Well hi I don’t really have much to share this week either, though I do feel like I got a lot done. I’m just at the point of both costumes where I’m still in the planning stages for a lot of it so I don’t have much to SHOW.
For Packing Padme, I got in my lining fabric for the sleeves but I feel like it might be slightly the wrong colour. I mean it’s silver-y grey but next to the (sheer) outer fabric it looks almost blue because it’s such a cool-toned silver. My outer chiffon fabric is more warm toned. Thinking about tweaking the colour slightly, just like 10 seconds in a drop of brown polyester rit dye? I haven’t decided yet so I’m just kinda letting it sit and looking at it every day to see how I feel.
When I bought the sleeve lining fabric I also grabbed 2 yards of a stretch velvet that looked ok colourwise just to have as a backup if I could never find anything for the vest. Yesterday I kinda started messing with the pattern for the vest, so I used it as the mock-up fabric.
This is all just pinned together and a rough first pass at the pattern. Tonight I’ll sew it together and work on it a bit more. This fabric is probably not the best option for the mock-up because it’s stretchy and the fabric I intend to use is NOT… but oh well, I can at least get the shapes figured out in general.
I say the “fabric I intend to use” because I STILL don’t have any leads on silk velvet for this. Like I said previously I’ve been ignored by multiple places when requesting swatches (I’m fine for paying for the swatches but most of these sites don’t have a swatch option, they just say ‘contact us for swatches’ and then don’t reply). Or I’ve been ghosted by 2 places now. Both of them I did speak to about getting a swatch. Both said they’d send it for free. Both never showed up and it’s been months now.
I did FINALLY successfully get a swatch sent last week. It was supposed to be here Saturday but it’s still “in transit.” Hope it shows up in the next day or so because time is starting to get away from me on this.
Also I’m NOT dyeing silk velvet to this colour. I very much doubt I could ge the right darkness and depth. I know there’s some places on etsy who do custom dyeing so that’s my backup if need be.
Anyway that’s my progress on Padme for now. Next up, Jessica…
So my fabric for the dress came in. It’s a little shinier than I remember it being but oh well… who knows, maybe use the wrong side that is totally matte? Make that decision later. I got 7 yards and the minute I pulled it out of the box I was like, this is not going to be enough fabric.
So I needed to get my patterns figured out so I could lay them on the fabric and see exactly how short I was going to be.
I pulled this pattern to use as a starting point. From the waist up it doesn’t work at all, but everything below that is perfect. AND it gives me a chance to finally use this pattern. I’ve had it for FOREVER and for a while there I was planning on use it for my actual wedding dress because I loved it so much. But then decided I did not want to make my own wedding dress, so until this past week this pattern was uncut.
I’ve been having to close the doors to my sewing room because Luna will NOT stay out if I’m up there. And because she’s had 2 meltdowns in my sewing room this year I’m still really “on edge” anytime she’s up here. Even though she’s been fine so far. I even draped this piece of fabric on her head and she just sat there and chilled LOL. Chase ordered another feliway diffuser to put in my sewing room just for her, but he mistakenly got the multi-cat version… waiting on the normal one to arrive now.
Anyway, spent most of Saturday working out the pattern…
I created the upper section of the pattern – went thru 2 mock-ups trying to figure out those weird darts in the front and dialing in the neckline/sleeves. This isn’t finalized but it gave me enough to be able to lay it out on my fabric and determine I’m 3 yards short. I was able to get the main parts of the dress (1 front and 2 backs plus expected facings) on the 7 yards, but the skirt insets didn’t have anywhere to go. So I got an order placed for another 3 yards.
I also went ahead and ordered the chiffon for the veil/train thingie. I want to get them all dyed together so wanted to go ahead and get that ordered.
The taxes and shipping on that order ended up being something like $45 yeesh.
In other news… Chase stopped at the grocery and got paper towels and mistakenly brought home a sale sign.
Which is now hanging in my costume closet.
I got a new (to me) ironing board from Jean! Here’s my whole collection now:
Second from the left. It’s a BEAST!
My large rectangle table ironing board is made to fit on the middle ironing board. But that ironing board is so wobbly I hardly ever use it ON it, I just set it on the floor. But this new one is so sturdy I finally feel like I can use the table top on it (it’s adjustable). Exciting!
This is one of things you get excited about as an adult that you wish you could go back and REALLY confuse your younger self with. “Hey when you grow up, you’re going to have a collection of ironing board and you’re going to be REALLY excited about it.” (10 year old me: wtf)
Chase wasn’t feeling well this weekend so we didn’t do much outside of the house. We watched the Rescue Rangers movie Friday night (hilarious) and Saturday night we ended up making a late night run to Walgreen’s for some medicine for him.
I have been waiting on this Dolores figure to go on sale for over a year. I wasn’t going to buy it full price. This walgreen’s had it on clearance for 70% off so it was $5. My patience paid off!
Yesterday we ran out to ikea because I was out of the paper I use for patterning. They have these rolls of paper meant for kids to draw on for $5 and they last me a couple of years. Got 2 of them. Gonna see how long they last me.
Anyway this week, I’m really tempted to do a full on head to toe mock-up of the jessica pattern. it would be a massive waste of fabric but my actual fabric is so freaking expensive I don’t want to just dive in without triple checking this pattern. I don’t have any scraps big enough to do the whole thing. I thought about maybe going to goodwill to see about getting some old bedsheets to use. I really miss Hancock Fabrics’ clearance section. It used to be so easy to grab some $1/yard fabric to use for this kind of stuff.
And i’ll work on the Padme vest pattern a little more and make a decision about the sleeve lining. And hopefully my swatch shows up.