Darth Revan in Progress

Mostly a place to hold the pictures at this time.

 

 

 

 

The Ballad of Evil Betty

Several years ago, I volunteered to be the gatekeeper  for a large medieval reenactment event (Diamond Wars, SCA).  Yes, I did call myself Zuul all weekend.    My campsite, and the campsites of my nearest and dearest friends, was set up near the building serving as the "gate". 

In my guise of Zuul, the Gatekeeper, I befriended a feral cat.  He was black, and seemed friendly enough, so we began to ponder names for this cat.  The night was long, but there was laughter and snacks!  Delicious cheese and crackers!  When the time came to collapse into our tents, though, a large hunk of the cheese remained.  I put it in a bowl , wrapped it up in a linen veil, and left it on the picnic table since it was pretty cold out, and I would likely be back up in about two hours anyway.

When the cold light of dawn spread over the camp, the cheese was in the paws of the cat, the bowl was still on the table with the veil wrapped around it, and the veil had a huge gaping hole gnawed through it.  Thus, the cat was dubbed "Evil Betty".  Mainly because we are a bunch of nerds, and we had been talking about Kung Pow: Enter the Fist the day before.

This was about 4 years ago.  Why on earth would I keep a linen veil with a hole gnawed through it by a feral cat for four years?
Memories, man.  Memories!  Plus it was linen, and that stuff's not cheap.  Plus linen feels good, and I compulsively keep things "just in case".

This veil with a hole gnawed through it made its way to my kitchen towel drawer, and I'd used it on several occasions as a bar towel.  Then yesterday, when I pulled it out of the dryer (all the while marveling at its softness and whiteness), I thought, ...SOON.  Soon you will be more than a veil with a hole gnawed through it!

 

 

 

 

And, Lo, it came to be that the Veil of Evil Betty became, through the power of sewing and desire to 'get stuff done' over summer vacation, the Apron of Evil Betty.

Another project added to the list

     I'm always adding to my project list.  I just can't tell myself no.  I add costumes, crafts, and home projects to an ever growing list of things that do eventually get done, but the add rate far exceeds the completion rate.
I see something cool and start making mental note, pinning stuff on Pinterest, chatting on forums...
     The part of my brain that manages the list is saying, "Beth.  What are you doing? Beth? Stahp!"  I waved my hands and said loud things to that part of my brain to distract it while I add another costume to the list!

     Already a member of the 501st with my Darth Traya costume, I've decided to tackle another one!  Senator Viqi Shesh! Never heard of her? Star Wars Expanded Universe novels, New Jedi Order and the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, specifically.  She's a bit of a baddie...

 

Want to read more about her? Go here: All about Viqi Shesh!

 

     She's got an awesome outfit, though, and my hair color and eye color fit for not having to do too much work other that the costume itself and accessories!

     There are, naturally, specific guidelines for completing this costume, and I'm looking forward to working on it.  I'll likely work from the inside out, and the bottom layer is a white jumpsuit/unitard.  Today, I acquired the pattern I think will work for the basic shape. Alterations will have to be done for the sleeves at the wrist and possibly the neckline.

 

So excited!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2013, the year we make...stuff and progress!

It's a whole new year in which to be lazy about updating my blog, too, so there's that bonus.

My horoscope said I should make stuff because something something planets something nodes something constellation something.  Well, mysterious planets, nodes, and constellations don't have to tell me twice to get crackin'.  This should shape up to be a year of completing projects.  I have several in process, in planning, and some just floating around in my head.

 My one true hope is to make some real, measurable progress on the home make-over.  I was aided in this hope by the passing of our downstairs TV.  It's timely demise has ushered in a new downstairs order, conceived in liberty and dedicate....er, well.  Let's just say that the old TV was a noble, ancient beast.  300pounds of lovely CRT goodness and light.  It had it's own special housing, flanked by massive bookshelves and corner curios.  Both the TV housing and the curios are about to bid us a fond adieu for other climes.  I see a tall dark stranger in their future.  I think his name is Craig.  It looks like he's got some sort of list...

The Saga of the Mysterious Blue Pipe

We moved into our Dream Home in November of 2010.  Built in 1945, it was a place with character, personality, and a myriad of bizarre quirks left to us by the previous owners.  I could go on and on about the strange row of large nails hammered into the wall, the weird drop-down ceiling that I suppose they thought was an essential part of any early 1980s remodel attempt, the fake rock wall in the bathroom, or even the hook and eye locks on the *inside* of the closets.  Today, though, we're going to delve into the mystery of the Blue Pipe.

 

 

Mysterious blue pipe hung down one corner of an upstairs room, jutting down from the ceiling like a bad idea.  It hung the entire distance from ceiling to floor, and to hide it, someone with an overabundance of moxie painted it blue like the walls.  It had no cap on the end, just it's bare pipe threads waiting for something to come along and be reattached.

Where did it go?  What did it do?

Investigation in the attic yielded no answers.  The attic directly above this corner of the room was smooth floor (also painted blue - but a soothing "prison blueish gray"). 

In 2010, as we were moving in, we thought, "Huh.  We should probably do something about that."  And then we moved on.  Everything about trying to get this house purchased had seemed so needlessly hard that the thought of trying to overcome the mysterious blue pipe conjured (at least in my head) images of steel saws, blow torches, and people wearing welding masks.  I envisioned having to turn off the electricity, water, AND the gas just to try to figure out what to do about this pipe. I was certain we'd have to "call somebody" about it.

So we ignored it for two years.

Fast forward to this very day.  A day that will live in infamy greater than any day that Velma pulled the mask of some farmer as she exclaimed "Jenkies!"  In our slow refurbishing crawl of the house, we've come to this room and back to this corner.  With the Mysterious Blue Pipe.

We stood and looked at it a while.  Banged it with a hammer.  The we said to ourselves, "Well, we may as well pry up the floor in the attic and see where it goes."

I stayed in the room as my husband tromped up the stairs because it was my job to smack the pipe up into the ceiling so he could get a read on where exactly to pry into the floor.

"Okay!"
Smack, smack, smack.
Silence.
Smack, smack, smack.
Pause.
Smack, sm...
"Hey!  That's enough."

Lo and Behold!  There was a panel in the floor that came up with relative ease.  Wonder of wonders.  The pipe went...nowhere.  It fastened into another elbow joint and continued on to who knows where under the floor.

Recall that this pipe wasn't capped at it's terminal end, so it wasn't connected to any live utility (water, gas, blue ethereal goo).

Back downstairs, we both stared at it for a minute and my husband said, "What if we just unscrewed this piece?"  So he went to the basement and collected a pipe wrench, fitted it onto the pipe, and then came my only other contribution to this endeavor (besides the ceiling smacking)...
"Lefty loosey"
Turn, turn, turnturnturn...
And the pipe unfastened and slid down out of the ceiling.

Years of Mystery.  Solved in approximately 30 seconds.

 

And now, time for caulk and a plaster patch.

 

Update Edit:

 

Patching process begun!

 

That patch is from a single hole wall patch kit available at Home Depot.  I think it was about 4 bucks, and it has the plate, the mesh, and a handy sticky backing to apply it to the wall.  Just sand, stick, then let it dry and start spackling over it!  Easy Peasy.

 

 

Coat one of the spackle!  Also I managed to get the whole top of the room taped off to paint the moulding!  WooHoo!

Darth Traya, done!

 

 

So, Darth Traya is done, and added to the costume repertoire! She's mainly a Convention type costume. I've taken her out for a twirl a couple of times, and I have to admit it's not a very "child friendly" costume. Geeks and Gamers at Cons love it though! She was my gateway costume into the 501st Legion (Star Wars Costuming Group), and I will have her on at All-Con (March, Dallas TX) and Dragon Con (September, Atlanta GA) yearly!

Stay tuned for my next Star Wars costume attempt...(pst, it will be an ISO/RSO: Imperial Service Organization. Similar to our 1940s concept of the USO complete with pin-up hair and make-up!)

 

 

And then, there was a hat!

The Scarlet Witch Steampunk ensemble work continues, and I have finally gotten around to constructing the hat.  If you pay a visit to my friend's blog, Ribbons and Riesling, you'll see how a hat is actually built from the ground up.  I am a cheater pants, though.

I cheat at Monopoly, cards, and sewing whenever possible, so to make this hat, I started with a hat - A cheap black costume top hat, and I just started covering it with fabric.  Step one was sewing a cylinder to cover the hat.

I hand stitched the fabric close and tight as I could around the hat, but it wasn't tight enough...so then the serious cheating began.  I plugged in the hot glue gun.

While it was heating up, I pleated a length of the fabric to use to cover the brim.

Then I hot glued it to the inside of the hat.

So, then it looked like a hat with a fashionable skirt attached.

Then I folded over the hat skirt and glued it down to cover the brim.  It made a little pleated-like effect with which I was fairly pleased.

The I stitched up a hat band out of the same fabric, and glued it down (a section at a time) all the way around the hat - pulling it tight and pinning it after each section.  When the glue set up, I took out the pins and started work on the embellishments.

This is a picture of Marvel's Scarlet Witch.  As you can see, the headpiece frames the face and it pointed at the tops over the eyes.  My task was to translate this to a Victorian-esque hat that will echo that shape.  Red top hat...so what has two points at the tops and is hopelessly Victorian?  Big freaking Ribbon bows!

Not quite as pointy as I wanted, but I can work with this.  I wired the ribbon myself, so I could shape it easily.

I had to have some veiling, too.  Because I like flounce and fluff.  That's Hansel, my wig-head in the picture.  Hansel?  Hansel?

Once the bows were shaped a bit better and pinned, I think it gives the effect I need to resemble the shape of Scarlet Witch's headpiece.

And because I can, here's an early illustration of Scarlet Witch.  Her mask completely frames her face, but I didn't want to use that look as it reminded me too much of...

...this.