So I have been getting.
stuff.
done.
So I had 4 costumes in mind for dcon this year. Let’s just go through the list.
1. Padme (and Bail)
No progress here since last week on my end – still waiting on my fabric swatch for the pleated sections, and switched gears and ended up not experimenting with the applique stuff. I was going to start on the Bail pants, but did other stuff instead.
My Padme brooches from shapeways did come in… no pics because… they were way too small. I was so disappointed. Chase contacted them and it sounds like they’ll be redoing them so… yay.
2. Scarlet Witch
HEY! I finally did some stuff on Wanda!
First up, I finally worked up a pattern for the bodice. I based this off my favorite bodice pattern, shortening the bottom, raising the neckline, adding the hip panel. (The “collar” here is just a scrap of fabric to keep the front and back up when trying it on, it’s not part of the pattern) After this pic I tweaked it a little bit more, then took it apart and transferred it to paper. I still haven’t figured out my fabrics yet. I was thinking about making a neoprene base for everything to sit on, but I dunno. Going to go to Tandy next week.
My Wanda wig came in a few weeks ago and I finally took it out of the bag.
Saturday I french braided it in 5 braids, dunked it in boiling water and let it dry overnight. It was still a little damp here but overall I’m pretty happy with the result. I think I may go in redo the ends, they look a little scraggly.
Obviously Wanda is where the majority of my work is… but I’ve still got 2 months to work on it without too much more in the way (finishing up Bail and Padme) because I got so much done this past week on the next 2…
3. That silly little blue dress
I mentioned last week that I had gotten started on this.
Here’s the top… supposedly mostly done. I started out using a vintage 80s dress pattern but altered for the sleeve shape and sizing. Originally I was going to do button holes with buttons – the buttons I’m using here are some vintage buttons from my grandma’s stash. BUT the fabric was too thick (eyelet fabric/cotton lining/interfacing/facing) to be able to get it through the machine and I did NOT feel like doing button holes by hand, sooo it’s snaps with the buttons on top LOL
For the skirt section I just cut 2 strips of the eyelet fabric, gathered them and sewed them onto the bodice. The eyelet fabric has some stretch so I can still get it on without any kind of opening below the bodice snaps.
And after that, and after looking at references, I decided the collar was too high up on my neck. So I opened it back up and made it it a bit shorter. Hand-sewed all my facings closed again. Called it done again. Then went to look at references again to help me pick out what wig I wanted to buy and I realized there was a small collar. AND that I didn’t get the neck low enough. So i had to open it up AGAIN and this time my old neck facing didn’t fit anymore so I had to make a new one. New facing, closed it all back up, added the little collar using leftover padme nightgown shoe velour.
It fits on my form really weird because of the cotton lining – cotton wants to cling to the dressform like nobody’s business.
I also had to take it up numerous times including taking a huge dart in the back.
But it’s finally done-done. I just need to dig out the sandals I’m going to wear with it, buy and style the wig, and buy some swimsuit bottoms to wear under it.
If you actually recognize this costume, 10 points to Gryffindor because I think it may be the most obscure thing I’ve ever made. I think once I add the wig it’ll be a tiny bit more recognizable.
4. Diane
I mentioned doing a Diane costume in my 2020 wrap-up and decided I’d just throw it together out of bought stuff for dragoncon this year.
Well of course that’s not how things went. I started kinda searching for stuff a couple of weeks ago and quickly got picky and decided I’d just make it myself.
I bought some blue sweater fabric on amazon and it came in last week. Saturday night I used a shirt of mine as a basis to cut out a basic pattern – tweaked it a bit, and then cut out 2 layers of the sweater fabric (it was a very loose weave, 1 layer would’ve been totally see-through LOL).
It was looking pretty good but I made a dumb mistake – for the opening in the front, I didn’t stabilize it, and when I tried it on it stretched out really badly.
So since the fabric was cheap I just ordered another 2 yards. I’ve got it all figured out, so it should only take me a night or 2 to redo. I say 2 only because I hadn’t patterned the collar piece yet.
And then I was going to just buy a black pencil skirt, but I realized I still had some of that heavy matte stretch material from Black Widow – so last night I just made a pencil skirt.
I’ve got to do the hem and stitch down the facing but otherwise that’s done.
For shoes, i’ve got some red flats I got for the bespin disneybound so I’m just going to use those – need to buy a wig and bracelets.
Oh and for the appliques on her sweater… I figured I’d just buy a couple of dragon appliques, close enough, but again i got picky.
I found my best reference, drew it up in photoshop and digitized it. I had to babysit the embroidery machine basically all weekend.
First version from Saturday (upper left) took about 4 hours and overall I wasn’t happy with it. The way the program digitized the 3 brown tones was confusing and I ended up with 11 color changes all of them variations on brown tones. So I went back and made the 3 colors totally different (red, green and black) and re-digitized it and started over. That’s the one on the lower left and somehow I made that one too small, but it was a definite improvement. (and only took an hour)
So yesterday I fixed the size and started again, and kept having machine issues. As soon as it started I was getting the thread tangled in the needle, the thread breaking, the bobbin getting tangled up, or the needle outright breaking. Couldn’t get it to work. So I re-digitized it AGAIN and… that one worked fine. took about 2 hours last night and this is the one I’m going with. Tonight I’ll flip it and do the one on the other side. For this finished one I’ve still got to go in with my magnifying glass, tweezers and little scissors and clean it up. I’m still not happy with how the “mouth” is closing up, but I’m not going to touch it again, worse case scenario I’ll unpick some. But overall I’m really happy with how these have come out.
So yeah I wasn’t expecting to basically get 2 of my 4 costumes nearly finished in the space of a week but here we are. Yay!
And this weekend is a 3 day weekend so I’m hoping to really finally dig into these appliques for Padme. Fingers crossed.
To-do list for next week or so:
1. Padme/Bail
-start on wig
-start working on appliques
-get bail pants assembled
-pattern bail robe
2. Scarlet Witch
-go to tandy, make some fabric decisions
-return fabric (bought some new fabric for the pants/leggings I like better so I’m returning the stuff I originally bought)
-do some testing on fabric patterns
3. Silly little blue dress
-buy a wig/style it
-find my sandals
4. Diane
-remake sweater
-finish other applique
-get them sewn on
-finish skirt
-shop for wig/bangles
And now let’s move on to other things.
First up, Luna is FREE!!
After last weekend, we pretty much kept her confined to the laundry room for the rest of the week.
Getting some scratches from one of her fav things – the metal back scratcher.
We hated having to keep her in the laundry room but she really didn’t seem to mind it. She was actually really really good this entire time of being in the cone/not allowed to jump/healing from surgery. But Sunday marked 10 days after her surgery and that was “freedom” day.
Sunday morning we fixed her breakfast, took down the baby gates, and while she was scarfing her food, we took the collar/cone off.
She was soooo happy all day. She was rolling around, bathing herself, we played for a good long time, she took a nap with me.
Only hitch was at about midnight last night. We went to bed around 10:30 and somebody, somewhere in the neighborhood had music playing loud enough we could hear the bass in our house. It was keeping me up, I was so frustrated. I went out into the living room/entryway to see if I could figure out where it was coming from (it wasn’t the people behind us, it wasn’t any of our direct neighbors – whoever it was, I couldn’t see), but when I turned around to go back in the bedroom from the entryway, Luna was right behind me. She’d apparently followed me from the living room, and when I turned around, she backed up and hissed at me. I turned on the lights and knelt down to talk to her. She hissed again, then came over and smelled my hand, circled around the chair in the entryway a bit, let me pet her for a second, then walked back towards the living room. I turned the lights off and followed, since I had to go that way back to the bedroom, and she hissed again. I dunno. I guess this is just going to take time. It was just a little disappointing after the good day we’d had.
Work last week was frustrating and crazy. I did get to do one fun thing – I got to visit the kids at star wars camp thursday after work! Kevin was supposed to go with me as Luke, but he had a cold. I was going to put him in Jedi Luke and have him carry baby Yoda, so since he didn’t go, I took baby Yoda and i’m glad I did because the kids went nuts for him.
Not posting any pics except the one in the header because pretty much all of them have the kids in the photos.
And it was apparently 12 years to the day I first visited Star Wars camp.
So yeah Friday night we were supposed to go have dinner for Kevin’s birthday, but he’d gotten back from camp the week before, and then came down with a cold. His doctor suggested getting him tested for covid as a precaution – negative. Sounds like he had the same head cold I did. So I didn’t get to see him for his bday 🙁 Oh well next year we’ll do a big bday celebration at Disney for the big 4-0.
My fav snapchat ever
And finally, in the midst of all the chaos of last week, Lauren sent me surprise captain marvel socks:
Which was such a nice distraction and little bit of much needed serotonin.
I still have migraine shit all last week but today was the first day in… I don’t know how long I’ve woken up without some kind of headache. So small victories. I have a dentist appointment this afternoon that I wish i’d canceled but I guess I’m stuck now.
OH! I have been meaning to say this for a couple of weeks now but… my lash extensions… are cracking me up. I still have a few lashes hanging on from before the disney trip! So over 2 months ago. but they’re almost ALL on my left eye and I have like… 2 strands left on my right eye. I look like I’m wearing a small falsie on my left eye and nothing on my right LMAO. It looks insane. I’ve been using my make up remover and facial cleanser closer to the lash line (and wore falsies as Leia the other day for the first time since early April) in a bid to coax what’s left off. I’m getting another full set done in August for dragoncon, I really hope I don’t still have like 1 or 2 hanging on by then or the lash technician is going to be like… wtf why didn’t you come in for refills LMAO