Conventions for old people. the road to ECCC 2019

All you young whippersnappers listen up.

This is how Grandma goes to the Comic Con

The key is comfortable shoes.

Wearability is key. It's still chilly in March, and I'm taking a bus and walking about six blocks to the convention center. And also the return, at the end of the day, where I'll be very very tired. Coat check is a long line, but I will need to wear and check the big green coat. The floor is carpet over concrete. I have an artificial hip so sensible shoes. I pretty much build it all around those issues first.

The flip side of this is that the floor is always too warm. Anything of size needs fans (luckily repurposing the ones from computers and those inflatable yard art works is simple). The Dalek onesie was too warm for ECCC, not big enough for a fan, but I was looking forward to wearing it to the 2018 Anglicon, as the hotel is freakin cold in December.

The Anglicon that was cancelled.

And I'm only going one day to ECCC. You have to pick your day based on absolutely no previous information about who will be there, and which day would be more useful. The four day passes are all gone by a minute into online sales.

So, random choice: I'm going Friday.

A day none of my friends are going to be there, except those I give money to.

Which is sad. But personal life intervenes.

The next issue is: hero or villain? It was a nice change to be Eliza from Shape of Water. For one, it's a cute uniform. Second, it's got a grandma vibe so more small children talked to me. More adults as well.

But I'm.....I'm a Dalek, dammit. Even if no one ever can identify what I am, I know what I am and how to play it.

I made a new one just for Anglicon. I still have it.

The previously mentioned Full Metal Alchemist Alphonse isn't out of my wheelhouse, I've watched all the anime and even the live action ......thing... on Netflix. And it will have endless wearablity afterwards.

But then this sh#t happened. 

Don't bother looking this stuff up if you haven't heard it about it. The world doesn't need to promote hate.

I'm sparing you the pile of troll waste on my email feed from haters after I made ONE COMMENT on a YouTube video.

God dammit, can't we have anything nice anymore?

So I BOUGHT A COSTUME.

https://elhofferdesign.com/pages/our-story

I am very happy with my Hamilton sweater and my Wakandan cardigan, so this preorder was a no brainer.

And while not a thrifty purchase, I don't buy anything but underwear and shoes brand new, so I'm happy to give a good brand my hem money.

I've made some accessories.

Damn my hands are puffy. Supplies came from the stash

And some tights cause cold.

And I bought a 3D printed star and put it on a magnet for the front.

Glue magnets onto star and crossbar 

If you have a nametag at work, this is probably how it works.

Because I have to rep the women.

I am one, after all.

I am sure you all know by now how much I love Clark Gregg in "Agents of Shield". He sums the Captain Marvel situation up very nicely.

https://youtu.be/SJ9SnVJRD0c?t=2488

Power Tools

Authors Note: Almost all the sewing this month is for presents, and I'm just not interested in showing my hand on what I made for you guys. This is the only time of year you guys read this thing, so you can read about your grandfather.
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I am my father's daughter in many ways. I love to figure out how to fix something. I appreciate good work done well and don't mind paying for it.

Somewhere in the 70s, with coffee. Always coffee.

 He loved tools. And so do I.

I inherited the power tools from my dad's workshop when he and my non-evil stepmother moved into the condo. He had recently purchased a used floor drill press, so that, the table saw I learnt on as a child (the carrot as finger demonstration is ETCHED into my memory, thank you) and the good tools came to live in the house we're still in now.

Dad and NonEvil Stepmother at Pirate Party 2003

I built myself a decent workbench (still lacking a proper vise) and put up a peg board. I have added a metal shelving unit with double shelves, crammed with diaper wipe boxes full of screws, bolts, plastic bits, rocket parts, and a wide assortment of Ikea parts. Because K/D furniture is like Lego for adults. And diaper wipe boxes are my variation on my father's coffee can collection.

A tribute to the brilliance of the diaper wipe container.

I do not have my mother's sewing machine. I had my own Elna SU* when she died, and had always hated her Singer Touch and Swear 601e.

Of course, since then I have discovered the 601e's secret chain stitch powers, and now covet one. I keep finding ones that can't be repaired, but I think I can give up on that quest: I can use the chain stitch on the Janome. Not quite the one thread wonder I was hoping for.

The point of this post, besides thinking about my pops around his birthday, is the best machine for a job is the one that works the way your brain does. 

I discovered late in life that I am a front loading bobbin gal. Top loaders always fail for me. I bring my Kenmore 158 rather than use my pal's Brother at the theater; it won't behave for me and it ends in profanities. She is appalled by my small stitch selection and overly selective bobbin winder (spools changed at some point, the new ones don't fit on the old spindle) 

I miss my dad. He never learned to sew, but he remodeled the house and did iron his own shirts and I give him major props for that. I bought my husband his own ironing board and iron to that end. He stays away from the table saw. Working out so far.

I don't have a photo of my old Elna, this photo from Needlebar and a sweet history lesson on the Elna line. 

*My dad offered me a choice at high school graduation of a new sewing machine or a used car. I went with the machine that cost as much as the car. It ran well for twenty years, and then would not hold a tune up and I got talked out of it. Fool!

Fifty Dresses Fifty - Choir Dress Wrap up

If it's Autumn, it's choir dress hemming time!

As the dresses for Northwest Girl Choir "Fresca" group age, more of them come in the fall to be hemmed and repaired. Last year 40, this year 50.

I don't have photos from the fittings, because these are 10 and 11 year old girls, and they're not my kids. 

They are really funny. Yes, these dresses are party dresses but maybe not the one you would have picked. At some point, one girl will exclaim how ugly she thinks they are. And at some point, two or three of them will be wearing them in the room at the same time, and then: They Get It. A uniform makes you look alike.

SISTERS!

 And the skirts are swooshy and you can make a lot of noise with them. And they do.

The key to fitting little girls is making sure they know you are here to make the dress work for them. "That dress looks good ON YOU", not "You look good in that dress". And if the first dress doesn't work, we can find another. 

Because every inch of you is perfect, from the bottom to the top.

So I take in and I let out and I steal fabric from one to add to another. And I've saved all the scraps all these five years, which paid off big time this year.

Pulling long hem thread injury: I know thread cuts, but I was in a hurry. And after this, I kept the bandage on.

I hang the dresses from the ceiling of my very short room

They are two layers: poly taffeta and poly chiffon. The taffeta is a quick job; after five years I've got them all marked evenly and corectly, and I can just mark from the current hem.

The outer later  is badly cut and offgrain chiffon, which needs to be hung to be marked. Each and every one.

Now and then one of them needs to be recut on the taffeta skirt

 Hemming the taffeta is easy peasy. I trimmed a ruler to make this part swifter.

I cut off the extra bit of the plastic ruler to bring it up to the beginning of the measurement

Hem needs to be let out 3 inches: I line the ruler up on the 3" on the old hem line

I fold the hem over the ruler

And I pin with glass head pins (so I can iron over them)

 Fifty dresses and a handful of black two inch velvet ribbon belting (just try to find that stuff on short notice)

Added a sleeve gusset or two. 

I had to take one of the bodices apart and resew the neckline from the inside. That was a fun day; I tried many new techniques to undo/remove serged seaming, and have nothing definitive to report. Just give yourself too much time and some really sharp pointy snips.

This American Girl has her own custom made dress. She's a raffle prize for the winter fundraiser.

 They're done. Other stuff was sewn. Lots of fail.

 I've been better on Instagram than here this week, but here's where I get to think about stuff with words, and words are still my best friends.

This blog will be back to a regular schedule next week, and I'm revisiting the YSL exhibition, with extra camera battery.