Ready, Set, GO!!

Today marks the official start of Suigintou costume making.

• I spent about half an hour this morning re-taking my measurements as I want them to be as accurate as possible.  
• I picked up 3 patterns (Simplicity 2325, 2777, and 2159) and fabric for the petticoat and underdress.
• I have also spent quite a bit of time considering certain aspects of how to do this, that, and the other thing. Many of these ideas will be elaborated upon later as I come to that part of the project. onight 
• This evening after I get back from a barbecue I'm attending I will get the pattern pieces cut out BEFORE I get back to playing WOW. 

It may not look like much, but considering I spent all of 10 minutes pulling the 3 patterns and grabbing the fabric bolts to be cut and close to 45 carefully looking over trim, well hopefully it's time well spent when I can grab and go later. 

Suigintou Cosplay

No, I have not abandoned my blog. It's just been too hot here in Northern CO to get much done in my craft room over the summer. The issue, you see, is that we have a south facing exposure and the sun beats on 2 walls of our apartment for about 9-10 hours a day. We also don't have central air. The 2 window AC units are doing their best to keep it a nice 72 degrees in here, but the upstairs unit just can't keep up. :( So, for the past 2 months I've been forced downstairs for most of my time and by the time the sun goes down I don't want to sew. But now that it's getting cooler in the evenings I know fall is slowly on it's way.

Which brings me to Halloween! That happy time of year when I frantically run around trying to make an impossible costume while teaching Jamie and the cats new swear words since there is no simple pattern for what I have planned. :) After careful consideration (and a lot of insanity) I have chosen Suigintou from Rozen Maiden.

This costume will entail quite a bit, which is why I'm starting even earlier this year (well, the planning of anyway). There are slight version differences and as I plan on, hopefully, wearing this to work for Halloween, as well as, maybe Mile Hi Con I want as much time as possible for this. I will need to make:

• Overdress - I plan on using Simplicity 2159 with major alterations to the neckline and sleeves. I also plan on using both this and this tutorial to make the skirt part. 
• Underdress - Again, using Simplicity patterns for this 2777 for the blouse base with alterations. Pattern 4046 for the sleeves Yeah, no, I can work around this without buying another pattern. And 2325 for the skirt. 
• Petticoat - Will be made using this tutorial. 
• Bloomers - Simplicity 2777 with only very minor alterations.
• Headdress - Will have to draft a pattern for this 

I will also need to purchase a wig, boots, and wings. The wings should be fairly easy to come by as Halloween is right around the corner. I don't want to think about the wig right now and as I mentioned above  I have noticed a few variations on the boots I want to research them further. 

There you have it. Let the insanity begin!

souvenir blouse & craft night

Yay bad lighting!

I 'finished' my souvenir blouse Thursday evening and took a photo. I have to serge the underarm seams yet, but I couldn't help myself and had to wear it today since it was so lovely out.

Tonight was also our first Craft Night where we dedicate the evening to working on crafts together and I teach Jamie how to sew. Jamie decided she wanted to make a slip dress as her first project. New Look 6244, view B. We picked up 2 yards of a soft ecru jersey, the pattern, and a pack of knit needles at JoAnn's. They also had an amazing Art Nouveau quilt print that HAD TO HAVE. I decided that I needed a new skirt right now and that print was perfect for it.

In the garden with my new blouse.

I found New Look 6899,  view E. I really, really, really want to make view B, but I couldn't justify buying almost 4 yards of fabric at $11 a yard for a skirt. I'm in love with the pockets and trim on view B, but views B and E have different amounts of fullness and I don't have the energy (or fabric) to redraft so I can have pockets. As for trim, I can't decide between orange or pink. Decisions!!!  AHHHHHH!!

Jamie was able to get her pattern cut out, fabric laid out and cut, and most of it sewn before quitting time. I on the other had was able to cut out the skirt pattern and the portfolio pattern. I know, diplomat was supposed to be up next, but I found an amazing light weight blue calico in my stash that had to be made up asap.

New fabric & skirt pattern. 

'Dark Towers' Penstemon

'Corsican' Violets

And now, since you've put up with my rambling here's some pictures from my garden:

'Coronado' Hyssop
It smells like lemonade. Seriously. 

flowers and fabric and sewing

Jamie and I have been spending our time working on our teeny-tiny container garden, leaving me with less time to work on other projects. We spent an entire Saturday at the Ft. Collins Nursery Co. looking for vegetables and flowers and coming home with a car full of plants. Our southern exposure garden is now filled with drought-tolerant and full sun plants.

This past weekend we took our monthly trip into Boulder to hit the nearest Lush and stopped at Fabricate! a relatively new fabric shop near the Pearl St. Mall (right around the corner from Pharmica on 17th if you're in the area). I picked up some lovely fat quarters and a copy of The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman. I've been wanting this book for a while and I could have ordered it online, but when it comes to craft books I like to flip through them before I buy them.

I finally cut into my Lisette lawn and started on the Souvenir blouse. The front and back pieces are finished and I've started work on the sleeves, which are taking longer since I've decided to french seam them. We'll see how that goes. -_-;;

new start

I'm a little annoyed at myself at the moment because I had most of a post typed out and ready to go when my cat, Lilith, decided to make a trip across my laptop keyboard and managed to close my browser window and I realized I hadn't saved. Thank you Lilith!

Now, where was I? Oh! So I have decided to be a more active crafter and blogger. By which I mean that I have set a goal of working on and blogging about a project on a weekly basis. If I can keep that up for  a month or two I'll increase postings to more frequently. I don't want to push this too much as I have been known  to jump right into a hobby with both feet, stumble, and fall flat on my face.

Between my partner Jamie asking me to teach her to sew this spring/summer and installing Evernote on both my laptop and droid my desire to get my hands on fabric, yarn, and floss has jump started. We went to our JoAnn's, which recently moved to a larger location, and picked out fabric and a pattern for her first garment project; Lisette's traveler dress and a pretty green calico print. I picked up a few (LIE! ALL!) of the Lisette patterns myself as well as some of the Lisette fabric. First on the list for me is the souvenir blouse in the pale blue and white lawn, with the diplomat dress (cut 6-8 in. shorter for tunic length) in the blue/green poplin from the same collection.

Other projects I have going include (but by no means are limited to):

• a quilt for the living room.
• pillows for the living room
• HAED 'Place of Erada' cross-stitch
• gift for Alys - this needs to be at the top of my list! 

where has the time gone...

and now it's December and the frantic making of holiday gifts has begun. *sigh* I really do need to get started earlier in the year, but I'm also one of those people who stubbornly refuses to deal with Christmas decorations/music/greetings until Black Friday; one holiday at a time people! I don't have the energy for more!

As of right now I have 3 scarves and a (half-finished) pair of fingerless gloves to make. Scarf 1: Arucania Ranco (sp?) and the Lifted Stitch Scarf by Carol Scott from Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders. Scarf 2 & 3: Not sure yet. And the fingerless gloves, well I'll have to dig out the materials again.

and the winner is...

After going through my stash of HAED patterns I choose 3 that should fit in with our new mori style living room.

1. Daisy by Selina Fenech
2. Place of Erada by Ian Daniels 
3. Storykeeper by Selina Fenech

You can check out the 2 by Selina Fenech via the links, but all of Ian Daniels work has been retired from the HAED website and I can not find an image of it anywhere online. Not even at Ian Daniels website. *grar* I guess I will be taking some pictures this weekend. 

The winner is of course Place of Erada. It is filled with tones of brown, cream, and goldy-yellows. Also a bear.