Lady of the Thread's Sewing Basket

I ran into umister today! After fabric shopping, I went by the plastic store so I could get a ride home with my father and she was there picking up some sintra. So, we chatted for a while and I introduced her to my father. It was quite a coincidence since I usually work from home and only drop by the store when I’m in the city.


Picked up a bunch of supplies for Ryuuren earlier in the afternoon and spent way too much on trim. And I have a bit of a rant on that… Why is it so hard to find nice metallic gold trim?! I was looking for something that didn’t have other colors or sequins mixed in and ribbons were out since they’re not flexible enough to follow curved edges smoothly. And much of what was left was an anemic gold rather than a nice yellow gold. Complicating matters was the fact that I needed two different widths so I had to find two trims that were about the same color. The wider one I settled on was $8 a yard and I wasn’t even that crazy about it; it was just the best out of what I could find at several different stores. So, the vest is taking about $11 of fabric (the orange brocade was left from the first Ryuuren costume so I only needed to buy some more of the blue brocade and lining) but $35-$40 of trim. -_- I think that’s about as much as all of the fabric I'm using for this costume.

And I’m still trying to figure out what to do about the thin green bangle bracelets. The difficulty is that there are supposed to be beads on them so I can’t just use a normal bangle. I had an idea about getting large binder rings and painting them since I’d be able to open them to string the beads on and hide the breaks with the beads but the largest I found at Staples was 2”. (I got wooden beads since they have huge holes and will paint them.) Maybe, I can cut a bangle open, string the beads on and then glue it back with a bead covering the break? I have some extras that might work since the bangles I painted for my first Ryuuren costume were sold in a set with some thinner ones. I think I’d rather not have to resort to molding clay beads around a bangle or trying to make my own bangle with wire since it would be difficult to get either perfectly round and smooth.

I also went by Pearl River to see if I could find something like Shuurei’s manjuu box. I couldn’t find one with a handle but I did get a red lacquer box. Will try to fill it with fake buns for photos. :-D

Went shopping over the weekend but didn’t buy much. The most interesting thing I got was probably some chili-flavored Lindt chocolate. Ever since I first saw it, I’d been a bit curious what that would taste like so I finally got a bar. It tastes pretty much like normal dark chocolate at first but leaves a spicy aftertaste.

My brother has been pretty busy with school lately so he’s still working on Katsucon pictures. Here’s the other one of my Count D costume. This took a ridiculous number of tries since my wig kept poking out in odd ways and I was being picky about it. ^_^;;;



Anime Boston is in 2 1/2 weeks and Costume Con in 3 1/2 weeks so this month is going to be somewhat crazy. Plus, trying to fit in Saiunkoku cherry blossom pictures with neoangelwink and athena_chan sometime. It looks like it’s going to be tricky since AB and CC weekends are probably when the blossoms will be open. We’ll all be out of town for AB and although they’ll be at the garden for Sakura Matsuri, I’ll be at Costume Con. :-/ Last year, it was so warm that the trees hit peak bloom 2 weeks before the festival but that looks unlikely this year. From checking the garden’s cherry blossom status map, only a handful of trees have started to bloom. I know from past years that the trees around the pond tend to hit peak before the trees in the main area start to bloom so I doubt the trees will hit full bloom before AB weekend.

But first, I need to finish up my new Ryuuren costume. Currently working on the vest. Still need to do the sash, accessories, and boots. Plus, figure out hair after the clip-in ponytail I ordered arrives.

And at this point, I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of trying to do anything to fit the Broadway theme for Costume Con. I love musicals but I just couldn’t come up with anything I especially wanted to make that wouldn’t have required much more money and time than I’d be willing to spend on a costume I might not have a good opportunity to wear again. :-/ There are a lot of musicals that I love for the music or the entire production but out of those, there aren’t many individual characters I love and would want to cosplay as. I thought about doing Polly’s white gown from the finale of “Crazy for You” but it was a huge circle skirt trimmed with ostrich feathers all around the hem and it would have cost hundreds for the feather trim alone. x_x I didn’t really want to crossplay for this either considering I already do so many guy characters for anime/manga or I might have considered Sir Percy because I love The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Started sewing on the new Ryuuren costume. Finished the yellow wrap thingy that goes around the waist and am working on the shirt now, which shouldn’t be too hard.

And I wrote a set of Saiunkoku drabbles based on the observation that Kouyuu wears red earrings like Reishin’s in some of the manga/artbook pictures. Considering how he dresses rather plainly compared to others around the Imperial Court, I think there has to be some reason behind the earrings. (Of course, it would be a cosplayer that thinks of such things. ^_^;;) I was a bit hesitant to include Yuri-Hime since she only appears in the novels and I only know what I’ve seen in fan translations but I thought, “Hmm… Why don’t I make this a set of linked drabbles with a piece from each family member’s point of view?” Originally, it was only going to be one drabble but the idea expanded a bit and each drabble is exactly 100 words. I guess this could be considered cute family fluff with a touch of angst.

( Saiunkoku drabble set: The Ruby Earrings )

Edit: I've put up a couple of offerings at the help_japan community for drabbles and earrings. Both are Buy It Now since they're just little things.

And less than two days left to bid on my crafty creations with 100% of the final sale to go to Red Cross. See my earlier post for more details or go directly to my auctions on eBay to bid. The pouch and the needlepoint kimono haven’t moved beyond the starting bids yet and the price for the box is still low considering the work that went into it. And the needlepoint kimono is really low since just the materials cost as much as the current bid. Auctions are over now.

Katsucon photos went up at risingsun.net the other day so I guess I’ll make my photo post now since I have most pics other than a few my brother is still working on.

First, Saiunkoku with neoangelwink as Shuurei and athena_chan as Ryuuki.



( More Saiunkoku pics )

( Count D and Kyoya pics )

Okay, I think I’m all packed. This might be the earliest I’ve been finished packing the night before for a con! But I guess it helps that I wasn’t making anything new. Anyway, I tried out the collage maker thingy at photobucket and here’s the finalized Katsucon costume list. It’s going to be a very colorful weekend! XD



Kyoya and Ryuuren are for Friday. I’m bringing 19th Century Count D for Saturday since I want pictures of it with the phoenix; other than Costume Con a couple of years ago, I’ve never had this costume at the same con as the phoenix that’s meant to go with it. And D’s artbook kimono will be for Sunday.

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy Year of the Rabbit! :-)

Well, other than being busy with Chinese New Year stuff the past several days, not much of interest has been happening here hence the lack of posts lately. (Well, I have been writing more fanfic lately but I don’t think anyone here would be interested in reading it.)

I had put off on deciding about the Future Fashion Folio for Costume Con and I found a couple of days after they started taking reservations that someone else already asked for the “Priestess of the Night Seas” design. So, I’m not doing anything from the Folio since I was on the fence about it anyway.

I guess I should try to come up with a Broadway costume I want to make then but still have no motivation with the weather. :-/ We’ve been able to pile snow up in the unused driveway next door and in some spots, it’s taller than the gate, which is about waist high! The constant cold doesn’t seem like it’s ready to come to a stop yet and with new snow every few days, it makes the thought of going out fabric shopping completely unappealing.

I suppose I could work on one of the already started things I have around the house but those aren’t that appealing either. :-/ There’s the Lia dress I started on last year and that I have most of the fabric for but I’ll probably have to make a new corset for it and I don’t have materials for that. I’d stopped working on it because I had problems with the straps and contrasting binding on the 18th century corset from my Ekaterina costume showing along the neckline and through the ivory silk. And even if I had the corset, having to change into all the underpinnings to fit the dress is unappealing when I’d rather stay bundled up.

I have Sora’s Saiyuki princess costume started from years ago that I have a lot of fabric for. And I have a wig for her now but it’s not a costume for winter either.

I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t plan on anything new for Katsucon. I suppose I could finish fixing stuff up then until I decide just what I want to make next.

Hmm… It’s been a while since I’ve posted and a bunch of things have happened since then.

Theatre
I made it to the final Wednesday matinee of “A Little Night Music” back on the 5th. It’s one of my favorite Sondheim scores so I enjoyed having a chance to see it onstage. It’s basically a romantic farce with lots of overlapping love triangles. They definitely played on the comedic material and it was hilarious; it’s kind of easy to forget that there’s also so much humor when just listening to all of the waltz music from the cast recording. The set was relatively simple but I liked how they managed to do so much with it. The walls along the edges of the stage could be lit in various patterns to give the impression of different rooms. Plus, they swiveled to form different arrangements and allow furniture to be brought on and off stage. I particularly liked when the trees were added for act 2. The costumes looked nice although some of the little details weren’t very visible from the audience (I bought a souvenir program afterwards so I was able to see some of the details I missed from the photos in there.) And I was curious how they managed to do some of the costume changes so quickly since they were period costumes. (Would be nice if I could manage to change costumes in a couple of minutes!)

My one complaint would be I couldn’t completely believe Bernadette Peters as the glamorous actress Desiree Armfeldt or Elaine Stritch as her former courtesan mother who once had kings among her lovers because of their accents. The show is set in early 20th Century Sweden and they just didn’t sound European at all. I’d never seen either perform live before but I had seen them in Sondheim things that were taped and released on DVD (Bernadette in “Into the Woods” and “Sunday in the Park with George” and Elaine in the Lincoln Center “Follies” concert). They pretty much sounded as they did in those performances and I felt their own personalities came through so I saw them as Bernadette Peters playing Desiree Armfeldt and Elaine Stritch playing Madame Armfeldt, rather than as Desiree Armfeldt and Madame Armfeldt. I enjoyed the show and they were hilarious, especially Bernadette during the “You Must Meet my Wife” scene, but I just couldn’t completely see them as the characters.

Cosplay
Then, my brother and I went to visit neoangelwink and loudnbothered on the 8th. Finally exchanged holiday presents with neoangelwink; had tea and cake; and talked a bit about plans for Katsucon and later this year.

Kaleido Star group for Costume Con has been cancelled. Neoangelwink and athena_chan hadn’t realized that Costume Con is the same weekend as Sakura Matsuri and they need to be at the festival to sell hats so they won’t be able to do the group with me. Other people who were interested in possibly doing it with me are also dealing with real life issues so this just seems to be bad timing for everyone and I don’t want people to stress out over costumes when they have more important things to worry about. I don’t feel like trying to rush through Layla’s ballgown by late April if I don’t have a group to present it with so the idea is postponed for now. Depending on whether people still want to try to do the group at some point, we could try for an anime con later on although I don’t know what would be good. The only ones I’m likely to be at this year after Costume Con are AnimeNext and NYCC/NYAF. Or maybe, just do a Kaleido Star group for fun and photos that isn’t limited to the Cinderella costumes.

And this leaves me uncertain about costume plans for this year. While I do have a bunch of things I still want to make someday, there’s nothing jumping out at me that I especially want to work on right now. I guess it doesn’t help that I’m still feeling unmotivated due to the cold. Plus, Chinese New Year is in a couple of weeks and that always means a lot of extra work around the house so it might not be the best time to start a new project anyway.

I’m not sure if I want to try to do something else as a solo entry for Costume Con. There aren’t that many things elaborate enough that I’d especially want to present them at Costume Con versus just getting them judged at an anime con. There’s the Future Fashion Folio which I still have to look over in more detail although I don’t know if I’d actually want to do one. It’s basically a collection of other people’s sketches for original designs so after the contest, it doesn’t seem like there would be many good opportunities to rewear it. Or I could try to come up with a Broadway costume to go with the Costume Con theme. I kind of want to since I love musicals but it’s very hard to come up with the combination of a show I love, a design I want to make, and a character that I like and could pull off. Plus, preferably, it wouldn’t be overly costly or time consuming to make since I doubt there would be a good chance to wear it again. :-/ Or just more anime stuff? I don’t know.

Fanfic
After years of not using it, I decided to clean out my ff.net account the other weekend and start over since I’ve been doing fanfic a bit more the past couple of months and my stuff has been scattered across LJ communities rather than collected in any one place. I’ve posted all of my PSOH stuff but some of my Saiunkoku stuff is being revised so it’s not all up yet.

http://www.fanfiction.net/~ladyofthethread

Going through psohdrabble to collect all the bits I’ve posted there kind of made me want to write drabbles again (too bad that comm seems dead these days). Not all of them were amazing but I think I was pretty good at it. I could hit 100 words exactly most of the time and usually answer the prompts in a unique way, too. Some weeks, I even managed to also theme them to holidays that were happening in real life at the time, like Chinese New Year. (I think I’m overdue for a rereading of the original PSOH series, too; it’s been quite a while since the last time.)

And now that my stuff has been up at ff.net for about 10 days, I’m looking at the stats and wondering if my Saiunkoku stuff is that boring. I’ve put up a couple of long drabbles plus the beginning of the long AU fic I did for the exchange last month. None of them have even hit 20 visitors yet. Meanwhile, for PSOH stuff, I’ve had 101 visitors for a long drabble, 120 visitors (and over 900 hits) for my collection of 15 short drabbles, and 179 visitors for a pair of longer related drabbles. Figures that the one with the most visitors is the one that sounds somewhat naughty from the summary. >_>;;; I know they’re both small fandoms but I didn’t think it should be that much of a difference considering some of the Saiunkoku LJ communities are actually larger than comparable PSOH ones. Kind of disappointing when the Saiunkoku stuff takes me more time to write since they’ve been longer pieces. :-/

And a slight rant relating to something I was talking to insaneladybug about a while back... People seem really lazy about reviewing stuff these days because even with all those hits and a few favorites/alerts on all of the PSOH things, I’ve yet to get a single review on anything at all. It wasn’t too uncommon for me to get 4-5 comments (and even more once in a while) on 100 word drabbles when they were originally posted on LJ but there’s been nothing there. I know I’m a much better cosplayer than fanfic writer and wouldn’t expect people to individually review drabbles. But if new people are reading them there and like them, it would be nice if they left one comment. Because while fanfic is fun to play with once in a while as a change from cosplay, I don’t enjoy the writing process as much as sewing and tend to do it in hopes of putting together something that other people will also enjoy or get a laugh out of. I’m not too bothered since I did get nice comments on stuff when it was on LJ but at the same time, it doesn’t help encourage me to get my revisions done so I can finish putting stuff up.

Yay, I have Ryuuren photos from thedreamerworld! We did these back in October when the botanic garden was doing their Halloween event. And this reminds me I still need to remake my headdress and fix this up for the group at Katsucon. ^_^; Yay, I'll have Shuurei, Eigetsu, and Ryuuki to torture with terrible flute music!



( more pics under the cut )

Also Saiunkoku related, I got my present from the saiunkoku_fic exchange. I had trouble thinking of anything canon I especially wanted to see so I requested a Victorian AU. It was a pretty random prompt but I like period settings and had never seen that one done before. ^_^;; The results were wonderful though and I loved it. ^_^ Link if anyone else wants to read:
http://community.livejournal.com/saiunkoku_fic/98151.html


And yikes, that was quite a blizzard yesterday. o_o; My brother said even a two foot ruler wasn’t enough to measure all that we got! And our street hasn’t been plowed yet. We had to cancel plans to go out to dinner last night for my mother’s birthday. And the store couldn’t open today so my father got a three day weekend.

Not happy about all the snow since it’s going to delay any plans I had for going out. I still need to visit friends with late Christmas gifts. Plus, I want to see “A Little Night Music" before it closes in a couple of weeks; I never did get to it after the failed attempt in June.

So, this is what my con list looks like so far for next year. It’s pretty lopsided with nearly everything in the first half of the year. ^_^;

Katsucon: Finally going to Katsucon for the first time next year. Also, I’ve known since July but figured it was too early for people to be working on Katsu costumes yet… I have been asked to craftsmanship judge for the masquerade. So, if anyone is entering, please put any progress under LJ cuts.
Anime Boston: Planning to go as usual.
Costume Con: Already registered and definitely going. ^_^ Late April is going to be kind of crazy with this being the weekend after AB and I suspect one of these will end up conflicting with Sakura Matsuri so I’ll most likely be missing that next year.
AnimeNext: Planning to go like usual.
NYCC/NYAF Not crazy about the crowds but I guess I’ll go since it’s local.

Now for some group recruitment… Anyone up for Ancient Chinese fun at Katsucon? :-D We’re planning a Saiunkoku group for then and would love to have more people. Obviously, this is a non-competing group and we’re likely doing this on Friday to avoid masquerade stuff. There are definitely going to be group photos. And I want to see if we can manage to bring some tea cups and blooming flower tea as props since I already always pack a hot pot for boiling water.


I can’t find any big group pictures but there are still dozens of unclaimed characters, including a few main and tons of supporting. The series skews heavily towards male characters but there are several girls, too. Not a complete list but there are a lot more character designs here: http://www9.nhk.or.jp/anime/saiunkoku/character/index.html

So far, we have:

Shuurei: neoangelwink
Ryuuki: athena_chan
Ryuuren: ladyofthethread
Eigetsu: kitsunesqueak

So, anyone else want to join neoangelwink’s reverse harem? XD

And if no one claims Seiran, would anyone be willing to wear his everyday outfit if I made it? I realized with leftovers from other costumes, I probably have most of the fabric for it already and ordered a wig on impulse during a sale so I figure I’ll do it for myself at some point. But since I want to be Ryuuren for the group, I can’t wear it then. This is only if no one else wants to make a costume for him and you would need your own boots. It’s this outfit:



Also, I need to start planning for the Kaleido Star group for Costume Con. Sorry for the lack of updates on this since several of you already expressed interest months ago. ._.; I had been hoping to start group discussion over the summer but that real life had other ideas and it didn’t happen. I’ve e-mailed the masquerade directors and am trying to figure some things out now. Still need to figure out divisions but they did okay including my old Sarah costume in a presentation since I’m making something new for myself and all the other costumes for the group are going to be new. So…

Is there anyone going to Costume Con who would be willing to wear my Sarah costume for a Sci-Fi and Fantasy masquerade group on Saturday? If I recall correctly, I made it for measurements of about 38” bust and hips, 27” waist but it’s not super tight. I’m 5’3” but I wore heels with it to keep the fur from dragging on the floor so it would probably also be okay for someone 2-3” taller with flats. It’s this costume for those who don’t recall what it looks like:



And if anyone else is interested in possibly joining the group, let me know. We’re doing the Cinderella costumes.

Went into the city for a bit yesterday to see if I could get replacement fabric for Ryuuren’s headdress and got lucky. Paron still had a couple of yards of it so I got the last piece. Also went by a bead shop to get more flower beads, similar to the ones I used on the sides of the headdress because I realized they might be good for the sleeve detailing on my stained glass fairy dress (which has been lying around unfinished for about 2 years >_>;). The pattern said to sew on some little buttons to cover up the ends of the cords but I could never find anything I liked that much to go with the fabric. So, I’m no longer stuck on that little detail. ^_^; The flowers had a hole in the center so I tacked them down by attaching Swarovski crystals in the middle. Not sure when I'd actually finish this though since I probably have enough things I want to wear at Costume Con without adding this and I don't know when I'd wear it otherwise.



Otherwise, I’ve been having a nice break from cosplay sewing the last couple of evenings and playing Harvest Moon instead. I’m halfway through the second year and liking Grand Bazaar so far. I especially like that you can sell the things you grow on the farm or cook or create at the bazaar each week. Some things can be a bit annoying though like how most perishable items have both a quality rating and a freshness rating and you can’t stack items unless they’re exactly the same quality and freshness. -_- You can run out of storage space pretty quickly, especially at the beginning before you can upgrade the storage area.

Kind of contemplating cosplay for it since neoangelwink mentioned wanting to cosplay the girl farmer from this game. My favorite design is the one for Sherry, the mayor’s daughter. She runs a booth at the bazaar selling tree seeds and I have a cute idea for making little stuffed pouches of seeds as a prop. I have a long straight wig about the right color that has been lying around unused for a few years because it turned out to be too orangey for what I intended. If I could curl it, it might work for this. I could probably just wear one of my pairs of brown boots since the shoes don’t show much and reuse some of the petticoats I have from previous costumes to help poof out the skirt a bit. And I haven’t done any costumes that look like a farm girl so it might be fun to try. But not sure if I’d actually do this. I’ve found I tend to lose interest quickly once I stop playing a game which is why I rarely make video game costumes. ^_^; And this would probably be another costume that no one gets since she’s usually seen as a tiny sprite in a DS game.



Halloween is looking like it will be boring. Not sure if I’m even going to bother dressing up since I don’t really have any place to go or any ideas for photos around the city. :-/ My brother was asking me if we were doing anything or if there was anyone we could meet up with but I think most of my friends who live in the city are going to MangaNext, which we’re skipping. Anyone going to be around Sunday afternoon that wants to do something with us?