Ordered the velvet

Chris reluctantly handed over his credit card last night for me to go ahead and get the silk velvet and fabric etching stuff. No, I haven't finished the mockups for everything yet, but I've got a pretty good idea of how much yardage I'll need, judging from the patterns I'm modifying. He's convinced he'll have to pay it off, even though I fully plan to, as in, it will be paid off by the end of November. I would have put it on my card except. . . I don't have one. ;] He says he doesn't mind paying it off, but I'd feel bad if he did. It is my hobby after all.

All that's left to buy is the fabric for his undertunic now. I ordered the suede for his boot wraps yesterday from Fashion Fabrics Club.

I got the belt in from the ebay seller yesterday. I thought I was going to have to soften it, but no way! It's awesome! I think when I go to spruce up Chris' costume for accuracy, I'll use this belt, but make a new buckle for it (or have one made). He has yet to have tried on the pants. Need to make sure he does that tonight.

I started prepping the brocade last night with stop flow/anti-fussant/whatever you want to call it. It basically acts like a starch you apply to a canvas before painting to keep the paints from bleeding all over the canvas. Allows you to freehand paint silk without using a gutta/resist. It makes the fabric stiff as a board, but is water soluble and they say the fabric will return to it's original hand once it's rinsed out. Worst case, I run it through another load of Milsoft. Next time I do this though, I'm definitely building a stretcher and an easel. Dharma sells stretchers, but they're expensive, and look to be easy to build. Shoot, if we can build a brew stand, we can build a canvas/fabric stretcher. I've got about a quarter of the yard+ prepped with stop flow (started about 15 minutes before going to bed). I want to finish that tonight. I was wrong, doesn't say you have to wait 24 hours, just that it has to be completely dry before you start painting.

Still to go. . .
Finish mockup for the undertunic
Mockup the surcoat
Mockup the boot wraps (never done any before)
Dyeing the midnight blue habotai
Overdyeing the fuchsia habotai to see if I can turn it red
Painting the brocade with gold and black accents
Working out the design for the etching on the surcoat yoke
Ordering the fabric for the undertunic
Constructing everything (this is the big one)

Lot of work left. I'm still determined though. Will be working long hours this weekend. Getting home late the past two nights is really cutting into my costuming time.

Well owl be damned (puns are lame)

( I am my mother's daughter )

Ack!

Dharma is out of silk velvet!! Bummer! I know syfabrics has a while silk velvet for about the same price. Dharma is offering me a cotton/rayon blend, but I just don't think it's going to be the same (I'm thinking more like Green Gown material than Blood Red gown). I'm asking them about fiber content (percentages) and if it's a cotton backing with a rayon pile (if it's got some rayon in the backing as well, it might work). I'll make the final decision when I get the answers, but I really think I should go with the syfabrics stuff. I want silk velvet, that's for sure!

Actually, for the yardage I'm getting, the stuff at syfabrics is $2 cheaper per yard. I've seen a swatch and I know it's nice, too. I'm just going to go ahead and tell them to ship the fiber etch and cancel the rest. I'll save about $30 on the velvet order this way and I'll know what I'm getting. I don't have time to get a swatch and find out it's not right, or get the whole yardage and find out it's not right.

k, I'll stop posting today, I promise

The Mirror gown fabric has gone up $4/yard (to $24/yd), is now advertised as "Galadriel" yet it's a different pattern. It's less like Galadriel than ever!! GRRR! People cashing in I'm sure since it's in high demand from us costumers. Here's the new listing. Sure hope they're still making the other stuff, but I'm not going to bother asking just yet. I won't be able to buy it for quite a long time it seems (have to start thinking about Christmas saving). Maybe by then demand will go down and they'll lower the price. Not likely though.