Tag: wedding

May already?

I always appreciate the opportunity to take a break. Unfortunately, I can’t always predict when I won’t have the willpower or motivation to do things that I enjoy doing when they need to be done. Sigh. After last month’s deadlines, I had anticipated a healthy amount of free (unscheduled) crafting time this month. I spent more time on the couch than I care to admit. On the upside, the Princess and I are caught up on our TV shows.

In order to work on my costumes for the next two events, I wanted to get my duct tape dress form completed. Husband had free time, so he did all the hard work. Following tips from a number of tutorials, we used plastic wrap instead of a t-shirt for the base, regular silver duct tape, then black (less sturdy) duct tape, and finished with “fashion” duct tape to mark common measurement lines. I put the cast over my existing dress form (on the lowest possible settings) and stuffed her with blankets and fabric scraps. The updated form is more helpful than she was in that I can better see how things will fit my body, but the stuffing job wasn’t fabulous, so she doesn’t squish into a corset quite as well as I do. Regardless, I love her new curves.

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After the reconstructive surgery to my dress form, I whipped up my entry for the Colette Patterns – Laurel contest. I finally used a Joann’s special fabric that I had planned for another dress two and a half years ago. The sheath dress pattern was very easy to follow, and I appreciated the tips and tutorials on the manufacturer’s website. I picked up neutral shoes and a bag and wore the dress to a spring wedding. All seams were intact when I came home, so it was marked as a job well done. The pictures were uploaded to Flickr and tagged for the contest’s popular and print categories.

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For the bachelorette party of the same wedding, I made an animal print headband to match the bride’s theme. I love this style and have two others made from quilting squares. They only take about 30 minutes to stitch up. Maybe I’ll post my instructions one day. Here’s our munchkin modeling for me.

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OH! And, I put up a makeshift backdrop so that no one has to look at my nicked walls and cluttered fabric space in the background. You can see it in the Laurel dress photo. I turned a couple of hook screws into the ceiling and suspended beat up lining fabric from medium sized binder clips. With another couple yards of fabric, I could make a U, which would be ideal, but this works for now.

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This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, and the whole family will attend in costume this year. We’ll be representing DC, Rennie style – Superman, Batgirl, and Wonder Woman…er…Wonder Toddler. In the interest of time and being restricted to shopping only from my stash, she’ll be wearing a red velvet bodice with yellow-gold accents, blue twill breeches (either slashed or pearled), brown pleather cuffs with silver accents, and a gold satin headband with red acrylic gems. The outfit will go over her white undershirt, red tights, and red velvet shoe covers, which might get satin-stitched if I don’t forget. I’ve also coiled her golden lasso and secured it in the bodice lacing. The last thing a toddler needs is a potential tripping hazard, but I don’t mind having something to hold on to in the crowd. My only goal for FCBD is to get a good picture of our little super team; getting through the lines will be a bonus. Here’s a preview; I will post a family picture as soon as possible.

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Progress on the 4th Doctor’s scarf continues. Remember: No more than 30 minutes four days a week…what did you expect?

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For May, I’m looking forward to doing a minimum of sewing for the Steampunk World’s Fair. I have two costumes packed and one to determine, plus last year’s Military Fairy as a backup. The costume conference is two weeks following that, and I have at least one major undertaking that I haven’t even started yet. I’ll try some refitting of older, smaller pieces and then, it’ll be a mad dash to finish in time. I see hot glue in my future.

I think I love this time of year. 

Thanks for reading!

Let the countdown begin

We’re just outside of two months until PARF! In that time, I have two adult and one infant Italian-esque ensembles to create, and one adult and one infant working class ensembles to create. I don’t know what any of them are going to look like, but I hope to figure that out before too long.

Let’s see…as of the last post, I had small projects loading up my work table. Here they are, in no particular order.

A friend and I completed a full set of wings for the bride and attendants in her wedding. They were awesome! I’m not going to do a full write up on them, but I am so happy that we did it. I cannot wait to make some for fantasy costumes.

 

Related to the wedding, another bridesmaid donated her wedding gown to my stash. In return, I made a “something old” gift for the bride from all of us and a keepsake pillow for the donating bridesmaid.

Two weeks ago, I did a 15 minute project for a friend who works at a grist mill. She wanted an apron for her 18th century work outfit. Again, no full write up. I used a cotten/linen blend remnant from one of my smock projects. The first one I made was longer than she wanted, so I kept that one for my working class ensemble, and made her a wider apron that I’ll hem when I see her. I’ll either tie it with cotton twill tape or the remnant’s selvage.

Another friend decided to participate in the Punk Rock Flea Market in Philadelphia. In addition to his own fantastic art, he asked if any of his creative friend types would like to showcase some of their wares at his table. In a feeble attempt to make a dent in my remnant bin, I accepted the offer and made six tablet/e-reader pouches. One sold, and, honestly, it feels pretty awesome. I made the pouches in three styles that I made up as I went along with only items that I had in the stash. Of course, if I didn’t have a full-time job to go to, I could have made a ton more from remnants in that gosh-darned bin.

This week found me working on the final non-faire project of the season–a baby shower gift for a crafty uber-geek friend. I made her a Boppy cover and nursing apron in a girly safari nursery pattern. I’ll admit that I bought extra of the fabric so that my Tiny Princess can travel the shopping carts of the world in style. I plan to get the cart cover completed eventually.

I did a no-sew project this month, but I don’t have a picture for some reason. I made bonus counters for Munchkin (Steve Jackson card game–Google it if you don’t know it), which can be used for a lot of games, in truth. I went through a lot of prototypes to get to the finished product, but I found a book of fairytale card stock that was perfect for the project, making the time spent totally worth it. I stamped all of the numbers myself and used paper fasteners so that the number dials would turn. They’re pretty neat, and I can’t wait to get the gang over for a night of back-stabbing fun!

The husband’s shirt is coming along. I’m up to the sleeves, so I could, potentially, finish this tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, a friend and I are taking a basic knitting class at Joann’s. With some real training under my belt, I hope to make some headway in the scarf I’m making. Confidence in one’s abilities goes a long way toward finishing a project. I can do the garter (?) stitch, which is all that the scarf requires, but I’d like to be able to do it well.

Once the shirt is on the hanger, I’m going to jump right into the slops and try to marathon them out over the course of the week. As always, I’d prefer to power through the projects and have time to breathe that last week before faire. Next weekend, I’ll be making a hat for my mom, and the less I have sitting on my table, the better.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I would like to visit the NJRF, which is going on this weekend and next weekend. I can’t say that I have a good reason for not going other than not wanting to go by myself. The thing is…I could probably find a handful of individuals who would go and in costume. I’ll ponder it this week and see what I end up with.

I think I’ve updated my small audience enough for now. As always, don’t expect updates more than once a month, but know that I am crafting my butt off!

Thanks for reading!