Welcome! I’ve been feeling crowded here at 3 Hours Past for a while and many of you requested I simplify the design of the site. I had a chance to do just that today. I feel like I repainted the living room, very refreshing!
The main links are up at the top- the Blank Canvas Tee, Sewing Cake and so on. I left the categories and archives at the very bottom of this page. I hope the new layout is easy on your eyes and easier to navigate. If you have a suggestion, let me know (gently) in comments.
Today’s random number winner is #9:
Congrats, Leigh! Yes, you may have the Tiramisu Organic Cotton Envelope panel! Click here to join the Giveaway and Survey.
Clues about the Hand Width + Bicep Survey
A few days ago, I asked for hand & bicep circumferences (still collecting, giveaway still happening!) to create one of my weird spreadsheets. I am not designing a gauntlet or handwear, I’ll leave that to designers in colder climates. My research is a little more abstract, tracking weight and handwidth to find a correlation if any exists. Also, I want to know hand widths for another project not related to hands.
Why?
Some time ago I stumbled across this deceptively dry title in googlebooks: “Pattern Drafting, Pattern Grading, Garment Making, Garment Fitting” by Edward Gurney, 1939. He breaks drafting and grading into a complex system of ratios, with lots of interesting rabbit trails. Some of his ideas are quite sensible and I can verify his formulas from my own data. I want to test a few of his other equations, so once we run out of Envelope Panel offcuts (Friday), I’ll start another measurement survey/giveaway and we’ll talk about what I found out in this one- in 300 words. Sound like fun?
You can see I was serious about interesting rabbit trails… Click for source
3 Hours Past the Edge of the World 
Looks lovely around here! I like how you’ve freshened things up. :)
Thanks! It’s always tricky, isn’t it? I like it too… :)
Love the spring cleaning results! I’m even more intrigued now!
Thanks, Vicki
I love it – but then I like clear, crisp white background and neatly printed text and I like that the ‘clutter’ is down the bottom.
Just a note on colours, red and green are the two hardest print colours to read/see for vision impaired persons. I remember many years ago attending a disability conference and the program was printed in red and green – the complaints about its lack of readability and ineptness of the organising committee in printing such a horridly bad colour choice became the overriding theme of the entire event.
Also is is possible to have a search function? I’m not sure just wondering, as sometimes I like to type in a word especially on sites / blogs with lots of posts to find what I remember reading a while back.
Hi Margo- I added a search function in the footer..
I’m going to stick to green and white for now, it’s homey to me. :) But no red, how about that?
thankyou :) and I like green as well…
I really like the cleaner streamlined look but I miss the picture headings. They were always changing and giving clues on what you were working on or thinking about.
I was going to say that too. I really liked all those close up pictures of flowers, vegetables and seams.
Me too! I loved those pretty headers.
Yes, I liked them too. Must see if I can do anything about it. I think probably not, but we’ll see. I like those headers, too.
love the new look! i agree with margo above about a search function as i often remember reading a useful post or tute but rarely when i read it.
All sorted at the bottom.
Love the new look…really great colour, but I do miss your great header pictures. Just goes to show you can’t please all of the people all of the time. ;-) Off to find a tape measure….
I miss them, too. I might just put them into the end of a post, like a sign off or something. They’re always of things I let myself really *stop* and look at carefully…
It showed…always such lovely pictures.
I really like the spacious new feel of the site, clean and uncluttered is nice, although at first I wondered if I was in the right place. I’m with PendleStitches too in missing your interesting header pictures.
Oh dear… Well… I hope that doesn’t put anyone off!
Yeah, I miss them too. I’ll figure something out. :)
Don’t worry it’s still you and anybody who has been following you will realize that. I really do like how the links at the top are much easier to navigate now too!
I like the redecorating job. I liked the photo headers, but whatever.
Thanks, Zena. :)
It certainly looks tidy! At my current resolution (1440×900 on a 19 inch monitor) the font you chose for the blog’s subtitle and the post heading looks a little spidery, especially the vertical bits. I agree that a search function would be lovely; I use ctrl-f to find things sometimes, but that doesn’t search through archived posts, does it?
I miss the tag cloud – never mind, just found it at the bottom. I like seeing which categories you use most often.
replaced the font with something a little more substantial. :) The search box is at the lower left side- just added. All good!
Looks great! I like the new font too.
Thank you… Simplifying… :)
“whereas the single light colored butterfly moves quickly because she realizes her tiring effect on our eyes.”
Well, yes, of course butterflies plan what they do according to the effect it will have on humans. Seriously, Mr. Gurney?
Rabbit something, anyway…
I guess I’m the only person so far who isn’t a fan of the new format. I find it a bit stark and impersonal. That’s okay, though. The content has been changing over the past year to a less personal/more professional tone, and I think this format better reflects the new focus.
hehehe, I enjoyed that. Maybe butterflies are self-aware? Well, I suppose he can be one part genius and one part whimsical crazy person…. It often goes hand in hand.
Yes… There’s a few things going on with that tone shift, it has been an interesting year.
Love your new design!!
Thanks, Debi. :)
I like the clean, Green look of it. You sub-heading and the words above the comment box are thin and should be thickened just a tad, so I don’t have to work so hard to figure out the words.
Well, alright, just for you I made the font a bit meatier. ;) How’s that? And thanks, I really do aim to please.
Thanks for the link to the Gurney book, i read on a few pages… Tested my wrists and my neck measurements against my bust measurement. As I already know I have slender wrists I did not expect there to be a correlation. The neck measurement, however, was absolutely accurate. Need to read some more of this now to see what else he as to say. Lol
Enjoyed the spring clean, lovely and fresh.
Chris
Yes… But he goes on to say the bust measurement might be variable for different reasons, but that the neck is a solid indicator of back width. Very interesting, I must say… :)
Thanks, Chris.
Design looks great! I’m a big fan of clean design. I need to measure my hand and arm for you, though I’m scared I’ll skew the data. I have man hands– lol! Seriously, though, I do. I’m not ashamed because they do so much, but they are as big as my husbands.
Thanks, Lj, and don’t worry about that… :)