Moving to the Future

I miss sewing so much. So, so much. We're pretty sure I have Fibromyalgia, which means between the pain in my hands and my overall fatigue, sewing is still out of the question. We're working very very hard to find solutions, but for the time being, I still can't work. 

We move NEXT WEEK. My new sewing room will be a bit smaller, but I won't have to share it with quite so much stuff because all of the non-sewing stuff I currently have in the room can be stored elsewhere. Also, the new room only has one window, and it's half the size of the ones here, so that frees up a bunch of wall space.

Lest you feel too sad about my disappearing window light - don't worry! The house has a beautiful 4-season-porch. Eventually our plan is to update the windows so that we can properly heat it during the winter and turn that into my sewing room. (In MN it is just too expensive to keep a room heated if it isn't energy efficient - and I have too many paints and inks and delicate machinery to let it freeze/boil). I'm also hoping we can move the washer and dryer up to this room as well! But this is 5-7 years down the road.

Anyhow, as you can see from the photo, my mother-in-law has already begun packing the room up. The sewing stuff will be some of the last to move over, however I'm going to bring my little travel machine right away. I want to try some hexagon quilting - maybe start with a potholder and see if I can tolerate short spurts. I think a hexagon quilt would be an idea project for 10 minute sewing sessions, yes? All those short seams, and small pieces to rotary cut - no lugging heavy velvet around! Also, I can use my mini iron, which is much easier as well!

Breaking News! Husband remarks on Downton Clothes!

Thought some of you would appreciate this:

Nathan and I have been rewatching Downton Abbey, and Nathan says that this time through he is much more aware of the clothing and appreciates the designs and period changes. He even made a note of which of Mary's dresses was his favorite. (It's a cream fluttery one from season 1, I believe, but we watched it so quickly that I can't remember the episode. I liked it too.)

On the flip side, he is also more aware of the costumes as we watch Season 6. Every time Mary's purple shirt w/tie appeared on the screen last week he made faces. I don't think I've ever seen him more distracted by a weird costuming choice than me! I get that it makes period sense, it just looked very strange for us to see on Mary after five years of more feminine styles.

(We are watching the American airing, please do NOT talk about Season 6 if you have seen the full British schedule airing. I will probably cry if anything gets spoiled ahead of time. Thanks!)

Rays of hope

(Life and health updates here)

I haven't been sewing really at all, but I have done a bit of drawing with my new fashion sketchbook. You can see all of those pictures here: https://www.instagram.com/seamstressconfessions/. Drawing is something that can actually help certain types of headaches I get, so that's why you will sometimes see me drawing when I'm too sick to do anything else. If I am too sick to draw, then you know something is really wrong... and I WAS too sick to draw for several months because my hands hurt so much. They are, on and off, better now than they were in August. So, ray of hope!

Anniversary

Today is my second wedding anniversary! I put a lot more photos on my personal blog, but when my head is doing better I hope to finally write up that post about wedding dresses I keep talking about...

Still Here!

Brief update over on my personal blog.

Christmas Presents and the best OUAT costumes

Hi guys.

So I continue to deal with crazy health stuff, but Christmas adrenaline has helped me power through making some gifts, even though most of the time I'm feeling super awful while working, and I can still only do little projects in little spurts. Bleh. I hesitate to say that I'm making progress, because I seem to have a good week only to then have an awful one, and my brain fog remains so bad that I'm reluctant to work with expensive materials. But the fact that I've actually been able to do some knitting, some weaving, and some very simple sewing projects is a boost to my spirits. It also means that I'll have a few new things to showcase on the blog soon... gotta give them out first!

Anyhow, I know some of you are probably missing my Once Upon a Time costume posts. Honestly I haven't been inspired enough by any of the more recent episodes to go through the work of getting the screen captures and editing them and such.

However, I'd love to pull together some sort of post on "the best costumes of OUAT" and collect fan votes over the season hiatus. Any thoughts on how I should begin that process? There are so many costumes to choose from! (don't have a Blogger account? You can leave a comment on tumblr or Facebook instead!)

Kitty Pryde "Shadowcat" Doll

The last two weeks have been a bit better for me healthwise, so I decided try making something - specifically a Kitty Pryde "Shadowcat" doll for a friend's birthday/Christmas gift.

Unfortunately, I was so focused on making it that I didn't take many in progress pictures! She started off looking something like this doll. (I rescue Barbies in good condition from thrift stores for projects like this).

 I painted her eyes, and also her lips because they were a weird light pink color.

Curling Barbie hair is SO FUN. If it isn't already straight, you dip it into some boiling water for a few seconds, comb it out and let it dry. Then you roll it up in little straw pieces, secure them with bobby pins, and dip the head in more boiling water. Let sit overnight to dry.

After taking Kitty's hair out of the curlers, it wanted to kind of spring up around her head. So I pinned it down with bobby pins and carefully set just the top of her head in hot water, just enough to set that bit down smoothly.

I didn't use any patterns for her costume. I took stretchy black fabric and basted it into the shape I wanted, took it off, sewed the seams with my machine, then pulled it back on and stitched the final seams closed with hand stitches (all covered by the top details).

 

 For the yellow contrast pieces, I stitched them onto the black while the bodysuit was on Kitty (there is no way to take her costume off). I folded the edges under and whipped stitched them down with some of the tiniest stitches I've made in my life.

For the gloves and boots, I used the same method as the black bodysuit. The only difference is that I hemmed the raw edges first!

I used a little bit of black pleather for the belt and painted on the "X" symbol.

For Lockheed, I asked my husband if he had any miniatures in his HUMONGOUS collection that would work. We found a little winged guy with potential, made a few alterations, and then Nathan painted him up.

 We spent three days perfecting all the details, and the look on my friend's face when she opened it made it all worth it!