We are one day away from June and fully into Dragoncon season now. I finally feel like my brain has “switched over” and it’s not a fight to go make myself sew.
I’m gonna go over the non-costumey stuff first so I can get it out of my photo feed —
First, last week Chase surprised me with some new Disney wax melts!
Friday night we had game night and met Cath’s new friend, so that was fun.
The game we played was confusing but fun. Look forward to playing it again now that we all understand it LOL
Saturday we went to have lunch with Ash & Gabe at KwikChek and went to see the Van Gogh exhibit at graceland.
I won’t post a ton of photos of it, but it was pretty neat.
Chase went to see Top Gun that night while I sewed.
Sunday we had our Memorial Day cookout!
Me and Kevin in our new Pixar movie:
Yesterday I ran to Joann in the morning just for some basic stuff (needed bias tape, thread, a zipper, that kind of stuff) and ended up finding this fabric and had to have it.
Thankfully there was a 60% off coupon for Memorial Day so I got it pretty cheap.
We also of course watched all the new shows this weekend.
LOVED the first 2 eps of Kenobi. My one single nitpick is that current Lucasfilm seems to have an issue with the pacing of chase scenes.
But that is just a nitpick. I loved the casting, the characters, the costumes, the nostalgia. Can’t wait for the next ep.
And we started binging the new Stranger Things and I really wish I’d done a rewatch of previous seasons because I felt a little lost. Had to go back and read what happened last 2 seasons to refresh myself LOL. Still have 2 episodes to go.
Ok so now – sewing. Starting with Jessica…
Last week I said I was thinking about getting some cheap fabric and doing a full mock-up. Well i did, I got 2 4yd bundles of cotton at walmart and did a like 75% finished mock-up.
I did leave the center back skirt insert out, because I didn’t really need it to test fit this and didn’t have enough of this fabric for it, either. And I only did half the lining layer. But I did get it close enough to do some edits to the pattern from this and to feel a little more confident going into working with the expensive fabric.
Those little openings on the shoulders were a pain in my butt. That was the hardest part of figuring out this pattern LOL. And because my fabric is slightly sheer, I am lining it to just below the hips, so I needed to figure out how the lining was going to work with those shoulder opens and I think I have it pretty well figured out now. Hopefully.
My main concern at this point is the weird darts in the front look ok (I am not good at darts), making sure the lining layer finishings look ok, and also the way I’m going to cut this out of the real fabric. The pattern I used as a base to modify calls for this all to be cut on the bias, but my homemade/updated pattern pieces are way too large to fit on the bias. But since my fabric here is a STRETCH silk charmeuse I’m think it’ll be fine cut straight on the grain.
Also since both my mock-ups were not stretchy I’m thinking I’ll probably still have to do some fit tweaks once the pieces are cut and I see them together. But I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
So after getting my mock-up and pattern to the point I was happy with, and the rest of my fabric arriving Friday, Saturday I decided to figure out my dye mix and dye it all on Sunday.
The initial colour mix I’d picked on Rit’s colour chart (left) I felt was too vibrant? It needs a depth but not that much saturation. So I messed around and decided that the swatches in the center were closer to what I see on screen. Once they dried and I took them off and held them up to my arm they looked nice.
BUT THEN… Saturday night I decided to double check my veil yardage again and determined I didn’t buy enough. There’s 2 veils, one on the head and one being worn as a shawl sort of thing. When rewatching the scene to look at the colour I realized I was not going to have enough for the shawl thing. So I had to go buy more yardage and now I have to wait and dye it all next weekend. UGH. I was all mentally hyped up to do it and then I didn’t get to.
And also at Joann yesterday I came across a RIT color I’d never used before that looked really good – marigold ? Honestly this colour looks like it may be perfect right out of the bottle. So now I want to play with some dye mixtures and swatches again before I dye it anyway.
So since I was stuck on Jessica, I moved onto Padme.
First up my velvet swatch is still showing “in transit”. Was supposed to be here 5/21. Giving it until this Saturday before I contact the seller. Just so frustrating, it’s like the universe does not want me to have this fabric.
So the main thing I focused on this weekend was finishing up the bodice:
I got this like 90% done before the disney trip. All I needed to do was sew up the shoulder seams, finish the edges with some bias tape and install the grommets in the back. I need to try it on myself but I wasn’t in a trying-on mood yesterday. I haven’t had it on since before the disney trip so i’m just going to trust Me-in-April had it sized right.
Then I got back to the sleeves. I ordered some cheap silver fabric to use as the sleeve iining, but it was a much cooler toned silver than my chiffon for the outer layer. So I put it in some brown poly rit dye and warmed it up. Got it dried and ironed and since I had extra, decided to do another sleeve mock-up out of this to see how it looks in this fabric.
Cut from the pattern I came up with last month:
Decided to shorten it in the front and then go ahead and put the elastic in…
(I put the elastic in the wrong side — I was doing the shiny side on the inside but forgot and did the elastic on the matte side. Oh well it’s just a mockup)
Overall I’m decently happy with it but I feel like this fabric might not be light enough. It’s not a heavy or thick fabric by any means but it just doesn’t move like hers does, and I’m really concerned with how… “chunky” the area with the elastic looks.
I do still have some of the same silk I used for Eliza in my stash, more than enough to do these sleeves and that would probably be better, weight wise. But I feel like the real sleeves have a sheen to them that is coming from the lining layer, and the silk fabric I have does not have that. I really wanted silk charmeuse for the sleeve lining but I had to find somewhere to cut back and save on this, hence the cheap poly lining. I may do another mock-up tonight – and drape some of the outer fabric over it just to get a feel for it. If it LOOKS right I’m going to go more for that than for movement.
So in this next week, I would LOVE to finish the sleeves and get them attached to the bodice. If I could do that that would just leave the vest and the embroidered/beaded panel as the main thing I need to finish for this. That would put me in a good spot.
And depending on when the rest of my Jessica fabric gets here (fingers crossed for saturday) I can maybe dye stuff this weekend too. Weather is still supposed to be fairly nice and I’d love to have that all done before it’s 100 degrees out.
Side rant: I do not understand the fans who constantly shit on the thing they’re supposedly a fan of. I STG if George Lucas released Empire Strikes Back TODAY instead of 40 years ago, a lot of the Star Wars “fans” would hate it and spend hours online bitching about how horrible it is, how he messed up the story, how stupid it is Vader is Luke’s father, how casting Billy Dee Williams is a “diversity hire” bitch bitch bitch. Jesus.
Like I only watched the Mandalorian season 2 and Book of Boba Fett in places. Didn’t watch the whole of either series. It’s just not for me, and that’s fine. Other people are loving it and that’s cool. I’m not going to bitch about it online. I’m not going to target the cast and crew. What is wrong with people? It’s just a fucking tv show, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to watch it. I’ve literally unfriended 2 people on facebook today because of their incredible negativity over Kenobi. Sure you’re free to have your opinion and post on facebook, but I also don’t want to see it. So, bye.