Happy Mother's Day

Space Jammies

We've had a bit of a cool snap again, so it's good that I finished up FuzzyHusband's new flannel pjs!

There was a bit of an issue with shrinkage when I pre-washed the flannel. The space fabric wasn't wide enough for the the pant pattern. The solution: tuxedo stripes!

He's quite fond of them and is looking forward to wearing them when it's cooler again in the late fall. I need to get back to some more sewing and a few boring chores before rehearsal tonight. See you next weekend!

Sickness

Pixel Pea here letting you know Mom has a flu thing. I'm napping with her to keep her in a warm place.

She should be better soon.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Victor and the rest of our family!

Strawberry Girl

I finished my dress, except for the hem on Wednesday. 

Thursday I hemmed it by hand and got it washed and hung to dry.

FuzzyHusband and I both forgot to get a photo of the entire thing at the show. But I did remember a selfie on Saturday night. I wore my hair down, but I did it all by myself, which is a new thing for me. I've never been one for spending time in front of a mirror.

For today's matinee show, one of the other gals styled it for me. Not sure which I like more, but I feel pretty with both.

The only issue with this dress was rubbing from sequins on my upper arms where the strawberries were right next to the armholes. I will spare you the photo and say that it's a good thing I learned my own saliva will break down my own bloodstains back when I was learning to embroider. Ouch.

I did remove the sequins that were obvious problems. It should be better the next time I wear it.

My next project is sitting here on the table. Probably time to get it started.

Especially since it snowed again today.

Fresh Start

So much fabric!

When you forget your pins, poetry makes for good pattern weights.

This cat is obsessed with strawberries!

Back to work I go!

Finishing Touches

I'm waiting on better photos of this jacket from its owner. I"m actually hoping for some from the show itself. We'll see. It was extremely dark when I took this one and even used a filter to try and brighten it. Silly me for forgetting to take a new one in day light.

We added a satin hat at the last minute, with veil and other decorations.

I also ended up crocheting a snood to help contain the long wig hair. I covered the barrette with leftover satin tube from decorating the hat.

Now I get to see about altering a dress for myself for the April show. Fingers crossed the pattern isn't terribly irritating to enlarge in the bust area.

See you next weekend!

Whoops!

It's still Sunday if I haven't slept yet, right? Probably not.

Anyway, I'm done with all of the sewing I needed to do for to upcoming burlesque show.

Sadly my sewing machine is broken. It died on Saturday and I'm less than thrilled. I brought the old machine out of retirement and had a heck of a time getting the simplest things done in a timely fashion. I don't think I'll get much sewing for myself done now.

To add to the frustration, I don't have any really good pictures of what I was working on, so yoully have to make do with these until I get better ones.

I don't have puctupic of the skirt, the tearaway pants, or the bra I modified. The vest thing got red added to it. The jacket in the too dark photos it what I've been working on for a while. Better pics will happen soon. The jacket and skirt are on stage this Friday.

I need to get some sleep so I can take my sewing machine in for repairs.

Progress

I've got two piles. Outside of the jacket and the lining.

I'll be fusing the interfacing in place and marking the black pieces next. I'm looking forward to being done.

See you next weekend!

Straws

I reached the last one with the leather nonsense that was supposed to be FuzzyHusband's part of the project. It just wasn't turning out the way it needed to look. This is what's left of one section after I cannibalized it for parts. Patent leather doesn't like to be made into piping. And it certainly doesn't like to be stretched around tight curves. And no fabric that I could find looked good as a piping option.

It's on himself now and we figured out what direction he needed to take.

I've reclaimed the dining room table to do pattern layout and will be getting back to the fabric portion of things in the morning. I hope to have things done by mid week. Tonight is for Netflix, junk food, and kitty snuggles.

Sewing Leather

I've been stuck learning to sew with leather on the fly for several weeks. When FuzzyHusband and I agreed to take this project on, the original plan was for the items to be made in vegetable tanned leather. However our client had other ideas and thus it became my problem. I really do need to teach Himself how to sew so next time I'm not doing the lion's share of the work.

Said commission consists of many leather straps, some hardware, and three larger chunks of leather. It's rather mature in nature, so I shan't be showing the final product here. Let's just say it's for a burlesque show in an extremely specialized venue and leave it at that.

What I can show are pictures of the unassembled straps that are waiting for me to finish the larger chunks.

The lighter leather is chromium tanned. Quite lovely and soft. Someday I'll make myself a gorgeous purse out of scraps in different colors. The darker gray is patent leather. Patent leather has become a pain in my backside and Himself owes me big time for having to pull off the miracles I'm making with it.

I shall be spending the rest of my Sunday trying to finish those chunks so I can wash my hands of the mess and get back to finishing the fabric portions of the project. I don't mind learning by trial and error, but when I'm working with expensive material that someone else has paid for and have a timeline, I'm less fine with it. Once I'm done with the fabric portion, FH and I will start his sewing lessons.

I shall leave you with adorable distractions. They're so much fun to watch together. Victor adores Ellie. Ellie is intrigued by Victor, but beyond that she's still figuring things out.

Status Quo

Pixel's eye is back to normal. She was a sweetheart at her recheck appointment too.

Ellie Bean and I are currently watching the wind whip through the trees in the back yard. There are occasional moving bits of "white" in the air but I'm not sure if it's trying to be snow or if some plant debris is being carried in the breeze.

I don't think she approves of whatever those white bits are.

FuzzyHusband and I need to get back to sewing on some costuming for the dance troupe.  See you next weekend!

Something's In the Air

Not sure what it is, but it made last week weird.

 Pixel and Artie were helping me with costume things, which is totally in character.

There was a pattern sale at Joann's so I got to stock up on patterns for burlesque clothes.

And then all the weirdness hit for Valentine's Day.

On our way to dinner we witnessed a hit and run, so we got to deal with police. Thankfully no one in the car that was hit was injured. No clue about the other driver who sped off.

After dinner we got home to a very weepy-eyed kitty. One trip to the emergency vet later and we find there's a shallow, wide injury to Pixel's left eye. No clue how it got there are she was perfectly fine when we left the house that morning.

She's not a fan of the eye drops, but she tolerates them better that the pain relief ointment.... which we stopped using because all it seemed to be doing was making her foam at the mouth from the foul taste getting there via tear ducts.

Continued weirdness is her left pupil remains dilated even though it's been a few days since we last gave her the pain ointment. She's got a follow up with our regular vet on Thursday, but I'm going to call and ask them about the pupil tomorrow.

I need to get back to work. I've got lots of sewing and laundry to catch up on. See you next weekend!

Whoops! Almost Forgot!

It's been a crazy week. I thought I'd be sewing non stop, but life had other plans. A dear friend of mine started having seizures out of nowhere and I spent quite a bit of time babysitting her. The doctors don't know what is causing them because all the tests came back normal. So FuzzyHusband and I will be helping her family out from time to time...for a while.

I'm going to leave you with some photos and collapse.

We Survived!

The polar vortex has come and gone. FuzzyHusband, myself, and the critters hunkered down under bunches of blankets and didn't emerge from Tuesday afternoon until Thursday morning.

We probably should have informed Artan that pattern pieces are not blankies, but it's doubtful he'd have listened anyway. We also learned how many layers of garment leather my sewing machine will go through.

Thursday night I ended up with a fantastic chance to see a rescheduled concert featuring one of my favorite bands ever! I loved how the colored lights matched the colors for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's colors. Disturbed is very vocal in their support of people with both addiction problems and mental illnesses. It was gratifying to have a bunch of rock stars validating so many people who struggle every day.

Last night Whiskey City Burlesque hosted a fundraiser in the form of a Cards Against Humanity tournament. This quarter we chose our local crisis nursery as the beneficiary for our charity. We raised a lot of money and had a packed house. Many people brought physical donations as well. This was the most successful fundraiser yet! 

There were short performances in between rounds of the game. I managed to get a few pictures, but I was running around helping wherever I was needed.

I need to get back to sewing and trying to get some cleaning done before rehearsal tonight. We're gearing up for our next actual performance in April. See you next weekend!