What HAS Miss WIlde Been Up To?

It's been FOREVER since I've posted, which was kinda expected gearing up to Teslacon but I figured a little update would be nice. So here's a whole bunch of pictures of what I've been up to over the last...almost two months.

First up, some vacation photos!!

What I wore: Star Trek circle wrap skirt. My new funky sixties esque Zodiac dress. Blue linen dress (I ran through the rainy fields of Shiloh wearing this actually). Disney Villainesses skirt. Travel sunset-dress. Train skirt. Striped circle skirt.

Star Trek skirt with new petticoat taken prevacation

Funky sixties esque dress in action above the Mississippi River in Memphis

Travel sunset-dress in action above the clouds at Point Park up on Lookout Mountain. They called it the Battle above the Clouds for a reason.

And at our hotel in Chattanooga which was an old TRAIN STATION

Train skirt in action on the rails...

And on the train.

Finished striped circle skirt taken pre vacation

Circle skirt at a shopping area in Gatlinburg

I also bought some sewing things while on vacation, a pattern and a Civil War quilt pattern book.

How could I resist buying a Civil War era pattern AT a Civil War Battlefield?!?! (Chickamauga btw)

And since our train station was built in the early 1900s and since we were staying on a train car, I decided to take my Edwardian undergarments for photos.

Okay, now for a little of what I've been up to lately:

I made my mom a new scrub top:

And I've been working on a baby quilt for a friend / coworker:

And I had a bad day a while back so I worked on my charm quilt. I have like 70-80 charm squares so far. I need 400-500 for a quilt. This might take a while.

There's also been a little Teslacon prep:

My polonaise got a red stain on it, and despite our best efforts, it refused to be removed. So I had to cut it off. I'm currently in the process of sewing about three more yards of braid on.

I originally wanted to complete three new outfits for Teslacon: Victorian swimsuit (which is done), Rococopunk and a blue and green sari ensemble. With all the other things going on, that's not going to happen. So my goal is to finish the rococopunk for Teslacon and move the sari outfit back for SES in the spring.

And, of course, when I start to think about what to pack, I add to my to do list...As of now, here's what I'd like to do: rococopunk (which needs a LOT of work), finish the Harley Quinn improvements, make a fichu for my lower cut dresses, fix my time machine purse, make a garrison hat for my main airship uniform, finishing sewing the braid onto my polonaise, and make a black bustle apron.  If all that gets done, the dream projects are a red petticoat, gold purse cover and spats to match my polonaise, some black bloomers / knee breeches (these might be done as part of the rococopunk) and a fancy pencil skirt.

All that, and I'm stuck at work. And out of town this weekend. Sigh.

Teslacon Musings

For years, I've been saying "I can't go this year, but next year I'll go to Teslacon, I promise." But that hasn't managed to happen. So this year, I basically said screw it, I'm going even if I have to take unpaid vacation time from work. I talked to my boss last week, and emailed him a formal request off which he approved. I immediately bought tickets, then managed to arrange a room share with some friends, so now all that's left is a carpool. Unless I can manage to get a cheap flight because if I can, screw it I'm flying.

So, now that I'm thinking about my first Teslacon, my first trip to an award winning convention and pretty much the premier convention for at least half of the US, I'm understandably a bit nervous. What do I take? What new pretties do I make? What improvements do I make to the pretties I already have?

Here's what I'm thinking so far:
- The black underskirt goes, obviously
- The new gold polonaise, which needs some more braid added and a couple fitting issues fixed
- The naturalformesque airship uniform goes because I need to represent, I need to make a hat
- All of my grey / red / black things because I can mix and match them
- Harley Quinn probably, but I'd like to revamp it
- Maybes: Airship Stewardess. Time Traveler. Roma. Pink Paris.

So the to do list:
- fix and improve the gold polonaise
- hat for my uniform
- Victorian swimsuit (if I can ever pick a pattern!)
- black and gold rococo punk with Dixie
- maybe my green and white bustle dress
- maybe a brown silk underskirt with something to go with it
- maybe something in the YARDS of pink stripe I have
- maybe my green sari overskirt that I cut out but never finished and a bodice to go with it

Of course, this is all just musings, so we'll see what happens! I do after all have around four months or so until the event.

Current sewing plans? A steam casual travel themed sundress for Toledo War!