30 Day Blog Challenge

For the last month in my challenge to blog weekly I thought I'd change it up a bit. I found this list online and even though I suspect it might be directed more towards teenagers I thought it had some fun writing prompts. So for December I thought I'd give it a try. School is winding down but work is picking up so I guess we'll see how far I get.

Busy Times, Again

Homework is just relentless right now. I think it's because I'm still kind of playing catch-up from what I put off to finish my costume. Plus every class is having its final push of tests and projects before finals week.

Work has also picked up with the holiday season fast approaching which means late nights and lost weekends trying to get everything set up and ready. I honestly don't know how people can go to school, work, and raise kids at the same time. My hat is off to those people. There are several in my classes and I just don't know how they do it. In fact I'm kind of intimidated by the thought of balancing work and kids and a household as a single parent, but I hear its worth it!

Happy early Thanksgiving (or late if you're from Canada)!!

Back to the Drawing Board

I don't think I'll retire my sewing machine just yet, but now that I'm done with my costume I want to get back to the one hobby I have loved since childhood - drawing.

I haven't seriously put pencil to paper in a very, very long time and I find lately that my head is filled with images just itching to be drawn. Plus, a few years ago I was able to acquire the art desk my grandfather built for my grandma to do her art on. They were trying to sell it in a garage sale and I offered to buy it but they insisted on giving it to me instead. Ever since then it has lived in the sewing room and is currently used as a table to hold extra sewing supplies, but I hope to free it from the corner soon and put it to its intended use.

However, I get a little nervous thinking about taking up drawing again. I'm worried that my drawing skills will be a bit rusty and I'll be disappointed in myself. Drawing was always a source of pride for me when I was younger, but it has been so long since I've tried that I worry I won't be able to do justice to the images in my head. That was always the hardest part of drawing for me, taking an image from inside my head and getting it right on paper.

Found this on Pinterest. I'm glad I'm not alone in this.

A Light in the Darkness

This week was one of great frustration and great excitement. At the beginning of the week I had my advising appointment so I could sign up for next semester's classes. I was under the impression I had six classes left which I was going to fit into spring and summer and be done by the end of next July at the very latest. So my adviser started ticking off the classes I had already taken and came up with seven left. Whaaaaat?!

Unnoticed by me, in small italic font, wedged at the bottom of one semester's list of requirements was an elective credit. And it must be a business elective, they wouldn't count any of the electives I had transferred in from my previous degree. And electives aren't offered in the summer, only certain core classes, and even those aren't guaranteed.

Oh, the frustration and disappointment of finding out that instead of being done with school in nine months at most, it will actually take me 13.5 more months. That one year from now I will still be right where I am. Oh, the pain of learning I have yet another class to pay for along with books and the tacked-on administrative fees that come with every new semester's tuition bill. The frustration of realizing I will be nearly 32 by the time I graduate, instead of just past 31. The disappointment of realizing that having to go to school through next December means no graduation vacation.

It's either that or I attempt to take six classes in the spring. Five classes in one semester I think I could have handled, but six just seems to tip the scales too much, especially when one is something like a mini thesis course.

This week would have been a very bad week if it hadn't been for the day after advising. On that day I came up with a wonderful business idea. And with that I could see light at the end of the tunnel. Finally a concrete career path to pursue that actually excites me. Something that, if it works out, might allow me to become an SMC while also being satisfied in my work life. It's intimidating to think about starting my own business, but exciting as well. And it, combined with the kerfuffle over classes, was almost enough to make me quit school once this semester is over, but for now I have chosen to continue finishing the degree. At least it is something to fall back on.

However, I still wonder if it wouldn't be better to quit, take on extra work at my current job or get another part-time job to save up some money while working on my business in the off hours. I don't know, I guess it's a gamble either way.

Costume, Part II - The Main Event

Just a warning - this post will be very picture-heavy.

First, I can't believe I forgot an accessory. On the day of the party I just wasn't satisfied with the earrings I had bought. They were beautiful but the round shape didn't fit with the theme and they just seemed too big, so I whipped up some easy pendant earrings with leftover beads bought for one of my previous necklace designs.

Earrings

On to the rest of the costume. When I finally settled on this Renaissance design for the main dress I thought maybe I could skip making all the underthings that are supposed to go with it and get away with just making the hoop skirt. Turns out I had to make all the underthings but the shift in order to get things to look right.

Underthings

Final dress pattern

So I made the corset, the hoop skirt, and the bum roll.

Corset front

Corset back

Close-up of corset boning

This costume was my first time working with boning and there was an absolute ton of it in the corset. The above picture shows one side of the corset where each channel has a strip of boning in it. Then in the middle of the corset is a piece of wood that was fitted into its own pocket and tied in with a ribbon. Apparently the wooden piece is called a busk and would turn out to be very important in giving the gown the correct look and shape.

Hoop skirt from the front

The bum roll

I'm not quite sure of the point of the bum roll, other than it acted almost like an extra hoop while also helping to lift the underskirt away from the hoops so they wouldn't show through as much. Or maybe Renaissance people just liked big butts!

Underthings from the front

Underthings from the back

Next was the underskirt which acted like a barrier between the hoops and the gown so the hoops wouldn't show through, plus the front panel provided a contrast fabric to the main gown.

Underskirt back

Underskirt front

 For the contrast fabric I used that same silver I had used in the rejected dress and once again it was very difficult to work with. I've worked with brocade before, even metallic brocades, and I've worked with slippery fabrics and done just fine but this one was an absolute bear to work with. Note how the sides of the silver fabric look like they're pulled up, that's because they were. The fabric had slipped from the felt backing while being sewed to the felt which caused it to drape incorrectly. I ended up pulling it tight and hand sewing to keep it pulled upward. At least the sides of the silver wouldn't get seen once the gown was over it.

Also note how you can see the outline of the top hoop. I had taken the top hoop in once already but probably should have taken it in more to combat this problem. Since I was in a time crunch, though, I left it because even taking it in a little bit completely changed the length of the gown and my cape, and I was worried about them getting too long.

 Next came the gown itself.

Gown back

Gown front

 The silver fabric was used for a contrast to line the sleeves and once again it slipped while being sewed. Maybe there's some trick I don't know about? Anyway, in the picture of the front of the gown it looks like the sleeve on the right has a silver border - it doesn't. The silver brocade just decided to lay funny so here's another picture which shows the sleeves better.

These sleeves weren't part of the original dress pattern, I actually took them from a different pattern that I already had and it took a little work to get them to fit with the partial sleeve already attached to the bodice of the gown because the existing sleeve was much wider than the piece I needed to attach. I ended up doing a tuck on the underside of the existing sleeve which allowed me mostly full range of motion, then I sewed the new sleeve on and the lacing allowed me to fit the pieces together without it being obvious they were two different sizes.

Sleeve pattern (top right)

Close-up of sleeve detail

To this I added the accessories I had made, like the belt and necklace. I also embellished the bodice of the gown with trim and pearls. I wanted to do so much more embellishment but there just wasn't enough time.

Close-up of the bodice detail

With belt and necklace

Then I added the cape which I ended up making out of a bright white polyester shantung - much easier to embroider than the crushed velvet.

My beginner embroidery - Celtic snowflakes

 I had two embroidery patterns I wanted to use, Celtic snowflakes and Norse wolves. I ended up doing the snowflakes on the bottom front corners then for the wolves I cut the pattern in half and did them on either side of the top front. Both patterns were bought from the very excellent online embroidery store Urban Threads. I really wanted to connect the patterns with a border of Celtic embroidery and then do the same border pattern around the bottom but that was another thing I ran out of time for.

Crappy picture + beginner embroidery, Wolf pattern

Wolf pattern

Close-up of cape detail, better picture of wolf embroidery

Cape front

Cape back

To the final costume I added the rest of the accessories I talked about in the previous post - crown, shoes, etc. and then I covered my face, neck, and lower arms in white makeup and wore a white wig and some fake nails I had painted white. Honestly the makeup ended up being more trouble than it was worth because I didn't have time to apply it properly before my family party started. The wig was also a lot of trouble, especially because it was very thin in the back and tough to pin the crown onto.

As for pictures of me in the costume? Well, my mom snapped two quick pictures as my friend and I were heading out the door to our other costume party, but she took them with her camera instead of mine and I haven't yet been able to get them from her. Plus I'm a little nervous to see those pics as I know the makeup did not look good that night. However, when the snow flies my plan is to have pictures taken of me in the costume outside. My sister is just starting out as a professional photographer and has already agreed to do the pictures for me, we are both quite excited about doing a session and I'm sure those pics will look a lot better than any from the party.