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This year was disrupted by an unexpected job change and relocation back to the area that I grew up in. Up until June I was working on needlework as usual, and I started a cross-stitched picture in July, but it didn’t move very quickly as we got the house ready to sell, moved to DFW, and started dealing with all the issues that you’re bound to find moving into a new house. I didn’t end up making my new favorite thing this year, but I enjoyed most of what I made.

It was still a sparse year for events. There was an outing in Phoenix, a whirlwind trip to San Jose, and Costume College. I had intended to go to two DFWCG events, but I had a houseguest for the Georgian picnic and the Christmas event was canceled due to rain. Here’s hoping next year I can start attending their events.

This year’s projects behind the cut )

One of my goals for this year was to work from my stash. I was very successful. I bought the buckram and flannel for my 17th century petticoat, the marine vinyl for my husband’s welder cover, the “Cardinal Joy” cross-stitch kit, and the fabrics for my son’s Hallowe’en costume. My mother-in-law bought the fabrics for her blouse. Everything else came from the stash. Since I didn’t do a lot of sewing, my fabric stash didn’t decrease very much, but at least I didn’t add anything to it. I did decrease my yarn stash a little more significantly, though I’m trying not to even have a yarn stash. It’s mostly leftovers from projects where I had too much and some things that I bought in 2021 with specific projects in mind and just got a little too optimistic about what I could finish in a year.
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I only made one Hallowe'en costume this year. The girls weren't planning to trick or treat, and we were moving to another state so I just made a costume for the boy. He wanted to be Giyu Tomioka from Demon Slayer. He read all the books earlier this year. He gave me a picture he found online, and I did my best to copy it, granting that we bought the closest fabric JoAnn's had to the print that the character wears.

https://kimetsu-no-yaiba.fandom.com/wiki/Giyu_Tomioka

This actually worked out really well to make the shirt and pants with a pajama pattern and then add a false white collar and cuffs. I know the original is probably supposed to be a white garment with a black garment over it, but I knew there was no way I'd get my son to put on two long-sleeved shirts plus another garment on top. Then I draped the gown (no idea what it's actually called) based on cutting layouts I saw online for kimono. The leg wrap things (again, no idea what they're called) I assume are meant to be strips wrapped and tied, but I made them as structured pieces out of felt that snap closed. I think the outfit was reasonably successful.

Halloween 2022

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The pictures were taken after he got home so he was a bit truculent about being photographed.

Heel

Oct. 25th, 2022 05:22 am
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I turned the heel on my stocking last night. That always feels like a big accomplishment. I finished my son's Hallowe'en costume Sunday night so that's another accomplishment.
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I've had a lot of reading to do this week and a lot of videos to watch so I've done a lot of knitting. I'm only four rows away from dividing for the heel flap on my stocking. I also sat down one night and worked a little on my cross-stitching so I've started the second side of the pattern. A different night I started working on the gaiters for my son's Hallowe'en costume. I'm about half done with those but need to buy snaps.

I intend to finish the gaiters this weekend and to turn the heel on my stocking this weekend.
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I got some time to sew this week, and I made good progress on my son's Hallowe'en costume. The pant are finished. The shirt is finished except for buttons and buttonholes. The jacket/kimono/whatever-it-is is finished except for trimming threads and a final pressing. The last piece is a pair of gaiters.

This weekend will be back to my husband's car project.
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I started my son’s Hallowe’en costume over the weekend. I made good progress on the two pieces I started. They’re simple, but it was enjoyable to sew again for a bit. Hopefully I’ll do more this weekend. I just don’t have time for much needlework right now.

I did finish the biography of Jackie Robinson I was reading. It was good. That was the last in a whole stack of books my father had loaned me. Now I’m reading the new Patterns of Fashion. It’s lovely, of course. I also started a mystery that is pretty lame to begin with. Maybe it will get better...
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Since there weren’t a lot of events in 2021, I tried to spend time on more time-consuming projects. I still made some quick stuff, but I didn’t feel that I churned things out.

This year’s projects behind the cut )
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The last Hallowe'en costume was Mary from Five Nights at Candy's 3. Apparently the 3 matters. This one again required very little sewing. I bought a long-sleeved t-shirt and knee socks and made the jumper.

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She claims she'll wear the jumper to church, though she might have me remove the gold buttons. The other girl has already worn the brown shirt from her costume to church.

All in all, Hallowe'en was pretty simple for me this year.
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One of my daughters wanted to be a character she made up named Red Raven. I can't tell you much about the character except that she's evidently had a bad time of it since she's all scraped up and her clothes are all torn and badly mended.

Red Raven

This project was a joint effort.

I made the brown shirt and gray knit cap. I shortened a storebought sweatshirt and added a hood to it. I cut the fingers off the storebought gloves. I spray-dyed the wig and loaned her the belt and shoes. I wrapped the bandage around her wrist.

She cut the sleeves of the sweatshirt and did the "mending" on both the sweatshirt and the jeans. (The jeans were already ripped since they were her favorites for a couple of years.) She painted the knife and textured and painted the mask. She made the knife sheath from a kit, including dying the leather. She did all the makeup.

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The pictures were taken after she and her friends ran around the neighborhood for awhile, and the makeup had run.

She put a lot of time into this project, and I think she did an amazing job.
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Somehow when the end of the year comes up, I find myself in arrears on posting finished projects. It's time to start remedying that.

This year the boy wanted to be a cheetah. Actually, he wanted to be a wolf but couldn't find satisfactory fabric so he decided to be a cheetah instead. It's basically the same costume as last year except that I didn't put elastic at the wrists and ankles, and I didn't have to make the hood. He wanted to do cheetah makeup and spray hair color.

My husband took pictures of him before they went trick-or-treating, but he didn't actually take a full-length shot, just pictures of him posing as a cheetah.

Cheetah costume

The boy did some of the makeup himself. I did the yellow base and started the lines along his nose, but then he looked at a picture of a cheetah and extended the lines up and down and colored his nose.
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Hallowe'en costumes are finished except that I may end up trying to make some kind of a knife sheath for one of the costumes. Since they all want to do some level of makeup or spray hair color for their costumes, I'm going to wait until Hallowe'en to post pictures.

I even finished my mantle so I have something new for Hallowe'en too. I guess I could post pictures of that if I actually take some. We'll see whether I manage that or just plop down with my knitting all week.

Having finished the mantle, I decided to spend a week on my wrought iron wrap. I think I can finish the second pattern repeat tonight.
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I finished the first and easiest of the three kids’ Hallowe’en costumes last night. It’s some video game character, and all I had to make was a black jumper with big gold buttons. The rest was purchased - a long-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of knee socks.
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I finished knitting the fourth piece of my 17th century waistcoat last night and modified the pattern for the back to match the front.

This afternoon we got Hallowe'en costume materials so I finished the waistcoat piece just in time to start those. The costumes don't seem like they'll be too intensive this year, but there is a knit cap so I'll start that shortly. It will make good car knitting.
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2020 was an odd year, no doubt. I was lucky that I was able to go to the George Washington Ball in Williamsburg the week before everything spiraled into chaos. With nothing else going on, I got a lot more time for needlework than usual this year, and by summer I realized I was churning stuff out way too fast. I started working on things that take a lot more time to get a finished product like cross-stitching and knitting.

I made two things this year that I really love – an 18th century domino and a Victorian shawl. I'm happy with a lot of my other stuff, but those are just some of the coolest things I’ve ever made.

This year's projects behind the cut )

Clowns

Nov. 3rd, 2020 05:40 am
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Now that we've actually had Hallowe'en, here are the pictures of the clown costumes I made for my girls. I held off taking them because they were going to do makeup and spray hair color, but in the end, they didn't do the hair color and the makeup didn't work out so well.

Clowns

Clown

Clown
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When my son found out that fake fur is both really hot and really expensive, he changed his mind from being a wolf to being a tiger. It was probably influenced by finding a tiger print crepe at the store. The pattern is the same one I used a few years ago when I had to size up a Butterick pattern for my girls and used it as-is for the boy. This time the boy fit in the sized up version.

Tiger

I had to freehand the back of the hood, the ears, and the tail because I got rid of the original pattern since then since I no longer had anyone who would fit it. Apparently I had just cut those pieces with slightly larger margins originally. It came out well.

Next Balls

Sep. 18th, 2020 11:18 am
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It’s funny how milestones in projects can coincide. I finished a bonnet and joined in new balls of yarn on two different knitting projects yesterday. I wonder if I’ll hit another milestone today - the beginning of shaping on the back piece of the bathing suit.

Then tomorrow back to Halloween costumes.
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I made general progress on projects this week.

1930's bed jacket: I finished the second front piece and cast on the back. I'm thinking that project might be finished in a couple of weeks.

1939 swimsuit: I'm still plugging away. I set myself a quota of a half-dozen rows per day, and I've been doing at least that much so it's coming along slowly but surely.

1897 shawl: The yarn is in the mail. It's still a bit hot to want to work on it, but it has started to cool down so I might focus on it a bit after I finish the bed jacket. It's not really a keep-in-your-drawer-at-work project, though, so we'll see.

Hallowe'en costumes: I finished cutting everything except interfacing, a few bits of lining, and masks. I started assembling the girls' clown suits, and they're coming along fine. Mom wanted to come over and help with them so we worked on them for a few hours over the weekend. Now I'm going to lay them aside until the weekend.

1880's bonnet: I cut out the buckram for an 1880's bonnet that I want to work on this week.

There's nothing exciting, but I'm keeping busy.
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I did astonishingly well on my goal list for the weekend. Apparently if you don't actually try to accomplish anything around the house for three solid days, you can do a lot of needlework. I not only finished everything on my list of goals for the weekend except for ordering the yarn since it wasn't available, but I also did all the stretch goals. I even finished a third book that wasn't on my stretch goals.

In sum, I finished reading three books that I was partway through reading, I put the straps on a pair of stays, I finished my cross-stitched Christmas stocking, I started the next piece of each of two knitting projects, I bought and prewashed Hallowe'en costume fabrics, I cut the fashion fabric for one of the costumes, and I assembled the pattern pieces for the other costumes since they've got oversized pieces that had to be taped together. I even blocked or pressed the two knitting projects that I finished.

“Holy Night Stocking”

Officially, I could give one more cross-stitching update, but it's just to say that at the end of week 11, the embroidery was finished. Week 12 assembled the stocking on Monday. I enjoyed doing it, but I'm ready for something else.

I've still got an hour before bed, but I'm not going to do any more laying out or cutting. There's enough time before Hallowe'en that I don't have to cut more than one fabric a day for a bit. I might knit. Or I might start a new book since now I only have one in progress, and it's in my desk at work so I can't read it right now.
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I liked [personal profile] marianme's list of goals for the holiday weekend, and I thought I'd share my list.

- Finish the second sleeve for my 1930's bed jacket/cardigan
- Press the sleeve
- Knit the ribbing for the second side of the front of the bed jacket
- Block swimsuit front
- Cast on the back of the 1939 swimsuit
- Finish the embroidery on the Christmas stocking
- Finish the spring stays
- Buy and prewash Hallowe’en costume fabrics
- Order shawl yarn (assuming it comes back in stock this weekend as they said it would)
- Finish reading By the Pricking of my Thumbs

I finished knitting the sleeve last night and cast on the ribbing. I've gotten through 31 rows of 38 already. I also blocked the swimsuit front last night.

Today I bought the Hallowe'en costume fabrics and have the first load in the washer right now.

I just have the straps to do on the stays, which shouldn't take more than an hour or two. I'm more than halfway through the book, and it's not a long book. I think everything is doable with the possible exception of finishing the stocking embroidery. The cross-stitching is all done, but I don't have a good grasp of how long the back-stitch outlining will take.

Stretch goals would be to assemble the Christmas stocking, start cutting out Hallowe'en costumes, and finish reading The Dying and the Doctors.

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