Today I have the last bit of photoshoot stuff to post! And I’ll also say the website is fully updated, 2020 projects added, new photos added (except Hera, she was the last set, I’ll get her added soon.)
Hera photos! Very happy with these.
Padme nightgown shots! I did some with and some without the baby bump. I like the non-baby bump ones better… EXCEPT that I didn’t realize one of my pearls strands was stuck on my shoulder for all of those photos. Boo.
Here’s one with the bump:
And Marasiah Fel photos:
Really happy with these, too.
I really kind took it easy last week. Read a lot. Cleaned out the attic space and reorganized it to be a bit more functional. Chase & I cleaned up Kevin’s room and did something we’ve been meaning to do for almost a year – I’d stacked up a bunch of empty boxes in there. Collectible boxes, camera gear boxes – we used to try to keep these things, so we could repack collectibles or gear back into their own boxes for moves or if we wanted to sell them. But we made the decision to get rid of a lot of them. Kept a few. But we don’t need to hang on to a giant wall of boxes.
I did finally get back into the sewing room. I got all the fabric we bought for Chase’s shorts ironed and one pair cut. I need to get notions ordered, tho – zippers and buttons.
I made some good progress on the Aurora update too! I thought I talked about here but I can’t find it — I haven’t been able to wear Aurora since 2010, and even then it wasn’t zipped all the way up. I was so tiny when I made it in 2008 – I was smaller than the lowest my dressform could even go back then.
Here’s how much the dress doesn’t fit me anymore:
So I decided what I’d do is just find a similar blue satin and add extra fabric in the back. A couple more seams back there won’t be visible because it’ll be under the outer bodice. When we went to Joann to get fabric for Chase’s shorts, I also got 1/4 yd of blue satin – it’s a little lighter than the dress fabric but decently close. Saturday I got the original zipper taken out and this week I’ll get the new panels put in.
I decided to work on the new bodice first. I NEVER liked the fabric I used for the bodice on the original – I was stuck with using what I could find locally and the only thing even close to the blue I wanted was yet another satin. While the bodice still fits me ok (thanks to it be a lace-up back), I decided to take the opportunity to make a new one – I got a yard of blue velvet on amazon and this weekend dug into it.
Disassembled the old bodice. I’m reusing the silver/white shoulder piece, and I was also intending on reusing the hip “triangle” pieces… but I may remake them. Will make a decision once I get to them. I never liked how they curled up on the ends.
I had some royal blue cotton in my stash that I used to cut 2 layers of lining. I’m using the same pattern I used for the original one – just edited for shape slightly, because I’d always wished I’d cut the hips up higher on the original. So I’m doing that now.
I was able to reuse the boning from the original too. Yay.
Got the outer velvet layer assembled and attached to the lining on one side. Yesterday I got it sewn onto the other side as well – so it’s done except for closing up the back and adding the eyelets. Which I need to order and will later this week.
Once I have that finished and the shoulder piece reattached, I’ll look at the hip triangle pieces. I pulled some various fabrics out of my “blue” bin when I got the lining cotton out… options for possibly remaking the hip panels.
In other news… I think I mentioned last week that I brought the last of my stuff home from my parents’ house – the stuff that I’d left in my room/closet when I moved out, not the stuff in the attic. That’s whole ‘nother ball of worms.
Most of it was manga. I went through and sorted them the other day, intending to sell them – but FRUSTRATINGLY a handful of them are missing. I’m missing 2 volumes of Fruits Basket. ARGH. 1 volume of Hot Gimmick. And I have a feeling they were probably in a donation bin last year. Tho I dunno why I would’ve donated them when I knew I had all the other volumes elsewhere, but I’ve looked everywhere I keep books in this house to no avail. I’m mostly frustrated because I kinda wanted to reread them before I sold them LOL.
And Saturday we got my record player set up!!!
We had a hard time getting everything to fit in the cabinet. We ended up not using any other part of the stereo system except the record player – the old CD/tape/radio player unit and the old speakers will get donated. Chase found this smaller amp unit and these smaller (nicer?) speakers in Kevin’s room, so we used those. I didn’t have any records to play on it (except dad’s band’s album which is still shrink wrapped so I don’t want to open it. I have them all digitally), so Saturday evening we had to go get cat food and a few other things so we went to Target and I bought the Guardians album. The belt of the record player ended up needing a quick fix but then it was working just fine and sounded great.
It made me so happy! Like it seriously just took me back 20 years like it’s the year 2000 and there’s nothing in the world to worry about I can just listen to music and work without worrying about looking at my phone 100 times. Warm fuzzies.
And last bit, Chase got the shelves he made installed in my bathroom! AND he printed a tiny tree of Gondor!
Now I Just need find storage boxes I like for my makeup.
And now it’s time for a rant. I want to try to keep the rant here but it may spill over into my instagram but I’m gonna try to keep it contained.
Let’s say you went to an art exhibit at an art gallery and the artist happened to be there, and you had the opportunity to talk to them. What would you talk to them about? Their art, their inspirations, the time they spent, their education? Or would you talk about the artist’s face?
If you answered “the artist’s face” you must be one of the people on tiktok who constantly tell me I look like Catherine Tate.
It’s just…frustrating. To be boiled down “yeah ok nice costume but your face looks like somebody else’s.”
Here’s the thing; I don’t think I look like THAT much like Catherine Tate. A few similarities, yes, and I can make certain expressions that help with the similarities. But not enough that if you saw me on the street you’d think I was her. The funny thing is that when my hair is red the amount of “Catherine Tate” comments goes up. When the red in my hair wore out during the spring and I was mostly a brunette, the Catherine comments almost completely stopped. Now that it’s red again, they’ve started up again, thus my rant.
I don’t think it would bother me near so much if the response to Donna content was better. Like I can have 200 people commenting telling me “you should cosplay donna” and then when I post Donna content… crickets. I mean there are times I’ve GONE TO a Doctor Who specific event/photoshoot and people don’t know who I’m dressed as. I’ve routinely walked past 10th doctor cosplayers at cons while dressed as Donna and 9/10 it doesn’t click for them.
It’s like a bunch of people yelling at you “DO THIS DO THIS DO THIS” and then you do that and everybody just kinda shrugs. The stubborn part of me never wants to do Donna content again. I mean, at this point – I’m over Doctor Who, I stopped watching mid-way through the 11th doctor when I realized I didn’t care anymore and attempts at watching the newer doctors haven’t done it for me. And I’ve done all of Donna’s costumes I want to do. Outside of Unicorn & the Wasp, none of them are interesting to me. It’s not part of my current interest in costuming, because it’s just… clothes.
And I think the biggest sticking point to me is that I do a LOT of different kinds of costumes. I always have. It’s what I enjoy. I was costuming before Donna Noble was a thing, and I’ll be costuming long after. Constantly being boiled down to one thing is frustrating, especially when I post something like “here’s my bespin leia costume I spent 3 months embroidering” and half the comments are just “ok but you should be donna noble.” So I post Donna content and it does 1/10 of the engagements other content does. I’m over it.
Ok rant over. Let’s move on.
And should Catherine Tate ever, for some crazy reason see this… A) I still love you, you’re amazing and B) I wish you’d get a part in some big giant historical movie with beautiful amazing costumes I could recreate. Queen Elizabeth I. Pleeeeeeeeease universe that would be amazing.