Ends and beginnings (Manarelle)

[Manarelle]

Ends:

• Finish first pair of work pants
• Finish Halloween outfit/ work skirt

 

Beginnings:

• Explore thermoplastics
• Try simple leatherworking

 

Maintenance:

• Boot camp/ self-defense
• Physical therapy
• Languages

 

This challenge is sort of in the middle of things for me. I need to finish up work pants (all hand-sewing left) and my work Halloween outfit (a button-down shirt, ugh) before I get to start fun new stuff, but I really want to be done by the end of the month, so I can start on new, fun stuff. I need to keep up the workouts, add PT back in (I thought workouts would be enough - I was wrong), and keep chugging away at my language skills. There are other, small goals in there, too, but these are the big ones that I need to keep focus on. Keep at it.

[Jonesy]

What are you being for Halloween? 

 

I'm always so impressed with people who can hand sew. 

[Manarelle]

16 hours ago, Jonesy said:

What are you being for Halloween? 

 

I'm always so impressed with people who can hand sew. 

 

Definitely not saying I"m good at it, and thank goodness it's just sewing the inner waistband down, but it'll get done. 

 

Since Halloween is on a Tuesday, and I'm the assistant to the Senior VP, I have to be somewhat discreet about dressing up. I'm going as a Hogwarts student - grey pleated (long, thank you) skirt, button-down shirt, House tie, House bow in my hair, and black sweater. The best part is that I've convinced about half of the office to do this with me, and haven't told the execs. I'm very excited. 

 

Sadly, we're off to a bad start because apparently I didn't get a shirt pattern.... so tomorrow's trip to the fabric store for skirt fabric will include a pattern purchase. Oops. Lies, I did have it, just not where I could find it. Mockup will begin Friday night. 

[WhiteGhost]

Following  

 

What language are you working on?  Also, what are thermoplastics?

[Manarelle]

Hello again WhiteGhost! I'm working on keeping up French, expanding Russian, and beginning Japanese. definitely keeps the brain busy. Thermoplastics are plastics that can be molded when exposed to (low-levels of) heat, particularly useful for making cosplay armor that's light enough to wear all day. I've only done fabric cosplay before, but I want to expand my repertoire, so I'm going to try some (simple) thermoplastics. It might fail spectacularly, but you never know til you try! 

[WhiteGhost]

2 hours ago, Manarelle said:

French, expanding Russian, and beginning Japanese.

Oh my!  Of all the languages I have studied, I found Russian to be the hardest.  The thought of doing it at the same time as Japanese and French makes my head hurt

 

2 hours ago, Manarelle said:

Thermoplastics are plastics that can be molded when exposed to (low-levels of) heat, particularly useful for making cosplay armor that's light enough to wear all day. I've only done fabric cosplay before, but I want to expand my repertoire, so I'm going to try some (simple) thermoplastics. It might fail spectacularly, but you never know til you try! 

That sounds fascinating.  I hope you post what you discover here, I would be interested to see how it works (or doesn't...) for you  

[Jonesy]

14 hours ago, Manarelle said:

Since Halloween is on a Tuesday, and I'm the assistant to the Senior VP, I have to be somewhat discreet about dressing up. I'm going as a Hogwarts student - grey pleated (long, thank you) skirt, button-down shirt, House tie, House bow in my hair, and black sweater. The best part is that I've convinced about half of the office to do this with me, and haven't told the execs. I'm very excited. 

 

That sounds like so much fun! 

 

They are going to come into work that Tuesday and be super confused. If they are a potter head, they might think they were dreaming of being a student at Hogwarts.  

 

[raptron]

Oh man, Hogwarts students! That is awesome and adorable!

[zeroh13]

Following!

[traaki]

Following! Love the Halloween costume idea.  

 

My first day of my current job was Halloween last year, but I definitely didn't have the guts to show up in costume on day 1.  Maybe I'll think of something for this year....

[Red1263]

Simple yet complex. Short, yet compact. I like this challenge!

[Teancum]

Good costume idea! Also the thermoplastics sound pretty interesting. Following again! 

[Norgaard]

Craftmanship is awesome!!!!!

 

Good luck on the challenge! ill follow here

[Manarelle]

On 10/20/2017 at 10:49 AM, WhiteGhost said:

Oh my!  Of all the languages I have studied, I found Russian to be the hardest.  The thought of doing it at the same time as Japanese and French makes my head hurt

 

French is more maintenance - I've been speaking that since grade school. Russian is expansion of vocabulary and making grammar instinctive. Japanese is newbie - I'm using wanikani to learn the kanji, not even worried about speaking/ phrases/ grammar yet. The different levels make it easier to keep track. 

 

On 10/20/2017 at 10:54 AM, Jonesy said:

They are going to come into work that Tuesday and be super confused. If they are a potter head, they might think they were dreaming of being a student at Hogwarts.  

 

Hoping so! They're pretty forgiving about my antics as long as I don't interfere with, you know, actual work. I found a couple easy-ish Harry Potter-themes snacks, so it should be fun for everyone. 

 

Thanks for the positive responses! I'm sure my first attempts at thermoplastics will be as amusing as first attempts at sewing stuff. While they're not flattering, here are pictures of the mock-ups for Halloween:

 

   

 

Heh, sorry about making you all look at me in déshabillé.... From left to right, that's a first mock-up of a button-down shirt that I only had enough fabric to make one sleeve of, a mock-up of a plated skirt without the pleats ironed and with the front and back pleats the same (works very badly for people with large rear ends), and the same skirt with the back pleats modified and ironed. I've got the real fabric for the skirt cut out and marked up with my modifications. Once that's done, I'll make some modifications to the shirt and hopefully get that finished this weekend. I'd rather not have to sew anything frantically on Monday night, but we'll see.

 

In other news, I bought a beginner's book on thermoplastics - hopefully I'll have the willpower to resist it until sewing is done.  Workout, pt, and languages all got done in proper time during week zero, so overall, a good week. 

[raptron]

The mock-ups look solid! I love the second pleats going on! 

[Jonesy]

Those mock-ups look great!

 

Wait that is all hand sewn? 

[Manarelle]

On 10/23/2017 at 1:21 PM, raptron said:

The mock-ups look solid! I love the second pleats going on! 

 

I've learned a lot about fitting pleats from this project... there is a kilt in the future, I can feel it.

 

On 10/23/2017 at 1:30 PM, Jonesy said:

Those mock-ups look great!

 

Wait that is all hand sewn? 

 

Oh HECK no. The handsewing is only for finishing hems and inside seams that shouldn't show. I rather dislike handsewing. 

 

So. One of the points that NF made in its earlier blog days was to get clothes tailored to you. I see this frequently, but have never had a solid example of what a difference it can make. Well, here you go. The difference that taking in literally 1/2" at the waist can make:

 

Before:                                                                                            After:

           

 

           

[Jonesy]

That difference, it drapes so nicely in the after. 

[Asuka]

Your skills are up there!

I applaud you for going for more tailored clothes (I don't have the courage / time to do so), and the skills to do it yourself!

Here in Korea, I don't think anyone will dress up for Halloween, so it will just be another day... sad. I will look forward to thinking about you being a Hogward student! It is most fun. I will take a look at my wardrobe and see if I can sorta do something fun (even if it is only for me!) on Tuesday.

 

 

[raptron]

Such a transformation with such a minor alteration. That's so cool. 

[Manarelle]

Week 1 recap.

 

Ends -

     Work pants almost done, just need a button and hemmed. 

     Finished Halloween outfit (lucked out and found a button-down that worked at target - yay for a stressless weekend!). 

 

Maintenance - 

     Boot camp/ self defense going well.

     PT needs work. Just not getting it done during the week. Going to try cutting weekdays to 1 set of everything, 3 sets on Sunday only. 

     Languages are coming along fine.

 

Got supplies for thermoplastics this weekend, now debating where to start and if I should prioritize winterizing the garden first, since it seems we are actually getting a fall this year. Hasn't gotten down to freezing yet, but I'd rather get everything done before crunch time. We shall see. 

 

In other news, the costume is done. I'll probably do something else with my hair, but it appears to have all come together quite well. 

[Asuka]

This is super cool! Understated but definitely recognizable. I love it!!!!!

[raptron]

Love it! You didn't mention you were Slytherin!

[Manarelle]

45 minutes ago, raptron said:

You didn't mention you were Slytherin!

 

My coworker (who's tested into Hufflepuff on multiple, multiple tests) insisted that she was going to be Gryffindor. Since I prefer green to red anyhow, and I certainly have ambitions, I decided to go Slytherin. I was told I have the wrong facial expression for Slytherin in that picture, but surely, surely there were good Slytherins. Not all ambitious people are bad.

[raptron]

1 hour ago, Manarelle said:

 

My coworker (who's tested into Hufflepuff on multiple, multiple tests) insisted that she was going to be Gryffindor. Since I prefer green to red anyhow, and I certainly have ambitions, I decided to go Slytherin. I was told I have the wrong facial expression for Slytherin in that picture, but surely, surely there were good Slytherins. Not all ambitious people are bad.

 

Definitely! It's a lingering criticism I have of the series that the houses aren't really explored too much beyond "gryffindor = brave and good, ravenclaw = smart, hufflepuff = friendly, slytherin = BAD GUYS OK?!" But the fan canon is much more robust, hahah.