Don't despair! We will be posting more soon!

Robin is camping.  She's been busy sewing in every spare moment.  She's taking pictures.  She has utterly failed to post them.  

I'm home, and trying to sort out my new life.  I am still spinning.  I have some soft celery green fiber that I want to turn into a hat.  Not because I want a hat, but I think that's all I will have after I'm done spinning.

I'm letting all my partially made projects sit idle for a bit.  Turns out, retiring involves a LOT of eating and drinking with friends and co-workers.  I'm feeling bloated.  I'm also getting more exercise, so my hamstring attachments (nice phrase for my bottom) are a bit 'fatigued'.  Gimme a couple weeks to get on a schedule.  Then I'll be ready to fit the garments that are hanging, half done, on the back of my bathroom door.

I woke up yesterday with a very neat idea for a skirt.  It is neither costume nor everyday wear.  So OF COURSE I want to make it.

I will post a picture once I draw one that looks like my mental image.

Killing time - Lisa

It has been strangely difficult to actually retire.  For example, today was supposed to be my last day of work.  Instead, it will be my last day 'in the office'.  I will work from home for a month...  Or so....
They won't even tell me when I can leave.  I can, of course, walk out at any time.  But not with all of my money.  So I'm killing time....

(this will be my daily walk)

I have taken some walks.  And I'm trying to learn to spin.  No, not on a stationary bike because that sounds like a middle circle of Hell.  With a drop spindle.

Here's the spindle with the 9 samples of roving that I have to try as my 'homework'.  The first class went really well.  It seems fairly easy.  Then I went home....

I waited a couple days to try again.  And it wasn't easy at all.

See the green stuff that looks like troll hair?

That was my first disaster.









I got it spun but when I pulled gently it all fell apart.  I'm pretty sure its a nylon fibre so I blame THAT.

Then I moved on the some of the other fibres.
They were easier and some of what I did actually looks a little bit like yarn.  After the tan stuff I went back to knitting......

Sewing Sunday and a Doublet - R and L

Last Sunday was a sewing day.  We wisely decided to target ONE THING for sure with a couple of backups if we had time.  Lisa needs to make a dress for the Gatsby Picnic.

One thing I know, is that I don't want to make a traditional 20's dress.  It just won't be flattering.  I've been looking into early 30's and actually settled on a 1911 dress with modifications. 1911 Dress   I made a muslin of the top of the pattern modified for size and styling.  It fits!  I also had Rob help me choose between 3 fabrics I had targeted for this dress.  I plan to use the middle picture, shorter, and with the collar and cuffs from the picture on the right.  My fabric is lawn, similar in color to the middle dress with ivory trim.

Robin is still immersed in multiple projects. She is plugging away at a renaissance outfit for her bf, and also has a plan for a pirate costume with a very funny alternative vision targeted for the WEHO Halloween street crawl.  She posted earlier as Pirettes of the Caribooban.

Robin:  OK, I HATE that this photo is snapped with me and my hair in "work mode", but that's the way it is. I modified the pattern to hold giant boobs (it's actually one of those Halloween tie-on butts" but worn upside down on my chest. I added 8 inches to the front of the pattern and, instead of making it elastic, I put in a facing and made it a drawstring close. No idea if it works, as I haven't modified the "butt" yet. Still need to finish the sleeve casings and maybe put a little lace on the sleeves, as I am a girly pirate.

With this accomplished, I actually was able to re-trace the pattern for the pants (which the dog had eaten) and cut out the fabric for both mine and my bf's pirate pants. I'm a fancy, girly pirate and he is a dirty shipwrecked deck hand, so I'll have the fun of distressing his outfit and the fun of decking myself out in "finery".

And now for the doublet progress: The wings are interlined with some REALLY stiff stuff so these suckers WILL stick out like... well, like wings.

Here's the skirt decoration. I later found that it will intersect the body, so I have to hand sew on another line of piping to make it match the body of the doublet.

 Here's the sequence of hand sewing on three different sets of trim to make it into one really pretty line of decoration.  Velvet is very shifty and it is a tiny bit wonky in spots, but the overall effect looks straight.

After sewing was done, Lisa actually fixed what she thought was a terminal error in a sock she was knitting.  You can sort of see what's left of the problem in the light grey lattice near my fingers.

After that, she lay about like the lady of leisure she is soon to be, while her cats convinced her it really was the ONLY option.

I DID IT! (Lisa)

I finally did it.  I announced that I'm retiring.  Last day is 6-14.  I'm preparing to be swallowed by the maw of corporate paperwork.  And then emerge from that cocoon as a marvelous unemployed butterfly.

With no constraints on my time (oh ha ha ha) I hope to do ALL the fun things.

I did take my son to Fanime last weekend.  He wore a sweatshirt designed after Ezio from Assassin's Creed.
After seeing the costumes at the con, he wants me to make him this.

No problem.  For a growing 11 year old.  Easy. Actually I love the idea and did some fabric shopping online.  But no buying.  I have no idea how much he will grow and where that growth will manifest itself. In the arms and legs?  Shoulders?  Torso?

Also, I wore some steampunk stuff in case we had time to make it over to Clockwork Alchemy.  Didn't make it, but the anime folks were fascinated.  I'm pretty sure I was the only female there who was NOT showing a LOT of skin (except the furries).

Here he is, right before joining a LARP army.

The sweatshirt survived.

The Play's the Thing - L

 Dress rehearsal.  A chance for these nuggets to try out their costumes, break stuff, and generally wreak havoc.  Here are some quick pictures.  They mostly don't like standing still.

Please note Betsy Ross in 'flag' dress.  Colonial boys in vests.

It was much more challenging than I expected (ain't it always the case??).  So many things to do in such a short time.  Given more funds and more time, I could have made AMAZING stuff (OK, at least better stuff) but I had constraints of time and money.
I have a much better understanding of what a costumer's job must be like.

Here is another colonial dress, along with the gold 'chain mail'. Also a 'Sears Catalog' pose from the silver 'chain mail.





And the next picture shows the back of a couple more colonial girl dresses.

The biggest challenge for the dresses was the expectations of the girls who are wearing them.

1 - they seemed to think 'colonial' = 'pioneer'
2 - they did NOT want poofy skirts
3 - they were uncomfortable with ties at their natural waist
     (but bothered when the ties 'rode up')

All in all, I'm pretty happy.  I got to take minimal measurements.  I had no fittings.  I'm sorta surprised they fit at ALL.
I've included pictures where I did some or all of the costume or props.  Including the kid who drove me nuts with constant changes.

And here was my evening:
Yesterday I scraped together some stuff for the ice wizard kid.  I stitched up the uber long legs on the white unicorn.  I sewed black ears on the laser sheep girl.  I sewed a tail on a pet leopard.  All in about 15 minutes and while I was passing out props.  Everyone needed me to tell them they looked great.  And I answered interminable questions.  ‘Yes, you can go to the bathroom’  ‘I don’t know which side of the stage you enter on’ ‘We don’t have a sword for you, but we can get one’, ‘I’m sorry you threw up all morning!  If you feel sick again and can’t make it to the bathroom, please don’t throw up backstage’, ‘I don’t know what they have for dinner’,  ‘We only have enough stick-on mustaches for the performances – you will have to pretend’, ‘Yes, your mom can cut off the parts that drag on the ground’.

Then, during their dinner break, I took the crooked wings OFF the unicorn girl and resewed them in 10 minutes.  Just after I changed the presidents from their purple tunics into their caveman suits for 10 minutes and then helped them change back.  Those kids are kindergarteners and cannot be trusted with safety pins.

There was dinner at rehearsal, but after I finished sewing the unicorn wings, there was nothing left.  One boy offered me 2/3’s of a taquito because it was too spicy for him.  Seriously.

AND I used the word 'testicles' and made a bunch of boys blush.

Cavemen - just for 10 minutes!  (Kindergartners)

Cheetahs keep forgetting their wings

Flying Pegasus Unicorns

Unicorns on stage

 Shadow Demon

Sand Witch

Couple of Kid Costume pictures

 Here are most of the vests. Yes, it's blurry but have you ever tried to get five 10 - 11 year old boys to hold still?  I took a bunch of pictures and this was the best.  They will wear white shirts under these for the performance.  And the Sand Witch wand.  Blurry yet awesome.  Styrofoam fulfills it's ultimate destiny.

Costumes for kids - Lisa

 I got down to work BIG time this weekend, making costumes for my son't play.  It's an improv group for kids where they get to write their own play (with guidance).  So the characters and costumes can get pretty wild.

Luckily the group has 20 years of costumes in storage, AND the parents do most of the work.

Here are some of the things I did this weekend.  I'll have more tomorrow.

Turned a black and silver metallic woman's shirt into the Shadow Demon.  Includes headwrap with red horn and flames.

 Flying unicorns, one black, one white.  Half of each wings is shown along with tails and horns.  I need to cover headbands with felt, add ears and horns, and a mane.  The parents are providing one piece footie pajamas.

Not shown - Heaven Boy.  A black cape with lightning bolts and red wings.  Parents providing 'flame halo'.

Not shown - the silver and gold crocheted chain mail for the knights. The gold knight is supposed to be REALLY fat.  I got a $1 neck pillow and stuffed it into the 'chain mail' which was built to hold up the big saggy stomach.

And a gold knight's helmet with moving visor.  I'm still sealing it prior to painting.

The visor is actually a functional safety measure since the fat knight will have suction cup arrows shot at him during the play.  Sure they're aiming for his stomach, but kids.....
Craft foam armor should deflect any stay missiles.  I just hope it survives all three performances, since the knight will conquer the monsters by rolling into them like a bowling ball.

I also made (OK, still finishing) 6 colonial style vests.  4 brown and 2 red and am barely started with 4 colonial girls dresses (NOT historically accurate) including one for school age Betsy Ross that will be brightly red, white and blue.

I got help making the flying cheetah costumes.  I drafted and cut, and some volunteer moms did the actual sewing and wing making.

I still have 5 wands to do too!

Here's the patterns I used to scale up the vests and the cheetahs.  It was a great learning experience.