Hi, all! Long time no visit.
Stopped back in because I'm going to finally start on my goggles soon, and figured I'd post a few pics from recent events while I was at it.
This is my second version of the wrap dress, with cotton crinkle gauze from Hancock (managed to grab it
just before the last stores around here closed). I'm keeping an eye out for this stuff elsewhere, because the strong vertical pleat stays put through washing and it doesn't develop any horizontal wrinkles like the bubble/crinkle gauze found elsewhere (e.g. JoAnn). My original wrap (worn only to C2E2) was done with some cotton gauze from my stash, which was lighter weight than most of what's out there and did the slightly floaty thing really well. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough on hand to make the strip quite wide enough, and I didn't like the horizontal crinkles interrupting the pleats. Still keeping an eye out for the viscose rayon gauze. Someday we'll figure out where the scarf manufacturers get it!
I'm on my third wrist cuff. I knew the first one was way too short because that was all the leather I had on hand and I was in hurry, and I spent all of C2E2 rewrapping it. I
thought I had it right with the second one (seen in the parade pictures above), even though I made it about an inch shorter than the pattern here on the thread, because I have weirdly tiny wrists. But I forgot to try it on over the wrap, so once again it kept coming undone unless I pulled it tight enough to pull it out of shape. The third one, made
exactl, from the pattern upthread, has been perfect.
These pics are all my second set of arm wraps; the first ones (at C2E2) were stretchy medical gauze, and it was comfortable but I just wasn't satisfied with the texture. So I next went with 100% cotton gauze (harder to find than I expected; around here only Meijer seems to have it, in 4.5" width and 3 yard length). That looked great to start with, but the weave started to break down after a couple wearings. I've just made a new pair, this time rinsing them by hand when they came out of the dye pot and hanging them over a rack to air-dry instead of putting them in the dryer. A little more effort, but definitely worth it for not having to iron them back into shape. Hopefully these will hold up a bit better, but if not, well, it's $4 for two rolls, so if I have to replace them frequently it's not a huge deal.
Belt has been redone once. I still might shell out for a big enough piece of leather to make it from scratch, but in the meantime I've been pretty pleased with what I cobbled together from two basic Target belts (one from the men's department, one from women's accessories) with the buckles cut off and the narrow ends trimmed off-center to eliminate the holes. Initially I made a little tube from a scrap piece of leather to hold them together, because I was running out of time to get ready for C2E2, but just before the library events shown above I got around to my original plan of gluing (with Shoe Goo) a scrap piece just to the back. I wasn't 100% sure about the stability of just that, especially at the edges, so I've reinforced it on the back with duct tape. Eventually I might come up with something more permanently reliable, but so far it's fine.
Also just before the library events, I cut my belt pouch down to screen-accurate size. I had previously made it about 3 inches longer to accommodate the disassembled pieces of my staff, but I now have a backpack (which will need extensive modding to be accurate, but looks pretty decent now), and I haven't wanted to break my staff all the way down as much as I initially thought. Yesterday I took the pouch over and showed it to the guy at the the local surplus store, where I bought the vintage British pack I modded it from, and he was delighted.
The strap I'm currently using for my staff is a different vintage rifle sling, plus a bit more matching strapping, from a pile of vintage surplus stuff someone gave me a while back. I couldn't bring myself to drop $25 apiece on the Enfield slings when I had that on hand. Then recently, looking for a belt for another project at the thrift store, I realized there were loads of the web-type belts that tend to come along with trousers, some of which are very close the Enfield sling strap weave. I scored two matching ones yesterday; they're light beige right now, but I'll probably dunk them in some tan dye and see what I get. The hardware is a mix of a slide buckle from my vintage surplus stash and swivel clips from Hobby Lobby. (I have a bunch of surplus swivel clips too, but the ones on the staff sling are a much more modern shape.)
Oh, and FWIW: I serged the side seams of my tunic and then whip-stitched it by hand, because that's what I saw in that photo. In the best resolution I've been able to find, it looks to my like that's what it is, rather than a zigzag, but I think either would be effective, and it's a worthwhile bit of detailing.
