Frock Chick

I will need to print/scan them both so I can highlight and mark them because there is a lot of information but a lot of it is outside the scope of what I want to look at.

But it’s what I wanted, and now I know that I wasn’t just stymied by website planning, there are very few records of the type I want in the cities I want to look at. But I can also now focus on those cities in my online time which using the already gathered info to fill out my databases.

So today I’ll be working on a few projects at home, printing, sewing braid and cleaning hoop steels.

So to it!

I did manage to hem and resew the channels so, hooray! I think I will wind up top stitching all the channels a perfectly even distance one it is fully made up. That will make the effort of buying and cutting more steel for the very bottom hoops a little more palatable!

So that means I can use the overlapped steels for my farthingale and Reinette hoops.

So much work to do on my hoops that needs to be undone. My fault for using a twill tape that was not closely woven- it spread out in interesting ways under the presure of my sewing machine.

So the channels are not perfect which means I either need to fork out for real steel hooping which is a gamble, or buy 6 more coils- and use them single layered in each channel- the tape makes two channels- or unpick the channels and resew them perfectly. I could then use some very narrow Rigiline for the top channel of each tape… yeah. I think that. I have twice been lucky to find rolls of good quality boning but it hasn’t happened often enough to hop I can do so again 🙂

I went to so much effort to line the suckers up but in the end this is where hand sewing beats machine every time!

And no, just no. The hem is 4m and I have three bands of tape which would be 36m of handsewing only those. So no. But I am tempted to change my foot and zig zag the every edges and unpick the outer stitches seeing as that is where most variation happens.

Oh and I have tape supporting the side seams and everything.

So okay, I do have a plan for the day then 🙂

Local elections around New Zealand and gearing up and I have tried every year since I was eligible to vote, and rarely being able to.

The reason is the same as for pretty much everyone, I simply do not know who the people are who stand- unless I recognise them from past councils and past rounds of elections.

So in Christchurch someone developed an app. Yep an app! Celect. This really does seem useful. It is not a cutesy- to anyone overseas we use that colour for our elections. Okay we have a balloon man remind up it’s election time too.

Anyway. I’m hoping it gets taken up by other councils as I have been looking at the boards up all over the city and the Ward I’m in is super teeny tiny, and feels like the leftover of two larger Wards (our suburb is kind of lumped in with industry though we really are rich in schools and parks so it is really important the people who live in the Ward do vote.)

So this is a reminder to me to go to my local site, get familiar, and work our what seats I get to vote for..mayor, ward, and possibly the main council? Honestly the confusion is even worse here as the history of Auckland has been to split up and recombine boroughs, wards, cities over my life time. Each change has directly affected my access to public parks and museums so I do know full well how important this is.

If this app helps get that information to all voters that is fantastic. It really is.

I’ve also been watching a lot of Parks and Rec.

I love Leslie Knope.

“I didn’t see, I have too many people I follow.”

(edited an hour-ish.. 2 hours later because I used the inclusive “you” when on social media that looks terrible!)

It just then means you we need to do a bit of work to catch up. It’s just that simple. If you we don’t, if you we just type without thinking you we are telling them you we can’t be bothered finding out what they feel/know.

If you we don’t have that time? Then ask, don’t assume.

If my friend posts something out of the blue, and I realise that I have missed a lot of what they have posted I go back catch up.I don’t ask them to repeat what they said, because it is not on them it is on me- regardless of whether social media filters things out of our lives. We know this happens. We know it happens.

I am also not going to tell my friends they are just part of the noise of social media. They are friends, they deserve better than that.

I had a very deep rest today, but need more.

http://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2016/the-world-of-cosplay/auckland/highland-park

On the plus side I have 30m of cotton twill tape for my Marie Antoinette hoops, and enough white sports strapping tape to make the steels look really nice and glide smoothing in the channels.

I also grabbed some top stitching thread for my Effigy stays as I want the effect of handsewing. The best way to do this is with a very short machine stitch and very heavy thread.

No silver thread for my Princess of Cleves jubon but hey.

Also I need to print out my ILL article. I think it is in the same state as another article and I’ll need to transcribe by hand. But we can see.

Mina, Maleficent, Elsa, Marie Antoinette hoops, and Liara I think. Oh and Ashara 🙂

And I have hair chalks. Will test drive them too.

Radio goo goo.

Seems incredibly relevant and now that I have the song in your head I’ll explain why.

The song is about being lost in the noise of the new, and we have indeed reached this point with our online lives.

So don’t become some background noise
A backdrop for the girls and boys

And it’s taken me a while to say that in a context that wasn’t whiney. How can you disagree with Queen (Roger Taylor in fact!)? It’s not fun feeling that way though. So I thought what can I do to help?

Well there were a few things. Firstly I took a hard look at my social media and unfollowed anyone who simply has not interacted with me in a long time, and vice versa. If anyone has thousands of friends they are not going to see much of anything. This is not ghosting, it’s recognising that this is not a healthy way to interact- hoping for something that just doesn’t happen. There is power in having too many friends to keep up with, but it’s not healthy.

Secondly I have been trying to actually comment, not just hit like. Likes are for yourself, comments are about the person on the other end. Unless it’s a rant of course. And that can happen with cross purposes and without intent.

I’m trying to reduce the number of times I post. I am on my desktop researching every day so it’s very easy to open a tab and do full form posts like this.

Also I’ll be fixing any issues in my blog- I have noticed far more interaction since the posts have come back and even more now the images are as well. There are a lot of links out there that were broken.

So for anyone feeling the same way, take care, keep yourself the star of your own show but know the people in your life are all real.

…love’s such an old fashioned word

and love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the light

and love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves…

My Marie Antoinette hoops are too big to easily adjust which is why it has taken the entire 7th Season of New Who to get them to the point I can just push the hoops out or in.

These are deceptive, a little. The first test wound up kidney shaped and I wound up with more elliptical and normal shape tonight!

They are currently 160cm wide, but the hoops are a little deeper than I want and they’ll be flattened a little more once the tapes are in place at every level I’ll also have to drop the diagonal short hoops.

I still will be able to layer both fine cotton and tulle to soften these. In photos of Normal sitting there are a few indicators of hoops but they are subtle. SO I definitely need to remember all the fluffy layers needed and that adds bulk both depth and width. But I really think it’ll be the tapes inside that help. I may even wind up sewing in a few more sets than I normally would.

I originally wanted to make this to join in with the Robes de Cour group Kendra had organised a few years ago, but I wound up setting that aside as I wanted to be in the group and between me saying I was thinking about making the gown and not saying so in time and what not I wound up shifting to starting an actual Robe de Cour based on the various silver gowns from Sweden. I stalled on that as well as I just wanted to not use the dead dino fabric I had!

Basically I knew how much fabric any of these options needed and I wanted the best fabric for my needs. And I only managed to find that in may this year! That is the fabric above that had to be decoloured. It was very brown originally 🙂

But since then I have become completely smitten with the “confrontation” gown too, so well there may be a few gowns to wear over these hoops and eventual petticoats as well.

(Hello people coming here from tumblr! Just as an update- I am waiting on an order of similar width sequin film to test for durability and ease of use. I keep having on and off issues with being able to scratch the Shimmer Sheetz however the colour is so perfect.. So I’m also going to attempt to tone the sequin film. )

I also have an updated list of all sequins I tested:
http://www.arrayedindreams.com/costume-portfolio/fantasy/frozen-elsa/frozen-elsa-sequins/
The methods will be the same though I need a new paper trimmer as the blade has escaped and I am short sighted enough to not be able to find the inch wide bright orange piece of plastic it is attached to! I hope that the heavier density of the sequin film will allow me to sand the corners smooth as well.

Elsa is semi on hold while I work out my Maleficent DragonsDemons Daydreams but I’ll update methods here regularly, including any new glues.

http://www.arrayedindreams.com/2014/03/28/my-josyrose_tweet-sequin-film-arrived/

 

So very similar but a little more durable.

 

No, not hard core stamped metal but I finally got cutting of my Shimmer Sheetz:

Shimmer Sheetz are produced by Elizabeth Crafts.

I have just ordered Turquoise as well because I think the two together will give a good gradient to the bodice. Here they are in action:

I was really worried the blue iris was too flat in colour but I also suspected that once cut the effect would be greater. And it was.  These tests didn’t even use all of the three strips I made from one sheet. Each strip is 1cm wide then cut to about 1.5-2cm with a few irregulars. I have five packets of three sheets so I should have more than enough 🙂

I’m gluing to net as I can increase sticky from underneath if need be.

The process to make them is as follows:

I scuffed the Sheetz on the reverse, this is to ensure the glue adheres. Not only is the iridescent layer laminated and so prone to pulling away but the surface is shiny. This means even the best glue it not going to grip unless it welds through- and that will lead to warping.

Then I cut the sheet in to 1cm wide strips with a handy line cutter. I am going to invest in a better one, but this was enough to get a feel for how it will cut.

Then each strip was cut into shorter pieces. Preferred length is 2cm so this gives 180 larger sequins per sheet. So 540 per pack.

At this stage I will sand the edges into rounded shapes. Not only because the artwork shows this but also to eliminate any potential extra snagging.

In the below with flash is on the left, without on the right.

I glued the pieces to two different kinds of net (the net of the sequin fabric and the old net for the cape). I tried irregular overlapping and I tried an open pattern. I prefer the open pattern, the shine really kicks through and the outlines of the background show up.

To glue I picked up each piece with angled tweezers and swept the underside over the end of an open tube of Shoe Goo (Same for E6000 or Goop) then laid and pressed the back in to the net. I used a sheet of styrene inderneath (would prefer waxed paper or sheet silicon to prevent sticking but also to allow the piece to lay flat during curing. I’d also like a roller to press the glue evenly.

So I tried from other angles and with and without flash to capture the effect.

Below are samples of the Sheetz with clear AB pale blue sequins and the base sequinned fabric.

Lined up vertical and horizontal to see which way works best.

All the fabrics before any alterations.

And finally just the intersection of cape, shirt and bodice and why I wanted power net and rounded edged sequins! There is a lot of friction there!