I took Friday off so I could sew, guess how much sew I got done?! (Hint: not a lot. At least not that day.)
I bummed around all morning, then went to Hobby Lobby because I needed a new roll of paper for making patterns. Then I was done earlier than expected, but I’d ordered my lunch online set for 11:30… so I had a little time to kill. Went by Petco and ended up coming home with this:
She liked it even MORE when I tied a feather onto the TIE Fighter. Then she caught one and tried to drag it off, and scared herself.
Lunch was Red Robin which I was SUPER excited about. Chase has been doing Keto for 2 weeks and I’ve been kinda following along, not totally. I figure if I just eat most of what he does and get back on my bike that’s what I need. But I had a migraine Tues-Thurs last week and felt crappy the whole time and Chase was just like, treat yo’self. So I got a BLTA and fries from Red Robin for lunch and it was SO GOOD.
Then Chase ended up coming home early because he wasn’t feeling good either.
I did get SOME sewing done. I found a piece of green cotton in the stash that I used for a mock-up of Tinkerbell.
Started with my fav bodice pattern, lengthened them a little bit.
Then I used a fitted skirt pattern, cut that out of my cotton (just one side), and pinned it onto the dressform under the bodice pieces. I took a marker and drew the seam lines of the bodice down onto the skirt. Then I pinned them together, cut the skirt along the marker lines, and had new pieces to make patterns out of:
If you notice the center back piece has a little “extension” on it… To be honest I know my bodice size pretty well – bust and waist and upper hip area I know my measurements by heart and I’m pretty good at eyeballing a pattern piece (especially this bodice pattern I’ve used so many times) to know where I want it to hit — but I’m NOT as familiar with fitting the widest part of my hips LOL. Too many forgiving spandex suits/wide skirts. So I gave myself a little extra couple of inches back through there to work with.
I transferred those pieces over to my pattern paper — I wanted to have the whole thing in a reuseable pattern in case I need it for the outer dress later on — then cut my lining fabric. Here’s one layer put together.
That’s where I stopped for the night.
Saturday was a few errands and then I ran over to my parents to help mom with a civil war dress she’s making for a play she’s in. So that was fun.
Saturday night did a little more work on Tink. Got the boning casings in — just using a grosgrain ribbon for that. Usually I like the sandwich the boning between two layers but decided not to do it that way here. Not really sure why, I think I had a reason but now I’ve forgotten. Got all my boning set in, and the two layers sewn together at the upper edge.
And I decided to play with that green mash on the lining just to have a look-see.
I STILL don’t know exactly what I want to do for the outer part of the dress. I’ve done a couple of sketches. I think last night I came up with a vague idea so I’m going to try it out tonight.
Sunday we ran to Joann’s because I needed eyelets. Found some trim I really liked… went to get it cut, was 3rd in line, but the 2 people in front of me each had a stack of bolts of fabric so I said forget it, I’m not waiting 20 minutes to get this cut. Hancocks would have absolutely had a second cutter in that situation. Then got up front to check out and the one check out person they had was trying to help a customer at the front door and the line to check out backed way up. Ridiculous. JOANNS YOU NEED MORE STAFF. Especially since you’re the ONLY fabric store in town now.
Then we had my Uncle Buddy’s birthday lunch, and we got there a little early so we went to the Hallmark store next door.
I GOT THESE!
How could I not?!
I have so many cute pins now but they just sit in my sewing room. I need to get a cute bag to put them on. Ash gave me some locking pinbacks recently so I need to get on it.
Also this which if anyone wants to buy me pls do
And they had a whole shelf of Rainbow Brite?!
Sunday afternoon back to work.
I decided to add boning to the back seam lines. Here’s the two layers opened up:
Boning casing is the pink ribbon.
I got those finished, then trimmed up the skirt shape, closed up the bottom edge, then got the back edge closed up too.
The outer layer at the moment is the layer that has the boning casing stitch lines on it, so it’s not super pretty… I was originally going to make that be the interior side, but then decided I wanted to have it sandwiched between so it’s not visible at all.
It doesn’t help that this thing does NOT fit my dressform at all (especially in the boobs).
So tonight I’ll get the zipper and eyelets in, and I want to top stitch the upper and lower edges. And I’m thinking about adding a waist-stay just to help support the wings. But after that, this lining is done and I have to decide exactly how I’m going to make this thing look.
So at the moment I’m fairly certain I want to use some of this leftover crepe de chine, and dye it a slightly gradiated arsenic green. I want to have a little bustle in the back – probably make it detachable. I want to have some natural tone/off white lace details at the bust and on the bustle, maybe along the bottom train of the bustle. I want some beading. Maybe some flowers.
I’ve had a couple of people ask me if I’m doing the Hannah Alexander version and while I love it (and her art) it’s not specifically what I want to do nor do I want to copy her. There may end up being some similarities just due to the nature of the thing. I really want it to have an Edwardian tone to it without going full on Edwardian… if that makes sense.
In Amidala news, THIS FABRIC SHEDS LIKE CRAZY.
I opened one bolt up to hang over my dressform just to get an idea of the drape of it. It got black fuzz EVERYWHERE. Haven’t even cut it yet. This is going to be a mess.
I think I am going to have to fully line the whole thing. But I found some black satin super cheap so that’s what I’m going to use – the weight of the satin should give the robe the body it needs.
And I ordered my fabric for the underdress. I went with the expensive stuff that had the pattern closer to the real thing. I ended up only getting 8 yards instead of the 10 I wanted (It’s only 44 in wide…) I decided if I need more than 8, I’ll use some similar, cheaper fabric for the upper sleeves/areas that are covered by the robe. THANKFULLY I got a bonus check from work in the mail Saturday that covered that fabric purchase so I felt a whole lot better about spending that money.