Night Before

Sailor Jupiter: Erm... none.

To do:

• Iron and trim skrit
• Sew 1.5 snaps
• Put hair balls on elastic/string/something

Sailor Mars: Sewed glove tops. Hemmed skirt and trimmed excess.

To do:

• Iron skirt
• Sew 1 snap on collar
• Sew 3 snaps on skirt

Second last day

Sailor Jupiter: Hemmed the skirt. Sewed pins onto the backs of both bows. Sewed the snap halves onto the bodysuit. Sewed the snaps on the collar.

To-do:

• Iron and trim skirt
• Sew snap halves (3) on the skirt

Sailor Mars: Made sleeve caps. Sewed snaps onto the collar. Sewed pins onto the backs of both bows.

To-do:

• Hem skirt, then iron and trim
• Sew snaps onto the bodysuit
• Sew snaps onto the skirt
• Fix skirt band

Nearing the Finishing Line

I have about three days to finish the two Sailor Scout costumes. So... I'm a little overwhelmed. On the weekend I attached pins to the back of the front bow buttons for both costumes and attached them to the bows.

Sailor Jupiter: I finished the sleeve caps and sewed them on to the bodysuit.

Still to-do:

• Attach collar by snaps to bodysuit
• Attach skirt by snaps to bodysuit
• Hem skirt
• Attach front bow by snaps or pins to bodysuit
• Attach back bow by snaps or pins to bodysuit

Sailor Mars: I finished both glove tops (however I need to size them to Ashley's arm before I can attach them). I finished the choker. I finished painting the shoes. I finished sewing the closures on the bodysuit and I assembled the skirt.

Still to-do:

• Make and attach sleeve caps to bodysuit
• Attach collar by snaps to bodysuit
• Attach skirt by snaps to bodysuit
• Hem skirt
• Attach front bow by snaps or pins to bodysuit
• Attach back bow by snaps or pins to bodysuit -Attach glove tops to gloves

Bryan took the assembled henshin wands home with him to seal and paint. At this point, I can't really wonder or worry about whether or not those will be done in time, they are out of my hands, literally. However, I do believe that a con (as opposed to a Halloween party) is where they would truly be appreciated.

Sailor Jupter: Part Seventeen i.e. Boots are Evil

Back from vacation and back to the grindstone. First on the to-do list is to get my Sailor Jupiter boots in order. I thought this would take a LOT longer than it appears to be taking, so this good, but I'm not yet done.... so I'm reserving judgement for just a little while longer.

First the boots need to be completely sanded to create a surface that the paint will stick to. I read somewhere online that sanding shoes/boots would take about 10 hours -- five hours per shoe/boot presumably. Each boot only took about an hour to an hour and a half. Quite an improvement! Although it was very difficult to manuever the sandpaper around the hooks and eyelets without pulling up the (decorative?) stitching too much, so this slowed it down quite a bit too. The boots were then rinsed and primed. My crappy spray primer however was not working very well, it kept shooting out huge splotches onto the boots and the nozzle was very difficult to press down. After the primer was dry, I went over it with my green paint. I taped off the heels and bottoms of the boots, so that the whole thing is not entirely green. As soon as the boots are dry I just need to seal them and add white shoe laces.

I used Design Master Colortool Spray (a floral spray) which I picked up from Michaels for $10 per can. I used their brand of primer and 717 Holiday Green for the final coat on the boots. I have not yet purchased sealer, so I'm not sure if I will be going with their brand our using some of the Krylon sealer that I already have.

I also used the same green spray to match the front bow button.

The tiaras are also here, which is very exciting! Bryan is working on the wand for me, while I work on the boots and cast a front bow button for Vanessa's Sailor Venus costume. After these touches my costume only needs a hem and for everything to be attached. I hope to finish this by the end of the weekend, because I am running very short on time!

There is another costuming sleepover in the works, which is very much needed. If I don't get Ashley over here soon to try on things, etc., it's not going to be ready for FanExpo. End of story.

Super Sailor Update, Maybe

Sailor Scout Costuming Sleepover has come and gone. Alas. Unfortunately plans didn't pan out quite the way I'd have liked, but fortunately I still made a fairly significant amount of progress.

Sailor Mars: Part Seven
The bodysuit is somewhere between 50% and 75% finished. It depends on how well it fits, which I do not yet know. I believe I am going to cut open the armholes, because they came out a little small for some reason. I need Ashley to stick her arm in there first, heh. I also need to still cut out the "V" into the neckline, but again, I need Ashley to try it on. Lastly I will need to put a couple snaps on the bottom seam, for easier entry and exit. Yes. Otherwise it is looking good, and going well.

Sailor Jupiter: Part Sixteen
Ah, my first update since the beginning of June. Go me. Anyway, I finished sewing one of the armbands on to a glove. Not a very big contribution to this costume, but it's mostly little finicky hand-sewing bits left over anyway. (Aside from the *ahem* massive hem job still to do). I'll get to it, I'll get to it!

In other general Sailor Scout costume news, I believe I am going to order the tiaras tomorrow night. So hopefully that will be nice and painless!

Little Robin: Part Three

Yay, some progress! I finished the base of the underskirt... Slightly too wide waistband and torturous hem. It took several hours... I'm not sure how many, possibly three. *Cries* And I had to sit on the floor to sew it.

Anyway, that was kind of a small update. I did make it to fabricland to get that ribbon and interfacing...

Er, and I made a small progression on the Super Secret Sewing project. But... I can't discuss that here. Hehe.

Gores Galores

So... I'm seesawing. Again. I just like to see-and-saw, like 6 year old at the local playground. Yes, crappy similes are crappy.

In any case, I've once AGAIN changed my mind about which costume I'm going to do for FanExpo. I am back to my very first decision (I suppose that's why it was the first choice, after all). I will be making Ciel Phantomhive's pink ballgown/Little Robin variant. *Sweatdrop*

HOWEVER, unlike any of my other seesawing posts, I actually have some progress to report. On Tuesday evening I came home from work, put my bags down and made a beeline straight for the hoopskirt. (Recent negativity towards my/general costuming activities only prvoed to strengthen my resolve.) I spent about ten minutes sitting and planning (over the course of the day prior to getting home) about how I was going to work this out... and it worked out more or less.

Last year for a Victorian costume, I made a very... um... voluminous underskirt, which was perfectly fit to me/my hoop. However, I knew this was not going to work for Ciel. The underskirt for this costume has many layers of ruffles, which really requires a gored skirt, rather than a pleated/gathered skirt, which is what I'd made. So, I ripped open the waist band and cut up my skirt into gores. It was... a bit of a challenge. There are quite a few seams in it, more than I would like really, but they are pretty invisible once everything is trimmed and pressed. And the many, many ruffles will cover a lot of them up as well. Anyway, on Tuesday evening I cut and pinned the gores together, and today I sewed them all up. The machine was very, very bitchy to start off with, but I showed it who was boss. Over the next few days I will be ruffling it up... and making another trip to Fabricland for brand new (elastic free) waistband interfacing and black ribbon trim. Huzzah!

Now, I do realize that of all the costumes I was seesawing between, this one is actually the hardest and most expensive of them all. HOWEVER, because it is semi-historical (I'll try my best to make it more so) I intend to use it for the Historical Halloween ball I'm attending. None of the other one's would really work. Because Shinku is pretty lolita (and wouldn't fit without additional pieces I have no intention of making) and Hungary wears pants (and pants at a ball... seriously? No.)

Keeping all of this mind, I probably won't really have much time to make a matching tutor-Sebastian costume for Bryan. At least not for this year. But maybe it's better if I'm doing the hoopskirt thing, in a crowded convention atmosphere, that I have a person in no/limited costume to make sure I don't knock anyone or anything over.

As for Sailor Mars... still the same as before. Plans for an upcoming [Sailor Moon] Costuming Sleepover, however, should change that!