Not dead, just busy...

I know, no posts for a long time.  I haven't made any more progress on the shoes - I'm having trouble with the stitching along the top edge.

Also, I'm just back from a two week vacation.  One week camping in Yosemite, and one week visiting friends in the Bay Area.  While in San Francisco, I got to visit Britex, a really fabulous (but expensive!) fabric store.  I was last there about twenty years ago.

I was visiting a friend who was studying at Berkeley at the time, and we were exploring the city.  I ducked into a fabric store to check it out, and felt like I had walked into a magical world.  It was beautiful.  Colored bolts stacked to the ceiling in a rainbow of colors.  I didn't buy any fabric then, but I took a photo of the wall of fabric, and grabbed one of their post cards. 

That post card moved with me for years.  I might still have it.

Turns out, that store has FOUR FLOORS, one dedicated just to buttons and trim. So I went back, and this time, I spent some money.  Here's what I picked up at Britex:

Some fabrics for this year's costume - I'm going ORANGE this year!  (The one that looks brown and the one that looks red in this photo look a lot more orange in person.)

 

Some trim and buttons for the costume:

 

I don't know what I'll do with this one, but I loved it:

 

This gorgeous silk - very expensive, so I only got a half yard.  I think it'll make a fantastic tank top/shell.  It feels *so good*:

 

 

On the way home, we stayed one night in Ashland, and I had a chance to check out the two fabric shops in town.  Got some more stuff for the costume, and yes, that's Kaylee's tail in the photo:

 

 

In other news, I've been elected Vice Chair of Norwescon for the coming year, so I anticipate I'll be really busy.  For starters, there will be a lot of events I'll have to attend up in Seattle that I might have skipped otherwise.  Not as much time to work on the shoes as I'd like.  But - when I do make some progress, I'll post it here.

Progress Update: No progress to report

Unfortunately, no new progress on shoes.  Norwescon has, however, come and gone, and I did have three new costumes this year.  Unfortunately, there are not photos yet of my Wonder Woman getup, but here's the group of us doing Norse Gods & Goddesses:

 

 

 

 

And just me, with my skull makeup front and center:

 

Also, I did manage to get my Columbine costume done as well:

 

 

 

I'm wearing shoes I made myself with both of these costumes.  Win!

 

Now, I'm trying to get back on top of the shoes, but first, I feel the need to clean up a bit.  Things are in chaos.  This is frustrated by the fact that I'm absolutely exhausted.  In the two weeks leading up to the convention, I experienced some pretty horrible insomnia, and since then, I've been sleeping a lot. 

 

 

We Are All Wonder Woman

There's been a lot of talk lately, in convention circles, about harassment.  In general, and specifically relating to the harassment faced by women who wear costumes, especially when their costume is from a character with whom they do not share body type/race/age etc.

And this sucks, and is wrong.

So a bunch of us are dressing as Wonder Woman on Sunday at Norwescon.  Because all of us, no matter our dress size, are Wonder Woman. 

Wonder Woman, over the years, has had many incarnations.  Likewise, all of us who are Wonder Woman are different people.  One person is doing a very sparkly, corset-ed version; someone else is going the Steampunk route. 

While I do wear costumes at Norwescon, I am generally a jeans-and-t-shirt girl.  So here's my Wonder Woman costume - jeans and a t-shirt. 

Because even though I'm not in a shiny leotard, I am still Wonder Woman.

And if anyone else would like to join us in dressing as Wonder Woman at Norwescon, please feel free to do so. 

Sewing the Uppers

Am currently working frantically on some costumes for Norwescon, and stealing a little time here and there to keep making progress on these shoes.

 

So - in addition to the gimping, I wanted some decorative holes punched along the edge of the black pieces.  I did this with a leather hole punch (the kind with a hammer), and mostly just eyeballed it.  So it's a little uneven.  But I doubt most people will be looking closely enough to tell the difference.

 

 

Then, I used some rubber cement to stick the pieces together, and stitched them down.  I want the stitching to show, so I'm using a light blue thread. 

 

 

I'm also still having a hard time with the sewing machine not holding tension very well on the thicker thread.  I don't know what the solution is to that, other than buying a very expensive industrial sewing machine, or doing all the stitching by hand (NOOOO!!!!!).  

 

And here are the uppers, all stitched together.  Pretty snazzy, no? 



 

I have to make a pattern for the lining and counter now, and cut and sew the lining, before I can do anything else.  We'll see how far I get before it's time for ALL CONVENTION, ALL THE TIME.  

Starting back up on that pair of shoes

First up, found another good shoe blog - http://shoesandcraft.com  This is a guy who makes bespoke shoes, I think in New York.  Mostly men's. 

 

Tutu is at a good stopping place - the frills are all sewn on, and I've finished the waist band.  All that's left is the decorative fabric that goes on top.  I'll get going on that next week.

 

First, I wanted to get on top of that second pair of shoes - the lace-up, oxford/spectator inspired ones.  My black leather *finally* arrived, so I could start.

 

Here are the pieces cut out:

 

 

I still need to make the pattern for the lining, and cut the lining, obviously, as well as making the patterns for the counter and the heels. 

The jagged edge on the black pieces (which I think is called gimping) is typically done with a machine, as part of the cutting process.  You just run the cutting needle (like a sewing machine) along the cut line, and it gives you a nice, even, zig-zag edge.  I don't have one of those machines, so I cut all the little teeth by hand, with a pair of scissors.

The next step here is to get out the hole punches, and do the decorative holes along the edges, and also, to skive the edges of the light blue leather.

Quick tutu update

Have finished the basque, and put on 8 of the 12 frills.  Boy, do these suckers take a long time.  Each frill is 6 yards long, widths increase by 1" increments from 2" to 13".  Here's some progress photos:

That last one is upside down - it looks better that way.

The cats have been banished from the room while I work on this.  Kaylee can't resist shredding the tulle, Simon pulls the pins out, and both of them have a thing for shoving things off the table.

Belated Corset Update

Black leather *still* hasn't arrived, so still no progress on the next pair of shoes.

Corset hardware, however, arrived on Friday, and the corset is finished.  Here's how it happened:

First up, the beautiful black velvet with little white gems on it is a stretch velvet.  Stretch is not so good for corsets, so I added some heat-bond interfacing, and some ugly quilter's cotton I had lying around, for stability, to each individual piece, and stitched around the edges to hold it in place.

Sewed together the outside.

Added some mis-matched decorative diamonds on the front center panels.  Sorry about the washed out photos - the lighting in my workshop is great for working, but terrible for photography.

 

On the back sections, stitched the lining to the outside at the back edges, stitched a channel for some boning, added grommets, and added another channel for boning - one piece of boning on either side of the grommets.  (This also helps keep your grommets in a nice straight line.)

 

On the front, stitched the lining and fronts together along the center opening, leaving gaps for the loop side of the busk.  Inserted the loop side and stitched it down.  Poked holes with an awl for the studs, shoved them through, and stitched that down, too.

 

It's probably impossible to tell from these horrible pictures, but the busk I got has little diamonds in the studs.  

So, I stitched up the side seams, slipped the rest of the boning into the channels on the lining, laced it up and did a trial fitting.  It was a bit too loose (I've lost some weight since the pattern was drafted for me originally), so I took in the sides a little.

The fit was just about perfect, so I added binding to the top and bottom edges to finish it. 

And here's the finished corset.

I've started on the tutu to go with the corset - I've got the basque made (basically a crotch-length, high-waisted, very tight mini skirt), and have sewn on the first three rows of frills.  I'll try to remember to take some photos of it soon.