Not gray, but the weather was uncooperative

I've made a few things this summer that are not gray.

Iris attends a performing arts summer camp in downtown El Segundo, where she also practices going free range. I am not a fan of the new 2 week sessions that replaced the 3 week ones. That gives me only one weekend to get a costume together.

This year, the auditions went very well and she was cast as Captain Hook #1 in Tinker Bell. She sang her solo beautifully. Her costume IMHO, was equally impressive. I apologize for cutting off her head, but I didn't get permission from Captain Hook #2 or his parents to post his picture on the internet. His costume is store-bought.

Iris' costume is made out of polyester stuff I found at SAS Fabrics in Hawthorne. I had very low expectations for the item, which I had determined would be a one-use costume not suitable for repurposing into her regular wardrobe.

I couldn't find a suitable children's pattern. I went through my entire pattern collection, looking for something suitable. Then I came across Vogue 8721, an Elizabeth Gillet NYC pattern. It comes in XS, which is slightly too large for my 10 year old. I rationalized that coats need to be over-sized anyway. Her coat does not resemble the pattern envelope picture.
I elongated the body of View D to coat length, lengthened the sleeves to full-length and removed the bust dart fullness/length. The pattern has high-ish set-in sleeves and a fat 5/8 inch seam allowance. The fabric is an unforgiving polyester. I didn't pin or baste the sleeve but put the longer sleeve side next to the feed dogs and stitched away. I figured, if there were any dimples at the sleeve cap, it wouldn't show from the cheap seats where the working parents who come in at the last minute are relegated. ;)

I did a double take when I looked at the armscythe on the pattern. The sleeve is highly asymmetrical front to back. It allows the sleeve to hang towards the front of the body, the way our arms are attached. I had to measure around the body and sleeve pieces to convince myself that there was no error.

Amazingly, the sleeve set in perfectly on the first try on both sides. I shouldn't have been surprised, because Kathleen over at Fashion Incubator has been harping on forever about how to draft a proper sleeve. She would approve of this pattern. Kudos to the patternmaker for this one!

Now I really want to try View B. I bought the pattern just to see how this one is assembled.

The play finished at 3:30 PM. Bad Dad had to go back to work. Iris wanted to go to a library. The El Segundo library was closed on Fridays due to the state budget crisis. The main Redondo Beach library is open on Friday, but is 3 towns south. I checked the Thomas guide with a sinking feeling. There is no good way to get between downtown El Segundo and downtown Redondo Beach without enduring a ~6 mile/10 kilometer stretch of PCH. PCH is a parking lot on summer Friday afternoons.

I was feeling really sorry for myself before I got a grip. PCH stands for Pacific Coast Highway, California State Route 1, the stuff of California legend.

Moreover, this particular stretch has the double distinction of following historic El Camino Real.
People come from all over the world to visit this place. Traffic, schmaffic. They are here for both the sunshine and the people-watching. So I donned my shades, fresh lipstick and we rolled through El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach, putting on a good show for the tourists. (The Beach Boys hail from Hawthorne, bordering ES and MB to the east. )

The sun didn't cooperate, as evident in these GOES imagery animations from the CIMSS Satellite Blog.

• GOES-11 West, geostationary over the equator at 135 West longitude, is on the left panel.
• GOES-14 stored in space, geostationary at 110 West longitude, is in the middle.
• GOES-13 East, geostationary at 75 West Longitude, is on the right panel.
  

These are three views of the same area from three different look angles.

The NOAA GOES-14 satellite (positioned over the Equator at 105º West longitude) was brought out of on-orbit storage for a brief period of testing, beginning on 10 August 2011. A comparison of GOES-11 (GOES-West), GOES-14, and GOES-13 (GOES-East) visible channel images (above) shows the evolution of stratus clouds along the southern California coast and the immediate offshore waters of the Pacific Ocean on 10 August. The images are displayed in the native projection of each GOES satellite, so the cloud features appear slightly different due to the different viewing angles.

Go visit the CIMSS Satellite Blog to learn more about how scientists calibrate satellites, often by intercomparison between different satellites. A NASA Goddard SFC scientist once told an audience at an American Meteorological Society meeting that GOES East and GOES West IR brightness temperatures vary by 3-4 degrees Celcius/Kelvin over Colorado!

They knew it was not an error because GOES East reads hotter in the morning and GOES West reads hotter in the afternoon.

Do you know why? Do you know why the temperatures are different between the two satellites over Colorado, but not over Oklahoma at a similar latitude?