OMG since Wednesday our AC at work has been making this AWFUL noise. It hasn’t gone out (thank goodness, still nice and cool in here), but it is making this grinding, shuddering noise interspersed with LOUD BUZZING! And of course the unit on the roof is DIRECTLY above my office so all day long I get the brunt of it. It literally makes me jump everytime it does the buzzing thing because it’s so loud and sudden. My boss emailed the landlord to have somebody come check it, I don’t think anyone has come out yet tho. Just getting tired of constant loud annoying noises.
So last week was fun. We had house-showings Wednesday and Thursday night (2 on Wed, 3 on Thurs). So that was 2 nights I had to pack up not just Luna but also Kes and remove them from the house. We got a new carrier for Luna since her old one is way too small now and Indy’s old one is WAY too big for me to carry. Turns out she HATES it and it was traumatic trying to get her into it 2 nights in a row. (Kes was no problem.) Since my parents were out of town last week, I figured it would be easier just to take both animals over to their house and hang out for an hour – Kes would be on her hometurf, and I could let Luna out since she’s been over there before and is ok with it. But it was so hard to get Luna into the carrier to GO that I ended up just having to leave her in there the whole time.
The showings went well. Fingers crossed.
Speaking of Kes, she got to go to work with me last week!
It was fun to have an office dog for a few days! She was a good girl, too.
I don’t have a ton of sewing pictures to share today, even though I did really dig into the pink gown over the last week. I was moving fast and not really stopping to take a lot of pics.
The good news? It fits SO MUCH BETTER and it’s COMFORTABLE!
So here’s everything I did with it last week/over the weekend:
1. I took the stomacher off, and removed all the hooks and eyes that originally closed it. I also removed the large rose from the center top. I added tabs on either side, intending to pin it onto my corset and then pin the dress into place on the stomacher — but I could not get that to work well.
2. I cut the pleats on the front sides open and made them a bit more shallow, as well as letting out the side seams a hair – between the two I gained myself about 3/4in on either side.
3. Now that the bodice panels were wider from opening the pleats and the side seams — the lining was too short. The lining does not have the pleat to let out, so I cut an opening into in the same area and inserted a piece of the same stretch taffeta I used elsewhere in the costume (the only fabric I have leftover that I could find!) and handsewed it into place – essentially widening the lining in the places it needed so it matches the outer fashion layer.
4. I removed the internal lace-up panels. I apparently don’t have a pic of these to show you! But originally I had two panels that connected to the side seams, with a short lace-up front, that was hidden by the stomacher. It was essentially a corset (on top of the regular corset) and it had to be tightened to a specific spot so that the hooks-and-eyes on the stomacher could close. I took those out, and took one piece of boning out of it that I hand-tacked underneath the front pleats of the bodice panels, since it didn’t have that support built in anymore.
5. Took the sleeves off and reattached them differently. They previously always had this weird “poof” in the back that made me look like I had a hunchback — it was where I added the ease. I moved the ease to a different area and they lay much more smoothly now.
6. I reattached the stomacher a bit lower. I think a good inch. Since the pins weren’t working, I sewed it on one side, and added large snaps on the other. Snaps is how I originally intended this thing to close, but it was so tight across the bust, the snaps wouldn’t stay closed. Now that it’s not so tight, they work nicely! And much easier to close than 20 hooks and eyes…
7. Fixed the corset straps. So originally, the shoulder strap of my corset connected to the front tabs with a tied ribbon. I could adjust the ribbon length to make it comfortable. But the ribbon kept coming unsewn from the shoulder straps, so I finally just cut them off and sewed the straps directly to the front tabs. I’m pretty sure I did that right after Visioncon last year – VisionCon was the last con I wore this to, and while it was hard to get into it, it was NOT uncomfortable to wear. I think the ribbons came undone AGAIN right before we did the white backdrop shoot last July so I just sewed it closed for the shoot.
And that’s the shoot where I passed out because I literally could not catch my breath.
I thought that happened just because we had to tie it so tight, trying to get me to fit into the thing. Now I realize it was just that inch I lost on either strap causing the corset to sit higher than normal. Once I fixed that? The corset went from being “I can’t breathe” to totally comfortable.
So stupid. And of course I realized this after I’d already done all that other stuff and it made me wonder if I needed to do it all… but I think I did. The velvet was straining SO bad across the chest even before that.
8. Damage control. So every place I had to unpick or any sewing that had to be removed damaged the silk velvet, of course. The worst spot is where I had to let out the pleats — there’s a line of damage now visible where it was originally sewn. Not much I can do it about it, and the damage I just kinda had to accept in order to make it wearable. (I did think about buying more fabric and just reconstructing the bodice, but they don’t carry this colour anymore :() SO! To try to hide some of the damage, I bought some pink crystal beads and scattered them across the bodice. LOL. If it’s ugly, cover it in sparkle.
9. Wig redo! I’m now up to 3 restyles of the same wig LOL. So the first time I wore it I intended it to be in the style of the Coiffure a l’enfant. I did actually like how it turned out, but I don’t think it was flattering on my face shape. So before the white backdrop shoot last year I brushed it out, recurled it and did it in more of an updo. But that still really what I wanted, I wanted something more romantic and loose, and decided to do something like this.
So I took down the old curls, cleaned them up, and sewed them back around into a cleaner look, and assembled a flower crown out of some leftover wire and the roses I cut off the front of the stomacher and off the side panels of the skirts. I do wish I’d had some smaller pink roses for this but i”m trying to make do with what I have, so maybe I’ll replace those later on down the road. I also took apart the original hair bow, it was just too big to still work with the flower crown, though I kept the pink ribbon I made for tying the ponytail in place.
Here it is last night. It doesn’t fit my dressform great –but I’m pretty happy with how it looks on me now. It doesn’t look so strained. And I’m hoping that dropping the stomacher a couple of inches will help that as well – I always felt like I looked squished and my neck was way short in it previously.
So gonna be wearing this Sunday at ABC. Fingers crossed!!
When I ran to the store to get beads, I noticed Simplicity was on 99cents! And they had the workout patterns I wanted last time (but Joanns NEVER freaking has the newest patterns…). So I snagged them.
I LOVE the shirts. These’ll make great Disney shirts! I could buy some cute knit prints off spoonflower for these. And even better – the bras actually have my size!!! I can’t wait to try some of these out. Later this year!
Sunday was Kevin’s birthday so Saturday night we all went to dinner and to see Jurassic World.
We went to the theater that has the new, bigger, reclining seats and reserved seating. Kevin said, “Is this first class?!”
Oh and I hadn’t post a pic of my new TFA Leia ring yet — Monique makes gorgeous Leia rings and I can’t wait to wear it this Friday.
Luna is my hand model.
So now time for art dump. Well it’s not much of a dump, I only have 2 to post today.
This dinner gown from “Senate Spy”
So this one was one of my least favs going into this project — it’s why I kinda left it for last. But after drawing it I don’t dislike it so much. I enjoyed doing the pattern on the dress.
I was originally calling that my last Clone Wars Padme. Buuuuuut I decided to go ahead and do the yellow hazmat gear suit I was planning to skip. I decided it would be fun to do – very different than anything else. And also I found another dress from “Rise of Clovis” that OMG I love IT, it’s so art deco. I guess I need to go thru my screencaps with a fine tooth comb and make sure I didn’t miss another outfit.
And of course I had to be a bit vain and do my concept art wedding Padme.
This is of course based on my 2004 costume, where I smashed elements of 3 different wedding dress concepts for Padme into one outfit.
I can’t say that I would put these elements together the same way if I were doing it today — but I did want to stay true to my original look. I DID draw it the way I would have liked to have made it if I’d have the resources/skills back in 2004 — the “wings” on the back are more like a shaped bustle, the metal work is not gold lame and foam LOL, and the hair is shaped more like I wanted originally, with the stripes I ended up leaving out because I couldn’t figure out how to replicate it IRL.
I’m really pretty pleased with how it turned out and it makes me want to revisit my old costume LOL.
So what’s left:
Hazmat
Rise of Clovis Dress
(the real) Wedding Dress