Random Encounter

  Obligatory photo in the hotel room because the second boots hit asphalt, all bets are off.   Wore the hat through the airport because both it and the box were too bulky and there's no way that's getting crushed. Big hit. No, seriously. If you ever want walk-by compliments, I highly recommend wearing a silly hat through an airport. It will make someone's day. Think of yourself like the frozen watermelons they give polar bears in July.    Truth be told I was really only planning to wear the costume one day. Locals tend to bristle when you point this out, but Atlanta in September tends towards the hot and humid. And you gotta walk. A lot .   Also, technically the hotel I was staying at isn't even on this map.    What? You think I'm making "stays at host hotel" kind of money? Flattered, but no.   Anyway, flipping through schedule and saw a FF shoot. Told myself I'd go if I got ready in time. And if they didn't look bothered. And if I got ready in t...

Chances of the machine eating your project are low, but never zero.   Time for assembling the miscellaneous bits! Apologies, but this is going to jump around a bit. There are several little odds and ends that need to be taken care of before this whole mess gets packed up.   Formed a quick sheath out of black shelf liner. Yes, believe it or not you can run this through your machine. It will hate you for it, but you can totally do it. It's not exactly pretty, but it'll serve it's purpose well enough and now I won't have to worry about what to do if someone bumps into me and the sword breaks. Is there anything appliqué CAN'T class up?   Got some matching appliqué for the mask. They're in the same style as what is on the cape, so it looks like the mask is part of the outfit and not just something tacked on because of circumstances. The mask in question is just a sport mask, so it's light and very comfortable, but more importantly there's enough room to fit a...

  Ugh, it's been a hot minute. Forgive me. It's Spring around here. Which means no end of yearly house chores, garden clean-up, etc. Anyway, what was I working on? Oh, wait, yes! THE PANTS.    Any vest worth its salt has tails. Everyone knows this.   Not a half bad for a first attempt with this pattern! But how did we get here? If memory serves, we left off with the front pockets assembled...   So next comes the back pockets. These have reinforced tops so you don't see as much of the wrong side of the fabric. But anyway, overlock stitch the bottom of the reinforcement. Put right sides together, straight stitch, and trim edges. Flip it inside out and stitch along the top with the twin needle. Fold and press the edges. Then use the pattern to place the back pockets and twin needle them into place.      (It looks vaguely like an autobot symbol. I know.) Nice thing about back pocket top stitching is that no one is going to notice if you messed it...

Finally. Six posts in and the sewing blog actually does some sewing.  Where did I leave off? Oh, right. Continuing on with M8473.  Corduroy is a pain to cut out. See, normally patterns do this super-helpful thing where they show you a pattern layout on 45" and 60" bolts. Blesséd be the layout.  But corduroy has wales and to insure those wales stay parallel means cutting everything out piece by piece. That's cool. Totally wasn't planning on doing anything else tonight. Or the night after. Swear to you this is the same fabric from the same bolt.  And then there's this whole other thing.   Know I said I would cut with the nap going up, but with fabric in hand I think the other way is the way to go. But you can clearly see that, can't you? With the nap running down the color is noticeably richer. Just glad I noticed this BEFORE cutting pieces out.  So, one eternity later, we have our cut corduroy. It's often recommended to finish the edges on corduroy, bu...