Tonight I pick up the sewing machine that Debra is lending me, so I’ve been going through my bookmarks and notes on all the things I have to sew this upcoming summer. I have at least two robes that I know of, a handfasting dress, severe alteration to do on another robe (HRH has lost over 60 lbs, after all), various doll dresses, and of course I’m dreaming about Hallowe’en as well. With this book out of the way, I now have a life once again, and I’ve been wistfully wishing I had the opportunity to get crafty recently. (No pun intended, I swear.)

I’ve also been meaning to make proper curtains for the front window. And Ceri‘s been threatening to get me to make a quilt, which has always been a mild interest of mine, just not a pressing one.

I’m quite happy about all of this. I go on sewing sprees where I sew madly for about ten months, then can’t stand the sight of a sewing machine or fabric for a while. Since my machine started giving me grief two years ago while I made the Arwen riding dress for Hallowe’en, I haven’t really had a good sewing spree. I’m looking forward to it.

This fabulous action shot was taken by our own Poison Ivy. (No shot of the legs, but it does prove that both sides of the skirt were slit all the way up to there.) Another source picture is next to it.

The costume is minutes away from being finished. Of course, the few minutes that it will take are delayed until tonight, because I can’t find the replacement glue sticks for my glue gun, and I need gold cord, too.

The snippy little pocket machine I borrowed from Scarlet won’t sew through more than two layers of fabric, I discovered to my immense annoyance, so earlier today I was hand-sewing pieces of slippery satin and interfacing, finishing off the details of a collar. I was decidedly unhappy with the results (I’m picky) when I remembered that I had a tiny glue gun left over from Yule gifts. So I dug it out and began turning bits of interfacing down, moving along happily… until the glue stick ran out.

While I was gluing, though, I thought about how I approach costuming. I’m enough of a perfectionist to want my costumes to be elaborate and perfect, with no sign of a human being having touched it in any way. However, I know they’re only going to be worn once or twice, and a costume is about overall effect. No one is going to be peering at my seams. (If they are, they belong in the SCA, not at a superhero party.) Costume purists might choke at the thought of a glue gun, but my costume experience comes from theatre, where no one is close enough to be picky anyway, and emergency repairs usually consist of spit and bubblegum. Having seen close-ups of the costumes from the LOTR film trilogy, I can say with all confidence that nothing looks the same in real life as it does on the screen.Part of the magic is having a real, flesh-and-blood, breathing person moving around in the costume, giving it life and something bigger-than-life, too.

I take pride in that overall presentation when I costume. I’ll do what it takes to achieve the effect. All that means is I’m skilled in the art of making a costume look better than it actually is. It’s an illusion.

But then — that’s what a costume is all about.

Twenty-nine hours until the superhero costume party!

For all the crafty folk who stop by this blog, I give you:

PatternReview.com

Enjoy!

I have three seam rippers, and none of them can be found.

Three. Two of them purchased because I couldn’t find the previous seam ripper(s).

The arm pieces to my superhero costume are complete. One’s a bit tight; I’ll just have to not gain any muscle mass on the left arm until after the party.

I need bleach to lighten a piece of fabric a bit, a seam ripper to unpick two metres of seams, and I need to find my interfacing and my glue gun. Thank goodness this costume doesn’t need a ton of sewing, because the little “quick-fix” portable thing Scarlet lent me is good for temporary hems and not much more. Next cheque (whenever that might be), a sewing machine. Absolutely.

But sooner: a seam ripper. Damn it.