Thursday 30 May 2013

Geeking out retro style.

So, I just made the amazing discovery of an official retro version of the Okami soundtrack. It's just 17 songs/sound effects, but it's wonderfully nostalgic sounding.

<3 Reminds me of the glory days of Left Right A B, *how hard do you have to jam the game genie into the NES to make it work?* moments

<3 Plus, I bought the tin T.A.R.D.I.S. lunchbox at HMV. I intend on using it as a float box in the future, which is totally the excuse I have for buying it. Having said that, it was cheaper than I saw it at the con by over $5 so I feel I made a wise purchase. Also, I now haz a lunchbox. Now if I can only get my little hands on that rolling T.A.R.D.I.S. luggage.

...I really have nothing costuming related to say at the moment. I mean, I spent about 5 minutes trying to work out a more accurate cost of my flower pins, but gave up when I really had no idea how I paid for my brooch backs. I'll see if I can find the ones I bought online and work it out from there. Create a sort of minimum maximum thingie. Of an Excel sort.

That's all. Happy Thorsday, loves.

Tuesday 28 May 2013

Well, huh.

My first evening post convention with nothing to do.

It's...weird. I feel like I should go back to sewing things but... I don't have anything to do. I mean, I will soon enough but I've  been working so many nights I've become accustom to it.

..... I just chilled out and watched tv.

Meh, I deserved it. We had inventory today at work, which is always a pleasure, especially when still recovering from con fatigue. So I needed a night of nothing, right?

Ah well, I'll start ideas soon. It's a straight on battle to Costume Con now, balancing with next year's shows I'm committing to. Going to have to pace that all carefully to prevent being bogged down.

I need to go through my supplies to see what I have leftover, and keep an open mind for inventory pieces in the future. Also, my fabric containers looks like fabricland exploded again so I really have no idea what's in there anymore.

...And Quetzalcoatl went disco in my head. Thank Daft Punk for that one.
...And the TARDIS went Lindy Hop. That would be So You Think You Can Dance chiming in.

Anyone else? No? Good.

Going back to the post-con stupor now.

Monday 27 May 2013

Animenorth 2013: The Report

It's funny, but that weekend really seemed to fly by. Animenorth has come and gone for this year and I already miss it.

And the report?

Most excellent. Magic and Stitchcraft has officially made it's debut and it, honestly and proudly it was a good one. Both Ash and I sold things....we sold many things. We made enough to pay for the table, our supplies and even some cash on the side. My massive start up overhead is now gone and any future creations should have a greatly increased margin. I'm very happy and proud.

Of course, now I want to do this next year. Is that okay, Animenorth Officials? I want to come back!

Set up and selling got easier each day, (partially because stock was shrinking) once I figured out the best way to display and handle everything in an actual busy setting. In general, I think our table looked great. Even having the colourful table cloth made everything stand out against a nice rich background. We might modify our stands a bit making it more open in the centre than it was, but the concept still worked out well enough.

Stockwise, I got a better idea of what colours people favoured. Black, red, white went the fastest which I suppose should have been a no brainer, but I was surprised that the earthtones weren't as popular, but it's what others like, not me. My 11th Doctor spats took a while to go, and I ended up dropping the price a but, but the TARDIS ones went first and at full. I am so making those again....if I can find that blasted ribbon anyway. More spats in general, I think, since few people had really seen them before, and were most intruguied by them. Flowers as well, again in different colours. They ended up being a good fast make.

Others things I'd add would be chokers, which I originally planned on making, but ran out of time to do, and a few people were looking into some of my large cuffs as potential upper armbands. I'd have to look into a pattern for those and see if they'd be worth it.

Colours to add, in addition to more black-white-red would be purple as seemed to be a popular request and some more bright blues and greens, rather than the softer tones. Perhaps some cutesy pinks and such.

But yeah...it was....good. It was good.

Outside of our island of Italia (which our section of table cloths totally made) I didn't see too much of the con! I kept the tradition of onigiri and ramune of course, and did a little bit of shopping in artist alley, but that was about it. But there wasn't panels that I was gunhoo to see, so I didn't feel like I missed out. I don't shop much dealer room things, since I'm careful about my pricing especially since many things are often online at par if not cheaper, but I was pleased to see all the Doctor Who stuff, since this was my first con as a Whovian.

I ran into all the people I had hoped to see, including my Skiffy/M.A mates from University. (Miss you guys!) Plus, our table mates were awesome to work next to for the weekend. Maybe we'll see them again next year!

So yeah. It was fun. Really, really good.

Fingers crossed to do it all again next year!

And now back to reality......

 'cause I totally just renewed my library books for some costume ideas.....!!!

ALLONS-Y BABIES!

Thursday 23 May 2013

Magic and Stitchcraft's Debut at Animenorth!

Alright, we're ready to rock!

The stitches have been stitched, the stock has been stocked, and the display is ready to impress.

Moofingham proudly presents for the first time ever - Magic and Stitchcraft's debut into the world of sales:

Anime North: 2013

Coming to a Crafter's Corner near you!

Victorian Steampunk Accessories! Dainty Cuffs, Sassy Spats, and some lovely little flowers to adorn your collars or your hair!

We've got 'em!





(Wish me luck...!)

Monday 20 May 2013

T-3 days....

Well. Spats are done. The glue just needs to dry on two and then I can pack them up. I'm actually pretty proud of how they turned out, especially the whovian ones.

Still haven't worked on the leather ones.

Cut out the material for the flowers. I'm going to go with eight. I feel that I can get that many done by Friday. Tomorrow, I will start the sewing process with those. Goal...finish them.

Stand is drying and just needs to be assembled, and perhaps a decoration or two.

Tonight I will make the price list and update my spreedsheet. Need to get a photoframe to put the list in.

Allons-y!

Sunday 19 May 2013

T-4 days, Le WHAT?

Okay. I might be entering a slight panic mode. Not....quite panic. Just... on edge of glory.

On the spats: Black/White, Red/Black, Wine, and TARDIS are now finished and waiting for their ribbons. If you look closely at the Who spats, you can feel my season finale feels stitched into each one. 11ths are on route, needing the trim to be stitched on, and the patches to be stuck on and the bowties to be made.

Leather stuff.... I suppose I need to do those.

Flowers....haven't started. MUST get some done.

Making the stand tomorrow.

See? There's that panic feeling.

Or are those fireworks?
Perhaps both.

Friday 17 May 2013

Eeeeeeeeeeerfasfas....?

I am SO antsy tonight. My mind is just.... NOT calm. And I know its because it's the weekend before the con. It always happens; how many sundays before a con have I freaked out because of the small things?

I'm hoping that since there is no cosplay involved, I will be much more emotionally stable.

And then my brain told me: "Don't worry there isn't a panel of judges critiquing your work. Every customer that walks by your table will. ENJOY YOUR WEEK." Screw you brain.

Tomorrow - not a work day. Tomorrow I enjoy with friends. It is birthday celebration, it is firiends.

Sunday? It begins. THE FINAL COUNTDOWN. Europe and everything. And so is the holiday monday.

Time to call up my old cerebral friend, Winter Wolf.

Now, I will attempt to sleep.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

Grommeting...round two.

Aside from a minor injury (Re: missing the awl and hitting my finger with the mallet instead. That bloody hurt. And the tip of my finger is bruised.) I do rather enjoy grommeting. It is rather therapeutic when you get into the rhythm.....when you're not hitting your hand.

As such, most of the spats have been awled, grommeted and awaiting trimming and lacing. Just need to do the blue ones. Was going to do the fancy chain mail lacing, but the silver grommets will look just as nice. Plus, my dad sharpened the larger awl so I should have less issues that I was last night when it went dull.

....and hopefully the mallet will hold together. I am slowly and painfully destroying it. Gertrude (the mallet) got to the point where pieces of rubber were flying off as I was hammering. I am not gentle on my tools. Not that I try to ruin them, but putting them through the Moofy-test truly tests their mettle.

Finish that tonight, and tomorrow we can start trimming. Should be able to get that done this week, and then its mop up for some other projects and trinkets. Not to mention I need to build my display stand, update my product sheet, come up with some sort of business card etc etc etc.

So, not a thing to do, really. *neutral face*

And I still want to play Okami again.

Friday 10 May 2013

Sometimes, the mind is an odd landscape.

My mind comes up with some bizarre crossovers. Like the time my brain decided to crossover the movie Real Steel with Pixar's Brave. Not that it made much sense, but my brain got halfway through fighting bear robots and clans wars in a post apocalyptic world before being distracted by something shiny.

Then there was the time I saw My Fair Lady and crossed it with the Hunger Games. The Dover race scene was entirely replaced by people from the Capital. There was a lot of satin and bright colours involved.

Or Pokemon and West Side Story. Starring the Eeveelutions in fabulously swishy skirts.

Like I said, an odd landscape, the mind is.

So, suddenly my mind has gone on an Okami kick. Such a great game. But now my brain, being, well, my brain is trying to cross it with things. Again. Not the first time, mind. My intial crossover, I jealously guard in my own headcannon in foolish hopes I will create the ulitmate fanfiction and associated costume collection.

Maybe I should just play the game again and get it out of my system. Or just...cosplay from it.

Yay, headcannon!

Nope.

This week is just a right off with feeling productive. Got the tweed spats ready to grommet, and the blues ones ready to iron. That's it. The blue spats were just not behaving. Not sure if it was the lining or the fabric, but it was just not lining up.

*sigh*

Think I got them fixed though. I'll be able to tell once I've ironed them. Tomorrow night.
Need to veg out for bit. My mind is zonked.

Thursday 9 May 2013

*exhale loudly followed by headdesk*

Today was... frustrating.

Mainly boiling down to random sewing tools going missing/being misplaced/falling into a blackhole. Reallly, no fault but my own, but still. Found my corner poker/ tube inverter after tossing all the couch cushions, but my ironing pad for small curves as all but AWOL. Had to make do. Made do.

Partially because of that, and just because things take time, and I feel like I'm running out of said time, I really feel like I didn't accomplish anything today. I mean, I did. I have two pairs of spats in the ready to grommet phase, two more to iron out and three more waiting to be sewn to the lining. But I was hoping to get all of them sewn today so I could start grommeting. Hopefully tomorrow, I'll finish the sewing and have everything ready to grommet for this weekend.

Ugh. T-two weeks to the day.

Monday 6 May 2013

Strike while the iron is hot.

Ironning, interfacing and pinning is done. The interfacing I used was a little stiffer than I'm used to, but it might work out better in the end. Prevent that foul halloween satin from warping though. That stuff is really only good for lining things.

Tomorrow night we begin the sewing of the spats. Tested out the sizes of those patch templates. They seem fine. Hmmm... that's about it on that end of things.

Took a trip to the good ol' library at lunch to get some books for reference. Mainly some extra sources to agument the few books that I own. However, as I am currently pouring through them, the information on Ancient Briton fashion is....as mimialistic as an unpainted wall. Of the five books, three have a tiny bit of information, and two of them use the exact same wording word for word for all five sentences they contain. I had to double check they weren't different version of the same book. There might be one more picture that could be useful but that's about it. Back to the internet, I suppose.

Saturday 4 May 2013

There's a pattern forming here.

Whether it's cosplay or crafting, the closer I get to deadline, the more I ramble on journals and blogs.
When I should be working of course.

It's hard on sunny days though.... it was so nice outside today. Perfect temperature to get out the shorts, and offer my blindingly white legs to the world. Actual got some vestige of a tan....if you could call it that. That should do for the next four months.

Anyway. I managed to get all the spats cut out, plus there associated interfacing pieces. I hope to iron all said pieces tomorrow to get the creases out, and afix the interfacing. Then I can just plow through them. Not that much time left....

For the remainder of the evening, after I watch tonight's episode of Who, I shall attempt to create the printer template for the printable fabric sheets. I need to get at least 4 Pull to Open T.A.R.D.I.S. signs on a single sheet, which I doubt will be an issue since they're not going to need to be that big. Not sure what to use up the extra space with through. Those sheets are pricey, and I don't want to waste them.

I also need to print a pattern for an elbow patch so I can trace it out on the microsuede and the heat'n'bond.

Lessee...bows and ribbon to be made.... grommeting, ironing....etc etc etc.
Mmm...look up bowtie patterns in miniature.

Oh, and we found some PVC piping. Should be able to make a display piece from that and some plywood.

Onwards.


Thursday 2 May 2013

Spats all, folks!

....That was actually originally going to be my business name, when the majority of the things I was going to sell was indeed, spats. ....And now, I'm just getting started on the spats, and plan on making relatively few of them with respect to everything else.

Craziness.

Well, not really.

Anyway, I'm starting with the big fandom guns, which are the most risky of styles. No idea how they'll turn out but...well, why not? Two pairs of T.A.R.D.I.S. spats, and two pairs of 11th spats. Then we'll do the rest. I put the leather sets aside for now because I really don't want to deal with them at the moment. I'm not pleased with the half way result at the moment, so I'm going to do the things I know work.

I have a blackberry seed stuck in my tooth and it's rather irritating.

Friday tomorrow. Hopefully I'll make it a productive weekend. Including the watching of Iron Man 3. A girl has to keep up with her movies after all.

T-minus 3 weeks until Animenorth. <3

Ohhh! And the guest update for Fanexpo? Nathan Fillion. I cannot wait to hear the Q and A with that man. <3