Archive | August, 2011

Baltimore Comic-Con Costumes

21 Aug

Somehow, it totally escaped me that Baltimore plays host to Comic Con. It’s one of those fan conventions for comic, sci fi, etc. I went on Saturday for an hour to see the costume contest. Turns out, I’m a far bigger geek than I thought previously.

I *love* Buffy, Serenity,Star Wars, X-Men (movies) Veronica Mars, Transformers (the original cartoon), Thundercats (oooooold cartoon), and Star Wars.

I honestly didn’t know who most of the people I photographed were trying to be. But, really liked the creativity.

I initially tried to take photos of ones that didn’t look pre-packaged. But, I couldn’t resist some of ones I grew up on.


Hers is from a kit but she’s Supergirl!


I loved Robin for his lunch box.


And, Wolverine. Ohh. Wolverine. Is there anything not to like about Hugh Jackman?

Here is my absolute and total favorite costume of the whole night. So funny. So creative. I’m still chuckling.

Sewy Rebecca Bra #FAIL

19 Aug

I took another go-round with the Rebecca bra  from Sewy this week. This time, after two muslins, it was time to break into my Amsterdam lace.

Big, fat, #FAIL. The bra was so big! One of several things happened:

  • I retraced the wrong size.
  • I stretched out the fabric while sewing.
  • Non stretch lace in the upper cup is different than stretch lace. The gods are laughing at me.

The version you see above is with some post construction alterations but generally, unsalvageable (too many enclosed seams and stretch stitches I fear). The bra was a good one to two inches too big in the band and just sadly baggy in the cup. After sewing (and trying on) I realized that the pattern seam allowances were about 1/8 inch bigger than the 1/4 inch I was sewing with. That definitely accounted for some of the problems.

The bust curve was also ridiculous. Rather than flatten that though, I’ve just taken some height tucks in the pattern pieces. I’ll try this one again. If the issue was just the seam allowance, then it’s easy to put the height back in to the pattern pieces.

So… yeah. I’m trying not to be salty that I cut into my ‘good fabric’.  Happily, I have *just* enough of the black and gold lace to eek out another set.  Here’s hoping the second version is better!

Teddies and Refashioned Campaign Tee

13 Aug

Vogue 7837, currently available

I didn’t mean to leave you in the lurch on what lingerie teddies were for. I thought I was the only one who didn’t really know. As I mentioned, I emailed LindsayT. They just didn’t make sense to me. Are they camisoles? Are they slips? How do you use the bathroom in them? What do you wear them under or with? Here’s the email she sent back:

Well child, back in the old days we would wear those pieces of lingerie, called “teddies,” under our business attire when we thought we might get lucky at a happy hour after work. They snap under the crotch and technically you’re not supposed to wear a bra or panties with them, so they really only worked on A-cup gals. Or you would wear teddies at home as loungewear, preferably with your high-heeled maribou slippers.

Now, we all know :)

And here is last week’s refashioned tee on the new owner / candidate. Liz did all the Beadazzling…. And, FYI, in case you’re wondering. I’m not dating Liz either. Odd statement? I’ve gotten three comments in the last month asking if I’m dating Trena.

I’m working on mine, there are just 30 days until the primaries! It’s cut out and pinned. I just haven’t had time to sew.

Book Review: Sewing Lingerie from the Singer Sewing Reference Library

11 Aug IMGP0239

Guys, I’m so busy these days between work (larger projects, running a Fellowship program) and extra curricular activities (election season). I don’t want to tell you I’m on a hiatus from blogging since I may have a whim (like now). But, I will be posting very little until the end of September. I can only *dream* of new projects! Heh. Not all that different than the last month really :) But, I do plan to write a few book reviews over the next month — mostly my Singer Sewing Reference Library.  I was lucky enough to buy the bulk of them for less than $20 a few years ago.

Trena and I are engaged in 15 minutes of cleaning challenge. Each day we have to spend 15 minutes cleaning a room in our respective abodes. She’s been actually scrubbing / cleaning. I’ve been putting things away / sorting. For each day we don’t, we put $2.50 into a pool. I think we’re doing this for three months. At the end of the three months to the victor goes the spoils. Hopefully, we will both have new habits in place.

Last week  I cleaned out my bedroom drawers. What I found were a lot of sorry tee shirts that I sleep in and absolutely nothing ‘nice’. Nothing at all attractive or cute to walk around the house in. When I was dogsitting Frida, I also noticed I had very little ‘walk the dog’ ‘run out the street’ clothes. I’ve focused hard on work outfits because that is where I spend most of my time. Yet, I had to buy a whole new top from H&M two weeks ago for a morning brunch date! I’ve been increasingly more interested in sewing sleepwear and lingerie. I’m not a person who hates slips and pantyhose. I rather like them! In fact, I started looking for slip material last year when I finally admitted my three high school era slips no longer fit (they are going to Trena).

Enter, Sewing Lingerie.

I was most interested in the slips portion and ways to embellish with lace.

The book also covers making dartless FBAs for chemise tops and slips

The intimate apparel section covered garments that I didn’t quite understand

But, I emailed Lindsay T and she explained the point of a teddy. Yes, I didn’t know what a teddy was for! If you think about it, when they were popular I was in Converse and undershirts.

Tap pants! They seemed so silly when I started looking through the book. Now, I think they are super cute.

Luckily, Burda also has a sleep set pattern that I can adopt perfectly for the outfit below.

The book also covers laying out pattern pieces to use the lace best and gain the most stretch

Even better, some great tips on making those itty bitty, teeny tiny, skinny minnie straps

Overall, I recommend this book if you’re interested in basic intimate apparel. The book doesn’t cover firm foundation garments like bras.

But, if you want to make slips, chemises, pajamas, sleep sets and work with lace I think this one is worth the find. Plus, at its age and availability it’s fairly inexpensive.