The next costume I'm working on is a "Summer Goddess". It's a pink version of the green "Spring Goddess". The costume has one of the most challenging elements - those embellished dagged strips on the skirt and hanging sleeves. In the past I used to trace the pattern onto the back of the fabric, go over the traced lines with Fray Check, cut them all out, then in a very tedious drawn out process carefully hand-paint all the cut edges back and front of every strip with gold paint. 

Well, I'm always trying to figure out ways to do the job better and faster - and neater. The dagged strips are already designed so that the scallops  are exactly the same either way, so each new strip can be placed right against the previous one with the direction reversed, thereby reducing cutting time in half. This time I decided to paint the outer edges BEFORE cutting them out. I noticed that when the paint had dried on the back side of the fabric, that I could see the painted lines right through the fabric to the front, so I thought a light table would help me see the lines even better, so I could paint them as well - before cutting.

Once the paint is dry, I will cut all the strips out carefully along the middle of the painted lines. This new technique will more than cut the work and time in half. Instead of individually hand-painting each edge of each strip, both front and back, now I'm doing two edges at a time. Plus the edges will be a lot neater. Then I can get to the embellishing.

Today I also need to start Miki's bow. I have the Bow & Arrows Tutorial all ready, except for the bow itself, and the arrow tips. Once that's done and photographed, I can put the tutorial up live.

Today is Remembrance Day, the day to stop and pay tribute to all the brave men and women in the armed forces, and to all those who have died to secure our freedom. Even though none of my family ever served in any war - my parents were too young - each year lately when I listen to the Remembrance Day services on the radio, my hair stands on end, and emotions well up inside.

For me Remembrance Day brings back powerful memories for another reason - of the day seven years ago when my first grandchild made her way into the world. My daughter-in-law had gone into labour the day before, and even thought the baby was not due for more than two months, some time well past the middle of January, the baby was determined to make it's debut into the world. My husband and I, and our daughter-in-law's parents waited anxiously in the labour room, across the hall from the delivery room. As the Remembrance Day services were carried on the hospital  public address system, my very first granddaughter was trying to make her appearance. As the sole bugle played 'The Last Post', she started her final journey into this world. Minutes later, there she was!  A beautiful little girl, just 3 pounds 11 ounces, whisked off to the NICU, where she would stay until a few days before Christmas. 

Today she's a happy, energetic sweatheart, full of energy and enthusiasm. We celebrated her seventh birthday this past weekend. I can't believe it's been seven whole years already! 

Marianne made her a special cake....

Today is Forget Me Not Day, and since it's nowhere near spring and the season for the lovely blue flowers here, I went back and processed a never seen before photo of Byuri.....

On "Dunce Day", Byuri has miss-spelled a word on her spelling test and is being forced to write it out on the blackboard fifty times. Well, I know my girls are not dumb - what teacher expects a five-year old to know such big words??  I think it's the teacher should be wearing the Dunce cap.

I finished Miki's quiver full of arrows. I'd have been done sooner, but stopping to take photos of each step along the way for a tutorial, sort of prolongs the whole thing, especially since I can't take decent photos at night. Anyway, Miki's Elven Archer costume itself is now done and I just have one more prop to make - the bow. She's a bit impatient, giving me the glare, as in "What am I supposed to do with these - throw them??  I NEED a bow....NOW!!!"  

Well, she's just going to have to be patient, as working with Apoxie is definitely not among my top 100 favourite things to do, and I'm very good at being distracted.

The other day was "Nachos Day", the day to indulge in my favourite chips.  Erzulie likes them straight out of the bag, but Elin likes them with salsa and cheese.....a girl after my own heart!

I'm still working on the Elven Archer costume. It's amazing how much sewing one can do in a day, but the accessories take forever. Yesterday I made the leather bag, and my workspace was a mess. I had out the big box of leather; the drawer with studs - just for one little stud; five drawers of beads for the dozen or so decorative beads; two drawers full of embroidery thread - one for the embroidered edge, the other for decorative cording; another drawer with metal rings because I needed two; the drawer with buckles because I needed two; the container of snaps for just one snap; the big box of feathers to search through for maybe six small feathers. All for one tiny leather bag!

I've started the quiver for the arrows. It needed to be bigger than Isar's, so I took the lazy way out, and scanned the original patterns against some blue paper, dragged the jpg into IPages, stretched it, made a pdf, and printed it out. Sounds like more work than it is, but it's faster and more accurate than trying to redraw the patterns larger. I will continue to work on the quiver as long as the light is good enough for tutorial photos. Otherwise I should just start on the next commission. 

I've been having email issues. It seems my email provider was blacklisted a few days ago because they were still allowing some spam to get through. So some of my emails started bouncing back with error messages - because the filters on the computers I was sending to weren't accepting any emails from my provider. Of course it only impacted the two people I communicate with most!!  Isn't that always the way?!?!  Everyone else was fine.  My techie son looked into it and said as of this morning the issue has been fixed, and my provider is off the blacklist, but it may still take a bit of time for my friend's computers to allow my emails through again. I know they read my Blog, so I thought I'd mention it here. No, I'm not dead, or in the hospital, and nothing terrible has transpired. I'm at the mercy of modern technology. Hopefully all will be working again soon.

This week's new Iplekids Colour Challenge colour is Green. New colours are announced Wednesdays, and we have until Sunday night to post our photos.  So I took advantage of the bright morning today to take a photo of Nami all in green, carrying her Anne of Green Gables doll and a bunch of green balloons through the grass, only to come across four big green frogs....

It's a good thing I took the photo when I did, as all afternoon it's been so dark and threatening to rain. Actually, it just started precipitating, but I can't tell if it's big raindrops or wet snow. Anyway, with it being so dark all day it's not been possible to take any 'Special Days' photos.

Last night I brought away a bunch of dolls to Charie's.  My sun-kissed Layla is going to get her red nose and black lips removed, and then redone with a softer look. Maybe then I'll finally bond with her. I wish Kaye Wiggs dolls could be ordered blank, because it's very disappointing to get the dolls with factory faceups that don't much resemble their promo pictures. All my larger KW dolls have been redone, except Hope, who was lovely right from the start.

My Asa is getting her new high-heel feet painted to match her body. I ordered them with Bonnie and Owen, since older JIDs like my Asa didn't come with high-heel feet, and I figured her costume needed high-heel shoes, and I didn't want to permanently borrow some from someone else. 

Charie will also try do my Bonnie so she can be picked up before she leaves for St. Louis. I just asked for something nice, with light freckles, as she'll likely be a redhead. 

Owen is going to have to wait until Charie comes back, as he's going to need more time to really do well. For inspiration I've chosen some photos of Thor from the new movie. He's gorgeous with his light brown facial hair and long dark blonde locks. 

I don't know yet how I'll make a wig like that, but if together we can come even halfway close, Owen will be amazing. The perfect fantasy or historical hero! At least that's my hope.

The first of my commissioned outfits is coming along very nicely. It's basically a remake of my Elven Archer, but for a Kaye Wiggs MSD. I chose Miki as my model for this outfit as she's an elf, and looks suitably intense. It's interesting in that I used the exact same pattern for the skirts and bodice as for Isar, as JIDs have almost the exact same torso size as a KW MSD. The only thing that's different is the width of the separate sleeves, as Miki has chunkier arms, and huge hands which won't fit through the sleeve openings. I like tight-fitting sleeves, so they have to be made open from top to bottom and close with snaps. 

The main striped fabric is also a different colour, as I used up the golden green version some time ago. But when it's done, it really won't matter.  Both were bought many years ago, and I never buy much of anything, so when it's used up, it's impossible to get more of the same thing. I usually end up using something similar from my stash which was purchased at the same time.  

Now I have to insert all the eyelets and make the lacing and all the accessories. This is when "scale" becomes important. Isar is an adult, but Miki, who is even taller, is just a child. So Miki's bag, and bow and arrows need to be a larger scale, as do all the feather ornaments. I'm thinking of making a tutorial for both the bow and the quiver full of arrows, so will have to wait to make those on a brighter, sunny day, when the lighting is better, so I can take photos as I go along.

For "King Tut Day", I thought I'd share something a little different - a cloth ball-jointed doll. I made this doll at a workshop given by Charie Wilson, in the fall of 2008. We spent an entire weekend putting together the pre-sewn body parts, and making the soft-sculpture head. It's a true "ball-jointed" doll in that all her joints are wooden balls. Her head turns, and she even twists in the waist. Maybe not quite as pose-able as a resin doll, she still is fun to play with.

Her profile reminded me of the bust of Queen Nefertiti, and because I didn't want  to hide her body completely, or limit her movement with restrictive clothing, I decided to make her into a scantily-clad  Egyptian Queen, with lots of colourful jewelry, and a big pouffy black wig....

Well, I'm back into sewing. I have quite a few outfits to make that people have been waiting a long time for. My plan (hope) is to complete the first three outfits this month, then take a break for some Christmas outfits.  The skirts for the first costume have been cut out, sewn, and run through the wash. Now they are laying on various heating registers throughout the house, so the stained bottoms can dry. Well, better get back to it.......

"For breakfast, lunch, or dinner, nothing beats a sandwich", is today's quote, but I'm thinking Byuri doesn't look very happy about it. I made her stacks of cheese, chicken, and peanut butter sandwiches, so she and her friends would have enough for the whole day, but she's barely started and looks totally fed up already. "Can I have a bowl of oatmeal instead? Or, how about a pizza?"