Busy busy weekend - L & R

 Robin will be a pretty, pretty pirate!
We are going to Costume College!  And we are excited.  Primarily we learn about sewing and costuming, but there are also 3 events that allow us to show off what we've made.(Well, 3 that we're going to)
Our Sewing Saturday was devoted to getting stuff ready for this event.
Time Traveler's Gala:
The theme seems cavalier/pirate but we don't have anything.  We're bringing out LOTR stuff.
Fantasy Tea - Pirates of Penzance:
In a shocking turn of events, Robin is being a pirate and Lisa is wearing a dress.  Weird.
Sunday Undies:
Lisa is wearing her 1912 princess slip.
(I shortened it by raising under the bust in front, and above the pleats at the hem in back.  Trust me, there was no easier way to do it)

In addition, we have tickets to attend the Gatsby Picnic.  Lisa has already posted her pattern.  Robin has finally settled on hers.  And at the last minute, Lisa's daughter has decided to attend.  That means she needs to make a dress too.  She chose a grey poly crepe with shiny rectangles.  It's sheer and will have a natural muslin underslip.
Lisa has tweaked and tweaked her muslin.  On Sunday, she did one final tweak to the shoulders and started cutting her fabric.
(I really really REALLY hope this works - otherwise I just don't know WHAT I will do....)

Anteater update:
I hit that spot...  You know, where you can't find anything and the more you look, the worse it gets?  I've been folding and listing fabrics, patterns, notions and stuff.  That 'stuff' that defies systematic organization.  Seemed a good moment to take a photo of the fabrics I had in mind.  I still haven't settled on trims.

Of yarn and anteaters - Lisa

Took my son to the zoo yesterday.

And became inspired to make a bustle dress base on this anteater.

I even have a hat in mind.  And there will be fringe.

In the mean time I'm knitting another pair of socks and crocheting some black fingerless gloves and spinning some yarn to knit a hat.  Not because I want a hat.  Because I'm spinning yarn.  I don't think I'll have enough to make anything but a beret.

I'm waiting to hear about some fabric I might have bought.  As soon as I know, I'll post fabric swatches for the impending anteater dress along with a drawing of what and how and all of that.......

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