Hems, corsets, progress.

I finished the corset!  There really was just about two hours left in that project.

...Oh.

Okay, hang on, it's not as bad as it looks.  I mean, it fits as badly as it looks like it does, but this was the mockup.  And one of the risks of making a functional mockup is that you sometimes end up with a finished corset that doesn't actually fit.

I'm trying to work out a system for sizing corsets when there's only one pattern given (as is usually the case when the pattern was taken from an extant item).  I used that method here, and clearly got things wrong.  Looking at my pattern vs. the "real" pattern may help me figure out *what* went wrong, but unfortunately, this project has been sitting around for two-ish years, and I don't actually REMEMBER what I was thinking when I drafted my pattern.  So it's not even useful as a learning experience.

Well, okay, it still is.  The lesson is not to let experiments sit for two years without documentation.

Good news: I have more of the fabric.
Further good news: I have many friends, surely this will fit one of them. 

Onward.
Hey, another corset done.  This one just needed binding.  Bam.  Done.

Look at that miter!  Perfect!  One day, I'll do a tutorial.  Today is not that day.

 And hey, it's kind of a cute shape!

Right.
Next!

Linen 14th Century man's cote, for the spouse.  This time last year, this cote only needed hems (fronts, bottom, cuffs) and buttonholes and buttons.  Now it's just cuffs and buttons/holes.

Making progress, one project at a time.  Or sometimes two.

1840s corset

I made a corset to be the foundation of an 1840s costume for Dickens Fair.

I scaled a pattern from Norah Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines to my measurements (I'm working on a method of adapting historical patterns that only come in one size), and made a mockup.

Well, sort of.  With this particular corset, there's not much additional work between "mockup" and "functional corset," so my first version of this pattern was the completed corset.  Which, predictably, didn't fit.

I have got to find a place to put a full-length mirror that isn't opposite a bright window.

However, for a corset that doesn't fit, it's kind of not bad.  I actually *really* like the shape, or the shape I think it'll have when I make it the right size.  Among other things, I think it'll make a good foundation for a Wonder Woman cosplay.

But as for WHY it doesn't fit: well, it's too big around, which was clearly just an error on my part.  It only constricts very slightly before the edges meet in the back.  I need to remove two inches from the waist circumference. 

The bust is both too big and too high, and I think these are related.  See, the problem with scaling up period patterns is that the dimensions aren't marked.  You can't tell from the pattern pieces exactly where the waist line is, where the bust is.  I think I measured the pattern's bust, and distance from waist to bust, a little below the actual fullest point (see how it dips under the armpit? If I measured there, I was below the fullest point), but measured my own bust at the *actual* fullest point, my modified pattern would have the bust too high and too full.  Which is what we have.

The hipline is pretty good: still too big, but it's a nice line.

And the effort wasn't wasted.  I already found a friend to take it off my hands.  :)

Craft room cleanup, and two-hour projects

My craft room has cluttered itself to unusability, so I'm cleaning and reorganizing.  The problem I have is that there's too much stuff.  There aren't enough places to put everything away.  So I need to do some stuff reduction, or at least consolidation, with a side of "why is that even in here, that doesn't belong here."

Along the way, I'm finding lots and lots of unfinished projects.  So for the next few weeks, I'm going to be focusing on little things that can be finished quickly. Garments that weren't *quite* ready for their event, and were abandoned at a late stage. Tiny alterations and mends. Briefly, projects that have less than two hours' work left in them.

If I can do just two "two hour" projects every day (with the understanding that some will inevitably turn out to be "Whoops! Six hours! Surprise!") I should be able to clear out my backlog in...oh...six and a half years.

But anything is better than nothing.

...right?

Today's two-hour project:
This pile of pieces

Holy terrible photo quality, Batman!

became this Jacobean jacket.

This was NOT a two-hour project.  Something like four? And I think there's about an hours' worth left, with sewing the lining in at the armscye, and hemming and cuffs.  And beyond that, it could really use some decorative stitching on the seams, but that can happen later.

And when I needed a break from purple wool, I worked a little on this corset I started for Dickens Faire, two(?) years ago.

Needlekind Specibus: The Pages

I made pages for the Strife Specibus binder, including some good process shots, but I'm kind of done with this project, so you're going to get some pictures without commentary.

I thought I had pictures of the finished interchangeable/circulars page, but apparently not.
Anyway.  Done.

Cosplay

Silicon Valley Comic Con was this weekend, and I was enlisted to help out with some costumes.

First, I had a friend who ordered a "custom" Newt Scamander overcoat off of Amazon, only to have it arrive large enough for it to close around two people her size.  (This was determined experimentally)

Before

After

(There are Reasons she chose not to have the maker handle the alteration or provide a substitute. I won't go into that here.)

Then, another friend suddenly required a Zapp Brannigan costume, which we worked up in an evening.

And, finally, since I had the strife specibus and all, this happened.

The con was a blast.  Finding other Homestuck kids was awesome. There will be more cosplay in the future.

Needlekind strife specibus: the cover

I have a new theme.  I think I hate it.  Yup, I hated it. Fixed it.

Homestuck fangirl needlebook continued:

Once I had the inside cover panels done, I needed to actually install them onto the binder.

First, I made little bridges at the top and bottom, connecting the two panels. These will sit above and below the binder hardware, covering that little gap of cardboard, and also the raw edges.



Slip the whole thing over the hardware, tuck the edges under (remember, the hardware is only attached to the cover at the two large rivets. There's tons of room underneath),

Using the seam ripper to slip the excess under the hardware

...and glue down.  I used 3M Super 77, because This to That included it as a suggestion for gluing fabric to paper. ...I sort of regret using it, or at least wish I'd been more careful, because I got some overspray onto the pouch pockets, and now they're sticky.  I'll have to test goo-gone on a scrap to see if I can clean it off without making more of a mess.

At any rate, needing to clean up doesn't stop me from moving on to the next bit: the outer cover.

I finally decided to just have my image printed professionally (yay, drug store instant photo printing!) to sit under a piece of clear vinyl. I've trimmed the photo to size, and cut out a piece of vinyl a little larger than the front cover, and a piece of taffeta significantly larger that the whole cover.

Sew the clear vinyl down along the spine of the binder

outer cover and the binder with the inner cover sticking out

Align everything and hold in place with pins and binder clips (Not shown: it was ugly, and I didn't have enough hands)

Use a zipper foot to stitch through the excess of both layers, right up against the cardboard, allllll the way around.  I'm stitching from the inside, because I want the outside surface to be as flush as possible.  Also, the binder won't lay flat face down, so I really have no choice.

Turn it around, and....

Damn.

DAMN!

The photo slipped.
I should have glued it before stitching.
I should have stitched the image side first, to reduce chance of slipping.
I should have...it doesn't really matter. I didn't.  So now I need to fix it.

I can't just rip out the stitching, re-set the image, and sew again.  Vinyl and photographic paper are both utterly unforgiving when it comes to being sewn.  But, the edge is going to get a layer of bias tape, so extra holes in the vinyl won't show (badly).  It'll be okay, as long as I line things up really well when I re-do it.

The photograph may have to be scrapped, which is a shame.  ...mostly.  I'm not sure it shows in the photo, but the glossy surface of the photo and the clear vinyl aren't playing well together.  They're sticking in some spots and not in others, and it looks dirty.    I think re-printing with a matte finish may solve that.  Also, the contrast between the greens was less than I expected.  I may have to adjust the color levels of my image.

So I need to get the photo out, but I don't want to lose the alignment of the vinyl.  Easy, I'm going to stitch again, just outside of the current stitching line.  That will give a little slack, but not so much that I have to re-set completely.  Pull out the stitches, open one full side, pull out the photo.

You'll notice that I planned on cutting down the jagged bit of the photo as an afterthought, and I didn't think to do anything differently when doing the alignment stitching.  It's okay, the new stitching line worked like perforation and the trapped bit just tore out, no problem, no fuss.

Re-printed the image, on satin paper instead of glossy this time. Cut it to size, insert, re-stitch.  Not bad.  I did wander onto the surface of the image in one spot, but I've decided I don't care.  It's so small, it'll barely show.

Time to install the zipper, which means first preparing the zipper.  The zipper by itself doesn't fill the whole gap around the edge of the binder, so the first thing I'll do is add strips of the taffeta: Two for each half, so all of the seam allowances are sealed between layers.

Splayed out so you can see the layers.  Obviously they were lined up to sew.

 Trim all seam allowances to 1/4", including my new zipper gusset.

I also cut some bias binding at this point because I thought I was going to stitch it all in one go. heh. Nope.

Stitch the zipper all the way around, still using the zipper foot.  The corners were tricky. That's all I'm going to say.

Now to bind it: Stitching down the binding was very much like stitching down the zipper

Stitch it down

Wrap it around

 Realize, belatedly, I should have installed the zipper after stitching down the first layer of binding. Also, something I've been wrestling with the whole time while sewing the cover in place: The hardware of the binder interferes with stitching, I can't get close to the top and bottom of the spine.  Also, with the zipper sewn in the way it is, the binder won't lie open flat anymore (oops), so I had no choice but to sew the binding over the spine by hand.  Which I put off for several weeks because it seemed hard.  When I finally got to it, it wasn't actually that bad.

And the binder's done!

Note the zipper tab to the left. That allows the zipper to open past the spine, which allows the binder to open fully.  Or would, if I hadn't stitched the zipper across the top.

I also realized, a little too late, that I forgot to sew down the elastic for a tape measure.  Either I'll glue down a piece of felt for needles instead, or...use the appalling curved needles that I hate? That's a terrible option.  Ah, well, burn that bridge when I come to it.