Work In Progress: Reproduction Victorian Maiden Regimental Stripe Skirt

Well, that was certainly a mouthful.

Hi everyone. Here's a quick update of the first skirt among Clair's commissions. It will be short because... erm... I really don't know what to say at the moment. ^_^"

The first phase: the main skirt.

Petticoat Lace

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 Jonette 2 Comments

I added some lace to the hem of the petticoat last night. Does it look any different? You tell me.



Just a nice white button and a button loop, plus the back sewn up halfway, and I think we're good. :)

Ureshii: 9

Monday, July 13, 2009 Jonette 3 Comments

嬉しい (ureshii):

To be glad, happy, delighted, joyful, overjoyed, cheerful, pleased, contented, grateful, elated, jubilant, exultant, ecstatic, euphoric, enraptured thrilled (to bits), over the moon... you get the picture. ;)

Yay! Ureshii is back, and sprightly and joyous! (Sprightly and joyous on a Monday... must be something in the water? haha!) a good weekend can do that to you.

• Lost kitty, found! In the middle of the week, I found a lost little kitten in street and took her in. The poor thing refused to eat for five whole days, but got by with cuddles. (aaaw. ♥) we next took her to the vet, and we discovered she preferred prescription food. Wow.
  
  
  the kitteh in question.
  
  She now enjoys more cuddles from James and me, long naps on flannel and thigh, and being a kitten-hat on occasion, like so:
  
  
  ** Update: we've named her Tweed, by the way.
  
  

• Finally starting on Clair's second scarf. I think the most difficult part of knitting something is deciding what pattern to best use, specially when you already have yarn waiting to be used. Clair first wanted a pink scarf, but later on, I had to put my foot down and decide. The pink stuff I ended up buying for her was not going to work, and I opted to use one of my prettiest yarns for her second scarf.
  
  And it sparkles so nicely in the light.
  
  
  
  So, from this huge pupal skein, this is what the scarf has grown into so far:
  
  I'm really happy to say she's growing quite beautifully. All my thanks go to Miss Spillyjane's Midori pattern. Loverly!

• Monday lunch with James' mom and sis. Home-cooked meals and great company beat fast food anyday. (and all because I forgot my phone at his place last night!) rice, bean sprout rolls, pork roast, last night's fried chicken, some breakfast sausage, hot beef-and-mushroom soup. Tell me this is not heaven.

• Compliments from kids. Cay, great co-trainer and cool mom, brought her two kids to the office to have their eyes checked and get their flu vaccine shots. (oh, and that too: eye check-ups and vaccine shots, on the house, courtesy of the office. Yay!) Her eldest son look like the smart, witty lad she'd told us about, and her daughter was such a cutie! I went up to say hi, and was pleasantly surprised to hear from the little princess "Hi, I think your hair's pretty!" I beamed, and replied, "thanks! I think your hair's pretty too." ^_^
  
  Compliments from a kid. how cool is that? :D

• Zoo Tycoon. Zoo Tycoon Dino Digs and Marine Mania. Ohmigodohmigodohmigod it's Zoo Tycoon! Yes, it's old, yes it's nerdy, and I do so luv luv luv it! I've always had this love for creating zoos to keep the animals happy and cared for, even if they're virtual. (Hey, it's the only place I can feel like a million bucks -- or 50 million for that manner. Haha! shift+4, you are so hot.) James loves the expeansions for letting him reconstruct Jurassic Park -- and make it work. Muhahahaha! (but damn, those dinos are so expensive maintenance-wise!) Oh, and you can have mermaids in your Marine Park. ;)

• Overlord 2. (or at least, watching James play it while I gape and squawk in excitement, and maybe wince a bit.) Our favorite silent big bad boy is back for more mayhem, giddily insane (and adorable loyal, mind you) demon minions, and hot, moxious tower mistresses. The humor is dark and wicked funny, and the storyline and verbal exchange will make you want to think twice about reading your kids old musty, conventional bedtime stories. The writer and co-designer of the game is to blame. The gods bless Rhianna Pratchett's dear heart, she makes her father proud.

• Speaking of which... Mr. Terry Pratchett, allow us to shed a tear as we snap a salute to you. you teach us how it is to die well, with the cojones to go with it.

• Make your own Ceiling Cat!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I love how the director used influences from Matisse and other surrealist painters.
  
  
  Dance! Dance, I say!
  
  
  I love how honest and opinionated and bashful she is in this interview.
  
  Ok, your turn. What made you smile today? :)
  

You can never have too much Happy.

Friday, July 03, 2009 Jonette 0 Comments

I'll just be quiet here, and let all the pictures and the videos do the talking.

The First-time Petticoat...

Thursday, July 02, 2009 Jonette 2 Comments

or Ye Gods, I Think I've Created a Monster.



and that thing's not even fluffed up to maximum fullness.

This petticoat's the first of a few skirt commissions Clair commissioned me to make for her. Since they were all lolita skirts, I wanted to make the petticoat first to see how well the skirts would sit on it, to see the overall form.


It started from this:



and I later decided it would need a bit more fluff to achieve the cup-cake chape lolitas love. So, I resorted to tulle.

Lots and lots of tulle.

here are some pictures I took through the process:



This pile is made of 6 yards of tulle, about two small spools of thread, and three hours of work. These pieces are of two sizes: a pair 18-inch wide, and another pair 9-inch wide. The plan was to sew the narrower bit halfway down the bigger piece for added fluff under the skirt. It's nice working with stiff tulle: it follows your fold easily length-wise, but just have patience when you need to sew it cross-wise, where the stitching goes perpendicular to the direction of the netting.

Sewing tulle is easy; time-consuming, true, but easy.

I still had work the following day. by 6am, I hit the sack.






11:00am.

I have a bubble-bath on my table!

Here is my table with half the 9-inch ruffles sewn on. I love how the folding table looks so dainty and romantic. :) Ooh, frou-frou!




This is 5-foot-4-inch me me, standing on a 2-foot high chair, holding all three pieces together. (that's two layers of tulle, ruffles attached, and a layer of outerskirt.) I recall noting the whole thing put together was 82 inches long. Therefore, end to end, 82 inches x 3 = 246 inches, which means 20.5 feet, which means 6.84 feet. I think.

I was never really good at math. That could mean my doom. Anyway!



On solid ground again, pinning the whole dem thing together. A few minutes after, I folded it up and put it away, because good god, I've just given myself 30 minutes to take a bath and get ready for work. Sewing in the Philippines in the rainy season makes you very sweaty.

The following (few) days involve a lot of sewing, thread-foraging, smoothing out, and cursing.

Lessons learned: do not sew when your eyes are beginning to droop, and the yawns are coming more often than you'd like, and when coffee no longer helps.

Always align your pieces well if you do not want to sew over places you do not intend to sew and discover just how inventive you can be with expletives. Curse construction is an undiscovered and much often underestimated talent that eventually is honed over time and the number of projects. Trust me.

Sewing on "superfine stitches" setting may either be your saving grace or may seal your doom. Trust me. You have been warned. (I still sew anyway on this setting, but I make sure I have the patience to back it up when something goes awry. I say when, not if. )

Which brings us back to point One: Do Not sew when sleepy.

We interrupt this to give you a nice boat.



Another long strip of cotton was cut out and sewn onto the top of the whole ensemble to make a casing. Remember all those 82 inches? We will attempt to fit all those onto a 40-inch bit of garter.

And it worked.



After all that, it's still a work in progress: the back still needs to be sewn up, and I think I'd have to sew on another waistband onto the whole thing, one that will lie nice and flat against my client's waist. Oh, and I'll need to use a thicker, stronger garter, one that'll really hold the petticoat up on the wearer, because all that tulle, and cloth is positively heavy. At least, to me. but I do dare say it holds up such a lovely shape.

By god, I do believe I've created a monster.

At present, the "waistband" is all scrunched up and curly -- reminds me of brains.



I have this slowly-sinking feeling that I may have to hand-baste a smaller waistband onto the now-gathered petticoat skirt. But then, wouldn't a fixed waistband defeat the purpose of a stretchable waistline? Or am I simply confusing myself? Hmmm.





It is huge. Seriously.

As of right now, some unseen force compels me to move around the thing for fear of being eaten alive. It's watching me. It's watching me, I tells you.

More petticoat porn:

















The eroge shot. (What? Oh you know, where the girls are usually taken pictures of in a slanted view to take in all of their curves and cuteness -- and the scenery. Yes, the scenery, the background! Yes, yes.

Why do I know this? And what's eroge? Er... um....

oh look, a kitty!



One pleasant surprise for me was how this petticoat is so unexpectedly versatile. Observe:














So there.

Any suggestions, helpful hints, and comments? I'd be delighted to hear them. Specially with the waist-band, please. I'd appreciate it a lot.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Psst! An Update! 


The petticoat's waistband transformed, you know. It went from brains.... to something tighter. Enjoy!