Colonial Williamsburg

Aaah, so much for getting back into posting.
Trying again.

This time with pictures from the Colonial Williamsburg trip we took in June, because AJ edited them so I don't have to bother with that!

First time there for all of us!
I could easily spend a lot longer than we did, pouring through the museums but alas AJ, Judy, and their partners... none of them museum people! 

2016 Photoshoot: Jareth

This costume was actually the main reason for that photoshoot weekend!

 I made this for Costume College 2015, but never actually finished it with a correct necklace/symbol and his chest piece. AJ also didn't completely finish her costume for that year, so we decided to make this photoshooting weekend the goal to get them done!

2016 Photoshoot: Jedi & Vilya

On another day we did two of my semi original outfits.
In 2008 I made an original Jedi, based a bit on Luminara Unduli/Barriss Offee. It's not really a feat of construction or anything, but since we were already taking pictures and I didn't have any it worked.

The other outfit was made in 2005 for a masquerade entry, the three of us were meant to be Elvish personifications of the three rings of power from Lord of the Rings. I was Vilya, the ring of air. As Elrond's ring, I based my design basically on a mishmash of his movie costumes just in all white.

2016 Photoshoot: Ayame and Hotohori

Oh man, I've had these posts sitting half finished in my drafts for awhile now.
Going to try to get back into the swing of posting with several "catch up" posts from 2016 (I don't even know what happened to blogging in 2016!)

So first up, back in September AJ & I took a few days off too photoshoot old costumes so we'd have pictures before tossing or repurposing them.
The timing kind of sucked for real life reasons, but I went ahead and did it and here are the results.

On day One we shot Ayame from Fruits Basket, which I made in 2006, wore for literally 2 hours in 2007, and has been in a bin ever since.

We also shot Hotohori from Fushigi Yuugi, made in 2005 dear lord.

I live!

Oh man, I didn't realize it'd been that long since I posted.

I actually really miss posting! But I feel like my house progress isn't really... postable, it's so slow and the differences are that noticeable unless you're doing it or 2" from the thing being sanded for the bagillionth time. And for sewing, I get so excited to sew when I *can* sew that I forget to take progress pics 8D  Or they're gifts and I have to wait.

I'm currently gift sewing so, more waiting, but I realized I DO have some things I can post!

... coming soon.

I figured if I put this reminder to myself here, I would actually do it! So hopefully :D

2015 Roundup

I kept putting this off in December hoping I could finish some things, but that didn't happen. Then I was kind of bummed because 2015 wasn't very productive in terms of measurable things. I did do a lot and kept very busy, but not in the way of  "I made xxx amount of things awesome!"

And the things I did make were different from my usual fare (such as branching out into gardening [very time consuming], canning [ditto], baking [yup, same], and home improvement [ooooh yes]), and I spent a lot more time reading last year and attempting to work out (uuuugh, why doesn't sewing burn more calories?).

But! I feel like 2015 laid the groundwork for loads of productivity in 2016! Especially in the sewing department, as I got close to finishing a lot of WIPs so those should be wrapping up in 2016.

So, here are some highlights of 2015!
Sewing!

Messenger Bag for my brother

Okay I've made a lot of bags now, but I really loved how clean this one looked. And I liked putting piping in 8D

D's Wedding dress!

I just realized I never blogged about the complete thing, so maybe I should do that. But it was a really fun challenge. Also very time consuming now that I'm thinking about it, so that's another place my time went XD

Pencil case for my sister!

A simple thing, but I love all the fun fabrics.

Reusable Cotton "rounds!"

Also super simple but man do I use these all the time. And do my sisters, so that was a success!

Jasper shirt!

Actually I'm wearing this shirt right now. I only made two items of clothing for myself in 2015, so it wasn't exactly stiff competition, but this was my favourite 8D

"My Favourite Little Bag"

This was a fun bag to put together, and I've been using it as my purse. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to stop doing that 'cause I've just been carrying too much stuff with me 'cause with this larger purse I forget to clean it out more :/ But! It's still a nice bag.

Non sewing things!

Basically, my beets were gorgeous, and I enjoyed making loads and loads of pickles (boo, couldn't find the picture of my loads of cucumbers and jars).

For 2016 I really plan on more of the same! More using up stash, more gardening, more blogging (it may not seem like it, but I was waaaay better about it in 2015 than 2014), more commenting on other peoples' blogs (ugh, delurking is hard), more baking. Really looking forward to finishing WIPs, that's for sure.
And in the way of using up fabric that I have, I think a few Regency dresses and at least one Victorian are in order. I want to do more periods (though, who am I kidding, Regency for life!) but they tend to require large amounts of just one fabric whereas I have mostly bits and pieces. Possibly these smaller cuts can be used to create proper underthings, so when I feel like my stash is small enough to buy more fabric I already have those done, but we'll see!

November Happenings!

I have loads of little things in progress right now, but nothing finished just yet so it feels like I'm doing nothing >.<

So here's just a smattering of pics of two things I've been working on.

I posted this pic in one of the random pic posts before. The stooooory is, in December 2010 I went to Japan and thought I should make myself a lovely coat to wear there. This is as far as I got, that's the liner in the pic, but the shell is at the same spot. When I went to set the sleeve I reeeeeally didn't like the shape of the sleeve head, but I didn't really have time to mess about with drafting a new one, and I wanted to add some things, aaaand I ended up getting a lovely wool coat on holiday sale anyway.

It's B5425 from Butterick btw, view C cut at A's length (also note, it's going to hit just above the knees on me and I shortened it a few inches from the A cutting length, so it runs long).

Anyway, so got that other coat, folded this up to finish later aaaand... never got around to it ;_;
I'm very much deadline driven, so I have loads of half finished "real" clothes that get pushed aside for costumes or presents that have to be made at a certain time. It's been sort of nagging at me since I moved though. Then one of the bloggers I read sometimes posted about finishing a quilt she started in 1991 and I was like whoa, I do NOT want that to happen to me! I need to go through my bins and finish what I want to finish and toss what I don't.
Then I started to read Lladybird's blog, and she has an excellent post on how she sews so much, and I realized that I *am* at my most productive when I do those things, I'd just never really thought about it before. But one of the things she doesn't do, that I clearly do (did?), is allow UFOs! (UnFinished Objects)

So that long story really is just to say, I'm going to finish this coat XD

That fabric is like ... twill weight. Which is nice, but not really coat-y. So I went to Joann to get some flannel to underline it with, and it happened to be 50% off, scooore.

More pics and rambling after the cut!

Misc Catch Up Pics pt 2!

Now for some random pics from Oct!

Beets!
I just planted more a few weeks ago, I didn't realize they can be sort of a year round crop here. So, excited for that.

Misc Pics Catch Up!

Realized it's been a bit since a posted! Part of the fault is I started using instagram in... August I think and so my random pics go there and I forget to put them here. Also I still haven't done anything about my camera :/ I know that it's me not wanting to face if all those pics really are gone ;_; But... I really should find out.

Anyway, so I tend to take random housey pics on my ipad mini anyway. So here's some pics from September! I'll do October in another post.

This was probably one of my last batch of refrigerator pickles, my cucumbers fiiiinally gave up the ghost a few weeks ago (no joke, I must have gotten hundreds from those plants!) and I pulled them up and planted chard, beets, and carrots there.

Lots more after the break!

Farewell Green/White Regency Shoot

Man I've been meaning to post these for ages. But for various reasons never got around to it.
Anyway! Last year I was thinking, really four Regency dress is a bit much when I have two more planned, so I decided to sell my first one.
Doris was awesome and did a photoshoot for me so I'd have lovely photos to use for etsy. It sold, right when I was getting ready to post it and signal boost, but the pictures turned out so nice I wanted to post them anyway!

We shot at Gamble Gardens in Palo Alto, and my sister Elizabeth did my wig and makeup so that Doris could take some good shots for her portfolio.

More after the cut!

Sewalong Challenge #8 Complete

Whoohoo, finished one!
I've been so far behind this feels like a huge victory XD
It wasn't what I meant to do, and the whole thing took me maybe 20 minutes, but, it fulfills the challenge so I'll take it.

Some time ago some friends bought me this teeshirt:

It's a little hard to tell because of the lighting but... it's tan. 

I appreciated the thought, 'cause as they well knew I love Magneto. But I don't care for brown. The only brown thing in my wardrobe is my jedi cloak, and that's only allowed because... jedi cloak.

So I folded it up and put it aside until I could decide what to do with it. My original thought was to make a red backpack with purple trim and cut out the picture and applique it to it. But when I got it out earlier this month along with a bunch of other teeshirts I'd set aside to refashion (funnily, I was actually looking for a different shirt from the same friends in particular) the print was much larger than I'd remembered. Aaaaand I decided I just didn't like it enough to go through all the effort of making a cute backpack.

Well! 

I recently started following Matt from the Great British Sewing Bee at Sew What's New (if you haven't watched that show, you should, it's full of really lovely, nice, creative people. I'm particularly fond of the history bits, and Patrick), and he posted a tee shirt refashion just this month.

I've seen these tee shirt bags before, but his tutorial is a nice clear one and I hadn't thought of zigzagging the edges to prevent overstretching.

Anyway, so I did that.

Challenge #8, Something Geek Inspired, done!
Also it's a refashion, so technically Challenge #6 done also 8D

And bonus, yesterday's harvest:

Water Bottle Holder Tutorial

So I've been pretty scatter brained lately (uuuuh... the last two years...) and making stupid mistakes in my sewing, just from not paying attention. I've found that running a mental commentary as if I were making a tutorial really helps me stay focused. So when I was making this, I thought why not just actually make it a tutorial?
Plus sometimes it helps to try to figure out how to put things into words rather than vague hand gestures.
So any C&C would be welcome!

My gramma asked me to make her a new insulated water bottle holder, she had this one she'd bought that either was for her old water bottle or she'd just bought it not knowing if it'd fit or... something. I'm really not sure. Point is it didn't fit the water bottle she uses now.
Fortunately, we have the same water bottle! This one from Target (coincidentally, we even bought the same colour). So I measured the base and the height and made a mockup for my own water bottle. I say mockup, what I mean is I just went for it 8D;; And made some adjustments to her's.

Anyway! You will need:
- Two 7.5" x 22" pieces of fabric (I'm using quilting cotton scraps) for lining and shell
- One 7.5" x 22" insulation piece (I just have whatever they had at the quilt store, I think it's Insul-Bright)
- Two 2" x 8.25" pieces of fabric for the cording channel
- Two 2" x 5" pieces of fabric for the tabs
- Two 1" x 5" pieces of interfacing for the tabs
- Two 16" pieces of cording

OPTIONAL:
- One 7.5" x 9.5" "Base," if using directional fabric like I did cut two 7.5" x 5" pieces

Seam allowance is .25" unless otherwise stated.

Continued after the break!

Sewalong Challenge #8 Inspiration - Something Geek Inspired

Augh, in my mind it was "Something Quilted" and I was already sad because I didn't finish my quilt for the WIP challenge (truth be told, I hardly touched it) and I've been thinking of it for like a week now. While I'm doing dishes, while I'm gardening... while I'm at work.... wondering what I could possibly quilt that's not actually my quilt.

I even thought about quilting my sister's quilt! Which she started last month, and is already at the quilting stage. She's 12 years younger than me, so it's making me feel like a slacker!

But today... I actually looked at the chart. "Something Quilted" is for December!
September is "Geek Inspired."

Which actually might be more challenging 'cause where do I even start? I have SO MANY "geek" sewing plans.

Technically, my Game of Thrones Messenger Bag fulfills this challenge (and July's refashion challenge!) but, new things!

But in the bags vein, I have several SDCC bags I'd like to refashion, I don't have pics of all of them but here are two I remember:

 These bags are huge and refashion really nicely.

I'd also like to inject some more general geek into my wardrobe, but we'll see!

Observations from first underwater shoot!

So!

Doris got some underwater camera gear a bit ago, she's rented the gear before and done a few shoots, you can see them here.

For the preggers one I did do some minimal assisting, so I *thought* I was reasonably familiar with the whole underwater thing.

Lemme tell you it is WAY different being in front of the camera.

Behind the camera, you're pretty much focused on one thing: getting the shot. Not that it isn't hard, you have to keep yourself down in the water and there are other water things to struggle with.

 

So this "shoot" was a "let's play with your equipment!" test.

We wanted to test how an umbrella maneuvers in the water, and how a night time shoot would look.

Jareth progress pics

I miss posting!
I still haven't tried to recover all those photos :/ I need to figure out a dedicated time to try, which is the real problem.

In the meantime, pictures I took on my ipad mini!

That's the next pic I have unfortunately. The paper taped on the front was so AJ could draw roughly where his weird bone chest piece goes and the size on me.
She also drew the approximate lines on the muslin sleeve, but then we both decided that sleeve head shape wasn't right. So I ended up using sleeve from Simplicity 2341 afterall, I just cut it in it's largest size for a bit more fullness at the head.

More after the break!

2015 Sewalong update

Since I've been spectacularly lax about this (okay I have been really busy, but I feel like these things are simple enough I should have been able to get them done), I thought I'd do a quick catch all update with the things I should have made haha.

Reminder that we put two months for the something vintage challenge (which I skipped), so the numbers don't align w/ the months anymore.

#5 - June : Something for your Sewing Table

This one is particularly sad that I didn't do anything for, 'cause a pincushion can be really simple. And also because these are the two things I had wanted to do (which I'd still like to do before the year is out):

From the I Can Find the Time blog.
Think it's sad I didn't... find the time to do that?
Here's the other thing:

I have a kit to make that, minimal effort! It's not that exact kit, but that image is for a pattern from Pattern Pile.

#6 - July: Refashion an Existing Item in Your Wardrobe

I have a piiiiile of clothes just waiting for this. And I have ideas for half of them!
Since it's refashioning, I can't really find pics to show my intention, but you can take my word for it they'll be cool when I get around to it.

#7 - August: Finish a WIP (Work in Progress)

I reeeeeally wanted this to be my quilt! I've been working on it off and on for over a year now, but in such small chunks it hasn't seemed worth posting about. But I don't feel it's anywhere near close enough to finish in August. So it's actually possible my WIPs will be those challenge #6 items! 'Cause like I said, I have a pile of clothes for just that purpose.
I also have a velvet blazer I started 5 years ago or so, before I really realized the different properties of velvet. And a long jacket I started probably around the same time which is sliiiightly more likely to get finished (since it's further along).

So we'll see!
Hopefully I'll start taking pictures again soon.
Costume College this weekend, so I've been cramming.

Partial Haitus... thing

Soooo, in-between taking pics, literally from one picture to the next, my camera's SD card died. At the Cheesecake Factory of all places! (in my defense, their decor really looked like the Eye of Sauron was watching us eat...)

I take pictures of eeeeeverything, I have such a terrible memory I feel like I have to! So this is kind of a big a deal (and an excellent reminder to me to back up any pictures once a week going forward).

Before I descend into despondency I need to exhaust all my options for recovery, and sadly I don't really have time for that at the moment.

So I'm not sure how the posting will go for awhile. You guys are missing out on some great beet pictures, boiled this time! And then pickled!
Also progress pictures of my house and my sewing projects and like 500 pics from Yosemite.

CoCo 2015 progress

So I'll post about the Sewalong later, hopefully. June completely got away from me, and I suspect July will as well. I DO want to do both those challenges. I'm really going to try to complete all the challenges, just maybe not in the month they were supposed to have been done in.

Part of the reason July is failing is whoops, Costume College is in three weeks!
I really waffled on what to make, I'm just not feeling the historical vibe right now. So I wanted something cool, but not too hard to make in a short amount of time, and something I'd been wanting to do. Augh, decisions.

Anyway, I finally settled on Jareth from Labyrinth, I've wanted to make all his outfits for yeeeears. My absolute favourite is the white outfit he wears at the end, but there definitely wasn't time enough for that. So I decided to do my 2nd favourite, the one I've always thought of as his Escher outfit, but I guess it's usually referred to as his "Within You" outfit since that's what he sings when he wears it.

This is the photo most available on the internet:

Many searches don't get much better!

Sweater Weather (not really)

Oh whoops, didn't realize how long it'd been since I posted!

So there was a bit of a heat wave here in CA last week. It was super warm, as in even I was warm and that hardly ever happens. It was over 100 F but I can't remember by how much.
Anyway.
I decided that it was a great time to make a sweater!

A few weeks ago my sister and I went a liiiiittle crazy with the redtag table at Joann, getting loads of lovely stripey knits to create more Korean menswear inspired shirts.
I also picked up a really light weight loose weave black and white striped knit, just a little over a yard left on the bolt.

I've wanted a black and white stripey loose weave sweater since I saw it on Toshiya when this picture came out:

I don't even remember when that was now... I'm thinking 2004-2005. I can't even remember what this pic is promoing, I haven't followed dir en grey in years :/
(Side note, I'm also quite fond of Kyo's outfit, the one front & center)

I decided to do a cardigan instead of a sweater, 'cause I wanted something easier to put on and take off, since this is such a light fabric I was thinking it'd be used mostly for summer days. Plus I think the last time I had a cardigan I was 13, so it'd be a nice something to add to my wardrobe.

2015 Sewalong Challenge #4 Complete

Augh so behind in posting.

Buuuut, I did complete challenge #4 - Something for the Home. And only two days late, so really, doing okay.