because that is the world I am living in. It’s like time stopped in March and there is nothing to delineate the days from each other except some days I have to sit at a work computer in one room and some days I lay on the couch with my switch.
Like I go outside and it’s like… how is it 90 degrees? It was just March and still cold out.
Going back through my pics to see what I needed to upload for this post and it’s like… nothing. A bunch of old photos I saved to upload to instagram. Videos I filmed for tiktok. Hardly anything new. Because we don’t go anywhere or see anybody or do anything.
That’s why I didn’t post last week. I looked at what I had to post and was like… neh. I’ll wait another week til I have enough content for a decent post.
So here we are. Day 436 of March 2020.
I did pretty much finish up my Marasiah Fel re-fresh.
Got all the vinyl pieces ironed onto the bodice, bodice finished up. Got all the vinyl I had left cut and added to the skirt piece – I didn’t have quite enough to cover the whole thing, so I didn’t do the area that would just be behind my butt and not visible anyway. I just my last panel I had and cut it up to fill in any gaps and do along the edges. Worked pretty well.
Originally I was going to attach the skirt piece TO the corset, and just put a zipper in center back. Then I was like… why monkey with all that?! It’ll be a pain to get fitted correctly. So I just made the skirt a separate piece – sewed a ribbon on at the top, tie it on around my waist, and put the bodice over it.
I also finished fixing the fit of the legs of the bodysuit, so now all I have left is the “tie” piece – Chase is 3d modeling something for me for the brooch piece, so once that’s done I’ll make the fabric portion. Then next time we do a white backdrop shoot i’ll finally have some good pics of this costume.
I’m only calling it “super lazy” because I don’t feel like working on it. I come upstairs and work on it for 5 minutes, get bored and leave.
But I did get the 2 front panels cut out. And then they hung on my dressform for a week. Last night I did start messing with a mock-up for the sleeves:
It wasn’t looking quite right, so I decided I’d do some more researching for moving into mock-up stage 2. Then I remembered that JenEyre has a ceremonial Leia pattern on her site, so I’m printing that today to compare to what I have so far. Why re-invent the bicycle when Jen did it so beautifully to start with?? I’m really interested to see her sleeve pattern in comparison to what I cut last night and see where my issue is.
In non-sewing news, we actually did a bit of house work.
This is the upstairs bathroom, AKA my bathroom:
I call it my bathroom because it’s where I keep all my makeup, it’s where I bathe, it’s where I dry and curl my hair. I only use our master bath for storing my clothes and brushing my teeth LOL. It’s also Kevin’s bathroom, since it’s right next to his room here. We decided early on we wanted to decorate it in a Harry Potter/Hogwarts theme, because Kevin likes that and his room is going to be Star Wars, so let’s get some other fandom representation in here. Well of course we did nothing on it for over a year, until last weekend.
The bathroom is 2 rooms – the “outer room” with the sink and cabinet, and the “inner room” with the toilet and bathtub. There used to be a door between the two but the previous owners removed it – they left it for us, it’s in the attic area, but we don’t see a need for it either. It’s currently painted this off-white/kinda yellowy colour and baby blue. The “before” photos above are all of the “inner room.”
Decided to focus on the “inner room” first, since there was less to do there. I wanted to do a grey for the walls, which I thought would look nice with the white tiles of the tub area.
And here it is painted! I’m really happy with the paint colour. I have a new medicine cabinet picked out to go where the towel rack used to be above the toilet, and we need to pick out a new Hogwarts-themed shower curtain. (We’re trying to go for Hogwarts themed, ie, it looks like it could be in Hogwarts… not “Harry Potter” themed with glasses and lightning scars on everything.)
Yesterday we started working on the outer room. First bit of business was to remove the giant mirror:
I got a new mirror for Christmas, but it’s smaller than what was in there, so we wanted to get the old one down, paint, and then get the new one up in a few weeks. Well, thankfully the mirror came down really easy (it wasn’t glued on thank goodness) but underneath it we discovered…
WALLPAPER!!
Turns out the entire outer room of the bathroom was wallpapered and they painted over it and put the mirror up. It was under one of the towel racks, too.
We’re just going to paint over it, too. Going to hopefully start on it tonight.
Kevin’s parents were out of town this weekend, so we went over to check on him a couple of times – once Friday night because we had a big storm blow in and it knocked his power out. So we went to check on him then. Then dropped him off a cupcake on saturday. Then checked in once more Sunday morning – we decided since it was nice out I’d throw on the new lake dress and we’d take some pics by the lake while we were there. I’ve only seen the previews but they look nice! Tried to recreate some of the ones we shot there of my 2nd version in 2006. Excited to see them.
Anyway I think by the third time Kevin was tired of seeing me. But I’ve missed him so enjoyed the excuse to go see him.
We also did run some errands. We went to Fresh Market, Sur la Table. And yesterday while Chase ran to the grocery again *I* mowed the lawn. Me! I mowed the front and back yards. Wow.
Saturday I recorded a video for tiktok I’ve been wanting to do of my “cosplay phases.” I can easily break my “cosplay career” into phases – Anime 1998-2003, 1st Star Wars 2004-2008, Superhero 2009-2011, Doctor Who 2012-2015, 2nd Star Wars 2016-Now. And then Disney just kinda falls in the gaps everywhere. (And obviously I was doing other stuff during those phases, just those things were my focus those years).
So I used Belldandy for anime, Queen Amidala parade for 1st Star Wars, Kingdom Come Wonder Woman for superhero, TARDIS Marie Antoinette for Doctor Who, Bespin Leia for 2nd Star Wars, and Tinkerbell for Disney. It’s up on my instagram today if you want to see it.
Queen Amidala, Marie Antoinette, Bespin Leia, and Tink were all easy enough to put on, I’ve had them all on recently for one thing or another. (Although, my Tink wings BROKE while I was in it – thankfully got good video beforehand, but one of the wing supports broke. Will have to have repairs before I can wear it again.)
Belldandy I hadn’t worn since 2014. I had wanted to do the wings with it, but after the incident with my Tink wings I didn’t want to press it – plus I didn’t think I’d fit in the area where I film these, I’d be hitting the ceiling angle. But I was glad to find it still fit, although one of my old plastic straps BROKE while I was putting it on. But it stayed on ok. I also just freehanded the face symbols instead of digging up a stencil.
But the one I was worried about was…
IT FELT SOOOO GOOD TO WEAR THIS AGAIN!! I freaking love this costume. But I hadn’t worn it since 2009! I was worried nothing would fit, and I knew the wing harness and the helmet both had broken since then so honestly I didn’t even know if it would be wearable.
But somehow the belt and skirt still fit. The wing harness held together enough for a couple of videos, and some tape made the helmet wearable for a few minutes (the jaw is disconnected).
As soon as I saw myself in the mirror in it again I was just like… “reunited and it feels so good”. I’d REALLY love to get this thing cleaned up and shot on the white backdrop. Last time I wore this we hadn’t even done a white backdrop shoot yet!!! Or we’d just done one.
So thinking of the things it would need:
1. Repair jaw on helmet, polish it up, it’s a bit dingy looking
2. Repair wing harness
3. Patch up wings, they’ve taken some hits over the years and the pink foam interior is showing. Repaint?
4. New closure on belt and skirt. I don’t use velcro for those things anymore.
5. New closures on shinguards – they’re just pieces of fabric with velcro and look messy. Clean it up, and polish up the front.
6. Clean up the boots, some of the strips of fabric were coming off.
7. Fix spear and shield. Spear broke in the move. Shield needs cleaned up.
So that’s not too bad. Could probably all be done in a day, if I had all my materials on hand.
So now my list of things I want to shoot on the white backdrop soon are:
Raddus Bridge Leia
Poe Dameron Comic Leia
Padme nightgown
Marasiah Fel
Kingdom Come Wonder Woman
Stormtrooper
Padme Lake Gown
That’s a full day of shooting. Maybe put the backdrop up on a friday night, shoot half sat morning and half sun morning. Otherwise it would utterly exhaust both myself and Chase.
Speaking of Chase, he surprised me with this that arrived Satuday:
She’s so cute!
And I leave you with this pic of my aunts’ new dog Lucy sticking her tongue out at you:
And this video of Luna chilling under my costumes on the garment rack: