Sooo that was an interesting weekend. First let’s go through Friday’s to-do list and see what I got done:
1. Finish T’Lyn wig
2. Paint her ears to better match my skin tone, I tried them on and they are not a match.
3. Try on Taylor wig, cut bangs if needed?
4. Finish tacking the lining on the Taylor jacket
5. Stamp the Padme cape
6. Finish Baylan vest
7. Finish Baylan shirt
8. Finish Baylan kama
9. Start on Baylan gaiters
10. Finish Mara pauldron attachment
11. Adjust 7 of 9 turtleneck
12. Add velcro to Leia
13. Weathering on Shin
Not bad. Now onto the nitty gritty details.
T’Lyn’s boots are finished.
SO CUTE
The wig
The wig is ok. Once I put it on and started messing with it I could see how thin and cheap it was, so it might get replaced later on down the line. But it’s fine for now. I trimmed the bangs, and cut and slightly curled the front pieces.
I do still need to paint the ears. They aren’t off terribly but just need a little more depth.
Taylor is done done. Tacking on jacket is finished. I trimmed the bangs friday – I might need to go a tad shorter? Will decide when I try everything on.
Mara still needs her pauldron attachments but is otherwise done. Chase 3d modeled, printed and painted the brooch for me, I got a snap attached yesterday. So now I just need to figure out the pauldrons (which are done), and also add some more velcro to the belt.
Speaking of, I did throw a piece of velcro onto honeymoon Leia’s belt too, just to keep the buckle from shifting. And both that belt and the jedi training Leia belt I’m using for Mara were too big. I had to move the snap on honeymoon Leia in an inch and a half, and I need to add more velcro on the training belt about the same amount. Guess me cutting coke consumption in half this summer has paid off. I didn’t think it had, nice to see it actually had some results.
Shin I did a little weathering on… I got the kama/tabards assembled and sprayed with some darker dye to look a little dirtier. I also did a little sprayed bleach on the black pants and shirt, and then overdyed them, but now I think I just need to let them soak in some RIT true black for a bit, they still look a little brown in places which I ended up not liking. I also had to fix a spot on the vest and re-do the embroidery on those chevrons. I still need to try the wig on and add the beads. Chase is working on my belt, and I think most of the armor is painted. Gotta figure out attachments.
I also got my Seven of Nine turtleneck fixed.
I finally stamped my Padme cape.
The entryway was the only area large and flat enough for me to spread it out to stamp.
I had to do it in 2 stages, the outer edge and then the back portion. I had to apply a lot of pressure to the stamp with my fingers to get a good transfer, and it made my fingers sore fast! (More on that later)
I thought I was done and hung it up, but once I took this pic and looked at it, I was like oh I need a couple of more on the left.
The tiara was mostly done, Chase was doing another coat on it and then I can style the wig into the buns.
Baylan was most of the work this week.
The vest went together pretty fast thank goodness. Thankfully my machine went through all the leather ok. The zipper was a pain, but it worked out.
I really should’ve taken a picture of this ON him but alas.
I did also finish his shirt. All that’s left is the kama and the gaiters. I started looking at the gaiters yesterday, but didn’t have enough lining fabric. And I want to cut the lining first to try it on him before I cut the leather. So we headed to Joann to get some lining fabric last night, so gaiters will commence tonight.
We both decided to pause on our capes. Mine is put together but not hemmed or weathered. His is still just a pile of fabric. These costumes are going to be hot enough as it is! My goal is to finish them for MCX in October.
I was getting something out of my built-ins in my sewing room Friday and noticed…
It’s right in the middle of one of the doors. How have I never noticed this before?? I’m guessing Matt was one of the previous owner’s kids. Cracks me up. I wonder if the previous owners even knew it was there?
So Saturday night I was cooking dinner and I had to put one of our pans in the oven to finish cooking the chicken for 10 minutes. I got it out of the oven, set it on the counter, grabbed the spatula to get the chicken out of the pan. Still had the oven mitt on my right hand. Turned around and grabbed the hot handle of the pan with my left hand instead of my right. Burnt the shit out all of my fingers, thankfully I didn’t wrap my thumb around it. Immediately put my hand in cold water but it HURT. Like I’ve burnt myself cooking before but not like that.
I put ice on it – which apparently you’re not supposed to do, but I wasn’t keeping it on there constantly, just rubbing an ice cube over each of the worst spots in turn. Chase went to get some burn cream, which did nothing. After dinner I switched to a cooling pad and just wrapped it around my hand. As long as it was in the cooling pad it felt ok. But like, I can’t sew with my hand wrapped up in this cooling pad?? Even hand-sewing, I can’t sew with one hand, and that was my plans for the evening, sewing the lining closed inside Chase’s Baylan vest. If I took my hand out of the cooling pad, it was starting hurt like MAD a few seconds later. So I spent the evening trying to finish the hand-sewing on the vest by keeping my hand in the cooling pad for a bit, then quickly doing a couple of stitches before it started hurting again and then back in the cooling pad. It was not great.
(Luna pic to break up wall of text)
I had to sleep with the cooling pad on too, and every hour I’d wake up – like nearly literally on the hour, because the cooling pad had become room temperature and I’d have to go get a new one and switch it out (thankfully we had 3). There were times I was nearly running into the kitchen to get a new one because my hand was hurting so bad. I was so freaked out because I still have a lot left to do for Dragoncon and I can’t do it one handed?!
Finally something gave between 7AM and 8:30AM. I got up at 7 and switched to a fresh cooling pad, and went back to sleep. Woke up 8:30-ish instead of 8. Cooling pad was totally room temp and my hand felt fine? And then it was fine the rest of the day, just sore. I was able to carry on as normal. Thank GOODNESS.
My hand looks totally fine too except you can see the worst spots are slightly more pink than the rest of my hand, there’s a spot on the bottom of my index finger, and little bit right next to it on my middle finger, and the tip of my ring finger with a little on my pinkie finger. Once again today it just feels a little stiff, but no pain, and I’m not having any issues typing. I’m still babying it a little because I don’t want to push it, like me mentioning stamping the Padme cape was making my fingers sore.. I didn’t want to keep flexing my burnt fingers trying to push the stamp down as hard as it needed, so I did it in 2 parts.
So here’s hoping it’s all still ok the rest of the week. I picked up some non-sticky bandages at target yesterday just in case the worst spot on my index finger blisters and I need to cover it.
OK so now a new to-do list:
T’Lyn:
-magnets on badge
-paint ears
-try on
Taylor:
-Try on
Mara:
-pauldron attachments
-extend belt velcro
-fingers crossed for wig!! It’s on the plane!
Padme:
-stamp a few more things on cape
-style wig
Shin:
-try on wig
-add beads to wig
-weather suede pieces
-dye black pieces
-figure out armor attachments
Baylan:
-keep doing cording on vest, can I finish it this week?? It’s slow going.
-make gaiters
-make kama
-figure out armor attachments
Ozma:
-put crown back together
Nadja:
-file down teeth
I feel like this is do-able now?? Like the biggest thing left is Chase’s vest cording and his boot gaiters. The kama will be easy.