Scottish Wench Costume - Skirt and Shirt

I’m in a rush to finish my costume because we're now going to the Renaissance festival several weeks earlier than planned! I’ve completed the skirt and the shirt; I still have to make the shawl and sew the final seams on the bodice/vest. When it’s all done I’ll post a picture of the completed outfit.

Project Name: Scottish Wench Costume - skirt
Time Taken to Finish: 2 days
Pattern: Simplicity 3623
Materials Used:
-brown 100% cotton quilting fabric
-matching thread
-9 inch brown zipper
-1 hook and eye closure
Special Tools Used: Viking Platinum 755Q sewing machine
What I Did: Pretty simple, just followed the pattern. I did have to hem the bottom more than they suggested or else I would’ve ended up walking on it!
What I Liked About the Project: Very quick and not too many pieces. And I finally learned to sew on a zipper correctly!
What I Didn’t Like About the Project: Again, I had problems in fitting the skirt. The first waistband I attached to the skirt was too small and I couldn’t zip it up, but when I made a second waistband in the next size up it was too big and won’t stay at my waist. I gave up and stuck with the second waistband though I may have to cinch it up somehow to keep it in place.

Project Name: Scottish Wench Costume - shirt
Time Taken to Finish: 3 days
Pattern: Simplicity 3623
Materials Used:
-cream 100% cotton sateen fabric
-matching thread
-2 do-it-yourself fabric-covered buttons
-fusible interfacing
-seam tape (itchy stuff!)
Special Tools Used: Viking Platinum 755Q sewing machine, buttonholer attachment, buttonhole knife
What I Did: Exactly what the pattern said, except I left off the lace/ruffles at the collar and sleeves and I again hemmed a bit more on the tail than they suggested.
What I Liked About the Project: Um, it’s not too small?
What I Didn’t Like About the Project: I’m not super happy about this shirt. There is way too much excess fabric, considering I have to tuck most of it inside a vest! I’m annoyed since this shirt was DESIGNED to go under the vest I made. Look at the size of the armholes and sleeves! I think it’s going to end up looking silly when I try to cram it under a vest and everything ends up poofing out the sleeves. But since the fabric to make this shirt cost more than all my other fabric supplies put together, I feel like I have to use it. Plus I really don’t have time to research and sew a new shirt. We’ll see, maybe it won’t end up looking so bad.
Links to the Bodice and the Completed Costume

Scottish Wench Costume - Bodice

I've never been to a Renaissance festival before though I've always wanted to go. Luckily enough, I've I found out that a friend who just moved here would like to go and she already has a costume! I'm always one to take advantage of any opportunity to dress up so I jumped at the opportunity to make another costume. The first piece I've finished is the bodice/vest. In the photo I'm wearing it over my Jack Aubrey shirt but I'm planning on making a new shirt in a cream color. Right now the shoulder and side seams are just basted so that I can make sure the bodice fits over the new shirt before I sew the final seams.

Project Name: Scottish Wench Costume - bodice/vest
Time Taken to Finish: 1 week
Pattern: Simplicity 3623
Materials Used:
-olive 100% cotton quilting fabric (couldn't find any colors or textures that I liked or could afford in the garment fabrics)
-matching thread
-1/4 inch eyelets
-2 inch belt buckles (to attach a tartan shawl to the vest - that's where the Scottish part comes in!)
-brown ribbon or leather (for lacing)
-3/8 inch plastic cable ties (for boning)
-muslin (sewn to lining to hold boning)
Special Tools Used: Viking Platinum 755Q sewing machine, eyelet tool
What I Did: For the most part I followed the pattern directions. Here's where I strayed from it:
-Instead of real boning I substituted 3/8 inch plastic cable ties which can be found at home improvement stores. I found this substitution suggested many places online for people who don't have access to specialty sewing shops.
-The pattern said to sew the side and shoulder seams before putting in the eyelets and lacing but I ended up doing the reverse because there was no way to keep the bodice tight while fitting it without the lacing.
-After fitting the bodice I had to take in more at the shoulder seams than was suggested since they kept falling down, and I had to take in the back seam a bit because it kept gaping.
What I Liked About the Project: Substituting the cable ties for the boning worked out well. I think they're actually stronger than real plastic boning (which seemed flimsy when I finally found it in a store) and it's washable unlike metal boning.
What I Didn't Like About the Project: This is the kind of project that makes one see the necessity of a dressmaker's dummy or at least a competent fitting assistant! It took me two days to get the bodice properly fitted because I had trouble holding it in position and pinning it at the same time. I'm still unsatisfied with the wrinkles in the fabric on the back of the bodice but I'm not sure what's causing them. I also would like to use leather for the lacing instead of ribbon, but the leather I originally used smeared dye onto my Aubrey shirt (thankfully it came out) so I want to find some that will not make a mess.
Links to the Skirt and Shirt and the Completed Costume.

American Idol Fantasy Draft and "Who’s Getting Kicked Off?" Game

I've been watching American Idol off and on since it first aired (the off times usually due to my attempts to save money by dropping my cable). I even got my husband into it by watching the season 5 finale (with Taylor and Katharine) in the hotel during our honeymoon! Since we have quite a few friends who watch Idol too we thought it would be fun to have dinner at someone's house every week and watch it together. We watch on the last day of singing - right now that's Wednesday but soon it will switch to Tuesday. We rotate houses each week and the host provides the main part of the meal and the guests each bring a topping or side dish. For example, when we had pizza the host provided the crust and sauce and everyone else brought their favorite pizza topping.

We wanted to make things a little more exciting, so we decided to play two games. The first was an American Idol fantasy draft. It's sort of like a sports fantasy draft, except the way you win is by drafting the contestant who becomes the American Idol. Since all you do for the draft is wait and see if your contestant wins, we play another game weekly where we get points for correctly guessing who's getting kicked off that week. I set up a website where we could keep track of our results: http://ai-ptc.pbwiki.com/ (in case you're wondering, PTC refers to the place where most of us work). The site also has the game rules and a calendar. I then made a poster that I could take to each of the meetings (I've covered up our names for privacy):

There were eight teams so we each got to pick 3 American Idol contestants. I attached the contestants' pictures with spray adhesive so I could peel them off and put them in the reject column when they got kicked off. My team is Danny, Robbie, and Luke (at the lower right hand corner). I was the last person to pick so I didn't get any of my top choices and I got stuck with Luke since no one else wanted him. Happily, he somehow managed to survive the first cut so maybe he'll do better this week!

If you want to play these games yourself, here are the rules (pulled from our website):

1. The Fantasy Draft

A fantasy draft will be held after the final 24 contestants have been announced. Each person participating will draw a number which will determine the draft order. To make it as fair as possible it will be a snake or serpentine draft. This means the draft order will go like this: Round 1 - 1,2,3,4. Round 2 - 4,3,2,1. Round 3 - 1,2,3,4 etc. Each person will get to draft one AI contestant per round, and no contestant may be used more than once. Once all the contestants have been drafted, the moderator will arrange a chart so that the contestants' progress can be tracked over the course of the season. No trading is allowed. The winner of this competition will be the person who drafted this year's American Idol.

2. "Who's Getting Kicked Off?" Game

In addition to the Fantasy Draft there will be a weekly competition to see who can guess which contestants will be in the bottom group and who will get kicked off. Each week after the performance episode, participants will be asked to give their guess as to who will be in the bottom group and of that group who will be eliminated. The winner of this competition will be the person with the most points at the end of the season. Here's how the guesses will be made and the points awarded:

Top 24-Top 16 weeks: Guess the 2 men and 2 women who will be kicked off each week. Two points for each correct guess, for a possible total of 8 points each week.

Top 12*-Top 6 weeks: Guess the contestants who will be in the bottom 3 and of those three, which one will be kicked off. One point for each correct guess for the bottom 3, two points for correctly guessing who gets kicked off. For a possible total of 5 points each week.

Top 5-Top 4 weeks: Guess the contestants who will be in the bottom 2 and of those two, which one will be kicked off. One point for each correct guess for the bottom 2, two points for correctly guessing who gets kicked off. For a possible total of 4 points each week.

Top 3-Finale weeks: Guess which contestant will be kicked off. Two points for a correct guess, for a possible total of 2 points each week.

*After the final 12 contestants have been announced each participant will be asked to guess who they think will be the American Idol winner. If that guess is correct, they will be awarded 5 additional points.

Note: This schedule is based on the way eliminations have been handled on the show in previous years. If they decide to change something this year, I guess we'll wing it!

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

My husband and love to collect rocks and minerals, so instead of buying flowers and candy for Valentine's Day we spend our money at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show! Here's a couple of things we purchased this year:

Chrysocolla with Druzy Quartz from Chile

A tiny sample of Wulfenite from the Rowley Mine in Arizona

And a couple of things we've purchased at other shows:

Wulfenite with Druzy Quartz from the Finch Mine in Arizona (my favorite wulfenite locality - doesn't it look yummy?)

Some purple Fluorite on Calcite from Illinois

This year we also purchased two fantastic prints from paintings of minerals by artist Fred Wilda. One was of rhodocrosite and the other was wulfenite. We liked them so much that we're thinking of buying one more, maybe a fluorite.

This year our mineral haul was a little disappointing as we had trouble finding specimens that we liked at a reasonable price. The satellite shows at the hotels in Tucson generally had good prices but they all seemed to have the same stuff. The best selection was probably at the Inn Suites hotel. But the biggest disappointment this year was at the main show at the convention center - the prices were RIDICULOUS! I would say that out of the hundreds of booths present there were only 4 or 5 that sold minerals at a reasonable price. For us a reasonable price would be up to $20 for a decent display sample and up to $50 for something super nice. The minimum prices at most of the mineral booths were in the $100s and some had nothing under $1000. I would understand the prices if the minerals were actually spectacular, but we saw many examples of specimens similar in quality and size to ones we had purchased elsewhere for under $20 that were selling there for over $100. Next year we may skip the convention center and spend all our time at the hotels!

Cell Phone Holder with Fleece Applique

I just finished this fleece cell phone holder that I made to match my fleece goldfish bag. Instead of outlining the details in orange as I did on the original bag, I did them in black. Right now I can't decide whether or not that's an improvement! To attach the applique I used the same technique as the elephant pillow I made a while back, except I used a straight stitch on the edges instead of satin stitch.

It's lined with plaid baby blue flannel and has a button and elastic loop for closure. I really like the flannel and I'm thinking about making another holder using the flannel as the background instead of the blue fleece. The problem with using fleece for an entire item is that after it gets used for a while it starts to pill. They do sell expensive no-pill fleece, but it's really meant for clothing and would probably be a waste to use on the things I make. Also, if I make any more of these I'll probably look into dying the elastic to match - I don't much care for plain white.

On the back I attached some strapping so that it could be attached to a belt, and I also sewed in a D-ring with a carabiner so it could be hung from a purse strap or belt loop.

Since t was a pretty quick sew, I'm thinking about trying to make some in different colors with different applique images. I'd also like to make other small items that matched them, like maybe a clutch or coin purse.

Window Seat Cushion

Not a very exciting picture, but it's the only thing I've finished lately! I helped a friend make this window seat cushion for her daughter's room. It's just a long piece of foam padding with a cover (which has an overlapping slit in the center of its underside so that it can be taken off and washed). It took about 3 hours to make and most of that time was spent carefully cutting out the pieces so it would be the right size (we didn't have enough fabric to make mistakes!). Since I always do projects by myself, it was fun getting to work with someone else for a change!

"Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair"

Whew, the past three weeks have been crazy! The first week we spent entertaining one of our former college professors who was in town for work, the next week I flew to Texas to visit my family, and this week we've spent several days helping a college friend move into town so she could start her internship. Thankfully everything seems to have settled down now and I can get to work on my next sewing project (once I figure out what it will be...).

In the meantime, I'd like to recommend a book I stumbled across in my local supermarket. It's called Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After He Split (see it at Amazon). The author is Laurie Perry, aka Crazy Aunt Purl. I was so surprised to see her screen name on the front of a book - I've visited her website a few times to view knitting patterns but I had no idea that she had written a book!

As you can probably tell from the title, the book isn't really about knitting. Instead knitting is a common theme throughout the chapters as Laurie discovers that learning to knit helps her recover from her divorce. Divorce self-help books aren't something I would normally find myself reading (especially considering what kind of message that might send to my husband) but her funny stories and humorous writing style really kept me entertained. She also has 14 "Knitting Recipes" at the back of the book, including the pattern for the first hat I ever knitted (her Easy Roll-Brim Hat). You can view an excerpt from Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair at Amazon by using their Search Inside feature, so give it a look!

Fleece Bag with Goldfish Applique

Here's my first attempt at a full-sized bag (see my Elephant Fleece Applique Pillow post for the technique I used to attach the applique). I started it months ago but my old Singer couldn't handle the multiple thicknesses of fleece and interfacing so I had to quit. I tried again when I got my new Viking and it couldn't handle it either! So I talked my dad into letting me "permanently borrow" his 1936 direct drive Singer. He had been using it to repair flags and the guy he bought it from had used it to sew leather so it seemed like it would be able to handle a few thinknesses of fleece! I finally got around to trying it out this week and I was able to finish the bag, but there were still a few extra-thick areas that I ended up having to sew by hand. Oh well, at least it's done!

Elephant Fleece Applique Pillow

Happy New Year! Here's an applique pillow I made as a Christmas gift for a friend. She's recently joined a sorority (Delta Sigma Theta) and their unofficial symbol is an elephant. Since I'm just learning how to use my new sewing machine this project was probably a little over-ambitious (and I think it shows!). I did all right designing and cutting out the applique shapes but when it came time to sew them down with the satin stitch, things ended up getting a bit messy. Hence the wavy outlines and wobbly letters! Hopefully with more practice I'll get better at the stitching. Here's some close-ups:

Here's how I did the applique:

First I traced my design on to paper-backed transfer webbing. The final shape will be the opposite of what is drawn on the transfer webbing, so the image must be reversed. I forgot to do this while I was taking the photos so that elephant ended up being for practice!

Next I trimmed the transfer webbing, leaving about an inch around the design. I ironed the sticky side of the transfer webbing to the wrong side of the white fleece.

Then I trimmed the fleece to the edge of the transfer webbing. Next I put the design in my sewing machine, paper side up, and sewed along the outline of the design:

This transferred the design to the right side of the fleece:

Next I removed the paper from inside the outline on the back of the applique, leaving the transfer webbing. Then I trimmed as close to the outline as possible (without cutting the thread in the outline). Note: On my first try, I trimmed close to the outline and then removed the paper. This did not work so well since the thread was less secure and tended to rip out when I pulled on the paper. So it's better to remove the paper first, then trim.

I then placed the applique piece on the background, covered it with a damp towel, and ironed it into place.

Last I went over the outline stitch with the satin stitch. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be because of all the tight turns in the elephant. I did two practice elephants before I did the final one and I still made quite a few mistakes!

"Eight Bells" - Montague Dawson

I found this great framed print over the holidays in an antique shop in Fredericksburg, Texas. It's a huge print (the frame is about 30"x40") of the painting "Eight Bells" by the nautical artist Montague Dawson. While I'm always on the lookout for prints or paintings of ships, this is the first time I found one that I liked enough to buy.

Before I purchased it, I wanted to make sure I wasn't getting ripped off by buying something that could be found online for a lot less so we ran back to the hotel and jumped on the computer to look it up. While several online shops had prints of Montague Dawson's more famous works, we found only vague mentions of this particular print in a few places (and they were mostly from people wanting to buy it!). I decided that it was worth it so we ran back to the store, bought it, and somehow managed to bring it safely back to Arizona.

Another interesting thing I found on our trip was in a book I purchased a at used book store in Llano, Texas. It's an Agatha Christie paperback printed in the 1970's. The odd thing is, there are pages of full-color ads scattered throughout the book!

I have two other Christie books from the same publisher and time period and neither of them have ads like this. However, those books originally cost $1.50 and $1.95 while the book with ads was only $0.95. I guess they were experimenting to see if people would go for cheaper books if they contained advertising. Thank goodness that didn't catch on!