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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Tan Lolita Skirt - Finished + Tutorial!

Okay, so I have once again proven my complete inability to get something done and posted in a timely manner. The skirt itself has been finished for months now, and I've just now gotten around to taking teh finished pictures and making the tutorial.
So, here goes!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Urban Decay - Pocket Hoops and Dress Form!

After much fussing, I finally got my duct tape dress form assembled!  I (more or less) followed these instructions found on Threads. I first tried to use expanding foam to fill it, but for some reason, it didn't expand hardly at all. Instead I stuffed it with cedar shavings, and my wonderful boyfriend made a stand for it and we used up the rest of the fluorescent green spray paint to paint it. After it was finished, I was finally able to move on with my Urban Decay project!


Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Adventures Abound! Part 2

After noodling around on the internet for advice on how to clean it and re-oil it, I finally got around to cleaning out my old White sewing machine mentioned in this post here.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

My newest sewing machine.

So, a friend of mine talked the boyfriend and I into attending an urban fantasy LARP, and in pursuit of costuming items, we went out to the local Value Village.

When there, we found this beautiful 1950s Singer in a cabinet, and it had the manual in one of the drawers. We bought it on the spot, and took it home, dusted it off, and plugged it in. Everything works wonderfully. There was a bit of errant thread wrapped around the bobbin race that was causing it to jam. That's it. The motor quietly purrs, the needle and thread uptake moves smoothly, and the hand wheel and bobbin spin freely. The pedal can be set up to work as a foot pedal or a knee pedal, and the cabinet is slightly scratched, but still in beautiful condition.

The best part? It was only $50, and another $15 got us all the presser feet that came with it, plus two vintage buttonholers.

Pictures under the jump...


Sunday, May 20, 2012

Urban Decay - The Corset Part 2

Got the grommets in today. It could have gone better, but the kit I picked up wasn't all that great, and the punch that came with it was dull.  The part of the corset that has the grommets is reinforced with a strip of the same sort of web belting that you use to make car seatbelts, so it should be plenty sturdy enough.

I did, however, enlist the help of my boyfriend to help me set the grommets.



I'm currently wearing it, trying to judge how comfortable it is, and see if there's anything I need to change. So far, I think that the biggest thing that I need to do differently is to get some steel boning for the back by the laces, since the cable ties just aren't strong enough to keep everything straight back there.

More pictures after the jump...

Urban Decay - The Corset

The corset is nearly complete! I drafted the pattern using Drea Leed's custom corset generator, and with minor fiddling, it's turned out lovely! The only problem is that I wanted a gap in the back, and it meets exactly, so that's an easy enough fix. Tomorrow I add grommets, give it a final fitting, and then decide on my binding. Then I get to work on the rest of it.

I decided that two layers would be a good idea, since I was using an unidentified blue fabric from my stash, and while it's kinda thin, it's also not very stretchy, it's fairly tightly woven, and it's a natural fiber. I'm using an oak busk that my wonderful boyfriend made for me, and I'm using heavy-duty cable ties for the boning. I may add more boning channels once I test fit it again, before I add the binding.

So, without ado, pictures so far!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Adventures abound!

I have decided that I'm going to attempt cleaning and re-oiling my old White sewing machine. It's old, probably never been serviced, and I had shelved it when I got my fancy new Brother, but it's getting to the point where having two dedicated work machines would be nice.

So, I dragged it down out of the closet, removed the dust cover, and started to take the housing off....

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Tan Lolita Skirt

Project Title : Basic Tan Skirt
Short Project Description: I was finally able to go out and get the materials I needed, so I can start on this tomorrow.
Projected Deadline: End of the month at the latest, but it probably won't take that long.
Pattern(s) Used:  None. It's just a basic rectangle and waistband skirt.
Materials needed: I'm going to be using up some tan Egyptian cotton sateen and tea-dyed eyelet lace that I've had sitting in my stash for a while now.



The Huntress

Meet Huntress:


Urban Decay - Concept sketch

Urban Decay- Inspired by the 18th century silhouette, with a bodice of rust velvet and white lace, a fringed bolero of pea-and-dryer-lint green, and a skirt of book pages, newspaper, tattered pink silk gauze, and black garbage bags.


I need to get the foundation garments completed. I have the pocket hoops mostly completed, they're just waiting on a waist band, and the corset is cut out. 

Other than that, I have the bolero done, and I'm slowly amassing scraps of paper and plastic for the skirt.

Blue Organza Petticoat

Another transplant:


Project Title : Blue Organza Petticoat
Short Project Description: I just got my ruffler foot in the mail, and I need to get rid of some organza that's taking up space in my fabric stash, so I'm going to test it out. I'll also do a short review of the ruffler foot once I'm done.
Projected Deadline: Hopefully by the end of the week, if I can stop being a derpface.
Pattern(s) Used:  None. Just going off my waist measurement.
Materials needed:  I've got everything I need, as this is a stash-buster sort of project.
Challenges or obstacles :  Organza is terrible, and I've never used a ruffler foot before. I also derped through part of it already and sewed the wrong tiers together, so I'm unpicking four yards of stitching right now.  x_x;

I'm also trying to avoid buying more stuff for this, so it's going to have multiple colored threads for the stitching instead of matching thread like you're supposed to. Wooo, I'm cheap.


Lady Bluebird

Another transplant from my old blog:

The Lady Bluebird costume for Norwescon 34.

Pirate Chest Purse

Reposting from my old blog. It's been a while, but I wanted to upload these before I forgot about them again. Prototype for a pirate chest style purse that I'm eventually going to make.

New blog

After losing my actual domain name, I'm restarting my blog here. Trying to get back into the swing of things.