You must be lost

Made really good progress on the undergown mockup today. Of course, the one time I know I'm going to be ripping a zipper out when I'm done, it goes in flawlessly. I'm serious, not a single hiccup. That's never happened. I do need to make some fitting adjustments in the back along the zipper seam, but the zipper itself is in perfectly. Really wishing this wasn't just a mockup. Maybe the final will go in just as well.

I've been pondering it all day as I worked while realizing I didn't get a white zipper for the liner gown I wanted to make (since I can't wash the metallic stuff and don't want to dry clean it every time it's worn if I can help it). I wanted to make the lining a complete separate dress with short/cap sleeves that maybe had some snaps along the neckline or something to keep everything in place (I've thought about snaps for the overgown as well and still think I'll do that as well). After a little back and forth in my mind on it, I've decided I'll just get another zipper and definitely do the separate liner dress. That way I can toss it in the washing machine after each wearing.

Certainly is nice to be able to zip up a project all the way while it's on the dress form. I'll be working on sleeves tomorrow. I've got one of the bell sleeves cut out, but it might need some adjustments since I made some to the armscye. I need to cut out one of the cap sleeves to try to fit.

I spent the week re-reading Beowulf (finished Tuesday night) and Fellowship of the Ring (finished this morning). I have some reflections on my readings, since it's been since middle school that I've read any of these tales, but I'll save that for the other journal. The Two Towers hasn't arrived yet, so I guess I'll pick back up on embroidery for keeping busy in quiet times. I haven't touched the embroidery since we got back from our camping trip last week, though I did make some decent progress in the car on the way there (was kind of afraid of getting it dirty by working on it on the way home). Friday evening as we were packing to leave, my beads arrived. The glass flowers are perfect, not too large as I feared. The iridescence on the silver lined seed beads (for the edge trim and any other accents I need it for) is more than I thought it would be and I'm glad. The teardrops, though I think they may be different from what I already had in my stash, are a great size and I've got plenty to do the trim (and then some probably). So even if I can't use what I've already got, it shouldn't be a problem. It also seems that he Czech glass beads from FireMountain appear to be a little higher quality these days. When I ordered from them for the embroidery I was doing around the time of our wedding, the teardrops I received had kind of one side that was almost a mirror finish with the iridescent coating (both sizes I got had this). Now, it seems the iridescence is a nice even rainbow finish as it should be and I don't feel there's a side I have to turn towards the back. I'm hoping my trim won't look too white and that the silver will shine the way I want it too. Here, as I've been choosing threads and beads for it, I was afraid to go too heavy on the silver.

I've really got to stop avoiding the major sewing as well. I've cleaned out the room, I've made good enough progress on the trim to spend some time on the gown, but something is keeping me from starting. I'm my own worst enemy sometimes it seems. Jonah will be going back to school in a couple of weeks. This time for two days a week. Though I wasn't as productive as I hoped to be during his summer session (although the house was quite clean at that time), I really hope to utilize most of the 12 hours a week I'll have in a quiet and empty house to get this costume done and the necessary adjustments and finishing touches done to my other costumes. I'm glad I've completely abandoned the idea of doing Rosie. I'd be pulling out my hair. I'm the only one to blame for procrastinating though. I've had all year to do this. I'll be happy if the mockup is completely done and I'm starting on the main costume by the time August is over.

Oh, and the swatches I got for silver dupioni to make some bias tape: none of them worked. They're all white/black crossdyes and I just don't think any of them look quite right. I do have a fair amount (close to a yard, maybe more) of very nice white shantung silk. I think if I get some silver dye, I might be better off than the dupioni and it will be a much cheaper venture (as in $4 instead of $12).

I'm thinking about getting a new wig for Arwen, since I'm only doing Arwen costumes for ALEP and I'm just not that happy with the one I have. I've spotted a seller that has some lovely (from what I can tell) 40" wavy wigs in various colors, including a "cinnamon brown" that looks right for Arwen and a blonde that looks right for Galadriel and even Eowyn. They're only like $35, which makes me wonder about the quality though. I still want to get an Evenstar as well and after weighing the various versions that are available, I think I'm going to go with the one from Titania's Trove (ebay store). I'll deal with the fact that the bail is wrong and it comes with a box chain instead of a french twist. I just don't really want to spend another $20 to get a more accurate chain (priced at FMG, those delicate machine cut chains are expensive!).

I'm really happy with how the embroidery is coming along. I worked on it quite a bit yesterday, feeling drained after a day at the DMV/Emissions test center/County Clerks office to get my driver's license and license tags for the car all updated. I just didn't feel like cleaning and the house wasn't much of a mess anyway. I'm working in a 10" loop right now (I might move up to my 12" when I finish this section). On this 10" or so of trim, I've finished the squiggly line couching I was using to fill in the gaps between flowers, as seen in silver here. Yesterday, I managed to run a line of chain stitch along the top of the trim in a thicker thread (DMC silver Purl) and fill in the petals and blank sections in the center of the flowers with just regular DMC silver floss. I finished two and a half flowers before having to go to bed last night. All of this work is going much quicker than the couching was, so I'm likely to feel like I'm slowing down as I move on to the next section of trim. Today I hope to finish the flowers and run chain stitch on the bottom scalloped edge (one line on the very bottom and one line at the top of the lattice looking stuff). I'm not sure if I want to mess with trying to "sparkle up" the lattice looking stuff or not. I'll see how it looks once I have all this done. I'm not even really sure what I could do that wouldn't be too labor intensive. I keep thinking, "whatever I do on this 10" of trim, I have to do on the rest of the trim". I may just leave it.

As for beads, I've decided to leave the bugles out of it entirely. I'm going to put some iridescent sequins with silver lined iridescent seed beads in their centers along the bottom of the flowers (between the spoke looking things). I've got some iridescent clear glass teardrops that are the perfect size to put in each of the teardrop shapes at the top of the trim. I'm going to order some more of the pressed glass flowers I used on my wedding gown embroidery, but in clear AB for the center of each flower (kind of a flower within a flower) and put a silver lined iridescent seed bead in the center of each of those. I think that's all I'm going to do. I know I had more planned, but I don't want to overload it or overload myself with too much work. I'll take another picture of it when I finish all of the silver embroidery on this section (hopefully by the end of the day). Not sure I'll get to work on it over the weekend. My friend Steffany and her daughter are coming up from Huntsville for a visit this weekend and she's going to watch Jonah while we work on putting up about 70 feet of privacy fencing and a couple of gates.

I did get the office (my sewing room) cleaned up enough that I can get in there and work again. But since it's also our guest bedroom, again, I won't be working in there this weekend since Steff and Lilly will be sleeping in there.

Our hillbilly themed booth at the National Homebrewers Conference was a hit. We even had genuine moonshine on hand for authenticity. A lot of the work we put into gathering props kind of got wasted. We were sharing a 10x10 space with another club that had as many kegs as we did (about 10), but luckily no food and no props. We spent time putting together a weathered looking sign out of a slat from our privacy fence and a piece of particle board. I got some black paint and sloppily painted some mountain peaks with smoke rising from them and the words Smokey Mountain Breakdown at the top. At the bottom corners, I painted banjo in one and a set of three moonshine jugs in the other. The idea was to use duct tape and cardboard scraps to make a list of the beers we had on tap at the time. The plan was to set it up in a paint can full of pea gravel, but the sign wound up not getting used. It wouldn't stay standing and couldn't really be seen from behind us. Not to mention the lights kept going out on it. I couldn't find any pink plastic flamingos, but did find some lights that looked like they might have been stolen off someone's RV trailer. I also picked up a small garden gnome, some really cheap and crappy looking silk flowers, and a small toy banjo and guitar. We had bluegrass blasting from an ipod the whole time (though you couldn't hear it much over the dull roar of the crowd on club night). Hickerson had picked up some fake beards for the guys (as in ZZ Top looking beards, down to their waists). He also snagged some toy riffles and a few extra corn cob pipes. Chris had gotten some straw hats and corn cob pipes as well. We all went barefoot and rolled up our jeans a bit. We actually didn't forget our camera for once. The only problem was, we forgot the batteries. I've only found one picture of us up on Flickr so far, though I know lots were taken (well, we posed for a lot anyway).
( Here's the result )

A bunch of hillbilly A.S.S.es (our club name is Antioch Sud Suckers). Top left is me of course, then moving right is Chris, Carl, Tom and Kyle is on the bottom row. I'm not sure where Hickerson was when this was taken. Possibly manning the booth while we ran around acting like idiots. In Carl's hand you can see the jar of moonshine. We had a piece of duct tape labeling it "Light American Lager". The jar was empty by the end of the night. We had a blast and are planning to go again next year, even though it's in San Francisco. We might not bother with a booth (trying to get props across the country would be nuts), but we'll at least attend.

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( Now, to focus on ALEP )

I mentioned this in a comment on Jess' journal, but I wanted to put it here, before it slips from my mind forever. This morning, right before waking, I dreamed about ALEP. I was trying to decide when to wear the Angel gown, concerned that it might still be too shear in some lights. I thought to wear it at night and then suddenly like an epiphany, I thought, "hey, and I could get some fiber optic lights and somehow work them into the costume so that I glow."

( Dreaming in fiber optics )

After many tries, I think I've finally settled on how I'm going to do the embellishments to the lace trim for the Angel gown. I've been working on little bits here and there all week and have started over more times than I care to count. I've tried four different types of silver thread. I've tried chain stitching with the tambour hook, but the net backing is such a material that the hook consistently snags on the way back through the fabric causing runs in it. I noticed when I was at Michaels the other night getting a different thickness of silver thread to try that the Clover tambour hook has a closure mechanism, more like a latch hook. I may wind up buying one of those at a later date to try it out and see if it works better than the Lacis one I have, but not for this project. After the tambour hook failed, I tried chain stitching with just a regular embroidery needle. The look was too thick and cumbersome for what I wanted.

I emailed a girl from the LR_Cos group who recently shared her pictures of her gorgeous recreation of Arwen's Coronation gown. The look I was going for was those squiggly lines between the medallion motifs on the sleeve lace. Since she embroidered her own, I thought I'd ask her what type of stitches she used for hers, since it looked more like couched cording or braiding or something. Turns out, she used really thin thread and really tiny chain stitches for all that work and it took her (rightfully so) a year and a half to complete. I'm not that dedicated, especially for this costume.

So, since I thought it looked like couched thread and I've got some really thin silver thread I can use with the thicker stuff, I gave that a try last night and I think I've settled on doing it that way. I'm using the fine braid (#8) Kreinik thread I used on my wedding gown embroidery and the super thin Clover embroidery thread I just got to couch it down in a squiggly pattern to fill in the gaps between the flowers on my trim. I'm liking the way it's looking and think I can proceed with vigor now. Finally! If I ever get around to doing the Coronation gown, I believe I'll go with couched thread on the sleeve lace as well. I really think it gives the right look and is considerably less work than tiny chain stitches.

Despite being sick this week, I've managed to get good progress accomplished on the Angel gown mockup. Sewing is something non-strenuous and doesn't require as much energy from me as housekeeping does. So yeah, the house is a mess, but I've gotten sewing done, heh. There was one day this week that I was really down for the count and Jonah and I just laid on the couch watching The Simpsons all day. But other than that, I feel I've made the most of it.

I finished the undergown yesterday and started the overgown this morning. I was very happy that the undergown came together so quickly. Just one try, no additional fitting or anything and it seems to be where it needs to be. Though, I do need to shorten it by about 3". I want it to come just to the ground and it's actually puddling right now. I should have stuck with just the 10" addition instead of 12". I didn't take into account the 2 1/4" addition to the bodice. The neckline is a little wide too, but not a problem for the undergown, since it won't really be seen. It's just something I'll be adjusting for the overgown. I wanted to make the overgown neckline a little smaller anyway, since it'll be in 2-way stretch knit fabric.

I did have to do two tries on the sleeve mockup for the undergown though. The first try had a ~24" hem and didn't seem wide enough. I cut out a second one increasing it by half to add another 12". So now it has a 36" hem and seems closer to what I was going for. I'm not going to toss the original sleeve though. I think it will work great for something in the future that's not quite as wide. I was hoping to squeeze the sleeves into just 1 yard of fabric, but now it looks like they each need the better part of a yard to get the width I want.

I have to say, these have been some of the easiest pattern alterations I've done to date, thanks in part to my new tools and the fact that I took way more measurements than I ever have before starting. I've been referencing Sandra Betzina's Fast Fit, as well. Not so much the step-by-step alterations for problem areas section (which is like 75% of the book), but more the general guidelines for making modifications to patterns and how to measure for things and such in the front of the book. I can't say enough how much my curved design ruler has helped every step of the way! And I love my new rotary cutter as well! I will say that I'm not enjoying using this muslin as much, though. It's very thick and doesn't drape at all. The old stuff I had was thinner and draped better. I'm wondering if a prewash would help it soften a bit. I might try that for my next project.

I had a personal goal of finishing the mockup before the end of the month. Today being the last day of the month, let's see if I can still make that (it's possible). I'll be ordering my lining fabric tomorrow since I'll have a replenished budget to work with. The crepe de chine I wanted is back in stock at Dharma, so that's convenient. The embroidery thread I got last week or so turned out to be too thin for the chain stitch, but I believe will work great for beading. I think I'm going to just go with Kreinik thread, maybe the very fine braid. I used the fine braid on my wedding gown embroidery and that was too thick for what I want to do here. So, I still haven't started any of the trim embellishments.

My costume ADD is wanting me to start thinking about the next project, but I'm not going to start writing about it for fear of getting distracted by it. I always seem to lose steam on whatever I'm working on when I start thinking about what's next. I still have little details on 3 other projects I need to finish up so I can finally take pictures of them and call them officially complete. As it is, I never did make tiebacks for the drapes I did last summer.

I attempted to start last Friday. But, I had to scrap what I had done when Chris took over the office all weekend to work on the server in the closet. Long story short, every time I went in there to work, I had to redo anything I had previously done since he shifted my pattern all over the place even though it was pinned. Luckily, I was just working out alterations before cutting anything. In a fit of frustration yesterday afternoon, I unpinned it, carefully draped the pattern over a chair out of the way and threw the muslin I had marked up in the washing machine to start over. *sigh* I understand the urgency of his work and I'm not mad at him for it, but it's just very frustrating. I couldn't even get into the room all weekend to work on it and then when I do, I have to start all over. At least I marked most of the alterations on the pattern in pencil.

Amidst all of the frustration though, I'm really excited to be working on something new. I haven't started a brand new project since last August when I started the wrap shirt. Ever since then, all I've worked on have been projects that were started long ago and never truly finished. I still have some of those looming, but if I'm going to make progress on my wish list this year, I've got to get started on something new. Worst case, I spend the last quarter of the year finishing up all these projects. ;)

( The plan for the undergown. )

Other than I got my lace today.

"That rhymes Marge and you know it rhymes!"

And yippie skippy is it ever lovely! The proportions are different than I was expecting, which is a good thing in this case. I was thinking the flowers would be smaller but they're really a nice size. I think with some beading done to dress it up, it's going to be just fabulous. Right now it's kind of plain, just simple white cotton embroidery on stiff white organza.