GiRD 4 - ARGH

So i cut out my dress, being very careful to measure it because i thought it would be tight/small according to the measurements i made of myself.  I finally got around to sewing it up today and guess what i discovered? The dress is too big.  The sleeves are the right size but the back and front are too large. Because of that, the dress wants to lay with the neckline too loose and too low, becoming a boatneck of sorts when that's not at all what i'm going for.  I'm also not sure if it's as long as i'd like, which is horrible but there's nothing i can do about that without buying more fabric.  I'm going to see if i can fix it w/o doing that but certainly not tonight.  I am simply too frustrated.  This is why i never sew, nothing turns out the way its meant to. /cry

GitRD 3 - complicated cuts

So Simplicity patterns are finally on sale at work.  It took me a couple of hours, much measuring, and lots of careful adjustments, but i managed to make the Simplicity 1800 pattern's shoulders fit the McCall's 6612 dress body.  The cap of the shoulder is very strange, and i will probably have to figure out a facing/lining for the shoulders and back collar, but otherwise i have cut out the entire dress.  This was rather nerve-wracking, and i really wish i could have found a pattern that was closer to the original product, but i think that i am ready to sew and that it will be a passable replica.  But of course i have work tomorrow and now i need rest.

Oswin/GIRD update

So the shoulders on the McCall's pattern are definitely not the same as what's pictured.  I'm considering on using Simplicity 1800 for the sleeves portion of the neckline.  I'm not decided yet, i would like to wait for it to go on sale for 99c at work but am impatient to sew this dress as soon as possible.  I didn't find an alternative on the McCall's site unfortunately.  Apparently some have had trouble with this pattern. /:  I'm not sure i can get it to look the same (or as good) as the dress that Oswin wore.  I have a wide neck, broad shoulders, and wide bra straps to hide.  I might have to do something out of character and make a muslin mock-up before i cut the red knit (not that muslin will fit the same).  Maybe i have an old pair of knit sheets that would work better.  This is going to be an experiment, no doubt.

the girl in the red dress

I am going to make this dress.

Source: thesun.co.uk via Luinel on Pinterest

At least...a version of it. First of all, i loved Oswald, second of all, i loved her dress (and her apron, but i digress), third of all i think it's close enough to the reboot Star Trek Uhura's costume that it could work for a Doctor Who or Star Trek convention (i really need to go to a convention someday). Of course, i probably couldn't be going as Uhura (makeup, wig, too much work), i would totally be going as Janice Rand instead. xD Or any anonymous yeoman, i suppose.

Source: comicbooked.com via Luinel on Pinterest

Today, at work, I saw the perfect pattern going through my check lane...McCall's 6612. It's on sale for 99c this week and i grabbed the last one in my size as soon as i clocked out. Phew.  View A is cute but a little short for me.  I plan to go with view B...which, oddly enough, isn't pictured on the McCall's website.

Pickings are slim for knit fabrics at work...we have travel knit in black, heather gray, and brown (i keep meaning to make something in those last two colors), and then some prints for the rest of the (thinner) knit fabrics, but we just so happen to already have the Fall and Christmas fabrics out, so i was able to find a really nice darker red fabric. I can't decide if it's more of a maroon or a brick red, but i'm sure it will go great with my Burgundy Boots / Maroon Converse. I'm not even going to try to find her shoes.  Sometimes i love working at a craft store because with a coupon and my employee discount the fabric came to $14.25. I never could have bought a dress for that price, let alone on in my size! So this won't be identical...but i think it will be close enough for people to be able to tell once i've got a belt or communicator on.  As for her apron...

Source: dw-cosplay.livejournal.com via Luinel on Pinterest

I'm not planning to include that in the costume, though i'm sure i could modify a flour sack apron in a pinch.  The fabric is thick enough that i really don't want to be wearing any more bulk if i don't have to, and since i probably won't be baking in this dress, i just am not going to buy the apron. ...  Yet?

Differences...Oswin's dress has a different neck (can't decide if it's asymmetrical or just pulled that way? but it definitely has modified raglan sleeves) and slightly less draped than the McCall's pattern is.  I'm sure i'll fill out the front more than she does and i think that it's close enough to get by with.

finally starting to cool down

It's in the low 80s today rather than the 90s!!!  It also rained last night and this morning (which made for a humid day).  I'm so ready for Fall and was super excited when Pumpkin Spice came back to Starbucks.  I have even started knitting again over the past few days, not as much as i would like to, but easing into the first cool nights of Fall.  I've been frantically trying to find some patterns for a couple of Christmas presents and have finally settled on a pattern.  I think i'll cast on to that right now.  But i've also been planning some menstrual cup pouches and have one on the hook and another planned for the needles very soon.

So i guess i just outed myself.  I started using a menstrual cup last November and recently ordered two more in a co-op.  I wish i could buy some for my sisters but of course i don't know their sizes and they probably wouldn't appreciate it!  I guess i am officially "out there" now.  No, i'm not gay, but i do have some alternative lifestyle choices. xD

making my own hammock - first hang

So on the first night we did not make it to a camp (which is what i expected, honestly), rather we stopped on the side of the road to catch a couple of hours of sleep.  I slept on a cot with a perfect frame but rotted fabric that tore pretty bad.  It was very surreal...uncomfortable, the moon nearly full and very bright, the Utah landscape remote and flat.  I felt like i was sleeping on the surface of Mars or something.

The second night i couldn't find two good trees to hang from.  I tied between the back of our trailer and an Aspen.  I couldn't remember the knot i wanted to use, i was just too tired and improvised.  I wasn't sure if i had hung the tree hugger high enough and as for the trailer end i was just out of luck if it was too low.  I got into it for a while, realized that my butt was on the ground, so i got out and raised the tree hugger a few inches.  When i got in again i was hanging freely and actually swaying.  There's not enough room in my bedroom for much of that, at least not until recently there hasn't been.  I have almost always bumped against either this wooden chest or my captain's chair.  Not so this time.  I didn't feel like i was about to fall out but the hammock is much narrower and shorter than i'm used to and it was tricky getting in with my sleeping bag under me.  I didn't bring a pad, and this was actually the only night i wanted it.

The next morning i was on the ground if i laid a certain way in the hammock.  The way i had laid for most of the night i was still off the ground.  But the hang was really too low for comfort.  ETA:  I'm wondering if my hang was a little "too tight" but this was the only available setup without hanging in a bush.

So on this same day we entered Yosemite proper and ended up staying in one of the more remote campgrounds (four miles of bumpy dirt road, slow going).  I saw a couple of hammocks in the campground but no one laying in them (in the middle of the afternoon).  At this campsite i found two trees to hang from, went for higher spot to wrap the tree huggers this time...in fact, the hammock itself was suspended at about chest height and seemed tight to me (rather than hanging freely it was stretched about as tight as i could make it).  But then when i would try to get in i would immediately be sitting on the ground.  I tried adjust the height, the tightness, double checked the knots...it wasn't happening.  I am pretty certain that the rope i bought is the culprit and stretches way too much because the tree huggers and knots looked secure.  It was very disappointing.

So instead i hung my tarp for the first time.  The night before i wish i would have put it up, not because it rained or anything, but because my head was cold and i think it would have provided some warmth.  The tarp was really quick to hang from the tree huggers but the ground was so sandy/dusty that the stakes couldn't hold as well as i would have liked.  This felt successful, at least and did provide a nice level of protection.  I was on a cot again, a different one that is brand new, from Cabela's, and much more comfortable...but still not perfect.  Nothing can beat a hammock.  These cots are my parents' and i would never buy such a thing!  Give me a hammock, please!!!

See, once we got to our final destination (my sister's small house) one of my other sister's and i opted to sleep on the cots in a tent.  The house was hot, outside was a very pleasing temperature, though very humid.  The metal bars of the cot...well it seemed as if my legs were pained by them and i was never able to sleep very peacefully.  I've been having issues with my legs lately (i think it's restless leg syndrome, but i haven't see a doctor about it yet) and they seemed to be worse on the trip.  My legs did not like the cot at all.  But sleeping outside was very comfortable temperature-wise.

What i've learned:
My camping hammock is short and narrow.  So is a cot.  I would rather be hanging.  It's much more comfortable (no pain, only temperature issues, as the Mono Lake area is apparently much cooler than inside Yosemite itself).
My suspension does not work and needs to be replaced in the near future.  It was definitely longer than necessary.
My tree huggers are awesome...but they aren't long enough to wrap around sequoia trees (i should probably sew a backup/extender).
I hate tying knots in the dark.  I think i will invest in carbiners.

I am glad to be home and hope next trip goes better!

making my own hammock - tree huggers

I was too tired last night to stay awake to sew so this morning I an stitching the last part of this vacation's hammock setup.



These tree huggers are modeled after DIY Gear Supply's TreeStraps.  My first strap was 6'4" long and the strap was folded back 6" at each end (they must have given me a couple of extra inches, because i asked for 7' for each strap).  There is about 2 1/2" open at the ends opposed to their 2".