theladyrebecca | Recent Entries

No sewing yet. I was hit with something that may have been the stomach flu yesterday, so when I came home from work, I spent literally the entire rest of the day/evening on the couch. I'm feeling much better today, though, so I'm really hoping to actually get stuff done!

The first thing I need to do (besides stick a space heater in my sewing room, which is freezing and is part of the reason I haven't wanted to go in there lately) is to see if I have any hoop wire in my stash. If not, then I need to order some. I want to play around with some shapes for the Fairy Godmother dress. Ideally, I'd like to see if I can get the right silhouette by making a short wire bustle to wear on top of a condensed version of my old storebought hoops. Or even better, I might see what it looks like when I combine my big old Jane bustle over the hoops, and if that would work.

If I wind up needing to wait for hoop wire to arrive, though, then obviously I can't start working on the fairy godmother. Which means I should finish (start?) the mockup that I cut out for the plaid bustle bodice. My sewing room is also a mess right now, but I'd like to clean up just enough that I have space to work, but not so much that I get distracted and spend the whole evening cleaning.

I did finish kon-marieing my dresser over the weekend, though! It's sooo much better now. I bought an underbed storage container, and put all of my jeans (which I never wear), and all of my holiday sweaters (which I only need a couple months of the year) in there, along with my swimsuits and clothes for working on dirty/painting projects. That cleared out nearly two whole drawers, and meant that I could spread out all the things that were crammed into the other drawers. So now I have an underwear drawer, a pjs/tights/leggings drawer, a shortsleeve shirts/shortsleeve sweaters/camis drawer, a 3/4 sleeve sweaters/long and 3/4 sleeve shirts drawer, a long-sleeve sweaters drawer, and a heavy outerwear type sweater drawer. And I can close all of them easily, and see basically everything in each drawer because of her folding method. I'm excited to do the closet, but I do also need to get sewing done, too, since VicFest is two months away and I've made nothing.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/308453.html

I went to NYC from the 10th-15th, and wow, apparently everyone decided to post a lot during that time! Which is nice. But I just finished reading them all. No sewing from me as of yet, but I did manage to find a pink for my Fairy Godmother bustle. Not silk because prices in NYC are insane. The seller called it a silk blend with poly, but I think it's just a nice poly, which still was $10/yd.

So now I'm torn, because I know I should finish the plaid bodice, since I've already cut out most of (if not all) of the bodice mockup, and the skirt is basically done. But now that I have the pink, I could start on Fairy Godmother. Except not really, because I think I want a new structure for under the skirt. I have my elliptical hoop, which would be way too big, and my lobstertail bustle, which is way too small. I need something transitional, like what

elizabeth_mn made. But my brain wants to do pretty drapey skirts, not things that need fitting (like bodices) or things that need actual work (like structure). Sigh

Also, part of me just wants to spend the next month cleaning the whole house. I started tidying my dresser, and although I'm only halfway done, it makes me super happy, and makes me want to do the same to my closet and my garage, at the very least.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/308221.html

I feel like I may as well just post the link to my post-CoCo goals post for this, since I have made literally nothing on that list (and yes, I just used "post" three times in one sentence). So click here for that.

That said, my goals are not exactly the same as what I was thinking in the end of July - just really similar. A lot of that stems from the fact that 5 months have gone by, and I haven't made any of those, so I'm trying to be realistic. Plus I made a couple other things that can fill in gaps at CoCo. And I just can't bring myself to make 18th c stays anytime soon, which means the 18th c outfit from the last post is getting put on a back-burner, despite actually having all the fabrics for that one already.

So here's my new list:

Finish the plaid 1883 walking dress. If I actually buckle down and work on this, I think I can finish this in 2-3 weeks, and it should only take me that long because I'll be in NYC for five of those days.

Find pink silk or break down and go with pink poly, and make the Fairy Godmother early bustle dress. I can't get this dress out of my head, so even though I thought for a while that I was going to switch to Anna for the Disney bustle dress, I've come back around to this one.

Daniel Deronda riding habit. Really, I should make this before the fairy godmother one, because it would be a really functional dress to wear to the Victorian Festival in late March. But I'm more interested in the other one, first.

Natural form gala gown. I still have no concrete plans of what I want it to look like. I should probably play around with the fabrics I have available, and sketch things out, and see what sticks. This would be another good one to make before the Victorian Festival, since I could wear it to the ball. But if I don't make it by then (which I probably won't), then I guess I'll just wear the yellow 1890s from last year. This is one of my favorite natural form dresses, so maybe an evening version of this, except in pink and green, since I'm using the blue fabric I was going to use for this for the fairy godmother.

Just those four would give me enough that, if I also wear Anna Frozen Fever and the 1910s white cotton and lace dress I made in August, I would have enough for every event of CoCo. But I would still really like to make an 1840s dress, too. I don't think I'd need any extra underwear for it, which is always a plus, and I probably have a bodice pattern I can tweak to add a fan front. Of course, I don't have the fabric for this one, but I really just think I want a relatively plain patterned cotton dress, and a bonnet to go with it.

That said, if I wind up finding the perfect fabrics for this (the red and white), all the other projects are getting pushed back. I have this hanging on the wall in my bedroom, and every time I see it, I decide I love it even more. This will be a next year project if it needs to be, but if I come across the fabrics before then, I'm bumping it up.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/307744.html

I really don't feel like I made that much this year. I'm not sure if that's because I just started sewing for the first time in two months, or if it's actually true, though. So here's what I made:

1830s plaid silk dress and yellow bonnet, made for wearing in Oliver, plus the Victorian Festival and Costume College

Blue wool coat, which I basically wear every day

Burgundy and mauve striped silk bustle dress, for the Victorian Festival and Costume College

Burgundy silk Regency dress, as a pattern test for Laughing Moon

Ripaway mermaid tail and Cinderella costume (and some other bits) as costumes for Disenchanted, for which I was Costume Coordinator

1890s Plaid "ice cream parlour" shirtwaist and navy walking skirt for Costume College, but also worn in The Music Man

Yellow 1890s Gala Gown for Costume College, including choker, royal order, bracelet, and petticoat with detachable train

A white cotton Victorian-style robe, which turned out to be the most practical thing I made for Costume College

Elephant dress for my friend's new baby

1910s white cotton and lace dress, worn to Snoqualmie Railroad Days

3 skirts and 3 playdresses through my etsy shop

Dapper Merida for Dapper Day; Also worn in White Christmas and to Christmas tea

Disney-print 1950s jumper dress

Princess Anna Frozen Fever

A bodice and skirt combo for the Silverbells Carolers, plus a few alterations for them

A "Totes Ma Goats" totebag as a secret Santa project

A skirt for my mom

A Marauders Map Fleece Blanket for my dad

The beginnings of an 1883 walking skirt (not finished, though I started cutting out a bodice mockup yesterday)

I guess that's a decent amount of stuff after all. But if I'm going to be on track for CoCo this year, I can't just take a two month break from sewing again!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/307537.html

Yikes. I didn't realize it had been two whole weeks since I posted...

I did do a little bit of sewing leading up to Christmas - I made my dad a Marauders Map fleece blanket, and I made my mom a skirt out of some fabric she picked out in September. And naturally, I took no pictures of either of those.

My parents came up on Dec 20th for Christmas, and were up here through the 26th. We went to a lovely Christmas tea last Friday, and I wore a Christmasized version of my Merida dress. We did some other Christmassy things, too, like hosting a holiday party, going to see a Panto, seeing movies (Mary Poppins and The Favourite), going to lovely brunches, making a wonderful Christmas eve dinner, driving around looking at Christmas lights, playing board games, and watching Christmas movies. It was a nice relaxed time with them.

Here's pictures from the tea and of my Mary Poppins Disneybound:

While they were here, though, I started itching to sew again, which is good, since I've done so little of it recently. Of course, the first project I wanted to do is one that I don't have all the fabric for yet - the early bustle Fairy Godmother project that I had fallen in love with and then abandoned when I couldn't find the right shade of pink silk last summer. So that is now back on the table, because I really think I need that dress. If all else fails, I will use poly for the pink, even though that rather hurts my soul. But it's mostly lining/backing/trim anyway, so maybe it won't matter.

But anyway, the evening that they left, I went through my stash and pinterest, to see if I had anything that matched up and struck my fancy. I didn't feel like working on the Daniel Deronda riding habit yet, even though I do have everything for that, but I found this interesting plaid 1883 fashion plate, and 5 yds of a plaid unknown-fiber-content-with-a-nice-drape fabric that I've had in my stash for ages, so it was a perfect match!

On Wednesday night, I draped out the whole skirt, and last night, I sewed most of the skirt together (including pockets!). I have to set it on the waistband, and do the seam where the faux-wrap is. I'm guessing that I may have to do that seam by hand, which is why I left it so far. I also plan to add the inner layer around the hem, but I'm leaving that till after I cut out the whole bodice, since fabric is so tight on this, and I'll piece that if I need to.

Here's the inspiration plate, and a picture of the skirt draped on the form:

My goal is to finish the skirt, minus the ruffle, today, and maybe start on the bodice. Now that I'm not dancing all the time, though (and because I gained a few pounds over Christmas), I'm back to trying to go to the gym on most days, so I'll be splitting my sewing time with gym time a bit.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/307393.html

I've been doing almost zero sewing lately, but I realized I never posted about the project I did last week. We did a secret santa thing in our White Christmas cast, and my person's favorite animal was a goat. That meant I had a reason to finally make the "totes ma goats" bag I've always wanted to make. It didn't turn out exactly as I wanted - I've always pictured it with the stuffed head of a goat peeking out the front of the bag, but alas, goat stuffed animals are relatively hard to come by, and would have made the bag go over the $15 limit. So embroidery to the rescue! I purchased the embroidery pattern on etsy, but all the fabrics came out of my stash (the outer blue is leftover from the Princess Anna skirt I made a few years ago, the inner taffeta is from my robe a la turque, and the flannel goat applique fabric is from the Thumper stuffed animal I made last year). It turned out a little smaller than I would have liked, but I still think it's cute!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/307113.html

Step One

- Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two

- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list.

And now here's the important part:
- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out; it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.

There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish and it might come true. Give and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

Don't forget to include a shipping address.

1. A fitbit. Do you have a used one laying around that you don't want? I'll take it!

2. My sewing mojo back. Not sure if I need inspiring images sent my way, or what. I did a bunch of Disney sewing, and then a bunch of sewing for others, and now my own mojo is gone.

3. Anything from Dames a la Mode

4. Anything off of my Amazon wish list: a.co/cE5rqV6

5. Disney or Harry Potter stuff. I especially love this mug: www.shopdisney.com/mary-poppins-mug-1437378 but ornaments or plush or whatever are fun, too.

6. Inexpensive (under $8 preferably) but relatively indestructible dog toys. Lion rips his apart super quickly, but naturally, when I bought him an expensive supposedly indestructible one, he buried it outside 30 mins after he got it instead of tearing it apart. Even recommendations would work.

7. My voice to be back to full capacity. I still have post-nasal drip and a cough from getting sick 5 weeks ago, and it's greatly impacting my singing voice. I have to sing for about 5-6 full hours next Monday, and I'm very worried about it.

8. Fun costume-related recommendations for when I'm in NYC January 10-15. Or better yet, meeting up with east coast costuming friends? I know most of you live at least a couple hours from NYC, but it certainly would be cool!

9. Improvements to the political climate. The basic things like respecting each other, getting rid of racism, gun control, etc

10. An Elizabeth Swann ornament where she's wearing the burgundy dress. I've looked everywhere online and can't find any. Know of a source?

Rebecca Maiten
1301 M St NE
Auburn, WA 98002

I finished all my Silverbells commission sewing last night! It's totally not H/A, and I forgot to get a picture of it, but I think the dress I made from scratch turned out nicely, and fits in well with the carolers' other costumes.

I decided not to start the Princess Anna bustle this week, which means that I may not even wind up starting it before Christmas. For one thing, I have a non-renewable book due back at the library in less than 2 weeks, and still over 300 pages to go in it, so I've been spending a good bit of my free time from the last two days reading that. And relaxing. And for two, I really ought to make Christmas presents first. I'm making my mom a skirt (she already knows about it, so I can post about it), I'm making a gift for my secret santa person in White Christmas (I'm actually really excited about what I'm making, but on the off-hand chance she reads this, I'm not posting about it until I've given the gift), and I have to figure out what I want to make for my dad, too. So that will be my sewing for the next couple weeks.

The opening of the show went really well, with three sold-out performances. We're almost sold out for the whole rest of the run, too. I'm just working really hard/stressing out about not forgetting all the dances before Friday! Then next week all the auditions for next year start up, and i go back to having more singing gigs. In the first two weeks of December, I have four auditions, 9 singing gigs, and callbacks. And 9 performances of White Christmas within that time, too. My voice is still not all the way back from getting sick for a month, so I'm definitely nervous about having to do all that. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/306820.html

November has been an incredibly slow month for me for sewing, and because I haven't been sewing, I haven't been posting. I did some alterations last week for a Caroling company I've worked with in the past, and started on a new dress for one of the carolers. At this point, it is a waistband-less unhemmed skirt, and cut out bodice pieces. I have to finish the rest of it by Sunday evening, and I also have a couple alterations on a dress for a third caroler.

Most of my time has been spent in rehearsals for White Christmas, which opens on Friday. This has been a tough show! I'm not sure I've ever danced so much (or such complicated dances) in one show, so it's a new and fun challenge for me.

The nice thing I guess, is that rehearsals are making me really miss sewing for myself, so I'm hoping that next week, since I won't have rehearsals, I'll be able to start on a new project. I think I'm going to do my Princess Anna Once Upon a Bustle group project next. It's a wintery dress, and it will be nice to make it during winter. Of course, it's also the only thing on my to-sew list that I don't have the fabric for, but hopefully it won't be too hard to find.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/306565.html

Fell off the posting (and reading) wagon for a little while. Disneyland was wonderful! I didn't wind up finishing the white cotton blouse for the Disney print jumper, and I didn't make the tam for Merida, but I had alternatives, so it didn't even matter.

My friend Rachel and I flew down early Friday morning, dropped our luggage off at the hotel (the Four Points Sheraton by Disneyland), changed, and headed into the parks. I got sooo many complements on my Disney print jumper. More than I got on anything else all weekend. Not sure if that's because there were only a couple other people dressed up on Friday, or if it was just a bit more special than the other two looks. Anyway, we park-hopped all over on Friday, and actually made it till about 10:30, which is saying something when you wake up at about 4am.

Saturday, I wore my Anna Disneybound, which was the skirt and hair decoration I made for the actual costume, plus a yellow short-sleeve sweater, navy pin-striped vest, and a green scarf I made out of leftover vest fabric. I'm not sure there were that many adults that knew who I was (though at least Anna recognized it!), but I had multiple little girls yell out Anna at me, so that made it feel like a success. We started in CA Adventure that day, made a detour over to the Dapper Day Expo (which was disappointing - If I go again, I'll definitely skip the expo), and stopped at downtown Disney for dinner since we realized we hadn't eaten anything all day (I had started to feel lightheaded and cranky on top of having no voice and being sick, and didn't realize why). Then we headed to Disneyland park for the rest of the night, and lasted till about 11:15.

Sunday was the actual Dapper Day. Everyone looked amazing! I wore my Merida dapper Disneybound. While I feel like it was the least flashy outfit of the weekend, I could tell that most people knew what I was bounding (I saw a few other Meridas all in similar greens and plaids), and I accessorized it well. We took tons of pictures all over Disneyland in between riding rides, then headed to CA Adventure for our Radiator Springs fastpass, lunch, and coffee. We met up with a couple of my friends back in Disneyland, and stayed there for the rest of the night, closing out the park after midnight.

One tip for anyone who is planning a trip to Disneyland - get the MaxPass! It was $10/day, and it gives you unlimited downloads of all your photopass pictures (since we were dressed nicely, we took full advantage of that), and it also allows you to make fastpass reservations through the app, meaning that I could make a fastpass for a ride in CA Adventure from Disneyland, which was brilliant.

Anyway, despite being sick and having no voice the entire time, it was still a great weekend. I'm hoping to be able to get to Disney World next fall, but I'm not sure when I'll be back at Disneyland.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/306419.html

I finished everything for Anna in time (and with some to spare!). Thursday night, I brought the bodice with me to rehearsal and finished stitching down all the binding. Friday, I finished the blouse, and brought the hooks and eyes at the neck to do backstage at the show. Saturday, I brought the skirt with me to the show, and had assistance picking off all the stabilizer from the back, plus I did the hooks and eyes at the waist. I wore it on Sunday to our cast party, since we decided we would all wear our Halloween costumes.

Here's some pictures!

Overnight Sunday, I came down with a hugely swollen sore throat, so I decided to stay home from work on Monday. I was originally thinking I would rest a bit and then try to run errands, clean the house, prep food for my Halloween party, and sew. My body had other ideas, and instead gave me aches, sensitive skin, chills, and extreme exhaustion. I made it off the couch long enough to run to the grocery store and go to rehearsal, since I had already missed so many dance rehearsals and didn't want to miss any more.

The aches and chills and such subsided by Monday night, but the sore throat remained and was joined by congestion, so I decided to stay home Tuesday and sleep a bit more as well. But I'm really not that good at resting, so after getting a couple extra hours of sleep, I cleaned the house, made food for my party (don't worry, I washed my hands a ton!), did laundry, and started packing for Disney. And went to rehearsal. Unfortunately, the sewing did not happen, so that means no new blouse for Disney on Friday, since I'm out of time at this point. Also no tam for Merida, though I think I will take bit of the plaid and make a hat decoration for a basic brown vintage hat I have.

I'm at work today, but still with a very sore throat, congestion, and almost no voice, so I had to cancel the gig I was supposed to do today. I am dressed up in my Anna costume, though! And I took a bit of time out this morning and went to the doctor to see if it was strep throat. It's not, just a viral infection, so there's nothing I can do but hope that it goes away by the time I get to Disneyland on Friday! I'm having a Halloween party tonight, so after work, I'll be frosting cupcakes, and doing a little bit of last minute set-up. I also plan to serge the edges of some of the leftover Anna vest fabric to make a scarf for the Anna bound (wearing the vest at the park I think pushes it into costume-land). I also need to do most of the rest of my packing tonight, since I'll have almost no time to do it tomorrow with work and rehearsal. Then I head to the airport at 5:30am on Friday!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/306053.html

I changed my plans slightly from what I wrote yesterday. The weather forecast was predicting rain for Friday, so I decided to decorate yesterday instead. I put up lights around the garage, my front tree, my door, and my walkway, added a couple of tombstones to the lawn, and put a giant (like 2.5ft tall) skull in the garden. I also hung up some lights and wall decor inside, and took Lion for a walk. Then I started in on the last two embroidery motifs. While those were going, I ate dinner and started on the Anna blouse.

Even though the pattern only went up to two sizes smaller than what I normally make, I wound up only having to make a couple of modifications to the pattern. I used a .5" seam allowance instead of 5/8", so that there would be more room in the bust, and I added 1" to the hips at the side seam of each pattern piece. I also wound up moving the darts way lower, though I unfortunately wasted time in sewing the original ones in the pattern at first. So anyway, the body of the shirt is now together, but I still have to do sleeves, collar, and embellishment.

I also finished the skirt embroidery yesterday, including the little pieces of yellow that connect the 16 motifs to each other. I still have to put hooks and eyes at the waist and finish picking away the stabilizer inside, but otherwise it's done! Here's a couple pictures:

Oh, and at lunch yesterday, I managed to do a bunch of the bodice binding. I think I have a little over 1/3 of the bottom binding left, but that's it.

I think I'll have about an hour or so between work and rehearsal to sew today. I'd like to dye my tights and work out either the sleeves or the collar during that time.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/305763.html

Come From Away was perfection. I implore you, if you have a chance to see this show, you must see it. It was so perfectly crafted and performed - really remarkable.

As far as sewing goes, I had enough time between work and the show last night to finish the binding on the neckline and most of one armseye. I've decided that I'm going to keep handsewing the rest of the binding. It will allow it to be portable, so I can take it with me to work on at lunch at work, or backstage at the show this weekend. If for some reason I don't finish it by Sunday, then I'll do the rest by machine, but I don't think that will be an issue.

That means that today, since I don't have rehearsal, I can work on the blouse. I'm kind of cobbling together two patterns (one with the collar, one with the rest of the blouse). Hopefully they'll go together easily. I have about 4-5 hours tonight, plus about 5 hours on Friday, left to sew (though I might scrounge up an hour or so in between work and rehearsal or before shows etc over the next couple of days).

Ideally, I would love to make the whole Anna blouse today, plus finish the embroidery on the skirt, make the two embroidered motifs for my shoes, and dye my Anna tights, and then I could make the blouse for the Disney jumper tomorrow, plus finish decorating for Halloween. That will allow me to use those couple of hours here and there for cleaning, assembling a hairpiece for Anna's crown braid and bangs, repairing my Merida belt, and making a tam to wear with Merida. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/305600.html

15/16 flowers down, 1 to go! I managed to do two flower sections and one stem section yesterday, despite rehearsal. I also got one side of the bias binding sewed on the bodice. I realized that I have about 1.5 hrs to kill this afternoon before I see Come From Away (I am sooo excited to see it), so I may as well sew the other side by hand. It will probably turn out easier than trying to do it by machine, anyway. Though I might save whatever is left over after today for the machine. We'll see. I really want to get started on the blouse as well. But at least I know that the embroidery will be done tomorrow!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/305195.html

My embroidery is zipping along. I think I'm about 85% done at this point. I have three flower sections and two stem/leaf sections left, and I'm hoping I'll be able to complete 1-2 of those today. The bodice is also ready for binding. I finished sewing it all together yesterday, and after a couple fitting tweaks (I wound up taking it in about 1.75" in the waist and about .75" at the top of the CB), I think it fits quite nicely! Not sure I'll get all the binding done today, but I might at least be able to start it between work and rehearsal.

The shirt is my stand-in shirt I found at the thrift store, which I will use if I run out of time for the actual shirt. I still want to make the Anna shirt, the blouse to go with the Disney jumper, a tam for Merida, and ideally, a costume for Lion for Halloween. And I need to clean my house and finish decorating for Halloween. But I don't think I have time for all that, unfortunately.

Anyway, here are some pictures! Naturally, I tried it on with the skirt take 1 I made, so that I could keep embroidering on the actual skirt while I tried things on. Not sure what my plans are for this skirt...

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/305067.html

My new stabilizer arrived yesterday, but I unfortunately wound up ordering the wrong kind. Because there's not time to order more, and it's way more expensive when you buy it from Joanns, I decided to do a stem motif between work and rehearsal yesterday, and it seemed to go okay. Hopefully it can handle the flower section, too. It's very slightly stretchy, and not as papery as what I've always used. It's still Pellon tearaway, but it's EZ Tear instead of Stitch N Tear... I didn't realize there were two kinds. Whoops! Hopefully I might have a chance to test it on a flower on Saturday morning. And by test, I still mean doing it directly on the skirt. I don't have time for anything else!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/304789.html

I used my unexpected sewing night quite well, I think! I managed to complete four flower motifs and one stem/leaf motif, which means I now have nine out of 16 full motifs completed. I'm more than halfway there! I also somehow perfectly timed out my stabilizer, as I had just enough time to use it up in those 5 stitch-outs yesterday. Luckily, I ordered more a few days ago, and just got a notification that it has been delivered. I'm also running low on yellow embroidery thread, but I can pick more of that up tomorrow evening.

I wasn't feeling the sewing part right when I got home, though, so I sort of vegged for the first 30-45 minutes of embroidering. But then I decided to work on the Anna bodice. It's now fully boned and flatlined, with the front assembled and the back pinned, ready to be sewn. Then it's just side & shoulder seams, zipper, and binding. I doubt I'll have it finished before Sunday, though, since I don't think I'll have any time to sew till then. I also really want to get a chunk of the blouse started on Sunday evening, and hopefully another 3-4 embroidery motifs.

Here's a pic of the current state of the skirt. By the way, each of those flowers is about 16" tall to the top of the light blue dot.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/304403.html

I managed to squeeze in one stem/leaf embroidery between work and rehearsal yesterday while eating dinner. And they decided to not call us for rehearsal tonight, so I'll get more sewing time in, which will be nice. My goal is to get at least 3-4 flower embroideries and maybe 1-2 stem embroideries done tonight, plus continue working on the bodice.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/304350.html

I had to run a couple errands after work yesterday, but I still managed to get a good amount of embroidery done. I think I started around 4:15 or so, and by 10:30, I had completed three of the large flower motifs and three of the stem/leaf motifs. That's also pretty good evidence that even though that's only about 4.5 hours of stitch time, it takes about 6 hours to do, when you include hooping it (the designs are so big that I have about 1-2 mm of error in getting my side-to-side placement right), positioning the design in the hoop, removing the basting stitches, ironing out any wrinkles, and marking the next four placements on the next panel. Not to mention when the embroidery machine runs out of bobbin or decides to fray the thread, and going back and fixing those mistakes.

Luckily, what I've done so far amounts to about .35 of the total embroidery time, and since I have three other working chunks left, I'm not feeling quite as worried as I was. Of course, even after I finish the actual stitch-outs, I will have to connect the yellow swirl between each of the flowers. And if I remember correctly, the blouse has some embellishment stitches that need to be done on the embroidery machine, so I have to remember to leave time for that as well. (and now I'm worried again)

While I was embroidering last night, I also walked my dog, ate dinner, finished the second skirt for the etsy order and packed it up, and started in on the bodice. I'm not sure what I'm doing on the bodice is going to work. I'm cutting out the canvas lining pieces, adding some boning channels for German plastic boning, inserting the bones, and then flatlining that to the faux suede outer pieces. So far I've done the front and front-side pieces, and I have one of those seams pinned and ready to be sewn. I'm sure that putting the boning in there at this point is silly (and hopefully it's all in the right place!) but I didn't want any of the boning stitch lines to be on the suede fabric.

My next chunk of time for sewing isn't until Sunday evening, so don't expect any more updates from me until Monday!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/304096.html

Funny how it can all of a sudden be a whole week since I've last posted...

Anyway, we had tech all last week, so there wasn't any time for me to sew until Friday, when I had about 3 hours before our opening night. And in those three hours, I remade the Anna skirt out of the new luxe cotton sateen stuff from Joanns. It's lovely fabric, and even after washing, it maintained its sheen (after ironing, of course). I was a bit surprised about how prone to fraying it is, though. Hopefully the side seams will hold up after serging. I know that the curves on the hem would not hold up even with serging. By the time I got the binding on the hem on Sunday morning, it had frayed almost to the stitch line of the serging. So if you use this fabric, please keep that in mind!

I had originally hoped to accomplish much more than just remaking the skirt on Friday, but our rehearsal ran very late the night before (I got home at 1am), and I decided sleep was more important. Of course, that did mean that all weekend I was kind of disappointed, thinking that there was no way that I would be able to finish the whole project by Halloween/Dapper Day.

Sunday morning before our matinee I woke up early enough to finish the hem binding, mark four embroidery placements on the skirt, and do the stem/leaf embroidery section of one motif. After the matinee on Sunday, I came straight home and walked right into the sewing room to start the next stem section. And I realized that I had meant to buy embroidery bobbin thread on the way home, because I had wound my last one that morning. Shoot! So I left my machine going and ran out to Joanns (and to get gas) with my fingers crossed. I made it back about 25 mins later, and it had gotten about 19 minutes through a 21 minute stitch-out before shredding the thread and stopping. So I call that a success. And it's good that I bought the thread, because I ran out of bobbin thread during the 3rd or 4th stem section.

By the end of the night yesterday, I had managed to do four stem/leaf sections (about 30 minutes per hooping), and two flower sections (about 60 minutes per hooping). That equals to about 1/6 of the total amount of embroidery, since there are 16 motifs total. By doing that much last night, I am now thinking that it may actually be possible for me to finish it by Halloween. I have this evening free, plus next Sunday evening, the evening of the 24th, and the daytime on the 26th. Plus maybe a stolen hour here or there between work and rehearsal if I can manage it, but everything else is taken up with Music Man performances, White Christmas rehearsals, and work. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Here's a pic of last night's progress:

While I was embroidering last night, I also walked my dog, ate dinner, and made a skirt for an etsy order. Today I will make a second skirt for that etsy order, and hopefully move back to the Anna bodice. I would really love to get that cut out and assembled tonight. Beyond that, I still have to do the Anna blouse, and I would like to do a blouse to go with the jumper and a tam to go with Dapper Merida. Not sure I'll achieve all that in the tiny amount of time I have left this month, though.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/303824.html

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Rebecca Maiten

Lady Rebecca Fashions

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Diary of a Costumer

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