The Anonymous Blueberry Muffin Thief Sews...

I'm terrible at this blogging nonsense! I've got a pile of stuff to blog, but work is getting in the way of me processing photos and stuff. Oops. I do feel that I should probably try and engage a bit more, especially if I'm trying to advertise my shop more! So, in no particular order, what the fuck have I been up to recently?

So, costuming. LARP. That thing I do. I've been fiddling with kit for a couple of weeks, modding a dress into an over-dress kind of thing, and working up the courage to start new kit for Odyssey (which, at under 2 weeks to go, is becoming a priority). It's an ancient worlds LARP, which is awesomely fun, and I play in Greek nation. Sadly, the weather is rarely very Mediterranean, and cloaks are a necessity. I have those sorted. When I started playing, I was playing a combat character, and was bombing around in kit that looked like this... charlottemoss.co.uk  only with armour. Kit that was thrown together out of some scruffy blue fabric I found on the market a day before the event. I love that chiton; it's gorgeous soft chambray and I'm stupidly proud of it. It fits weirdly, tends to show my bra straps, and I have to wear shorts under it for modesty, and it now permanently smells of camp fire smoke, but whatever. Add that shawl (which has a hood, made by the exce...

I'm off to Empire for the long weekend. I have with me my sewing box (for helping fix stuff tomorrow before time in) and my knitting (for the periods of downtime I will probably have). Have a good easter weekend! 8 points down, aiming for 50 Sewing, Shakespeare and the Hobbit. 

I have 3 things to post, and I'm not sure what order to post them in, so I'm currently flailing around like a flailing thing, and will be adding to the list of stuff over the course of the week. Why? Because the LARP season starts in 2 weeks (for me) and I am valiantly making props for our first event of the year. (current list: new Polly top, CrazyDogLady skirt, weapon carry disks for LARP. Forthcoming: lock puzzle props, maps and possibly a gargoyle head)

I may have failed on that "not buying fabric" thing. I popped into Hobbycraft yesterday to get some chalk for marking up some dark blue fabric, and then 3 bundles of super cute fat quarters fell into my hands. I'm blaming my friend for at least one of them, as he pointed it out to me.   I seem to be accumulating owl and fox fabric like it's going out of fashion (it may well be), but since I'm adamant I'm not going to start quilting, there's a limit to what I can do with it. Pocket linings, bags, that sort of thing, that's about it.   In regards to the fabric woes of the other week, I ended up buying 2 metres of 2 shades of grey, and ended up using the one that I'd bought the sample of. It isn't quite the right shade, but it's close enough, and now I desperately need to get sewing. They're response to my complaint was basically "we can't take natural light photos because we're in a warehouse and so ...

 More projects are in the works. I am however suffering from a severe case of winter blues, coupled with LARP starting to pick up again for the year (pre-season planning and stuff) and a general loathing of my job that's infecting pretty much everything I do.   But enough of the blah. I spent the weekend trying to sort my house out, mostly so that I had enough flat surface to get some cutting done. Saturday I cut the pieces for a LARP shirt. It's a Simplicity 3519  in view D, which I know is going to be massive on the sleeves and probably too small on the chest. It's cut in a size XL (to accommodate chest) and the sleeves are only half the size of the back and front (and they're huge). I used about 3 metres of calico for this, which is a pain as that's most of my toile fabric gone in one shot. Oh well. Even if it is huge, I can pass it off onto someone else, or I can modify it to actually fit me. LARP shirts that fit me are a rarity, so making my own is basic...

I started the cutting last night, got about halfway through, thought I'd screwed up the interfacing, gave up and went to bed. Came home this evening, running on 4 hours sleep (god I'm sick of these high winds already; my street is a wind funnel) and thought that more work on it would be a bad idea. When have I EVER paid attention to that kind of thinking? Finished the cutting and started ironing interfacing while I was making dinner, finished ironing the interfacing and fusible fleece after dinner and thought I'd leave it there. But no. No, I started sewing (once I'd stared at the instructions and then googled for finished versions of the project, because I was having issues working out where one of the pockets was intended to go). The two open pockets have been started. I'm in love with the fabric all over again. I wish there was a slightly better colour match on the thread, but I've not been able to find one, and in some ways I quite like it. I won...

Emergency xmas present almost finished, well, about half way there. It turned out there was more hand stitching involved than I thought, but hey. It's going ok. I've just bought buttons for it, and new needles for my machine because sewing through fleece and then suede and felt has basically destroyed my last decent needle. Knitting is coming along. Fibonacci scarf is about 66% done, lacework scarf hasn't actually been touched in about a week, but I have until Boxing Day to get that done, and I'm not actually doing anything on Christmas day, so I have a chance. My tree isn't up because I currently don't have any room. Soooon (the plan is to do it on sunday, when all my sewing stuff should have gone away for a couple of days and I can move furniture).   And here is the current state of the sewing table. Fabric, patterns, baking paper and suede jacket. Mwahaha.   And this is me and my squid, for size reference. I'm about 5' 6 (on a good d...