I’ve had this post open and nothing written for like 3 hours. Brain’s not working today I guess. Back to the normal everyday grind of brain not working.
Got Christmas decorations taken down last week. As excited as I was to put them up, I was equally excited to take them down and get the house cleaned up, LOL.
This is where the nativity was. Now it’s a Luna.
I forgot to take a pic of this year’s nativity – we had Rowlf the dog, Geordi, Worf and Data as the wisemen, a mickey mouse and a sleepy Aurora from Wreck it Ralph 2.
Also the orange peels under the tree 100% WORKED. After I put them under the tree, she never messed with it again for over a month! Whoohoo!! That means I can put my breakables on the tree again!
I let her check it out once I started taking everything down and removed the orange peels. Only fair, after she’s been kicked out of her usual cat tree spot for a month and a half.
New Year’s Day we went FABRIC SHOPPING! YAY!
I picked up this black and red stretch fabric – the black is the same stuff I used for Misato last summer. Red is really similar. I also didn’t realize that red fabric was $25/yard when I picked it up, thank god I only got one yard LOL.
This is all for a Black Widow disneybound look I’m doing for our May trip. I’ll get to that in a minute.
Then I also got 6 yds of a silky-feeling white fabric, 4 of this blue glitter (which is getting glitter EVERYWHERE), and this gold trim.
All of that is for this:
This Leia costume from the Poe Dameron comic.
I like this one because it’s fairly simple but also more “fantasy” than most of Leia’s costumes, both OT and new trilogy. So a fun diversion after Raddus.
Chase wasn’t sold on the blue glitter fabric for the sleeves. But cmon, glitter for Carrie.
And after getting the white stuff cut out and all just tossed on the dressform, I love it all together!
I used McCall’s M5155 for the skirt section – which was just pure laziness on my part. I used that same pattern for the underdress for Raddus Bridge, and still had it out. I just folded it over at the waistline marker and only cut out the bottom half. I did double the front panels – cut 4 of them instead of 2, to make the skirt fuller. (And SOMEHOW just ONE of the panels ended up shorter than the other ones. No clue how. I cut them out 2 at a time and I wasn’t like, cutting with one panel shorter than the other. Just one side of the curve upward on the edge curves up like 2 inches shorter than the other panel I cut out at the exact same time. How in the world did that happen?)
Anyway, I assembled the skirt panels and then started on the bodice section. Had enough leftover cotton to do 2 interior panels for lining – but I’m currently stuck on that while I wait on more boning to get here.
Lining layers. Using good ole’ Simplicity 5006 for the bodice.
Bodice lining and skirt panels. Looking fairly bridal at the moment LOL.
I’m building this in 3 segments – an underdress, a bodice, and a sort-of cropped jacket thing that will be the sleeves and worn underneath the bodice. ORIGINALLY I was going to just sort of make a top out of the blue glitter fabric and have the skirt attached to that – but decided that would be really uncomfortable LOL. So I decided instead to make basically a maxi dress top/tank top sort of deal for the skirt. So it’ll all be just one white maxi dress out of the same fabric. Buuuuuuut I didn’t have enough fabric to do that, had to run back to Joann on Sunday and get another yard to cut out fabric for the top. Yeah I could’ve just done it out of other white scraps, but I wanted it all to match. And I love this silky feeling fabric.
Here’s the top of the dress last night. I ueed prom dress pattern I had in the stash for the basic shape. It’s self-lined and zips up the back — I still need to make straps for it, and also get the skirt panels attached.
So my plan is to have that super basic underdress – then have the blue glitter fabric sleeves function like a cropped jacket – put it on and then put the bodice over it to hold it down.
Had this square necked formal dress pattern in the stash that I’m using as a base for the blue piece. Pinned all the pieces to the form to see how I need to edit them – lower the back, raise the front, move the shoulder straps out to the edge.
Also, the images of this costume change from one panel to another. I’ve decided the “drape” piece in the back is going to be part of the sleeve/cropped jacket piece. It’s white in some panels and blue in others. Blue makes more sense to me. And also I’m out of white fabric. LOL.
Here it is as of last night. Love this Yaya Han trim I got at Joann for the gold detail of the bodice.
Tonight I plan to finish up the underdress – get skirt attached, finish the zipper, straps made and attached, maybe even get the hem pinned?
Then I’m hoping my boning shipment gets here tomorrow or Wednesday so I can get the rest of the bodice finished and assembled.
I don’t to start the sleeve thing until the bodice is done and fitted, so I can make sure it fits comfortable underneath it.
I’m hoping to be done with this thing in a couple of weeks – sewing-wise, at least. I haven’t given a thought to all the jewelry. There’s a tiara, 2 necklaces, 2 bracelets, and 3 hairnet things. And some earrings that seem to totally change/disappear between panels so I may go with NO earrings because I hate clip-ons.
Anyway, back to the Black Widow disneybound look. We’re doing a Cap/Black Widow duo look and I wanted to use this super cute vintage 60s pattern I have – it’s a 2 piece top and skirt and super cute. I opened it up and the pattern is in great shape. Also:
Will someone at McCall’s still chat with me about my wardrobe problems? LOL
But I felt REALLY guilty about cutting into this vintage pattern. So I didn’t. Instead, I have a very 60s inspired dress – very similar in silhouette to the one in the pattern, just one piece – already in my wardrobe that I’m going to use to make a new pattern. I was already concerned about how I was going to do the Black WIdow applique I want to do across 2 pieces, so making it one solves that issue. But other than a lot of thinking about it, I haven’t done anything else on this yet.
If my boning doesn’t get here ASAP I may move back over to working on it.
So that’s pretty much all I’ve done the past week. We were lazy New Year’s Eve and stayed home. Saw Star Wars again, this time at the imax, on Saturday. That was fun.
Sunday I did something I’ve been meaning to do for a year.
Over the past decade I’ve amassed a collection of various prom/formal/bridesmaids dresses. People hear I’m a costumer and offer them to me all the time. Some of the pieces I’ve collected are truly vintage and I love them and I’m not parting with those – but a lot of them I’ve hung on to on the offchance I MIGHT get to do something with them one day – I’ve come up with all kinds of disneybound ideas, dapper day ideas, silly dragoncon costume ideas – but I’ve never gotten to them. And at this point, I need to stop hoarding them and just let them go to someone who might be able to get some use out of them. Especially since the majority of them are too small for me and I’m not going to keep holding onto them on the offchance I actually ever get back down to my wedding weight.
So Sunday I got them all out, checked them over, set aside the things I do want to still keep, and ironed and photographed the ones I’m going to part with.
This one one of my faaaaaaaavs, so 80s, so Princess Di, I wanted to do a very 80s Leia look for Dragoncon – teased bangs, asymmetrical belt with the conchos, ankle boots. AH it would’ve been so cute but it’s just too dang small for me so SOMEBODY ELSE BUY THIS AND DO IT FOR ME!
And this one I just love… it’s so elegant and 50s-inspired, it’s got this cute button up detail in the back with that white inset. But again it’s too small for me.
Anyway, I’ve got a handful of them listed over at my sell instagram: kelldarscloset, with a bunch more to come, I think I’ve probably got close to 30 dresses to sell.
2020 Goals
OH! I nearly forgot!
We are a go for Huntsville Expo in April! We booked our hotel room and still need to get tickets, but I’m super excited because my parents, Ash’s mom and Ash are all coming too. We’ve never all done a con together! This will be fun!
As of right now I’m definitely bringing Dr Crusher, because Gates McFadden is gonna be there, and probably one other. Maybe 2 others because I’m like that. As of right now thinking Raddus Bridge and maaaaaaaybe the Lake Dress? I dunno, definitely something I can’t figure out for sure right now, but I’m excited for it. YAY!