April Finished Projects

1. Roma inspired steampunk crazy quilt skirt.
2. Petticoat of Doom to be worn under the Roma inspired steampunk crazy quilt skirt.
3. Decorated a clip on pouch to wear with the Roma inspired steampunk costume.
4. Mask for the SES masquerade (that I never wore)
5. Muppets fleece blanket for Nick Wheeler of the All American Rejects (he loved it, btw)

Last Minute Ohayocon Prep 2 and Normal Clothes for ME!

The Imperial Officer was a success last night at Last Night on Alderaan. Miss Dashwood snapped a picture before I left her birthday celebration so hopefully I can update this entry later with it. Before I wore it, I did fix the hem.

I fixed my beau's gloves -- it was a pretty simple repair. They have elastic straps that wrap around the wrist and velcro in place and the straps needed replaced. It was easy and quick to take the old ones off and put new ones on.

Then I put a waistband on my black petticoat. I took a piece of black knit left over from other projects, trimmed it so it was more square on the ends, cut it in two lengthwise and sewed the ends together to form a long piece. I stitched it onto the waist of my petticoat, about an inch or a little more from the top (this was so that the tears and holes in the petticoat would be covered), then stitched again to hold the waistband in place before turning the edges under and stitching it down. I also used narrower strips of the knit along the back opening to finish those edges as well. All it needs now is some sort of closure, probably a hook and eye which I don't have with me.

I also cut out my Kermit pajama pants, put them together, hemmed them and made an elastic casing. They would be finished, IF I had remembered to pack elastic. Also its a good thing that they're just for me -- I accidentally cut out one leg upside down.

Yesterday I purchased a pattern to make a knit tunic and some purple knit (clearance!) for it. Prewashed the fabric today and I noticed I bought the wrong size of pattern. So now I'm trying to decide if I should exchange it or just make it and take it in to fit. I'm sort of leaning towards the latter, but I know I should probably exchange it. Well, I do work tomorrow so it won't be difficult.

I still need to finish my Harley Quinn mask. I really should do that as soon as possible. If not tomorrow, then Tuesday.

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde

Changes in My Sewing Plans

Well readers, as of now (of course this could change), the Joker is no more. I'm quite upset about this, as you can imagine considering that the tailcoat is about half done and the pants have already been cut out, rendering that fabric pretty much unusable for another project. At least I haven't cut out the vest yet, but I doubt I'll use that fabric for anything else anyways. The trouser fabric and the jacket fabric actually I might have used for another project but oh well. C'est la vie, right?

This project has come to an end basically because my beau decided that he did not want to wear the costume. It was something he was doing for me anyways, and he just decided against it. I rather wish that he had made this decision before I got so into the costume, but again - c'est la vie.

Our agreement was that if he did Joker, I'd make an Imperial Officer, so that is also off the table. At least all I've done is purchase one pattern which I rather like anyways. I think it'd make a lovely steamy military jacket or coat. Don't you agree? EDIT I just had an idea -- I'm planning (hoping) to do a Steampunk Confederate Vivandière outfit. I think this jacket will suit that costume perfectly: it has the Civil War-esque, military styling that I'd like, and it'll be a lot easier than altering a man's Civil War pattern (I have one from McCalls) to fit me. I just need to add a shortened Civil War era skirt and trousers underneath.



My current plans are to finish Miss Dashwood's Catwoman costume, finish my beau's quilt and finish the mask for my Harley Quinn. I had a set back on that yesterday actually -- the painted handle broke. I'm going to see about just ribbon wrapping one and seeing how that turns out. Hopefully I can do it without it breaking. If not, I may have to re-evaluate my mask plan.

Then I think I'll take some time for myself until I start sewing for other people again. I've got a few things lined up, but I've been very clear that I'm not available until February, so I'll have some free time. I'm thinking I may actually set sewing completely aside for a bit. I have a scrapbook that I've been wanting to do (and my beau's Christmas gift really made me anxious for it) -- I went to Quebec in May of 2009 and haven't scrapbooked it yet. I have all sorts of memorabilia and photographs and I've even already purchased a scrapbook so all I need is some more scrapbook paper and maybe some embellishments.

However, I do want some new clothes. Normal clothes. For myself. I still haven't made that corduroy skirt so I'd like to do that. And I have some flannel for pajama pants that I could make. I'll have to go through my stash and see what I can find.

So I'll finish my current projects, then scrapbook and make myself some things before I start sewing for others again.

Mourning the death of the Joker...

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde
Steam-stress of the Airship Archon

Ohayocon Prep 25

First of all, it looks like there's going to be some changes in my sewing plans over the next few weeks. Miss Dashwood's Catwoman costume is still on (details below) but my beau has decided that he would prefer that I make my Imperial Officer costume instead of finishing his Joker. However, the party that the IO uniform would be for is on the same day as Miss Dashwood's birthday celebration so honestly at this moment, I am unaware of what exactly I will be working on between now and Ohayocon (which is 26 days away, by the way).

Last night, Miss Stoup and I had a sewing night while our respective significant others watched movies. I helped her with understanding the directions for her costume and she got the bodice mainly constructed. I worked on Miss Dashwood's bustle belt. I cut out the belt, adding a seam allowance to the pattern that I made last week, and sewed the two pieces together along the scalloped bottom. Then I clipped all the points and corners, turned the belt and then pinned the top edge under and sewed the belt together along that edge as well. Next was top stitching the scallops and the ends so everything is consistent. Unable to work on pockets or the front closure without Miss Dashwood's input, I started on the bustle portion. The bottom ruffle went on first -- 24" (twice the width of the scallop opening the bustle covers) x 6" (long enough to come below the bottom of the belt). I finished the edges, then put a gathering stitch along the top and gathered the ruffle down to cover the scallop. That ruffle was stitched down and then I started on the next ruffle. It was about 18" long, but I guessed the width and never measured it. It's probably around 4" wide. Again the edges were finished, the top was gathered and the ruffle was stitched down. Unfortuneately, I accidentally put the gathering thread (which is gold) on the top of the ruffle so I need to remove it before I stitch on the last ruffle, which is about 12" by 3". I finished the edges and plan to gather it and stitch it down today. EDIT I took out the stitching on ruffle #2, then gathered and stitched down ruffle #3. I really can't do anything else without Miss Dashwood (the next step I want to do is the snaps on the front, which I need her for). I have some of the fabric with me so I may cut out pockets either tonight or tomorrow during work.

At a stopping point on Miss Dashwood's costume, I pulled out my beau's quilt and finished stitching the blocks into rows. Next up is ironing before I stitch the rows together into a quilt top.
EDIT I ironed all seven rows and sewed the top two together. They're in my bag to take to my beau's this evening so I may work on them there.

I haven't worked on my HQ mask yet, but that is next on my list to do today. EDIT - I shortened the dowel rod I purchased for the mask's handle and painted it red. The paint dried a little spotty so I'm going to wrap it in ribbon. At least with the paint underneath no wood will show. I also tried on the costume and it looks fantastic. I'll definitely need help with getting into it - I don't like the way I bustled it so I'll need help with that. I need to sew a hook onto my costume for the mask when I don't want to carry it. That'll probably go on the side of the jacket near the bottom. Its in my bag to do at work tomorrow.

What I'd like to do today -
1. Finish my HQ mask - EDIT worked on it
2. Do everything I can on Catwoman without Miss Dashwood's input (she's visiting her beau this weekend) - EDIT pretty much did this
3. Iron and sew the rows into a quilt top - EDIT ironed and started sewing the rows together

A bientot

Miss Leah J Wilde
Steam-stress of the Airship Archon

Ohayocon Prep 22 and Quilting

Things I did not work on that I said I would - my mask and Miss Dashwood's fabric and sketches. I need to take care of those today.

I did however work on my beau's quilt. I have three or four of the seven rows sewn together.

AND I got quite a bit of work done on the Joker this weekend. As previously mentioned, I cut out the corduroy and the lining for the jacket last week. On Friday, I put together the jacket and the lining. I also cut out the lapel facing and sewed it together along the center back seam.

Then he decides that he wants pockets. Which makes sense - obviously he needs to be able to carry a pocket watch and a flower in his lapel. I just wish he'd mentioned it earlier, would have been much easier to put the pockets in before the jacket was sewn together.

Since the pockets must go in before the lining, I obviously did not get around to hand stitching the lining in this weekend. Sadly.

While visiting his family out of town, and without a sewing machine *gasp*, I cut out the pockets for the jacket and also his trousers. Those were interesting. The underlining of white cotton was just fine, normal cutting out. But the outer fabric is so lightweight that I decided to use the underlining as the pattern pieces and cut out each piece separately, on only one layer of the trouser fabric. As you can imagine, this took some time.

Last night after we returned, I tackled the jacket pockets. First of all, let me state that I hate welted pockets. While they look fabulous, they are a pain to sew. I reread the directions before I started and marked where I wanted the pockets to go. Then I stitched the welts on, then the pocket lining, then slashed the pocket and the jacket and pulled the pocket through and -- I had messed up somewhere. Turns out that I had put the welts on backwards, so instead of a nice smooth folded edge showing, it was the raw edges of the welts. Sigh. So I had to take everything out and start all over again. Thankfully, the second time went off without an issue, and the other side of the pocket was sewn on. I showed the beau and he approved of my work which of course pleased me to no end.

So I have one pocket down, two to go on the outside of the jacket. Then there's two more on the inside, but I may just make them patch pockets. I'll have to talk to the beau first.

Now for everyone's favorite part - the to do list!

Harley Quinn
1. Finish mask

Catwoman
1. Prewash fabric
2. Sketches for both the bustle and the utility belt
3. Construct both the bustle and the utility belt
4. Insert zipper into turtleneck

Joker
1. Finish pockets on the jacket, both inside and outside
2. Sew in the jacket lining
3. Sew on the jacket lapels
4. Buttons and buttonholes on the front of the jacket
5. Put the trousers together - zipper or button fly?
6. Cut out and construct the vest
7. Probably need to make a tie

I plan to take turns working on Catwoman and Joker. I'll probably mainly do Catwoman while on the Companions Shuttle and work on the Joker while visiting my beau in his quarters. Today at work, I'm going to work on my mask and try to get those sketches done.

I'm going to try to take enough photos during the next pocket construction that I can do a welted pocket tutorial.

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde

Ohayocon Prep 21

Non sewing related crafting alert! I finished my beau's gift and wrapped it last night! I'm ready for Christmas now!

In Ohayocon news, I started cutting out my beau's Joker jacket yesterday, using the muslin for the front and back pattern pieces. Actually, I cut it all out. There was a brief moment of panic when I thought that I wouldn't have enough fabric for the outside of the jacket, but thankfully I was able to get everything cut out. Just barely. I added to both sides of the jacket front (along the front and along the side seam) so it should close now. Hopefully.

I also cut out the lining. Which also caused a little panic, and the jacket back will need some creative sewing because there's just a pinch missing from the side seams, but it should be okay. Cutting out the front lining was interesting. The way the pattern works is that there is a collar facing that is the visible part of the collar when the jacket is worn. (We're thinking of using some fake fur for this actually). So the entire front of the jacket did not need to be lined. I pulled out the collar facing piece and laid it on top of the front piece to see what exactly needed to be lined. I then folded back the collar and cut the lining omitting that section. Hopefully it will work. Although now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I should have just left it, then if we decide against the fur, the collar could have been the lining fabric. Oh well, c'est la vie. I used a bit of the left over lining fabric to cut out pockets for the inside of the jacket, as well as pieces to finish the opening of the pockets.

I still need to cut out the collar facing and the cuffs, probably out of fake fur as previously mentioned. So that is probably the next step, or I may just start putting the jacket together. I would love to have the jacket and lining ready for hand sewing this weekend. My beau and I are going out of town to his grandfather's home and I'm worried about keeping myself occupied while we're there. And we're going to need to go button shopping.

I worked on my mask yesterday but hit a small problem -- the backing is a touch larger than the outside in a couple places. And of course, I discovered this after I had already covered it. I think I'm just going to let it be, afterall, what are the chances that someone will be looking that closely at my mask? Maybe I'll add a bit of trim to cover up my mistakes.

The fabric for Miss Dashwood's bustle and utility belt is in my sewing bag today. I'm planning to prewash it on my lunch break because its rather stiff. I'm hoping to get some sketches done over the weekend so we can get started on her things next week.

That's it for today!

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde

Ohayocon Prep 20

I finished my mini top hat yesterday! It was pretty quick and easy to sew on the hair comb and the elastic -- I'm using both because I want to ensure it stays on my head. I also started working on my mask. The outside layer is almost covered, just need to finish stitching around one of the eyeholes. Then I'll cover the inside pieces and sew the two together. I need to get a dowel rod for the stick portion of the mask. And paint it.

Miss Von Stoup and I went shopping yesterday. We picked up ribbon and beads for her Poison Ivy costume. I'm definitely starting to feel the crunch, with Ohayocon swiftly approaching.

Non sewing related crafting alert!

I worked on my beau's Christmas gift yesterday as well. Its mostly done, just need to finish it which I'll probably do today. And then I need to fill a stocking for him. No clue what to get as stocking stuffers.

Ohayocon Prep 18 and Quilting 2

Ohayocon

On Friday, I went to the fabric market with the Misses Dashwood and Von Stoup. We purchased items for Miss Dashwood's Catwoman costume - zipper, snaps, fabric - and I also picked up a hair comb for my HQ mini top hat.

I was planning on purchasing some crinoline or buckram to use as the base for my HQ mask, but thankfully found the left over scraps from the previous masquerade masks that I have made. Needless to say, I was very happy. With crinoline in hand, I used an old mask to cut out the basic shape and tweaked it a little bit to suit my purposes. I also cut out another mask (although it's divided in two down the middle) for stabilization purposes. I plan to use a dowel rod so that I have an old fashioned on a stick masquerade mask so I decided that extra stability would be a very good idea. In my sewing bag today is -- my mini top hat with hair comb and elastic and my mask base with black satin. I'm planning for an undecorated mask, since Harley's is unadorned in the comics.

Last night, I finally measured my beau for his costume! I started cutting out the muslin for the jacket, but didn't finish it. Finishing the cutting and basting together the mock up will probably be my evening project. Then of course comes getting him to call so that he can try it on, but at least I now have Miss Dashwood's costume to work on if I cannot work on his!

To do list (cuz you know I love them)

My beau's Joker costume
1. Jacket - finish cutting out muslin, baste together and have a fitting. Then comes making the actual jacket.
2. Vest
3. Pants

Miss Dashwood's Catwoman
1. Utility belt - design and construct. Its going to have lots of snaps and pockets, I know that much for sure.
2. Bustle
3. Shirt - modify turtleneck by inserting zipper (this may be the first bit that I tackle actually)


Quilting

I spent Saturday evening and yesterday afternoon working on my quilt. I had to make some more squares, which got sewn into twos and then together into four square blocks. It was a vicious sew, iron, sew, iron, etc cycle. I think I should have enough blocks now to make the quilt top. Then comes figuring out the actual quilting.

But at least I did not burn myself this time.

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde

Christmas and Ohayocon Prep 15 EDITED

First of all, I finished my brother's pajama pants last evening. I stitched the waistband casing and threaded the elastic through. Now he needs to try them on for elastic and pant leg length.

And my HQ jacket is almost complete. Yesterday at work I hand stitched in the lining and pinned the sleeve hems. Last night I machine stitched the sleeve hems and top stitched around the jacket opening and all the peplums with a white straight stitch. We decided that lacing from underneath the breasts to the waist would be lovely. I picked out small grommets for the lacing, mainly because I have a lot of them already so there's no need to purchase larger ones. I'm unsure what color lacing I'll use, I have some red cord and some black ribbon that I could use, but I lean towards using white which necessitates a purchase. EDIT Pictures!


A shot of me sewing in the lining. I used black thread because I like contrast.

I personally think it needs more, but Miss Dashwood likes the subtle touch. I'll see what I think once the whole outfit is put together I think. I may add another row of stitching or a little zig zag in addition to the straight stitch or I may just leave it as is. We'll see.

I also worked on my hat. I decided to use the plastic cup technique that I read about online (I think it was on cutoutandkeep.com). First I made it shorter because it was a rather tall cup. Then I traced the top and cut it out of cardboard for the top of the hat. I traced the top again and added to the circumference for the hat brim, and cut that out of cardboard as well. I used scotch tape and clear packing tape to put the hat together.

With the base constructed, it was time to start adding fabric. I used an uncut plastic cup to gauge the fabric to cover the body of the hat and cut it out. I wrapped it around the hat, trimmed it then used a gathering stitch along the bottom to make it fit. The top was notched and stitched with long stitches across the top of the hat to hold it in place. Next up was covering the brim. I cut out a large circle of fabric and first tried a gathering stitch. That didn't work so well. So I took out the gathering stitch and decided to pin it in place and stitch it. Around this time, I remembered that I have double sided tape (usually used to hold costumes in place). So I used a large X of that on the bottom of the brim to hold the fabric in place while I pinned and stitched it in place along the top of the brim. With the brim covered, I trimmed off the excess and turned my attention to the top of the hat. The brim and the body of the hat were covered in the diamond print cotton. Once again, I used double stick tape to hold it in place. I cut out a square of fabric (black taffeta) large enough to cover the top of the hat and taped it in place. I then trimmed off the extra and treated the edges with fray check so that they wouldn't fray (obviously :) ). Next was a double stitch in red thread to hold the top in place and add a bit of red to the hat.

Now it was time to trim the hat. I made a hat band out of a length of black taffeta and added white lace to one edge. I then stitched white lace into place on the brim. A piece of my narrow red ribbon was stitched along the center of the hat band. Now all I have to do is stitch the hat band in place. I'm planning to either add a hair comb to the bottom or elastic to hold it on my head. I am unsure at this moment. EDIT -- hat band has been stitched on. EDIT TWO Here's a couple shots of the hat at this stage of construction.




I want to add more to my hat, perhaps a plume of feathers or something sparkly, but Miss Dashwood thinks the hat is fine how it is. She actually thinks my outfit is rather over the top and keeps telling me to dial it back a notch. And while I think she's right, I also think that's the point. After all, if you can't be over the top with Harley Quinn, when can you?

Today I have my hat with me, as well as materials for the mask and purse. I plan to trace another mask that I've made and cut it out of black taffeta. I need to check my stash for buckrum like I used the last time or purchase a bit of it. Maybe I can use netting for the inside of the mask, but I doubt it'll be enough. I'll have to see. As for the purse, I've decided to make a cover for an old purse that I don't carry much anymore. Its going to be red taffeta with black diamonds and tie on with black ribbons. I may trim it in black and or white lace, that decision will be made after the construction of the purse.

Harley Quinn
1. Petticoat - DONE!
2. Bustle - DONE!
3. Corset - DONE!
4. Underskirt - DONE!
5. Jacket - put in grommets and laces
6. Top Hat - DONE!
7. Purse - pattern needs to be made and cover needs to be constructed and trimmed
8. Mask - pattern needs to be made and mask constructed and trimmed. I need to purchase and paint a dowel rod for the stick to hold the mask by.

I'm anticipating that I'll be finished with Harley Quinn either today or tomorrow. Or at least mostly finished. Next up is the Joker! My first step of that will be the mock up of the jacket for fitting and measuring my beau so I can start on the other items.

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde