who needs a face, arms or legs?

   My sketch is done!

Let's see how close I can get. I think I'll pull a Frankenstein and splice different patterns together to get the desired look. I'm just bored enough, so I might do a good job documenting this.

    I'm bored. . . no bones, no work today, no Otakon to get ready for – what a bummer! I found this fabric in my stash. It's cute. I was going to make a petticoat out of it for a client, but she reneged and luckily I hadn't cut into it yet. I estimate I have about 3 ½ yds. I am soo yearning for Otakon – the cosplay, the pictures, the people, the anime, the wandering around in Baltimore all dressed up and getting odd reactions, the good time with friends – why oh why must I be poor?!?! Damned economy >:[ I'm digressing here, sorry. Okay, pining for Otakon, have 3 ½ ish yards of Lolita-like fabric. . . so why not make a pretty summery Loli dress?

    Now, a lot of Lolita dresses can be over the top, and don't get me wrong – I love over the top, I thrive on over the top, but I want something the boyfriend will let me out of the house in! So, let's plan this thing.

What I want in the dress:

• 
  
  
  Summer appropriate
  
  • 
    
    
    the print dictates this
    
  • 
    
    
    no sleeves or cap sleeves
    
• 
  
  
  knee length skirt
  
• 
  
  
  full skirt – I have some crinoline if needed
  
• 
  
  
  nothing too "crazy"   

  
  

  I don't want to spend too much. I haven't worked all week and school will be starting in a month. I'd like to spend no more than a few dollars on a zipper or smocked fabric so that I can, you know get in and out of the completed garment.
  

  The print is a little busy. Do I want an entire dress dedicated to this print?

 

Yay! Options!

There's no way for you to know this, but there was a 15 min gap between this sentence and the one above. Why? I had a thought as I considered an entire dress made out only of that fabric. In the absence, I dug out 6 yards of red netting and 3 yards of red cotton fabric. Now I have some options! Yes, we love options, don't we?

 

Alright, let's see some inspirational photos: 

 

This is a good start. Let's go do some sketching!

    She's done! Last night I finished my little Gaia avatar appliqué. I used only materials in my house and she turned out so nicely. What do you think?

Great for any background!

Maybe I'll make appliqués for my Gaian friends next. . .

Any Gaians out there, peeking in on me? The kid in me loves Gaia online. The adult in me tells me I need a real life. I'm in love with Gaian avatars. They're adorable! So, as I wait for my bones to arrive, and for the boyfriend to decide what fabric his Hanfu will be made from, I think I'll experiment with a Gaia avatar quilt square. . . what can I find in that stash of mine?

This is my proposed avatar to model. She isn't mine, or anyone's (I hope, please don't sue me!) I made her with the help of tektek.org. My own avatar loves to cosplay as Elena of the TURKS, so it's a bit boring for my purposes of the moment. . . although maybe I'll make a Gaian-turk thing at some point; but let's not pile project on project!

    I've coned the boyfriend what he wants to do is dress up for the Renaissance Faire this year. He agreed! – With a condition – no puffy pants, no tights, no frilly shirt, no shirt with a v-neck, no doublet, no funny shoes – pretty much nothing European. So what does the love of mine want? Chinese garb. Well the Maryland renaissance faire takes place during the Henrician period, which puts China in the Ming dynasty. For the faire he will be wearing a long jacket/tunic over trousers and some sort of shoes, , , sort of in the spirit of this fellow,

Think Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon - Same idea, different time period

    I think I want to get into the spirit too with a Chinese inspired dress like this one:

A girl can never have too many dresses – right? What do you think, something like this, in purple?

    So after much researching, internet crawling and debate, I finally ended up just winging the pattern of my corset's boning layout. I left a ½" space at each end for the piping, then allowed a 1/4" pocket for a bone, another ½" gap for eyelets, and followed the gap for the eyelets with ¼" pockets all the way to the eyelet strip on the other side. The original effigy corset is pretty rigidly boned. It's bone – to bone –to bone. Lotta bones. All in all, my own corset ended up with 60 ¼" steel bones. I think I've bullet proofed my costume. . .

Gap at side of bust

Back - you can see the bones only extend as far as the side seams

     I decided to try some things out. The last corset I made had bones butted next to each other continuously from side to side and stuck out funny around my bust and hit my armpits in a weird and uncomfortable way. This time I left a gap of boning on the side of the bust in hopes it might stick out less and be more comfy. Although this could be a pipe dream, we'll see soon. The other thing I did differently from my last corset was cut down on the length of the bones that are in the back of the corset. My previous corset was cut high in the back and the bones ran all the way up. Ick. I cut them shorter this time, once again hoping to make it more comfortable.  

 I ordered my bones from http://www.dragontowncorsetsupply.com/. They're my normal go-to corset suppliers. They have the best prices for pre-cut boning and offer different busks and lacing bones, if you need any of that as well.

Finally the white pencil has its day!

    Oh, the other change I made to this corset was my bone channel technique. Previously I have sewn channels to the interlining of the corset. This time I sewed the interlining to the outer fabric to make channels for the bones. This was a lot easier! Plus, I found a use for a white coloured pencil. . . I wonder now if the pocket channels will hold their own against the steel bones like the duck cloth channels do. . .

    No I am playing the waiting game of waiting for my bones!

    Punch punch punch. . . What's that noise in my sewing room? Is it my subconscious calling for hydration; is it my anger trying to call me to action? Am I keeping track of all the VW's that drive past? I used to work at Jo Ann fabrics. The only decent part of the job was the discount. . . Every now and then a customer would call up with a particular complaint or problem and our conversation would go something like this;

    "Hello, Jo Ann fabrics – how may I help you today?"

    "Hi – my sewing machine is broken, will you fix it?"

    "Sorry ma'am. We don't fix sewing machines; we only sell 'em."

Then, inevitably, the lady on the other end would get frustrated. "But I bought it there and you should be able to fix it!"

So then you'd have to refer her to a sew and vac with many apologies, ask if there was anything else she needed and then get back to the never ending work in the store. However, the story doesn't end there – it just couldn't! Half an hour later you're cutting fabric for a customer, or organizing fabric, or about to take your break, and a machine toting woman comes in, making a b-line for you, slams the machinery down on the counter and demands you fix it.

Now, I'm no mechanic – but I'm not stupid either; and sewing with 5 different home machines, 1 serger, and 1 industrial machine for 10 years had taught me a little in the field of machine anatomy. So I'd look at the machine, plug it in, turn it on. There's a light, the machine can turn on great. There is a bobbin (some people don't know you need a bobbin to sew) and it is wound and inserted correctly, so I let my eyes move up to the thing I'd put money on that was causing the problem – and sure enough, 9 out of 10 times, I am right. The culprit is the needle.

I've seen them in all conditions and misuses. Sharps used to sew knits. Ballpoints for wovens; small gauges for jeans and leathers; large or "universal" gauge needles for silks. But my favourite ones are when you see deterioration of the needle itself. I've seen needles worn so far down that there is no longer a tip, and needles so far gone that it's been worn to the eye!

And so, I'm brought back to punch punch punch. What's that noise? A dull needle striking the fabric. Punch punch punch. You shouldn't be able to hear this – I know better than this, I'm just being lazy. . . For anyone new to this, here are some needle pointers (hee hee) from someone who should know better than to sew with a needle they can hear.

 

Why is it important my needle should be sharp (for wovens)?

A dull needle causes stitches to be uneven, too loose or too tight. Dull needles will also snag delicate fabrics – something you don't want when you're sewing silks or satins.

 

Is size important?

In this case, yes. Size, or gauge refers to how thick a needle is. General rule is the thicker the fabric, the heavier the needle. A 14 needle works for denim – not so much for silk! And there are special needles for leather and stretch fabrics.

 

I don't want to make a trip to the store; won't the sharp work for the stretchy material?

No. The rounded tip of the ballpoint needle allows your needle to bypass the threads to avoid piercing them (like a sharp will do). Piercing the threads reduces the overall stretch of the garment and will increase the likelihood of the garment not fitting well or threads snapping.

 

How often should I change the needle?

Needles should really be changed with every project. Realistically though, I don't think this happens. Bear in mind, that some material will require you to go through multiple needle changes. Metallic, spangled (sequined), and glitter fabrics will dull your needle in no time and you may be required to make a needle change somewhere during the making of your garment.

 

Always inspect your needle before sewing. Look for burs, dulling and curvatures. If the needle is defective in anyway, change the needle. If all out fails and you find that you're too often sewing with dull needle, try this: at the end of each project, throw out the needle. When you sit down the next time, you'll be needless and forced to start out with a brand new one.

 

I hope this helps. If you have any questions on needles or general sewing techniques, feel free to comment.