ladyofthethread | Entries tagged with beads

Clothes for the new Count D costume are finished! :-D I just need to do a few touchups on my wig and get some background stuff up and then I can have pictures taken.

Unfortunately, I had to give up on the pearls since they were too heavy. -_- I got gold plastic beads like these instead. They were still expensive (I had to buy around $120 of them to have enough for the costume) but definitely lighter than the Swarovski pearls. I hope they don’t end up looking too gaudy although they’re definitely better than those shiny like a mirror gold beads; these look more like real gold with a bit of texture.

And, I spent part of Thanksgiving “building” an ottoman. XD I’ve been wanting a nice, antique looking chair to use for studio photos but most of the stuff I was finding was $200 or over. Then, a great idea hit me earlier this week. Several months ago, my father bought new foam cushions to replace the ones in an old sofa. However, my mother and brother both said they were too hard (If I stack 4 or 5 of them, I can sit on top of the pile without it sagging at all. That’s how hard that foam is! o_O;) and the cushions ended up just being tossed into a corner to collect dust. I looked at them a few days ago and realized I could turn it into a chair by making a fabric cover to go over the stack. So, I bought a few yards of damask and some gold fringe and turned the stack of cushions into this:

It’s about 16” high and 24” square. I was able to do the cover with only about $30 of materials and a few hours sewing. :-D And I don’t need to get an expensive chair now which is good since the D costume has been eating my wallet.

Sarah costume has also been started. I was able to make the pink petals from some leftover organza I had lying around and bought other fabrics last Thursday. Also made her necklace (which took like 2 minutes) and iron on appliques for the white flower on the dress. Started patterning the capelet/hood, too, but I couldn’t find the hood piece from a cape pattern I used a few years ago (or any of the pattern pieces that I used then for that matter; they’re not in the envelope and I have no idea where I put them -_-) so that means more work.

I’ve decided to work on getting some nice photos of the new Count D before NYAF rather than trying to rush through Sarah to have her for the con. I probably wasn’t being very realistic when I first thought about doing her for NYAF anyway since I always end up forgetting to buy something or running out of an item and needing to make another trip. -_-; And most of the time, I end up taking longer to sew something than I think it will take. So, the silly martial arts loving diva will probably appear at Anime Boston instead.

Current Mood: full

Well, today is my birthday and the weekend has mostly gone well, including a couple of unexpected gifts. ^_^

Thank you to:

ngmaster for the box of Godiva truffles ^_^ with a note addressed to Count D! *laugh* The Count liked the chocolates and asks how the pet panda is doing. ;-)

novaraven for the Cosworx gift certificate. ^_^ That was totally unexpected! I haven’t got a wig in mind to buy right now but it’ll definitely come in handy when I get to work on next year’s costumes. :-)

lithiumdelusion for a great set of Petshop of Horrors/Fruits Basket crossover drabbles. ^_^ Other fans can read them here: http://lithiumdelusion.livejournal.com/5584.html Count D meets the Sohmas! :-D

And I got a pendant from my mother and money from my parents and relatives, which I used to order the Swarovski pearls for the Count D costume. ^_^ (I checked the two gold Swarovski shades but neither seemed as good so I decided on the blue in the end. Thanks to those of you who answered the poll a while back!) And I found this gorgeous cloisonné clasp that I’ll use for the necklace: http://www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?PN=H207816FN Expensive but I love cloisonné and it’s so pretty. ^_^; Thank goodness I was able to get it discounted because of how much I was ordering.

I also ordered supplies for the other jewelry. I’ve decided I’ll use large stone cabochons for the brooches since they come in larger sizes than faceted gems. But I’m considering being a little inaccurate ^_^;; and making them oval since there’s much more variety in the oval cabochons than round ones (like 40 different colors/stones for the largest oval ones versus 10 colors for the largest round ones) I ordered a couple of colors in both shapes so I’ll see what looks best after I get them. This is costing a lot (just the pearls/jewelry is going to be more than I’ve spent on some whole costumes I’ve made before o_o;) but I’m excited about this outfit and hoping everything will come together as I imagine.

Current Mood: happy

So, I went out hunting for pearls again today and still haven’t come to a good conclusion about what color would be best. I figured I needed to avoid the darker shades after what happened with the green I bought last time but none of the lighter ones jumped out and me and screamed “this is it!” So, I thought I’d get a couple of strands and see what you guys think. Left is with flash, right is without flash, and I didn’t have time to take a pic with natural light. (Ignore the green beads mixed into the last strand. I just decided to throw it in as another option and I only had a strung necklace in white.

[Poll #1057569]

Out of what’s there, I think I like the blue best but that one is a Swarovski shade and those things are expensive! 20 cents a bead for 10mm or 33 cents for 12mm and I’d need a few hundred of them. Maybe, if I convinced myself it was my birthday present? x_x; I really want to end the year with a spectacular costume since what I’ve made so far this year has been rather plain and boring compared to last year. But, yikes, this thing is going to end up costing even more than my formal Terra.

Current Mood: indecisive

Hope everyone had a good weekend. :-) Mine wasn’t the most exciting but I did get a few things done.

I went looking for costume stuff on Friday and bought nearly all the fabric I need for the new Count D. I got a yellow brocade with swirly dragon designs to use for the collar and the middle layer on the bottom. The reference looks like it’s really supposed to be a lighter version of the fabric in the front panel but that velvet only came in navy so I couldn’t match them. ^_^;

I picked a teal satin for the main robe and got white fabric (not shown) for the underskirt. The dark gold will be for the trim along the edges. I know the reference had the trim being completely shaded in but it’s hard to find something dark that would look good with all three main fabrics; like black would be fine for the velvet and the teal but would probably look weird on the yellow brocade. I think this gold should work well with everything else I have though. Completely forgot to pick out something light to use for the sash but maybe I can find something suitable around the house.

I looked for pearls, too, and found some colored resin pearls at one of the new shops I checked. But there was a limited selection and everything was too small or too big. I think 10 or 12 mm would be the ideal size; smaller and they probably wouldn’t show well enough, larger and they’d just start to look tacky. I asked at another shop were I usually get my pearls but they only have the colored ones up to 8 mm. Bah, at this point, I think I might just buy the glass pearls, string them on the heaviest beading wire I can fit through them, use a whole bunch of crimp beads, and hope that I don’t snag on anything. -_-; I bought a spool of wire yesterday that lists the breaking point at 26 pounds. I got a heavier one on Friday that says 40 pounds but it’s a bit too thick to easily fit through the pearls twice.

I did buy some green glass pearls to use for the necklaces and got them strung over the weekend. I was thinking that I’d use a different color from the strands hanging from the waist. Hmm… Now that I have a picture of everything together, I wonder if it’s too dark to stand out well on the velvet. I was thinking about possibly using golden pearls but was worried they might blend into the yellow collar. Thoughts, anyone?

And my new contacts got delivered on Friday. ^_^ They’re definitely an improvement over the regular color lenses I had. The purple is still somewhat hard to see from a distance but the yellow is much lighter and the contrast makes it obvious that they don’t match. The yellow lenses make my vision rather hazy though since the pupil opening isn’t that big compared to the purple and they seem to move a lot when I blink. ^_^;; Having one in is okay but I don’t think I’d want to have to wear both if I’m actually wandering around a con. Will try to get a picture with the lenses when I have time.

Saturday was spent painting more doors and windows. We have white ironwork for our exterior doors (all 4 of them!) and I’d forgotten how they can be a nuisance to paint because of all the swirls. ^_^;; I only did one of the back doors so I suspect I’ll be painting the rest this week.

Went shopping with my family on Sunday. Got a couple of skirts and a blouse as well as the latest volume of Fruits Basket and volume 2 of Dramacon. Checked JoAnns and Michaels for pearls but once again did not find anything good. I did buy a 18”x24” shadowbox frame. Some weeks back, my father had suggested that I frame my prize ribbons and hang them in the sewing room so I intended to use it for that. But I’ve discovered that it might still not be big enough for all of them since the tails are so long. o_o;; I tried arranging them on the backing and they’re very crowded and I’m actually still missing one that I know I have but couldn’t find. (They’re almost all needlework ribbons, mostly won from 1998-2000 when I was competing regularly for that. The only one I have for cosplay is from Anime North this year.)

And today was pretty boring since I just stayed home.

Current Mood: okay

Yesterday,

ngmaster posted an enhanced version of the photo shoot he did for my formal Terra at Otakon 2006: http://ngmaster.livejournal.com/306611.html I like how nice and bright the colors on my dress came out. ^_^

I’m still helping my mother paint the basement. It feels like it’s taking forever and it would probably help if there weren’t so much stuff down there. -_-

Since that has been keeping me busy, I’ve been lazy and haven’t been working on any little crafty things or getting my stuff listed for sale. I want to get to work on the new Count D costume but I need to buy more fabric first. I might just move stuff around the living room, unroll the rug in there (the room has been messed up since my parents had the windows replaced over AnimeNext weekend) and go back to cutting stuff on the floor. Because we still haven’t worked out the damned cutting table situation for the sewing room. >_<

Might go look for more supplies tomorrow since I need to check more bead shops and one that I’d like to visit isn’t open Saturdays during the summer. I’m still not sure what I’m doing about those pearls. I looked through a bunch of sites yesterday but I’m still not finding any large resin pearls in color; everyone just seems to have the Swarovski pearls and glass ones. There aren’t as many colors but I found these glass pearls which are much better than the Swarovski price-wise. I’d be able to get enough of them to do the long strands for around $20 but there’s still the weight issue since they’re glass.

I also came across something known as shell pearls, which are made from ground up shells. I was wondering how they’d compare weight-wise but they seem to cost twice as much as the already expensive Swarovski pearls so that wouldn’t be a realistic option.

Maybe, I’ll go back to Toho Shoji and ask if they can get other pearls because I was looking at their site earlier and noticed they have like 70 colors of resin pearls pictured although I’ve never seen nearly that many colors in there. o_o Their resin pearls are nicer than others I’ve seen and I’ve used some for jewelry before.

(I realize that the quick and cheap way to solve this bead problem would be to go find some huge bead garland for Christmas trees but I refuse to use something that cheap-looking on this costume. >_>)

Maybe, if I can get some materials tomorrow, I’ll actually be able to start soon. Since the costume is floor length, I’m kind of tempted to make the length adjustable somehow. So I can wear accurate slippers for things like craftsmanship judging and then cheat and wear heels when I’m just wandering around a con because I’m so short. *remembers the photo from Anime North with the pets towering over D* ^_^;;

On the bright side, I did get my purple and yellow theatrical contacts ordered so I should finally have visibly mismatched eyes the next time I cosplay D. The regular color lenses I have now are so unnoticeable that I was able to wear a mismatched pair out on my last fabric shopping trip without any strange looks. And that just confirmed my suspicions about how hard to see they are.