Saturday I said goodbye to my old Honda Fit…
And said “HELLO!” to my brand new mini cooper!
OH MY GOD it’s so cute I can’t stand it.
I’m currently sitting with naming it Agent Dale Cooper and calling it “Coop.”
I did also test drive the larger countryman version, and it drove pretty much the same, but at the end of the day I liked the look of this one better. And that GREEN!
Also it’s nice to have a car that actually is like… technologically modern LOL I mean when i got the Bug in 2003 it was new and had all the latest bells and whistles, but that was 20 years ago, pre-smart phones. The most techy thing about it was that it had a cd player! After the bug I got the 2007 Fit and that was actually a step back because I lost my heated seats LOL So here i am in the year of our lord 2023 still messing with an aux cable to listen to music on my phone. When I get in the coop it automatically connects to my phone, I feel so… modern LOL
So yeah with that we didn’t really get a lot done this weekend. My hope was to finish my skeleton dress but I didn’t even touch it this weekend. But let’s rewind and talk about what I did accomplish.
So last week I mentioned I’ve been on a mission to replicate the Disney Tiki Bird dress, because I love how it fits me. So this project will be split into 2:
1. The Skeleton Dress using an altered Simplicity 8127 (view B)
This is the one I’m working on now!
2. The Star Wars dress using Charm Patterns’ “Liz Dress” pattern
This will be next! I’m probably not going to alter this pattern much because I like it as-is. I picked up my ancillary fabric for this at Joann Friday, so I’m ready to go as soon as I finish the skeleton dress.
So let’s talk Project 1 – the Skeleton dress. As yall could see last week I started messing with the pieces – I brought the tiki bird dress upstairs and put it on a dressform, so i could compare the pattern pieces to the tiki dress.
I knew I was going to want to add a waist seam to this Simplicity pattern, but it ended up needed more tweaks than I anticipated once comparing it to the tiki dress. For the ruched bodice section, I ended up making that longer and changing the shape to have the higher areas for the strap attachment. I also created lining pieces for this area – the Simplicity pattern didn’t have that, so i made them based on the interior of the tiki dress. I used the top portions of the skirt pattern pieces to create the waistband area, and edited them to be the same size and shape as the tiki bird dress pieces. And I changed the shape of the back pattern pieces – IIRC I made them taller.
i did all this using some scrap lining before moving onto the real fabric.
I got this skeleton fabric on clearance at Joann back in July. Stashed it away specifically for this project. In my head i was so sure this was a cotton but when i got it out for this… surprise it’s a stretch knit! Which is fine, it’ll be more comfy that way.
I got the top gathered and front waistband sewn on, but I haven’t done much else, because I think i want to re-gather the lower part before I move on.
I went ahead and got skirt panels cut:
I didn’t use the Simplicity pieces here at all. I measured the tiki bird skirt and just cut 3 panels (front on the fold), and also copied the tiki’s pocket shape. Got the pockets and side seams sewn up.
Also surprise! The fabric glows in the dark:
I walked into my sewing room from the back stairs one night (I don’t have a light switch on that side) and was like, were the heck are all these dots of light coming from?? I was looking up thinking something was on the skylights, but then I remembered, the fabric glows in the dark LOL
I had put a goal in place to finish this this weekend but alas. My plan was to get the back panels and lining layers put together and get that assembled, and hopefully get it far enough along to also get the skirt attached. But then I went fabric shopping friday night, car shopping Saturday (and that took allll day I was so tired by the time we got home), and had errands to run Sunday. Beyond errands I did some house cleaning, laundry, and finally unpacked my duffel bag from dragoncon LOL Y’know, adulting. So after dinner I crashed again and just watched a couple of episodes of Star Trek Discovery (which I’m FINALLY watching)
I did get to a stopping point with the costume clean up. The closet is done for now, the attic space is done for now, and kevin’s closet is done for now. In getting rid of all that excess fabric, i made a lot of room in our attic space, and I was able to move a good chunk of our Christmas decoration totes over to the attic space, leaving Kevin’s closet almost empty. YAY! I do still need to reorganize the under the bed containers, the guest room closet, and the hallway closet, but that’ll be another day. I got my sewing room back to functional and that’s all i really wanted LOL
So my goal really is to finish the skeleton dress by this weekend, because I want to wear it somewhere the NEXT weekend. We’ll see…