ambition makes you look pretty ugly

Well as I left off last week, all I needed to do on my new disneybound Leia was to sew the buttons on.

And then Saturday morning around 4am I crashed out. Mostly over the belt. I just felt like it was too tall on me and the proportions just were not right.

So Saturday morning I dug around on etsy to find a file that was sized better. I finally came across this more geometric, art deco, sort of southwestern-y design that I think not only suits the vibes of the dress better than the first one, but also looks more like stylized Leia conchos than the first one did. And the size is MUCH better.

Tested out a few different color options first. At first I thought I wanted to go lighter – but decided I liked the darker one better.

I didn’t have any big long cuts of this fabric left, so out of my scraps I found squares big enough to fit the hoop and was able to do 2 per square – then I had to sew them all together which was a pain and I hate having a seam in between every one – but it is what it is.

These went MUCH faster than the first ones too. The first ones took about 22 minutes each, these were 7 minutes each. Only had 2 mess-ups, and one was able to be saved (it happened RIGHT at the end so there’s one motif where one of the dots is messed up, so I just put that one in the back).

Got them all pressed, trimmed down, sewn together. Sewed on my last 2 decent lengths of fabric for the ends. Got it all interfaced and flipped.

(Also I got about half of it interfaced then went back to my bin of interfacing for more and couldn’t find any long strips to do the rest of it. I was like, “I thought I had a bunch left!” but couldn’t find it. Placed a pick up order at Michael’s. Then started to clean up a bit, turned around to my fabric bin I have in the window seat… and there was the big roll of interfacing I knew I had. Oh well, can always use more interfacing…)

New belt done, I tried it all on again, with my shoes and all. Aaaaaand here comes the second crash out, because I hated how it looked on me.

It was just… frumpy. Dowdy. I called Chase in and we brainstormed. I ended up pinning the side seams, taking it in about an inch to an inch and a half on either side – basically removing all of the looseness of it. That helped a lot because it let it be more fitted to my body and I didn’t have so much fabric blousing at my waist.

Then I also shortened it. Cut about 2 inches off the hem. My new hem is not as pretty as my old one, but I wanted to get it done. Did it by machine instead of by hand and it’s not perfect but it’s functional. I also lost my french seam at the side seams when I took it up, because I wasn’t redoing all that.

Here’s the reworked version. I still don’t LOVE it but I at least don’t hate it.

I repainted my buttons last night (I didn’t like the original paint color), and I think I need to do one more round tonight and then I can get those sealed and sewn on. And I realized I’m going to need to paint my shoes. They are a brighter white than my dress fabric. Ordered some “antique white” fabric paint that I’m going to water down and just do a light wash on until it has a slightly more yellow tone. Gotta be careful because it’s not a huge difference, need to be really subtle.

So hopefully next week I’ll have this finished and can take pics of me in it. And then I’ll decide if it’s going to Disney with me or I’m reverting back to Disneybound Leia #2 LOL.

Mail call…

I got my Rizzo keychain!! OMG this is brilliant. The pizza box, the trash bag, the blind bag-aspect of which tshirt he arrives in… love it. I’m hoping to snag one of the “cheez head” shirts next month when they go on sale so he can match me.

I bought this weeks ago and it shipped immediately, but it got sidetracked by the ice storm. It sat in the Memphis post office for nearly 2 weeks before it finally showed up. I kinda don’t want to take her off the backing card because it’s so pretty??

And a swatch for Picnic Padme. I liked this and ordered yardage. Also my sequins I got weeks ago and never showed yall. I’ve got a swatch coming next for the outer bodice layer.

Birthday balloon at month 5. Still going strong. Everyone is under strict orders to not touch it, because last year I touched it and it immediately drooped. LOL I want to make it past month 6 and beat last year’s record!

Saturday mom and I went shopping while dad and Chase tried to install our new dishwasher. We bought the dishwasher LAST SUMMER and it’s just been sitting in our garage. Turns out it was too complicated for them to do, so now I’ve got a dishwasher sitting in the middle of my kitchen until we find someone to come install it.

Can you believe our neighbor just comes to our windows and screams at us? Insane. (J/K he’s a sweet boy that just wants pets.)

Finished this Star Wars puzzle – it was only 500 pieces so it only took a night. I was going to do a Frank Lloyd Wright one I’ve had for a while next, but while we were at Walmart yesterday I found a really cool Star Wars one I’m going to do instead.

Yesterday our neighbor’s dog dug a hole under the fence and got in our yard again. She was going nuts to get out. Thankfully they were home so Chase texted them and let them know and they came and got her. Not long after I went into Kevin’s room and was just looking out the window when I saw her at that hole again – started filming and got full footage of her wedging her body through that little hole into our yard again LOL They went to get some rocks to block the hole after that!

I’m very very ready for vacation. Brain is starting to go whirr with all the stuff I need to do before. I cleaned out our medicine cabinet last week to take stock of what we have onhand and what we need to restock for our travel bag. As soon as I can see the forecast for our days later this week I’ll make my packing list and that’ll help resolve some of the brain overload.

Edit to add: Forgot to tell yall the latest xanthelasma results! Another round of garlic and it looks GREAT. Holy shit. Going to do one more round – doesn’t need a lot – and I think that should do it. Hooray!