Another petticoat

Aw man, how did it get to be May already? I've only got four months until DragonCon! I'm not ready!

This year I want to dress as a lady botanist. I decided that last fall after I got a tattoo of vines on my right leg. This week I'll be going to get a similar tattoo on my left leg. But I haven't done anything for the outfit because hey, lots of time left, right? Wrong! Hardly any time left and I don't know what to do about a vasculum. A botanist needs a vasculum but they're just not available since modern botanists, who have no souls, just carry plastic bags.

Anyway, my feather-trimmed petticoat from last year won't do so I decided to make a new one. A girl can never have too many petticoats. Unfortunately I soon grew to loathe the cloth; fortunately, it was cheap and won't show. I decided not to trim it with anything, just hemmed the bottom tier.

Above: the first of many endlessly long seams.

As always, putting the basting thread in for ruffling is a tedious process since I have to do it by hand. Then it takes more tedious time to do the actual ruffling and get everything pinned and ready to sew. The process is made more difficult with a cat who loves it when I get down on the floor, because he thinks I want to play with him.

The process is also made more difficult these days since I've got a drum kit in my living room. I can't quite bring myself to move it out to the garage even though that would make more sense. I like knowing it's safe inside. It's a horrible cheap kit but I love it dearly.

Incidentally, if you're not clear on how ruffling works, this picture might help. See the thread passing through the cloth, the one I've got my finger under? That's the basting thread. You pull it (steadily but firmly) and it wrinkles up the cloth. When you've got the wrinkles distributed evenly all down the thread, you pin them in place and sew a seam along the basting thread, then pull the basting thread out completely. It's actually pretty easy although it sounds complicated.

I use a three-tier pattern, with the bottom two tiers ruffled and the top tier just plain. I didn't measure the top tier around my waist, just figured I'd put in tucks or something later once I lose the weight I put on over the winter. (You must imagine me saying that in an immensely dignified voice.) It's much too big now since I only tapered the top piece a few inches.

Above: the pieces sewn together and awaiting the seam up the side.

I folded the top down half an inch, then folded it over again an inch and sewed it to make a plain waistband. Then I sewed up the side seam, starting at the bottom hem and continuing up to about halfway up the top tier. I stopped there and folded the edges above it back and sewed them, to make a horrible ugly ineffective and sloppy placket. I had thought I'd sew a button on later and that would be that, but I think I'll have to do more work to the waistband later in the summer.

Above: worst placket ever

Even so, the petticoat will work as is even if I have to safety pin it all around my waist when the time comes. The ruffles are nice and ruffly and will make my skirt stand out properly. I will probably wear the same skirt as last year, since it's lovely and fits and goes with my corset. So now I just have to figure out what the hell to do about a top. And I also need to find a vasculum.

Here's the petticoat worn, with it hitched up a bit so you can see part of my awesome tattoo:

Making a bucket list booklet, part 2

I finally finished this! The leather got here quickly but it took a lot of work to get the cover made. But I'm happy with the finished result, considering it was the first time I'd tried making a leather cover and only the second booklet I've ever made.

The leather was supposed to be green but no matter what light I look at it in, it looks brown to me. I don't mind; it's still just what I needed. It's thick leather but not stiff. I ordered it from TheLeatherGuyMN on etsy and got it within days. I ordered two pieces, so I had to sew them together.

First I trimmed the top of the pieces to just a little larger than the cardboard cover already in place. Then I sewed the two pieces together using the same technique I used for my lawnmower handlebar grips that I made this summer.

Once that was done I measured the piece again with the sewn edge over the spine of the booklet. I wanted the cover to be snug but not so tight that it would stretch. I trimmed the ends so that they would come right up to the inside edge of the first and last pages. Here's a picture of how I arranged the cover, before sewing.

After I was sure I had everything cut to just the right size, I glued the inside front and back flaps to the cardboard. I did not glue anywhere else, just here to keep the leather in place while I worked.

After that I had to sew the top and bottom edges in place. That's what took so very long. First I had to punch holes with the awl through both thicknesses of leather (and sometimes the cardboard), then I had to sew carefully to make sure the stitches were taut but not so tight they might pull through the leather.

I sewed from the edge of the cover to the spine, then knotted the threads from both sides and cut them short. Unfortunately, I cut them too short, forgetting that the upholstery thread I used is tough but thick so tends to untie itself if given half a chance (that's a problem with one of my lawnmower grips too; I need to repair it already). To keep from having to resew both sides, I cut a tiny piece of vellum paper (not real vellum, just the thick but transparent paper they sell to scrapbookers in craft shops) and glued it down over the thread ends to hold them in place. I then did the same thing to the other side even though the knot held, just in case.

Once it was done, it looked good--but there was a problem. I accidentally tore the paper edging the spine a bit, and that worried me that eventually the page might tear through. In the photo above you can see how flimsy that blue piece of paper is and it is pretty much the only thing holding the pages in place (there's a strip of cheesecloth too, but it's not that strong). Major oversight, plus that signature of the booklet wasn't as tight as it should be so it needed stabilizing anyway.

I wish I had realized this before I had glued and sewn the cover in place. It would have been easy to put a strip of vellum or something down before I'd made the cover. But it was too late so I did the only thing I could really do at that point without starting over: I cut more vellum (it's fairly tough paper, and I also had some on hand already) and glued it in place. I used as little glue as I could because I knew it would look bad and I also didn't want to wrinkle the pages.

I put a strip in front and one in back, then let them dry overnight while weighted. The vellum was almost invisible on the paper, and is prettily patterned anyway, but the vellum glued to the leather just looked horrible. To make the best of a bad situation, I drew all over those sections, front and back. At least now anyone looking at it will be too busy thinking, "What is that supposed to be, an octopus?" to notice anything else.

But despite the hiccups I'm happy with the result. It's handsome, sturdy, and I made the whole thing. I left room to add photos, and I already have some to add.

Making a Bucket List Booklet, Part One

I was going to wait until I made the leather cover to post about this, but I don't have any leather pieces big enough to make the cover. I had to order some and it'll be a while before I get it, so I'll go ahead and post what I've done so far.

Last year I started a bucket list--you know, a list of things to accomplish before you kick the bucket. Last week I decided it was time not only to finish and organize the list, but to turn it into a little booklet.

There are all kinds of good tutorials online on how to make and sew a booklet together. I recommend this one for being particularly clear (it's a PDF, unfortunately, which means it's probably going to lock up your computer for a few minutes). Here's another good one that isn't a PDF.

The first step, of course, is to make up your list. This is fun and leads to a certain amount of wistful introspection and blessing-counting. I had my list partly made, and I used Pinterest to help me come up with more ideas. I was conservative in my list items--I didn't include just anything that sounded interesting, I wanted my items to be both feasible and things I genuinely want to accomplish. I did include some items that I've already (recently) accomplished.

After I made my list, I typed it up the way I wanted it to appear in the booklet and printed it off on heavy cardstock in a variety of colors. This was way more complicated than it sounds since I wanted my booklet to be the size of a regular sheet of paper folded over. I won't go over how to deal with your word processing program and printer to make sure everything prints where it's supposed to, except to say if you're not comfortable doing that kind of thing, you would probably be a lot happier hand-lettering your pages.

In books like this, where the pages are sewn together rather than glued onto a binding, the pages are separated into signatures. Each signature is made up of a set number of pages. My signatures consisted of only three sheets of cardstock folded over to make six sheets (12 pages) since the paper I used was heavy. I made six signatures. The first and last signature actually do have an extra sheet so I'd have a free page to use for gluing on the cover. That gave me an extra two pages I could actually use.

After I printed out the pages and folded them over carefully into signatures, I made sure the signatures were together in the right order (and right side up), then weighted them with a book so they wouldn't shift, and marked the edges (see the tutorials above for why I was marking them).

Then I took them into the garage, where I used my awl to poke holes where I'd marked them. I've done this before, incidentally, so I knew to open up the signatures after poking the holes, to make sure they poked through evenly to the other side, and if not, to poke the holes back through in such a way as to make them more even. I'm sorry, it's been a long weekend and I have a headache and can't figure out better words to describe that process. Make your holes small, is what I'm saying, because they never go through straight and you want to be able to enlarge them to make them as centered as possible.

So anyway, once that was done I made sure again that the signatures were in the right order and right side up. Then I cut a very long length of heavy-duty thread (waxed linen thread is best, but I had extra strong cotton/poly thread so that's what I used), probably a good five feet long. It turned out to be too long, but I'd much rather have to deal with a very long thread while sewing than have to pull it all out and start over because I ran out of thread. Using an embroidery needle (sharp but with a fairly large eye), I sewed the signatures together. Don't pull the stitches too tight. You want to make sure your pages will open without tearing. I checked frequently as I worked to make sure the pages were neither too tight nor too loose.

It's a lengthy process if you've never done it before, but when you finish you can feel proud of yourself. You've obviously got a book almost made when you're done.

After that, I cut a piece of cheesecloth and clamped my newly sewn signatures between some heavy books. See this tutorial page for directions on gluing. Basically you cover the spine with glue (I used Gem-Tac, of course, but Elmer's works fine) except for about half an inch on either end--what will eventually be the top and bottom of the spine, once it's a book--then place the piece of cheesecloth on and add a little more glue on top of it. Then let it dry overnight. Don't add all that much glue. I smeared it on with my finger, which works a lot better than dribbling it straight on.

For the front and back covers--which will not show in the end, once I make the leather cover--I used two pieces of thin cardboard the same size as the paper I'd used, folded over. This is going to sound extra confusing, but seriously, if you've read this far, you can figure it out. You want to glue the cardboard over the endpapers, with the ends of the cheesecloth inside the fold of the cardboard too. Here's a picture.

The picture's not as clear as I'd like, but the spine is on the left next to the glue bottle. I've already glued the underside of the folded cardboard to the back of the purple sheet, which is the endpaper. After I took the picture, I put a little glue down on the purple sheet and placed the cheesecloth on top to hold it in place, then glued the top inside of the cardboard and pressed it down well. (I also belatedly put a sheet of paper in between the cardboard and the first page of the booklet, to keep any glue from oozing onto it; but I didn't put glue all the way to the edge of the cardboard and I didn't use tons of glue.)

Then flip the booklet over and do the other cover the same way. Then weight the whole thing down with heavy books or whatever, and let it dry overnight.

Then wait impatiently for your green leather pieces to arrive so you can make the actual cover, which is hopefully going to look awesome.

Tutorial: make a needle case with pockets

I made a tiny travel sewing kit right before DragonCon, something I could tuck in my bag in case of costume malfunctions. As it happens I needed it a couple of times. It wasn't fancy--I threw it together in about an hour--and I didn't take pictures as I made it so I didn't think about talking about it here.

That's what it looks like, above. This week I thought about what project to make and decided to make another sewing kit. I looked around online to get some ideas and decided a needle case with pockets would be even better.

I have some brown felt that I bought a bunch of on sale and haven't figured out anything to do with yet. It has a cool pattern and I decided it would look good at the main part of the piece. I have some reddish-brown cotton that looks good as the lining.

The needle case is about the same size as the original sewing kit I made, roughly the size of a small postcard. (In fact I used a postcard to help me cut out the pieces). The finished size, opened, is 5 1/2" wide by 4 1/4" high. I cut the main piece of felt exactly that size, the lining a little bit bigger all around. I also cut the lining much longer so I could fold it up and make a pocket. And I cut a smaller piece of felt for the middle.

Now, I am not a very organized person and I probably could have had an easier time with the lining and pocket if I'd made them two pieces instead of one. You can see from the pictures below that I had to fold the edges under one way to sew the lining to the back, then fold them the other way on the bottom part of the lining when I folded it up to make the pocket.

I sewed the lining on first, all the way around, using a nice neat topstitch. At least, it started out neat and got sloppy pretty fast as I got impatient. I don't know why I decided to hand-sew this, but I did. I watched an entire Sherlock Holmes movie while I did, and part of Kick-Ass after it was over.

Then I decided the case should close with a button and loop. I have some cool wooden buttons that are reddish, so I chose one and some brown cord that I really like (I think this is the third project it's ended up in). I sewed the button on, then made sure the loop was positioned correctly and sewed it up in between the front and back of the pocket. Then I sewed the other side of the pocket up.

After that, all I had left to do was sew the felt piece on in the middle. I trimmed it with pinking shears to make it more decorative, then carefully marked where the piece folded in the middle when I closed it. That took several tries. Then I put a seam in all the way down the middle. And that's it, it was done!

I'm happy with the way it looks and I think I did a pretty good job making it. I don't need it, so it may eventually end up on etsy when I have enough stuff made to reopen my shop.

Distressing a garment really fast

Sorry, no pictures of my complete DragonCon costume yet. I'm not done with the bag, plus my photographer has vanished from the face of the earth (or at least the part of the earth with cell coverage). So here's a quick tutorial on how to distress a garment--in this case, that jacket I dyed.

I actually dyed it three times total, none of them very well, and it ended up an uneven brownish-gray. There are splotches of darker color in the back that are very obvious, so I can't wear it as part of a polished costume. But I was thinking of only wearing my full costume on Saturday at DragonCon, and coming up with a simpler, toned-down costume for Sunday.

The idea I had was more dieselpunk than steampunk, with a grimy, oil-stained jacket over crop pants, corset, and a bright top, with my old beat-up leather boots and a pair of lace-trimmed socks. It might have worked, too, except that I'm not the right shape. For the most part I'm happy with the way I look, but I'm also very aware that women are judged by appearance, and the outfit is not flattering on me. This is an outfit for a younger, skinnier woman.

But I digress. Here's how to distress a badly-dyed garment.

1. Try to send it through the reel mower's workings. It won't go through, but it will get a bit rumpled and grimy if, like me, you never clean the mower's blades.
2. Use the tail of the shirt to rub the top of a rusty, gummy oilcan.
3. Hang it over a chair and snag it several times with the screw poking out of a block of wood that you just happen to have on hand.
4. Try to cut it with a really rusty old pair of loppers that aren't sharp anymore. They will put a few small holes in the cloth but mostly they chew at it.
5. Try to cut it with a really dull boxcutter.
6. Cut it unexpectedly quickly with an X-acto knife.
7. Poke holes along the edges of the big X-acto knife gash with an awl, and use the holes to sloppily lace up the hole with a leather cord or an old bootlace.

That's what I did. The lacing looks particularly good, I think.

I'm sure I can use this jacket for an outfit sometime in the future. Heck, I may wear it Sunday after all, but with jeans instead of the brown pants that aren't flattering. But so you can see what I mean about the outfit, here's a picture of me in it. Sorry, I didn't have my boots on.

A net to catch an imaginary owl

This took entirely too long to make considering how simple it is.

First, start with a dowel and the center piece of a wooden embroidery hoop. Screw them together and saw the dowel off at the desired length. (I wasn't able to screw the screw in all the way since the flimsy hoop started to crack, but it doesn't really show.)

Then spraypaint the whole thing. I painted it what was supposed to be brown but looked really gray, so I spritzed over it a bit with some copper spraypaint. Let it dry overnight.

Cut a thin strip of leather (or fake leather) of really any length. You can stop wrapping when you think it looks good or add more if you want. Lay a line of glue (Gem-Tac! My favorite! It smells just like Elmer's but it holds better) along the back side of the leather. Then press a few inches of the leather (glue side down, of course) along the dowel and over the end, then twist it around and wrap the strip around and around the dowel, covering the strip you laid down initially, until you run out of strip or decide it looks good and stop wrapping and cut off the rest. This took almost no time at all--seriously, I think it took longer for me to figure out how to explain what I did than it took to actually do it.

Then get a lot of string and...make a net.

The net took me hours. But look! I caught an owl.

(If you find the owl as adorable as I do, you can buy your very own on etsy at Green Owl Curiosities, and the proceeds go to an owl/raptor rehabilitation society. Yes, this little guy is going to DragonCon with me. I need to put my name and number on him somewhere in case he escapes.)

Throwing down th--no, gluing feathers on the gauntlet

Look at me, updating on a Friday! Only three weeks left until DragonCon.

In a "thank goodness I finally came up with a plausible reason to dress like a steampunk owl" moment of brilliance, I've changed the focus of my costume slightly. Instead of an actual owl, my costume is that of an owl catcher. Because to run a time machine, you need a live, unharmed owl, of course. And I'm the one to supply it.

What does an owl catcher need? A gauntlet! Because owls nip and pinch. I didn't want a regular falconry gauntlet, mostly because they're big and heavy and therefore hot, partly because I would just look silly without an actual owl to carry on it. But I found this tutorial to make a leather bracer, and that seemed like a good starting place.

I don't have any really thick leather. The thickest I have is a scrap too small to do much with, so I went with a thinner, more supple piece that was big enough. I pretty much followed the tutorial so I won't repeat it except to say that it's a lot different with thin leather. I could not get the stupid edges to bevel no matter what I did with the spoon, mostly. They look okay anyway, though. At least, I'm okay with them. I have low standards.

For lacing, I decided to use a length of the laces that came with my corset. The corset I ordered turned out to be too generously sized for me (yay dieting! yay doing situps and hiking all the time!) and I cinched the laces in, knotted them, and cut the excess off. So I have two lengths of tough black laces. I used my leather punch to make the holes, then got worried that the thin leather would tear with all the adjusting of laces I'd have to do. So I decided to add grommets, of which I have an awful lot.

I'd never used grommets before. I just watched the first online video tutorial I found, but it was easy. Basically, you push the bigger piece of the grommet through front to back, set it on a firm surface that you don't mind if it gets dented a bit, put the other half of the grommet over it on the inside, put the pointy end of your grommet tool thingy on top of that, and hammer that metherfeckin thing hard with a hammer. Trust me, it works. It's also kind of fun.

After lacing the gauntlet, I decided it needed some extra decoration. I'd never tried embossing leather and it turns out that I didn't press hard enough. Once it dried, most of the drawings I'd made were almost invisible. But that's okay, because I have Sharpie markers.

Above: I let the gauntlet dry overnight while sitting up like this.

Before I put the feather trim on this evening, I wanted to make it look like the gauntlet had seen some use. Since I don't have an owl, and since an owl would probably slice its way through the leather without even noticing it, I turned to the one sharp-clawed creature I do have access to: Jekyll. You know, my cat who bites me all the time.

He didn't want to bite me today. Or scratch me. He just wanted to be petted no matter how much I tried to awaken his hunting instinct by teasing him with the laces or with one of his 10,000 cat toys scattered throughout the house. This is the cat who woke me at 3:30 a.m. last night after trying to climb into the (capped) chimney, and when I picked him up--groggily afraid a rabid raccoon had found its way into the chimney and was after him--he almost casually bit and scratched my arm. This is the cat who lies in wait for me to walk by in the mornings when I'm trying to get ready for work, and leaps out at my ankles and seizes the hem of my nightgown or the cuff of my pants. This is the cat who lies under my computer table while I'm online, purring and occasionally nipping at my bare toes.

Anyway, finally I managed to get him excited enough to tear into my gauntlet. Authentic battle damage! I decided that was enough for now, and took the gauntlet off to finish it.

I had bought a feather boa to use as trim, so I measured a piece off and cut it. I then trimmed the feathers short on one side of the piece, laid down a line of glue (my favorite Gem-Tak) and pressed it into the inside of the leather cuff.

Then I was too impatient to let it dry before I took pictures. Hopefully it will stick to the rough side of the leather. But for now it looks good. Here's a clever photo I took to show both sides at once. The fist of justice! Note that I put on my awesome hat even though I knew it probably wouldn't show in the picture, because I wanted to get in character a bit.

And finally, here's a hopefully readable close-up (backwards--you know, I could have taken it off to take a picture, huh?) of the embossed-and-Sharpied design. SOC stands for Society of Owl Catchers. (If SOC stands for anything else, especially if it's something nasty, please don't tell me.) And that's not the best owl ever drawn, even by me, but it's at least recognizable. Don't think of it as a bad drawing, think of it as an original American Primitive.

Dying, sewing, and sticking feathers on things with glue

Today's post was going to be all about the transformation of a bright coral cotton blouse into an elegant black top that I may wear as part of my DragonCon costume. But I couldn't find the right size buttons and had to order some online today, so until I get them and sew them on I can't claim I'm done with the top. I also can't make the decision as to whether I'll wear it or not. I like it, but I'm not sure I like it enough.

I didn't just dye that shirt, though, I also dyed a light jacket thingie that I stopped wearing because the khaki-green color just doesn't look good on me, and a pair of long white socks that I got on sale but never wear.

The coral shirt is 100% cotton, the jacket is 60% cotton and 40% modal, and I don't know what the socks are made of. Cotton dyes beautifully, so I got a bottle of black RIT dye and used the stovetop method to dye the clothes.

I'd used RIT dye before, but only for undyed wool (one of my hobbies is handspinning). I didn't think about bleaching the clothes first, just dumped them in the dyebath. I also probably didn't keep the water hot enough. When I took the clothes out of the dyebath they looked fine, but after drying overnight they were really uneven. The decorative stitching around the blouse's neckline didn't dye at all, but I like the effect.

I redyed the blouse by itself the next night, with much better results. After I took it out of the dyebath I added the jacket; it didn't dye as evenly but I like the shade of gray a lot better than the green it was before. (The socks hardly dyed at all, so I guess they aren't made of natural fibers.) I washed the clothes in the washer, delicate setting, and they look quite nice.

Anyway, so that was one thing I did this week. On Friday morning, I woke up with a bad crick in my neck, so after work I spent the rest of the day lying on the bed with a heating pad on my neck, movies on the TV, and bleak misery in my heart. To occupy myself I picked up the sleeve pieces of the nightgown I'd started sewing way back in April, and finally did the embroidery I'd planned to do but never quite found time for.

Saturday my neck felt a bit better and I finished the embroidery. Today I intended to finish the nightgown, but, well, see this picture? If you can tear your attention away from my adorable cat, you can see what I accidentally did when I sewed on one of the sleeves. Yeah. I need to rip that seam out and fix that. Maybe next April.

Finally, I ordered a very nice fan for DragonCon--it's hot, I'll be wearing several layers of clothes including feathers, and I'll be doing a lot of walking. I need a fan. I like this one, but it was a bit drab. To dress it up a bit, I decorated the tassel on its end. Ordinarily I'm not a fan of gears stuck randomly to things (hey, gears! that makes it steampunk, right?), but I think this one looks kind of neat. I also added some turkey feathers and I like them well enough that I plan to glue them in place as soon as I can find where I put the glue.

Petticoat Update

You know what I've done all week? I've been sewing feather trim on the bottom hem of the petticoat I'm making. My house is full of feathers. I didn't keep track, but it probably took a solid eight hours. I won't bore you with all the details, like the difficulty I had finding more trim when I ran out and had already bought every piece at the fabric store. Just believe me when I say it's been a long, tiring week of hand-sewing.

Once I was done with the trim, I was able to use the machine to sew the lace on top. I did that this afternoon. I won't bore you with the details about that either, like how my bobbin ran out halfway through and I screwed up when replacing it and almost broke the needle, etc. Anyway, I got it sewn on.

Then I had to ruffle it. That took hours. I did that this evening. The cat helped.

You may remember that I started this whole steampunk garage project so I'd have somewhere to sew where the cat wouldn't help, but while I'm happy with the garage and it's very useful for most parts of a project, the floor will never be as clean as my living room carpet (stains and all).

I won't bore you with the endless activity of ruffling and how it was already 10 pm when I sat down to sew the pieces. I got it done, and only had to rip out a few inches of stitching that I screwed up.

Here's what it looks like--and keep in mind that I still have the upper tier and waistband to make. Yes, I know, the picture is blurry and the color is off. I will not bore myself taking and processing a new one.

No update this week

Yeah, I got nothin'. Even with a four-day weekend, I didn't do anything. Well, I started one project but didn't get far (making moth hat/hair decorations; it's not working as well as I'd hoped) and I ordered some stuff to finish my goggles. Did you know there's a website called The Buckle Guy? I ordered some buckles and other stuff from the Buckle Guy, since it didn't seem worth it to just order, like, one buckle for my goggles and that was it. I also ordered the new Dragon*Con steampunk lanyard, because I always forget to bring a lanyard and end up having to buy one when I finally get to the dealer's room. The trick will be to not forget to bring my steampunk lanyard.

Oh wait, I did do one thing. It took about thirty seconds, but here's a picture.
 

It's a tiny copper owl charm I found on etsy, which I strung on some copper-ish links and pinned to my hatband. I'm going to try to find some more charms to put with it. Here's another picture of the hat, along with my owl goggles and a cheap pocket watch that I found half-price ($5! and so far the watch hasn't broken!) and bought because there's an owl on it.

So in other words, I have my accessories set. I should have my faux-leather corset any day now too, and the shoes will work as they are if necessary. All I need is the rest of my freaking costume.