I decided that I’m going to bring the Bride to walmart tomorrow, since I’ll have the car anyway and because I want to see her face when she gets it. This way, I can bring it down to show it to Nanny first, then bring it up to Walmart. At that point I’ll head to the fabric store to check out some kimono-type fabric. I’ve got an idea brewing in my head already, and hopefully it turns out ok. I’ve also found a pattern for the kimono and bookmarked that site, and bought the wool socks. Plus, the sock-seller said she’d be happy to supply me with bundles of green and white socks if I get swamped with orders for more stepdancers, which is awesome.
Today I’m doing some dishes and changing the sheets on the bed. I can’t do the dishes until after 9:30am, as I’m waiting for a local freecycler to come and pick up the Rubbermaid closet we’ve got in the kitchen blocking the dishwasher and the fridge. I don’t know how he’s going to fit it into his PT Cruiser, but I do know that we managed to fit about 7 people in one once while I worked at Colibri, and they’re deceptively large inside. If it doesn’t fit, I’m sure we can get it popped apart a bit in the driveway.
Speaking of freecycle, why don’t people understand that when I say something has been promised (and that I’ll repost if it’s not picked up for whatever reason), that they can’t have the item? My god, people, you’re swamping me with emails for a $15 pop-up closet that has been promised for 12 hours and is due to be picked up in 10 minutes, emailing me isn’t going to change that.
Tonight? Survivor, and then the premier of CSI. I’m also taping the premier of ER, since CSI is a 2-hour and I don’t want to miss ER. And since I haven’t mastered the art of taping one channel and watching another, we’ll be watching CSI in the bedroom. This just shows that we need to get a Tivo or something like that.
Woot! Law & Order premier in 10 minutes! Must finish post before then!
The bride is finished. Eddie brought home a packet of beading needles and I put the beads on the neckline, in the flowers around the veil, and even managed to whip up a tiny pair of “pearl” earrings. I don’t want to give her up, I’m just that pleased with the way she turned out. Eddie brought in a swatch of the gown’s fabric today to show the woman who commissioned it and she loved it, so hopefully she’ll be pleased with how it all turned out. I really wish I could be there to see her face when he brings it in.
Her daughter is the one who got the stepdancer and is supposedly bringing that monkey into dance class this week, which means the possibility of several more stepdancer monkeys to be made. I emailed the woman I buy my socks from to ask if there’s any way that I can get bundle packs of just green and white socks. Hopefully I can find out by Friday.
I’d barely finished the bride when I’d received another commission, this one for a geisha, which should be a lot of fun to make. Friday I’m taking the car because I need to get my birth control filled and get a haircut, so I’ll hit the fabric store and check out some kimono fabrics.
Tomorrow I’m going to make a purse. I’m thinking pink with butterflies. Pictures to come, of course.
Last night we went to Walmart for trim and assorted stuff. We headed out there in the middle of rush hour, just after 5pm, but amazingly didn’t hit any nasty pockets of traffic along the way. Eddie took off in the store to pick up some bug spray since we seem to have some crack in the house that’s allowing our nice clean house to be infested with flies, and I headed off to the fabric and craft area to find myself some trim. I picked up a spool of it, but couldn’t figure out if it was the same color as what I had already used. When I decided that it was the same as what I thought that I had, Eddie handed me another spool that had a color that I was even more certain was what I needed, but I still couldn’t figure out which I needed. So I ended up buying 2 yards of each, which were carefully measured out as though there is some satin cord shortage in the world and gods forbid that I get an extra inch of it.
I also picked up a few glass beads to trim the neckline of the gown, as I made a tiny bad cut that I’d like to cover up, and Eddie found me some sewing machine oil that I was desperately needed. What I should have picked up was a seam ripper, since I sewed a sleeve onto the bodice inside out and had to take it off with a steak knife, as I couldn’t find my x-acto knife and Eddie’s box cutter wasn’t pointy enough, and a smaller needle because my one needle is too big to sew the beads onto the gown.
However, on a positive note, the gown is finished, with the exception of the beading that will only take a couple of minutes. I decided against trimming the waistline of the bodice, as I felt it would ruin the flow of the dress. Her ears are on, her eyes are open, and I’ll do the mouth and veil at lunchtime. I’d love to be able to have it finished tonight, since Eddie can bring it to work tomorrow so that my mother can bring it down to show my grandmother before it gets handed over to its new owner. As Eddie told the woman who’s buying it, she’s getting a helluva deal for $25, and it makes the stepdancer look as though it was made by a retard.
The monkey’s dress is nearly done, and is coming out much better than I imagined it would. The only thing left is to make the sleeves and sew those on, and sew on the loops for the corset back of the bodice. I haven’t decided if I’m going to trim the lower hem of the bodice in addition to the sleeves yet. I also took a nearly full shot of the dress, and another picture of the detail of the gown and peticoat hems.
I scoured Ebay long and hard and managed to find some Celtic knot and cross brocade for the latest monkey. The pattern is a bit big for the bodice, but since I’m making the skirt longer than I normally do, it will stand out a bit more. Because of the color of the monkey I didn’t want to get anything bright white, since it will make the monkey look bright yellow (it’s a pale yellow unbleached wool), the fabric I got is an ivory/pale gold. The fabric that I bought originally is just way too thin, but I’ve gotten some good use out of it by making practice patterns with it. I’m kinda-sorta basing it off of this design, in a simplified, monkey-sized version, of course.
Eddie just sent me a text message. The apartment we were discussing is not $200 cheaper, it’s actually $150 more expensive than what we’re in right now. That sucks. We’d be no better off there than we are here.
