may the 4th be with you or something

BOY do I have a lot of sewing drama to tell yall about. And that’s actually like all I have to talk about today, because I didn’t troop anything for May the 4th this year. Was gonna do Redbirds yesterday but Leia was already taken and my only Padmes that are are approved have hairpieces that don’t currently match my hair… so yeah. I stayed home and worked on Star Wars costumes instead. (Lake dress is full wig but I wasn’t gonna wear that outside for hours on concrete and risk it getting torn up.)

So let’s get on with the drama. So I’m making this silly costume for Dragoncon. Was supposed to be a quick easy project. Here was my mockup stage:

Used some scrap satin to mockup the skirt and the collar. Got a yard of cheap spandex on amazon to do a leotard mockup and to then also use as the lining for the real leotard. Why do a leotard mockup when I have a leotard pattern I trust and love that it fits? Using a different pattern here with a zippered front that actually had pieces based on cup sizes so I wanted to check, and since I needed a lining anyway, I did a mockup. Mockup went well – it was slightly too big especially through the legs/butt so I took it in and moved onto the real fabric.

The real fabric I picked up in LA and when I went to get it out, I realized… it’s only a 2 way stretch. And that stretch wasn’t a lot. I thought it was full 4 way, which just goes to show I shouldn’t have let it sit in a bag for a month and a half and let my brain fill in the blanks.

So I cut the leotard pattern slightly bigger to hopefully accommodate and crossed my fingers and started sewing it together. First seam went fine. Second seam… the edge of the seam got sucked down into the plates.

You can kinda see the fabric there. Confetti dot.

So I disassembled everything, got the plate off, Chase came and helped me free the fabric – I was so worried about it stretching and messing it up. I got everything reassembled and rethreaded and… the machine would not sew. It was jamming and bird nesting and would not advance. Thankfully I had tested it on a scrap before putting my real fabric in there. I opened everything up again, looked for any issues or any thread still stuck in there. Cleared it out. Put back together. Changed the needle. Changed the bobbin. Changed the thread. No go. It was really messed up.

So since I had sent it off for a tune-up at the Sewing Machine Spa while we were in Huntsville (still had the service tag hanging on the handle), Chase took it back there the next day. The tech found a small burr on the bobbin casing and filed it off. Then told Chase the problem was I was using the wrong size bobbin. He put in a new bobbin in and it sewed fine, like nothing had ever happened.

Chase called to tell me this and I just about lost my shit because what do you mean I’ve been using the wrong bobbin size with this machine for 12 years? If that were the case wouldn’t this have happened some other time in the previous 12 years? I felt like I was taking crazy pills. Chase got back to work and since he has all kinds of things for measuring small items at work, he measured both the new bobbin and my old bobbin at work and they were the same. Both class 15 bobbins. So I have no clue what THAT was about.

So that night it was back at it. I did transfer my lavender bobbin thread from the old bobbin I’d had it on to one of the new ones JUST IN CASE (I was almost out of lavender thread so I wasn’t going to waste all that I had on that bobbin, it was nearly full!) and started up again. Everything going fine for about 10 minutes. I got the leotard fully put together except the shoulder seams. Went to do the first shoulder seam… and it got sucked down into the plate again.

I took everything apart. Freed the fabric (at this point I didn’t care – I cut it out), reassembled. Rethreaded. Machine wouldn’t work. Jamming and birdnesting. Bricked. I had a complete meltdown.

Chase had to take it BACK to the shop. Here’s the thing – I don’t know what they did at this point to make it work again, because nothing I did would make it work AT ALL, but this time they said it was because I had the wrong presser foot on. Because of that, the needle was just SLIGHTLY hitting the edge of the foot.

Ok, that’s a fair cop. I had the bernette’s presser foot on the babylock, because somehow, at some point, the general presser foot of the babylock disappeared. Have not been able to find it. So I’ve just been sharing the same presser foot between the bernette and the babylock. They sold Chase a new one for the babylock and it came home again.

Here’s my hypothesis on what was happening — I noticed when pinning that confetti dot fabric that the pins really didn’t want to go through the fabric at points, likely at the points where two confetti dots were against each other. The sewing machine needle probably didn’t like going through that either, combine that with the wrong presser foot/needle not really being aligned with it, it was causing a perfect storm that resulted in bricking my machine.

The confetti dot leotard and the scraps all got thrown in a box. Not using it anymore. Not taking the chance! I ordered a yard of new fabric and it’s supposed to be here Wednesday. I’m ok with this, because the confetti dot was fun design choice and not accurate. What I ordered is actually accurate and should hopefully not brick my machine again.

So while I couldn’t work on that, I switched to working on the skirt for that project. My mockup had been a little bit so I cut the pattern pieces down a size and started cutting real fabric.

Picked up this silver metallic 4 way stretch in LA. But I don’t want or need it to stretch – in fact I need it to be structured like that old silver marine vinyl I used to use 25 years ago LOL So I backed each pattern piece in canvas, basting the layers together before sewing the seams.

Had some grey poly silky solid-type stuff I didn’t use for Padme’s packing dress in the stash, so I used that to line it. Got the zipper in the waistband made. It stands on its own!

Tried it on with the leotard lining layer and it’s sooo giving Jetsons.

The only thing that’s not finished is sewing down the lining layer of the waistband to enclose that seam on the inside, and a hook and eye for the waistband at the back. I decided to hold off on that… in case I lose some weight before dragoncon. I usually do and last time I finished a skirt this early it ended up being too big at dragoncon (tatooine Padme…)

So thats as far as I can go on that until my new fabric arrives, I moved back over to picnic Padme. I got the back panel of the blouse cut out and started testing out the embroidery yesterday.

Figured I’d start with the back panel since it’s not going to be seen and I can dial this in there. Not using a lot of sequins since they won’t be seen, no sense in wasting them back there. Right now I’m still trying to get to a stitch length and tension I’m happy with. Still getting some loose stitches occasionally. I ordered new needles that I think may work better than what I had on hand… they arrive tomorrow, so for now I’ll keep using what I have. I’m hoping to finish this back panel today. Lofty goals but sometimes you gotta shoot for the stars.

In Luna news, she did finally poop! LOL YAY! Vet called and said bloodwork and everything looks good – she’s in great shape for her age.

On Friday, I had a call at 11. I had to actually talk on this call, so Luna was annoyed. She likes to bite me when she hears voices coming out of devices (and somehow, she can differentiate between a video and someone actually speaking??) She was sleeping next to me on the couch, but got up and ran off when I did my pre-call test call to make sure my mic and speakers were working. When she came back in the middle of the call, I blocked her with a pillow so she wouldn’t bother me. So she got on my desk where my laptop was sitting and stalked around my laptop, staring at me over the top of it. She left after a few minutes, then repeated the whole circuit again. When they got no reaction, she went over behind me to the cabinets by the windows, and started pawing at them, basically playing the drums. WTF she never does that LMAO

After my call was over, she wanted nothing to do with me. I guess she was put out she couldn’t sit next to me during the call. She got over in Chase’s chair instead, and sat with her back to me.

But then something got her attention. The orange boys were in the backyard!

They were sleeping in the sun on the table in the backyard. Well they caught sight of me and came right over to the windows to say hi and Luna was beside herself.

She was jumping at the windows all big and bad (no hissing though!) Neither Benny or Jet cared, they just stared at her LOL Then Benny found a bug or something under the table and was chasing it, and Luna was watching him like a hawk. I told her I’m going to start a rumor she’s in love with Benny.

That’s really all I got for this week. Saturday morning the neighbor dogs were going crazy at 6am, they woke Chase up – but not me LOL thankfully I couldn’t hear them, but I could hear Chase yelling at them to shut up and THAT’S what woke me up. Got on out of the house, got breakfast, went to Chase’s eye dr appt, the book store, etc. Sewed some that afternoon, and went out for dad’s bday to a new dumpling place that night.

Sunday morning our direct neighbor came by to tell us they’d be out of town for the next month on a cruise… and I heard none of it. Not the doorbell, not the conversation. LOL so the noise machine works in some aspects!

Got an hour before I have to go to battle to try to buy this Padme doll. Will not be upset if I don’t get it. I swear.