I blame the fact that I added youtube to my social media channels for not remembering to keep up with posting here enough. 

Because the thing is, I have been sewing. Quite a fair amount, in fact, because it feels good to keep myself busy with productive things. I finished the corset sometime last weekend. I wound up not ordering enough boning (apparently corsets have more than 10 yds of boning in them - who knew?), but luckily one of my local friends rescued me with a little, and I was able to finish the last three channels. 

Then Sunday, I attempted to make a corset cover in a day for a youtube video. There were a lot of bumps in the project, which I cover in more detail in the video. You can watch it after midnight tonight on my channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYILrMNOLtyIucYE35APXDA
I actually wound up finishing it on Monday, though that was mostly due to a) not starting till 2:18pm, and b) my machines both acting up when it came to buttonholes. 

Since then, the days have again flown by. I have fitted the body of my Edwardian shirtwaist, and yesterday, I mocked up a sleeve and collar. I was going to do the buttons/buttonholes Tuesday, but naturally have no appropriate buttons in my stash. Sigh. So I'm trying to figure out where I can acquire some without going to a store. I think I will mostly make my stash lace work, though I also really really want some beading lace so I can thread my velvet ribbon through it to match the jumper! So there's a lot to figure out there. 

Once the blouse is done, I will go back to the jumper and finish that up. I'm still trying to decide if I want to attach it to that lovely pointed/shaped waistband, or if that should be a belt-like piece that is attached to the jumper straps, but is separate from the skirt. I have a couple days before I need to make that decision though. 

Oh, and I also finally tested out my hotfix rhinestone setter today, in anticipation of one of my next projects - an 1890s Elsa spirit dress, which will be covered in rhinestones. It made me really excited for that project! Though I might still go back and finish the Victorian things I had already started first... 

Umm, hi! It's been a month. I caught up on the last two weeks of posts, since that's all I can view, but I think visiting dreamwidth just sort of fell out of my mind, with so much weirdness going on. Especially since, with working at home, I think I actually take less distractions than I do when I'm in the office (reading/posting here being one of those distractions). 

So yeah. I feel like things are still plugging along here. I'm still working four days a week, just from home, and I'm still sewing. Obviously, all theatre and costuming events have been cancelled/postponed. In fact, we had started having online rehearsals for Ragtime last week in the hopes of opening in June, but that has just been pushed off to Oct. Pushing it back till then would have been terrible, since my parents and I were supposed to go to Europe then, but my mom doesn't feel comfortable with traveling overseas this year, so we are pushing that to fall 2021. If things do open up in a few months though, then she and I are going to take a nice US roadtrip instead. 

In any case, I did embroider my mom's sweater, which I mentioned in the last post, plus I made three pillows out of old embroideries (one for my parents), and I've made 10 masks (three for my parents, two for me, one for my roommate, and four for a friend who ordered them from me). I also completed my 1830s Governor Ratcliffe dress. 

Since I finished the Ratcliffe dress and hat about a week ago, I had started on my Daniel Deronda riding habit and fit my mockup for the velvet evening bodice. And then they cancelled Costume College. So those are getting put aside for the moment, because it makes me sad to work on them. I'm sure I will return to them shortly, especially since I've completed the mockup stage for one, and just need to assemble/try on mockup 1.5 for the riding habit.

But instead, for now I have started an Edwardian jumper dress. I decided on Tuesday that I wanted one, and purchased/printed/assembled the Black Snail pattern, only to find it was not at all what I wanted. So yesterday I drafted up one of the skirt patterns from Period Costume for Stage & Screen (which took me less time than taping together that pattern), and the skirt is currently mostly assembled. I'm trying to figure out how the top part of the jumper is put together -- this is the shape I'm going for, though unfortunately not in velvet. I plan to make a shirtwaist for it, too, though maybe not immediately, since the blouse I bought at Target will do just as well for now. And I should have the jumper itself finished by the end of this weekend. 

I've also been keeping up with my youtube, and have made multiple videos since my last post here, including a couple singing videos!

So anyway, that was a lot of writing. Good job if you read all of that. I'm going to try to remember to check in here at least once a week, if not more often. I hope you all are doing well!

I started working from home as of yesterday. And yet, both my workdays so far have been sooo absolutely busy and slammed with stuff that I haven't even been able to finish everything each day. Thank goodness I'm not also answering phones while handling everything else (my boss let the other admin person go last week since she was a temp, so I'm basically working 2 full jobs right now). 

Anyway, over the weekend I made a hat for my blue pleated "Tissot" dress, which I turned into a youtube video. And I made a reticule for my friend's birthday, though she wound up not coming over, so I will have to give that to her later (I guess the youtube video I filmed about that will have to wait till after I see her.) My bff came over on Sunday, and she and I and my roommate celebrated my birthday together by ordering pizza, eating cupcakes, and watching Disney movies. I also put on the blue dress on Sunday, and shot a bunch of pictures and some video with my tripod, so at least I have some pictures of it on, now. I posted a video clip on instagram a couple days ago, and will share more pics soon.

I did a test embroidery for my mom's sweater yesterday, but neither of us loved it, so that project is probably on hold now. I think I'm going to try to make myself a new slip as my next project, since my current one is super ripped up and limp and is desperately in need of being replaced. Then I hope to move on to Governor Ratcliffe, if I have the energy. My work feels so draining right now that it's honestly hard to get my sewing drive up!

Wow, for once I actually did the sewing that I planned to do! 

So yes, I managed to gather/attach the lace to the middle row of pleats, plus do the velvet ribbon on that row and on the overskirt. In other words, other than the overskirt hooks and bars, the Tissot dress is done! Here's a pic.

Tonight, I'm making a birthday present for my friend, and I may also look at making a hat for the Tissot dress, if I finish her project. I was hoping to find good buckram at Joanns yesterday (yeah, I don't know why I thought that might be a possibility), and naturally their buckram was hardly stiffer than crinoline. But I think I have a buckram hat base that will work for the dress. I've never worked with those before, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to cover it, right?

Once I finish the hat, I'm going to try to figure out how to embroider a sweater for my mom. It was actually what she wanted for Christmas, but she didn't give me the sweater till after Christmas. I'd like to figure it out within the next week or so, though, because then I can mail her the reticule I made for her birthday plus the sweater, and it will get there before her birthday next month. 

Since VicFest was cancelled, I think I'm going to put aside the velvet evening bodice and instead start on my 1830s Governor Ratcliffe for CoCo. I will do the bodice for CoCo, too, but I feel like working on something different right now. 

Also, I'm still trying to come up with ideas for youtube videos - would anyone be interested in how I decide to assemble Disneybounds?

I haven't done much sewing since my last post nearly a week ago, because I just haven't felt like it. They cancelled VicFest, and once they closed all the restaurants in the state, my friends and I decided not to go up there at all. I'm also still one of those weird people commuting to work, though my commute takes about half the time that it did a few weeks ago, which is super nice. I've also been keeping myself busy in other ways. 

Noelle of Costuming Drama visited Seattle this weekend, and it was fun to get to hang out with her a bunch. I toured her around Seattle on Friday, and we met up with Morgan Donner for dinner and fun afterwards. And the three of us also met up for lunch and some fabric shopping Saturday, and dinner on Sunday. 

Yesterday, I tried to run a couple errands. I had an appt at Discount Tire, which they neglected to call and tell me would be canceled since they closed, and I was trying to return a bunch of leggings to Old Navy across the street (also closed). My bff and I had arranged to meet there and hang out during my car appt, so we went to Walmart instead, and managed to find lysol wipes! We also bought everything we would need for the tiny joint birthday party I'm throwing myself and my other bff this weekend, because even if it's just the three of us, I feel like we need to do something. 

So yeah, I haven't managed to do much sewing. I did finally finish pleating the third row of pleats, and I attached them to the skirt yesterday. Click here for a pic. I will probably add the lace and velvet ribbon today, which means that the dress will be done other than the hooks and eyes on the overskirt (which will wait till I try them on). 

I did also record/edit/post another youtube video this week, which is a tour of how I store my costumes.
I think I never posted about the one from the week before, either, which is a reticule tutorial. I'm trying to post about one per week, but it's been made a little more difficult without the events that were supposed to fill this month and make up my video content. So if anyone has any ideas for videos, please send them my way!

Last night, I managed to dye my hair, gather and attach the lace for the overskirt, and sew the backs and sides of my velvet evening bodice mockup (aka, hopefully my flatlining pieces) together, but that was it.

Everything is just rather depressing and it's putting me in a funk. And now there's rumors that the Victorian Festival might get canceled, though even if it does, I think a few of us might go anyway. Which is good, because I feel like I need to get out and do something fun to keep my mind off all this. 

Anyway, I hope to finish assembling/try on the mockup tonight, make any tweaks I need to, and then cut out (and maybe assemble?) the velvet. If I can get out of this funk. I also am trying to decide whether I should go grocery shopping now, or wait till I actually need to. I have enough groceries to get me through Monday, but what if things are hard to get by then?

I didn't really do what I planned at all yesterday. Instead, I gathered up a bunch of the vintage lace, and attached that and the wide velvet ribbon over the tops of the bottom row of pleats. Then I marked the pleats placement for the overskirt, serged the top edge of that (so that I can potentially cover it with the narrow velvet ribbon) and sewed those pleats to the overskirt.

And that's it. I didn't even dye my hair. Attaching the lace took a lot longer than I anticipated, so it's good that I got one row of it done. And I should have plenty of lace for all three rows. I'm going to gather more lace today and sew that on the overskirt pleats, but I'm going to hold off on the ribbon for now. 

I posted a picture poll on instagram and facebook regarding the 3rd row of pleats, because I was kind of liking the look with two rows, and like 85% or more of people said I should do the three rows. However, I am going to put that off till after the velvet bodice is done, because I'd rather have a whole new bodice than an extra row of pleats. And if there's time after, then the 3rd row will be done. And if not, I'll use the wide velvet ribbon on the overskirt instead. 

Anyway, there's a pic of how it looks currently on my instagram: www.instagram.com/p/B9lP2b0ASp5/

Also, all this coronavirus panic is starting to wear on me. The governor banned events with over 250 people today, so all the theatres are either having to cancel their shows, or I guess convince some of their patrons not to show up. I'm ushering a show on Sat night at a theatre that seats about 450, and they said they are going to continue as planned, but with an audience limited to 220... And the tea we had signed up for at VicFest got cancelled, so I'm trying to see if the other tea room still has availability, but a lot of attendees are no longer coming, too. It's all just kind of depressing. 

Sooo, yeah... I definitely did not finish the Tissot bustle over the weekend. And it's still not done. In fact, it feels like it's moving soooo slowly. Over the weekend, I managed to pleat the 7 or so widths of fabric that make up the skirt hem pleats. I hemmed it all, ran it through the ruffler foot, and then painstakingly had to press all the pleats, pinning the bottom of the pleats to make them learn where they need to stay. Then, finally, I attached it to the skirt with my walking foot. 

Yesterday, I did the same thing with the row of pleats for the hem of the overskirt. I'm actually kind of amazed I did this strip all in one day (I mean, it was like 3+ hrs of pleating), but this one went way faster because these pleats are half the width of the other pleats. This one is now ready to be attached to the overskirt hem. 

I have a little under 1/3 of the 2nd row of pleats for the underskirt completed. Part of me almost wonders if I even want to do this second row. For one thing, I had planned to use the wide velvet ribbon to go over the top edge of each of the row of pleats, and I'm 99.9% positive that I don't have enough for three rows. I could sub out the narrow velvet ribbon on one of them, but I'm not sure how that would look. Also, I'm tired of pleating. 

What I've decided I'm going to do instead is to attach the overskirt pleats and then switch projects to the velvet ballgown bodice, which I apparently forgot last Thursday that I still had wanted to do. I already have the interlining pieces cut out, but I need to sew them together and try them on to make sure I like the neckline shape before I cut out the velvet. I'm hoping this can go together relatively quickly, and then I can return to the pleating.

Once I finish whatever pleating I decide on, I will probably also be adding vintage lace between the velvet ribbon and the pleats, which I will have to gather. And I also need to make a hat for the Tissot dress (and probably for the velvet one, even though there's not one in the fashion plate). Oh, and Vicfest starts in 10 days. 

I don't have to do the Fairy Godmother hood after all, though, since Emerald City Comicon was cancelled due to coronavirus. I'm hoping it will be rescheduled to a time I can still do it (they said summer, and I'm busy all of June, plus CoCo), and if so, I will make the hood then. 

The bodice is complete! I sewed on the two hooks and bars and the last button yesterday, fixed the trim on the sleeve, and tacked down the ends of the trim around the neckline. 

I also finished the hem on the skirt, and put the hooks and bars on the skirt waistband. I haven't actually tried on the overskirt yet, so I'm holding off on hooks and bars on that for the moment. But other than those closures, the whole outfit is currently wearable. 

Which means it's time to start pleating. I hope to get a fair amount of it done today, though I have to cut out, sew together, and hem the strips first, and I'm not sure how long that will take. I think I'm going to do a test of the pleats with my ruffler foot, and then decide if that's the route I want to go or not. 

Ideally, (though improbably), when I write on here next (probably Monday), I will be done with this dress. But again, I'm probably being overly ambitious with that idea. Especially since I would also like to make the Fairy Godmother hood this weekend, and I want to film a youtube video where I make a reticule for my mom. And we're doing a small Regency Tea/Emma movie on Saturday. So yeah, unlikely, but we shall see. 

If I do manage to finish all that, I may actually start on my Daniel Deronda riding habit. There's basically no way I can finish that in two weeks, especially since I start rehearsals after next week, but it would be nice to get a little progress. 

And once again, I was thwarted in my sewing plans. Though to be fair to the Tissot dress, it was not for that project. 

I had to run a few errands after work, including getting my driver's license renewed, and finding a clear plastic tube to use as a wand for the Fairy Godmother, so I already knew I was going to be fairly short on sewing time. But then when I got home, I literally spent 1.5-2 HOURS attempting to find the lights I bought for the wand. Like, absolutely ridiculous. And where were they? In a place that I had already looked twice (under my bustle pad right next to my sewing machine, but farther under the pad than I looked the first two times). 

But eventually, I did find them, and I made my wand. Not out of the plastic tubing I spent $7 on, mind you, since I couldn't get that to straighten, but out of the wand part of Dora's Christmas cat toy, which I should have thought of in the first place, because it worked perfectly. I guess the $7 wasn't a complete loss, though, since I have replaced the wand of the cat toy with the plastic tubing! 

Anyway, all it is is the tube from the cat toy, with lights strung through it, the switch/battery pack wrapped in duct tape around the base of the handle so that I can switch it on and off while I'm holding it (and my hand covers the duct tape). At the top of the wand, I wrapped the excess 2 ft or so of lights around the couple feet of soft ruched netting that I had been playing with for the neckline of the Tissot bodice (it was left over from the giant turquoise ballgown, and I had already cut a new and much longer strip for the Tissot bodice). Then I bent the combo into a vaguely star shape, cut the last 1.5 unruched bit of the net into streamers, and added a couple dabs of hot glue to hold it all in place. 

I haven't posted pics yet, and I'm not sure I will till after the Cosplay contest. We shall see. 

Anyway, that only took me about 10-15 mins to do, but after taking so long to find the stupid lights, it was about 9:30 by the time I sat down to hem my skirt. So needless to say, I am only between 1/4 - 1/3 done with the hemming, and also did not do the bodice closures... :( Maybe today.