Well, at least I haven't been as slack on the sewing as I have been on the posting about my sewing...

I ran into some trouble when I decided that, really, I wanted to totally finish the underskirt before I started the overskirt. Finished things are good, I thought. Not almost-finishing things is even better. So, I wandered out to buy some black velvet ribbon to trim with... Only to discover that, apparently, no one stocks much velvet ribbon anymore. o_O I went everywhere. Most of them, I went to twice. I finally found the right width and colour at the Goldings on Lambton Quay (the other branch wasn't helpful), but they didn't have as much as I needed. However, the very lovely woman I spoke to offered to order some in, and was basically incredibly helpful. So, I finally have my ribbon - it just took forever to get it.

The underskirt is all finished, except for that ribbon trim. ^^

( photo-cut! )

Since I couldn't continue with my skirt until I got the ribbon, I did two small projects instead to fill in time.

Project one - The Fuzzy Crown Of Darkness. XD

My good friend Gwennie's birthday was a little while ago, and she inconveniently quit one of the online games we both play not long before her birthday. I'd been planning to spend real money on virtual stuff on there for her, but instead, I had to come up with a new plan. I went shopping with the vague target of 'cutely evil things' in mind, but came up empty handed. So, I moved to plan two - make something cutely evil myself. :D

I've made these little beanie hats a few times already - they're from a very basic Simplicity pattern to which I just add whatever silly additions I feel they require. I've made kitty-hat, bunny-hat, unintentional-goblin-hat (don't ask), and now, chibi-batwing-hat. Chibi bat wings hat may be my favourite so far, and it's not even mine to wear! I came very close to keeping it, srsly.

( Photo cut Two )

At the point at which I was half way through the above hat - which is to say, at a point where I really had to have a sewing machine to use - Jenni had a craft day at her place. I like craft days. Going and chatting while doing handwork is so nice, but I seriously envy all those girls who knit, rather than sew! Their craft is so very much more portable than mine. But since I don't really enjoy knitting, I ended up working on this little flower-gift-bag thing from a book called Omiyage. The bag in question is the one pictured on the cover.

I'd started it before, made one small error, and (foolishly, as it turned out) presumed that was why it looked like my flower had no chance of looking like hers. So, I started over, since the error in question couldn't really be undone. But, the finished bag doesn't look like hers either. After pouring over the (poorly written, and inadequately illustrated) instructions two or three times, I've had to face the facts - the bag has been photographed misleadingly. Suck.

I ended up tweaking the bag I made a bit to make it look a bit less like a dried-up starfish instead of a flower, adding a little stuffing to the petals. I'm sort of happy with it... And sort of not at all. Still at least it's done.

( Photo cut three )

Of course, when I said I didn't know how to figure out how much fabric I need for ruffles, what I meant was, I don't have all the numbers I need to figure out how much fabric I need for ruffles. I know how, of course.

I started cutting out my underskirt last night. I started out by blithely assuming that the skirt would be the right size, because they're the same pattern pieces I traced off for my CU gown, and it fit. Also, I couldn't immediately spot where I'd written sizes on the pieces, so I didn't know what size they were anyway. Temporary blindness, as I spotted after cutting out three panels. It was, in fact, a large (which astonishes me - I don't see how, looking at my CU pics, I could be defined as large). I whipped out my tape measure, whipped out my corset for good measure, and discovered that I should have been cutting out a medium, corsetted or not. oops?

Luckily, what I had cut out was easily cut down by a size. It did mean, though, that I didn't finish cutting it all out, and the rest is folded on a chair in the sewing room. And then I decided that I wanted the bottom ruffle to be pleated, not gathered, and I wanted it much denser than it was in my CU gown... Poor Jarratt became my math-assistant, who noted lengths down and did math for me while I set about determining whether I had enough fabric to make the ruffle MUCH longer than the pattern had allowed for it to be. I do, I'm pleased to say. I'd rather be at home continuing work on this than here at work! More tonight, I think. ^__^