i need a bat box

We did some yardwork yesterday morning and I got absolutely eaten alive by mosquitos. I’ve been wanting to get a Bat Box for YEARS and now that we’re in this new house where we have to do a bit more yard upkeep, I gotta have it! I need some bats to move in and eat all these mosquitos. I was miserable itching all night, on top of having ANOTHER migraine. I feel like I’ve had a migraine for 3 weeks. It stays around for a few days, fades to a dull ache and then comes back up to full force a few days later. I think it’s this loopy weather, a lot of rain, today another cold front is moving in. Can the weather just pick one thing and stay there please?

Ok sorry I feel like I’m starting every blog post lately with complaining but at least it’s out of the way now, right?

I threw the old Anne Boleyn gown on the new form last week, just for fun. It fits SO BAD! LOL. Like seriously, couldn’t lace it up correctly and it was really gaping around the chest. The other Anne wasn’t this bad.

But while it was there, I decided to fix something I’ve been avoiding since 2012. When I wore this last, at GMX 2012, I got a drop of hairspray right on the front. OMG.
I was terrified to clean it off. So I left it. For 7 years.

I did a test spot of the same hairspray on the bottom inside hem. Let it dry, it stained the same way. I tested dabbing it off with water and it worked perfect! I mean this thing is poly so it’s not like I was trying to clean silk or anything, I knew I could probably use whatever but it being RIGHT on the front was scary.

So now that I knew water wouldn’t hurt anything…

Looks like she got shot LOL

After 4 rounds of water it looked a lot better.

I also got some great tips on other things to use to get rid of that last little vestige, so I’ll try those out later.

She purty

Last week was pretty slow in terms of actually doing anything. I worked on Crusher a bit but I’ll save that to talk about all in one spot. Monday afternoon went up to Jackson to help organize my grandparent’s new place. Mema gave me this adorable tiger painting she did back int he 70s.

Saturday we ran a few errands. I bought TWO new books.

My Favorite Murder’s book! I’m really enjoying it so far.

And Queen’s Shadow! Finally! Happened to be wearing an appropriate shirt that day.
Will start this after I finish the MFM book.

Saturday mail call! I bought this Han Solo compilation used. It’s got a collected Han Solo series and then the collected Star Wars series where Leia is wearing the new dress I just made and wielding the lightsaber. I should have bought it before I finished it… now I think my hood is too long. LOL

And also my Bun Squad pin!

Ok I typed up a rant here but deleted it because I already did my complaining at the top of the post. I’ll save it for another day.

Saturday Chase got my closet rods installed!

Hard to get a pic of it all, but the shorter, longer one is for the bulk of the costumes and is reinforced on both sides to withstand the weight. Then there’s a taller rod up on the same wall as the door, it’s shorter and has a shelf on it, and it’s for a few very long things.

So Sunday we went out to my parents house and got all my hanging costumes so they could be put away! YAY! I got them all hung up, took this picture, took a video for instagram. Then Chase came in to help me with the closet-closet and touched the taller hanging costumes and… one of the rods pulled right out of the wall. Lasted about an hour I guess?

He had been concerned about that rod holder in particular but thought it would be ok. He’s going to have to redo both holders reinforced liked the larger one.

But I was so engrossed in a reorganization project that it hardly even registered with me. I’d pulled all the bins out of the closet-closet so I could put them back in a bit more reorganized, to make better use of the space. While I had them out, I decided to consolidate what I could – some boxes had some extra space in them due to selling costumes and whatnot. Got that done. Then started putting them back in the closet-closet. I forgot to take a picture of it, but do you know how many bins I fit in there?

ALL BUT FOUR!

I don’t even know, it was amazing. I kinda don’t WANT them all in there like that, because it’s CHOCK full, but they’re going to stay like that for a while. I organized them so the oldest ones were in the back and newest ones in the front. The four that got left out are the most worn/recent things or things I wanted to keep out for Dcon.

So next in the closet progress is to get that one rod fixed, get the shelf put on it, and organize all the other random stuff in there.

The fun thing about the way the rods had to be installed is there’s an empty space behind them. I plan to hide there sometimes.

Anyway let’s talk about Crusher.

So most of last week I spent doing something that really didn’t lend itself well to taking progress pictures – I was uninstalling and reinstalling the zipper over and over again. So originally I’d installed it all the way up through the collar. Which then I realized was wrong, so I took it out to move it down. And I could NOT get the seams matched after I did that?! I dunno why they were matched when it was up at the collar line. So I’d get it pinned in, it would look right. Sew it, it’s wrong, one side is higher than the other. Take it out. Try basting it in this time. Looks right. Sew it. One side is higher than the other Over and over.

But I finally got it and matched and…

I looked like a stegosaurus.

The back is too long, and it’s causing the zipper to buckle all the way up my back. Pretty badly!

(Also look at my wicker frog garbage can. LOOK AT IT!)

I’d been concerned the whole suit was a touch too big. Usually when cutting anything stretchy I cut a size or two down so they actually stretch and fit. But since this suit doesn’t necessarily need to like, superhero-stretch, and I wasn’t using a commercial pattern, I went with the size the pattern called for. I ended up coming in a bit on just about every seam once I realized it was a bit big, and that helped, and the front panel ended up being inadvertently shortened by my stitching error. So the back panel didn’t get shortened like the front did, leaving me with a back longer than the front.

There was really no way around, after 2 days of fighting the zipper I was going to have to take it out and take up the back. I buckled down and did it. I took up the back at the horizontal seam near the top, taking nearly 1.5 in out. I also trimmed down the spot where the collar attaches at the back, because it was sitting very high in the back.

It only took all yesterday evening to get the zipper back in. But it’s done and no more buckling.

All that’s left is one more hook and eye (I ended up only having 2 on hand, going to have to buy some more) on the collar, attaching the shoulder pads, and the elastic for the stirrups on the pants. And her jacket! Fabric is arriving tomorrow, hoping I don’t have to dye it. I still have to figure out a wig. But my communicator and pips have been ordered. Yay!

Once I finish those last few little things that’ll be 2/5 costumes DONE for Dragoncon.

So the rest of this week/this weekend I’m going to work on Crait, and also get started on Padme lake dress 5, I have the fabric for the underdress so I can start cutting that. Later this week going to order the rest of my fabric.

In other news! I inherited a bin of patterns! A lot of vintage. I haven’t taken pics of them all yet but here’s a couple of interesting ones.