Helping now....

The Princess told me that the local hospital has decided not to put out a call for volunteer-made facemasks at this time, so I kinda backed off of working on them.

Then we got a call from the Huntsville Dream Center, which is very closely associated with our church.  They will be using our church (which is, you'll recall, a repurposed high school building) to distribute breakfast and lunches to school kids, with the possibility of  adding hot meals for the community.  The work has been fast and furious to get the old cafeteria kitchen (which fed lunch to somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 kids back in the day) up and running to do that.

But, they have requested masks for the volunteers.

They did provide materials for the masks and I have farmed those out amongst the willing of the sewing group.  We were asked to specifically make THIS MASK, using 2 layers of quilting cotton and one layer of flannel inside, with the elastic loops for ears and adding a 6" pipe cleaner to make a pinchy bit for the bridge of the nose.  Now, there's nothing wrong with this mask, but in my playing around I had come up with a different method.

I was told that, if I were using HDC-provided materials, to use to the instructions as requested.  BUT...if I were using my own materials, then I could make them however I wanted.  The only thing was it had to be three layers thick, w/o any filter pocket.

Both versions start with 9x6 inch rectangles.  The real difference is that the mask in the linked video is turned out while the one I came up with has the edges bound and is held on with ties.  The mask in the video is sewn wrong sides together,with the elastic in between the layers, then the nose-pincher is couched to one of the long side seam allowances, then it's turned out through an opening (I left my opening in the long edge that didn't have the nose-pincher).  It's then pressed, pleated and topstitched to secure the pleating and close the opening that was left for turning.  It is relatively fast and pretty simple.

But here's what I had come up with in my earlier experimenting.

Start with the three  9x6 rectangles; you can research the layers if you want but tightly woven 100% cotton or a cotton/polyester blend is recommended; one study said 100% cotton t-shirt knit was fairly effective as a filter; if you have excess freebie promotional t's lying around (and who doesn't?) they could be cut up as well.

ALSO...from your remnants stash you probably have some actual yardage; rip 2" strips all the way across 45" fabric.  You'll need two of those strips for each mask.

The first thing to do when you get a batch cut and ready to make is to go to the ironing board and press all those strips in half lengthwise, then turn the torn edges in to meet in the middle and press again.  Then fold the whole thing in half and press it again.  Making the binding is probably the most time consuming part of the whole assembly process, but once you've got everything pressed it will go quickly.

Then, just to hold the layers together, do a quick zig zag around the outside of each stack of three rectangles.  Put the right sides out; you won't be turning this one.

It'll look like this at this point:

Now we'll pleat the masks.  You can just kind of eyeball three pleats...that's what many of the tutorials recommend.  But if you have, or can make, a small assortment of templates from manila file folders you'll have a leg up on the process.

 You can actually stack and pin the templates to make a little folding jig.

 I used the 3/8" line on the 1" template so that the pleat would be a little shorter and hopefully not get caught in the binding stitching. Same principle.

When you're done pleating it should look like this:

 

Now, open up the ends of two ties and pin them to the mask, securing the pleats.

 Trim off the excess  and fold the cut edge under on the  remaining tie and stitch that to secure it.  The other end is a selvedge and shouldn't ravel out. Stitch the binding along the fold line, then flip it around to the other side and edgestitch it down.  Now the pleats are secured.

Find the center of the long binding ties and the center of the mask. Pin the ties to the mask, matching those centers.  Stitch on the fold line of the binding, being careful not to catch the pleat folds.

Find the center of  your bendy bit (a 5 or 6" length of  pipe cleaner or twist tie), extend one of the seam allowances and, matching the centers, zig zag across the bendy bit for it's whole length.

After you've secured the bendy bit, flip the binding around to the other side of the mask and stitch the whole length of the tie.

(You can't tell from the pic, but I sewed that entire tie w/ no thread in the bobbin.  Oopsie.  Take two, lol)  Check to make sure you have caught all the edges, trim the threads and...you are done!

Here's a comparison of the two mask styles I've made this weekend:

You can see that the bound mask is slightly larger than the turned-inside-out mask, because it didn't lose the width of the  seams.  To me, there are two benefits to using the bound/tied version....the first is that elastic is hard to find.  I used some 1/4" elastic I had stashed but I didn't want to exhaust my supply.  Also, I'm not sure how well the elastic will hold up under extreme washing conditions...it's going to get soaked in hydrogen peroxide and washed/dried on HOT every single day until this is over.  The other benefit is...it's a lot easier to pleat the thing if you don't have to deal with the bulky seam allowances on the short ends  Encasing the ends of the elastic meant the edges couldn't be bound; so it had to be turned-and-stitched.  The caveat to the version with the ties is that it takes a good bit more time...which would probably be less if I could find my Clover bias-tape-maker thingy instead of pressing each strip 4 times.

You can take your pick.  If I were making masks for the family, I'd probably use one of the versions that has a pocket for a filter...assuming I could still find furnace filters to cut up. But, as source after source has stated, anything is better than nothing if you use it correctly.

So...here's the 'use it correctly' info I have found:

When it's worn, the front of the mask is contaminated.  I will say that again. THE FRONT OF THE MASK IS CONTAMINATED.  DO NOT TOUCH IT.  After wearing it, it should only be handled by the ties/ elastics and dropped straight into a disinfecting solution until it is washed/dried on hot water.  Then wash your hands.

The cotton mask is not considered a primary defense against infection.  It might help you remember to NOT touch your face and to maintain 6' separation, but it certainly will not stop any bad germs if someone coughs or even exhales straight into your face.   And if you touch it with your hands and then touch your face it will have done you no good at all.

So...there are my recommendations for a quick, sort-of-protective face mask.  If you want a serious face mask, HEREis a video on making one from a HEPA vacuum cleaner bag...but those are to be disposed of  after using, including the elastic.  And I'm wondering how long the bags are going to stay in stock, once people start cutting them up for masks.  HERE's a video for a mask w/ a pocket for a filter made from a HEPA furnace filter.  I would probably modify it a little bit to have ties instead of elastic.  In fact...that may be my next 'play around' with it mask style.  In case things really get bad in our area.

Stay safe, everyone!


Note: If you landed here looking for mask-making info, I have a follow-up post with a few more observations HERE

I want to help but I am confused....

Hello, friends, it's been a minute.

I haven't done a lick of sewing since I made the velvet pants, which is atrocious, but things have been kinda busy.

I have purchased some patterns and fabric, lol, which is what you do when you can't seem to get to the sewing machines, right?  Of course, right.  Two pieces are en route to me even as I type.  I may actually get some sewing time...eventually.

But here's what has suddenly popped up in my social media world.  It appears that there are MULTIPLE medical communities asking the public to make face masks.  I started looking at links last night and wandered down that rabbit hole until a ridiculous hour in the AM.   Because,  I thought, here's a community service I could easily do, without risking bringing a bad germ home to My Sweet Babboo, who, for reasons unknown, is particularly susceptible to respiratory infections.

Unfortunately, the information out there is crazy divergent.  The patterns range from 'eyeball the pleats in this rectangle' (Deaconness Hospital Evansville, IN ) to 'Sew these six pieces together and leave a pocket for a .3 micron filter' (Unity Point Health, Cedar Rapids, IA  - Video Here) Fabric recommendations range from knits ( Peggy Sagers -- and she lined hers with leather?  Wouldn't that, like, be really hard to breathe through? Kinda messed with her credibility there...) to tightly woven Cotton (Deaconness and Unity Point both recommended cotton).  A friend shared a post from a Facebook Page (Sew Loved ) that organized a big mask-making event in the South Bend, IN area that emphasized that cotton was NOT acceptable and used surgical sheeting for their material.   Fit standards vary widely, too; most, but not all, include some kind of flexible insertion (Unity Point used Wikki Stix!  Bread ties and flattened paperclips are also recommended)  to snug the mask to the bridge of the nose.  Unity Point also recommeds using double-sided medical tape to secure the mask to the face, in addition to the elastic ear pieces (they used hair ties, which I thought was clever), but, well, I have a sensitivity to adhesives and could easily blister up my face if I tried that.  Then, here's another pleated version, which I liked better than the Deaconness one as it 1) allows for the insertion of a filter (it looked to me like the demonstrator just used folded up kleenex for a filter but I really couldn't tell) and 2) will allow for replacement of the elastic after the hot water breaks it down. 

One source...that I didn't mark...emphasized the necessity to handle the masks correctly.  They must be put on and removed by the ear straps/ties/whatever, and the front of the mask...the bit that actually covers the nose and mouth...should not be touched at any time.  They should go straight into a detergent solution (one source recommended 'spraying lightly with hydrogen peroxide') and washed with hot water and dried on high heat.


I checked with The Princess, who works in Marketing at our local hospital, and she said they were not looking for donations from the public yet, but it may be coming.  So I printed the patterns for Peggy's mask, the Olson Mask and will play around with a pleated mask , which is basically just a rectangle or two; depending on whether you're using the one or two piece version.  If my cotton fabric remnants that I have about are an acceptable fabric, well, this looks to be something I could actually do.

Anyone else looking at sewing masks?  What have you found out about design/fabrics?

Wore the August Outfit...

When I promised myself last week that I'd wear this outfit sometime this week, I didn't think about the forecast for rain every.single.day.  Fortunately, the boots are waterproof, lol.

I'll be honest; I got two white blouses, slightly different styles, from Lands' End that month and I'm not entirely sure that the one I'm wearing here is the one that I put in the post.  But it probably doesn't matter much.  It is annoying that the buttons don't line up quite where they need to...probably the strongest reason I have for making my own button up shirts, lol.

That skirt is going to be a wardrobe staple.  A perfect length, nice fabric...I do believe I have replaced the black skirt I wore forever in the 80's and 90's.  Since I'm probably past the point of shirt-tucking-in, it's not going to matter that it's an elastic waist, lol.

The boots are...ok.  The leather is rather stiff, and where it bends it kinda bumps my foot/ankle and it actually hurts a little at the end of the day.  That may change somewhat once they are well broken in.  They are really snug in the calves, but they have an elastic gore in them so they can zip...

Here's a tip:  Use a wire coat hanger to zip snug boots.  Stick the hanger hook into the hole on the zipper pull  and then use the hanger as a giant pull.  It gives enough purchase that the zipper will close right up.

I'd credit the source on that but it's been years, lol.  But I have to work now to dig up a wire hanger; I've mostly switched out to plastic and flocked hangers.

The outfit is a winner.

12 Months 12 Outfits - Thoughts on the journey

2019 was an interesting sewing year; having watched Janice at The Vivienne Files build six wardrobes around six Hermes scarves for the previous three years, I decided to get a scarf and, following her choices based on the scarves she chose for 2019, build a wardrobe over the course of a year based on my own scarf.

I didn't  have to  make it all; I allowed myself to pull garments that were already in the closet or purchase something if I couldn't get it made.    I found a wonderful scarf on sale at Nordstroms in the fall of 2018, Hightower by Ted Bakker London, and pulled a color palette from it to use as the basis of the wardrobe and we were off:

Note that I re-did the monthly outfit combo pics for Jan - May from the original lay-it-out-flat pictures I used to the composites that I used the rest of the year.  I will say this... putting the composite pictures together has REALLY made me appreciate the work Janice does to get her wardrobes up for her readers.  It's not a quick process at all...and I didn't even include links, or new combinations each month. It's a bit of work!

The first four months of the year I ended up staying pretty black and white; a blue jacket and a green t shirt were the only two out of eight  garments added to the wardrobe that weren't either black or white, and I did make everything these first four months; partly because I also used these garments in the annual Stitchers Guild sew-a-wardrobe contest known as SWAP (Sew With A Plan).  My greatest difficulty was finding shoes.  I began a dance with Zappos that basically lasted all year...they sent me stuff, I stuck my foot in it and then sent it back.  Short duck-shaped feet that have...issues...do not lend themselves to fashionable shoes.  For January and February I pulled shoes from my closet but for March I had nothing that would work with the culottes.  I ended up with a pair of all black Keds.   Sort of worked.  But in the spring I was diagnosed with Achilles Tendonosis, and the dr told me to avoid flat shoes.  After wearing the Keds to work one day, I realized he was right.  They just don't do what my feet need.  Later in the year, I found a pair of wedge black espadrilles that were the shoes I wanted for that outfit all along.  The Taos Moc Stars from the April outfit, on the other hand, are wonderful shoes with excellent support and I bought a gray pair as well, which doesn't work with this wardrobe but has gotten a lot of wear just the same.

The other problem I had was trying to alter up patterns to get what I wanted.  March and April both came down to the wire because I spent a bunch of time working on a pattern that just needed way too much work before ditching that and going with something that was easier to fit.

 

May to August was a mix of me-made and purchased garments. I'd added the white pants from Lands' End to the wardrobe in early spring and they came in handy with the striped tops in July.  The white SAS sandals are some of the most comfortable sandals I think I've ever put my foot in.  They were in the shoe rotation at Disney in the fall and, even though my feet got tired,  they never got sore.    The denim dress was a major pattern overhaul that I actually stuck with.  I'm glad I did, but I almost wish I had made the dress sleeveless so it could double as a long vest.  I will be honest, though...I haven't gotten up the nerve to wear the skirt and boots yet.  Maybe I just need to give myself a deadline...like, I should make myself wear it to work next week.  I think it's a sharp outfit...I just have gotten completely out of the skirt habit.  OK, Lisa...wear it next week!

In the last four months of the year, taken all together, I struggled to get any personal sewing done.  We traveled a LOT, and as soon as we got through all our trips, the Christmas costuming hit and didn't quit until the production on December 22nd.  I didn't actually make any garments for September, October or November, and two of the December garments have been in the closet for a number of years already.

I would say that the least used purchase here was the white puffer vest...probably the weakest fashion addition to the whole wardrobe. I've found that I really don't like my arms un-insulated so I'm not a good candidate for a puffer vest.  My hubby loves them and uses them for outerwear quite a bit, so I bought that one a couple of years ago but found I just didn't wear it much.  But I could pull it from the closet for the September wardrobe.  Had I had time, I think I would have made myself a non-insulated fashion vest to wear but, alas, I had not the time. That's another wardrobe item I need to work to use.  If my office wasn't so hot (it's been averaging in the upper 70's for the last couple of weeks...old boiler system) I could maybe wear it but the thought of putting something warm on to work in is rather wilting at the moment, lol.

I ordered the heavy coat from Lands' End during a 50% off sale back in October, and literally about two days after it arrived the bottom fell out of the temps and we were in the upper teens.  I wore it, was toasty warm, and was very glad that the wardrobe challenge kinda pushed me to stop procrastinating and just get the coat.  We've  had one other cold snap that made it useful since then, but I don't think we're going to get much more winter now.

As I mentioned in the December outfit post, the silver top doesn't really fit with the palette; that shade of gray is not in the scarf.  But by that time I just needed to get something dressy that would work with velvet pants and it does that, hands down.  So I'm living with a little faux pas. 

So, here are all the garments (save the heavy black coat), arranged by type.  A black check is something I made specifically for the wardrobe, a red check is something I bought specifically for the wardrobe.  If it's not checked, then I pulled it from the closet (and it could be something I bought or made at some point in the past).

Just for full documentation, I'll add the accessory collection picture too:

I probably should have indicated here what I obtained specifically for a month's outfit and what I pulled from Things I Already Had, but I didn't think about that in time.  MOST of the accessories were things I already had, to be honest, but there were a handful of things that I got just for a particular outfit.  Mostly shoes, lol, I think 5 pairs. Two necklaces and a couple of pairs of earrings; one bracelet.  Um, yeah, I think that's it. 

It was a great exercise and succeeded in getting me some options to wear with the post-menopausal body that I don't recognize anymore.  I did make myself stick as closely as was reasonable...and maybe even a little closer than that at times...to Janice's posts.  Were I to do it again, I would probably give myself more leeway.  I don't think I would push myself to add a pair of different shoes with each wardrobe (to be fair...she did skip shoes on one month's outfit last year). The March outfit (black culottes, green T, heavy scarf and black Keds) was probably the biggest stretch for an 'outfit'.  It looked and felt awkward; it might not have had I been able to source better shoes and a lighter scarf. I have worn the T and the culottes multiple times...just not together, lol.

But it was a good exercise in discipline.  And I might do a slightly scaled back version with another scarf...later, lol.

 I really, really need to spend some time on maintenance in my sewing areas; they are 100% trashed at the moment.  And my serger needs some work.  And I'm hearing rumors of a costumed Easter something, too.  So who knows when I will have time to do any  wardrobe sewing...lol...

Finally....The final 2019 Wardrobe Outfit

January ended up being almost as busy as December...and then I got sick, lol, and didn't feel like doing anything.

I waffled over what to do.  Should I finish?  Call it good after November?  What?

Well, I DID order some black stretch velvet in December...and I HAVE wanted some stretch velvet palazzo pants for ages...so I thought, hey, it's worth pushing through and doing this.

So I modified a TNT pull on pants pattern  a little (New Look 6203) and created, rather slowly over about three weeks, a pair of drapey stretch velvet pants.  But the question was...what do I do to make a dressy outfit with it?

I thought a minute...My Sweet Babboo and I have nice reservations for dinner on Valentine's Day at one of our favorite get away spots.  What if I planned my dressy outfit around Valentine's Day since I'd clearly missed Christmas?

Bingo.

I looked through the clothes in the closet and added another outfit to the wardrobe.  When I was putting the pictures together, I realized I made a boo-boo with the  color palette.

Oops.

I thought a minute and then decided  I 'd live with it, lol.  It works for Valentine's day.    For what it's worth, Here're the outfits Janice posted for December.   Six dressy winter outfits, with a skirt (or velvet pants) a sweater (or a velvet tunic), earrings, bracelet, a small bag and dress shoes.  I am not hitting that 100%, but I think it will work.

The silver top is the boo-boo; I don't have any gray in my palette.  The gray in the scarf is more of a taupe-y gray and is really hard to match.  I didn't realize that until I put it on the slide with the scarf.  I really didn't want to just wear a black column; partly because  I didn't have a suitable black top to use.  But I looked again at the top and realized it was metallic, not really gray, and I have LOTS of silver jewelry for it to coordinate with; if I call it silver and not gray...it kind of works, lol.  So I am fudging it in (I will admit to being shocked to see that I'd made it in 2013).  You will notice I have three garments instead of just two, but the silver knit is 1) sleeveless and 2) very light and floaty.  It needs some help to be worn in the winter.  So...I added a cardigan.  The red jacket is the same pattern as the blue one I made for the first outfit in January, McCalls 6844.  The fabric was originally a much more orange-y shade of red; I overdyed it to a pretty garnet shade and made the jacket and a pull on skirt about 3 years ago.  I think.

I changed the accessory choices, too.  I should have a bracelet, but it really wouldn't show under the long sleeves of the cardi, so I pulled out a heart necklace on a short chain that will sit above the drapey neckline.  It doesn't hurt that it was a Christmas gift from My Sweet Babboo a couple of years ago.  All in all..perfect for Valentine's day.  The garnet earrings I actually bought from Novica back in February last year, thinking I'd use them for the February outfit...and then I went with a royal blue scarf and they didn't work.  They'll do nicely here.  A wallet-on-a-strap is a quick little bag for going out; that came from, of all places, the Hallmark store.  I've been using it as a wallet for several months now, but it's also easy to pull out of my larger bag and throw over my shoulder for a quick trip.

The shoe saga may be at an end...maybe.  I can't begin to tell you how many pairs of variations on black pumps I ordered from Zappos and sent back because they pinched my toes.  I finally went with the more pricey offerings ('Elaine' by SAS) up a half size from normal, in a double wide.  And they still pinch my toes a little.  But I am thinking they will be tolerable for short events that require dress pumps.  At the moment, they are in the closet...but I still have the packaging should I change my mind before I actually wear them out of the house.  I have about 9 more months to ponder them, lol.  We'll see if they actually make the cut and stay.

So,  here's what I ended up with after the final outfit (everything but the heavy black overcoat):

I will likely do one more post on the 2019 Wardrobe, kind of a look at how practical this exercise has been, what I learned by doing it and what I will carry forward.

But...it's done! LOL.

Clearing the slate

Although I have to confess that I was in such a sewing frenzy at the end of last year I neglected to total anything up...I really don't know how many yards I donated from the stash for costuming efforts (at least 6) Or how many yards I bought and sewed up for costuming efforts (at least ...lord have mercy, I don't have a clue.  I didn't turn in receipts...they disappeared....) Or even how many yards I bought with INTENTION to sew and then ran out of time (8?  Maybe?)

So...these fabric in/fabric out totals are Before Christmas Costuming Started. reflecting the fabric left in the stash at the end of the year...as best I can run it down, anyway, lol.  I dug through the fabric that was left and matched it up to emailed receipts...I at least wanted to account for the stuff I DIDN'T sew...

Fabric In: 87.35 yds
Fabric Out: 46.125 yds
Last fabric added:  who knows, lol
Garments made for me: 20
Accessories:0
Garments made for other family members: 0
Home Dec Items: 0
Wadders, er, Unintentional muslins: 0
"Donations" : 0
Muslins: 2

Misc. Church Sewing:

armbands/ yellow stars for Holocaust Remembrance dramatization

Pants, tops and tabbards for two Angel costumes

7 tiny sheep toppers

One black under-robe

I think.

I am not even sure I recorded everything I did...it just got crazy at the end.  So I'm wiping the board and starting fresh. 

And hoping to actually get my 'December Outfit' sewn up this weekend. 

Laundry and sewing is the plan for tomorrow....

What Happened to the 12th Month's Outfit?

I have debated a while what to do.  Should I just consider that I blew it the last month, write it off and start over?  Or should I let it drag into the new year?

Well, I decided that, since my sewing got diverted to volunteer work for the last six weeks...well, for the last two months, if I'm honest...of last year, I would cut myself some slack.  I'm letting myself sew that last outfit this month.  So...sometime in January, I'll post what I come up with and finish out the year.  Yeah, I missed the Christmas party season with the fancy clothes but, if truth be told, I didn't have anything on my social calendar that required fancy clothes anyway.  So I'll finish up this month and still have something dressy in the closet should I need it.

I have some black stretch velvet to hand, and I ordered a bit of textured royal blue stretch velvet that should be in hand by the end of next week...one of those things will get used.

I'm going to see about doing a little analysis of what I did last year, too...probably in February.

But I plan to sew some fun stuff in the next few weeks as well...stuff I wanted to make last year but were pushed down the priority list by the 12 outfits assignment.

Interestingly, Janice has chosen more, um, economical scarves for this years 12 months/12 outfits exercise.  Have a look-see; you don't have to buy a pricey Hermes scarf to have a good wardrobe foundation. ;-)

The Rest of the Costuming...Christmas Time 2019

Once I had the Angels signed off, or mostly signed off, anyway, it was time to get crackin' on the rest of the costumes.  There was a whole shopping crew who was scouring local thrift shops for things like overcoats and leather jackets and such, but there were some things that had to be made.

Like the Tiny Sheep costumes that would be worn in the kids dance number that opened the show (it was part of the plot...Mom and Sister watch Little Sister in the school production).  Anyway, we've done Tiny Sheep before, when we did the first, much scaled down, version 4 years ago.  And I covered my sewing room and myself in feathery fleecy bits from the faux fur we used; got it down in my bronchial tubes and had a hacking cough for weeks.  Those were about 5 sheep, who were, oh, about 9.  This year's production had 7 tiny sheep, who were all about first grade.  The original costumes were much too big...so we made another batch, in a slightly different shade of white (the original fleece came from Hancock's...so it wasn't going to get matched).  THIS time, I called a work day to make those puppies at church.

Since we are in a recycled high school building, there is a room that used to be a home ec sewing lab.  With LOTS of outlets...some of which stick up from the floor and are a tripping hazard, lol.  It is currently used by our usher/greeter team, and they have stuff stored in the cabinets...pens, offering envelopes, packaged communion sets, etc.  But we got permission to come in a couple of weekends and set up for sewing.

And the sewing team was pretty much the same folks who have been working on the sewing projects since day one.  There were a couple others who came in and helped, and The Princess herself (oldest DD, to those who are new to the family, lol) brought in her sewing machine; she had volunteered to make the circle skirts for the partner dancers in the 50's scene, so she brought that project in.  I had another crew working on mending/ironing;  Miss A had picked up the fleece for us, and she cut out all of the sheep vests while I worked through who -needed-what additional pieces on the bible costumes. We were flying on a wing and a prayer on the sheep; I had only been given sizes, not measurements, and I altered up a Jalie T shirt pattern based more on gut feeling than solid reasoning, knowing that the Jalie T had negative ease and the Sheep costumes (basically, sleeveless pull-on v-neck tops) had to gracefully skim the kids.  I was kinda skeered to do it, but we were out of time and one plan after another to actually get measurements fell through.

I handed Miss A a coverall apron and a face mask to cut out.  She protested that she wouldn't need them, but I insisted and she gave in.  Of course, by the time she'd gotten them all cut out (a front, a back, two tail pieces and two ear pieces...the ears were lined w/ broadcloth) she was covered in fleecy  bits.

Then, basically because I was the one with the serger w/ the white thread, I got to sew them up.  Wearing the apron and the face mask, of course, lol

That fleecy stuff is a BEAST.  I did a bunch of unsewing and grumbling, but they were finished by the costume check....vests, tails pinned on, and ears to be pinned to headbands.

The best news of the week was that they put them on the kids and they all fit.  HUGE sigh of relief; and I told our director that, with all due respect, the sewing team requested that we cast any future sheep dancers according to who will fit costumes we already have, lol.

The next last-minute project was black sleeveless bible robes.  We have a quilter on our sewing team who made the most FABULOUS costumes for the Wise Men.  I wish I had a photo...they were amazing pieces of art, pieced and trimmed...a full length vest and an overcoat, with a coordinating turban/hat.  However, the vests only closed with velcro and they didn't offer good coverage.  Our seamstress recommended that we put black t shirts and sweat pants on the guys under the garments...but I wasn't about to put those fabulous costumes over street clothes.  I bought a whole bolt of black poplin from Wal-Mart (a store employee actually came up to me and asked if he could help me find something!  After I picked my teeth up off the floor, we had a really nice chat and he found some suitable black fabric, as well as some other pieces to make head drapes).  On the second work weekend, we cut out three bible costumes sans sleeves, to be worn under the vests.  I brought home one, Miss A took home one, and one of the other volunteers took home the 3rd.  We had to have those done by dress rehearsal the following Friday.

On Sunday's rehearsal, a week before the show, one of the worship staffers was designated to watch the run through and we were told that if she had any comments/notes on the characters, we were to follow her instructions.  Now, the character I was playing was the person who was hosting/organizing/ whatever the afore-mentioned children's dance.    The phrase 'school principle' had been used, so my plan was to give my standard line 'thanks for coming, bathrooms are (here), please silence your phones, no flash photography, yadda yadda, enjoy the program!'   in a warm, welcoming, professional manner.   I planned to wear dress black pants, a white shirt and a red boiled wool jacket with a nice little holiday pin on it.  Well, Monday morning my friend on the worship staff came to my office. 'Did your kids watch The Magic School bus?' she asked.  Oh, yes, of course they had.  'Well, I'm going to need you to put some Ms. Frizzle in that character.  She needs to be kind of over the top Christmassy'.

Whoa.  Paradigm shift.

I had no Ms. Frizzle garments in my wardrobe.  I had a luncheon with some friends just down the road from JoAnn's that day, so after the lunch I buzzed down to JA's hoping against hope that they  had something useable that wasn't more than $5/yd.

'Christmas Toys' was the name of the kids show that I was introducing, and I knew Ms Frizzle would wear a dress w/ a Christmas Toys print.  I didn't have time to make a dress, but I thought I could manage a pull on skirt.  Wonder of Wonders,  one of their least expensive Christmas prints was...Christmas toys. At $4.00/ yd (and that was 50% off the marked price of $7.99)  I bought 4 yards, and a blinky Christmas Lights necklace, and proceeded to make a Mid-calf length version of a Basic Dickens Skirt. Cut it out that night, but I did my black Wise Man underrobe first, so it was Friday morning before dress rehearsal that I actually finished the skirt.  I told The Princess about my character shift, and she said she had a crazy Christmas fascinator kind of thing I should wear.  She brought it to dress rehearsal and I looked at it and thought, oh, I don't know about that.  But when I got dressed and put the thing on...yeah, I needed it.  Oh, yes...it had lights as well.

I wore that hat through the Friday Night and Saturday dress rehearsals...on stage, back stage, behind stage, around stage...no problems.  It fell off three times during the first performance Sunday morning.  Crazy.

I didn't take the time to put pockets in the skirt...I may actually go back and add them just in case I need it again some time...but I managed to make do by pinning a drawstring bag to the inside of the waistband.  It was enough for a tissue and my lip gloss, lol.

Now all we have to do is get the costumes cleaned and sorted back and stored up again.  Probably next week...I'll be really glad when that's done!

A Tale of Two Angels....

Once upon a time, some time ago (6 years?  8 years?  I don't even remember...)  I watched something on stage at church (I don't even remember what that was, either) that involved an angel.  Said angel was wearing the typical satiny night-shirt looking thing that passes for an angel costume in most all church-related theater.  And, for whatever reason, at that moment, I suddenly realized that I was DONE with angels in nightgowns.  It was time for something different.

But what?

I pondered it for a while, thinking about the Biblical descriptions of angels...what few there were.  "Man in shining raiment" seems to be about the summation of it.  Not much help.

But I eventually landed on the idea of angels dressed as knights, with a rampant Lion crest.

I even found a pattern to use.

I would need to find something cool to use for the crest; the included one wasn't quite right.  And I wanted to find basically gold and white metallic knit...where could I find that?

I chatted with our incredibly creative Children's Pastor, Pastor Dave, who also happened to be something of a scholar of all things chivalrous, just to see if he thought it was a good idea.  He loved the concept and said he had some sources for me for swords, armor, etc.

With the assurance that I wasn't totally off the wall, I began a search for suitable fabric.

A trip to Sir's Fabrics up in Fayetteville, Tn netted some very unusual fabric.  They had a bit of thin white poly knit printed with a pale gold foil.  It was subtle...and I suddenly thought it would look fantastic under stage lighting.  As I recall, I bought all they had left.  But it was kind of sheerish, so I also got a knit w/ a kind of burnout ribbed texture, thinking it would show through the goldish top fabric slightly and give a look of depth, movement, hinting at multiple dimensions.  I figured I'd make the trousers and top from the two of them paired up, and bought some snow white poly woven for the tabbard, as well as some gold lame' for the crest.

I took it all home and, by piecing it a bit, managed to get two shirt/pants sets from the gold knit and the lining, and easily got the two tabbards with a good bit left over from the white.  I bagged it up and began playing around with a lion crest, intending to put red beads in the paws and side.  But I was having trouble getting it right, and then I got involved with other stuff and the bag of cut out pieces just got shoved to the back of the sewing nook.

Where it stayed for the next 6 - 8 ish years... Since this was costuming, I didn't add it to my yardage or note when I bought it.  So I don't even know. To be honest, I kind of even forgot about it.  We weren't doing productions at church and it just dropped off the radar.

Ok, fast forward to October of this year.  Our original script idea was to have two lady angels do the  basic narration of our Christmas production, but after the auditions the decision was made to switch to guys...and we had two guys who were sharing one of the roles; one would do the role for the two morning performances and the other would do both evening performances.

My first instinct was to put them both in blazing white tuxedos, but in our first costuming meeting that idea was rejected; Pastor Dave had worn a white tuxedo (with a fair amount of red accent pieces, but still a white tuxedo) as the Angel of Christmas Past in both our productions of The Gospel According to Scrooge 15-ish years ago and they didn't want to repeat that concept.  They actually wanted something a little modern, a little jedi-like, even.

Suddenly I remembered those cut-out things from years past.  That would work...or, rather, I could make it work...if I could find them.

They were interested, so I came home and began digging.  The bag turned up fairly quickly, and I did a quick construction of one of the trousers...no elastic waisline and no hem...and took it in to see if that would work.

The fabric was a hit, and I had the green light.

But I didn't have a lot of chunks-of-time.  I worked on them off and on for a couple of weeks, and got the bottom layer, the tops and trousers, assembled to the hems...and brought them in for the guys to try on.  I pinned up the hem for the guy who would be playing his angel character all weekend, but one of the two double cast guys needed just the edges turned under.  His alternate actually needed some hemming.  BUT...they were going to wear gauntlets that were being made by another lady on their forearms, and we decided to have them wear painted army boots, so the legs could just be stuffed into the tops of the boots.  Sleeve and leg length became much easier at that point.

One of the angels could wear the tabbard pretty much just as it was; but the other needed a wrap style, with a bit of shoulder emphasis.  I had enough of the white fabric left over; I cut the front that I had in the bag on an angle and shortened it to the short-tunic length of the pattern, then flipped it over and cut out a mirrored piece for the other side and cut two football-shaped pieces for the shoulder extension.  I also made an obi waistband from the white, with a gold overlayer made from the remnants that I had saved.  I had JUST BARELY ENOUGH.

Brought the costumes home and found that my sewing machine did NOT play nice with the fabric when the right side was out.  The right side was almost sticky...definitely kind of tacky...and my sewing machine does not have a variable pressure on the presser foot.  I did a lot of unsewing.  I knew they would be hidden THIS time, but who knows what will happen in the future, so I wanted them, well, at least, not horrible.

I had to have them done for a photo shoot that was scheduled for Dec. 7.  It was a close squeak...but I got them done.  (Then they decided not to use the footage with the angels but have them do that scene live).
Poor hanger shots before delivery:

After the folks saw the costumes on them, they decided they weren't quite edgy enough and ordered some white overgarments from a trendy online vendor (yes, they were MENSWEAR).  We also added a long tie belt to the one on the left, which had to be pieced from several scraps, and an actual purchased Jedi-costume belt to the one on the right.

I looked at the result at dress rehearsal.  I felt like the amazing shimmery fabric was just so covered up it wasn't even really showing.  One angel had on a long kimono type garment...only with short, non-kimono sleeves.  The other was a cascade-type jacket with long sleeves.  As I looked at them the day before the show, I suddenly realized that I could remove the sleeves from the toppers.  I approached the director, who said she liked the longer garment just as it was, but gave me the ok to remove the sleeves from the other one.

I hung out about an extra half hour after the rehearsal and performed a double sleeve-ectomy.  I could live with that.

Here are the morning-performance angels in makeup (although you can't see the gold glitter on their faces in the gym / backstage lighting), courtesy of Wayne T., who is the angel on the right:

Actual army boots proved to be cost prohibitive, so, well, the painted barn boots were good enough on short notice.  Maybe next time for the better boots.

The guys did a fantastic job.  And I'm delighted they weren't in nightgowns.

Curtain Tomorrow....

Well, well, ready or not, tomorrow is IT.

I stayed after this morning/afternoon's dress rehearsal to alter up a costume piece...in my opinion, it would look better without sleeves, so after some discussion I actually got permission to perform a double sleeve-ectomy.  I hope the directors like the results; I know the actor will like it because it will make his costume cooler, lol.


The show has come together nicely.   It's been over 10 years since we did a major production; we're kind of relearning the ropes.  If you're curious...it will be online at 9, 11 and 6 PM tomorrow, and 7 PM on  Monday, at https://www.facebook.com/therockfamily.tv/.

I will hopefully post some costume shots and talk about them after Christmas.


So... it's only 5 PM and I am home with no costume sewing to do.  It feels really  weird.  But, you  know, I think I'm going to go on a search for the bottom of the laundry hamper...and at this point, I have to start by unearthing the hamper, lol.

I need to wrap a few Christmas presents as well...like, all of them...LOL

Still don't know if I will get my December Outfit made by the end of the month...although I did order some black stretch velvet from a certain vendor's moving sale, lol.  I could POSSIBLY sew it up in the week off between Christmas and New Year's.  Possibly.

Bummer, man

Ok, blogger has changed the way they display the comments on the moderation/ manage screens, and I didn't realize it.  I have gotten a boatload of chinese-looking-character spam comments this evening, and whilst deleting those I also deleted all the comments going back to June of last year.

Because I didn't realize they were all showing on the same page now.

So if I deleted your comment, I'm sorry...really, really sorry, because it's not like I get a boatload of comments. 

I am taking myself off to bed before I whack up something else...lol...

Down to the wire...

I still have two pieces to finish before dress rehearsal on Friday...and today, I had a rather unexpected sewing project....

Right after our staff Christmas luncheon, I got called to the auditorium; there had been an accident.  My heart was in my throat for just a moment, but turns out the only harm done was that while the stage was being adapted for the weekend production one of the wing curtains had been damaged by a falling beam (I still am not sure quite what happened).  There were about a dozen corner slashes from starting about 10 feet off the ground and going almost all the way to the top (I don't even have a guess as to how high 'the top' was...).

Being the resident seamstress, I was called in to do a quick mend job.  With the production 5 days off, there was no time for a real repair.  My suggestion to slap gaffe tape on the back side was not accepted...only sewing would do.

But, my sewing box was in my office, so I fetched it, climbed up in the lift and, with a little instruction, raised it all the way up to the topmost gash.

Now, a little backstory.  I actually am afraid of heights.  One of the most terrifying things I did as a teen was to 'cap the grain bin'...pull the lid down and lock it after it was filled.  There was a ladder up the side of the bin, and another set of rungs along the roof, so I had to climb all the way up to the roof, then onto  the roof and up that ladder, pull down the access hatch  and secure it...then back down the ladder to the edge of the roof and rather blindly find the  top rung of the ladder going down the side.  Scared me spitless every time I had to do it.

I have nightmares about climbing ladders or rickety stairs and getting vertigo and freezing, unable to go up or down, that have recurred from my early 20's (I actually think that is a subconscious fear of aging, but it always is climbing up beyond my comfort zone and then shutting down).

And the lift rocked a bit...which was normal...but very unsettling.

So, I carefully knelt down and opened my notions box, which was sitting on the floor of the lift, threaded a needle, and slowly stood up and grabbed the curtain and began to whipstich the cut edges back together.  I focused on breathing slowly, looking only at the work in front of me and NOT looking down.  I was terrified I would drop my needle or my scissors.  I wasn't worried about falling, really, but just the sheer height of it was enough to make me a little giddy.   I could have touched the conduit that runs just below the ceiling if I had tried at all.

I had lowered the lift back down to about the third slash from the top before I felt stable enough to even pull out my phone and take a photo.

We have an LED wall that can be lowered; it's currently in the raised position; that's the bottom edge of it that you see beyond the edge of the curtain.  If you look closely, you can see the needle and thread and the edge of the gash I was working on here.

I think it took me about 45 minutes to get a poor whip stitch done on all of the cuts.

Faced my fear and conquered it.  Booyah.

A Snowy Afternoon....

Well, well, well, there are visible flakes in the air in the Rocket City and, despite the fact that the whole system is going to blow through really fast and the ground is crazy warm as it's been in the 60's for the last few days... one of the local school systems closed early, which mean my office also closed early, as we follow the schools.

There are perks to working for a ministry, even if the salary might be below industry standards.  I got to come home at 2 today.

So I thought I'd take a minute and catch up on some stuff.

Like, where I have been for the last...month...lol.

I have been appointed the head seamstress (NOT the costume mistress, lol...I am only in charge of the costumes being sewn) for an original production we are doing at church the weekend before Christmas.  I've held off on posting pictures, because, well, I don't want to spill any beans.  But I have made a couple of angel costumes unlike any other angel costumes we've used in the past.  They did some video taping Saturday, and the only change I have to do is add a wee bit of velcro hook to the hem of one of the guy's britches (yeah, britches) so the pants will grab his socks and not work up out of his boots (yeah, boots).  I will post some pics after Christmas and you can see what we had, lol.

But that wasn't the end of it.  Spent Friday and Saturday at church, working on the Tiny Sheep.

Four years ago, we did the first version of this production, and we had some tiny sheep who were, like, 4th graders.  This year, our tiny sheep are, like, kindergarteners.  The costumes from the previous show are way too big, but I didn't want to cut them up in case we needed bigger ones in the future.  So we got some more of that crazy curly poly fleece and made 8 little v-neck vests for the current crop of tiny sheep.  Remembering the mess from the first set, I  was determined to make them at church, instead of either a) bringing the mess home or b) sending it home with someone else.  So we had a workday and a friend cut them out.  I gave her my coverall apron and a construction filter facemask...she was puzzled but wore them when I insisted.  She soon saw what I meant.  'This stuff is worse than styrofoam!' she said.  We swept the floor about a half dozen times but there was still feathery fluff on it on Sunday morning.... The fleece did NOT play nice with my serger, which seems to be having knife issues again, and what I thought would take 90 minutes took all day Saturday and then some...I still wasn't done.  Grumble grumble grumble.

Fortunately, I have, like, 17 hours of sick leave to use or lose by next Thursday, so I am going to burn sick leave...in order to avoid getting sick by staying up until way late trying to do stuff.  I got a good bit caught up yesterday afternoon, and should be able to do the last bits in a couple of hours.  The other ladies worked on alterations and ironing all the Bible costumes we have for the nativity scene at the end; unfortunately, we seem to have lost a number of our Bible costumes pieces over the years.  I'm short a few robes, but I am REALLY missing the head drapes that we use.  I like to use two for the ladies and I don't even have enough for one apiece at this point.  The guys wear smaller drapes and can actually go bareheaded if necessary, but the ladies MUST have something on their heads.

So, I will be hitting my stash this evening at some point to see if I can find some 'why did I buy this?' fabric that will work for head drapes...our cheap fabric sources have gone away and I can't do $5/yd for the head drapes that get lost so easily.  So maybe I have something up there that will work... I hope.

I haven't forgotten my 12-months - 12 outfits challenge, either.  This month Janice posted dressy outfits...mostly sweaters and skirts...with accessories.  I'm not sure I'm going to get anything done on it; certainly not before Christmas.  Maybe after, which is a shame since the dressy outfits are intended to be worn to the Christmas festivities.  And I really, really want some black stretch velvet pants. Cross your fingers for me, lol.  I actually HATE sewing stretch velvet, but after that sheep fleece, it should seem simple...

12 Months 12 Outfits - November

I am way ahead of normal this month...because I didn't actually sew or make anything.   But that works out well, since my sewing time is pretty much consumed with costuming at this point (I will have a post on that...eventually, lol).  But I would not have made this stuff in any case.

If you recall, this month is Outerwear month. I knew it was coming and I debated over what I would do.  I kinda thought I'd just use the trench coat; after all, I used it in the SWAP collection and it worked really well with everything; I had the whole deal to go with it.  BUT...I have needed a new WARM, semi-dressy winter coat for years; I've just kept making do with the old one that had a broken zipper and looked dingy.

If nothing else, this exercise has pushed me....more than once...to buckle down and add something to the closet that I had been postponing...mostly because I wanted to lose weight, lol.

So. Anyway.  I gave up looking for the perfect coat and got a coat from Lands' End that, while not elegant, will keep me warm in Alabama's coldest days.  We get very cold days...but the cold spells don't last long.  More like 3 - 5 days of really cold weather, and then we're back up into mild temps...or at least, mild compared to where I grew up.  Single digits happen (rarely, yes, but they do happen!), sometimes with below-zero windchills, so I need a warm coat for those situations. They happened to have a 50% off outerwear sale going on, so I feel like it was a good time to get it.  I downloaded a picture...they didn't have any of JUST the coat without a person in it...and then just today discovered that it was a very small, low resolution picture.  Tried to get another one, but LE apparently sold out of the coat and the image is gone.  So I'm putting the picture in this month's outfit slide, but I'm not going to try to squeeze it into the wardrobe collection.  It's a black coat. LOL.

You will notice I didn't add a hat; I have a black beret that I could throw in, but the coat has a hood.  Between the scarf and the hood, I didn't think a hat was necessary.  The gloves are  from some past offering at Lands' End...I know that from the tag, but I honestly can't remember if I bought them or if I got them for Christmas.  The scarf is a sentimental thing; it was hand crocheted for me by one of the girls in the high school class I taught at church for a season a few years back.  She worked on it in class, while we were having our discussions, and then gave it to me for Christmas.   The boots are definitely for wearing in the weather; from Propet via Zappos;  there's room enough for some substantial socks.  You can bet this stuff will get hauled to northern Indiana next month when we visit.

Here are the accessories to date:

When I started this journey, I planned to use royal blue as much as possible for the accessories and accents.  Red has been MUCH easier to source...

I haven't changed the garment slide, since I'm not putting the pitiful coat picture in , but just for a reminder, here are the garments I have so far:

One month left...wow...

Thinking about next year....

In the home stretch of the 12-months-12-outfits challenge, I'm finding myself thinking about next year.

I have a scarf that has colors in it that I would like to use to make an entirely different sort of wardrobe than I have this year but I don't think I want to do the full on 12 months.  I just don't think I need to add that many more shoes and bags to the closet, lol.  Maybe I could pick six outfits through the year and add them? The colors in the scarf are navy, gray, white, turquoise and jade...I think it would be lovely, to be honest, but I'd have SUCH  time finding those shades of turquoise and green...The white I already have from this year, and I have a fair amount of navy and gray already in the closet.  So I would pretty much just be adding the accent colors.  It appeals to me because I think my favorites of the wardrobes Janice creates every year are the ones with the soft gray in them...even though this year's gray, with the orange and coral, wouldn't suit me, I still like the aesthetic.

The SWAP rules have been announced over at Stitcher's Guild (note to self...send in that yearly membership fee!!!).  I'm just not feeling SWAPish this year...and I think it's because I've basically done a year-long SWAP and I'm kinda ready to be at least a LITTLE spontaneous.  Plus, this year includes a 'stretch' challenge...as in, work on a technique that is new to you, or that you need to improve.  While that's certainly a worthy goal, it doesn't fit with my concept of SWAP...which is from the original Australian Stitches magazine and involved using TNT patterns and planning your sewing so that you created all 11 new garments in about two weekends worth of sewing.  Hard to sew fast when you're working at perfecting a new or tricky technique or pattern or working with new fabric or whatever that 'stretch' goal is.  Not to say it won't work for the contest; the SWAPs over the years have evolved and they are no longer the 'use a TNT pattern and sew fast' variety anyway.  With 4+ months for sewing, there's lots of opportunity for folks to create wonderful stuff.  But my past history has shown that I. can't. finish...unless I'm using TNT's.  So I will cheer from the sidelines this year...and sew for fun, maybe.

So...no SWAP, but maybe a scaled back version of the 12 months exercise.

On the other side of the Christmas Production costuming, which has started.

I have some Angel outfits that I'm working on...unlike any Angels we've used before.  But that's a story for another day. ;-)

12 Months 12 Outfits...November Assignment

Janice posted the November outfit selections yesterday; no surprise; she's included a coat virtually every November since she started doing the series.

Let me tell you about my winter coat.  When The Princess was in 5th grade, my sister in law gave her a hand-me-down down coat.  It was too big for The Princess and she didn't really care for it; after a couple of years of it hanging in the closet, I tried it on...and lo and behold, it fit me pretty well.

Conservatively speaking, that was 20ish years ago.

It's a beige-y color that doesn't suit me well, but, you know, we don't have a lot of BITTER cold weather here so I only really wore it during the coldest days.

The zipper broke several years back; it's a below-knee coat with a one-way zipper, so it got a lot of stress. The tape behind the bottom anchor tab just shredded and the thing came off, along with the slider.

I made do with the buttons.

It's picked up some stains here and there...not bad ones, just enough to make the beige look more dingy.  It really needed replacing.

But I did like the vertical quilting; it was about as slimming as a puffer coat could be.

But, y'all, it was way beyond needing replacement.

So, prodded by the 'add a coat to the wardrobe' requirement for this month, I opened up my trusty Lands' End page and discovered that they had coats on sale for 50% off.

I waffled.  I put a coat in the bag and got cold feet and logged out.

LE sent me an email to remind me I had something waiting check out.

That process repeated itself for two days, y'all, before I finally just steeled myself and ordered it.

It's not at all flattering, I'm sure, but it will be warm.  It will zip.  Hopefully...it will fit, lol.

I have boots and a hat; probably have gloves as well.  And there is a scarf I could use, if I want.

So, no sewing is likely this month, either.  But that's probably a good thing; costuming work has finally started for the church Christmas production...and we are not having folks jumping up to volunteer. So my sewing plate will be full anyway.

OH...I had better go download a pic of the coat, just to make sure I have it when I'm ready to do the post, lol.

12 Months 12 Outfits - October Outfit

If you want to refresh your memory , here's what Janice picked out for her hypothetical owners of exquisite Hermes scarves....

So, I've managed to hang in there another month, lol.  It was dicey; I didn't sew anything, although I did make the necklace.  Caught a sale at Lands' End and added some red to the wardrobe:

I have learned my lesson; if I order something from Lands' End, I need to download the photo immediately; they pull the pictures of sold out stock way faster than I thought they did.  Anyway, I have a red plaid shirt that I actually wore to work today...and, while it fits pretty well, if I had made it I would have positioned the buttons differently.  Like, so one of the buttons would have been right at the line of the full bust.  Sigh.   It is actually a good match for the sweater; the blouse looks darker, due to lighting, and the sweater looks lighter, because, well, probably lighting, lol.    The jeans are standard blue denim (despite the dark picture) boot cut jeans...from the Lee outlet down the road.  

I didn't put my crossbody -strapped wallet in the set after all; I bought the back pack from Amazon earlier this year and I've been carrying it for a couple of weeks.  It's the PERFECT size.  Finally.  I've been squeezing my stuff in a just-barely-big-enough backpack for ages.  I probably need to invest in a true crossbody bag that that would hold more than my phone and my checkbook.  Someday.  This is working well enough for now.

The necklace, well, there is a story there.  I have mentioned that My Sweet Babboo is part of a frontiersman's reenactment-type group; one of the things he's been sort of interested in and slowly accumulating is trade beads.  About a month ago,  a set of about a dozen or so ceramic trade beads he'd ordered arrived in the mail.  They were really cool; denim blue, with a spiral white viney pattern around a rope spiral pattern  in white, red and royal blue.  They were huge...about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches long.

I managed to beg three beads off of him....and put together the long necklace with some red glass and lapis beads from Hobby Lobby.  It might look better with a leather cord, but it's ok with the chain.  Took me a couple of evenings to put the bead sections together.  It was nothing to add the chain.  Since it's so long, I didn't have to add a clasp.  It works well with the sweater; I thought the necklace needed to be rather hefty to not get lost in the texture.  This one certainly came out hefty! 

So, with two months to go, here is the wardrobe to date:

I am really hoping I can squeeze the last two months on the slides, lol!

12 Months 12 Outfits - October Assignment

So, here we are at mid-October and I am just now getting around to discussing the wardrobe picks Janice posted 2 weeks ago. 

I have been THINKING about it a lot...as we've been driving around and spending our weekends places other than home.

That makes it really, really difficult to get any sewing done, y'all.

So, the October outfits are, in a nutshell,  a pair of pants (ranging from funky to corduroy to denim), a button-up shirt (mostly dress white shirts, but there are a couple of plaids in the mix), a pullover sweater, a crossbody or shoulder bag and a necklace (no feetwear this time!).

But Janice did say that she considered each wardrobe...and what it, individually, needed.

So I'm kind of using that as my basis.

I'm going to go with jeans as my pants for this go round; I don't have any listed in the wardrobe and they will just be pulled from the closet.  As will my cross-body bag...smallish thing that's actually a wallet with a long strap. Actually, that's just going to get pulled outta my everyday bag; I carry it as a wallet but sometimes pull it out and just wear it as a crossbody if I'm just making a quick run somewhere. I have LOTS of options for a necklace. So that leaves me with the sweater and the shirt.  Or some kind of equivalent.

Now, I have a crew-neck pullover sweater that I think would go with the color scheme well.  But...y'all, they have turned off the chiller at work and now we are, um, warm.  By the time it's full on winter and the boiler is going full blast it will be a sauna.  I could pull the sweater from the shelf and put it with the wardrobe for non-work-related wearing, but...is there something I would wear more often if I had it?

Likewise the button up shirt.  I have two white shirts in the wardrobe already...one rather casual and one quite business like.  Should I add another shirt?  A pattern of some sort...or, maybe just a black button up?  I have been wanting to add  a black shirt to my closet for a while and even have some fabric stashed to do it. It wouldn't go with the sweater I have in mind, but it might go with another one.  Or I could find a patterned fabric and sew a shirt that would go with the sweater.

But what I don't have is time.  The running around hasn't quite ended and the costume sewing for the Christmas production is about to kick into gear.  My sewing time for the rest of the year is likely going to be consumed by costuming.

So, what shall I do for this month?

I'm thinking, I'm thinking....

12 Months 12 Outfits -- September

Oy.  I know it's October 6th; I've been out of town.  I had the whole outfit well before Sept 30; but this has been a CRAA-- ZEE fall and I've had problems getting pictures, let alone posting them., lol.

So, anyway, just to refresh your memory,  HERE is the link to the outfits Janice picked for September based on the selected Hermes scarves.

And, here is my interpretation thereof:

The actual new additions to the wardrobe are the flannel shirt and the stretch corduroy pants, both purchased on clearance from Lands' End in mid-September.  But I was so short on time when I purchased them that I didn't download the website images...and when I tried to do so today, I found that those particular selections are both sold out and no images available.  So I had to do the ol' hanger shot.  And, as per usual, the colors did not come out true.  The corduroy pants look navy but they are a deep royal blue...pretty much a dead match for the darker color in the scarf, which is a wool burnout from Novica (also sold out) and was my travel scarf to keep me warm on the airplane flight to Israel earlier this year.  The pants had to be shortened 3"; I have learned that, while Lands' End petite pants fit well when they arrive...it's not too long before they have shrunk to high water stage.  So I ordered regular inseam length and washed these first, then shortened them.  It was the only sewing I did on this grouping, lol.  The down vest is at least a year...maybe two...old; I've had the lined leather gloves several years.  The short boots were purchased on sale at the end of last winter to replace my previous short boots that popped a rivet on a decorative button.

So, here's the total collection now; I split it into two slides as I was having to make the individual pictures just too small to fit on one:

I will weigh in with my thoughts on the October outfits in the next day or two.

A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away....

(I have my September outfit but I don't have pics yet. It's not terribly exciting...the only sewing I did was hemming a pair of pants.  So while I wait for the opportunity to get pictures made, here's a story for you).

42 years ago Luke Skywalker was given a lightsaber and took off across the galaxy to fight the Empire for freedom and a bit of revenge.

There was an 18 year old girl in Indiana who happened to go watch his adventure late in July and was completely swept away by the story.  She wanted to grab a lightsaber  and go fight the Empire as well.

Nevermind that she was susceptible to motion sickness and threw up on airplanes.  Details.

She went back to see it again in less than a week.  Whoever heard of going to a movie theater to see the same movie TWICE!

Well, that movie played in some theaters for a solid year.  One was walking distance of the university she moved to about a month later, and that theater was a tired little place that charged a dollar.

One. Dollar.

By the time the one-year anniversary rolled around, she'd seen the movie on the big screen about a dozen times.

She could drop the needle anywhere on one of the two LP's in the soundtrack and tell you what was happening in the movie at that point.

She wrote fan fiction.  Never finished it, but she wrote it.

She had the bug but bad.

For the first movie.   The second and third movies...yeah, repeated viewings of those, but not quite as many as the first.

Years later, when the extended versions were released to theaters, she took her kids and felt a  little bummed that Han, Luke and Leia still looked the same.  She sure didn't.

A new trilogy came out...and she watched the first movie, confusingly called 'Episode 1' even though it was the 4th movie, once, and would climb on a soapbox and rail at the obvious plot manipulation.  She didn't even see movies five and six.   (Deletes small rant).

But she loved the Original Trilogy. And, while the third trilogy has its issues (don't get me started on the Bridge of Solo's Doom), the starquesting 18 year old geek has awoken.

And, now there's an actual place where that 18 year old finally has the chance to grab a lightsaber and hop on the Millennium Falcon.

She's still there,  deep in the recesses of the 60 year old lady who didn't take nearly enough pictures that day.

May the Force be with you.

:-D