totchipanda

I decided to try on the corset mock-up again on Monday night, and in doing so, I stabbed myself with one of the gore pins viciously. It didn't bleed very much and seemed pretty shallow, so I stuck a Bandaid on it and went about my night. Yesterday morning, I pulled it off, thinking that I didn't need it (also it was my right thumb and I need that hand), but maybe I did. It's a little puffy and is very sensitive to pressure.

Today I got Sophie's sleeves on, and the skirt, plus pinned up the hem. I don't know if I like it. I forgot to add width to the skirt pieces, so they're about as puffy as the bodice (the skirt should be puffier), and the sleeve was the best-fitting sleeve I've ever had from a commercial pattern (but it should be a little poofier at the top). But the real problem was the waist area. I didn't measure it or mock it up or anything, and it's really short. I didn't even adjust the height for a petite bust. The bodice ends around my ribcage, and the bottom of the waistband barely touches my waist. It barely closes where I left the seam open for the zipper. Wearing a corset won't help me, ribs just aren't squishy. I'm going to finish it though, and if I don't like it, then I will sell it and start over.

I definitely need to make petticoats too. It's just so flat without them!

My costume had it's first wear out this past weekend, and well, it wasn't quite what I hoped it would be. I had months to finish it, so I was totally sewing pre-eyeleted tape to the front edges to lace it closed the night before I left. Yep. I had a pair of "moto pants" (basically leggings in a thick fabric with some seaming details) that were "good enough", as well as sueded boots (could only find my black ones; they were grey by the end of the 2nd day there was so much dust and dirt blowing around), so I just needed to finish the "coat" to have it be wearable/recognizable. But then Saturday exploded and it was cold and windy, so I wore my Jedi cloak all day and I didn't want people to stop me for photos anyway, so I have literally one photograph of it, which you can see at my blog. (I'm making the doofiest face. Graham McTavish is such a lovely man.)

The lacing gaped and pulled, I used a Victorian pattern for the bodice so I'm not convinced my boobs were in the right place for it, the "skirt" fell away from my body when it should have remained straight down the front (and if I understand the book below, the version of the costume I want to do doesn't even have a skirt on that piece), I think I need to line and weight the petals... Hard to say. As I said, it was cold and windy, and my cloak and jacket were both poly, and they clung to each other something fierce. Having the right pants made might help too, the moto pants are pretty staticky too. I probably won't wear it again until September, I will have a long time to figure this out.

I picked up the Cloak and Daggers book at the con, hoping it would have detailed costume pictures. I'd seen a couple of scans that suggested it would. It had not nearly as many as I was hoping (I would enjoy an entire book the same size on Mirkwood costumes alone), and at the same time, far more than I was hoping it would. It wasn't just costumes too, it was set dressings, weapons, and props. Lovely resource and well worth the $50 it cost me. I hope I can pick up other books soon :) (I also dropped my money on the floor, and when I picked it up one of the ladies, who had the most lovely New Zealand accent, told me I could throw my money at her instead. I would love to! I want this book, please take my money!!)

The two best pages for Tauriel (for me) was the mention that her cloak is raw silk (me: HA! I KNEW IT!!! Go me for learning enough to recognize raw silk on sight :)) and the page that contains a front view of just her undershirt on a mannequin. I knew she had one, it's quite visible in a couple of scenes, but I ran out of time to make one (and I so need one), so now being able to see it, even only half of it, is WONDERFUL. I'm going to experiment with wearing a corset underneath as the base layer and see if that helps the gaping and pulling and also puuting my boobs where they belong. Gosh I can't wait to get started on that undershirt though :) I didn't know how long it needed to be, and now I do. Yay!

This costume makes no darn sense >:C

( In which I spend way too much time thinking about this. )

I really have been thinking about approaching this from a practicality point of view. Like, if some of the outfits do have removable skirts, the question becomes less why and more HOW? I would feel most comfortable lacing one onto the bodice, but there could be arguments for them being stitched in loosely too. Either one I feel is impractical. Threads and laces can break, and your enemy will not wait for you to remove the offending loose fabric/ties to get back to the ass-kicking.

My brother and I saw the third Hobbit movie again on Friday, and I kind of want to go a third time? I have decided that I am going to cosplay Tauriel probably this year. I didn't really know how I felt about her as a character for this past year and a bit. I came to realize yesterday that some of the best things about her are that she is one of the only female characters in the entire movie series (not strictly canon), and we get to see her being talented at what she does, which is being bad-ass, all while still being feminine, AND (in my mind, most importantly):

She gets to wear sensible shoes.

So tired of movies with female characters who wear shoes with a heel. It's so impractical. Even in Sucker Punch, I remember noticing that in the first fantasy sequence, Baby wore ridiculously tall heels, and then in some of the fight-parts, the stunt person was clearly wearing flats, to go back to the main actress wearing heels. Let's face it, most heels just aren't well-suited to nancing about the mountains.

Just needs a facing :)

( Dress! )

And which boots? I like them both :( the shorter ones are flat, the tall ones have like a 3" platform heel.

( Boots! )

Still to do:

• Buttons, lots of buttons
• Top stitching on dress around neck
• Extending sleeves by an inch, and putting cuffs on
• Cap headbandy thingy
• 2 reticules

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Got up at 7:30 this morning... Woke up a little before 7 and just couldn't get back to sleep. Insomnia sucks.

So, more progress. It doesn't look like a ton. I put in the zipper and did some tailoring on the shoulders. It seems I have a petite bust point, needed to take 2 inches out of the shoulders D: The downside is that now there isn't enough "room" on the white parts for three buttons in the front.

( The clock in the background doesn't believe in daylight savings time. )

At least there's enough room on the back for four buttons (and I did put it on, it will fit over my head XD). I was going to make buttonholes because I thought I had enough overlap, but it turns out I don't, not really. Now toying with button-topped snaps. It'll probably be easier to get on by myself that way.

Next up, sleeves.

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I had a hard time getting up this morning (at 10:30am), which usually results in me having insomnia at night and being awake until ridiculous o'clock. If I was working early, I'd've just taken the little blue pill and sucked it up, but I'm working late, and since they taste horrendous and don't really work*, I'll just stay up. It's weird. If I'm not thinking about bedtime, I'm tired. As soon as I start to consider going up, I start to wake up. So, since I'm working late tomorrow, I figured I'd ease some guilt of reading this morning instead of costuming and go work on it.

Which, BTW, Graceling was a wonderful book. I could hardly put it down :D

*(They do work. They put my body to sleep and I go unconscious for a number of hours, rarely a full 8 even though they do make me groggy for just about 8 hours exactly. But they don't really put my mind to sleep and I still go through the day in a state of mental fog, and by the end of it, I feel as if I haven't slept at all. Not sure how I feel about them in general, if the physical effects are worth the mental ones.)

Anyway, I've achieved Frankenpatterning level 6. So far I've used 4 patterns in the construction of the dress, with plans of using 2 more. ( Patterning, etc... )

Also cut out: pockets! Pockets are going to save my life, I think. Camera in one pocket, phone in the other. I guess I better decide where to put my money too... (ETA: Hidden pocket in apron belt! Done.)

So now I just need to make the white parts and decided how to attach them. How far the zipper needs to go and be out of the way of pockets. Everything about the apron. Hat, which I forgot needs a lace edging. Style the wig (it needs its bangs cut).

And also decide what to bring for the other two days. I was hoping I miiiiight be able to squeeze Asami into my sewing too, but we'll see. I don't have anything I need for that one besides a wig.

Dear self,

Stop panicking over stuff you can't control, or you won't be able to sleep tonight, and we already went through that last night. OK? OK. (Right now it is literally "omg what if people want me to pose? I don't know hardly anything about this series/character, I'LL DO IT WRONG DDDDDDDDDDD:" Yeah.)

Started doing the research (again) for my costume :3 It feels SO GOOD to make a cosplay again, my first real one since 2010. (I made Ashura a little later, but I'd had that planned/half-made for a loooong time already.) I'm lucky it's a super-duper-mega-easy one, basically a loli dress with an apron. I might try to find different boots; the ones I'm half-planning on wearing aren't terribly comfortable for long-term wear. Could I get away with ankle boots? Maybe... I'll have to try to get the salt damage off the one -_- Debating getting a new pair of glasses that are more round, but not sure I can justify $100 for a pair of glasses I'll only wear a handful of times. Actually, pretty sure I can't justify that. Heh.

Note to self: put pockets in skirt!

Also... who corset-laces the back of an apron? That is very poorly designed D: