The necromancer's palanquin

Aug. 31st, 2009 12:21 pm soupytwist's corset. Construction photos: part 5

( Construction photos: part 5, COMPLETED CORSET )

Current Mood: accomplished

Aug. 31st, 2009 12:19 pm soupytwist's corset. Construction photos: part 4

( Construction photos: part 4, BONING and BINDING )

Current Mood: sleepy

Aug. 31st, 2009 12:17 pm soupytwist's corset. Construction photos: part 3

( Construction photos: part 3 )

Current Mood: accomplished

Aug. 31st, 2009 12:15 pm soupytwist's corset. Construction photos: part 2

( Construction photos, part 2 )

Current Mood: accomplished

Aug. 31st, 2009 12:12 pm soupytwist's corset. Construction photos: part 1

( Construction photos: part 1 )

Current Mood: accomplished

Roomba, now with cushion for added comfort.

Current Mood: amused

Here is the reason I've been largely absent from LJ for almost three days.

I have finished the corset.

Yep, I lured teh soupytwist to the House of Tentacles this morning under the pretense that she'd help me get yet another stage over with. Instead, I've been working on it in secret for just over a week in order to get it finished for her so that she can wear it to Convergence.



I will post later with construction pics, and more photos of the completed garment.

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In other news, Megatron: Origins is very cool indeed.

Current Mood: surprised

stillsostrange's The Drowning City comes out next week (in the UK, sooner in the US).



She's an exceptionally talented writer, and I'd encourage you all to go buy her book forthwith, 'cause it's awesome (having read the first three chapters some time ago, I can say this with absolute faith).

In case you haven't come across her before, she has some very beautiful short stories available online.



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While I'm pimping, check out excerpts of another forthcoming novel that is made of nowt but win, Child of the Hive by 87_degrees:



( Vid under the cut )


Jess has a shedload of talent, and that shed is very big. The fact that she also has a really nice reading voice is also good... ;) I first heard bits of this book while she was working on it several years back, and I really enjoyed it. It's a cool and interesting SF tale, with a nice fast pace and well-developed characters. Hearing the recording of Jess reading parts of it reminds me of very good times indeed :)

Current Mood: pleased

Solstice in a Summerless Year has gone live at Expanded Horizons.

Dude, that was the fastest sale to publication in my (admittedly not very extensive) experience of releasing short stories out into the wild.

Just in case anyone's interested, this is the story that was inspired by a Panorama documentary about supervolcanoes.

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On my way home from work, on the little hill by the water tower, I saw a fox. I've never seen a fox quite that close in York before, although I've seen many in London and Norfolk. It was beautiful.

Current Mood: accomplished

This is mainly for 87_degrees, but there may well be other people who're curious about my bead collection.

Warning, the images under here are VERY big. For smaller piccies go here and here.



( BEADS! )

The vast majority are semi-precious.

Current Mood: cheerful

I've just finished reading Iron Angel by Alan Campbell.

( A small review of sorts, complete with mild spoilers )

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In short, I really liked this book. It's full of very bloody win and awesome. If you like very bloody win and awesome, you should read it.

Current Mood: content

You might remember a few months back that I babbled a while about making a tunic for LARP using a C13th-ish pattern, and some green cotton that me and cthulouis bought from allseeingeye23.

Well, after many hours of patient hand stitching, I've finally finished it.



For a bigger piccie, click here

Construction: flat felled seams, whip stitched (or hem stitched, depending on what you read)into place (two lines of stitching, one of the inside of the garment and one on the outside), edged with braid from Bead Hive (this was also attached with whip/hem stitched , my new favorite kind of stitch :D). The seams look the same on the inside as the outside.



( More piccies under the cut )

And so... I've learnt a lot from this piece.

Mainly, I've learnt that flat felled seams are awesome, and that hand stitching can give you a strong and durable garment. Also, flat felling isn't difficult, especially if you bother to iron the seams first (which I didn't, leading to a bit more work for me).

I've also learnt that I need to focus on consistency with my hand stitching. My stitching is pretty good overall, but I hope I'll improve with practice.

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The next project that isn't a corset (corsetry will be happening alongside this, pictures to follow soonish hopefully):

I'm going to try to get hold of 4m of white linen next to make a shift. I haven't quite decided whether I want something accurate to the C14th, C15th or C16th, or whether what I actually want is something anachronistic that borrows authenticity while looking totally awesome for LARP. We shall see.

Current Mood: accomplished

No, I really have no idea whether this is going to work or not, being my first ever crochet project, but it seems to be doing quite well so far.

The fake yarn is made of old t-shirts that I'd saved to use as dusters.

Current Mood: awake

At last, I've completed the binding on the green satin waspie I began last weekend. And here it is...



( Front and back views )

I used a pattern that I drafted for myself a while ago. The method I used can be found here and here.

I'm really pleased with the curve this gives, much as I know that my sewing and construction skills have a long way to develop!

In particular, I want to concentrate on accuracy and sewing straight for my next project. However, this one looks OK as it is, so I'm not about to take it apart :P


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( Here lie many construction photos, just in case anyone's interested to see how I put it together. Please note, I am not in any way professional. I just do it for fun, and it involves a good degree of inexpert botching. )

Current Mood: accomplished

( 8th December )

Current Mood: awake

( 7th December )

Current Mood: accomplished

( 6th December )

Current Mood: kinda ill

( 5th December )

Current Mood: busy

( 4th December )

Current Mood: busy

( 3rd December )