Lady of the Thread's Sewing Basket

This past weekend was pretty productive. I thought about getting started on a new cross stitch project but couldn’t find a large enough piece of fabric in my room for the big patterns I was considering. But I did find a bunch of small pieces I stitched years ago in a drawer so I took a couple out and did finishing work on them while watching volume 2 of Tsubasa. They’re now ready to be hung on the tree at Christmas! ^_^ I believe these were freebie Just Nan patterns that I stitched back in the late ‘90s. (Yes, I’m really lazy about getting my cross stitch framed, made into pillows, turned into ornaments, etc. ^_^;;) Should have made the smaller one a little larger but I’d already trimmed the fabric down by the time I realized.



I got started on the sewing my new Count D costume, too. I cut strips of bias in the gold fabric to use for trim on Saturday and it finally hit me how much of that stuff I’m going to need with the 3 layers plus the 2 layered collar. o_o; And how long it’s going to take me to sew all of it because I’m crazy and would probably want to tack down the back side of the bias binding by hand to avoid visible stitches on the outside. x_x;

I also got fabric for my underskirt cut Saturday night and sewed it together on Sunday. It’s just a couple of rectangles of fabric with some pleats for fullness and an elastic waistband. Other than the sash, that will probably be the only quick part of the costume sewing wise. ^_^;

I’ve been thinking a bit about what I want to do about shoes, too. Now that I’ve started sewing, I don’t know if trying to make the length adjustable will work out well. Right now, the underskirt is done so it’d be the proper length if I wore it with 3-4 inch heels. Maybe, I’ll just get heels and decorate the front like the slippers he’s supposed to have with that outfit. Since the costume’s floor length, only the toes of the shoes would ever show anyway.

And I came up with a solution for my sewing room/cutting table problem and I can’t believe I didn’t think of it earlier! ._.; Since the room is too small (about 9’ by 14’) to fit everything, my parents were going to let me also use the room next to it, which isn’t as nice, for ironing and storage. I finally realized I should just put the cutting table in that other room and have the ironing board in the sewing room instead! It would make more sense, too, since once I’ve gotten started on sewing something I’ll need the ironing board more for pressing seams and such.

Hmm… I’ve been up to some crafty things this weekend. On Friday, I pulled out a Faberge egg needlepoint canvas that I’d started long ago. I just had the background left and started on it while watching some anime. I was filling it in with plain old tent stitch so it went relatively quickly. I finished it up tonight and I think I’ll turn it into a Christmas ornament after I find some fabric for backing. ^_^

This morning, I went by the Rag Shop to see if there was any good stuff left for cheap. It’s really disappointing that the chain is going out of business since it was one of the only places I could get sewing patterns locally and the only other big crafts places I know of in the city are in Staten Island, which is probably the toughest borough to get to without a car (not to mention the $9 bridge toll if you do have a car >_>;). The store here was probably one that had been doing well, too, since it had just moved into a new, larger space last year. -_-

Anyway, the needlework stuff was almost gone as well as the fabric. Didn’t find anything I wanted in either section. There seemed to be a lot of fuzzy yarns like Fun Fur left though. (Maybe, because they’re really only good for little things like scarves? A whole sweater in one of those would probably look weird.) I’d always thought it would be fun to play with some of that stuff but had never bought any before since it was $5 for a little ball. Picked out a bunch of different colors and got 14 skeins for $2 apiece. :-D I’ll probably crochet a scarf or two and work bits into tassels mixed with other threads. (My brother asked if I was planning to get a cat. >_>)

Went to Barnes and Noble later in the day and browsed through the stitchery magazines. I picked up an Australian embroidery magazine called Inspirations which had some interesting looking stuff like stumpwork which I haven’t experimented with before. (For some reason, that particular store seemed to have mostly imported needlework magazines and few of the American ones. O_o) Might not actually do anything from it right away but it’ll be good to stash away for when I want to do something different. I’ll probably work on a couple more little crafty projects and get my sewing room set up before getting back to costume making.

Speaking of cosplay, I’ve been meaning to write up a list of potential costumes. Maybe, I’ll work on that tomorrow after I finish up some paperwork.

Christmas here was pretty quiet. My family is just not very enthusiastic about gifts. We took some pictures and opened a few presents but my mother wanted to leave the rest until New Year’s. So, some of my presents are still wrapped but I know what’s in them anyway since I was the one who actually did all the wrapping… >_>;

I got clothes and money from my family, which are the usual presents here. I’ll use some of the money for a couple of wigs and then save the rest for my next out of town con. So that I would actually have some fun stuff to open, too, I got myself a boxed set of earrings, a few volumes of manga, Final Fantasy 4 for the GBA, and the first Paradise Kiss DVD.

From friends I got the Playbill Broadway Yearbook, a Jo-Ann’s gift card, a Christmas ornament, and a gift certificate that I used for a pair of earrings. ^_^

Now that Christmas is over, I can finally post the things I made for gifts! :-D I designed a snowflake to stitch as an ornament and ended up making 4 in different colors. This one was given to ngmaster.



( more ornaments )

( me, T-Chan, and the Christmas tree )

I thought I’d get in some needlework before I jump into working on another costume so I rummaged through my collection of kits last night and found a beaded Mill Hill pin that I’d started long ago. I decided to finish it up and it went pretty quickly although silk ribbon embroidery isn’t really my specialty. Pin is a bit less than 2 inches wide so the picture is bigger than it actually is.



As for costumes, I’ve been feeling compelled to figure out that Chinese dress design I mentioned earlier in the week. I got out my cheongsam pattern and it looks like it might not need that much alteration to the body since the fitting seems to depend on two sets of optional darts. I found a wig style that’s almost perfect for the hair, too, so I might end up doing Count D for MangaNext instead of starting the new Ayame. (I’ll still wear my existing Ayame costume one day though since I’m planning to commute and it’s easy to change into.) Count D would probably make a suitable Halloween costume, too, considering that he runs a shop with plenty of demonic animals. Like the man-eating totetsu who’s always eager for permission to munch on people! XD;

And an idea occurred to me for MangaNext. Since registering for Artist’s Alley is only $20 above regular registration, I was wondering if I should try to get a table in an attempt to finally clear out all the jewelry I made a couple of years back. (I’d signed up to sell at a crafts show but the crowd was terrible and I ended up bringing home nearly everything and it’s been sitting around my house since. -_-;) I know I remembered seeing at least a couple of people selling jewelry in the Artist’s Alley at Otakon although it didn’t particularly relate to the convention theme. Good idea? Bad idea?