you old sew-and-sew

So let’s see where did I leave off?

Friday after work I went and got Kevin (he’s staying with us for about 2 weeks) and we went down to midtown to see dad’s St Patrick’s band play!

After that went home and I worked on a mock-up for my collar but realized I really needed some plain cotton to get it right and didn’t really have anything. So trip to Hobby Lobby scheduled for Saturday morning.

Saturday we got up and went and had breakfast and ran errands – Target and Hobby Lobby, etc. Then home to get back to work.

I got a mock-up made of the top. I used a 60’s style sheath dress pattern as a base, which was pretty straightforward and close that I didn’t have to make a ton of changes – eliminated the bust dart, raised the neckline a tiny bit and brought the the hem up.

After I got that done I did a mock-up of the pants, too. I used a really basic pants pattern and the only thing I changed was widening the ankles a tiny bit. I only put it together really basically to make sure the fit was going to be ok, no waistband. Once that was ok, I laid out my real fabric and got everything except the belt pieces cut out, then got the tunic basically put together:

I used my mock-up as the lining for the top, because the fabric is a little sheer when light hits it — but I don’t think I’m going to line the pants.

Oh! I forgot, on Saturday morning we also ran by the hobby store and the anime store (since the anime store is right next door and kevin had never been there).
The hobby store is one of my favourite places because they have so much of everything.

Kevin found a dalek head:

and a creepy doll:

He also found an old paperback of that George Lucas/Chris Claremont fantasy book from the 90s and got that.

And we saw a Pimpala at the bank:

I also dyed my shoes one more time. After they totally dried, they were a little pale. It was actually a really pretty colour and I was sad to have to go over it again LOL

But I think it’s right now. This time around instead of dip-dyeing I painted the dye on. All it took was 2 coats of Cocoa Brown over the colour it already had.
Also remember me saying I went up a size because all the reviews said they ran small and narrow? And then when I got them they were too big? Well now that they’ve been dyed I’m glad I went up a size because they fit fine now, maybe even a little big snug. I’m going to put mole skin on my pinkie toes and on the back of my foot where the top edge will rub – I think they’d be fine if I were just wearing it for a couple of hours, but all day I can see them rubbing blisters.

Anyway onto Sunday — slept in late (yay) and then up and to work.

I got my tunic totally finished up which took longer than I expected:

Well, finished except the trim.
Had a hard time getting the zipper in the back – it just wasn’t lining up right but I finally figured out the problem and got it in. Then the sleeves weren’t going in right but finally got that figured out, too. Just shouldn’t have taken that long to do simple things like that.

The felt belt is just a stand-in, obviously. I need to go to tandy soon and get a decent leather for a base.

Then I had to put it on pause and straighten up the house — we went out for Chase’s birthday dinner (yay!) and then brought everybody back to our house for ice cream cake:

His bday isn’t til wednesday but he wanted to do his bday dinner this weekend instead of waiting. So it was a tiny bit last minute and he won’t be getting his present until wednesday!

Tonight: Pants!