Bleed in Blue

I was about to write a post being all about how people only seem to approach me when they need something sewn and that I only really get comments on things I've made, and not so much on my actual life and stuff. And wanted to be all "hey guys, there's more to me than just the sewing aspect, really T_T"

...but then I realized that no, there really ISN'T much more to me than that! PFFFFFT. I mean, look at my facebook and LJ and its pretty much all just me talking about what I'm sewing, what I'm going to be sewing, and what I want to sew in the future. So no wonder its the only thing people can think of to talk to me about. ^^;;; And I do sometimes wish there was more to my life than that but to be honest, there's never any time for anything else. lol It takes me DAYS to finish watching a movie 'cause I usually only have like 20-30 minutes at the end of the night to watch something after I'm done sewing and I'm too tired at that point to pay much attention. And I do watch a lot of stuff while I sew but I'm not really "watching", I'm "hearing". So I've HEARD a lot of tv shows and movies but I haven't really watched them. In fact a while back when I was hanging with Carrie and we turned Doctor Who on and I was just sitting there watching for a change and I kept being like "OH! So that's what that scene looks like!" and Carrie is like "...but haven't you watched this episode like a billion times?" "...yes...well...I was never looking at the screen at this point, I was always sewing something. ^^;;" Granted this is why I tend to chose such things like Doctor Who for when I sew because its a show where they pretty much say everything they're doing so you don't really have to look at the screen to know what's happening. Same with Avatar: The Last Airbender, Buffy, etc.

But anywho, point is, its hard to keep up with everyone else 'cause I don't have much time to really watch or read anything. And so I'm pretty behind in anime and pop culture in general. And to be honest lately all I've wanted to watch is Takarazuka stuff, which kinda sucks in a way because I have like VERY few friends into that and I keep wanting to spazz about it to someone but my friends don't know enough about it (though THANK GOD for Carrie being so interested in it, every time she comes over, she totally eats up every show I throw at her and we e-mail about shows and links all the time and she's starting to learn the actresses' pretty well...almost too well. XD Nooo I want to be all impressive with my limited knowledge pfffft). And most of the Zuka fandom knows WAY more than I so its kinda hard to keep up with them. I've joined a few Livestreams and they were GREAT...except I felt really stupid the whole time. 'Cause they totally don't let you get away with lurking. XD They see that a new person has joined in and they're all like "heeeey person! heeeeeeeeeeeeey" so I always end up having to sign in a name and admit I'm there but then I feel so silly 'cause I'm the ONLY one who hasn't seen the show before and the only one not really chatting it up. I do TRY to join in the conversation but usually its with something dumb or asking a question that everyone else knows. ^^;; And I hate how I keep having to join in only to leave a few minutes later 'cause I'm too busy with something. And also feel bad that I have nothing to contribute as they tend to share clips and shows. Meeeeh this is what I get for being a lurker all the time.

But anywho! In real life, I did say yes to the supervisor position in the end. Still nervous but my boss seems to have confidence in me. I'm um not exactly sure when it starts? Like she said it'd be pretty much right away but I wasn't told anything after I said yes. So I'm not sure if I'm just automatically one or what? Guess I'll find out when I go into work tomorrow.

And honestly not sure where this entry was going. XD I think I just ended up rambling and putting down the things on my mind, which is what I do pretty much every post. So if there was a point here, I'm not sure what it was. lol Now back to sewing because once again I am trying to make AN ENTIRE new costume the week before the Sakura Matsuri. Pffffft. Go me. x_x;

~Lyn

Had a bit of a rough night (mostly just 'cause I ended up being later than I had planned and didn't get to do the things I wanted due to something I had to deal with) and wasn't looking forward to work after all of that. And yet oddly enough work made me feel a lot better today. I had several different customers thank me personally for my help, one in particular who said "Thank you for your excellent customer service." and it really made me feel good. Especially as I tend to mess up a lot and it always makes me nervous and frustrated with myself when I do.

But today was a good day. I didn't mess up on anything, I didn't have any frustrated customers, and I managed to not have to deal with any of our regular crazy customers (and boy do we have some crazy regulars in the store). Just pleasant people and a lot of smiles and I felt really good that I was helpful. 'Cause sometimes they ask me things that I really don't know much about and I feel kinda ugh that I wasn't able to help. Mainly when they ask for help with home decor as that's something I know very little about. But today even those I was able to help out pretty well. 'Cause I do try to be pretty helpful and that's one thing I like about our store. The fact that we aren't just there to sell fabric and be done with it. We really are there to help the customers with their projects. And I gotta admit I love seeing the surprised reaction when they realize I do know how to sew and actually know what I'm talking about. I think its because I look so young so they just assume I'm just working for the money and don't know much about the items in the store (because well, our two youngest employees really don't know much...but at least they have done a good job at learning the basics. But I did feel bad for the one today who had a customer demand someone else cut the fabric for her "because you obviously don't know a thing about fabric" and the poor girl was all "...but I've learned a lot from working here for a long time T_T" I would have come to her rescue but I was already helping someone else at the time.) But yeah, its always a pretty good feeling. Yeah ok its just retail but I think its bit better than normal retail just because I'm working with stuff I love.

Also there were two young girls in the store today that caught my attention. I was trying to re-stock the zippers (I never did get very far as I kept having to help people ^^;;) and couldn't help but overhear their conversation and looked over and immediately got the "cosplayers" vibe. XD; So peeked over and sure enough they had a print out of costumes they were working on so I poked over and asked what they were making. And it was two costumes from Assassin's Creed (which I still really need to play) and so I helped them a little with their buttons and casually mentioned I cosplayed too. Though they were pretty new to this and were doing this more for Renn Faire than for any cons. Later in the day I noticed they were still in the store and getting their various fabrics cut. lol They were pretty much getting EVERYTHING for their costumes in one trip so no wonder they were there for a long time and I think almost everyone working today ended up helping them at some point or another. And when talking to them again and giving them a few more suggestions, I mentioned that I do commissions and such and that this is my passion. And so after they bought their stuff, I noticed they were kinda hanging around my side of the table, kinda whispering to each other and shyly edging to the table but not wanting to interrupt what I was doing. lol So I looked over and asked if they needed more help and they said that since I seemed to know about cosplay, if they could possibly get some help from me. I informed them that I was going to be off the clock in about 10 minutes so if they were willing to wait, I could give them more attention then. And they got pretty excited over that. XD It was really really cute. So yeah then ended up spending almost a full half hour sitting down with them at the pattern table and going over their costumes and giving them suggestions. Turns out this is their FIRST costumes. And I was a bit "oh wow...these are...kinda big for a first project" but I think if they take their time, they should be ok. But it was so cute seeing them write down notes as I told them my suggestions for the various parts and told them about various sources and materials that could help. And also gave them my contact info if they ever wished to ask more questions.

But yeah, in conclusion...I was really happy that my limited skills came into use today. XD That I was able to help some folks and feel generally useful and helpful. Its a nice feeling I don't get very often. Since to be honest, I really DO mess up a lot and tend to feel very...useless. Granted this feeling was almost ruined when I walked out and realized how much time I spent talking and that Mom had been waiting for me and of course first thing out of her mouth was "...you really need to get your license" which has been like a DAILY discussion since I started this job. ...and yes, I know, I don't need another reminder of how useless I am, Mom. I DO feel really bad about it and I am actually really trying here. Doesn't help that every time I should be driving or offer to drive, Mom comes up with some excuse as to why she should drive instead. So um, how am I supposed to get experience if you won't let me drive? O_o;;

~Lyn

I made gloves out of vinyl...



Thank god they're done. lol Was pretty hard.

...dear god I hope they fit. I'm a bit worried as they are pretty tight. n_n I hate the Vogue pattern in the fact it only contains one size and I'm really bad at making patterns as you pretty much have to redraw the whole thing to get it bigger.

Anyone know of any other glove patterns? I remember seeing a "historical" one in either the McCalls or Butterick books but not sure if that one is any better. May at least take a look at it next time I'm there. 'Cause seriously, hard to make gloves for people with bigger hands with this pattern.

...or maybe I just need to learn how to make it bigger myself. Bleeeeh.

But hey I finally cut out Lucifer today! So finally some progress on my own costume for Otakon. ^^;; At least I've started? ...sorta? ...oh god its going to be a long two weeks...well closer to a week and a half now...T_T

~Lyn

So I was wrong when I told people my sewing machine is about 10 years old.


...It's about 20 years old. XD

And yet works far better than most machines I've come across in the shops and at other people's houses.

Long live my Bernina! May you never die. For I shall cry. As they don't make machines like this one anymore.

Granted, it seems to be possessed now. >> The needle keeps moving back and forth on its own. Like it does when I switch stitches but it'll do it without me touching it. ...creepy.

~Lyn

This is what my work space currently looks like...



God it's such a mess. XD Though its been worse! A lot worse. lol This is just perhaps the most amount of costumes I've had in the space at once though. There's 3 complete costumes, 2 mock-ups, and one in-progress in this photo. XD So that's what, 6 total there? XD And mountains of fabric/pattern pieces. There's also pieces of 2 other costumes over by the sewing machine. And the chair is full of doll wings/hoodies.

There's a PS3 somewhere in there too. XD Its hidden. lol

( And here's a kitty photo )

~Lyn

I tried to fix something. Thought it'd be easy. Thought I knew what the problem was for sure.

Well, it didn't work. Tried several other things. They didn't work either.

End result. It now looks worse than when I started.

And this isn't even one of the new costumes! God Ciel why...

I am rethinking my desire to enter this costume anymore as I'm not feeling so great about it lately after seeing several other cosplayers do it at AX and do it...a lot better...and I look at mine and realize everything I did wrong and just feel like throwing it out the window. (I already did throw it down the stairs when I was first working on it in frustration at one point.)

ahphpghiphpih This is supposed to be a fun hobby, not one that makes me want to curl in a ball and die. lol

That and now because of this I am waaaaay further behind than I was before. As in, I might actually not finish one of my costumes for the first time ever. I know, that's not really a biggie but still, I kinda took pride in the fact I've always got everything done I planned to do.

~Lyn

So Ren was sewing on my machine. And she somehow managed to break a needle. Not on a pin. Not on the fabric. I claimed she broke it on air. But the needle broke and somehow went flying across the room to the far corner opposite of where she was. I kinda just stood there like "..." for a while.

^^;;;

Granted it turned out she somehow pushed the metal plate up on the machine so it hit that which made a lot more sense. Not sure how she did that either though. ^^;;;

~Lyn

Ok I'm going to be making a jacket with coat tails. I've sorta done tails before but I didn't like the way they looked so I'm trying to do it right this time.

I bought the only pattern I could find that had tailed jacket to get an idea from there. The pattern has the tails as a separate piece from the top of the jacket and then attached. While I had always thought it was supposed to be just one continuous piece from the top to the bottom back.

So I'm looking for advice on whether I should go with this and make them separate pieces or try making it one piece that splits (which I've done before)?

I read the directions in the pattern and the method they do does make sense, I've just haven't stared at enough tailed coats to really be able to tell if there was a seam there or not.

~Lyn

So while I was sewing today I realized I totally forgot to make an entry about this...

Ok, it actually happened two weeks ago. I was working on the last little bit on my Caspian costume for the movie premiere that night. And I was getting a little frustrated with the machine, trying to get the fabric to not bunch up and so was pulling it taut and got my fingers awfully close...and...

SNAP goes the needle. Me: "*big gasp* Um. Ow. O_O Oh god...did I just..." And I pull up my finger and there is the broken needle just sticking right out of it.

No blood. Not even that much pain. It went at an angle so it only went through that very thin first layer of skin. Yeah. I got lucky. Really lucky. Considering all the stories I've heard of you folks going to the emergency room for sewn fingers. But yeah, I kinda poked at it for a while, amazed at it and thought it was kinda cool before finally pulling it out and going back to sewing.

So to think if that had gone wrong, I wouldn't have even been able to go to the premiere (though I wouldn't be missing much XP). And hm, yeah, I know. I still don't have any photos of the costume. lol Well, once Alyce gets Susan done and lets me know I will try to go up to Gettysburg again and get photos. I don't have anyone to take photos of me down here at the moment so can't really get you any photos yet.

~Lyn

So took my sewing machine to Leon today since I was going to come in to get my hours in anyways since I won't be there Friday (blah, yeah, we all don't work much this semester. I only work 5 hours on Friday. The other girls have similar times.) He didn't show up for quite a while but Sherry (the olderly lady Leon hired to help out) took a look at it and we figured out what the problem was at least.

The tracks were moving up and down. But not back. And they have to move back in order to pull the fabric, else it doesn't move and you can't actually sew. So I was like "well, how the hell do I fix that?" and Sherry was saying I'd probably have to take it in to take it apart to fix it. Well, then Leon comes in and I let him look at it...

He nudges the feet a few times and gets them loose...and it worked. o_o It's like all he had to do was touch it. XP Haha. But then we oiled it so it doesn't get stuck again and yeah, my machine is okay! Thank god. I can finish my costumes now.

Oh and here's my sorta schedule for Katsu...still trying to figure it out.

Friday:
- Crisis Core Cloud sometime in the morning
- Fai ch.133 in afternoon whenever all 3 of us can meet
- MLP group at 6pm
Saturday:
- Fai with Sarah's sexy Ashura most of the day
- 2pm doll meet? I'm not sure if I'll make it due to Hall Cosplay and I don't know if I can handle dolls in the outfit or not but thats so far the only doll meet on DOA. We shall see. Do rather want to go even if its just for a little bit.
- Akihiko after Masquerade for 10pm P3 gathering
Sunday:
- Cain (unless I decide not to bring him)

I'm also going to be there on Thursday so if anyone is there and wants to run around in cosplay, I may throw on one of my outfits then too. I don't know. I need something to do then, lol.

~Lyn