made it to another week. Trying to think of what I’ve worked in the last week and it doesn’t feel like anything! But I did!
First up I got my Wanda sweatshirt half done, but I had to order another roll of HTV — and then when it got here, the silhouette stopped cutting it and we didn’t get the problem figured out until Saturday afternoon (I say “we” but what I really mean Chase is the one who figured it out, not me LOL) so I haven’t finished it yet. Not going to post anymore pics until I can show off the whole thing. But I’m pretty excited about it.
Then I finished up my Padme ears.
I decided to forego embroidering the naboo symbol, since it’s so small anyway, and instead just used some of my silver glitter HTV from the leia shawl and just ironed one on the band.
The amount of people asking to buy a pair! Very flattering. But also these were easily the most work-intensive ears I’ve ever made. I mean even besides the fact that I only had one panel of the floral velvet on the taffeta I did as a test, and to make another would be hours of work just for one set of ears. I mean I think the only way I’d go through all that work again is if Natalie Portman herself asked for a pair.
I also finished updating the lake dress ears.
Before:
After:
I made these right before I made the 2019 lake dress so I didn’t have leftover materials, I was just using whatever I could scrounge up, which at the time was just some poly blanket binding for the bow. So it didn’t take the dye well and I was never happy with it. I cut a piece of silk I had and dyed/made a new bow that’s a bit more saturated, and also made 2 of the jewelry pieces from the front tie of the dress/center back — used the leftover sequins and pearls. I really wanted to figure out a way to do the dangling beads… ended up just doing a few pink beads across the bow as a hat tip to it.
After posting the Liberty Dies ears I got a few people asking how I made them and I was all set to send them the link to the youtube tutorial I learned from — I’ve sent it to lots of folks — only to go grab the link and discover the video has been privated and I can’t even tell what the original poster’s username was. Bummer!
So Friday I decided I’d do a video tutorial on how I make them and let instagram pick which theme I go with. I had 3 options:
This black and white Star Wars print with some sparkley black netting and black iridiscent fabric.
Ariel inspired
Queen Amidala Post-Senate dress leftovers
Amidala ended up being the winner, with Ariel in second. Since Amidala needed more prep work, I made Ariel live on instagram Saturday afternoon.
Ended up not using most of the fabric I’d laid out in the inspiration picture — used the sequin fabric for the base of the ears and the headband, then covered the ears in some gathered teal gauze which I thought kinda looked like her fins. The purple netting I had in the inspiration picture just looked cheap, so I used some velveteen leftover from tightrope walker and sparkled it up with some beads. Pretty happy with them.
So yeah still plan to do the Amidala ears — just I was going to cut out the shapes for the beaded appliques on the silhouete instead of making them from fabric (using the black glitter I have leftover from the Wanda project), but got stymied by the silhouette not working. Now that it’s working again I can get the Amidala ears beaded and then maybe I’ll go live again later this week once I have everything ready to assemble.
Saturday it was finally time to go see Last Podcast on the Left!!!!!
We’d planned to eat at a place there at Graceland, but on our way there discovered they close at 5 (show was at 8). So we went to a BBQ place down the street. We were in a room with a large family celebrating a birthday, and right before they were about to sing, one of them asked if they were bothering us, and we were like, “no! we’re waiting to sing happy birthday with you.” and they loved that and had us stand up with the rest of the family and sing happy birthday LOL. Then they even brought us a piece of cake. (and that cake was good)
So back over to Graceland for the show. I got in the very long merch line — when I was cleaning up last week I’d found $40 in my purse (which I hadn’t carried since dragoncon, so clearly money I’d taken to the dealer’s room) so I stashed that away to buy something at the show. Thankfully their merch prices were actually pretty reasonable and I got a cute shirt for only $15. I can’t even think of a time I got a show shirt that cheap. I think the tiny Page & Plant tanktop I bought in ’98 was like $50.
Anyway, we bought tickets for this back in JULY last year. It was my early (in terms of buying tickets) / late (in terms of getting to actually go) birthday present LOL
Held my breath all winter thinking it was going to get canceled or postponed but it wasn’t. We had pretty good seats too, row G – although if we ever go to another show at Graceland Soundstage, we’re buying an extra seat. We were smashed right up on top of the people sitting next to us, the chairs were TINY and uncomfortable.
Anyway it was great. So glad to finally get to see them live. I hope they had a good enough turnout to come back on another tour, seems like they did.
Sunday I officially started on Dragoncon projects.
I dug out my Wanda bodice patterns to mod for the interior of the Padme packing gown.
Made some extensions to change the shape.
And got 2 layers cut out.
I still need to cut a 3rd layer out of some scrap material for the interior but I wanted to get the shape dialed in first and then I’ll just use this layer as a template the edit the other layer I already cut and as a pattern to cut out the interior layer.
Also I spent last week getting in fabric swatches. So far nothing that would work for the sleeves, and none of the velvet swatches have come in yet, but one of Silk Baron’s dupionis I liked well enough for the skirt I went ahead and ordered yardage.
So after I get the interior vest assembled I can start on the skirt. Have more swatches coming in for the sleeves. Hopefully I get the velvet swatches soon, I really hope I can find something that will work and I don’t have to try to dye it. I’m going to be doing enough dyeing for Lady Jessica as it is.
Only major thing I still have left to do before the trip (besides finishing the wanda project) is the purse for my Leia outfit. I found a perfect base purse on amazon I could modify for only $8, and when I ordered it didn’t realize it was coming from China! So the delivery date is anywhere from April 5- 25. So a little bit of nail-biting there as I still need time to modify it. But I just checked tracking this morning and it’s already in the US. Whew.
Couple of other little thoughts about the trip, I was on the fence about getting lash extensions again. I LOVED it last year, felt like I looked put together even if I didn’t put any other makeup on. But I have trouble getting my schedule to work around the lash tech’s schedule – she didn’t work weekends so I basically have to take a day off work to do it. So I’d found another place that does do weekends and was going to try them, but after hearing not-so-great reviews from someone I know who went there I canceled it. And now I’m just not gonna get extensions for the trip. That’s our photopass money. I can wear falsies on my costume days and be fine. Also going to invest in a better mascara.
Second thing is I figured out a plan with Kevin’s DAS pass. Since the trip is a surprise I was thinking we wouldn’t be able to do the pre-trip set-up, since the person has to be present on the video call (and that would give away the surprise). And I hated that we’d have to spend our first hour of our first park day in line at guest services. But then I realized, oh hey we are picking him up the day before we leave, and that’s 3 days before our first park pass. I could try to do the online set-up that night or the next day before we leave. Here’s hoping that works??
Anyway that’s it for today I need to go find a new mascara to try…
EDIT:
Nearly forgot this pic!
Got the patches in for me and Kevin’s matching hip bags. So cute.