Busy busy busy

See that title? That is why nobody has really heard from me much in the last several weeks.  I'm still alive, but as I have mentioned before, right about now we're in the middle of our final push to finish the movie I've been working on for a year and a half now.

The good news is, I haven't shown up to work in pajamas yet, though when I roll out of bed in the morning the temptation is frequently strong.  I mean, I do have some pretty stylin' PJs, but I can do slightly better for work. 

Things that have changed in my wardrobe: not much.  My birkenstocks are my staple shoes, I've acquired one maxi dress that I really love, and today I am wearing the shortest pair of shorts I have owned in years and I don't think it looks terrible.  Of course, my day has mostly involved hanging around home, and now some sewing, so it's not exactly a rigorous day of getting out and doing things.

As for the curtains I mentioned in my last post?  I gave up after the third time I ordered the fabric, it just didn't come.  Sadness swept over the land, folks.  So I got myself a set of 96" burgundy blackout curtains, and one of them came in the mail today. :/  I am not having the best of luck with curtains- three tries and no luck on the fabric I wanted, and now only half my curtain set is mailed out?  I mean, how do you even do that?  Fortunately, the customer support folks at Overstock.com were very helpful, and will be shipping me the other half of my curtains sometime this week.  Also on its way is a slipcover for my comfy, but rather blah couch.  so, in the next week or so, my living room should look a whole lot better!

I've been sewing a lot lately, which is a good thing.  No new costumes yet, though I need to have one of those done by Friday (ha... ahahaha...), but I did try my hand at making real clothes!  It needs a few fixes, but here's my first attempt:

It's based on the Crepe pattern from Colette, which is my new favourite pattern and sewing site.  They have lots of tutorials, tips, and tricks, as well as a few free patterns.  They've got a set of mini bloomers there I have my eye on making when I can catch a breath, and their pattern shop is just full of so many amazing vintage inspired things, I just want them all. 

Next on the sewing docket: a 1920's flapper style dress.  I'm making it to wear to a party at work next week, and I have all the supplies.  I'm patterning it all myself, which is a first (yikes!).  All I have is a sketch on a post-it, my dress form, and a whole bunch of tailor's marking tools.  I'm working on the muslin tonight. which will probably double as the lining.  So far, I have a skirt, which I am so happy actually fit when I put it on.  Breathe one huge sigh of relief there.  Now I just have to do the top, which shouldn't be too hard.  I say this now, before I've started, of course.  But I do have a fair amount of confidence that I can get a workable muslin done tonight, which means I can get my actual silk cut and potentially even sewn tomorrow.  I did my best to keep it simple, but we'll see how that goes.  At least my accessories are done, and I broke down and got a wig because I realized I have waaay too much hair for a 1920's do.

So that's what I'm up to in the world of clothing lately.  I doubt I'll be back in any sort of regular fashion until sometime in October, after this project has finished, but I'll try to be less absent than I have been.

So, curtains.

Friends, I have a problem.  My problem is that my windows are large and sad and bare.

Now, most people would shell out for some store-bought curtains and be done with it.  I could go to Target and solve all my problems.  But unfortunately, I have the kind of mind that says, "dude, you make your own Star Wars costumes in your free time.  You can certainly make your own curtains."

I've been trying to make this happen for a few weeks now.  I mean, I could go to JoAnn's at any time and buy fabric, but they tend to be a little pricey.  And I do live in Los Angeles, home to an amazingsauce fabric district, but they tend to only be open when I'm at work.  I took a day off to explore when my sister came to visit, but I really can't do that otherwise. So I turned to my fabric website of choice, Fashion Fabrics Club. They have a great selection of discounted fabrics, and when it takes 6 yards to make one window, every discount helps.  The only drawback is that apparently they don't keep very good track of what has sold, and if you order near the end of a bolt and are ordering a lot, well, it's a crap shoot as to whether or not you'll get the fabric you wanted.

Right now I'm on my third attempt to order. I've ordered 9 yards of this lovely fabric:

It's a wine cotton gauze.  Rich colour, but nice and lightweight for the summer.  I'm thinking about getting some ribbon to experiment with trim towards the bottom, too.  Probably in blues and greens- my colour inspiration for the common space is my Alice in Wonderland poster:

As you can tell from the picture, I've got a lot of beige to contend with.  The walls are cream, the carpet is a very drab blue, and I've got a large, squishy couch that is super comfy but boooooring.  There's also a blue futon that will be leaving with my roommate when she gets married in October, as well as a coffee table that is probably too large for the space- also leaving with my roommate.

I clearly have my work cut out for me.  But hey, it'll be fun.  If, you know, my curtain fabric ever exists.  Third time's the charm, right?

Follow Up: Feminism and the Slave Leia Costume

So, I wrote a post for FFB a while back on why I won't be making the Slave Leia costume.  Not long after that, I suddenly found myself being asked about it more often.  And it wasn't by people who read the post, I guess I just started doing more events, and as a non-slave Leia, and one who could carry off the costume, I get asked a lot why I'm not doing it.

I've been impressed, for the most part, with the acceptance of my views on this one.  The reaction I get the most is, "Wow, you've really thought this through.  I don't think most people think about it that much."  And it's true, they don't.  And especially now that convention season is upon us, lots of Slave Leias will be coming out of the woodwork.  It's a costume anyone with enough money and comfort with one's own body can do- $300 for the hard parts, and the sewing is minimal.  And it's a big attention-getter at cons.  Everybody loves Princess Leia, but you'll get a lot more fanboys stopping you if you're dressed in the metal bikini.

This leads me to two interesting stories from Wizard World Anaheim.  Sunday, I dressed in the classic dress with the hair buns.

Fantastically fun and comfortable costume.  Absolutely love it.  I can't believe it took me this long to do it.  Anyway, I was sitting at the Rebel Legion table, minding the shop, when a random guy walked by and asked me, "Why aren't you wearing the metal bikini?"  Without a missing a beat, I looked up at him and replied, "It was a traumatic experience."  He just stopped in his tracks, looked confused for a moment, and then said, "Yeah... I guess it would be, wouldn't it?"

Second, I was wandering around Artist Alley, checking out the various booths, when someone in a Power Girl costume stopped me to tell me how awesome she thought it was that I was wearing the classic Leia and not the slave Leia.  Apparently Saturday's Leia got a similar comment from someone.  I guess it shows considerable hope that the fully clothed Leias are being applauded for it.  I did joke with one of my friends, after she texted me about the Slave Leia booth at Wonder Con, about starting a Fully Clothed Leia booth at cons.  Maybe there's an actual market for such a thing.  Who knows?

In any case, interesting all around.  I am heartened to know that when my position is explained to people, I'm not dismissed as an angry feminist.  The worst I've gotten is someone who insisted that my willingness to make one skin-baring costume but not another was based on a subtle difference, but even so, 'subtle' does not mean 'unimportant.'  I do think context matters, and I will take the time to explain that to anyone who has a problem with my choices.  So far, understanding has been had on all sides, so I think only good things can come of it.

Not dead yet...

*blows dust off blog*

Well, it's been an interesting few weeks.  My team lead's wife had a baby, we've been ramping up production, and I discovered that I was borderline anemic and had a severe vitamin D deficiency, which meant I was left with approximately no energy. Oh, and an infection. I got one of those, too.  Clearly, I've been having a fantastic month over here.

So I haven't done much writing in the last month, but I did take time to consider what I'm even doing with this blog.  I started it to keep myself accountable for what I'm wearing, and did it for long enough that good habits were really sticking.  And the fashion feminist posts were some of my favourites.

Truthfully, there will be a lot of touch-and-go with this blog for a while.  Work's getting busy, weekends are filling up, I have one less hour a day to do things for fun.  I also want to focus in on home decorating and organizing, which I also hope to do with some amount of style, so I'll probably document some of that process here.  I also have a project I want to do that involves a hybrid of fashion and costuming, so if that gets off the ground you'll definitely see it here.

Mostly, I'm here to say hey, I'm alive, and I haven't forgotten about this blog.  But I've been a little busy lately.

Some of the busy, however, I'm not arguing with. :)

Wednesday Outfit: Wait, it's Wednesday Again?

I'm definitely still in the beginning stages of beating my exhaustion with a stick.  But, here's an outfit post anyway.

Navy knit top - H&M

Sewing Circle Dress - Floreat (via Anthropologie)

Black Jenna flats - Bass

Thought I'd try something different with this dress, and I'm not sure I care for it. But it's something, anyway.  I removed the shoulder straps because I thought they'd look silly with the shirt, but they actually did a surprising amount to hold the dress up.  So, I may go back to the old way of wearing this dress.  It's an outfit on repeat, but it's an outfit that works, and when you're as tired as I am most of the time, there's a lot of merit in that.

Just for yucks and giggles, here's some of the outfits you've missed while I've konked out before actually uploading them and talking about them.

 

Yup, those are some pictures.  And just for reference, the bottom left shirt isn't an Obama shirt it's actually my G-Force crew shirt:

Yes, we did in fact parody the poster with a guinea pig and put it on t-shirts.  However, it was about as grandiose as Darwin generally tried to be, so I guess it fit.

Darwin: The fate of the free world rests on my shoulders.

Hurley: [falls over laughing] You don't even have any shoulders!

I'm actually pretty sure the second half of that ended up on the cutting room floor.  But it was one of my favourite lines and deserves to be preserved.  Goodness knows little enough of the movie deserves it.  Well, maybe that's not fair.  I've had a lot of parents stop me while wearing that shirt to let me know how much their kids loved it.  And it's better than The Smurfs.  But I feel like that's not much of a benchmark to go by.

Anyway, I'm rambling, which means I'm clearly too tired to be blogging.  Adieu, and hopefully I shall see you all upon the morrow.

Wednesday Outfit: Working the Image

Also known as, we all just got our brand new Imageworks jackets.  It is really nice and really comfy- I am a big fan.

Navy blue Imageworks track jacket - Imageworks exclusive

White knit shirt - Pink Ice

Blue jeans - Gap

Red flats - Madden Girl

Yup.  I can't think of another non-fashion field that likes its accessories so much.  Of course, it's been a while since we've had a new company-wide clothing article- the last sale was of simple grey unisex tees with the company logo.  Super comfy, but not very interesting.  I got that one just before I was laid off after G-Force, and it's mostly pajamas.  Or for wear when doing things like painting or such activities.

That said, casual, but fitted and flattering.  I'm quite happy with the fit of this jacket.  Apparently there were a lot of complaints that the jackets ran small, but thankfully as a small person it worked to my advantage. This doesn't always happen with the stuff we order, so I'll take it where I can get it!

Tuesday Outfit: Not Dead Yet

So, as it turns out my work schedule is actually getting to me, and I should rethink my posting strategy so that I can post regularly, but not erratically.  Tuesdays and Thursdays are my easiest days to wrangle, so it may come down to that.  I may add in Saturday if I go to a staggered schedule.  For now, I'm just pressing on (all my distress is going, going, gone... anyone get the reference?  Probably not, but I'm tired and clearly don't know when to stop my parentheticals).

Denim jacket - Gap

Kissing Friday dress - Bailey 64 (via Anthropologie)

Braided leather belt - H&M

Red flats - Madden Girl

There actually wasn't much method to this outfit.  In fact, this morning I was mostly thinking that I am in desperate need of doing laundry, but I had a fair selection of clean dresses.  I was also mostly just happy to have not slept through my alarm again. So, another victory for groggy dressing.