Maura's Illuminated Manuscript

I had some nice green silk duppioni lying around from an old, once-worn costume and I thought I'm make a corset out of it. I had enough to use it for both the fashion & lining fabrics. Well, you can see where I'm going with this: stay cases went on the inside on the left, but on the outside on the right. Present... seam ripper! Luckily, I don't see any needle holes where I've ripped already. It's just going to take hours to take off the binding & stay cases from half a corset. And I was so psyched to wear it tonight to the Science Center party.

Here's a good picture of the Doc Martens corset. Photo credit: niac.

That should be "Maura", not "Mora", in case you were wondering, but it's such a good photo I don't mind.

ETA: I added four stays before this was taken. That's all that would fit around the heels.

Had a lovely time at chez Lovely. I've relearned that when you don't party hop, you have time to, like, talk to people. Everybody who doesn't MOO regularly was there; I even had to qualify that with "regularly". Luckily for me, they drank the all egg nog and ate most of domestinatrix's latkes, thereby saving me from myself.

I almost forgot to mention that I wore, with some gothmotherly encouragement, my latest sewing project: a corset made from Doc Martens. It needs stays, though, so I don't think I'll post images yet. I was hoping boot leather would be stiff enough not to need stays, but that turned out to be wishful thinking. I was also hoping I could prevent pooching by lacing through every grommet, but doing so renders tightening laces behind my own back too confusing even for my experienced hands. The absence of a busk (see boot leather, stiff) necessitates more slack, which makes lacing even harder. The front center piece? Formerly morthael's belt. It's one punk-ass ghetto leather corset.

Through a combination of painstaking historical research (OK, the first Google hit), guesswork, spray starch, and cheesy fakery, I've finished the costume that I've been working on for the last couple of months. You can see it at Halloween, you can see it at Burning Man, or you can see it tomorrow night at the Merc:

Unbeknownst to them, Nibs & randomdreams ganged up on me and made me stay up way too late several nights in a row to read The Yiddish Policemen's Union my Michael Chabon. I agree with them that The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay was more entertaining, but the newer book still kicks ass on several levels, maybe more than its predecessor.

barbed-wire corset: mended
all-red corset: mended & rebound to compensate for those damn too-short stays
Let the costuming for )'( and Halloween begin!

ETA: Oh yeah: made black taffeta bustle with handmade ruffle for my biker jacket. prncsmoonbeam had the brilliant idea of making it detachable so the biker jacket can remain dual-use technology; without that idea I wouldn't have bothered. I took pictures in my bathroom mirror, but predictably, they suck. You'll just have to see it in person.

Missed m_cobweb at the Merc and Mike Manahan at ToST, but otherwise it was a fine night out in the big, green bustle dress.

Speaking of which, hoop wire is evil. It's a pain to cut, and once you do, the sharp ends need to be either bent double or thickly coated. Any pockets that hold hoop wire need to be pretty sturdy. Luckily, it's only damaged the invisible and easily reparable bustle petticoat.

MyCo now has hot water for caffeinated beverages and, more importantly, intelligible VoIP. O frabjous day! A dead cell phone battery is a nice excuse to get out of a conference call, but I'd rather not have one. It turns out that if you have a skinny Internet connection as we currently do, you need to manually configure the main VoIP box appropriately, at least if your vendor is Vonage. MyCo's living in the future!

Bike: Had two flats in as many days. At least sidewalks and bike lanes are getting swept this week; you gotta love the richy-rich 'burbs. I heard a rumor that tubes deteriorate over time, and the twice-punctured one was likely over ten years old, so it's trash now. I've been wearing much of Redmond on my clothes, boots, and face; I need a front fender and/or not to forget my rain pants.

What I have: white burnout velvet fabric from deliciouspear. What I need: silver fabric. How much time I have: 8 days. O costuming & sewing goddesses, lend me your wisdom! I'll, uh, sacrifice a mosquito to you or something.

Nun plan: Friday, a Valentine's Day techno thingy at Re-bar with artists who are new to me. I know the promoters & other crew, though, and besides, it's Re-bar. Saturday, either a bookstore date with Nibs or vixyish's coffeehouse gig, depending on sitter availability and post-Bomb Nibbal condition.

1) I'm working my connections like a Cisco box on crack, baby.

2) Recent events have reminded me of my maternal grandfather, whom everybody -- even his grandchildren -- called Joe. He used to own a small coal mine near his home in the Blue Ridge mountains. Life was good until bigger competitors drove him out of business in the late '40s. Joe Did What He Had To Do and started what became a succession of small businesses, which allowed him to send my mother to college. He made what I'm going through look pretty easy, and he deserves some of the credit for that.

3) Front-loading washers aren't all that good for dyeing fabric. I think that's because you can't control the water level, at least not in mine. I have a big pot of water heating on my stove as I type.

4) I'm very, very ready for a pah-tay. OK, OK, no more pimping.

Nibs was kind enough to shoot me. And no Halloween is complete without a new userpic.