Lady of the Thread's Sewing Basket

Tried out the new sewing machine today. Haven’t experimented with the fancy stuff yet but there are a couple of handy features. Like this one has a built-in needle threader and thread cutter unlike the old machine. It also has a drop-in bobbin with a clear cover which is helpful since you can see how much thread is left on your bobbin without opening the machine to check. And there’s a pressure control that lets you adjust how much pressure there is on the sewing machine foot. It seems to help when sewing through extra layers. ^_^ I don’t completely like that you have to open the machine to move that lever though; there’s a hinged part that snaps open and closed but I find it a little hard to get it neatly closed.

Anyway, I’m almost done with Ayame’s shirt. ^_^ (Or maybe I should say shirtdress, considering the skirt thing it has! *laugh*) It just needs buttons which I’ll work on tomorrow. Then, I’ll have the coat and necktie to do. I figured I needed something new to try on this costume so I’m planning to do piping on the coat rather than just sewing on gold trim like I usually do. I’m planning for the tie to be red but haven’t decided if I want it to be the same fabric as the coat or a plain red. I guess I’ll do the coat first and then decide.

Oh, and I learned something new from the sewing machine manual. Despite sewing for years, I never realized that you’re supposed to pull the end of the thread through the little hole in the bobbin before you start winding it. ^_^; I initially learned to sew a bit from my mother and by following pattern instructions so I had holes in my knowledge about proper techniques. Taking a couple of sewing classes later on helped but I guess there’s still some basic stuff I’ve missed. ^_^;;

Well, it’s February, so I figure it’s time to set a meeting spot and time for the Lunar New Year event at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on the 10th.

Is 11AM okay for a meeting time? I figure it’s not really early but still early enough to get into the gardens for free. :-) I should be getting there by subway and going into the park at the Eastern Parkway entrance. Would people prefer to meet there or inside the visitor’s center? (map here: http://www.bbg.org/exp/maps/bbg_map_1000.html) I thought the visitor’s center might be better if everyone knows how to find their way around the park since we won’t have to wait outside if someone happens to be running late. If anyone else wants to come, let me know. Right now, I’m only expecting shinei, maybe xmemoryless (if she’s able to get the day off), and a guy who replied on cosplay.com.

I hope the weather is good for this thing. Even if all the event activities are indoors in the conservatory, it wouldn't be fun to have to go out in the rain or snow to get there. ^_^;

And to add to the subject of my previous post, the sewing machine really seems dead. My mother, who worked as a seamstress before I was born, looked at it and she couldn’t get the bobbin thread to come up either. It was a Kenmore that my mother got for $80 back in the ‘80s so we’ve gotten a good amount of use out of it; I’ve sewn all my costumes so far on it plus some other random clothes. My parents said we can go buy a new one this weekend but the delay in finishing the shirt is annoying. (Good thing this didn’t happen the week before a con!)

Blah… Now that I haven’t really got a project going, I’m feeling kind of bored. I suppose I should take a stab at finally giving my room and the living room (where I usually sew) a thorough cleaning but it’s not exactly an exciting project. ^_^;; Actually, the whole house could probably use a cleaning since there’s so much clutter; if my family ever had to move, we’d never make it because we would never finish packing! >_>;

To try to alleviate the boredom, I’ve gathered my bits of shaggy orange fur and am starting to figure out how to make my T-Chan plushie. I have some yellow scraps left from my Tohru sundress that I’ll use for paws and the horns but still have to look through my fabric stash to see if there’s anything good in beige for the face. I’ve gotten the tail done and have ideas for the legs but the head is going to take some figuring out.

Hmm… Maybe, I should consider doing my kirin plushie, too, after I get T-Chan done. I meant to make Taiki to carry around while in my nyosen costume but never got around to it since other costume stuff kept me busy.

I got the final volume of Kaleido Star: New Wings this week and watched it. ^_^ It was great! ( Cut for spoilers )

Hmm... And now, I guess I need some new anime to follow since I've finished both Gankutsuou and Kaleido Star.

Got an e-mail notice about a sale on Vogue patterns earlier today. Their website (http://www.voguepatterns.com/indexfv.html) has all patterns for $6.99 each with free shipping today and tomorrow. Thought I’d mention it in case anyone needed patterns. ^_^ Guess this would be a good time to get that glove pattern so I’ll have it if I ever need to make another one.

Halloween was amusing. I wandered around town as Count D and visited several bookstores. Of course, I didn’t expect to be recognized but a few people did compliment me on the outfit. Funny thing that happened… A woman who was standing next to me while waiting to cross the street turned her head my way and jumped a bit, going “Oh, my god! That’s so scary!” *laugh* I guess I startled her. Must have been the fuschia makeup all around my eyes; my father has told me it makes me look like a vampire. Well, either that or my face is just scary in the first place. :-P

I stopped by Kinokuniya to ask if they would be getting the Petshop of Horrors artbook that came out in Japan several weeks ago. Turns out their Palisades store had it so they’re having a copy sent over and I should get a call when it arrives. (Watch me buy the thing and then end up with another bunch of outfits added to the potential cosplays list. ^_^;; I already like D’s outfit with the butterflies from the cover.)

I also went to Book-Off and peeked through a few Japanese Fruits Basket volumes I found there. If I found translated text online, I’d seriously consider going back and buying them since they were only $3 and Tokyopop is taking so long with their new volumes. I'm amused that it seems like there's another visit to Ayame's shop in a few volumes and he's wearing something weird again. *laugh*

Wandered into a few Barnes and Noble stores too, looking for the quilting magazine a friend of mine edits. It’s pretty new and seems rather elusive; I had to go to the huge 4-story B&N in Union Square to get it.

I also spent some time in the manga section and read some xxxHolic. Hmm… I thought I’d check it out since I tend to like stuff with touches of the supernatural in regular novels but after two volumes, it doesn’t particularly grab me. Yuuko and her wish granting shop make me think a bit of Count D and his shop but the character doesn’t appeal to me that much.

And I ended up having an impromptu photoshoot with my brother in Union Square park. He had class in the city that day and called me afterward, asking if I wanted to take pictures. Not the most interesting shoot since the only prop I had was Q-Chan but I think there should be some decent full length shots.

Finished the day by going over to my family’s store with several bags of candy I bought to give out to the workers. Yikes, it was kind of scary what happened when my sister poured the candy in a bowl (well, actually a plastic dome XD) and told everyone to come over for treats. o_o; Originally, I was just going around and handing out a couple of pieces to everyone and that worked fine but after my sister had the stuff, everyone rushed for the candy! We even had a few kids come into the store to trick-or-treat which was unexpected; I didn’t really think there’d be any in the neighborhood.

I’ve been lazy about sewing this week so I need to catch up this weekend if I’m going to have my dress done for the relative’s wedding next weekend. Finally set in the sleeves today and everything seems to fit well so far. Still need to add the mandarin collar, fix up some things on the lining, and add trim and closures.

Well, it’s the weekend. Have fun if you’re going out and doing something for Halloween. ^_^

I’m planning to go to the botanic garden for Count D pictures on Sunday but I’m a bit worried about the wind advisory here this weekend. And it’s only going to be in the 50s. -_-; I hope there will be lots of good photo spots inside the conservatory… Although I kind of wanted to get a photo of D talking to the fish in the water lily pool outside.

So, I’ve been fixing up a few little things on my costume in preparation. Like replacing the crystal beads I had on my tassels with larger ones. The originals were smaller than I would have liked but I had to make do with what I was able to find at the Rag Shop since I didn’t have time to make a trip into the city for beads then.

Still working on the new dress, too. It’s going a bit slower than I’d like. Isn’t it annoying when you cut two of the same pattern piece and then find they don’t fit together when you go to sew them? -_- I think it’s the different fabric since the crepe back satin I’m using for lining seems to stretch more than my brocade.

My, it’s been nearly a week since I’ve written a real entry. ^_^;; Let’s see… I’m working on the new outfit for that wedding. I got the sleeves stitched up over the weekend Still need to cut out fabric for a lining and get some gold trim to add for decoration. Took a picture of one of the sleeves earlier. It’s blue brocade with wine-colored crepe back satin as trim. The pic on the right is without flash and gives a more accurate idea of the background color but the patterns showed up more clearly in the one with flash.



Also, over the weekend, I finally made a Cosplay Lab profile: http://www.cosplaylab.com/cosplayers/complete.asp?memberid=31097 I’d been meaning to do that for a long time but kept putting it off to work on costumes and other stuff. XD; Caught up with adding costumes into my cosplay.com costume list, too. Still need to look through my albums sometime and try to tidy them up a bit. And I will hopefully be getting better pictures of the peacock dress next weekend.

With books, I finished “Death in Hyde Park” by Robin Paige last week. It was okay but didn’t appeal to me as much as some of the previous stories. It involved an anarchist that accidentally blew himself up on the day of King Edward VII’s coronation and the resulting investigation. The series normally includes some historical figures among its characters and this title used writer Jack London. I noticed that unlike most of the other real people who have been included as characters, he didn’t really interact with the main characters. They supposedly met him at a party that took place before the story started but we only see one scene where Kate meets him again. Usually, the historic figures interact with the fictional main characters much more, sometimes even helping in the Sheridans’ investigations. The other thing that sticks out in my mind was that there was a passage referring to how a location in the story is being used in the present day. Completely pulled me out of the story’s early 1900s period so I think it would have been better if it wasn’t there. -_-

Picked up “Embroidered Truths” by Monica Ferris yesterday. I’d fallen somewhat behind on reading that series since it went to hardcover a couple of books back and it wasn’t one of my favorites. It’s a mystery series with a needlework shop owner as its protagonist but despite liking needlework, I don’t think it’s as good as some of the other series I read. In particular, the plots for the first few in the series didn’t seem that clever and those early books contained mistakes in the needlework references, too. -_- Hope this one will turn out to be decent.

Let’s see… The last couple of days I’ve caught up with some of the household paperwork and made some more progress on painting the peacock dress. Also put in an order for the last volume of Gankutsuou and volume 5 of Kaleido Star: New Wings from Amazon. I usually only collect a couple of anime series at a time and was wondering if anyone had suggestions for what I could check out next since I’m almost done with these two.

I find I usually tend to prefer shojo but don’t like things focused too much on romance. Also, I’m not really into sci-fi and not a big fan of action stuff. I tend to like series with continuing plotlines over more episodic ones and I love pretty artwork. ^_^ Some of the series I like are The Twelve Kingdoms, Kaleido Star, Fruits Basket, Witch Hunter Robin, and Gankutsuou. I’ve already tried Fushigi Yugi because of the similar setting to Twelve Kingdoms but found it too romance-y for my taste. I’ve also seen the first volume of Revolutionary Girl Utena and didn’t care for how it was animated even though I loved the manga. Suggestions, anyone?

And I finally got my old evening gown out of the closet and fixed the zipper so I’ll have something to wear for that wedding reception I’m supposed to go to on Saturday. I made this several years ago, back in late 2000 or early 2001, so the inside is kind of messy although it looks decent on the outside. I broke the zipper a few years ago and was lazy about fixing since there aren’t many occasions I need a fancy gown for. So, it’s just been hanging in my closet since then. >_>; Here’s a picture of it. Don’t mind the clutter in the background… Cleaning obviously isn’t one of my talents. ^_^;;



The gold brocade is one of my favorites out of all the fabrics I’ve sewn things with and I still have a few yards of it stashed away somewhere. I’ve been wondering if I could incorporate it into a costume sometime. It sort of makes me think of Celes’s opera dress from FFVI but I doubt there’s enough left for a big poofy gown.