We had a big storm move through last night. It didn’t last all that long but was pretty intense. Power dimmed a few times but we never lost it completely. So we didn’t think it was that bad.
Waking up this morning to most of the city still without power (and the power company saying it’s gonna be a few days to get everyone restored), tons of damage – Chase sent me pics driving through the neighborhood of damage, he said driving down the main drag of our community he was having to go around downed trees the whole way. Seems like we’re the only people in my family who still has power. Got people bringing stuff over to charge LOL.
From what I’ve read sounds like some straight line winds came through. Sounds like “Hurricane Elvis” from back in 2003. I was in Niagara Falls for the week when it happened and hearing about all the damage from back home was crazy. And it feels the same this morning, seeing photos of downed powerlines and trees, etc. Crazy stuff.
Anyway, I’m right on track with Breha.
As I said last week, I spent quite a while hunched over vinyl sheets weeding these designs. FINALLY got to start ironing them on on Tuesday.
I’m glad i went with the good vinyl because I love how vibrant that white is against the blue. The cheap amazon vinyl wouldn’t have looked as good.
There’s a few small fuck-ups on here. On one I forgot to remove the interior circle of the center design, so it’s filled in on one. And on 2, a piece of vinyl was stuck to the side and got ironed on. But in both cases it just looks like an extra leaf, so I’m not gonna sweat it. And I lost a few of the tiny dots, but not as many as I anticipated.
I ended up with about 50 of these things ironed on – I did go beyond where they’d be seen just because I had enough to do so. They continue on up over the shoulders and into the “sleeves”. Even then I ended up with 5 leftover. I may make a matching bag out of the leftover blue satin and iron a couple of these on.
Got front and back of the cape sewn together Thursday I think? And then Friday got it initially sewn to the top.
Saturday was a long busy day – talk more about that later – but that night I focused on finishing the neckline (needed to trim it in a little) and got the facing sewn in and finished by hand on the inside.
Also while I was trying it on, I pricked my finger on a pin. Immediately put my finger in my mouth to avoid any possible bleeding on the white costume. Chase was helping me out of it, had to raise my arm – and when I put my arm back down blood just GUSHED out of the pin injury. It was terrifying, I legit thought i was going to drip on this white costume. Thankfully Chase got me out of it and we checked it over and all was ok.
Also sometime between Friday and Saturday I got the zipper in the back. It was not zipped up here.
Sunday was my day to FINISH it!
This dressform slowly shrinks due to the messed up tightening screw on the bottom. She’s about an inch shorter than me barefoot here, hence the dress being way too long LOL
Sunday did not go as planned. I went to finish the edge of the sleeve openings when I realized my plan for doing that was foiled by the cape being sewn into the shoulder seam. I had to unpick it partially, finished each edge and then sew it back up. (I used bias tape instead of doing a facing. This fabric is so thick – I wish I’d done that for my neckline facing too).
So then that was done and seams put back together when I realized my cape -at the shoulder seam – was just SLIGHTLY off. Like not even a quarter of an inch off – but it was sticking out on the arm side by that tiny amount which then made doing the connection down the front of the armhole opening not work. UGH. I had to take the shoulder seams apart AGAIN, remove the neckline from facing from the shoulder seams to the back, reposition the cape portion, and then put it all back together, redo the neckline facing, redo the hook and eye at the back, etc. All of this took around 4 hours to do, just so frustrating. Especially since this white fabric is SOOOOOO finicky – I got a couple of runs in it while doing this that I can’t fix. So yeah that wasn’t fun.
But I got it done, got the front edge of the sleeves stitched down. Then onto the blue collar piece. I’d already made this, just needed to finish the top edge and sew it on – but when I saw it on the form and compared it to my references, I decided it didn’t go out onto the shoulders far enough. So back to the drawing board with a new pattern, cut new fabric. First attempt was messy and I threw it away. Second attempt kept popping the seam at the points every time I turned it. Threw that one away. Third attempt worked good. Got that finished and sewn on – still need to press it, just to press out any burbles from hand-sewing it on.
And finally, I got the belt made. This was made from one of the bad skirt panels, and a cotton lining. Got it pressed and it’s just pinned on here. Before I finish the back edges and put in a closure I just want to make sure it’s the right height and everything for the belt buckle to work – and figure out how we are attaching it.
So I didn’t FINISH finish it but it’s damn close. All I need to do still is:
1. press everything
2. try it on
3. finish belt edges/closure
4. paint belt buckle
5. trim bottom edge of pants cleanly
So I hope to do all that this week + finish up what I can on Nadja and Rebels Leia – then be able to move cleanly into Seven of Nine with nothing hanging over my head.
So besides sewing and a storm, what else has been happening?
Friday I made cookies and in the process, broke one of my Mema bowls. The green one even, which was my fav. It just slipped out of my hand and went sailing over the counter and I watched it in slow motion knowing it was going to break into a million pieces, which it did. Had to get out the vac to clean up the tiny pieces. Made me sad. But the cookies would good and I know Mema would say it’s just a bowl.
Saturday we had Cath’s shower!
So nice to see everyone, good food, good times. She moves at the end of this week š
Then we immediately swung into birthday party for Kevin because his bday was also that day!
We swam – well it ended up just being me, Ash and Kevin in the pool, but still. Then we had pizza, cake and we opened presents. We gave Kevin Chase’s switch since he hasn’t played it in forever and Kevin has been wanting one so he can play the new Zelda games.
Took Kev home to drop him off and ended up siting in his room helping him with the switch for a while. Showed him how to find the free games to download, how to sign in, get on the wi-fi, etc. He was happy. Now just gotta get him the Zelda games LOL
So that’s it for this week. Next week is a sort-of 4 day weekend, I’ll call it a 3.5 day weekend. I don’t have Monday off, but our plant is closed so I won’t be able to do much. So should be a quiet day, hopefully. Then I do have tuesday off. Hoping to get a lot done on Seven and get started on Chase’s new Vader parts.