#every time I get super annoyed at work Jack reminds me that the PAYING GIG is why I'm able to make cosplays

[sheliesshattered]

Between work and needing to be super ridiculous strict about my bedtime routine to try to take on the pernicious insomnia monster that’s been trying to wreck everything, I’m finding that I can squeeze in an hour, maaaaybe two hours of work on my cosplay on weekday evenings. Weekends are slightly better, but weekends are also for all the keep-the-household-running things that I’m not doing during the week, and still forcing myself through the magical-make-Sam-sleep bedtime routine even on the weekends. My poor spoonie body cannot handle getting less than 8 hours of sleep a night, so sacrifices have to be made, no matter how much I hate it.

But even with the severe time limitations, I’m still making progress on the Rhaenyra red dress little by little. I’m working my way through adjustments to my mock-up, which is the whole point of it but is still a little tedious. The bust seam has been the worst of it, and I’m gearing up to sew version 3 of that -- tho thankfully I didn’t have to completely re-cut all four front panels for this adjustment like I had to for version 2. It’s nearly there, I just need to shave a little off the side-front and resew the seam on both sides. 

Tonight I got my pinning transferred to the paper pattern, the paper pattern cut down, and the seam picked out so I can cut down the fabric version and re-sew it tomorrow. Since there’s already a mismatch between how long the straight center panel is and how long the curved side-front panel is (with the curved bit being a couple centimeters longer), and since the seam line is hitting where I want it as measured out from center front, I’m taking all the excess out of the side-front panels instead. The flatter I can make that seam the less trouble it’ll be easing it into the shorter straight panel, and since I’ve got to make this pattern up twice in two different silk fabrics, every little millimeter I can shave off of it will be a help. But like I said, I think it’s almost there, hopefully version 3 will be the final version.

I also did a second version of the sleeve in my last round of adjustments, and besides lengthening the bit that can be sewed by machine (vs left open so it’s wide enough for my hand to get through, and then hand-finished and done up with little hooks-and-loops) by about 6cm, the sleeve is looking perfect. That adjustment was easy to transfer to my paper pattern, so the sleeve at least is all ready to go.

The last adjustment I want to make is actually narrowing the skirt through the hips, and thus narrowing the hem a bit as well. Looking at how it fits on Rhaenyra, at least in ep8 when we get a good look at the back, it’s really quite fitted through the mid or even low hip. Right now I’ve got waaaay too much ease through the hips, so I pinned it in a bit when I was also pinning in the bust, and it looks like I need to take out about 32cm at the low hips (so 3.2cm on each of the 10 panels) and about 10cm total at the high hips. Tonight I only got as far as checking that against my original body measurements from last month, but taking it in by that much would result in a skirt just slightly bigger than those measurements, which is right where I want it to be.

But it’ll also mean that the skirt is significantly narrower at the hem. I haven’t done the math yet (and probably won’t tbh), but I do want to cut down one of the skirt paper patterns and use that to mark new sewing lines on each of the 10 panels so I can take it in and see how it feels at that size. If the skirt is too narrow at the hem I need to know that before I start cutting it out of the various silk layers.

Hopefully I can get to those adjustments tomorrow, and maybe even sew up all the new measurements and check the fit. But even if it takes me a few more days to finish up the fitting portion of this, I’m not really running behind -- I’ve ordered a bunch of stuff online for this project, including ultra fine pins and machine needles, fine cotton thread, the silk jacquard for the dress itself (from a place in India where they hand-make it!), the silk organza for the under dress, and the second of the two trims for the dress (the first having arrived weeks ago). Of all that, only the silk organza has arrived, and without the needles and thread there’s only so far I can get with that, anyway. I can trace the pattern pieces onto the organza, but I want to stay-stitch in the seam allowance before I cut it out, so that step can’t happen until my JoAnn’s order arrives.

Besides those bits, I still need to order the three types of beads that go on the dress, grommets to lace up the back and lace on the sleeves, and the wig, rings, and earrings to complete the look. I’ve already ordered the necklace, since I’ll need that to decide on the exact height of the neckline, and hopefully it’ll be here soon -- it’s coming from Italy but it’s already cleared customs, so keeping my fingers crossed that the mailman will have a very special delivery for me soon.

I was having a bit of a blah day yesterday, largely because of stuff going on at work, and had a moment of wondering why I was even bothering with this cosplay, who is even going to care. And then the silk organza arrived and it’s like pure joy in fabric form, and I remembered, oh yeah, I care that I’m making this beautiful thing, just for the joy of wearing a beautiful thing and representing a character that I love on my body. In the end, that’s what cosplay is for me, that’s why I put so much time and effort into making something like this. If I think about the whole project together it’s a bit overwhelming, but each individual step is something I can handle, so I’m just going to keep plodding along, an hour or two here and there, until I finally have something beautiful to wear.

And with that, I should really make myself get on with my evening routine so I can actually sleep tonight -- and hopefully not have pattern drafting dreams again, lol. Wish me luck.