Oh my god we’re in the second half of July now.
I am feeling the PANIC set in, mostly about Padme. My fabric for the gathered sections came in on tuesday and I’ve spent every day since then working on getting that done. Finished them up Saturday and then Sunday focused on finishing EVERYTHING else.
I think the real one is all one piece, that goes through a small opening in the capelet and out. I decided for ease of doing the gathering and making sure the upper section was shaped correctly I’d do it as 3 pieces.
I experimented with a few different ways of doing them before finally just settling on gathering stitches every few inches.
Here it is as of this morning.
I lined each of the pieces and the shoulder part got some interfacing added as well.
After those were MOSTLY done I started focusing on everything else. I got the underskirt hemmed, I got the snaps sewn on the sleeves of the surcoat and the hook and eye closures on the front edge of the surcoat. I finished sewing the lining in to the front velvet panel (and messed it up. There’s a weird band of purple velvet across the back hiding where I had to add an extension to the lining and sewed it on with the seam on the outside and didn’t realize until I already trimmed the inside edges and couldn’t take it out and fix it. So I covered up the raw edge seam with a strip of velvet LOL)
Tonight I’ll finish up the lining in the capelet and start working on getting all those pieces attached/sewn together/whatever I’m going to do. Chase finished printing my brooches so I’ll get those painted tonight and figure out how I’m going to attach them too.
So then all that will be left on Padme is the buttons (which Chase is 3d modeling), the wig, and… the floral appliques for the skirt. That is where I am really feeling this pinch. My swatch STILL hasn’t shipped. If it ships today, takes a week to get to me, I order fabric same day, another 2 weeks to ship, that puts me getting the fabric at 2 weeks out from dragoncon. At best. And it’s not arriving in ready-to-use condition, I’ve got a lot I have to do to it to make it workable. At this point I’ve kinda decided if I can’t get that part done, I’m wearing it to dragoncon WITHOUT the appliques and finishing them after. It is what it is. But I am also frustrated at how long it’s taking me to get this stupid swatch.
No progress on Bail. Chase is reprinting his mantle. Once that’s done I can get back to work on that.
As soon as I finish up what I can on Padme, I’m digging in to Wanda. I got my boots in…
And my red HTV vinyl for the designs on the bodice and skirt panels. Going to start applying the design tomorrow night to all my pieces. Once I have that done I should have some good forward-momentum.
At the moment the only material I don’t have is the plain red material for the stripes on the pants/bodice front. I wanted leather, went to Tandy, but they didn’t have anything I really liked that wasn’t super expensive.
I do have a white leather hide onhand. Funny story – it’s from 2004. Back in 2004, I wanted to use white suede for the white details on my manga Belldandy costume. I asked dad to run by tandy and see what they had. He came home with 2 hides of a soft white leather and I was like omg I didn’t need this much please take the second one back. But he never did. it sat in a bag in our laundry room for years and got shuffled into the fabric pile, and it’s literally just been floating around my fabric stash ever since because I felt guilty about him spending so much on it LOL But i’m going to test leather paint on it and see what it looks like. If I can use that, that will be nice.
I’m hoping that by the end of July, I’ll have Wanda 75% done. I’ve got a full weekend to work… and I’ve got a TON of work calls this week where I just have to listen and occasionally take notes, so I’m hoping I can just set my laptop up next to my ironing board and be ironing on HTV while I’m listening.
And last updates of the day, my wigs for Diane and the silly little blue costume came in. They should both be quick easy things to style. I really need a better place to style wigs – I really don’t at this house. My wig clamp doesn’t fit on the table in my sewing room, nor my sewing desk. I’ve been using a light tripod that isn’t thick enough and the wigheads spin and move while i’m working on it. Plus their too tall for me to sit while working on them so i have to stand which is annoying.
Anyway look what I got!!
The naboo spirit jersey from the disney store!! I love it!
Also the Cult of Jon pins came in, one for me and one for Ash:
This is the reason I’m worried about how long it’s going to take this swatch to get to me. Things sent via normal USPS get to memphis and then just disappear for a week. These arrived in Memphis 7/3 and then the tracking didn’t update again until 7/12. They finally arrived 7/16. If that happens with my swatch, I’m sunk.
We went to the hobby store because Chase need some bot parts. And I found…
So this was my fav ornament my parents had, and Ash’s parents had one too, and both Ash and I can recite Spock’s audio from it at the drop of a hat. Ash found one at dcon a few years ago and got it, and I’ve always wanted one for myself… and lo and behold the hobby store had 2. So I got one and got home and plugged it into some christmas lights. Unfortunately only the lights work, the audio doesn’t. I’m tempted to pry it open and see if there’s a battery than can be replaced inside. Or go back and get the other one. Or just buy one on ebay.
I really wanted this but it was in rough shape, especially the thermos.
That’s all for this week.
Goals this week:
1. Finish up what I have left on Padme
2. Style Diane and blue dress wigs
3. Get HTV transferred onto wanda pieces
4. Get Wanda skirt assembled
5. Get Wanda pants assembled
6. Paint Padme/Wanda pieces
7. Trim Wanda wig