What a week.
I don’t have a lot in the way of photos today, but I did get a decent amount of sewing done this weekend, which I’ll post at the end.
Last week was mostly a fat lot of nothing. What the heck did I do all last week? I can’t even remember. I know Thursday night I cleaned up my sewing room. Then messed it all up again on Saturday.
Friday night Chase had a photoshoot and I tagged along, because he was photographing some paranormal investigators at an old haunted restaurant! And I thought that was cool. We went downtown early, dinner was disappointing so we walked down to a cheesecake place for dessert, then to the haunted place for the shoot. Got to go down in the basement. Pretty cool.
SPOOKY!
Saturday morning I did some sewing. Then in the afternoon we drove up to Jackson to have dinner with Mema and Daddy Bob!
That was nice. Got back into town, I did a couple of quick dressing videos for tiktok, and then sewed some more.
Sunday we did our disaster prep shopping for COVID19 quarantine LOL. Ugh I’m so sick of all this. Coronavirus, stock market, too much anxiety here man. But we went ahead and bought some soups, canned stuff, ramen to have in the house in case of a possible quarantine. All stuff we’ll eventually eat anyway so just buying ahead. I have become very aware of how much I touch my face.
Then we had our 2nd (and 3rd!) nights of Hunt a Killer over at Nana’s, so that was fun.
I guess I should mention that Daisy, Nana and Kristie’s dog, crossed the rainbow bridge earlier last week so it was strange being at their house without her. I don’t think I’ve completely absorbed the fact that she is gone yet.
Luna spent all of last week sleeping under my Arwen dress, so much so it started to worry us so I took it down. So she started sleeping under (or by) the Belle dress I put up. Now she’s back to her normal routine, she’s down on the couch currently.
Onto sewing. First, let’s look at my to-do list from last week:
1. Finish jewelry for Poe Dameron Leia, cross that off the list
Almost. Tiara is 90% finished, necklace is 90% finished, need to do the bracelets. Then it’ll be done.
2. Finish fixing up Crusher
Nope, didn’t get to it.
3. Hook and eyes on Boushh cummerbund
Done! It was a giant pain and took longer than I planned.
4. Mockup for romper for Dapper Day
Nope, didn’t get to this.
5. Mockup for dress for Dapper Day
Mockup? I did the whole thing
6. Mockup for Chase’s jacket for Dapper Day
Ended up not needed one; pinned the pattern together and it fit him ok. Got a swatch for the fabric and he liked it, so getting that ordered this week so I can get started.
So the Dapper Day dress above. I can’t remember if I talked about it here so I’m just going to recap it. Basically I was torn between 2 silhouettes for this dapper dress I wanted to make. I KNOW I haven’t said this part anywhere, but the dress is going to be a Black Widow inspired dress, to go with Chase’s Captain American look.
Initially this was the silhouette I wanted, something 60s mod-inspired so I could do the widow symbol as a mod-inspired colour block.
This pattern was just an inspiration, it’s vintage so I didn’t want to cut it. I do have a dress very similar in silhouette I already own, so I was going to use that as as a pattern. Same sort of straight line fit, neckline, length. My idea to do the widow symbol in an applique would be pretty easy to build into this, because it’s literally just a front and back panel with no extra seams or darts to contend with.
But then going through my patterns and I came across this:
And I was very much drawn to the more fitted bombshell look. But, looking at this pattern, it would be REALLY hard to add the colour block sections, and how would they conform over a more fitted bust and waist? I wasn’t sure.
I put up an instagram poll just asking in general – without saying exactly what it was for – which silhouette do you like better? And the bombshell look won by a landslide. But I was torn because I knew how much EASIER the mod look would be.
I waffled on it for a few weeks and then finally laid my fabric out – and realized I had enough to cut both dresses. YAY. So, if I make one and it doesn’t work, I have enough fabric to make another (and I get 2 cute dresses for the price of 1). Decided to start with the bombshell look.
Printed out the Black Widow symbol to use as a pattern, got it cut out and edges finished – there was no way to build this into the front panel to do it as a colour block, so instead doing it as an applique on top. Also decided to do the “italicized” version of the symbol from the movie logo because I thought it was more interesting.
And then the actual dress went together so quick I don’t even have any more progress photos. It was a super easy pattern and I didn’t deviate from it all except that I left out the interfacing – the fabric I’m using is a heavy stretch so I didn’t feel like it was necessary.
Here she is as of last night. Pretty happy with it. Fits nice. Just needs hemmed, bows added at the shoulders, and whatever I’m doing with the applique.
Put a red zipper in the back, thought that was cute. Also I had a red zipper and not a black, sooooo
Started playing with applique placement. This is what I was originally thinking, but trying to conform this shape over the chest and waist was not working great and I think it loses some of it’s readability.
Moved it over a little bit but not sure I like that straight line right across the chest like that.
Last thing I tried was moving it over to the other side and angling it. This fit the shape best. But I’m still not sold on it. Gonna offer it up to the masses on my instagram shortly for ideas and suggestions.
So yeah, if this works, I’m not going to make the second dress. If it doesn’t, then… second dress here we come, and I have a cute little black dress for my own closet.
To-do list for the rest of the week:
1. Finish jewelry for Poe Dameron Leia
2. Finish fixing up Crusher
3. Mockup for romper for Dapper Day
4. Finish Black Widow dress OR make second one
6. Get fabric ordered for my other dapper day look and Chase’s too.