Hobbit Dress

After Comic Con, I was left with a hopeless longing to travel through Middle Earth (I blame Karl Urban, but I digress). Thankfully, there was a Hobbit ball coming up. 

I dug through the costume closet, but nothing grabbed my attention, fit well (thank you health issues), or screamed 'I would be perfect for the ball!' Drats. Guess I had an excuse to make a ~new costume~

That meant that I had two weeks max to make something. Anything! I turned to the fabric stash. 

Plenty of options resided there, but would anything work together? The cool thing about the Lord of the Rings movies is the diversity of costume eras and classes to draw inspiration from. Each race had styles and embellishments that matched their culture, and all that with fantasy flair thrown in because why not? I could totally keep geeking out over the costumes in those movies, but I'll spare you. 

With that in mind, I pulled down literally anything and everything that even closely resembled something that might be worn in Middle Earth, compared those to patterns I already had on hand, and tried to estimate if I had enough material to make the idea happen. That was quite the mess, if I do say so myself. I finally landed on an earthy palette with some 1700's flair using American Duchess's Simplicity pattern 8161 from the Outlander series as a loose base to launch my Hobbit vision because I can't leave a basic pattern as it is. I did the jacket, ditched the sleeves, and added a peplum. The skirt and stomacher I did leave 'as is.' So all in all, not a lot of changes. ;) 

If time favored me, I also planned on using the undergarments pattern from that same line to make a chemise and bum pad to finish off the look, but that was the lowest on the priority list given how much time I had to put this all together. 

And so I sewed in any moment I could find. I must say, that was probably some of my more focused sewing, and yet, extremely relaxed. I don't know what was up. :P But that is why I don't have any 'in progress' shots. I would turn up my music and just sew. For the little bit of hand sewing that was involved, I turned on Gilmore Girls. I maybe got through two episodes, and I was done with the hand sewing. All this leaves now is the finished look. :shrugs: That might not be a bad thing. 

The really cool thing with this whole thing? Most of the fabrics were given to me or found for a steal at the thrift store. SCORE! Costuming on the cheap! :fist pump: The one downside to being able to use my stash - the fact that I have a stash to pull from. :P 

Let's do a supplies inventory:

Blue floral 'vest'- given to me

Brown linen/burlap stomacher - on clearance in the remnant bin at Joann's, maybe $3 max

Rust cotton sateen - given to me

Plaid wool flannel for skirt - Thrift store, 8 yards of material for $2/yard but I only used about 6 yards

Jute String - $0.99/yard, 3 yards at Joann's

Grommets - 2 packages of colored eyelets (because I only wanted to use the brown ones and the package had about 5 different colors, so in order to get enough of the color I needed, I had to pick up 2), $6.58

Chemise and petticoat (underneath) - repurposed from other costumes

Grand total: $24.55

WOOT! 

Now, I didn't have the time to make the structural underthings to :really: make the look. But now that I have the outfit, it won't take much to make those. Right? :sheepish grin: What I really noticed was lacking was pockets. The skirt had slits for pockets, but I just didn't have time to throw them together. Maybe someday. 

Until next time! 

SG

Comic Con Recap

Right before I go to comic con, I always get a sense of Why am I doing this? Seriously? You're paying to go to this thing? because as I explain to people who aren't into movies, TV shows, books, comics, games, etc. it sounds :really: stupid. Yeah, you pay to get in the door, get a glimpse of famous people, pay for pictures with them, pay for art and nerd bling, stand shoulder to shoulder with a horde of people, wait in line for anything and everything... blah blah blah. But then I go, join forces with thousands of other nerds, listen to panels of topics that pique our interest, stand shoulder to shoulder with them (literally, the convention center was packed) to celebrate the things we love, soak in the geekyness all around me, and relish every moment. I probably float on that high for a week and then I crash from how much overstimulation the weekend actually is for my adrenal fatigued brain. :P 

My thought this year wasn't so much to participate in the cosplay part of things. It's been a long summer, and my primary goal was comfortable. I didn't want what I was wearing to become a hassle. I just wanted to be. So for the first day, I wore my :favorite: skirt with the map of Middle Earth printed on it. Subtle. Comfy. And I got to meet Karl Urban. 💓 

Sunday was pushing my friend in her Green Lion from Voltron wheel chair (her brother did incredible work on it!) around the convention. I was really glad that it wasn't as crowded on Sunday so that there was room to actually push a wheel chair around. Saturday was so packed, I'm not sure if we would have been able to do much of anything. 

With all that pushing, I was also very glad that I planned a simple outfit for the day which brings me to the sewing part of the post.
Phew that was a long intro. :P 

I found this really cool print last year during my birthday fabric shopping spree, and from the instant I saw it, I knew it was destined to be a skirt. With Comic Con looming on the calendar horizon, I knew I needed to get it done otherwise the project just wouldn't happen. I whipped out my tape measure, elastic, and rotary blade and went to work. 

It was done in less than 30 minutes. 

Granted, it was just a basic A-line with an elastic waist band. 

And it suited the job perfectly. 

But I still want to change it up a bit. 

Instead of just an elastic waistband, I'd like to smooth out the front by gathering the skirt into a flat band and then have elastic around the back with a zipper closure. It'll make it look like I put a little more thought and effort into it and it will look more finished. I just didn't have a zipper on hand that matched the color palette of the fabric.

So that will be on my docket for whenever I feel like it. In the meantime, I have a pretty cool new skirt. 😎

Until next time!

SG

The Giant, Fluffy, Millennial Pink Monster

Back when my sister was trying to figure out what the wedding party was going to be wearing, I nonchalantly said that I could do the flower girl dresses. Not the bridesmaid dresses because of many reasons, but girl's dresses are basically large doll dresses. 

Easy right? Ha! Next time I do a wedding commission, I'm picking the pattern AND the fabric.

I totally could have called this "Flower Girl Dresses" but that seemed like a boring title for this project especially considering how much TULLE went into the whole thing. :P 

I'm not kidding. 

That is 20 yards of tulle for three little flower girl dresses. I'm still trying to figure out how that much material went into their dresses. 

It tried to eat me multiple times, so I just kept hacking at it with the sewing scissors and rotary blade. 

This is FOUR layers of tulle

Eventually, the fabric was all cut out, and it was time to sew. This gave me serious anxiety. 

Again, I'm not kidding. I might have gone cross-eyed sometime in the process because it's practically invisible to work with and it liked to be eaten by the sewing machine leaving large holes in the material whenever this happened. 

These skirts stressed me out so much that I threw out my back sewing them. 

How? Sitting down for a long time has never sat well with me. (see what I did there?) And well, my sewing chair has never been the greatest. If it do any power sewing sessions, my hips and low back get really tight, but I'm able to work through that and eventually get them to relax. This time, no such luck. My back was screaming at me to the point I couldn't stand, walk, or sit in certain chairs or positions for a week. I blame the tension from sewing invisible fabric. 

But the dresses needed to get done in time for the wedding. So I wheeled up a different chair to the sewing machine and kept at it when I could. 

Have I mentioned how much I love putting in invisible zippers? They go in so easily with their special machine foot! 

The miracle in all this? All three got done in time. 

The last stitch went in on Monday night before they were delivered the next day. :phew: 

And the girls adored their dresses and looked super cute in them. Once I get official pictures, I'll get them on here so you can ooh and ahh over them. :P 

All the dresses lined up and ready to go for the big day!

So lesson in this? The last time I did sewing for a wedding, I learned to check that the fabric requirements of the pattern matched the fabric that the client wanted. This time, I've decided that I should just say, "Here's the patterns I have (because I like them) and the materials that I prefer to work with. Take your pick."

Until next time!

SG

Radio Silence: Big Fish to Fry

Yes, it really has been almost 3 months since I last wrote here, but I have a really good excuse. It's not because I haven't been sewing, I've been chipping away at little projects when I can carve out the space and time. No, what has been eating at my time lately is the simple fact that spring is here along with the ever-increasing to-do list and...

:drum roll:

I had a big outside project that was much more work than anticipated. 

TA-DA!

I haz a greenhouse. :D

And it's only taken... a dozen trips to the store? I've lost count. 

You can read the story in more detail on my farm/homestead blog, but here's the cliff notes:

 I found the kit on Craigslist in fall.

Boxes were completely closed, all parts were there (supposedly). 

Greenhouse sits in boxes over winter.

Sister gets engaged.

I volunteered to grow the flowers for the wedding.

I needed a place to get seeds started, so they went to the greenhouse at my work.

Need space in work greenhouse, flowers get evicted.

Mad scramble to get greenhouse put up at home.

Mud. So much mud.

Bad instructions, Google translate, missing parts, lots of help, exhausted me.

Eventually was completely assembled per directions.

Flooring put in.

Tables made.

Threw out my back getting the tables put into place.

Brought flowers home.

Big wind, much rain, panels try to run away.

I say, "No" and tape them into place.

Transplanting, transplanting, transplanting some more.

Different panels try to run away on another blustery day.

I say 'no' with more tape. 

Transplant all day at work, then come home to transplant my flowers at home for days on end.

Wifi reaches garden, much Pandora listening. 

And there you have it. The cliff notes. 

I warned you that this has been quite the process. 

 But I'm super excited about what all I will be able to do with this.

Honestly, this has felt like bringing a new animal home. I am seriously considering dubbing this greenhouse 'pet.' Super creative name, I know. 

Next up will be my next commitment for my sister's wedding: flower girl dresses. So I will have a sewing project to blog about sometime in the near future. :P 

Until next time!

SG