Boots and blasters

Still haven't sewn a stitch! But I have made some purchases of needed items. LEKKU! I also found boots at a second hand shop.

I need to mod them a bit, biggest mod is adding a pocket for my Blurg.

Hubby is busy working on his blaster as well, started with finding out the real world base gun was and finding plans for that, it has a nice shape, now on to paint. Cardboard, paper, glue and paper clay, feels great in the hand.

He is already thinking of how to build his lightsaber.

I have decided to use wool for Kanan shirt, so I am hunting it down.

Getting a start.

Yesterday I took my reference book and the youngest child to my local Joann fabric store. Came home after spending a couple hundred with at least half the fabric I need.

On the upper left is Sabine pants, lower left her shirt. Center is for Hera pants and Ezra jumpsuit. Right is agent Kallus. I didn't find anything for Kanan shirt and will likely use stash material for Chopper. Bad panda went and bought fabric before looking through the stash because I couldn't access my fabric in the kids room due to their mess!

Today I updated my Cosplanner account which I have been using for this project. I have found one thing I do not like about the way Cosplanner keeps track of how much you spend on a project, if you are making an item, there is no place to put the cost of supplies, so I added in fabric separately.

I have also decided on which season each character will be from. Kanan is 3/4, Hera and Ezra as well. While Sabine is season 2 as I like the long sleeves, hair and armour from that season best.

I am still on the hunt for patterns, Simplicity was on sale this weekend but the few I found close were no in the drawers. I am now tracking down pdfs. It also hurts that my boys are in the awkward stage at 10/12 between boys and men's, not like there are many patterns anyways for them. I am thinking of making these outfits as wearable as possible for mundane as well. Deciding if Sabine shirt should be tight fitting like dancewear or just a knit shirt, she is 8 after all.

Chose your character, and look

Every year I try to get my family to do a group costume. I suggested classic Batman, no dice. Two years ago I got 3 of the 4 kids to do original Star Trek, which they then were able to wear again the next year.

My first though was to have the family as such

Husband - Kanan Jarrus 

Myself - Hera

Son #1 - Zeb

Son #2 - Ezra

Daughter #1 - Sabine

Daughter #2 - Chopper

But then Son #1 decided he wanted to be Agent Kelly's, and he does resemble that character more than Zeb in both physic and personality. So that leaves me with a decision, do I keep Daughter #2, the 3-year old, as Chopper, or change her to Zeb and make a plush droid? Zeb is by far the most complicated character to costume, and my smallest human does have a personality more like chopper.

Once we decide on our characters we then have to  choose their looks, some like Sabine change often over the course of the series.

We have decided to do the blind Jedi Kanan, as I have never seen my husband without a moustache, and we met 20 plus years ago in junior high school over Star Wars. 

This puts us in season 3 to 4. Next question is do we stick, as a family, to these two seasons or go all over the series?

A paper Blurg

While I get do do the sewing of our costumes, my husband is in charge of the weapons.

First one finished is Hera's Blurg 1120 which he made from cardstock and cardboard, smoothed out any roughness with paperclay and then painted with his airbrush.  I believe he made the pattern himself in CAD. His first attempt at the Blurg was made while we watched season 4 of Rebels last week, it was rough and oversized, so we turned to CAD and made this beauty.

He scaled it to fit my hand as shown in the link above.

Above my Blurg is a DL 44 "Greedo killer" in progress. That one is a papercraft kit from  Uhu Found here

More pictures for fun.

A new project

Hello old blog,
My personal life has changed in the intervening years, new child, new career, new city, but my passion for sewing is still strong.
We are gearing up for Halloween 2018 here and I felt it would be a good  blog topic. My family is going to be the crew of the Ghost from Star Wars Rebels

The husband will be Kanan Jarrus, l will be Hera Syndulla, son #2 will be Ezra Bridger, daughter #1 will be Sabine Wren, and as of today the characters of son #1 and daughter #2 are undecided. Since I now work full time, our costumes will be a mix of bought and made, the husband is on board for making weapons and armour.

Yesterday I picked up this Book to help with the planing though it only  covers season 1. (I have yet to watch season 4.)

First 2 weeks of College Art

Changes have happened as I have started attending Community College. I am taking Business and Art. YAY!

I won't bore you with the business side much as it is still a bit over my head. Instead I bring back Sketchbook Friday!

The first project was a Self Portrait Collage. We were encouraged to bring in magazines, scrapbooking paper etc. I took in a Simplicity Pattern Catalog! I started out by just tearing out any pages that appealed to me, laid them out, then went back to the pile and found more. Much staring at images happened and then I had my rough idea.

The background is a textured white paper, I rubbed colored pencils over it to highlight the motifs.
The the "skirt" area was made from torn green photos, mostly trees, but there is the Aurora Borealis and some moss in the lower left too. I chose to tear out these pieces for a rougher look than just cutting them.

The figure you will notice is from Simplicity 2890 Civil War Corset by Kay Gnagey

Then I cut out a bunch of words that popped out at me and started arranging them. Happy accident with the first layout attempt, the words made phrases, so I tried to make them all work as phrases. I also tried to stick to a more blocky text rather than cursive, but that didn't always work as I was running out of time.

Here it is finished and installed in the hallway, I have art on display!

A larger image of the phrases is bellow the cut, as is my second project.

A NEW Direction

I am taking my pattern line in a new direction. This change was brought about by some feedback and instruction that I recieved this month.

I took a couple of workshops through my local Score location covering many topics from How to Start a Business to Social Media Marketing. It was a lot to absorb in a small amount of time and many days I returned home with a brain that was turned to mush. 

By the end of the last workshop I had decided that my market, was actually two markets: Historic Costumes and Plush Toys. While there is some overlap, I am willing to bet that most of you who are reading this fall more into one camp than the other. While I had debated with myself periodically for years about this issue, I never really wanted to separate the my work into two categories, because frankly it means more work for me, I have to have two of just about everything in order to have the two pattern lines. I also never came up with a name for the soft toy patterns I liked.

That is until the other night, after the last workshop on marketing.

Introducing Sew Pandi

I am moving all the plush and craft patterns over to Sew Pandi, also any modern styled clothing would be featured there.

Corsetra Designs will remain for the corsets and historical costumes.

There may be some cross over too, only time will tell what I accomplish.

One of the biggest reasons for this change is to control my image better. If you Google “Corsetra” a good percentage of what you will get back (that is in English) is directly linked to me. However Corsetra.com is NOT me, and I would recommend against visiting the site.*

If you Google “Corsetra Designs” you will get references to me exclusively.

I intend to market my corset patterns to the historical costume community, and many of those in that field do not overtly sexualize the corset, knowing that it is just another aspect of the whole package.

Doing an image search for corsets on the internet can be a dangerous place, many images will not be considered safe for work/children . This NOT good for a line of soft toy patterns DESIGNED for children!

So with that in mind I have decided that Corsetra Designs is not a good name for the toy patterns. I LOVE the name, and my logo and that  is not going anywhere. The Skeleton Corset Pattern is still going on, and will be released this Spring/ Summer. 

What does this mean for YOU, my followers? Well it means you now have a choice, and having choices is good! You can now choose to follow Corsetra Designs, or Sew Pandi, based on your interests. I have already duplicated my social media outlets, so you can follow  Sew Pandi on Facebook, and Pinterest.

I will be moving over  the toy and doll posts to Sew Pandi from here, so those posts will become links to the content on Sew Pandi. 

For the rest of April I will be duplicating some info on both outlets,  staggered on different days, so hopefully I won’t annoy you.

I learned some of how Facebook works in the Social Media Marketing workshop. I will be implementing some new techniques. I can tell you that the algorithms that Facebook uses to determine how many of your fans it will show your posts to is complicated. certain times of day work better, the more people who see the post, the more it will show them to others. The more YOU like a post and otherwise engage with that page, the more you will see that page’s posts. So if you like a page, engage with them! Just like a real-life relationship between friends, if you don’t do your part to be there for your friends, the less likely you are going to be friends for the long term. It doesn’t take much to “Like” a post.

I will be releasing a BRAND NEW pattern over on Sew Pandi later this week, I hope you come follow the website and the Facebook page.

*They appear to sell cheap corsets, most likely made over seas, probably by very low paid workers. Having never owned a mass produced corset, I would guess that any corset bought from these type of places will not hold up well to wear, and likely be uncomfortable. I am a big fan of custom made corsets if you are going to wear them.

Felt Celery

With Saint Patrick's Day coming up on Monday I decided a quick sewing project was in need.
To show my geek pride, I settled on a felt celery pin.

Here is what you need to make it:
My Pattern
1 sheet of green felt
Thread to match
Hand sewing needle
Pinking Sheers
Pin back or Safety Pin
Optional: Freezer Paper

Here is how to make it:

1. Download the PATTERN and print it out.

If that link doesn't work for you, try this Craftsy link!

Source: Felt Celery Pin via Corsetra on Craftsy

For best results print the pattern directly on to freezer paper. 

If you don't have freezer paper that will work in your printer, just trace the pattern pieces on to freezer paper. 

If you don't have any freezer paper, carefully pin the pattern to the felt.

2. Cut out shapes, DO NOT use your good fabric scissors to cut through the paper.
3. Peel off Freezer Paper

Please note pattern has been modified since this example was made up.

 4. Pink the ends of the leaves with Pinking Sheers.

5. Stack pieces from largest to smallest

6. Stab-stitch down the center, then come back filling in the spaces, this is called a Holbein or Blackwork Stitch.

Stab Stitching is done with the needle held at a right angle to the fabric being stitched, unlike running stitches where the needle is woven through the fabrics. The difference becomes noticeable when the fabrics are thick, such as with several layers of felt. the running stitch will have varying distances, but the stab is always the same.

7. Stitch the outer edges, pulling then flush with each other, this will cause the natural curvature seen in real celery. Stab stitch up and then back down.

8. Repeat for other side

9. Stitch halfway between the center and outer edge, creating the channels seen in real celery to form on the back.
10. Repeat for other side.

11. Attach pin to back of celery just bellow the leaves.

12. Wear with your favorite Doctor Shirt.

Also makes a cute addition to any play food set, just omit the pin!

Something RIGHT in the world

Today I received and e-mail from Doll Artist Yve HooSon concerning a pattern I had made back in 2010.

Yve was concerned that my pattern was being shared illegally on the internet and contacted me, I had listed my e-mail in the pattern, to make sure that it was okay to share this pattern with others that were interested.

I can't tell you how happy it made me to see someone concerned about the legalities of a pattern floating around on the internet, and secondly, that people WERE sharing it!

It isn't much of a pattern, more of a template, since I do not know much about woodcarving, I couldn't write instructions, but I was able to get the shape I desired from a skilled woodcarver who had never done a period doll before.

You can check out the post about the 18th Century styled Wooden Doll Pattern here.

A Wooden Doll in the 18th century style

Some years ago I wanted a wooden doll in the Queen Anne style and contacted a woodcarver through Etsy to create one for me. Then other projects got in the way and I haven't gotten back to her to finish her.

She is missing arms because the upper arms are to be made of cloth.

I had to create a "pattern" for the doll and decided to share it with the world at large. But I have never shared it here!

So here is the PDF that I created with the "pattern" so you can make you very own wooden doll in the 18th century style, and have fun dressing her!