and don’t let the door hit you on the way out
So let’s see what has happened since Thursday…
Finished my new T’Lyn wig. It is VERY difficult to get on with the headband and ears all crowded up in the same area, but with Chase’s help it works. I really just need some ear tips for Vulcan/Elf costumes that literally just fit on the very end of my ears and don’t have to have most of my ear shoved in them.
Saturday I went to lunch with the girls because they were in town for Christmas! Chase went to the Tigers game with my parents.
Ash gave us this Indy night 1 frame! How cute! And a Taylor calendar and cryptid mix-and-match magnet set! I already have many new cryptids assembled on our fridge.
Sunday we did 2 of the 4 costumes left to shoot on the backdrop:
T’Lyn with the new wig and I also re-positioned the interior button AGAIN. I think that’s the 4th time.
And now for the adventure of the day. I wanted to shoot AoA Shadowcat. I made this for SDCC 2004 and haven’t worn it since. Like literally I put it on before SDCC for a trial run, wore it for like 2 hours at SDCC before I had to change for the masquerade, and literally have never worn it again. It’s just been in one of my storage containers. It’s been on my short list to shoot for YEARS but the claws got left at my parents house when I moved in 2008, and it took me like… a decade to finally retrieve them. Anyway I decided this year it was finally time, i got it all out and checked over – noticed a hole at the seam on the leg and was like when did I do that? oh well – everything was present and accounted for, and I cleaned up the belt as best I could. The belt boxes were falling off so I peeled the old hot glue off and reapplied them with sticky back velcro. The belt – made of vinyl and DUCT TAPE – didn’t iron out all that great but it is what it is.
So Sunday morning I went to put the black suit on. Nice black cotton-blend spandex bodysuit from Baltogs. The second I put my foot in, the leg shredded.
(If that video doesn’t work, I’ll come back and re-add it when I upload it to tiktok. For now if it doesn’t work, it’s a video of me just barely pulling on the fabric and it shredding into nothing)
No clue why. It’s been safely stored in an inside storage bin. Some kind of elastic dry rot I guess? Never had that happen with anything other than straight-up elastic though. Also just kind of pisses me off that this was a NICE bodysuit I BOUGHT and I got to wear it TWICE? Ok yeah twice 20 years ago but still LOL I’d be less upset if it was something I made that failed, but the fact it was something I spent money on ticks me off LOL
Also, the fabric left black particles all over EVERYTHING it touched when it shredded. I wear tights under spandex suits and my tights are now GREY.
Not letting that stop me though. I’m shooting this damn thing no matter what.
Chase’s clonetrooper tights and a black tank top. Not perfect but whatever, the old suit wasn’t exactly right either. It’s good enough for me to get this one marked off the to-do list. And I’m sure as heck not going to spend money buying a new suit I won’t have another use for.
After the shoot we ran to Target where I got all these birds and little woodland friends for like $18 on clearance!
And then Chase had a TJMax gift card so we went there and got this inflatable stitch on clearance for $14!
The box was damaged so I took him out and plugged him in to test – all good!
Sad I have to put all these new things away now and won’t get to enjoy them for another year. Going to start taking Christmas upstairs this week a little bit at a time. I normally like to leave it up til Ephiphany but I’m ready to get things cleaned up, and the weekend after that is BUSY BUSY so I need to get started.
I was off yesterday and I actually spent it sewing.
Lining layer of my Rizzo jacket. I downloaded a raglan sleeve bomber jacket pattern from etsy to use as a base – edited a little bit, widened and lowered the sleeves and cropped it up to the natural waist, and even after doing all that at the pattern phase I had to do it more after putting the lining together and trying it on.
Cutting the real fabric
Outer shell assembled and lining sewn in at the neck/front edge. Just needs cuffs at the sleeves/bottom hem. I bought ribbed cuff pieces from mood a while back for this.
It’s so close to how I envisioned it so I’m happy so far!
I need to make a decision on the sleeves. I cut the outer layer longer than the lining layer, intending on tacking it up to the shorter lining layer to give it more “poof” at the end, but I think it may not be necessary once I add the cuffs. So I need to experiment and see if I just need to cut that excess off or no.
I got my shirt to wear under it, I just need to order shorts now. Or pants. Kinda waiting to see how this INCREDIBLY STUPID COLD FRONT is going to affect my packing.
So let’s do a photoshoot dump even though I still don’t have She-Ra uploaded yet.
Let’s start with Rally!
Did the best I could with this old elmer’s glue-styled wig.
Skirt 100% did not fit anymore. I could just barely get it on and there was no zipping it LOL, thankfully the blazer hides that. I did forget that I wore the buckle of the belt in the BACK… oh well.
Probably the first time I ever had the holster on correctly though, thanks to Chase LMAO
Also the shoes are my prom shoes from 1996. They are nearly 30 years old. VINTAGE!
Ling Xiaoyu!
TBH I’m surprised this still looks as good as it does considering there’s a LOT of hot glue. The shirt is all sewn together, but all the details are glued. When I looked back at my notes in the portfolio I said the little curly-cue bits looked weird when we tried to sew it. LOL no kidding the unhemmed tiny 1 inch knit pieces wadded up into nothing when you tried to sew it onto a knit top on the machine? LOL
It all ironed up pretty well all things considered.
Did I mention the socks when I talked about shooting this? When I went to put these very old, creaky hiking boots covered in umhemmed knit fabric on, I discovered they had socks stuffed inside. When I had to wear specific socks with a costume, I’d usually just keep the socks tucked in the shoes. Apparently the socks I always used for this costume have been tucked in those shoes for 22 years, and they turned completely yellow LMAO
I did not use them for the shoot, I threw them away LOL
Also I didn’t do the looped pigtails to try to make my pigtails look shorter. I just did normal pigtails. She had longer hair in later installments so whatever!
Arwen!
Yall I cannot tell how you I internally SCREAMED when I tried this on and realized it could zip up all the way. The only reason I haven’t shot this earlier is because I was dead certain it didn’t fit anymore.
Also like this costume is still in really good shape, there’s a little fraying on the sleeve edges but all in all it’s still very wearable!
The wig is my Rogue as Ms Marvel/Marasiah Fel wig. I just cut the white stripe off (it was just a weft I sewed on, so I can sew it back in later) and braided it. It’s not perfect but not bad. As I mentioned before, I generally try to preserve these old costumes and shoot them in their original form, no updates except where necessary… I originally used a braided hairpiece with this costume which I didn’t have anymore and didn’t want to spend money on something new, so I felt braiding an existing wig was an acceptable replacement.
I don’t LOVE the ears, they are my current T’Lyn ears and I just feel like they don’t sit right on my ears, which is why I was wishing for just ear tips that fit my ears better above. But it’s whatev, I could only find one of the original ears so it was this or nothing.
In other news…. I have a hysterectomy scheduled for February!!! I’m trying to tamp down my excitement until everything goes through with insurance but when they called to get me in the surgery schedule I was VIBRATING with excitement. I’ll talk more about it later. Next few weeks gonna be very busy, eye doctor appt, hair appt, regular doc appt, DISNEY, more doc appt for pre-op, the OP! feeling a little overwhelmed with it all but focusing on disney.