Mind The Gap

Album with pictures.  Everything is now pretty much done except for Russ’ costume.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hmfullen/DragonCon08/

All that is left is to add the hardware to let me pull up the train so it doesn’t drag, which will be needed for the reception.

Still plenty more to go on other bits of the outfit, but now it’s time to change focus to the Dragon*Con costumes.  This skirt took longer than I had anticipated, and a lot of other stuff came up in between, so now I’m on a bit of a short timeline.  Eeek!

Updated shot of the skirt:

The fabric roses I made for decorating the bustle area:

Also, I’m pleased to announce that the Hippodrome has now officially been reserved.

Needed to take a break from wedding sewing and decided to use the time to make this cute little guy.

I was going for kind of a folk art look, so everything is hand stitched with the stitches visible (and they definitely aren’t perfect but that really wasn’t on purposed).

In keeping with the Victorian (and ever so slightly steampunk) theme of the wedding, I’ve been working on custom accessories for my costume, and a couple of things for the ring bearer and the maid of honor.

Starting off with what I feel to be the least impressive of the bunch, my shoes:

These are a pair of Victorian style boots from an online costume shop.  I then purchased bridal appliqués from the fabric store, sewed them on, and then replaced the shoe laces with ribbon to coordinate with the chosen colors.

Now, the hats!

I ordered small felt top hats from a doll shop and decorated them (with supplies easily found in craft/fabric stores).

The maid of honor’s hat:

This one has a couple of small loops of ribbon on the inside for hairpins or clips to attach to.

The ring bearer’s hat: 

And guess who the ring bearer is!

The bride’s hat:

(That’s not the hair I’ll be wearing, it just happened to be handy for the photo.)

To see the full set of pictures (including close ups of my hat, and more pictures of the dog in hers), go here.

One of our projects around the house is creating a drink cooler out of an old broken washing mashing, and decking it out to look like a victorian styled time machine.

One of the major hurdles of the project is removing the agitator shaft from the washing tub.  (Taking off the cover is easy, but the metal shaft itself is another story.)

We finally managed to get it cut out, and here are some artistic photos of the damage.

Since then I’ve sealed up and padded the remaining stub using kitchen/bath caulk, and have primed and painted most of the case, and the control panel.

Next steps are:

1. Drill hole (so I can paint the last panel)
2. Install drain tube and faucet (using aforementioned hole)
3. Paint control panel components
4. Reinstall control panel
5. Add wood trim
6. Install brass handle
7. Paint textured panel  on lid
8. Paint and attach sign panel on front
9. Install thermometer and hygrometer inside lid
10. Paint inside of  lid with instructions for use

For your browsing pleasure, here are some photos of some dread extensions that I made and installed.

The whole set together:

A close up of the leopard printed dreads, and the solid black ones:

The leopard printed dreads are made by just making blond dreads (the hair I used was a medium blond and white blond mixed together) and then painting the leopard spots on them with acrylic craft paint. Painting on hair was a new experience, but I think it worked out okay.

Close up of the highlight transitionals:

These are black hair transitioning to a blend of chocolate brown and the blond mix (blended just a bit, so that there are still streaks of color, rather than the solid/consistent color created by blending very thoroughly).

Black to brown transitions:

These are black transitioned to the dark brown color.

Highlights:

These are black, brown and blond, blended together just a bit so that there are still big streaks of the colors visible.

Black/brown blends:

Black and brown blended together, blended a bit more so the color is a little more subtle.

Colors Used:

• Black: 1B
• Brown: 33
• Blond: 27/613 (bought pre-blended)

Other notes:

There are 20 double-ended dreads total for this install (I have an undercut so I only install dreads in the longer hair at the top).  The two leopard print dreads are just rubber banded on to the braided in dreads, so that they are easy to remove and replace with other accent colors without having to undo any of the braids.

Photos of the install:

I got a new phone.

I’ve finished phase1 of the skirt for the wedding ensemble (a very full, circle-style mid-calf length  skirt with 6 panels of fabric, alternating between white and pale blue), and have yet to begin phase2 (an over skirt made from triangles of alternating blue and white, with the long point of the triangle pulled up and secured to the waistband to make a neat swag effect).

The overall look will be sort of a bizarre steam punk snow princess type of thing (Ryan will have a top hat, I’ll have you know).  I think it’ll be great fun and the photos should be worthwhile.

From there I still need to order some white victorian style boots, have an appropriate white leather corset made, and sew up the blouse (don’t feel like scanning the sketch now, but maybe later).

I also need to buy/build a white mini top hat and affix appropriate veil and decorations, and that’ll have my outfit pretty much done.  Will still need to work out Ryan’s, and do all the other logistical things.

Bleh.  Too busy.

Today was a glorious vacation day.  It started out eventfully, as I stopped lazing around at 10-ish, and checked my calendar, expecting to see very little, as I don’t take days off on days when there are important meetings going on.  To my surprise, I saw 2 meetings that looked important, and panicked.  (What if it wasn’t today, but actually next Monday, that I had scheduled to be off, and now I’m running late?!?!)

I loaded up the department’s leave calendar, hoping to quickly resolve this pressing question.  Foiled!  It isn’t working for some reason.  So, next rational step, call my boss, maybe he marked it on his calendar.  No dice, and he was in a meeting so it wasn’t like he could just ask the executive assistant that maintains the calendar.   (I always feel guilty when folks answer my calls while they are in a meeting, and my call wasn’t really all that important.)

Plan B, dial the main office, get the receptionist to forward me to the exec assistant.  Dammit, voicemail, and if I’m supposed to be at work today I’ll be noticeably late if I don’t leave in the next 15 minutes.   Back to the main office number, get the receptionist to forward me to the exec assistant’s boss, the department administrator fellow.  I explain that I know I had requested a Monday off, but I had picked a Monday with very few meetings, and when I checked the calendar I have several today, so I’m concerned I got my dates crossed and today is not actually my day off.  He informs me the exec assistant is on vacation, but is able to confirm that today is in fact my day off.  He notes that it’s a sad situation that I schedule my time off around meetings.  Hardy har har.

By the time I hang up the phone, text my boss, and shuffle back over to my email, the main meeting I was concerned about has already been updated to another day, so that’s handy.  I then move the other meeting (which I myself scheduled on Friday while I had forgotten I was going to take a much needed day off), and can resume my day off lounging.  The minor panic (and disappointment at possibly having to rush into the office, and then work late to make up for coming in late) left me with some excess adrenaline, so rather than returning to bed to nap, I worked on some projects.

So far I am at step 5 of a skirt project based on this tutorial: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Full-Belly-Dance-Skirt – I adapted the plan to make a 6 panel skirt with panels of alternating white and very pale blue.  If this works, it will be a portion of my bridal ensemble for the wedding.  Since the wedding date is set for New Year’s Eve, I’m planning to do my getup in white, pale blue, and maybe some pearl or silver tones, and decorate using those same colors, adding in evergreen foliage, a dusting of fake snow, and probably a few fake birds into the arrangements here and there.  I’m hoping to begin purchasing cheap Christmas decorating supplies starting in October, which I’ll break down to make the wedding decorations from.  Then I can send them home with guests to use for Christmas decorations in following years, and I won’t have to see them again!

After getting the sewing done and the skirt hanging, I surfed the web for a while, gave the dog a bath, and finally began wefting some awesome bright yellow hair using this tutorial: http://katiebair.com/wigtutorial_makingwefts.html and am about to run to the store while I wait for it to dry.  I feel very productive.

I needed a chair for the corner of my office. I’m also kind of a cheapskate, and I like any excuse for a weird craft project.

$6.00 chair from goodwill. Stained and ratty.

Picked up $12.00 worth of upholstery dye from the auto store.

Recovered the torn up seat cushion with some flannel fabric that has old school sailing ships on it.

Also made some little covers for the (worn and stained) arms of the chair, and stapled on a bit of trim to cover up the poorly finished front of the chair.

**Update**

K, I decided I couldn’t deal with the ruffle trim. So, I yanked it off, pulled out the staples, and then tried to clean up the way the lower front is finished as much as I could (this consisted mainly of spraying on a bit more upholstery dye and stapling the liner up more tightly).

I also didn’t like the way the rust colored pillow I had looked with it, so I stole all its stuffing and used some leftover fabric to make this pillow. The brown is canvas left over from making some gun holsters for last year’s halloween costume.