I’m honestly very surprised I didn’t already have a blog post called “crazy train” considering how often we used to sing it at my old job. But I didn’t!
This weekend was CHOCK FULL OF EVERYTHING!
First up, let’s look at some sewing stuff. Last week I mostly focused on jedi Leia. My suede came in on tuesday so I jumped into making the yoke immediately.
Cut out using the cotton patterns I made.
Lined it with some white fabric I had in the stash and added the layer of batting. Drew my quilting guidelines on the wrong side.
This thing was a BITCH to turn! It’s not perfect but it’ll work.
I realized that on version 2 I need to work my seams in around the sleeves and the center point of the chest; so that it fits a bit better.
It looks ok in this pic but once I pulled the back tight to close it, the sleeve openings kinda angle outwards away from the body too much.
Sleeves in – I really like this Vogue pattern for this project EXCEPT the sleeves, there was too much pleating/gathering on these and I didn’t particular want that. I worked them in to get rid of that as much as I could, but I’m going to use a different sleeve pattern for version 2.
As of this photo, everything is done except hand-stitching the yoke in place, closing it up in the back, sewing the hood in place and attaching the collar. Which isn’t a lot to do… I’m just avoiding it because I don’t feel like hand-sewing at the moment.
A MESS
My sewing room is starting to drive me crazy. It’s still in the same limbo-state it’s been in since I slapped it together in January. I really need to start putting things where they need to be and getting stuff out that doesn’t belong there. And I’m really kinda stuck on doing that until Chase gets my fabric shelf up. I did do a little bit this weekend but I’ll get to that later.
On Wednesday, my new fabric for version 2 arrived.
So I got the new dress panels cut out, assembled…
It’s nice to have two forms to work with now, even though the display form is smaller than my dressform so not as good for fitting.
For version 2, I cut the pieces out a size smaller this time and had MUCH less taking-in to do. I had to take up EVERY seam in the body of version 1 by at least an inch, especially in the front. Version 2 just needed to be taken on the two front seams above the bust up to the sleeve opening, and at the waist on the side and back seams.
I’m also using the sleeve pattern from KwikSew 2004 which I think will work better.
I didn’t get much sewing done this weekend unfortunately. Back at it tonight.
Weirdo
SO!
Friday morning we were up SUPER early so I could get into costume and we could head to the Botanic Gardens for our 10AM shoot time!
First stop was to go see the Iris Garden, where we got married 11 years ago to the day.
It was quite different! They added another garden in front of it, and right to the side they’ve built a giant stage and seating area for their concert series. So weird.
Weather was PERFECT. I did not overheat at all, no rain. There were a TON of kids there though, school groups and moms walking their kids around. Lots of staring at me. Awk.
My shoes definitely took a beating. I had some of those stick-on rubber grips on the bottom, they both came off and my shoes were soaked and pretty dirty on the bottom by the end. I’ve got to try to clean them later.
We had a two hour time slot and we used every bit of it.
These are all just pics off the iphone. Chase hasn’t sent me the real pics yet!
Then I walked out to the car, took my dress off (I had a tank top and shorts on underneath everything!), took my corset off, changed into a regular shirt and shoes and brushed my hair and we went to the zoo!
We haven’t been to the zoo in a “normal” way in a long time! (we did a 501st event there last year but that’s all). So it was fun! We decided we’d just eat lunch at the cafe there. That was a bad decision. My parents were meeting us down there, and they stopped and got lunch on the way down – they made the better decision! We ended up being in line for almost a half hour. And it wasn’t good. We’d have been better off stopping at McDonald’s.
BUT! AFter that we went and had fun. When we arrived it was SUPER busy, kids EVERYWHERE… but after an hour or so it died down (I guess the field trip kids had to get back to school to go home!)
Me, Kevin, and a bear
I feel this panda
I didn’t take a lot of pics at the zoo because my phone battery was already low when we got there. We left a bit after 4, went home, unloaded my costume stuff and took a really quick nap.
Came home to an anniversary present from Nana! LOL
Then we went back into midtown to meet Ash for dinner. We had some good ramen and then went over to Paradiso to see ENDGAME!!!
Tickets for Endgame went on sale while we were at Disney, so Ash got tickets for us – Thursday night sold out before she could get them, so she decided to go for Friday night so we could get Imax tickets! Also can I tell you how much having reserved seating at our movie theaters now has made life so much better? No getting to the theater early, lining up, and the anxiety of it all.
The audience in our showing was AWESOME. They clapped, cheered, yelled, everybody was so into it, it made it so much more fun. And I LOVED the movie. It was perfect. A perfect end of chapter. SO many awesome moments, and I was smiling through a lot of it like an idiot because I was enjoying it so much. Yes there were sad parts. Shocking parts! But overall, I loved it. We talked about it nonstop the whole way home. I won’t say much more cuz spoilers. But MAN I need to see it again asap.
Saturday morning we were up early again so I could get into Leia and get Kevin into Luke!
I used my new extensions for the buns – they got a test run back at disney but this was my first time doing them for an event. They went on pretty well and looked good and were WAY more comfortable than anything else I’ve used. I do need to tweak them a BIT but overall super happy.
So this event we were doing Saturday – we needed to be there at 10 and the event was an hour and a half drive away! So with trying to get Kevin ready also we ended up running behind. I didn’t want to wear my dress and belt for the whole ride, so I had them in the backseat and was going to put them on when we got there. But we were running almost a half hour late so once we were 10 minutes away I grabbed my dress out of the back and put it on in the car, and then put my belt on when we got there and Chase helped Kevin.
I couldn’t figure out what was going on with my dress though. It was blousing REALLY weird and hanging funny. But we were so late I couldn’t keep messing with it so we went on in. I thought maybe it was the white tank top I was wearing under it – it’s a new tanktop and I thought maybe it’s thicker and bigger than what I usually wear?
Anyway here’s some pics.
Kevin was wondering if Luke would be worthy of mjolnir… he got his answer! All the superhero folks there were super nice and had great costumes.
Everybody!
We had to leave a bit early to get Kevin home, so we headed on out. Once I got to the car and started to take my dress off I realized my problem with the blousing.
I TOTALLY FORGOT TO TAKE MY GIANT BAGGY OVERSIZED LEIA TSHIRT OFF BEFORE PUTTING MY DRESS ON.
I like to wear this shirt if I’m putting my dress on AT the event because it’s got a wide neck and easy to get off and on over the buns. (And it has Leia on it.) But I guess I was just anxious and in a hurry and put my dress on over it without thinking about it. So that explains the weird blousing and hanging funny – I had two layers of underclothes under it.
D’oh.
We stopped at McDonald’s for lunch and I discovered they have Avengers toys in the Happy Meals?! So I had to get one. And lucky me…
YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
I sewed a bit that night but mostly I hung some pics in the hallway of my sewing room. Which I forgot to take a picture of.
Sunday we did get to sleep in a bit, but then we had to get going and drive to the other side of the city to pick up a Uhaul. My uncle had rented it so we could drive it up to my grandparents’ house to bring some furniture back to Memphis. The Uhaul location that had the size truck we needed was down in Frayser, and ironically – directly catty corner from the Uhaul you could see my grandparents’ OLD house – the one they moved out of back in 1989, 1990? So I just thought that was funny we were right there next to that house picking up a truck to help them move out of the house they bought after that one.
Then I led Chase the half hour north to my other uncle and aunt’s house – that uncle was riding up to Jackson with Chase to move the furniture. After I got him there, I turned around and went back to my parents’ house to load up some of my costume bins to bring home. Specifically I wanted my Ceremonial Leia and Padme Snowbunny bins – for the ceremonial belt I need for jedi Leia, and my snowbunny bodysuit to wear under it. And I got a bunch more too.
Got them home and looked inside – aaaaaaaaand none of my ceremonial Leia stuff was in the bin marked ceremonial Leia. So I must have moved it to another bin at some point. Dang it. BUT! My snowbunny Padme bin had not one but TWO white bodysuits!! I thought I’d cut one up to use for Starfire! So that was nice. One of them was a bit thicker and nicer quality than the other one so that’s the one I’ll wear under jedi Leia.
Then I went up to my sewing room to ostensibly sew… I got the sleeves and collar cut out for jedi Leia, but then ended up reorganizing a bit and trying to clean up. I moved my sewing table over underneath the window for one.
Chase pulled up with the uhaul around 4, and we got our 2 pieces of furniture in. Thankfully neither was super heavy. Then we boogied it back down to the Uhaul place to get it returned before 5, when they closed. We made it!!
So here’s one of the pieces of furniture we got from Mema and Daddy Bob’s. This couch was my great-grandmother’s. It’s super 70s. And very brown. And has brass on the arms. Yikes.
BUT… I love the shape of it. I’m going to make a slip cover for it to start with (I have a very pale pink fabric picked out), and maybe eventually work my way up to re-upholstering it myself? Crazy talk. But I’m hoping.
It was a bit bigger than I remembered. But I think once I have it covered in a lighter-coloured fabric it won’t look like such a CHONK on the corner.
Also having it there made me rethink where I wanted everything in there… I moved the table away from a bit, and I think I’m going to put the wardrobe on the other wall. I’ve really got to get this fabric storage shelf in place so I can get all these extra storage things OUT of my office and make it workable.
Anyway, the other thing we got was this:
It’s MY CHAIRRRRRRRRR
Seriously for 30 years this has been the chair I take a nap on when I’m at mema and daddy bob’s. I have had so many naps in this chair. Read Harry Potter for the first time in this chair. Drew the first SunDowner in this chair. And so much Final Fantasy VII played in this chair. They’ve always called it mine and they wanted me to take it as soon as we moved into our first apartment, but we’ve never had room for it. Now we finally do! We put it in the sunroom, it’ll be a great spot for a nap.
As sad as I am about my grandparents selling their house and moving… I’m glad to have this piece of that house here in mine.
So then since Chase had been on the road moving furniture all day we decided to order dinner. We decided to try Postmates for the first time, since they had some choices none of our usual delivery places had. Placed the order no problem – we each got a burger and fries from one of our fav places. Just over an hour later – right on top – driver shows up, with just one burger and one fry.
So Chase and the driver both stood outside for like 20 minutes, both on their phones. Our app showed that we’d ordered 2 burgers and 2 fries. The driver agreed there should have been both. Neither of them could get the restaurant or Postmates on the phone, and the Postmates app was not working. The driver decided to just go back to the restaurant and get the other half. By then Chase’s food was cold (it was his order that arrived, mine was missing), I told him to go ahead and eat it so he warmed it up and ate. Then the driver calls and says Postmates said they only charged us for the one order and not the other. So Chase had to reenter my order, the driver had to wait on it, and then bring it back. Overall it took over 2 hours from the time we initially ordered to the time I got my food. At least mine wasn’t cold. But we had to pay a second delivery fee – thankfully Postmates refunded that delivery fee this morning. The driver said to Chase “I don’t blame you if never want to use Postmates again” – and we don’t, we deleted the app and we’ll not ever use them again. What a mess.
So then it was GOT time. I’m not really into GOT this season, which I think I may have said before, but I wanted to see what happened in last night’s episode. And… couldn’t really see much of anything happening in that episode, it was so dark LOL. Really the whole episode just reminded me why I’ve kinda gone “off” GOT. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.
Sorry for the wall of text. Here’s some art!
PADME #99!!!
Based on a TPM-era concept sketch… Decided to go with a gold/rose gold theme for it, since Padme doesn’t have a lot of pink in her wardrobe. I really like how this one turned out.
#100 should be done this week. WHOOO!