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:

How to Make a Practice Drum Pad

I'm learning how to play drums, after a couple of decades wishing I knew how. It was only a day or two before I realized I needed a drum pad to use for practice, since I don't always want to sit at my kit, and whacking a pillow or book just doesn't do it for me. So I made one.

It was supposed to be a lot more steampunky than this, and it was also supposed to be decorated with a skull-and-crossbones, not a gay pirate skull, but anyway, this is how I did it.

First of all, I lucked out because I already had a piece of plywood that was almost the right shape already. I only had to saw one side. I bought two thin mousepads at Walmart ($3 each--I'd have gotten one thick mousepad but they didn't carry any) but before I glued them on I decided I wanted to trim the corners of the wood. That only took a few minutes, and I sanded the edges down with part of a cinder block I'd found while doing yardwork. Hey, you use what you have.

I glued the first mousepad face-down onto the wood, using my favorite glue, Gem-Tac. I got frustrated, though, because the nozzle kept plugging up and the glue was starting to dry while I was trying to clear it, and finally I just cut the end off. That was sort of a mistake since now the glue just pours out. But it did the trick.

Next I glued the second mousepad, the blue one, face-up on top of the first mousepad, the black one. If you're confused as to why the finished picture above shows a black mousepad on top, it's because after the glue dried overnight, the pad looked like this:

I'd gotten glue all over it, and it looked awful. Also I didn't like the blue. So I went back to the store and bought another mousepad, another black one.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. When I set the drum pad on the counter to try it out (and my counters are green, not yellow, but that's an awful picture--just wanted to make that clear, it's important), I discovered that the wood was a bit warped. The pad rocked on two of its corners.

(See? Green.) Fortunately, I have a bunch of little foam dots that came with the new cabinet hardware I installed in January. I thought I might be able to use them as shims, and they would help keep my new drum pad from scratching up tables or whatever as I used it. I put a dot in each corner and one in the middle, and to shim the wobbly corners I added a second dot on top of the first on the problem corners. I wasn't sure it would work, but it did the trick exactly. But I recommend you check first to make sure your piece of wood isn't warped.

After I did that, I tried a few paradiddles to see how I liked the drum pad. It worked fine but I thought it could use a bit more padding, which is why I ultimately went back and bought a third mousepad. I glued it on very carefully, using much less glue and making sure not to get any glue on the top.

The glue's still drying, but I went ahead and drew the skull on it (with silver Sharpie) so I could take pictures. I'm not the best artist ever and not only does my skull resemble a troll skull or something, with that huge jawbone, but I also managed to get it off-center. Since I need to practice hitting right in the middle of the drum, I added the blingy star thing, whatever you want to call it. And when I tried to add a pirate hat, it turned into a lady's Easter hat with a feather. Whatever. My dead troll is fabulous!

I wasn't going to include this picture, since it's just glue, but I like the pattern: