I like typing in a subject for my post, waiting on the permalink to create the link with that subject… and seeing how many times I’ve used that subject before. I’ve apparently had 9 other posts also titled “blah” because this is “blah-10”.
Today is very blah. Work is stressing me out. I just want to go to Disney already!
I was really hoping to be mostly done with the cape by today but the yoke gave me more problems than I expected.
Thursday night I tackled my first version. Once I got it all put together I thought it looked pretty good. It looked good on the dressform. Then I put it on myself and realized it was too short around the shoulders. I’d already trimmed the inside so there was no fixing it.
Round 2, Saturday.
Recut everything bigger. Got the sizing down to where I wanted it. Got it flipped and started pressing it only to discover that the chiffon I’d used as the bottom lining was fraying away. I’d decided to use the old poly chiffon I’d originally gotten for this costume as the lining for yoke, to save my good fabric for everything else. But everywhere where I trimmed close to the seam, it was pulling away and fraying. The chiffon was trash, basically. I had to flip it back inside out and sew up a little ways beyond the original seam lines, and then I had to top-stitch the collar (which I hadn’t wanted to do) in an effort to stabilize the chiffon so it wouldn’t fray further. I was really unhappy with this and really worried with the fact it may fray away more, and the top-stitching caused the edges to lay a little wavy which I didn’t like. I went ahead and finished it up, except for adding the collar piece.
I figured I was just going to have to live with this because I was out of fabric and they don’t carry the outer fabric I used for the cape anymore.
Round 3, Sunday.
Sunday I took stock of the scraps I had left and I realized I had juuuuuust enough to cut a third one.
This one at the moment is less finished the the version above — hadn’t finished cleaning it up or doing the stitching on it but it’s technically better than the first. Only problem is the colour of it looks different. I did use different lining this time around (my nice fabric instead of the crappy poly chiffon, of course), so I guess that’s what is causing the difference. Yoke #2 you can see slightly more of the red lining through. Yoke #3 you can’t. I have no idea why that is because it’s the same amount of layers and same the fabric over the top. Really weird.
So I’m going to finish this one up too and then compare them both to my robe and see which one I like better.
So onto other stuff…
Saturday ran to Tandy to get some leather for the base of my belt. Found a decently priced piece for it — same stuff I used my ANH/Ceremonial/Animated belts. It was a little stiffer than I wanted, but the price was right.
Traced my pattern onto it and Chase cut it out for me.
I used my lining material and my tunic/pants material for it. Cut the fabric out, pinned it around, then carefully pulled the belt out (nice thing about it being leather, I could roll it up real tight to squeeze in and out of the fabric tube). Sewed it up and rolled the belt back into it.
I had initially wanted Chase to install heavy duty leather snaps in the back, just like I use on my ANH belt. But I didn’t really want that messing up the fabric cover, so instead I started to sew regular snaps onto the fabric. Then I was like this is a pain in the butt, I think I have snap tape somewhere. I found some – I’d dyed it pink for something and not used it — so I dyed them a little darker and hand-sewed a couple of strips on. Closed up the edges of the fabric and it was done. The snap tape is not super pretty – when it got totally dried the colour is like a gross purple-y grey, and even though I cauterized the edges it’s still fraying. But it’s not visible even with the cape off so it’ll do for now.
Other stuff….
Took Kevin to Ikea Saturday. He’d never been and was totally in stitches over trying to read all of the names of stuff.
He found a hat:
And a bathroom he liked:
And I found a new costume for him at Target:
One of my biggest pet peeves in the world is people walking slowly blocking the walkway. It just does something to my brain and makes me see red. Disney is, of course, a place where I experience this a lot but in general most walkways are big enough you can easily get around someone moving slow. But Ikea is the worst. The walkways are narrow and there’s often not a place to go around. So you’re just stuck behind them. In Saturday’s case the worst offenders were a family of 3, spread all the way across the aisle so there was no room to squeeze around them, just sauntering along looking at everything. We were trying to walk through to get to the cafe for lunch. I finally squeezed past them at one point, saying “Excuse us.” and they still didn’t get the point and Chase got cut off. Sorry it’s every man for himself!!
But yeah, pet peeve. It’s not so much the walking slowly, it’s the fact that they don’t pay any attention to other people around them. Like when I’m walking slow or stopping to look at something, I still keep an eye peeled for anyone I need to move out of the way for. You’re not the only person in existence.
Sooo tonight. I’m going to finish up Yoke #3. Try to get collars made for both. Get my cape pleated and pinned on and figure out which one is going to work….
Oh! I nearly forgot.
Last week I was bored and decided to see if I could find a photo of myself for every year from the last 20 years. It started because I knew I had a scan of my “Men in Black” halloween costume from 1997 and realizing that was 20 years ago (whaaaat). I tried to find non-costume, regular clothes photos first, but in some cases that failed, so I tried to at least find ones where I at least look myself (ie, no wigs – like Arwen from 2003).
Thank goodness for Disney photos because they’re pretty much the only time I have multiple non-costume photos of myself LOL