Another year, another year in review!
2018 was a crazy year of packing and moving. Trying to make stuff in between packing, in between moving, while living with family with 90% of my stuff in storage, has been hectic to say the least! So to start off with, here are the projects I said I wanted to do in 2018…
1. Finish new Leia – Sort of.
2. New TFA Leia underdress – YES! I finished this.
3. New Luke updates for Kevin – Did not get around to this.
4. Padme Lake Dress, mark 5 – Used the fabric I had for it for Tinkerbell, so no.
5. Boushh upgrade – Moved to next year.
6. Amidala (dunno which) – YES! I finished this.
7. TLJ Leia – YES! I finished this.
8. Mina (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) – Nope, was out of budget for this year.
9. Tinkerbell and Peter Pan – YES! I finished this.
10. Daenerys – Nope
11. A Big Ole Disney thing (dunno what yet) – Nope
12. Lose weight – LOL, nope
So here’s everything I accomplished this year…
1. ANH Leia Version 4
I started on this in 2017 and I think, work-wise, it was split pretty evenly between 2017 and 2018. I had intended to finish my new belt and boots this year also, but never got around to it.
TBH I’m not totally stoked with how the dress turned out. It’s ok. I made another one for a friend directly after this one and it turned out SO much better and it’s made me just want to remake it again. It wouldn’t be terrible to do again, I’m strongly considering it for 2019… and of course definitely with the new belt and boots.
2. TFA Leia New Underdress
Now THIS one I may be cheating a bit by putting it in 2018… because I think I had it like 90% finished by December 2017. But I let it sit for a few months before finally finished the hem by hand in… June this year, I think? For Anime Blues Con. I also got a new ring! So I’m counting it. Now that I have the updated underdress it makes me really want to remake the outer dress. Future project.
3. Tinkerbell/Peter Pan
I’ve been wanting to make a Peter Pan costume for Kevin for ages (it’s his fav!) and finally did it this year, and I’m soooo incredibly happy with how my Tink turned out. It’s one of my fav costumes I’ve made. SO SPARKLEY
4. Kate, Love Shack
This was a last minute addition to my Dragoncon line-up that was supposed to be a quick project but ended up doing a lot of dyeing, had to dye everrrrrything. I need to trim up the wig before I wear it again but it was a lot of fun to wear.
5. Garth, Wayne’s World
OK so I didn’t sew a single thing on this costume. I bought everything. I did trim and fluff up the wig though, and I wore it at Dragoncon AND Halloween so I’m counting it.
6. Carrie Fisher
Another costume that mostly consists of bought items – though I did sew the appliques onto the sweater and style the wig, paint the sunglasses, and I made Gary from scratch. It was a fun project.
7. Crait Leia
I actually started on this way earlier than most of my other Dragon Con costumes – I finished the sewing before we even moved in July – but I think it suffered from being rushed and not really having enough time to try everything on together, and of course it suffered from me waiting until the weekend before Dcon to even touch the wig. This one is going back to the sewing room next yaer – I plan to remake the cape piece totally – I think I have a good start with what I had and I know what tweaks I want to make – and I need to just man up and style my Custom Wig Co wig into the Crait style instead of trying to use an Arda that’s not the right colour.
8. Queen Amidala Post-Senate
This was technically my “BIG” project for this year and overall I’m pretty happy with how it came out. I have a few things to touch up next year – I need to fix the beads hanging from the wig, I want to make a new collar for the undershirt and according to RL standards I need to added fitted sleeves to the undershirt. I dunno that I’m going to submit to RL, but I figure the undersleeves are easy enough I may as well go ahead and add them if I do.
9. Cinderella
I’d originally planned to do no serious sewing after Dragoncon buuuuut I got to play Cinderella in the church play so I made a quick version of Cinderella’s live action “peasant” dress. Lesson learned: don’t try to work down a pattern that’s 4 sizes too big. But — it turned out fairly cute and was fun to twirl in.
10. Little Mermaid Projects
Originally I was ONLY going to be making Ursula for this production of Little Mermaid, Jr – but I also ended up helping mom with her mermaids and we put together a last minute Kiss the Girl Ariel dress. It was crazy!
11. Mouse Ears
Since all my ears were in storage I decided to just make a pair of my own for our Disney trip! I decided a Bespin Leia inspired pair would be fun, I had enough leftover material to do pretty much everything – all I bought was the headband and some fresh craft foam. I embroidered the pattern onto the scraps of my chiffon, used my silk charmeuse for the back and the bow. They turned out cute! And looked kinda Christmas-y. (I think that’s what most people thought they were.)
Then I helped Ash make a pair, too! She got some Beauty & the Beast fabric and we made them out of that. She got a lot of compliments on them!
12. Ita Bag
I had bought an ita bag a while back but it didn’t come in time for my trip. So I decided to make one myself. I used some Star Wars cotton I had on hand, black cotton for the lining, interfacing and felt for shape, and clear vinyl for the pin pocket window. It snaps closed at the top of the pin pocket and zips closed on the body! I’m pretty happy with how it turned out — and it stood up to the endurance test of 3.5 days at Disneyworld in the rain.
13. Comfy Ariel Shirt
This was my last project of the year! I had intended to do have the whole “Comfy Ariel” look done for this trip, including the shorts, but once I realized it was not going to be warm enough for shorts on our trip, I pushed them back to next year and just focused on the shirt. I’ll have them done for our April trip!
Not too shabby.
And now… plans for 2019!
1. MOVE!
Obviously this is not a sewing project, but getting moved, getting my new sewing space set up… it’s going to take some time but once it’s done it’s gonna be fab.
2. Suit for Chase
Like, not a funny suit but like a real suit. I’m slightly terrified, but it should be interesting. I’ve bought a book, going to be going off a pattern, and hopefully between the two I can make something that at least fits nice and looks decent on the outside. Going to be doing a couple of mockups first.
3. Belle’s Library Dress
I had wanted to kinda leisurely start this this year – but it was such a pain in the butt trying to find fabric I liked and I STILL haven’t found a green-on-green stripe. I think I’m just going to MAKE my own using silk ribbon. But I do have the skirt/sleeve fabric and the bodice fabric, so once we get moved I can start playing with it.
4. Ariel
I’ve sourced some fabric and decided on a few things but haven’t bought anything yet, which is good because now I’m thinking of changing the silhouette. This isn’t something I’m going to start on right away so I have time to keep mulling it over.
5. Finish Comfy Ariel
I made a pattern on spoonflower for the fin part of the shorts, I just need to get it ordered. And maybe get a new shorts pattern than the ones I have on hand, they are all more fitted than I want – I want something… um, comfy of course!
6. Finish ANH Leia
I’ve had my leather for my belt for nearly a year now and still haven’t done anything with it! Actually I have everything I need for it except paint/dye so I just need to get that and I can get this part started. I am also dead set on making boots from scratch but thus far haven’t picked up any materials for that. But I haven’t really tried looking, either.
7. Boushh upgrade
I’ve had my new helmet since SUMMER BEFORE LAST and I haven’t done anything with it. I had wanted to start on it/upgrades on the soft parts this year but just never got around to it, so it’ll be something to focus on next year. Just do a few pieces at a time until it’s wearable again. (I mean technically it’s wearable now just some of the pieces I don’t like anymore LOL)
8. Fix Crait Leia
I want to remake the cape/cloak as I mentioned above, and of course, tackle the wig.
9. Dr Crusher
I’ve been threatening to wear my mom’s old TNG uniform to Dragoncon for years. Since we’re currently rewatching TNG I decided I wanted to make my own. Should be fairly straight-forward? I think? I hope
10. Padme Loyalist Committee
I got in on a group order of the burnout velvet earlier this year so I have 8 yards of it waiting for me in a box. I don’t have a goal date for this, but I’m hoping to just leisurely work on it throughout the year. It’ll be fun to compare my 2003 version to the 2019(ish) version.
11. A New Disneybound
For our April trip! I already have fabric for it, though the fabric I bought for the top I’m not crazy about, I may just use it as a lining and buy something nicer. I have a pattern picked out, I just need Simplicity to go on sale sometime soon.
12. Comic Leia
Thinking about this for Dragoncon. It’s cute.
13. Pawnee Goddesses
Just a fun group costume for next year.
14. TLJ Luke for Chase
He’s probably going to buy this somewhere, but I intend to update it once it’s here.
15. Lose Weight
Hey look one leftover from last year! LOL At least I didn’t gain any weight this year. Still about where I was a year ago. Our new neighborhood is much more walk/bike friendly so I’m hoping that helps me be more active!
And honestly I have a bad habit – especially over the summer – of dropping everything to sew. House work? Riding my bike? Cooking? No time, gotta finish dragoncon costumes. I’m going to try to get out of that cycle this year. I’m going to work leisurely on sewing and if something doesn’t get done, it doesn’t get done. That’s going to be a hard resolution to keep but I’m certainly going to try.
ART!
Ok but can we talk about just how much ART I did this year?! I can’t remember the last time I had such an output! I guess 2010 when I did the 365 project, before that it was probably like 2001?
Of course it was mostly Padme since that’s been my project this year. And I still have a few more to go. Then I’ll circle back around and finish my Leias.