you must be swift as the coursing river

I got a lot done in the past week!! Feeling better about things.

Biggest hurdle:

I got all these damn cut outs on the picnic bodice done. I didn’t do them all the way around, I stopped at the side seam because I did not want to do any more than I had to LOL

I tried this a whole bunch of different ways. What finally worked was Chase cutting out little squares of stick-on stabilizer for me, so I could place the squares on the wrong side of the fabric, put it on the base corset and look at it on the form to make sure it all looked right to the eye. I couldn’t do them evenly spaced out, otherwise I had squares falling into seam lines (which, even if the real one is like that, I did not want to deal with that) or they were too close or too far apart, so I placed them where it worked and where it visually looked close enough.

Once I had them all planned out with the stabilizer, I traced around each square with pencil on the wrong side of the fabric, removed the stabilizer, dabbed a tiny bit of Aleene’s Tacky Glue around the outside edges of the square (just a tiny tiny thin amount applied with brush, didn’t want it to stain or show through to the other side), cut the square open in an X-shape and folded the edges back. The tacky glue was enough to hold the fold backs in place. Also tabbed a tiny bit of the glue at each corner to seal it. Then I took a little square of my lining fabric and put it over the fold backs – there was enough residual glue in the corners that it held that in place as well. Then I stitched that in place – just a stitch at each corner.

Originally I was just going to use my whole lining layer as what you see through the cut-outs… but quickly decided it was annoying to have that whole giant piece attached and in the way as I went through doing these cut-outs, so just doing little squares worked much better.

Once I had that done, I thought about doing away with my lining layer, but the silk outer fabric really needed the slightly stiffer lining to lay nicely over the base corset. Just laying both layers over the corset resulted in some weird bumps where the seam lines didn’t line up exactly right — and that’s when I remembered, my lining layer was slightly different than my outer layer, because I cut it first and then adjust for the outer layer. It’s been so long since I made these pieces I forgot.

I decided best thing to do would be to just disassemble the outer layer — scary when I already had hours worth of all of this cut work into it – and flat-line each panel with a new lining layer. Thankfully I had enough of the taffeta to do that. So I got that done and reassembled and thankfully it all went back together just fine.

It’s just pinned on here. Looks a little “tall” because I’ve got a good 2 inches of seam allowance at the bottom and top.

I did also monkey with the blouse a bit. Again, it’s been so long since I’ve worked with these pieces that I’ve forgotten what I had planned LOL. I cut these back in May?? I realized once I had the lining layer pinned together that it was too wide at the shoulders. I think I thought there was some gathering there. So I had to start taking it in.

It looks pretty in the sunlight!

Can I say that having to fit anything around my upper body INCLUDING arms is a pain… the only thing I’ve got to work on is myself or the dressform with arms, and the dressform with arms is just not the same size or build. But it’s the best I’ve got to actually be able to pin things on, so it was a lot of taking it off the form and putting it on me to check, then back on the form to repin.

Anyway, I paused on that for the weekend. I decided to devote the weekend to Morticia and go back to Padme during the week.

Saturday my first goal was to finish the little corset I made to wear under it. I decided I want to add in the canvas layer to the wrong size before I sewed the bias tape on – I had initially nixed it for being too heavy, but then once I got it all assembled I thought it really needed another layer of oomph. I started getting it pinned on and… it didn’t line up. Guess who sewed the back panels on backwards on the actual corset piece? (It was right on the lining layer). To take all that apart to fix would’ve taken me a few hours. I said fuck it and left it. I cut the back panels off the corset layer and sewed them into the back panels of the corset just so I’d have more strength in those back panels for lacing it up. I also said fuck it and sewed the bias tape on with the machine. Nobody is going to see this piece and I’m going to have to remake it/rework it afterwards anyway, so who cares if it’s pretty? It just needs to be functional. Got the eyelets in and called it a day on that.

Earlier in the week I started on a mock-up for Morticia. Mega huge thanks to my aunt for giving me a ton of old sheets so I had plenty of mock-up fabric!

Mostly I wanted to figure out the skirt. The boots I’m wearing with this make me 4-5 inches taller than I am, so I set my dressform up really tall and got to work.

Ran out of the white sheet and had to start with the brown one LOL

Now with the bodice mockup.

I tried it all on with my underpinnings and it was close enough, so off we go. Saturday afternoon I spent a while disassembling the mock-up and updating the initial pattern pieces.

Took a break Saturday night to go see Spider-man, but more on that later.

Sunday I finished getting the patterns updated and it was time to cut actual fabric. At first I was like, dang I way over-bought on this black spandex for the lining, but as I went…

Oh. Don’t mess this up, there’s nothing extra LOL

I got the spandex lining layers cut – went ahead and sewed the bodice lining layers together to double check the fit in my real fabric vs old cotton sheets, and it did need some tweaks. So I did those and fixed the outer layer to match. Then I used those pieces to cut my black swirly mesh fabric. Basted the mesh layer to the spandex layer and then got pieces sewn together:

Front panels!

My original goal when I bought that swirly fabric was to pattern match but I VERY quickly realized that was never going to happen, there’s not a single straight line in any of these pattern pieces except maybe at the very bottom LOL I did try to at least make the center bodice seam CLOSE but it’s not exact. Also, I definitely did not buy enough of that velvet mesh lace fabric to pattern match on the huge skirt panels! I would’ve needed 20 yards!

Side panels added.

That’s where I left it last night. Side panels are on and pressed and clipped, just need to remove the basting stitches. Side back panels are cut and ready for assembly. Still have to cut the back, sleeves and skirt insets. If I don’t have enough of the mesh for the skirt insets I can skip it on that — they’re going to be covered in other fabric anyway.

I have 3 other fabrics to mix in – they’ll be in the lower skirt insets and coming out of the sleeves. One of them is a black chiffon with purpley-red metallic threads running through it that I plan to distress a bit. I have two pieces of a spiderweb lace:

This is just a Halloween decoration LOL But it’s perfect, I love it. Going to be using this coming out of the sleeves mainly because it’s perfect.

Then I also have this with flowers on it, I don’t love the flowers for this project but other than that it has the overall gauzy vibes I want. It was kind of expensive and I’m kinda thinking I may just go buy more of the spider-web lace and save this for something else.

So that’s where I’m at as of today. I’m off Friday so I have a 3 day weekend to really buckle down. I’m kicking myself because last night I was supposed to ask Chase to print the embroidery on my stabilizer so I could start the bodice embroidery today and I forgot. I’ve GOT to do it tonight so I can get moving on that.

Goals this week:
-finish assembling Morticia
-figure out fabrics for insets
-get them sewn in
-finish Morticia?? (that would be awesome)
-get a good chunk of Padme bodice embroidery done
-dye padme underskirt
-finish padme underskirt
-dye padme cape fabric
-do mock-up for Chase’s shirt for his costume

Did I decide to add another costume to my list? Yes, but it’s minimal work:

The whole reason I was like ooh I could do that real quick is that I got an ad for a great looking Rogue wig. Went and sourced a shirt to mod, found a belt buckle. Then realized the wig ain’t going to get here in time. So now I’m buying 2 wigs to sew together. My thought process was, maybe once I have a good animated Rogue wig it’ll finally make me do the classic yellow/green with the jacket next year. Who knows.

I am just going to wear my Black Canary gloves… which aren’t right, hers have an X on them and Black Canary is just a yellow stripe, but it’s close enough for a quick easy late night costume. Wear boots I have. I did wonder if my old black leather pants from Ruby Heart would fit me. I tried to get them out of the closet only to find a spider. UGH! Chase had to crawl into my costume closet trying to get it but it got away, so I left that for another day. And honestly I know those pants aren’t going to fit, no pants I fit into at 23 are going to fit me now at 46 LOL I have a pair of black jeans that’ll work fine and be way more comfortable.

Anyway, I already had 2 wigs to style – one for the silly duo Chase and I are doing, the other for Morticia, and I need to fix lake dress Padme, so why not throw another in the mix. Bought a white lace-front and a red auburn, going to curl the red one and sew the white lacefront on top.

Let’s break up the wall of text with a Luna pin-up.

Oh god just thinking of costume repairs on existing costumes is overwhelming me. I really haven’t even decided what I’m wearing. Here’s the list so far:

1. Picnic Padme
2. Morticia
3. Silly duo with Chase – I could finish these this weekend, in fact I think I may try so I can get them off my list
4. The Rogue outfit?
5. Scully -because I bought new glasses for it so I can actually see at the con so I’m gonna wear it. Wig may need a restyle too.
6. Belle ballgown -I might as well bring it back and wear it for a while – I want to try it on with some stays and see if it alleviates the pressure on my back from the skirt.
7. Taylor Swift/Padme – I really need to look and see if I can fix the issue with the bias tape at the underarms. I think maybe if I snip it at the inside that will allow it to open up a little more and stop trying to curl into itself. It wants to curl under and in right at that curve, which results in a muffin top.
8. T’Lyn – if I decided to do a Lower Decks photo-op
9. Mrs Roper Romp?? – Thought about using my lake dress disneybound shawl as a caftan. If I’m bringing it for Taylor Swift/Padme outfit, why not? I have Kevin’s Napoleon Dynamite wig I could use LOL
10. Lake dress – I wanted to bring it back one more time but, I dunno at the moment, it feels like a lot
11. Ceremonial Leia – I want to bring a Leia and the only time I’ve worn this one there was for a hot second in 2021, so maybe? Or maybe even my disneybound LOL
12. Diane – I want to go to the Twin Peaks photoshoot for once. It’s always on Sunday morning which is my time slot for wearing big giant things outside of the crowd, but I’m not gonna do that this year. If I take the new Belle ballgown, Chase won’t be in Beast so he can help me wear it in a more crowded situation.

Anyway – last night I dreamt I was in the finale of Rupaul’s Drag Race and I was wearing that new Belle ballgown. I was backstage and freaking out over walking in this thing in front of a crowd. All of the drag queens back stage were being so nice. Anetra gave me a hug. They had us line up and I got in the wrong spot LOL. Then I looked down and realised my silk velvet was shattering – I was so mad, I was like, I JUST MADE THIS HOW IS THE SILK SHATTERING ALREADY. Then Chase woke me up to say bye LOL

Oh my god I’m really rambling, let’s move on.

My aunt’s sister gave me this Mickey suitcase! OMG it’s so cute!

Saturday my new Dragoncon bag came!

With lots of extra goodies too!

Had so much fun picking out which pins and bag charms to put on it. Though I forgot the Leia I had sitting out exactly for this LOL. So I need to rearrange. I think if I move Nandor up a bit, she can fit right under there.

Saturday we went and got pizza and to see Spider-Man. We were way early so went to the book store, the pet store, and a goodwill.

Somebody’s betamax Star Trek TOS collection. If I had a way to play them, I would’ve gotten them.

Movie was great, loved it. Got home really late (movie was at 9!) and Luna was really miffed at us walking in at midnight and turning on lights and waking her up.

Leia Project updates… I’m up to 68. I need to dig up 7 more costumes to hit 75.

This one is from the cover of an old Star Wars comic. I kinda rushed it to have it ready to post today… I may go back and redo at least the belt, I think it’s sitting too low. I also don’t like the skirt. You couldn’t really see the skirt in the comic cover, so I decided to make it fuller to set it apart from other basic white dress looks, but I don’t think it looks right. I think I need to make it slimmer.

And after saying I wasn’t going to do the little Leia outfits from Kenobi… I did the little Leia outfits from Kenobi.

The white outfit ended up being my fav.
I didn’t want to include these initially because of scaling issues. I ran into this with my midcentury project — having these much smaller characters means it messes it up when I put them all together in one image. But oh well, figure that out later. I also stuck 2 on one canvas so it wouldn’t just be one little figure in the 8×10 (trying to keep them all the same size).

Also it was hard AF to find references of these?? When Kenobi was out and I was doing the midcentury project I felt like I had plenty of references, but this time, google was not helping. I finally just had to go dig through screencap archives.

That’s all for this week. Fingers crossed I get a lot done this week. I have 28 days to do all this. Time to stop taking naps (grimace emoji)