Costuming

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Well, since I've been home, I've been a little depressed, but I guess I have a good reason for it. So I have sat down these last few days and have been doing a small bit of handsewing, since my sewing machine is still on the fritz. But what I am working on needs hand-sewing anyway, as it is a lace veil I am making for a Fate Witch costume I plan someday to create.

I've had the lace for quite some time, it's quite nice, black with a spiderweb patterned lacing. What I have done is cut the edges to get a nice ragged edge, following the shape of the patterns in the lace. Then, on the bottom edge, where some of the spider webs are cut out, I have hand sewn teardrop shaped pearls on it, and now I am putting small round pearls in the center of each spiderweb around the edge, up to 3 high around.

It's kept me occupied. So someday I just may have a cool costume to wear to Origins again.

[Black Jack Rackham]

I'd kill for a cool Captain's coat in Blue and Silver KILL I SAY! If ONLY I knew someone who could make me a cool pirate costume... IF ONLY!!!

Mark

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Hey, the pieces are cut, and some are actually sewn together. Darn Sewing machine will not work right, and I don't want to mess it up, so, it's on hold for a bit.

Oh, and I did get out the other day and found a pattern for a vest for Don Miguel. I'll bring it tomorrow when I come to game, to see what you think.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Awesome! Ok now about the sewing machine. Have you looked into how much it would be to repair it?

Mark

[Rebecca Iavelli]

It's not repairing as much as getting it to stay at the right tension. I have to figure out which "gear" it needs to be back in and get it to stay there. It has a lot of different settings, and I haven't been able to get it back to where it was at originally, since I needed to change it to do a different type of pattern. What is happening is that one side of it is running way too tight, and the other side is making big loose loops, til it looks like it's trying to make fringe.

I'm begining to wonder if it is something to do with the bobbins, and how they are threaded.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Mis-threaded Bobbins are a problem of course, but what you really gotta watch out for are the Brandybucks and the Tooks

[Sister Sonya]

Laura, what you need to find is an older person who remembers how to repair mechanical gadgets. So many things nowadays are run by chips and circuits, and one just throws the things away after awhile and buys another.

I know there are people out there like that because my sister's old boyfriend was running 12 old apple computers hooked up together- and may have added even more lately. He used to be employed in repairing mechanical watches, but those jobs are few and far between today.

[salamanca]

I know you are both old enough to remember those books with the yellow paper in them that list contact info. Someplace in there is a sewing machine repair guy. (under "S"). If it needs fixed, that would work. That guy or a sales guy or the fabric store lady can probably tell you if it's not broken what needs adjusted to get the tensions back in order. Mark, just kidnap the machine and get it fixed, it's cheaper than a lawyer for the homicide trial.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Yeah, I'm old enough to remember them, but don't actually have any here in the house.

What would actually be nice to have is the original book that came with the darn sewing machine, but that has been lost for years.


Anyway, I've finished the veil as best as I can for now. Would like to put some more beading on it later, but need to go out and buy the beads first. Want those little irridescent black ones, to do some trim, and maybe outline a few of the spiderweb designs with.

[salamanca]

Internet. Google the make and model. Better than average chance the manual is in a PDF someplace.

[CaitlinCallahan]

Laura - the veil sounds amazing! Hope I get to see it in the not too distant future.

I need to repair my sewing machine as well (I know what I need to do - just have to make the time to do it). I have a couple of patterns, as well as the material, for at least two costumes. In the meantime, I picked up a green satin skirt and a white renaissance blouse with lace-edged teardrop sleeves to go with my black and green corset as an interim costume. Paired with my MacGregor plaid, I should be set for Dana's LARP at GenCon. (Dana is either very brave, or very crazy - he's letting Alison and Francesca loose on the LARPers.)

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Thanks Deb,

I'm pretty happy with it so far. Hope to be able to get to the fabric store tomorrow after work to get the other beads I need to finish it up and to find a costume pattern that I like to use for the dress.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Well, I am almost done with the veil. It's been a lot of fine work (mostly in threading the needle, UGH!), but I figure I should be done with it in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, I went to my local Joanne Fabric store, and found out that they were haveing a 1.99 sale on their Simplicity patterns (usually about 16.99 each), so I went wild and checked out all the costumes they had, and brought home 14 new patterns! I also found another copy of one of the first dresses I made, so now I can re-do it in black for my Fate Witch costume! Saw some beautiful black on black silky brocade that I'm going to have to go back for, when I get my check this next weekend, if I have some extra money, that will be lovely for the upper half of the dress, then I need to find a nice plain silky black for the rest of it.

Also I plan to start working on your coat again Mark. Need you to get me those buttons though, if I am going to be able to finish it up. Have decided it might be better to hand sew the button holes, but still debating on that.

I've also been deciding that I need to re-arrange my livingroom so that I can get a long table in it, to cut some patterns.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Ok, got some pictures downloaded finally. Here is a small part of the veil. The actual size of it can fit on the top of a twin bed, with a little overhang on all sides.

May be hard to see the detail of the beads, but they are sewn on the edge, to give it a nice hem, and keep it from fraying. I figure it took about a full week of hours to complete, spread out in a couple of months.

http://i322.photobucket.com/albums/nn432/Rebecca_Iavelli/DSCN1892.jpg

http://i322.photobucket.com/albums/nn432/Rebecca_Iavelli/DSCN1891.jpg

http://i322.photobucket.com/albums/nn432/Rebecca_Iavelli/DSCN1890.jpg

Hope I did this right and they show.

[salamanca]

Acts like you did it right. The phone shows a link that gives me the option to download the pic. I'll just wait until I am actually online and view it on a normal sized screen.

[Klcp]

Oh cool! Very nice Laura!!

[CaitlinCallahan]

Gorgeous, Laura!