Work work work

Ok, so I don't have a real job, but I'm having a lot of fun, and work of my sewing skills are getting out there now! Before Christmas I made curtains for Tina, a friend of Seth's family and they turned out gorgeous. It helped, I suppose, that she was willing to spend the $50/yard on really nice fabric. I still need to get pictures of them from her since I assembled them at her house rather than here at mine and I'd forgotten to bring my camera. But she paid me pretty nicely for what amounted to a couple days work.

With a bit of that, I reinvested in a fitting dummy- she still needs a name, but hey. I put a lot of research into what type of dummy to get. I didn't want one of the flimsy plastic ones you get from Jo-Ann's that cost about $120 and have the dials that turn (or are supposed to turn) to adjust the dummy's size. Ideally, I'd be able to afford one a professional one that's customed made to my measurements, but I'm quite sure I have a better use for $1K. So I was really happy to find this one - http://www.allbrands.com/products/abp03900-0094.html It's made of rubber foam and then you fit the cover to your shape and squish the foam into it so it fills it out properly. For $120 too! So much better than the stupid plastic ones and my second choice of dummies was $350. I just need someone to help me fit the cover since you can't exactly do it on your own, but one of the ladies in the costuming guild promised to help this month.

Even without it being perfectly my size, she's already been a huge help. This month my inlaws asked me to make them costumes for a branch renaissance themed dinner. Since I wouldn't have a chance to hold a fitting session with them, I decided to go with costumes that wouldn't really require it.

For Pam's dress I went with a medeival pellote where the underdress is fairly closely fitted and the overdress is sleeveless and has armholes that reach down to the hip. I wouldn't have tried it except there's an elizabethan smock pattern generator where you just punch in the measurements and it spits out the dimensions of each pattern piece. The pellote was easy, and I used the 'Gates of Hell' hourglass style which I though was pretty, and trimmed it faux fur. It turned out nice, but I've sworn off faux fur at least until I have no other choice but to use it. It's fuzzy and hard to sew when you can't see what you're doing clearly.
Pam looked really good in it, and I'll get pictures up of her wearing it eventually.

For Ted and Seth's outfits, I decided to go with monk's robes. After all, it's nice and simple, and Ted is the branch president. I was a little more... creative... with the pattern on this one, but it turned out pretty nice I think, even if it isn't historicallly accurate. My dummy came in extremely useful here because I just kinda drapped the fabric over her until I figure out what worked. She had a slightly more girlish figure than my father in law, but the entire thing was baggy enough that it'd fit almost anyone.


And dang, that hood was too much fun. So much volume that you could probably hide a couple dogs and cats it it and not even notice if they were fighting.


They were apparently extremely comfy and warm, and I'm half tempted to make one for myself. Maybe in a nice cream color wool or something. They only take a couple hours to make after all.

But the renaissance dinner went really well, and everyone loved the costumes. Seth and I did a demo/lecture on swordfighting, and we got invited up to their local May Day celebration. I've been wanting to make a pair of plunderhosen for a very long time, so maybe this is a good opportunity for that. In MS1.33 the figures on the plates are monks, and Seth'd be carrying sword and buckler since it's one of his favorite weapon combos anyways. I've always prefered the greatsword myself, and in Meyer's manual they wear plunderhosen and use the greatsword. It would be fun. :) It'd especially be nice if the price of wool would hurry up and take its usual spring/summer dip so I could grab bolt ends to make this with. I'm not sure on what colors to go with yet though. Any suggestions?

So this upcoming weekend is the guild meeting, and next weekend, I'm going to be going over to one of Seth's co-worker's houses to see what she needs to have done with her curtains and possibly help out there. She apparently wants roman shades, however. Which I don't have any experience in and I've heard are tricky. If she wants them, maybe she'll pay to send me to the G-Street fabric store's 'Roman shade in a Day' class. Takes 8 hous, but you walk out with a completed curtain and the knowledge of how to make more so it would be valuable for me to go to. I'll have to check G-Street's class schedule and see if there's one coming up soon. Curtains are freaking expensive, and I could charge a lot if I could gather a broad enough repetoire of home dec skills.

Let's see, some other things that are coming up!

Balticon is running May 23-26, and Seth and I are going up for that. I'll be competing with my 40K Sister of Battle costume and see if I can't make Journeyman level by winning a major prize as a Novice. Or maybe I'll just compete at Journeyman level and see how it goes. Maybe once I get a look at the competition I'll decide where I should enter- or the judges will auto-bump me if they feel I deserve it.

I'm going to be trying to compete at more cons with my costumes this year. I'd like to reach Master craftsmanship level, before CostumeCon 27 which is being held in Baltimore next year. Costume Con is one of two International level conventions and competition is tough. My local chapter of the ICG is doing a group costume and since groups compete at the rank of the highest ranked person in the group, I'm fairly certain we'll be competing at Master level anyways. (eek!) I don't want to be the weak link that brings the group down and ruins our chances so I want to get there on my own. Besides, if we do manage to carry off the Best in Show prize or one of the other major awards, that award will count on my tally and you can't compete down in rank after winning something that big. I want to know that I deserve to be at Master level because of my work, not just hanging on everyone else's coat tails.

So I've got over a year to plan my CostumeCon 27 costume, and I've already got my basic idea and done a few concept sketches. I'm even starting to collect the materials that I'm going to need to make my wig. You can't buy a wig like the one this is going to take! It's going to be awesome. This summer I hope to at least have the underpinnings finished as well as the pattern for the costume completed. That's going to take a lot of work. Then this winter I'd like to have the wig and accessories done and by the time spring rolls around to have the dress finished to! It's going to be a lot of work, but done right, should blow everyone away with its awesomeness.

But that's not all. Anime USA got bumped up to October 10-13 this year from mid-November last year. A change of which I highly approve as AUSA sunk my NaNoWriMo bid last year. But it also means I need to get going on my costume for that! Especially if I'm going to be competing in their masquerade too. I'm going to be going as Himura from Karas It's a deceptively simple costume. Coats are always tricky, but this one shouldn't be too bad once I figure out exactly what changes need to be made, and my current 'issue' is that dang sweater. I may end up having to learn how to knit and doing it myself if I don't find something rtw that works soon. Also, when competing in the masquerade, a certain percentage of the costume has to be made by you. I'll need to see what their masquerade rules say for this year, but since I'm already going to just be buying the white button up shirt she wears under the sweater, I may be forced to knit it myself in order to be eligable. But we'll see. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a knit that I can buy and sew up normally!

Well that's it for now and pretty much what's been and will be going on for me this year. Everything else is just gravy and I wouldn't really expect any future posts to be anywhere near this length. Heh.