If You Bleed on It, It Must Be Worth Working On

After this weekend, my fingertips hurt.  The index finger of my left hand has a bandaid on it now (which makes typing uber-weird) that covers up a neat little chunk I took out of my finger with a straight pin.  My middle finger on the left hand has a little red dot from where I poked myself with a needle.  The thumb and index finger of my right hand have similar little red dots, and I also have a neat little "stitch ripped" line where I tried to rip the stitches from my own flesh (oops).  The basement trash can is full of little blood-stained tissues.  My work space kind of looks like Seymour Krelborn's work space at Mushnik's Flower Shop (you know, before he started feeding Audrey II people).

This blog entry is taking an interesting turn...  Let's move on.

Since I started sewing, I've had a saying.  I don't even know where the saying started in my project-line, but over the years, I keep it in the forefront of my mind every time I work on something: if you bleed on it, it must be worth working on.  For me, this basically means that if you went through this much - this much pain and this much hurt - to get here and you're still going, then it must be worth fighting for.  Very rarely does bleeding actually help a project.  Usually you have a brief moment of panic and insert an outcry/curse (I learned how to curse when I learned how to sew - that's another blog entry for another time).  Then you assess the wound, check for bleeding and then, finally, stop the bleeding before it gets on important things like fabric.  (Unless, of course, you're working on a weathered Lara Croft costume.  In that case, wipe that wound on whatever item is closest to you and call it "accurate".)

This weekend, I spent most of my time working on the Jyn Erso vest.  This is the brown vest that I originally purchased off of eBay that I was planing on wearing "as is" and just saying "forget accuracy".  This is the vest we'll be speaking off:


So Thursday night, I happened to be starting at the vest and I thought, "Wait.  No.  I can make this cooler.  Way cooler."  (This is how all good and bad ideas start, it seems, so it's difficult to differentiate between the two upfront.)

So I sat down with my stitch ripper, turned on my Rogue One soundtrack, and went to town ripping out those stitches.  It didn't stop there.  It got way uglier and more involved than a few ripped stitches.

Below is a rundown of how this vest saga has turned out so far:

Thursday

• I ripped out stitches that held in a front zipper.  I pulled the zipper and additional zipper panels off.
• I ripped the stitches out of the collar because I knew I'd eventually have to shorten in both height and length.
• I cut off a chunk of the vest in order to shorten it, with the intent of adding an elastic waistline later.
• Since the vest was a little snug, I went ahead and ripped out the side seam stitches with the intent of stitching those back up with a smaller seam allowance.
• Since I was already staring at the inside of the vest anyway, I decided it was a little too "puffy" for Jyn.  I snipped holes into the interfacing that held the fluff batting, and I pulled out about half of it in each and every section of the vest.  I hand-stitched these holes back up because it made them lay a little flatter and neater.

  

  Vest guts in the basement

• Then, since everything was already torn apart and it made it easier for me to do any sort of decorative stitching, I decided to go ahead and start making the decorative lines that are on the front of Jyn's vest.
• I went to bed quite happy with where this was all going.
• We ended with something like this at midnight:
  

Friday

• Trip to JoAnn's to pick up some fabric for pockets, details, additional stuff, lining, etc.  
• I added the decorative stitching to the other side of the vest.
• I shortened the collar in all ways it needed to be shortened and stitched it down. 

Saturday

• Trip to JoAnn's (again) to pick up coordinating thread that I forgot to pick up on Friday.  Also picked up some stiff felt pieces to use as "webbing" because I can't find any dark brown webbing.  And this is "good enough".
• Decided the back of the vest would look "super awesome" if I actually quilted it like Jyn's in the movie.  So I ripped more stitches, pulled out more stuffing, did some research on tie quilting, and then measured and marked and quilted.  By hand.  Ouch.

  

  Learning new things - like floss tied quilting

• Then, because the torture wasn't quite exquisite enough, I decided that I could totally change the lining of the jacket from tan to the screen-accurate red.  So I got down on the floor, put a piece of tissue paper over my vest, drew out a rough pattern with seam allowances, and then cut out my two side lining pieces.  
• I hand-stitched one of the side lining pieces, and I pinned the other one in place.
• I cut up some of the stiff felt to use as the two webbing pieces on the vest front and tested placement.
• I decided to hand-stitch the yellow stitch lines that go from the shoulder to the waist band of the vest.  I completed one of four which allowed me to place the faux-webbing.
• I stitched down the faux-webbing.

Sunday

• Turned on my sewing machine to realize I'd blown the light bulb.  Cue the third trip to JoAnn's in just as many days.  Light bulb found.  Got caught in store by thunderstorm.  Looked around.  Remembered I needed elastic.  So remembered to get that.
• Decided I could do a back lining piece, too (I'm so glad I'm making this "easy" on myself).  Did the same pattern mock-up with the tissue paper, cut my fabric piece, pinned it in.
• I finished hand-stitching in all three lining pieces while watching movies with the Nerd Husband.   
• I finished hand-stitching in the last three yellow stitch lines from shoulder to waist band.
• To cut down on the bulk of the garment (because it was currently outer layer, batting, interfacing, original lining, red lining), I decided to cut out as many portions of the original tan lining as I could get to.  Some areas were hard to reach and other areas were kept to help stabilize the whole thing.
• I tried to play with a pocket pattern and drafted out two patterns that didn't work out for me.  I'm trying to figure out how to add the gusset and make it look decent.  It was late when I started, though, so I gave up and went to bed.  

After all of that, we're looking at a project that currently looks like this:

Now I'm actually sitting in the basement trying to figure out what my "next steps" are.  I received a PM from a poster on the RPF boards today in response to my inquiry about the pockets, and they were very kind to provide me with their pattern and instructions.  However, I don't have those print-outs sitting in front of me right now, and my brain is really kind of tired.  I'm not sure that's something I want to try and mess with this late at night.  Really, I wanted to try to type all of this out so I had it out there - so I could see some of my own progress and just how far along this thing has come.   Yeah, I've bled on it.  Yeah, I've taken some chunks out of my fingers, flung a few curses, and drank my weight in Diet Mt. Dew into the wee hours of the morning.  But it's been worth it.   It'll all be worth it.

A Mixture of Things and Stuff

Just a little lunchtime update - because I need to share the awesome.

The baby shower (which was the second column on my massive to do list that I've been keeping for weeks now) was yesterday, and it went off without a hitch!  It was so awesome to have everyone come together for the planning, set-up, and clean-up of the whole event.  Our whole bunch worked together so well, and it made things so super easy.  I think everyone had a great time.

So now, that column on the to do list will get hidden, and we focus on only two columns - "Personal" and "Celebration" (as in Star Wars Celebration).  It's so satisfying to see the time dwindling down toward vacation, and yet I'm also slightly panicky on occasion.  However - just like the baby shower - I think this will all come together and be a pretty awesome event.

Costume-wise, I didn't do anything over the weekend because I was working on baby shower planning and whatnot.  But I did have some fun little costuming things that popped up last week at various times.  I did do some work Thursday and Friday nights, so we can talk a little bit about that, at least.

Thursday night I decided to take some time to work on yet another Asajj Ventress make-up test.  This one went really well, and I'm thrilled with the new make-up style that I'm testing out.  I managed to find some great matte eyeshadows for shading and defining, too.  I'll have to write-up a more detailed post on this later when I have time, but I think it'll work out really well.

Friday was St. Patrick's Day, so I wanted to follow tradition and wear some green but with a nerdy twist.  I pulled out my Her Universe Death Star Plans dress (because it has green in it), my almost-complete Jyn jacket, a Rogue One patch that I quickly stitched onto the jacket sleeve, and some shamrock socks.  I put it all together for a pretty nifty outfit, if I do say so myself.   Not one person noticed.  I so felt like a Rebel spy.  It was awesome.  Also, a little part of me was sad that no one noticed, but the other part of me felt cool for being such an expert undercover operative.  So points for me on the Imaginary Scoreboard of Life.

I also finished up the Kyber Crystal necklace on Friday night by adding the findings onto the leather cord and adding a dab of glue to keep it all secure.  I'm kind of proud of this little project for a few reasons.  First of all, it allowed me to use some items I already had sitting around the house (leather cording, wire, jewelry findings and jump rings).  The only things I purchased for this particular part of the costume was some E6000 glue (which I have never used before in my life and really need more practice with) and a little quartz crystal from a fun little local shop called Accent on Nature.  Secondly, I got to visit this awesome little store I otherwise might not have run into, and I actually ended up spending way more time looking around than I intended.  I found the employee working that evening was so engaging and willing to help out.  He wanted to see the image from the movie, and then he walked around to help me find ways to replicate the project.  It was extremely helpful for a person like me who has little to no experience in jewelry-making.  They also had shop kitties that roamed around and helped you out with your shopping experience.  It was pretty excellent.

Friday was also a test of some fabric paint for the Jyn jacket.  I tried a mixture of yellow acrylic and white Tulip "puffy paint" again to get that screen printed puff quality, but I'm either not mixing it at the correct ratio or the puffy paint properties just get lost when you mix in the acrylic.  I can't really mix too much more white in, though, because then my yellow starts to turn to a pastel, and Jyn is not an Easter egg.  I've been playing with mixing up some colors along with the yellow acrylic I have, too - just to see if another shade needs to be used.  But I can't find anything I like.  The black made it green.  The tan did almost the same thing as the white and turned it pastel yellow again.  And honestly, I kind of like how the yellow looks on its own.  So I might just go with that.  We'll see.

Finally - today - I decided to throw a bit more costume stuff together.  I grabbed the Kyber crystal necklace and the almost-complete Jyn jacket on my way out the door for work.  The Kyber crystal held up fantastically.  No issues.  However, the second run of the Jyn jacket actually caused some popped stitches in the back area.  I had created a little shoulder vent by using a blind hem stitch because I thought it looked better than an actual seam would down the back shoulders of the jacket.  However, two of the stitches popped when I tried to throw it over my shoulder this morning and pull it into place.  It tugged at the fibers of the fabric weave, too, and it kind of messed them up.  Not a big deal, really, but definitely one I'm going to have to revisit (do I care to add a seam or simply leave "as is").

Despite all of this, I think my next stop on this little project is working on the gloves.  I need to shorten those, add the wrist strap, and then those should be done and ready to go.  Once those are done, I'll figure out the next step and then the next, until - finally - we'll have something that's "close enough" and hopefully still looks pretty darned fun.

An Update on Why There's No Update

I've been wanting to write out a post just so I can try to keep up with things a bit more regularly, but I find that every time I put some words on the screen, I just end up deleting them.  I think it's because it's mostly just my daily ramblings about costume projects.  Issues I'm having with sewing or creating things.  Or just posts that say, "omg I completed 2 things and have 50 more left to go!"  So I delete those types of posts, and this blog just sits silently.

Well, no more, my friends!  Today you will get an update on why there hasn't been an update.  Actually, I already updated you on that (see opening paragraph).  So now...on to an update of rambling and half-finished proportions!

My life has been reduced down into four columns on a spreadsheet, and that spreadsheet is my current tie to sanity.  I have a white column with the date, a purple column for personal things, a pink column for baby shower planning, and a blue column for Star Wars Celebration preparation.  I update my list every day, multiple times a day.  I italicize any items to make them as "done".  A row gets hidden when the day is over.  Leftover tasks that don't get italicized get moved to another day.  It's simplistic but oh-so-effective for me in this hectic time.

I wanted to give a run-down of the Celebration preparation activities that have actually happened.  I think if I see them listed out, it'll make me feel better.  (And we don't have to talk about the things that are left to do because that will not make me feel better...)

What Has Happened (Since Monday, February 13th)

• Finished last hand-stitched hem on finger of Jyn gloves
• Kohl's shopping for blue-gray shirt and pants for Jyn
• Failure on first trip
• Success on the second trip!
• Got Asajj Ventress make-up in mail; did 2nd make-up test
• 1st make-up test was done with old paint that was already on-hand and was completed prior to 2/13
• Painted test stripes with puff paint and puff paint/acrylic mix for Jyn jacket
• Heated up iron and tested puff paint
• Puff paint really puffs; puff paint/acrylic mix did nothing
• New Jyn vest arrived from eBay; too small but will work
• Old Jyn vest was blogged about previously; a tan piece of blah that will probably sit this one out
• Trip to thrift store for Jyn items - no luck
• Trip to JoAnn's to buy fabric for Jyn scarf - no luck
• Trip to WalMart to buy fabric for Jyn scarf - success
• New Asajj make-up arrived
• Asajj princess dress and raven finger puppet arrives (this silly idea deserve it's own post, really; maybe someday)
• Try on princess dress
• Stare at awkwardly fitting dress in the mirror
• Prep dress for return
• Give dress to Nerd Husband to drop off to UPS for return
• Keep raven finger puppet because he's amazingly awesome
• Buy more thread from JoAnn's
• Check out thrift store for friend's planned Cassian costume and send pics to friend
• Check out thrift store for dark brown webbing or belts - no luck
• Find Asajj skirt in dirty clothes and wash skirt
• Restitch shoulder seam on Jyn jacket
• Repin and finish blind stitch on Jyn jacket back
• Finish sleeve detail on Jyn jacket
• Work on Jyn necklace

 What's funny is that after I read this, I realize there are other things in there that I completed that I didn't list out!  How unfair of me is that; I just didn't give myself credit for those things.  For shame on me.  Seriously.

Now I have to stop.  Because writing a blog post was not on my To Do list.

But it is now.

Because marking "done" things in italicized font is my life.

Jyn Costume Update - Shirt & Pants

I take back all of the mean, nasty things I uttered about Kohl's when I left there on Monday night.  On Tuesday, they were redeemed.  I ended up finding the "good enough" Jyn shirt online with free shipping to store.  Plus, they were having a two day sale, which knocked it down about half-price.  I ordered it and went to pick it up Tuesday night before I got home.

The moment I walked into Kohl's, it started pouring down rain, so I figured I might as well waste some time and let it die down.  I started looking through clearance racks for the fun of it, and I ran across a pair of black pants which would be excellent for Jyn.  They aren't perfect by any means, but they had the right shape.  I could use them as a template (if I have time), or I can use them as a costume piece.  I went to try them on, and I loved them.  One of the little hook/eyes was broken, though, but I held onto them anyway.

I went to pick up my shirt, double-checked the size and color, and then went up to the front of the store to check out with my new-found pants.  I was mulling the situation over about the broken hook/eye.  Technically, the item is damaged, so I kind of thought I had a good chance on asking for an additional discount.  After all, it worked at JoAnn Fabrics with the vest fabric I bought.  But they were also on super-clearance, so I really wasn't sure.

I got up to the counter, showed the cashier the issue, and asked, "This might be a dumb question, but could you give me a little extra discount on these?"

She responded with, "Not a dumb question at all.  I can do 15%."

Sold.  And more proof that it never hurts to ask politely.

So I walked out the door with a Jyn shirt and Jyn pants.  My Jyn might be looking a little pristine with all of this new clothing - lol.  Not exactly what I was aiming for, but it'll work in a pinch.  And we are definitely in a pinch.  I'm keeping track of my To Do list in a spreadsheet, day-by-day, trying to make all of this work.  It's satisfying to see the things get crossed off, so I've gotta stick with that mentality.  If things get bumped to different days, I can't let that deter me.  I'll get there as best I can.