I’ve had Eyes Without a Face stuck in my head all morning and I have no idea why.
Before I dive into sewing news let’s talk about the generic life stuff.
Ice storm last week, again. Fun.
Saturday things were cleared up and warmer so we went out to run some errands and also checked out some places we’ve never been. Also discovered this:
This was by the dumpster at the place my cousin works so I texted him this and asked if he put that there. He said no– but that is one of their grandma’s creepy dolls he threw away there!
Ok now onto sewing stuff.
First up I wanted a longer winter jacket for our NYC trip. I wanted something similar in length and shape to my vintage coat because I didn’t want to haul the vintage coat up there. So I got on ebay and found this for cheap.
Love the colour, nice wool fabric. It’s a little big but i like that, makes it easier to wear a sweater under it.
Immediately upon getting it I set about “de-80s”ing it. Ok maybe de-80s isn’t the right word because it’s not so much the 80s-ness of it that I didn’t like but rather the grandma aspects. #1 was the shoulder pads had to go.
In the photo above I’d already removed one but not the other (my arm that is up holding the camera still has the shoulder pad in it). They were built into the lining, so I had to pop the lining open to get at them. I’m glad I wanted to take them out, because they were just foam that absolutely rotted in my hands as soon as I touched it. Literally just fell apart in chunks. So got that out and lining sewn back up.
Then I decided the brass buttons had to go. I had some black buttons the right size in my button bag so I replaced it with those.
Those 2 things helped modernize it a lot. I struggled to decide if I wanted to dig deeper into this non-costume project and do more to the sleeves. Ideally I’d like to completely remove them, take them up, remove the gathering at the shoulder and reinstall them — but that was more than I wanted to do.
After sitting with it for a bit I went back and inspected it and discovered I could easily get to the top of the outer sleeves without disrupting the lining. And the sleeves have a center seam. So I think at least I’m going to undo the top part of the sleeve and take up that center seam to remove the gathering/pleats at the top and make it sit smoother. But I want to get thread that matches better before I do.
Next order of business…
The 2 yards of velour I ordered on a chance without a swatch arrived. This is for my Star Trek skant.
It was impossible to get a decent photo of the colour. I tried moving it around to different windows, etc. Doesn’t bode well for taking photos at a con. This was the best I could get.
To the eye I do think it is too saturated and too warm. BUT — I’m going to go ahead and use it. Because I’m probably going to make more than one so we’ll work out the kinks here and later on make a blue one.
My brain has OFFICIALLY switched over to this project. I decided yesterday that my plans to make my own undergarments was not appealing – was thinking about making a bustier from scratch, no pattern – but the more I thought about it the less I wanted to do that. So I switched to looking for a vintage-inspired bustier pattern and no luck there.
So now I’m to the point of spending more money than I’d really want to on buying undergarments – looking at a girdle and a cone bra to hopefully at least get close to that exaggerated silhouette the ladies on the show tend to have.
I almost, almost got out the dress pattern to start cutting last night but I do want to hold off til I have the undergarments in hand.
And then Leia is DONE!
Well, almost. I finished sewing on all of the appliques.
All that’s left is to finish the ribbon belt – which requires me putting it on to figure out the length which at the moment is just like ugggh i dont wannt take my hoodie off LOL
I’m going to have it snap in the center front and then wrap around and snap again at the center bottom. So won’t take long to do, just have to find the energy to put it all on.
I also have a ribbon pinned along the center back seam to help support the weight of the appliques – i just need to sew that in permanently,
And then there’s the boots and wig. I did finalllly find boots I was ok with. They’re on the way. I still need to get a wig.
Speaking of spending money, I’m also finally starting to explore Nadja fabric options. I’ve definitely decided on the red plaid dress. If somebody has already done a dupe on spoonflower I can’t find it. I guess I’m going to have to do it myself. Boo.
I also need to get started on my rebels Leia- that’s the only dcon costume for this year I haven’t really thought much about. Or at least, I haven’t thought much about LATELY. I was gonna do it back in 2020 and had everything planned then. So I need to get my brain back in gear on that and start getting everything laid out for summer sewing plans, because I don’t want it to be a slog all summer.