Saving the World in Style

... just a quickie update on the costume sitch:

I had originally decided I was going to do Mina Harker from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Since starting grad school, I decided that might be a little ambitious for this year. I decided that, since I already had the hip holster rigs and so forth for Abigail Whistler, I'd do the Abigail thing again this year. The vest is simpler than the Victorian redingote for Mina and I'd hoped to be able to just buy the yoga pants. I've since discovered that I can't find the pants in the right material, so I'm going to attempt to make them. With the new machine, it should be a little easier.

( More obsessing below the fold... )


I'm also going to try and do the Emma Peel thing this year. Another Kwik Sew pattern (3052), I have the spandex and the metallic spandex to try and do something closely approximating her catsuit from "The Town of No Return." This will depend entirely on my ability to deal with spandex, and how comfortable I feel after finishing the Abby portions. If I don't feel up to it, or if I don't have time, Emma will have to wait another year.

As always, the Manticoran colors will be flying. I'm still debating taking my BSG uniform. DH says that, since Mary and Eddie will be there I should carry my Roslin suit. At this point, I'd have to take it in so much, I'm not sure it's worth it. ::sigh:: About the same can be said of my BSG uniform pants. Let's just see how burned out I am after all my school work and actual work.

ETA: Aha! I knew if I looked, I could find an image of the "Emma Peeler" I'm hoping to do: From the cover of the Avengers '65 box set.

Now off to bed!

Well, around midnight last night, I finished off the hard stuff. I screwed up when adding the cuffs and ended up having to add them by hand. Not a major deal, but it would have been a lot easier if I had a sewing machine with a sleeve arm. I'll need to tack down the top of the cuff, that that's an easy handstitch job. You can see the results here.

I'm pretty happy with the overall. Now I just have to see if I can either get my MIL to do the buttonholes or learn how to do them myself. My machine will do them with the appropriate presser foot, so I may give it a shot...on some test fabric first, of course.

Took the evening off tonight. Got a much-needed nap, and managed to make the gym. I spent about half an hour working kata and kihon, and working with the heavy bag. I'd forgotten how much of a workout karate could be! Definitely looking into finding a dojo once we get back from the con.

Back to the sewing room tomorrow. There's an end in sight! And I might even be done before the 27th this time.

...and this time, it's not a fic (even though it probably should be).

So I didn't even get to the Roslin suit this weekend. The consolation is that I got a lot done on my Galactica uniform. This whole project has been quite the learning experience for me thus far. It's probably why it took me this long to get this far; a seasoned pro would be able to whip this out a lot faster, I think. Ah well.

Roll that beautiful bean footage...

The overall glamour shot, complete with pinned-on buttons. It's not completely ironed, and I'm still lacking a few things, but I'm pretty happy with the overall progress.

A closer shot of the button placket, complete with piping. Still not the color I want for piping, but it will do. Maybe on version 2.0, I'll be able to find the gray wool or twill that I wanted.

And a closer look at the patch pocket that took me a few hours to finish. I'd started by doing a cut-out, but decided that, as fray-tastic as the wool was, it was probably easier to do a pleat instead. So I did. And this was the result.

So, overall, not perfect; more than passable. Especially, I think, for someone who has only really been back sewing for about a year. I'll just be glad when I finish -- I'll get my evenings back, and be able to make level 70 on my warlock. ::taps veins::

That is, of course, beside the enormous sense of accomplishment, finishing two projects inside of a month. =)

ETA: It also wouldn't take me so long if I weren't so much of a "gifted student" -- i.e. the person who waits until the last minute to complete a difficult project, and then is a perfectionist about it. This was a profile they developed of the gifted program students in our county while I was still in HS. It was the one thing all of us in the program had in common. Unfortunately, it's also a trait that has haunted me most of my life.

Who me? Sewing until midnight on 27 August? I was really hoping to avoid that this year...