-worn jeans, a beat up old leather jacket, and some seriously kick-ass boots.  Not to mention a little homemade bling.
Who says the Apocalypse can't be sexy?


Dragon Warrior is available at Amazon.com.
Read Shea's story here.

Shea MacLeod * Knight In Shining Armor

Knight in Shining Armor

by Shéa MacLeod

 

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It's strange how long a bruise can last.

Long after the physical evidence is gone, the muscles remember.  A raised hand or an angry voice, and the body flinches away.  The mind tries to forget, bury the pain deep … but the scars are forever.

It didn't start that way, of course.  He said all the right things.  Did all the right things.  When I was sick he took care of me.  When my car broke down he fixed it.  I thought I'd finally found my knight in shining armor.

What I'd found was a nightmare.  The minute I was hooked, everything changed.  It started with the name calling, the blame, the bouts of rage.  As time passed, he turned increasingly violent.  It was always my fault.  I was useless.  I'd never be anything.  Do anything.  Accomplish anything.

If I tried to fight him, he threatened to destroy everyone I loved.  To ruin their lives.  Stupidly, I believed him.

He was always sorry after.

You might ask why I didn't leave.  It's a fair question.  But until you've been there, until you've lived through that, you have no idea how messed up a woman's head gets when she has to live through that day after day.  There is no such thing as confidence, self-esteem.  You learn to live with the overwhelming conviction that this is all there is.  You have nowhere else to go.

That's the very worst part of abuse.  Beyond the bruises and the emotional scars.  The absolute knowledge that this is the way you will live.  And most likely the way you will die.  You don't deserve anything else.

In a way, I was lucky.  I had something else.  A secret weapon, if you will.  I just had no idea back then how powerful that weapon was.

I could write.

All through those nightmare years I wrote.  Not about what I was living through, but about something else.  An imaginary world where I would escape, where I was strong.  A place where I kicked bad guy ass.  A place where I was my own hero.

Prophetic?  Perhaps.

The writing kept a spark of something alive in me.  My soul?  Hope?  Who knows.  But one day, that tiny spark of something flared up.  I couldn't take another minute.

I had nothing.  No money.  Nowhere to go.  But I walked out that door and never looked back.

Nobody rode in on a white horse to save me.  I saved myself.

It was a very long uphill struggle to get healthy again, but through it all I kept writing.  Writing had always been my passion, now it was my salvation, too.

Through writing I regained my sense of self.  I grew strong.  Stronger than I ever had been before.  Words poured from me as my mind and body healed itself.  Slowly but surely I recovered.

It's nine years later and that life seems like a distant nightmare.  The woman I was then could never have dreamed of the life I am living today.

The writing has never stopped.  It just moved with me, changing zip codes.  I now write in a sunny room in a Georgian townhouse in London, England.  I have self published two novels and am about to publish the third.  My stories, while sometimes holding a dark edge, are still full of hope and my readers love them.  I am now selling enough that I can stay at home and write full time.  I made my dreams a reality.

Guess what?

You can, too.

The day I walked out of that abusive relationship was the day I became my own hero.  That one action changed everything.

If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, please visit the Hot Peach Pages for a list of agencies all over the world who help women living in domestic violence.

http://www.hotpeachpages.net/

No woman deserves to be abused and mistreated.  It's time to say NO to violence.

It's time to be your own hero.

http://sheamacleod.wordpress.com/

Dragon Warrior on Amazon

Dragon Warrior on Smashwords

"This is one story from Indie Chicks: 25 Women 25 Personal Stories available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. To read all of the stories, buy your copy today. Also included are sneak peeks into 25 novels! My novel, DRAGON WARRIOR, is one of the novels featured. All proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer."

 

Indie Chicks is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Check out Shea's stylings for her book Dragon Warrior here.

What's Happening Inside That Jacquard Cardigan?

 

Jacquard sweaters are hot! by xtined featuring oversized tops

United Bamboo long top

$755 - lagarconne.com

M Patmos long sleeve top

$565 - barneys.com

Adam ribbed sweater

98 - glassworks-studios.com

Knit top

$88 - topshop.com

Oversized top

$66 - romwe.com

Best Mountain t shirt

€62 - placedestendances.com

Miss Selfridge oversized top

45 - missselfridge.com

Jacquard sweaters are so hot right now you can't swing a dead cat wihtout hitting one. I don't know what happened in China….maybe Shima came out with a new machine, but there's some complex stuff out there that would have cost a fortune three years ago.
The top 3 sweaters are double jacquard, meaning there are knit stitches on both sides or, to say a different way, two layers of knitting. The Topshop one (so gorgeous, hello) and the guy in the middle are reverse jacquards, which means that the other side of the fabric is the reverse colors. The Topshop looks like a 12gg, meaning it's a lighter weight than the Miss Selfridge, which looks like a 7. I don't recommend getting a double jacquard in a bigger gauge than 7, as it would get to heavy. The Romwe guy on the right is a birdseye jacquard, which means that no matter what's on the front side, the back side is a tiny little checkerboard. but honestly, aren't we all a little sick of drape front cardigans already? Can we put a fork in them and call them done?
All of the bottom row is single jacquard, which means there are "floats" on the back side. You know those stretches of yarn that catch on your rings and pull the whole sweater? That's the sign of the single jacquard. Both colors of yarn are going through the needle as the knitting progresses, but one color is hidden in the back. That's the one that's all catchy. Wear well, and wash with caution. Don't put it in the was with anything that has a zipper!
Here's a cheat sheet.
DOUBLE JACQUARD
- can only be done by machine.
-finer gauge
-no floats
SINGLE JACQUARD
-can be done by hand or machine
-the technique of traditional fair isle sweaters
-watch the float length!
-more supple to wear

Where's the Bang for Your Buck in a Sweater?

It's not Just a Striped Sweater by xtined featuring embellished sweaters

Embellished sweater

$68 - modcloth.com

Ferm Living Love Birds Wall Sticker – Black

$77 - coggles.com

 

If you're looking for a great value when you shop, you might look into a sweater.

Sweaters are forgiving on fit and because China's been making them for the 20 years I've been in the business, they know what they're doing and can do it cheaply. The same cannot be said for jeans. But that's another post that'll get me fired.

WHAT FABULOUS

1) The textured stripe above and below the elbow patches is called links-links and it's made by a more expensive, slower computer machine.

2) Those "patches" are fully-fashioned, meaning that stitches were ADDED across the sleeve in a technique called "short row shaping". See how the sleeve bends when it hangs? Almost like an arm? That's because stitches were added in there.

3) The holes at the waist also shape the garment, though honestly, not all that much.

4) The curve of the neck is nice and round and smooth.

WHAT'S meh

1) 100% acrylic can be nice, but it can also be crap. Can't tell on the Internet.

2) The top stripe is too low. It hits right across the bust which is flattering for just about NOBODY.

3) It's 22 1/2″ long in a medium. If you pick up your arm to hail a cab, your belly's out.

4) Those waist pointelles are oddly placed and not very special looking. I feel like I've seen them everywhere before. They are fashioning the shape, which is great, but not enough to make a lick of difference. I feel like they were cutting corners here.

What do YOU think?

 

It's Only a Pair of Jeans

 

They're only JEANS! by xtined featuring acid wash shorts

 

He said, "I'm not paying for those. Look, they're already ripped. And they're only jeans for Chirssakes."

And I said, "Do you know what it takes to make a pair of jeans? Do you know how many seams are on those things? How many different sewing machines it needed? A triple needle, and double needle and a single and a chain stitch machine as well? There are rivet machines and a machine for the buttons on the fly as well as the buttonholes. There are four kinds of thread in the back pockets alone. Did you know that the distressing on the knees takes two gauges of sandpaper? Can you see that these have been through not two, but three temperature controlled washes already? Yes, there's sand in the pockets. Do you see how fine it is? That's from the washing and the grade of sand is very specific to the way this denim looks. The wrinkles on the crotch are made by hand, with hands, by people, and they're made to look like you've worn these for years. They can't be too even, or they'll look fake, and they can't look uneven, or they won't look enough like the pair of jeans they're hanging next to. Do you see the color? How all the jeans in this style are the same shade? Do you know how hard that is to achieve thousands of times in a row when you can only fit seventy pairs of pants in the washer? The fact that these are even here, in this store, on time, with those seven hangtags is a feat achieved by hundreds of people, from the design team, to the production team who makes sure the crates get onto the boat, to the dozens of technicians responsible for outlining all the details, to the folks on the floor, ripping those knees in the exact RIGHT WAY so that rip your complaining about looks the same on each pair."

So stop complaining.

But them, or don't. But if you do, keep them a long time. They're worth it, and so are you.

Seams Are Serious

 

The seams and zipper on this thing are gorgeous by xtined featuring long hoodies

James Perse long hoody

$165 - tobi.com

Doily Placemat – Black – One Size

$3 - urbanoutfitters.com

I don't want to say how I ended up with a $165 sweatshirt, because it was a stupid thing that involved me not looking at a return policy. I'd like to say I'm too old to make a mistake like that but I guess you're never too old to secretly want something you can't afford.

So I'll write this off as a way to show why it's $165 and the other sweatshirt I have here (which will remain unbranded to protect this blogger from a lawsuit) is not $165.

First, the cheap sweatshirt:

This overlock seam stands up like a little soldier. And it's like a quarter inch high too.

 

The sideseams are overlocked. Which is not a crime in and of itself, but if you're selling something to a discerning customer, who expects something really special, but doesn't know why it's special, but they know it when they see it, this big bulky thing is simply not acceptable.

Here's the James Perse seam

Flat flat flat

This is a coverstitch, but see how flat and narrow?

How? Why?

This is an overlap seam. It's like this. Hold your hands out palm down. Put your right pointer finger over your left, with both your palms still facing down. Sew.

Well, no. Don't actually sew. But that's an overlap seam.

The white sweatshirt was done with a regular seam that involves you putting your palms together, sewing the edge and spreading your palms apart. Which works on a lot of different seams in a lot of different fabrics because it's easy and clean. But with four thread coverstitch on French terry it looks like a thirty-dollar sweatshirt.

Moving on to the zipper:

Yeah, that's my finger taking that picture.

Looks like a zipper with a plain raw finish inside. Who cares?

Compare.

 

This, on the other hand is a Riri zipper, and when you use it, it feels like a jet engine has just landed.

This stuff counts.

Why Missoni For Target is for Target

So I got two Missoni sweaters at Target and I LOVE THEM. Here they are:

Jealous?

Here's the best thing about them. Those shiny red tags, which I kept for reasons that are opaque even to me.

So, now when I say I love them, I mean it. But they're not perfect by a stretch. A real Missoni would differ. For instance, we can just talk about the interior finishing.

This is called overlock and my guess is that there's not one machine that does this in Missoni's factories.

The seams on the short sweater are overlocked. The alternatives to overlock on a sweater constructed like this one are rare and expensive. Just like a Missoni. I'd love to show them to you, but I don't have a Missoni sweater handy.

If you want to check on how a garment is made, look at the place inside, where the armhole and sideseam meet.

Above, you can see also that there are threads all over. Also, do you see that yellow thread going all the way down the sideseam? Well, it's there because when the stripe is knit, that yarn needs to be picked up again to make another stripe. Cutting and knotting and trimming those babies costs a fortune because someone has to do it. And even though you think little girls in China are being paid four cents a month to do it, the amount of labor that would go into doing that would be egregious.

So, when you want to see if something should be more expensive than it is, turn it inside out.

Day At The Beach

Day At The Beach by xtined featuring short shorts

Madewell cotton hoody
$126 - madewell.com

Long Sleeved Contrast Topstitch Wetsuit
$180 - cynthiarowley.com

Quiksilver short shorts
$45 - quiksilver.com

Havaianas rubber shoes
$94 - coggles.com

Surfboards Only by Samantha Carlisle – Shop Our Affordable Selection…
$400 - zgallerie.com

But why do I want to spend that kind of money on something I'm just going to wear to the beach?

If you knew what went into making those shorts, or what it means to have something actually dipdyed like that, you might buy wisely and keep things longer. Or not. Look, I'm not your mother. But the hoodie and the shorts are priced right.

I can't wait to tell you what goes into making clothes, and why they cost what they do. Check back often for insider information on what to look for, what's a bargain for how it's made, and where the companies are making their money charging an arm and a leg for a truly stupid item.