Reporting from the Nest

Well.... I don't know if I've made actual progress, but I have cut out the material for 15 cuffs thus far. Should start sewing those. Head cold has made brain slow and sleep less than optimal.

I really need trimmings, though. I have a bit of stuff for some of the colours, but most of them need a little something something.

Mailing out the actual registration form tomorrow, now that I have everything I need for it.

Provided the world still exists after the snowstorm finishes devouring the world, as they have fortold.

Good for photoshot backdrops, bad for buses.

Meh. That'll be Wednesdays for you.

Day 1 - The Nest

With the coast clear, I have taken a moment to grab my stash of fabric and notions, and unleased them on the living room.

It looks like fabricland exploded in here, with Micheal's as the aftershock.

 And yet, I feel as if I do not have enough of everything.

This is the Nest. It is a terrifying place.

I have my music. It is time to Dancing Mad.

Victory - Stage 1

:D

We did it! We passed the first round of application acceptance for Crafter's Corner! I have no idea how fast it filled up (or perhaps, if it did) or how long the waiting list could be, but we did it!

I literally had my iPad open to a countdown clock, so I could press that send button on my laptop at like 8:00:00 pm. I hit it at 8:00:02, so I'd give respect to my reflexes.

Now, the work begins. They're sending out the actual formal applications in the next few days or so, so there's still that and payment and whatnot to work out, but it's on its way.

Time to make some stock.

We've got.... well, according to the con website, 12 weeks and 6 days until Animenorth. Three months. Three months to make stock and make good stock, like I have (lliterally) never made before.

And not just stock! We have table to design for the two of us. Business cards. A raw materials list and cost listing. Price tags. Gods, the price tags! The everythings! ALL THE THINGS.

I might be excited.

Maybe.

Okay. Tomorrow. Tomorrow, we (in the royal sense this time) plan. Pool our materials, work out what to buy... what we don't need to buy. What we need to create.

My workshop is going to be a disaster.

Awesome.

:D

What? Even more progress?

Yep. Petticoat is officially complete. And as adorably ruffly as I predicted. Plus, it sits a few centimetres higher than the over skirt, as I had tried for.

100% success all around!

Now, I am sitting with a bowl of half chocolate peanut butter cup half mint chocolate cup ice cream, mentally patting myself on the back.

Not bad for a Thursday night.

Tomorrow is the big day for Operation Get-a-table, so I best ready my email draft.

Oh, and my sonic screwdriver came in. <3 So, I set myself to building 10th's, and then since I hadn't remember to do so, 11th's that came with the DVD gift set.

Fun Fact 1! You need a screwdriver to load the batteries into the screwdriver. Derp Herp.

Fun Fact 2! I couldn't get the sealing tape off the package of 11th's, and instinctively grabbed 10th's and fired it at the package in hopes that it would open it. It didn't work. I can only assume it was deadlock sealed. It did, however, renew my geek membership to gold status, incase I had any doubt. (Which, really, I didn't.)

Now then, on to that draft.

Petticoat Junction

Mmmmph. Much needed coffee break. Been chugging away at it for a few hours on Red's petticoat, though I'm rather pleased with how it's going.

(Save for the rather spectacular three finger pin attack that cause a halt until the bleeding stopped. Ivory fabric is much less forgiving than red....)

I find it somewhat amusing that this petticoat is turning out prettier than the overskirt. Not that there's anything wrong with the velvet skirt, mind you. But adding in that extra panel and pleating the waist made it hang so nicely. Just have the trimming to do, which is going to take a while since I need to hand baste the two seperate ruffles together, but nothing difficult about it.

The last step after that is sewing on its own hook and eye for the uptack point and it will be good to go. It's a bit sheer to wear on its own, seeing as it is, techincally an underskirt but it's kinda tempting. Either way, should be able to get it finished by the end of the week. Then it's bodice time.

Ah well. Mug's empty. Back to it.

Newsflash: Irons are hot.

Gobsmacking, no? And completed unrelated to that previous thought, "gobsmack" is frankly a delightful term, and I shall make a note to fuller integrate it into my already mishmashed vocabulary of jargon and whismical colloquialisms.

I also really should stop with the shameless Bristish terms before I further offend a good third of my genetic code. Being slapped by your own stop codons would be quite embarassing.

UGA!!! *slap*

</terrible terrible biology humour.>

....

Biology. We've got a lot of humors.

</really stopping. Seriously.>

.... I have no idea what I was going to write about before.

RIGHT. Irons. They're hot.

Despite the snowny nature outside, the temperature of the living room is quite high. However, I've finished flatfelling the seams of Red's petticoat, and pinned the upper edge of the waist band, ready to begin the myraid of pleating that will soon follow. Should be able to get most of it done this weekend..... which is a long weekend 'cause of Family day, as I have just remembered. Maybe all of it will be done? Not sure if I will get to the trimming stage, but it's quite possible. Might do a little more tonight, we'll see.

It's nice to know that this will be finished well before I need to wear it. Time management, go me. Of course, next friday begins to fight to get a table at Animenorth. *crosses fingers*

That accomplished feeling.

Alright! I feel I accomplished stuff this weekend. Random things, but accomplished none the less.

Red's skirt, is basically done. The hemming went pretty okay. It did take a few hours, but things like reality does interupt things. Like brownies. Best kind of reality, really.

I might need to adjust the waist a little, after it all comes together since it might be a little large, but that's really just involves moving a snap or two. I'll be able to tell better once the underskirt and overbodice is all done and I can check the layering. Just need to sew on the tack point, which I'll do tomorrow when daylight has returned to me.

...even though it will be dark when I get home from work.

Whatever.

I rewarded myself with the Game of Thrones S2 preorder. And then rewarded my pricing research prowress with  ordering 10th's sonic screwdriver. ...which I only waited this long, since I needed something else to make it qualify for free shipping.

;D

I also am developing a slight obsession with acquring the perfect plaid shirt. Plaid is a very personal pattern, and frankily all the women's shirts out there, as well as the fabric in the fabric stores is terrible. The plaid should be victorious, not froo froo or ugly. It has to speak to you. The only thing the ones in store are say to me is: "Dust Rag!" Having said that, in wandering around the men's wear section helping (without avail) my mother trackdown a jacket for my father, I discovered the plethora of plaid. Seriously? So unfair. Ergo, if I find my forever plaid, I shall merely acquire it, and introduce it to my dear friends, the stitch ripper and pincushion and taper that badboy. Genius.

Onwards to Monday.

Blood has been spilled this...afternoon.

Totally just stabbed meself in me bleedin' thigh with the sewing needle. That's a new one.

The blood price has been paid....again. So far running two for two on this costume. At least it's been on both red fabrics. Again.

Skirt is.....almost done. The only thing left besides the tack point, is the hemming. Which, as much as I am going to be complaining about it for next...several hours, I've decided to do by hand. As much as I dislike hemming, I dislike having to stitch rip a bad hem even more. And as I have said before, velvet is a shifty creature. So, we shall do a proper skirt hem! Last (and first) used on Lulu's dress in the summer. Way to use my recently acquired skill set! Yay!

So, I shall take the slow road and do it right. That's what they created iPods for.

Screw the budget, I have....fabric.

So much for keeping Red's petticoat cheap.

Instead of cheap cotton with a basic hem, I ended up with ivory eyelet and two matching eyelet pregathered trims of two different widths to go on the hem because frankily having an untrimmed hem is appauling in my mind.

*sigh*

However, I feel like if the petticoat does work out the way it will in my mind, (Dear gods, I hope so...) it might work as a pettcoat for underneath a natural form skirt. I might be able to modify it in such a way that all the fullness of the skirt can be shifted to the back. In theory at any rate.

Getting there with Red's actual skirt. The waistband has been hand basted to the main skirt sections, (since velvet is a shift shift fabric) after being pleated ferociously to get some of the fullness under control. Machine stitch that tomorrow and what not and then I can start on hemming it.

Yay. I hate hemming. It always puckers.

Anyway.

Also got the brown ribbon casing and the closures for Red's bodice. Which I think is almost everything I need. I don't have the lacing ribbon for the back yet, but seeing as I don't have any idea how much I need, that can wait. Those fiesty mauve shoelaces I have on my dresser will work in the meanwhile.

Around the internet

Let's search the internet for what's good today, yes?

1875 Parisan Trained skirt by Truly Victorian

Me want. I need this pattern in my life. My costuming wardrobe feels so empty without a parisan skirt in my life. Nevermind this wonder has 9 yards of material in it, it shouldn't be that hard to make, right?

Butterick 5797

Looking around for a good fashion corset pattern to work with. I find the other ones I've worked with have been okayish but so heavy in the fitting process, because they seem to so barrel shaped. There's always so much material I need to taper out of the armpit of all places. I wonder if this one would lend to nicer shaping because of the double princess seams in the front. Zipper back....could be neat, or modified to lace up depending on the look. Love that shrug though. Cries out for a hat.

Hmm.

Vanilla ice cream is made so much more epic when mixed with banana, chocolate sauce and chocolate chips. And then served in my majestic and favourite tea mug.  Because I can people. Because I can.

I am kinda really hoping we can get a table in Crafter's Corner this year. I know the competition is ferocious and I have no idea if my wares are going to remotely interest anyone but I am getting some fun ideas to make. But I can't start on them until I know I have a venue and therefore can justify shelling out money for the raw materials.

.... That made it sound like alchemy.

Groovy.

Ah well. Such is the life of costumer.

Velvet fluff. EVERYWHERE.

I've never used crushed velvet before. It's another tick mark to add to fabric tally. It's a lovely rich material, with such a sumptuous texture to it. In the red colour I'm using? Gorgeous.

But by the Gods of Cosplay, does it ever fluff. I was overlocking the edges of the skirt gores before I stitched them together, and fluff everywhere. I swear I have it in my sinuses, to which I will forget about it, and start sneezing out textiles tomorrow; much to my own confusion. I then take one look at my poor machine and realize how much more fluff covered the surface and insides of my baby.

Turn to page 126 of manual. "Cleaning your machine."

Cue the tender vacuuming of my baby after the delicate removal of the bobbin casing, needle plate, race etc. Could have woven a second skirt out of it. At least it's better now.

Overlocking is finished at any rate. Now I can sew the skirt together. Shouldn't take long, since it's just three panels and a waist band. Modifiying said waistband though since I don't want all the extra material that a drawsting waist would give, so I'll do the standerd gathering into waistband method I've done for...everything.

I think I need some sort of petticoat though. Not too sure how to make it per say, since I don't really want crinoline, just a second skirt in cotton to give it body, and to keep it clean. I could make the skirt again, but in cotton, though I might add an extra panel to it. Little ruffle on the end. Could work. Means another trip to fabricland, for hopefully highly discounted cotton since at worse I'd need 4ms or so. Love to keep it under $20 but who knows.

...I wonder if Zellers and their closing madness has sheets on sale. That would totally work....

You know you are a cosplayer when...

You search through your father's closet all ninja like, to see if he has some gnarly old tweed suits that have so far escaped the Sally Ann bag, that could find new life... after a date with the shears and the fabric storage bin.

Failing that, there is the actual Sally Ann to acquire said tweed. For the sake of science, of course.

Science.

In other news. I bought three spools of crimson thread.

Yay.