Why hello there Thursdays… I believe I have neglected you. But I come bearing gifts!
Remember my Strax drawing?
Here are my finished products!
If you happen to be interested in purchasing you can buy them here!
See you next week, Thursday!
Sock Progress – Part 1
So it looks like it’s going to be an every two day update on the socks, which suits me just fine.
On Monday night I was supposed to be making a gauge swatch.
That didn’t work out.
Instead I spent four hours making a center pull ball of yarn by hand. Four hours. But I have now kinda fallen in love with center pull balls, so we’ll see what the future holds for me and yarn balls.
But doesn’t my yarn ball vaguely look like Turnip Head’s head, from Howl’s Moving Castle? I think so.
Then instead of casting on for a gauge swatch I just went ahead and cast on for the full sock. I know, I know, but I was going to treat it as a double gauge swatch, if it wasn’t working out I’d frog it. But it just so happened to fit the specifications quite well, so this morning I trudged on once I had gotten enough to tell. I should admit now that I’m not using the proper sized needles, because I don’t own them, but also that I’m a tight knitter, and often need to move up needle sizes anyway. It has worked out, that the width of stitches is proper, even if the height is a good amount off.
And so I spent about ten hours of close to continuous knitting on Tuesday. Yesterday.
When I knit, I grasp the knitting needle with my ring finger for stabilization. My ring finger swelled after all that knitting. So much that I couldn’t bend it well and it’s throbbing a bit. That’s why I stopped, really.
But I’m proud of my progress. The entire leg part and heel are completed, and I’ve got a round or two into the main foot part as well. Or gussets… I’m not up to date on my sock anatomy.
I’ll check back in on Friday!
Embellishment
Now presenting my Belle necklace!
In fairness, I actually finished it awhile ago. Still not on time for my self imposed deadline, but I think I’m doing alright considering I don’t have a firm costume deadline anymore. I even photographed it the day after I made it, which is even more of an accomplishment.
However I’ve been procrastinating on posting it. I’m not entirely sure why. Perhaps its because I know that if I wanted to go to my place of choice for photographing the entire costume, makeup would melt off my face and my hair would flatten. It’s quite hot. Even in the evening.
I think I might have to remove the collar from my dress, anyway. Too much of the necklace would be covered if I left the collar on, so I’m thinking of leaving the collar stand, but removing the collar.
In other news I’m going to start a new project, as though I don’t have enough started. Have you noticed that I tend to start knitting or crochet projects, and then the entire thing disappears? I don’t like finishing these projects. Like the sleeve of this sweater I’m knitting. I’ve got one nearly complete, or at least I’m almost done with yarn ball on that side, but the other side needs to advance about five inches to keep up.
So I recently bought myself sock yarn with the intention of actually making socks. I even have a pattern, from a book called Sock Innovation. I’m going to make the Kai-mei socks, since they’re gorgeous, but the catch is that the library book is due in a week. I know I can renew it, but that spoils the fun. So in the next week I endeavor to make at least a sock and a half… and by that I mean the cuff and turning the heel on the second sock.
There will hopefully be daily progress reports in order to keep myself on track. And today is all about gauge.
What I did last night…
I’m thinking this could be a regular thing.
Or not.
I remember what happened to Design Donnerstag… Maybe I should resurrect that too…
But at least for this post, I did makeup tests for three of my cosplays.
One was overdue, one was right on time, and the next was premature.
I should insert the caveat that I have no idea what I’m doing, though I find that trolling through picture tutorials have helped. I’m not one for makeup Youtube videos, and my general lack of interest in wearing makeup day to day, have really hindered my makeup skills. So bear with me, and half of the stuff I used came as parts of beginner makeup kits from…. when I was in eighth grade… I’m going to hang my head in shame.
But I learned some stuff! Some stuff that I will share with you right now:
First up: Claudia
A bit overdue, considering the entire costume was finished last fall…
So the major bits of importance: A nice pink lipstick (though can I bring up memories of that weird one she wore for an episode? I think it was the Civil War reenactment episode…shudder), mascara, heavy eyeliner and dark eyeshadow… Oh, and brow pencil. Not that you can tell about any of the last three.
Lessons learned: I need some eyeliners with heavier pigment content. I’m personally thinking gel liners because pencils are too thick and less controlled (and the sharpeners are irritating), and the liquid liners I’ve tried are tricky and therefore irritating. I need to use a darker eyeshadow as well, which I might have but I really wanted to use this one. Maybe I could combine them? I also used my brow pencil, to make my eyebrows a bit more auburn, mostly cause Claudia sports a lot of very filled in dark eyebrows. However I haven’t plucked or in any way shaped my eyebrows in months, or longer, so my efforts at filling in were thwarted slightly.
I like the lipstick though! And I think the foundation layers are going to work, unless I find the need to buy different stuff. I’ve always been interested in mineral makeup, and have some samples, but I’ll need to try them out… Perhaps that’s going for my next test!
Second: Belle
This is actually the first one I did, which may explain the natural light coming in the window as opposed to the lightbulb light in the other two pics. I’m terribly proud of this one though, even if most of what I’m proud of can’t be seen in this pic.
Important bits: Magenta pink lipstick, gold eyeshadow in multitudes, grey and brown eyeliners, though I bet you can’t tell, mascara and my rather new trusty eyelash curler.
Don’t eyelash curlers look like torture traps? I was surprised the first time I used one how comfortable it was… I mean, not comfy but not painful. It is quite effective though.
Lessons learned: My gold palette of eyeshadows is really not pigmented. After three separate brushings of the gold, I still could not tell I was wearing anything. When I used a sample of mineral eyeshadow, though, it looked very nice. I think I’m going to need a new gold palette. I also am going to make use of the gel liners, whenever I get those. And eyebrow plucking. I never think I’m going to care about it, since I like my semi-bushy eyebrows, but they have a shape of their own that I’d like to preserve. Also, I’m planning on adding a little more of a bow to my upper lip, just a smidgeon. I don’t have that much of a natural one, so I like to add one when wearing lipstick (which never happens), but I often think it looks a bit overdone. Work to do!
Finally: Susan
A bit early, considering I’m not really halfway done with the costume, but I was on a roll!
Important to note: Pink lipstick (look it matches!!) Eyeliner on the top lashes only, a little light colored shadow. There will be mascara, but I don’t particularly like the brush on it, so I’m going to need to buy some new ones. I did also try to add some freckles, but they didn’t exactly show up in the photos. At least not any more than my skin looks kinda freckled.
Lessons learned: The same base makeup that looked fine for the previous two looks is a bit too tan for Susan, who is quite fair and pinkish on top of fair, but not tan. Next time I’ll use a lighter foundation. Gel liner will be helpful, as well as better mascara and some pluckage… The light colored shadow I used was a part of the gold palette, so I’ll probably need another one of these as well.
The TARDIS costume needs to be at least a bit more made before I’m even going to attempt a makeup trial. Make that it needs to be actually started…
How are your costuming makeup ideas working for you? Or do you have any makeup tips for me? I’m all ears!
Phyllis
The farther I get into making my Susan costume, the more I realize that there are not many easy titles for blog posts… I almost named this one Gastrovascular. Then I realized that was creepy.
It has been a while since I’ve worked on this, but I realized it was high time. Now the undergarments are finished, and I’ll be getting to work on the overdress!
So the fabric is quilting cotton, a white on white floral pattern. I had three yards of fabric, supposedly. In reality it looked more like two yards, and maybe a quarter more. I also have a very bad idea of distances, so it could just be me.
First I cut off the pieces for the waistband and the “sleeves.”
The sleeves I basically just winged, hemming the sides, and then folding over until it felt right. I cut the full length of the fabric in half, so its about 22 in for each side. I know that when I wear it for real, I’m going to have to Topstick or otherwise adhere the sleeves to a proper point on my arm, which I’ll figure out later, when the overdress is finished.
The skirt then used up the rest of the fabric in pleats, though I ran out of pleating room towards the back. I used a technique I learned for stage costuming for the closure. AKA if it’s never gonna be seen, don’t bother with a zipper.
So I just made a simple opening, with a skirt hook and eye. That does cause that gappage in the back, though its never gonna be seen, and I’ll be wearing a slip, just like I am here (in case you were wondering…).
Look at that pleating job! But I will have to re-iron all of it. Humph.
So that’s it I guess for Susan’s undergarments!
But I shall leave you with the motifs for Belle’s necklace! So one of these days (meaning hopefully today or tomorrow) I’ll finish that up and soon after will have a blog post on it! Yay for costumey things!
Peanut Butter Cups and Chocolate Bars
I thought I’d be cute and pose with candy, related to my new garments. But then I’d have to buy some candy. I’m currently on a Starburst kick, and they just wouldn’t fit the bill.
Plus, gas is expensive, and that whole I don’t currently have… employment, thing.
So anyway, here are my two new creations!
Netties!
So my first one, Chocolate Bar as I like to think, is a lovely cotton-lycra (probably) simple version. I made it up just like the sewalong says to, except for the snaps… I finished it hours before the snaps sewalong post was uploaded.
It fits like a dream, and is comfy and cute, and though there is some room in the butt, I find that weight for me likes to transfer between stomach and butt… So I believe that when it’s the butt’s turn, that extra room will be helpful.
To add some drama, I made a cute little bow and attached it to the center back. I’m not sure if you can see it… I promise it’s cute up close, and even a little off kilter, which matches with my personality!
Ahem. I love making excuses for minor mistakes, I’m sorry I got carried away!
My second Nettie is a deep chocolate brown with peanut butter dots that’s a polyester lycra blend. It was too good to pass up, even though it was polyester! The only problem, it was not exactly 4 way stretch. It only has a bit of stretch in the opposite direction.
So I thought to myself, how would I fix such a problem… ooh, add in extra fabric periodically through, to account for the lack of stretch! Well, it looks like I shouldn’t have exactly bothered, because I ended up cutting that much off, but I like to think it helped in the bustage region. A little extra space to account for the drop underneath.
I love my Netties, if only because they’re comfy to wear on their own when I’m alone in my home… which is a lot since the whole, you know, unemployment. But I’m sure when I do venture into the world they will get a lot of use too!
How many people do you hear say they can’t wait for school to start?
Perhaps I can waste time getting better patternweights…
And for my costuming fellows, never fear, I’m working on some stuff to show you soon!
May ’14 By the numbers
This May, I wore me made:
dresses 3 times
skirts 2 times
jeans or leggings 3 times
shirts 9 times
and sweaters 12 times (or more).
My most worn items were sweaters, as three of them were worn three times each. I wore almost every shirt twice, excepting my mesh T.
My favorite make is my grad dress, even though I only wore it once. It has such sentimental meaning to me, being both from fabric from my mom’s stash and being what I made and wore to end a chapter of my life.
Most surprising to me was that I pulled out and wore a grey crochet sweater that I haven’t worn in years. It’s made of cozy cotton yarn and was a project out of the Stitch and Bitch Crochet book. I’ll have to look up which one, I’m not sure off the top of my head which. It’s warm enough to be nice shoulder covering on a cooler summer day.
Not surprising to me is the fact that I wear an awful lot of jeans. I know this about myself, but for a good bit of writing up my last post I tried to restrain myself from saying “and jeans.” This could be a warning to myself that I will have to make or obtain some more jeans in the future, as I may run through pairs quite quickly.
I’m really happy with my new Plantain shirt that I had made rather quickly. I did not do a good job on the neckband, but I am going to treat it as a learning experience. I definitely think this could be a pattern I’ll repeat, since it would be a great pattern for basic tops.
All in all, this was a successful first Me Made May, and I look forward to participating in the future! Thanks Zo for organizing the great event!
Wrapping up May with a Bow
Well then, it’s been a few days… but I have completed Me Made May, successfully!
And I have now moved successfully!
What I haven’t done successfully is take pictures of the last two weeks of outfits…
Will you forgive me for that?
Let’s start with the week-ish that I did get pictures for:
Day 12: The corset belt, which is quite uncomfortable and tends to squish inward to my waist, because I didn’t interface it with anything. Something I should think about fixing.
Day 13: Anna subtle cosplay, for the fun of it! Me made sweater, which is gaining sleeves soon, and a me made skirt, which I just hemmed that morning. And then donated my mini-sewing machine to charity. I’m gonna miss that little buddy… but not at all.
Day 14: I wore my Claudia vest! This is almost precisely what I had been planning to use as my Claudia costume, but with a different tank underneath. I was delivering cookies to some of my favorite professors, and then helped out at work!
Day 15: My second sleeveless Archer came into rotation, and I went fabric shopping! Who doesn’t love that!
Day 16: I made this Plantain t-shirt in the morning, and paired it with my folded mini.
And there ends the pictures.
Honestly the next two weeks weren’t super special.
For one thing, I wore jeans almost every one of the days.
So let’s continue:
Day 17: My family came into town for graduation, and so I wore my Mint and Navy sweater in preparation for the cold restaurant.
Day 18: Graduation day!! I wore my dress, which fit me even better than when I had made it. My family did get some pictures, but none of the ones of just me turned out okay, so we don’t get a picture here. But it was lovely!
Day 19: Out around my hometown – meaning getting groceries for my mom. I wore a grey cropped crochet sweater I hooked in high school. One of these days I’m going to post about some of my pre-blog makes, and I’ll show it to you then!
Day 20: I wore my green sleeveless Archer again!
Day 21: My green long sleeve sweater got worn today.
Day 22: Newly cropped Belle Mock-2 made and appearance for a mall-walking adventure.
Day 23: I visited a friend and cozied up in my pink Anna sweater
Day 24: The floral sleeveless Archer reappeared.
Day 25: I shortened the sleeves on a previous green-grey sweater make, and then wore it today…
Day 26: … and again today! But today I packed away all of my clothing, except what I would be wearing for the rest of the week, so I had limited options from then on.
Day 27: My plantain shirt reappeared, after I fixed some seams and the neck binding, though I’ll need to redo some of those seams again.
Day 28: My drapey light blue shirt came out again, and I must say, it’s quite comfy, for being made when I had no idea what was going on with clothes-making.
Day 29: My mint and navy sweater got lots of wear this year, as it reappeared today.
Day 30: The green-grey sweater came up again.
Day 31: And on the last day I was actually moving, so I didn’t wear a me-made until my pajama pants that night, made in 9th grade. They’re a bit short, though I doubt it’s because I grew. I was exhausted, and crashed at about 9, so they were still worn for enough time to count!
Later this week I’ll work up some statistics and perhaps reassess plannning… But I’m happy that I made it through the entire month! It feels a bit weird now to not be wearing me-mades all the time, but it’s nice to bring back the variety that my RTW wardrobe can contain.
Bye for now! And congrats and thanks to the other participants! It was great being able to see what other people were making!
First Time in Forever
So I volunteered at the movie theater on campus, and a few weeks ago we showed Frozen.
May I start by saying that I love the movie? There are many flaws, I know, but the songs are so catchy!
And when I saw it I really was looking at the outfits. I think I finally hit the point where I not only admire the costumes of movies and shows and stuff, but that I want to make and have all of it. I’m not 100% sure that’s a bad thing, but I know its not necessarily good either…
For our showing of Frozen, though, I definitely thought it would be fun to subtly cosplay Anna.
I knew I wanted a circle skirt that wasn’t already attached to a dress, specifically one that wasn’t black. I’ve got a flowy RTW black skirt, that honestly I don’t wear often (perhaps due to the fact that I stick out enough on campus that it isn’t worth the weird looks), so my plans for the upcoming black skirt will lead to a shorter and less flowy skirt, more A-line.
But I really like the freedom and comfort of a circle skirt. And now that its been warm, I appreciate the flow and minimum fabric involved.
The fabric for the skirt is a blue crepe. It’s kinda heavy but surprisingly cool, and though I don’t know the fabric content at this point I don’t entirely care. It’s comfy, especially for around the house when I don’t have to care if people see the bike shorts I’m wearing underneath. I do think I need to angle the waistband a bit, but that will happen later, and I need to finish my skinny hem, but I’m thinking embroidery and it’s a long hem. And I needed something to wear yesterday.
On another topic I started on my drapey cardigan objective! Knowing I wanted to do this subtle cosplay gave me a great direction, and a reason to get started. This is a super lightweight rayon fabric that squishes into the size of about a child’s shoe, when given opportunity. Its really so soft and squishy, and comfy.
I’m not done with it though. It will gain sleeves at some point, but I didn’t feel like drafting them at the time, so that will be for after I’m done moving for the summer. Give me a month or so… and then maybe some.
But for now I’ll be frolicking through the summer heat in my Anna subtle cosplay!
MMM’14 – Days 1-11
Phew. It’s been a difficult two weeks since I last posted.
Do you remember that I’m graduating from college this spring? I apparently didn’t until the last week or so before classes ended, so I have been working super hard on just surviving.
Today though I’m triumphant in my laziness! I got my grades, and therefore I passed and will definitely graduate in a week. Not that I thought I wouldn’t, but… you never know!
Finally I am able to share with you what I have been wearing this Me-Made-May!
But I should tell you that almost all of these were photographed about a half hour ago… But I promise I wore them!
I promise!
Day 1
I had a symposium, so I took the opportunity to wear my Belle dress with an H&M blazer. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture, and the dress is not easy to get on and off, so I didn’t try it on again.
Day 2
Today I was sick, but after spending all day in bed, I got up and put on my me-made sweater, which I never blogged about really, and a scarf to go and see a free movie.
Day 3
I wore my Spring Green Almost Jeans today, with a lovely thrifted silk and cotton top.
Day 4
There was a field trip today, so I knew I had to stay warm, so I wore a t-shirt, the same me-made sweater from Day 2, and jeans.
Day 5
My day took me on my first trip to a casino for the first time. I ended up wearing my Belle Mark 2, which I had fixed. When I made it I had cut it a bit too short. I always felt more comfortable with it over jeans anyway, so I just cut off a few inches from the bottom to make it a tunic-shirt instead.
Day 6
My coworker and I returned to campus with little debt, having slept comfortably in the hotel beds instead of the uncomfortable dorm ones… I wore this turquoise drapey shirt which I had made about 3 years ago, just randomly putting some pieces of fabric together.
Day 7
I wore my Meshy mesh t-shirt, which seems shorter than I remember. Perhaps it shrunk a bit in the wash.
Day 8
My roommates and I went out to dinner, and I wore my Kaylee dress! Please ignore the fact that my sleeve decided to stick to my shoulder, and the fact that I took pictures and didn’t even realize it!
Day 9
I had my last final as an undergrad today, so I wanted something simple and comfy. I went for my green sleeveless Archer!
Day 10
One of my professors had my class over for dinner, so I wore my green almost jeans again, this time with a thrifted polka dot top.
Day 11, aka today.
Confession time. I put on non-pajama clothes for the first time for the kinda late photoshoot, taking advantage of the last glimmer of light. But my roommate is having friends over for dinner, so it was definitely time to dress anyway, and this is what I’m wearing. My me-made is the Mint and Navy sweater.
So that’s my round up! I’m planning on updating more regularly from now on, but we’ll see how that works out!