Lookin' good

Finally, I have something impressive to show!  And I'm going to use a different backdrop than the basement carpet!!!! (*commence Muppet!flail dance*)

Behold, my ongoing efforts of the last few weeks:

As you can see, I have completed the designs and transferral of said designs to my skirt via long stitch, and filled in three.

Here is a nice hi-res photo I'm using for reference:

My goal is to finish this half of the "vertical" embroidery by the end of the week (one design per day).

When I begin the second half I will document the transfer process for the benefit of my lovely blog readers and also upload some handy scans of the drawings themselves.

The only thing that's causing me some annoyance is the middle petal of the 2nd design.  With such a wide stitch to fill in the design, it's particularly susceptible to puckering.  It wouldn't eve be as bad as it is, except it just so happens I jammed the edge of the embroidery frame right over it, causing it to loosen a bit.  I will probably go back when the bulk of the work is done and fill that one in a little more.

Astute students of Rapunzel's costume will note that there is also embroidery along the hem. Oh, and the "dots" trailing away from each of these designs.  While my ultimate intention is to complete the hem embroidery as well, I am not going to stress about that part for my Dragon Con deadline.  Summer has just begun and I have got a lot of great stuff coming up: The Sound of Music, my trip to Paris, a potential promotion at work, a friend coming to visit over my birthday in August... all sorts of distractions.  And after the embroidery shown above is complete, my focus must, must, must be the completion of the bustier.

(I will probably go back and fill in the trailing "dots" too.  Those won't be hard).

A-Z challenge recovery and beyond

Okay, first off, I dropped the ball on the letter Z.  This is for two reasons: One, I had dropped the ball on "X" so suddenly my beautiful perfect run was marred anyway.  Second, the post was going to be "Z is for Zac" in honor of Zachary Levi, who plays Flynn Rider in Tangled and Chuck Bartowski on Chuck, and my very favorite celeb in the whole wide world, but each time I started to approach the task, I felt awkward about it. Since it's mostly strangers that read this blog, it feels weird to gush about my silly fangirl crush.

(Among my friends, totally different story)

Anyway, briefly, Z is for Zachary Levi, who is a talented, funny, classy, handsome, nerdy guy, someone whose hand I would like to shake someday.  When I found out he was going to be voicing a Disney prince (and SINGING), I kind of hit the roof for a couple of days.  The payoff when I finally got to see the movie was even better.  Cheers to you, Zac!

As you may have noticed, with the challenge over, my posts have suddenly dried up.  This is more or less because I can't think of any reason to post unless I have substantial progress to report.  Or if I have some kind of fun costuming anecdote.

(I really like the word 'anecdote')

I'm still working on the straps/armholes/sleeves part of the bustier.  I'm reasonably assured that I have the armhole part down.  The next step is to make a sleeve pattern.  I say make because the puffed sleeve is in the family of basic sleeve types and I can save myself buying yet another pattern if I can manage to draft my own.  A friend referred me to this helpful series on rudimentary sleeve drafting (part 2, part 3) and I think I can actually do it.

I also made a comprehensive list of all the supplies/tools that I am going to need to buy before this is over (in addition to the rest of the brocade I'm still waiting on):

Embroidery thread (Maybe. Probably)
Material for: petticoat, bodice lining, upper/lower sleeves
Lace trim
Ribbon trim
Pink gromets
Thingy for inserting gromets
Boning strips to reinforce gromets
Satin needles for machine
Purple thread

I still haven't made my embroidery transfers.  Considering that Sound of Music rehearsals begin in time-consuming earnest next week, I should really, really look to that...