Back at work and with my first migraine of 2017… UGH.
In fact it was so bad that I typed that first sentence… sat here and stared at it, then just closed the window and saved it as a draft. Couldn’t wrap my head around actually typing out everything it was so bad. Went home for lunch, took some more medicine, ate, slept for 10 minutes and came back feeling better. Or at least, don’t feel pukey anymore.
So I had 5 days off for New Year’s! I actually only had one day off (Monday) but I had 2 more vacation days… I could’ve rolled them into this year but I figured what the hey, I’m going to use them and have a long weekend. Chase flew home on Friday as a surprise so I had the house to myself to spread out and sew and work on stuff.
So Thursday and Friday I really focused on getting Dolores to mostly-finished state.
First up I have to say — this thing fits my dressform SO BAD. I don’t know why, I’ve never had something NOT fit as badly as this.
I went and fixed some things on the interior before flipping it around, top-stitching and getting the shoulders sewn together. Thursday ended up being mostly just doing that, cleaning up, and not really making any visible progress because it was all just finishing, pressing, cleaning stuff up, etc.
This was my status report mid-day.
I did get a sleeve mock-up made, altered, and got the real sleeves cut out and sewn in without any problems. Yay! Then I could move on to making trim for the neckline:
It was at this point I began to realize my neckline was too high. Also the first round of trim I made was too large and bulky. So I cut it in half.
Which meant the interior edge is now raw which I was trying to avoid, but it lessened some of the bulk. I’m hoping I can hide it with some ribbon.
Trim round 2.
Trying it on that night and Chase agreed with me the neckline was about an inch too high. So I opened it back up and shortened it, but I have no photos of that.
Friday morning I leapt into trying to get to a stopping point so I could move onto Bespin. I got the skirt mostly finished — trimmed, hemmed and waistband installed. I still need to put a hook and eye in but otherwise done.
Also got the sleeves hemmed.
So all that’s left is to find my ribbon & trim for the neckline, get that and the trim I made attached. Find some buttons, do the button holes/attach buttons. And I need to make a trip to Tandy for leather for the belt and all of that stuff. And I have to find a wig. (UGH)
Actually I took a break writing this and I think I found one on amazon of all places. We’ll see how this turns out. May be a disaster. Won’t know til it gets here.
Why is it only Asian sellers have non-layered natural tone wigs? I swear finding a US seller with no layers, no bangs, no weird colour streaking combos is impossible.
So moving on, Friday afternoon I finally, finally, FINALLY jumped into Bespin Leia. I got over my fear and started transferring the designs onto my chiffon.
It took way longer than I expected, though. Even though I was just tracing onto the fabric with markers, each one took over an hour to transfer. I had to take breaks because laying on the kitchen floor for that long is not comofortable.
I got 2 done on Friday, 1 on Saturday, and the last 2 on Sunday.
I would’ve gotten more done on Saturday but I actually ended up being busy Saturday. I got up around 8:30 and started on that 3rd transfer, but I had to stop halfway through to meet my parents for breakfast. I couldn’t move it in the middle of transferring it because I’d NEVER get it lined back up the same ever again. I blocked off the kitchen with the air sprayer on one end and two big christmas bags on the other (I figured if Luna knocked one over she’d at least be more interested in the bag than the fabric). I picked up Kevin while I was out, we came home, I fixed him lunch, and then finished up the 2nd half before I needed to start getting ready for NYE – but I’ll get to that later.
Sunday I finished up and hung it on the dressform to get an idea of how it looked.
Yesterday I had to go buy more embroidery floss because in the year in between, I managed to lose the original set I bought. Thankfully that was only a “starter set” so I didn’t lose a lot. Did some test stitches last night on a scrap and tonight is the big night… if the migraine doesn’t get in the way.
Saturday night Kevin and I were trooping a Quiet Ball for ARMS! I thought it would be fun to pull out both ceremonial outfits for this, for NYE.
Let me say that I will never try to do this again. Trying to get both of us ready and out of the house on time and trying to figure out how to deal with my stuff (keys, phone, etc) was super stressful and I won’t do it again without Chase or a handler or something. My eyelashes were wonky and I halfway through the night I realized I had a giant barrette sticking out of the top of my bun LOL
And I really, really need to remake my Ceremonial dress. Mine just does NOT fit anymore. Originally when I first did it in 2007, the bustline was a TINY bit high but not terrible or anything to worry about. But two things have changed – first, in 2010, I decided to line the top and, when I did, it shortened the top section too much. Which wouldn’t be a big deal except the other thing that’s changed – “the girls” are considerably bigger than they were in 2007 and even in 2010. Argh. So the bodice part just does not fit right at all, and I’m constantly having to tug it down. Add to that uncomfortable shoes, uncomfortable bra, uncomfortable belt (that one has never worn in like my senatorial one) and I was just uncomfortable all evening.
PLUS I had to figure out what to do with my stuff — I ended up wearing white shorts under the dress which wasn’t a great option but I could at least hang onto my license, keys, etc.
But enough complaining, onto the fun stuff.
The snapchat for that night said 20,017.
Selfies
Kevin looking sassy
And me
Spidey sneaks a crown onto Jango
I told Kevin to look regal and this is what I got
I tried to keep Kevin away from the pizza but they wore us down.
Princess pow-wow (plus Spidey)
Luke and Kylo Ren (Kevin’s tiny glowstick lightsaber LOL_
Playing with glowsticks
Characters dancing with kids on stage (Kevin and I only participated in the Hokey Pokey and kinda the YMCA – I could only lift my arms so far!)
Kevin took pics with every character he could find but I won’t post them all here because there’s a ton. He had SO MUCH FUN and I’m glad I took him.
About a half hour before “midnight” (8:30) my necklace broke – one of the pieces fell off but thankfully I caught it. I honestly couldn’t believe it… only because I cannot believe that that stupid necklace lasted nearly 10 years. Each piece was held on by a dot of friendly plastic LMAO
And then my feet were SO done so I went and got my shoes out of the changing room and took another mirror selfie
Kevin carried my shoes for me until it was time to go – I wanted to be able to change the second it was over LOL
At “midnight” we all blew bubbles and cheered. Kev and I jetted – we were both exhausted and our feet were killing us. I was so glad to get into my other shoes LOL
Here’s a big group photo I stole from Facebook!
And another one I stole from FB of just the star wars contingent.
Kev and I headed over to nana’s, got into pajamas, and just laid around and ate cake until midnight. We were asleep by 12:05 LOL
I tried to put my ceremonial hair on Kevin while we waited and it wasn’t great but it was hilarious anyway.
Sunday afternoon I headed over to my parents, went to dinner with them and Ash and her mom and we went to see Passengers. I hadn’t really wanted to see Passengers all that much after reading some of the initial reactions to one of the plot points, but I actually enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. Yes that particular plot point was still creepy and wrong and there was really no fallout or lesson for doing such a terrible thing. BUT I really liked the sort-of Tomorrowland meets the Shining aesthetic and it kept me pulled into the story the whole time. Anyway I’m not a movie reviewer. Just telling you I was pleasantly surprised by it.
(I also rented and The Witch which I also liked.)
I stayed with my parents that night, just hung out and played the sims and crashed on the couch. It was great.
I did notice something I thought was funny and had to take a photo of. 17 years ago I posted about the rip in space and time in my bathroom.
Well it’s still there:
Apparently it was NOT charcoal and is some kind of smudge on the wallpaper that won’t come off. I even asked mom monday morning – “have you ever tried to get that black smudge on the wall off?” She said YES, of course she has! And I told her about my ancient blog post about it and she was all OMG! 20 minutes later I see her coming out of the bathroom with a cleaning rag and some cleaning spray LOL It apparently annoyed her that I was blogging about this smudge on the wall that wouldn’t come off and she went and tried again. We both agreed that the best solution would be to get rid of the wallpaper.
BTW it is still freaky looking, even though it doesn’t look it in the photo that much. It looks like a shadow being cast from something that’s not there and when you get closer to it and realize it’s a smudge not a shadow it kinda trips your brain out for a second.
Anyhow, headed home mid-day, and Chase’s flight landed while I was on the road. He got home not long after me. Yay! He showed me some of the videos of him surprising his parents and family, it was all really cute.
So back to real life today. No more holidays off work til MAY. D: (We don’t even get Good Friday off, what is that mess!)