Some Links and a Silly Video

Some weeks make it really hard to get a blog out. Even when I have projects photographed and ready to go sometimes life just doesn't leave time for me to post it all up here, so I've been a little behind in my blogging lately. 

This week between picking up some extra hours at work and also not feeling well it just hasn't happened. But I didn't want to leave you with nothing for the end of the week so I have some links to other interesting things I've found that I can share with you.

GenCon 2012 Photodump 3

OMG best day of GenCon yet! Had a great day and a couple of really stellar moments.  Looking forward to posting all about it after all the fun is over and I've had a few hours of sleep. In the mean time here are some pics. As before, I've taken a tonne more than what I'm posting here so I'll share more later when I can get them sorted properly.

5th Doctor and the T.A.R.D.I.S.

GenCon 2012 Photodump 2

The first full day of gaming at GenCon was a blast. Super tired and sore from all of the walking so you're getting some lower quality photos and not the full set.  I took almost 200 photos today.  Missing from today's photodump are pics of all of the minis I gawked at and pics of GRiPT Games' scenarios "The Wall" and "The City." I'll come back and put captions on these at some point.

Serra Angel

Dr Who (5th) Cosplay: Ready for GenCon 2012

Ok, I've finally got the pics you've been waiting for. The costume is done and ready and so am I! I've been doing a lot of sewing and other 'making' in the last week as final preparation.

new badge holders for the Mr. and myself (front & back of each)

The red tape/cords are from badge holders that he's acquired for free in the past. We have no affiliation with Konami, I think it was free in his swag bag one year.  The black & white fabric is left over from a nursing cover I did for a friend a while back, but we both liked i for this. I added a netted section to mine in case I want to put tickets or my phone or something in there. My husband requested his as a 'badge only' badge holder and is currently sporting a badge from 2007 I used as a size guide.

Dr Who (5th) Cosplay: The Shirt

As I posted about last week, I'm working on Dr Who cosplay for this year's GenCon.  The first piece I started working on was the shirt.  Peter Davidson's 'Doctor' is supposed to be wearing a modified version of a cricket outfit.  This means a white shirt.  Knowing that my time and resources are limited between now and August I decided to start with a pre-owned shirt from one of the local thrift shops

Thrift store shirt

I found a shirt that fit right in the collar and still looked in good condition otherwise.  Then I chopped off the sleeves, cut the armscyes in a bit, and cut off the side seams.

sleeves removed, sides reshaped

If you recall from the first post, I've planned to make the jacket sleeveless and the sweater is short sleeved, so I wanted a shirt that would be almost racerback so that really the only part that is showing is the collar and the button-up front.

 

new side seams (french seams)

After reshaping the sides and armscyes I finished the side seams with narrow french seams and used the fabric from the (now removed) sleeves to make bias strips with which to finish the armscyes.

New Armscyes (L-inside, R-outside)

Since this is going to be worn underneath my corset, I wanted a little bit more snug of a fit.  I had been wanting to experiment with elastic shirring for a while and this was the perfect opportunity.

 

winding elastic thread onto bobbin

I found some info on the web once that said that you should absolutely always wind the elastic onto your bobbin by hand, so I did.  I also lengthened my stitches.

shirring snugs up the fit

I didn't mark or measure anything out, so it's all very rough with not-totally-parallel lines of stitching and those lines a variety of widths apart, but it produces the effect I was hoping for.

The last important thing to do to the shirt was to add the signature Dr Who question marks to the collar of the shirt.  

testing out sewing machine embroidery

I had purchased both orange thread and orange embroidery thread.  Honestly I should have just done the embroidery by hand.  I think it would have turned out much cleaner.  But it was late and we all know that good sewing decisions are never made after midnight...

it'll do

As it is, after much seam ripping and re-stitching, they look ok, even though I managed to make one of them backward.  By the time I was finished I was too tired to care, so that is how it will remain.

In the next Dr Who cosplay post we will take a look at getting the jacket started.

Hope your week is a good one!

Skulls Corset Finished... ish

So, it's been a while since I shared anything about the corset I was working on. You probably have forgotten about it, or thought that I did. Well, I didn't forget; it's just more that I never completely finished it... on purpose.

When last I left you hanging the corset was ready for flossing and grommets.  The grommets went in without incident. I had to do the flossing on the back bones before adding the top and bottom grommets as they overlap the edges of the bones slightly.  I do this on purpose to maximize stability.

I did a decent job making the flossing look good both front and back (sometimes)

Progress on Projects and a Recipe

January has been a busy month with a lot of small projects starting and a lot of large projects continuing or finishing up.  So I thought I'd share some of that with you.

 First off, I've managed to eke out some time to work on my corset. (last update was here) I re-cut all of my boning (reclaimed spiral steel bones from previous corsets) and replaced the tips. The only flat steels are the busk and the steels at center back on either side of the grommets.