Happy New Year!

I didn’t die. I just have been so busy with the holidays and such. I’m working on a costume for Ohayocon at the end of January and will upload pictures of that soon. I’ve put the Kamikirimusi costume aside for now since I really have no due date in mind for it. And I am waiting to hear back from the person I am making the white mage robe for before I can continue with that. Other than that.. yeah.

Only four more days…

I am officially postponing all sewing projects until Christmas.  I will be able to acquire new tools and machinery that will improve my sewing projects greatly and I don’t want to make anything now when I only have to wait a few more days to make it higher quality.  It’ll be hard for me to not touch my sewing machine for a few days, but I’m sure I’ll find something else to do.  Maybe I’ll.. read a book.  Or something.

I hate sleeves

I found the will to rip out all those stitches from the sleeve I sewed in backwards.  I did it correctly the second time.  Then I moved on to the other sleeve.  And somehow, I managed to sew that one in backwards, too.  Like I said before, sleeves are not my thing.  I’ve fixed it, though.  All I have to do now is add the hood to the robe.  Then the applique!

Hoodless white mage robe.

There’s always a snag

I got a late start to my day.. but decided today was the day I was going to get a lot done on the white mage costume I am commissioning.  Well, that set me back even more, seeing as I could not for the life of me find the white and red thread necessary to sew it.  I tore my room apart for an hour or so only to find out my sister had taken it to sew a bow…

I finished the seams on the main part of the robe and put together one of the sleeves.  Then I somehow managed to set the sleeve into the robe inside out and sewed it that way.  It took me about an hour to incorrectly sew it and I don’t have the heart anymore to rip out all those stitches and redo it.  Maybe I’ll find the will to do it tomorrow.

Good news and bad news

So I will get a serger.. just not till Christmas.  My mom agreed to repair the old serger I was given, but I found out the cost to repair it is half the cost of a brand new one.  So she decided it wasn’t worth it and said she’d just buy me a new one.  Yay!  Except now I have to wait.  Which means I’m just gonna continue sewing and finishing seams the old fashioned way.  I spent all day cleaning and hopefully can get to work tomorrow.

Smoking is bad

So I was supposed to get a lot done today, but every time I sat down to work on something I got sent on another errand.  I got the serger last night and spent two hours figuring out how to thread it only to be severely disappointed.  The pedal doesn’t really work.  It goes just fast enough to not be considered stationary.  After I had the pedal pushed down at full speed for five minutes it sewed about one centimeter and smoke actually started coming out of the machine.  Yes, smoke.

I don’t know what I’m going to do with it.  It might just need oiled.  It is over thirty years old and hasn’t been touched for at least fifteen.  But maybe it’s just broken.  I’m gonna try to take it to a repair shop.  If I can’t get it fixed right away I’ll probably ditch the plan to use it and move on.  I hope that doesn’t happen, though.  

I did buy the fabric for the obi of Kamikirimusi’s costume.  I would work on that, but I was in a rush buying it between my errands and forgot to buy fusible heavy interfacing.  And I need that to make it.  *sigh*

My first accomplishment of winter break

Since my last update I actually finished the top to my Kamikirimusi costume.

I hate sleeves.

Yes, a little ridiculous.  I’m still not very good when it comes to setting in sleeves and this is the only way I can do it without messing it up.  It works.

My arm got really tired.

My assistant/little sister pinned the hanging part of the sleeve for me.  I kinda free-handed it when cutting so it was really uneven and I wanted to make sure it was pinned to hang correctly when my arm is up.

My lovely assistant and I

She wanted credit when she was finished.  I think this will do.

Before I added the other sleeve and finished all the hems.

I had to put a make-shift bandage on my elbow.  I guess I slowly steam burned it while ironing..?  It hurt.

Tada!

So I added the other sleeve and finished all the hems!  I’m done with the top except for the distressing and painting.  I left the right sleeve as is because I haven’t figured how I want to cut it yet.

So no word on the serger yet.  I should have it tomorrow.. but if not, I’m just gonna go ahead with the commission.  I’m tired of waiting.

First post!

Well this is my new cosplay blog.  I seem to be lacking the motivation and enthusiasm to do any of my sewing projects so I hope keeping a blog might help me.  I enjoy writing this, but I need to do things to justify updating this.  

I just began working on my Kamikirimusi costume.  

Kamikirimusi

I bought the fabric today and cut it using the same pattern I worked with to make my Rikku festival goer costume (which is still in progress).  I’m modifying one of the sleeves and couldn’t figure out how to do it so now it’s laying on the floor with a bunch of needles in it.

Argg

I’m also working on a commission.  I’m making a male white mage robe from Final Fantasy.  

White Mages

I also bought and cut the fabric for this project.  I even sewed the main part of the robe together.  But the snag is, I might be able to get my hands on a serger machine soon.  I don’t want to continue until I get the serger so I can try it out, but I don’t want to waste too much time waiting.  I don’t even know if I’ll be able to figure out how to properly use the machine.

 So I’m still debating if I should wait or continue with french seams on the robe.  I already made the applique triangles for the base of the robe and am excited to add those.  

Left: Front of triangle, Right: Back of triangle

I’ve never done applique before and I’m proud that they turned out so well for my first try.   

Edit: Pictures added!