Monday Mayhem

Well, well, well...

Let's recap the last few weeks, shall we? Hmmm... There was supposed to be the jumper class? Well that fell through. Although, the Wilton Fondant & Gumpaste class was pretty good. I think the first two classes were a waste, though, since I'd already taken Course 3 and most of it was already covered then.

Then, I was sick for two straight weeks. Boy howdy did that take it out of me. And it wasn't the Dread Pig Disease. It was a case of getting a snootful of dust straight from the serger and sewing machine. And no, I didn't have AFLAC.

But, I was able to get not only my kids' halloween costumes made, but also a full on nursery set for a client done and out the door by November 2. You know you want to see the nursery set. I plastered it all over my facebook... So here they are:

The crib bumper

The crib quilt

The valance

The crib skirt (which you can't see all that well)

The curtains with back tabs.

Now I'm in the process of repainting about... oh... half? my house... I've done the shelves and hallway already. The china cabinet is reincarnated as well. I'm working on the dining room window seat tomorrow and then the dining room itself. After that will be the living room accent walls. From there, I have a couple of sewing projects: the dining room window seat cushions (something I've been "working on" for oh... 6 years?) and curtains for the girls' room.

After I've done all THAT, I still have some Christmas sewing to do: some kids' doll clothes and some nightgowns for the girls.... A jacket for the hubs and one for my cousin. Her brother gets a dress shirt and tie made by me. Their parents will get a tablecloth for their dining area. Beyond that... I dunno. My brain is starting to shut down with all the stuff I'm processing.

I had a very dear friend pass away unexpectedly last week and I'm coming down with something AGAIN *and* there were parent/teacher conferences today and well... As Shelly's favorite band The Beatles (or really John Lennon) would say... "Life's what happens when you're busy making other plans".

On a more upbeat note, though, I forgot to tell you about my pattern score! This week is $1 Simplicity patterns at Joann's. Amazingly enough, I found myself there 2 times in as many days, so I scored EIGHTEEN patterns. Yup. Less than $20 for a slew of amazing patterns. And the bonus? Lots of vintage re-releases! Wanna see what I got? You know you do! So here they are:

And last but not least... The one that got away... They didn't have this in the larger sizes and so I'm bummed...

Happy Eat-Way-To-Much-Candy Day!

Also known as "Dress up in a cool costume mom made you" day.

This year's costumes are

Silvermist (a Disney Fairy)

Snow White

Mister Sulu (oh the irony!)

Portraits courtesy of Portrait Innovations.

Silvermist & Snow White are Simplicity patterns.

Silvermist is a current year pattern and the Snow White is an OOP one. However, Simplicity did re-release Snow White with Cinderella and it's available here.

I made some changes to both patterns for a couple of reasons. One, Simplicity is an oxymoron. Simplicity patterns are some of the MOST difficult patterns I've ever had the pleasure to sew with. I'll take a a vintage pattern that is unprinted with sketchy instructions over a Simplicity. I promise!

For Silvermist, I completely omitted the "tulle interfacing" because I wanted it to have a more drapey feel. I also omitted the pantalettes because the dress is so long when made in my child's size (7/8). I used horsehair braid in the underskirt hem to give it some lift and movement. I feel like my rendition is actually closer in feel to the actual Disney Fairy. Also, rather than make myself crazy trying to *make* wings, I bought some for 50% off at my local JoAnn's. Her shoes were panne' velvet fairy slippers from the Dollar Tree. For $1. I added some leftover ballet shoe elastic to keep them on her feet for the photo shoot. For tomorrow night, she'll wear her regular shoes inside them for walking down 1st Street to Spooky Hollow. As an aside, the peanut gallery is telling me I could've sold this or Snow White on ebay for at least $70. What say you?

As for Snow White... While the costume is probably the most accurate as far as the original film costume (even compared to licensed product available), it had some really confusing bits with regard to the slashes on the sleeves. It called for two pieces of blue sewn together as sleeve and facing and then a red piece sewn to that then trimmed, THEN an additional lining. If I were to make this dress again, I'd make the lining in red, and then just make the teardrops open so the red shows through. That would be more historically accurate anyway. I made this in a 4, thinking it would fit my 5.5 year old fairly well. WRONG! It runs a little low in the bodice. Another thing that I didn't do was make the "dickey" and "collar". Technically speaking, the collar belongs to the dress, not an underpiece that snaps into the dress. If I were to make it again, I'd make the collar as one with the dress and not as BIG as shown. the huge-ass collar is NOT accurate to the film. I think the newer pattern is more accurate in that respect. I didn't "hem" the dress. I added red cord/bias thingy trim after serging the hem. It adds a little "punch" to the hemline and saves me having to hand hem the almost 3 yards of skirt at the bottom edge. I also did not hand make the cord trim in the bodice. I used purchased trim instead. Why reinvent the wheel?

Now Mister Sulu. This one is a plain white t-shirt from Dharma Trading Co. that I dyed using... iDye. Yeah, I know. Cheesy. The thing is, from a costuming purist standpoint, the Original Series of Star Trek's shirts weren't gold at all. They only looked that way on TV. And if this shirt were to be hit with the mega-lighting for TV or film, it too would look more yellow. On this shirt, the insgnia is sewn down. Normally I'd attach with velcro for laundering purposes. I also would have made the shirt long sleeve for accuracy's sake, but the shirt was free. And who am I to quibble over details when I don't have to spend anything? You know you'd do the same. I used regular gold rick-rack instead of the super-expensive more-accurate style braid since it's for a 3.5 year old boy. You know you'd do the same. Think of the life expentancy of more fragile braid when it's being worn by a boy who is... well... ALL BOY. And considering that I have to pry this shirt off his dirty little body forcefully... Well, it NEEDS to be extremely sturdy.

Cue soundtrack and...

Boldly go... yada yada yada.

Hats off to William Ware Theiss. The man was a genius.

Now here's the deal. The Annual Halloween Brouhaha at my better half's employer has been on hiatus for two years. You know what that means? A Bigger, Better, Badder Brouhaha. Oh, yes. And the theme this year? If you haven't figured it out yet...

Does that help? Okay!

My better half was cast as Sulu. People who know me in meat life will know precisely WHY this is so hysterical. According to my dad, I'm such a Trekkie that I married one of the characters. Har har har. Thanks dad! I resemble that...

Now, I'm a Trekkie. I freely admit it. And so the thought that my better half would go on stage and perform in something less than a (fairly) authentic costume is abhorrent to me. Thus, I began my trek to the stars... And a tutorial will follow eventually. I'm documenting each step, so be patient. It will be worth it.

The best part of DIY is that you can save money. So far I'm up to about $20 or so worth of materials. This will get me:

2 custom dyed shirts

the dye
the trim
the insignia (handmade by me)
the knowledge that both my better half and the captain will be dressed appropriately and not in some kind of weird cobbled together thing while the guy playing Spock will be wearing an authentic (pricey) costume.
a bonus shirt for The Boy.

See? It's win/win. Where else can you get THREE Star Trek costume shirts for less than a fortune?

What's Happening Wednesday

This week we look forward to sewing class at our local Joann's. It's "Sewing 202: Kid's Jumper" which for me is not a challenge. I'm taking the class more for the cameraderie and to get out of the house and have something to do The class runs for two weeks on Sundays from 10-1. This will give me some much needed "down time". We're working with New Look 6639:

I've got some amazing corduroy in turquoise/green/grey and fuscia/purple/grey for the Elder Princess Ella and Younger Princess Ella respectively.

And that's What's Happening

A new look

I suppose that it's a bit surprising to see over 50 posts on a blog where there had been no activity for a couple of years! Well, as life goes on and focus changes and so on, so the need for a definite separation of blog attemps becomes necessary. Please enjoy the new format and stuff. You might notice that some of the posts now date from *before* this blog was started. Don't let that freak you out. The material should have been here anyhow, lol.