Gareth Pugh in BJD form

I thought I'd already blogged this. I guess it fell into the "meant to do long enough it became already done in my mind" category. So, here goes!

I found a WTC post on DoA for a Gareth Pugh outfit. I had seen this outfit before - in fact, it is the same one someone is planning to have made for their recently ordered Ringdoll. She offered me the project for when her doll came in. Sadly, I do not have the right doll size for it at this very moment, and so I feel that it would require too much adjusting to achieve the right fit. (I have plans to right this horrible wrong, though, as I have found a doll I want....) I always get very disappointed when I am unable to sew an outfit that is really inspiring for me, so, when I saw a WTC for that same outfit I was already so in love with, I had to message the person.  Then I proceeded to go through the (self inflicted) agony thinking it must have already been snatched up when I didn't hear back from her within a few hours. (Sheesh, self, patience!) In the end, I got the project. (No, no one else got there first. My devastation was overblown as per usual.) The doll this project is intended for is an IoS 70cm with measurements pretty similar to my Dollshe Hound.

I am sewing the tunic part in pleather, with the skirt in gauze. The outfit also includes some black knit tights. Or maybe leggings would be the more appropriate term. I love the affect of the crisp pleather with the soft flowing gauze.

This outfit is just gorgeous. I love the detailed piecing of the bodice, and sleeves. Here is the inspiration pic:

I really enjoyed figuring out the pattern for this. It was sort of like building a puzzle. Here's the outfit on my Hound. (Please forgive the less than perfect pics.)

 Ambrose looks just.....amazing in this. I have dreamed for so long about having a Dollshe, and here is my very own Hound. In something I made for him that I love THIS much!!! It just makes me so happy. I'm so proud of this guy. (Yep, he still needs a face up. I just need to decide first on what I want to do with him!)

Work has since commenced on my actual commission piece. The above you see on Ambrose is pretty much my test run, so the outfit my buyer will get will be much more perfect. (I did a quick partial bodice in cotton, and just went onto the pleather. Its one of those outfits that I felt I needed the actual fabric to see how the pattern was coming together. Sometimes this is for fabric weight, sometimes it is just to get the right aesthetic idea, and since cotton is so different than pleather, it didn't work as comfortably for me.) The gauze skirt on her's is much fuller and a little longer, which is definitely an improvement. I'm going to get some more gauze and re-make one for my doll.

The  IoS doll I am sewing for has bigger shoulder and chest measurements, which is actually - normally - a very quick adjustment. Somehow I fumbled that one, and made a dumb mistake that I kind of knew at the time was a mistake, but I did it any way. I would have already had it done by now. *face palm* As it stands, I have fixed my mistake, which was simple since I knew darn well what I had done. I should have it completed *hopefully* at the end of the week. So excited to get this to her gorgeous boy! :D

Now that I have seen one outfit designed by Gareth Pugh on my Hound, I think I will pursue recreating some more for my boy on down the road! He has some seriously amazing outfits. I love the post apocolpytic, cyber, vampire, goth sort of look.

Asylum Chic and Halloween Industrial...for the mice??? *Picture heavy*

Yep! For the Cheese mice. :) Instead of working on the Dark Mori outfit I intend to make for my Hound for the Project Journal Round on DoA (my plans, my plans, I never stick to them) I got my critters out yesterday, wanting to come up with some sort of idea that I like, will continue to like, and that will give them each a defined style and presence. I have tried different things for them - more like have come up with different plans for them, but nothing really has ever stuck. Yesterday after doing some sketching that went nowhere, an idea clicked in my head.

I decided to start with Blueberry. I had already made some simple little black twill pants back several months ago. So for this guy, all he needed to have was a shirt. I decided to try and make the mummy, asylum chic style of shirt (no, this isn't original) similar to one I started making for SD size (and consequently, have never finished in the last couple of year - yikes.) I thought it would be pretty simple, and while it was, I had no idea it would take me as long as it did. O.o

Basic pieces in white cotton. I sewed the shoulder seams together before I should have.

Next step, the tiny little strips. There were 18 on one sleeve, 17 on the other.

I tried to figure out a way to make more blind stitches, but do to the size, and the fraying tendency of the fabric, I just took small running stitches. At first I was disappointed, but the more rows I did, the more I decided it was perfect, and added to the effect. Below is the finished right sleeve.

And now the front and one back. As you see, I did take the shoulder seams apart in order to better sew on the strips.

And just a cute pic of Blueberry holding his finished sleeves in excitement...(Lovely background, eh?)

4 hours later, it is finished. My regret is not taking the time to fray check the strips before sewing them on. I love the shredded effect, which got  more shredded in my struggle to turn those loooong sleeves inside out. (It wouldn't have hurt to have made them a wee bit wider for that reason.) I luckily only managed to pull off one strip which is some sort of miracle. I was having visions of having to toss out the whole thing at that point while I tried - as gently as I could - to pull those sleeves through. What a relief when I finally did!) I had put a slit in either sleeve so he could get his paws through to use his hands, which not only looks cool, but helped greatly in the turning-the-sleeves-inside-out drama.

It will have a chain sewn onto the shirt, and also the pants. I *know* I have one around here somewhere, but I have no idea where it is. I really don't think I used it for something else, unless it was Ambrose' bondage pants....I'll just have to get another one. And then it will be perfect! :D 

I do intend to try and go in there with a tooth pick or something to maybe add some fray check to it. I'll update later if I did, what I did, and if it worked. Even if I don't, it is technically fine. I'll just handle it with care.

And here he is with his twin, Grape Jelly. I'll do a separate post for his outfit, as I have WIP and the story to tell for that one too. :) 

Went to Nashville yesterday, visited the AG store!

Which is about 2 1/2 hours from where we are staying. They have an AG store there at the mall, so we were really excited to get the chance to visit. For some reason we had this hair brained idea that we could stop by there on the way to KY on our move here - yeah right. Like we' re going to even want to stop there on a 4 (and it ended up being a 5) day move? It was a fun thought initially, but I am definitely glad we waited.

We got a pretty early start, fueled up on gas and coffee (32 oz cup for me!) and we were on our way. My Freya (a gift from a friend - thank you so much - you know who you are!) came along with me. She's been rather needy since her arrival. She's wearing a Blythe dress that no one else is needing, and I think it looks cute on her. Blythe clothes are slim picking 'round these parts as sewing for them seems to always end up on the bottom of the stack of priorities. Eventually I will get my Freya named, and dressed in clothing special for her. I'm just not sure what that is at the moment, so she will stay as she is for now.

We got to the mall around 11:45 -ish, just in time for lunch. We brought along deli meat (sun dried tomato roasted turkey is really good) for sandwiches, and once food was downed, off we went.

The Cool Springs Galleria mall is quite large. A 2 story. We came in the mall through Macy's, and once we located one of those mall map thing a ma bops, found that the AG place was in the upper story and all the way on the other side of the mall. Like I said, it was a big mall, so it was quite the walk to get there. I wanted to stop by Hot Topic of course to check out what goodies they might have (I miss the one here, which closed down years ago.) They were having a store wide sale (yay!!) and I looked pretty quickly and ended up heading on to the AG store with the intent to come back later on to make my purchases.

The AG store there is really fun. It's all one level, as opposed to having the Bitty Babies and modern girls on the bottom floor like they had in D.C. (Actually, Tyson's Corner in VA.) I prefer the one floor. There were a good spattering of customers, but it wasn't too terribly crowded. The employees could hover annoyingly at times, but again, not too terribly bad. (I had one employee do the "Oh, I just love your coffin bag!" as she obviously craned her neck to make sure I wasn't stealing. *sigh* I totally understand why she would do that. I made sure she saw the inside of it to see for herself there was nothing underhanded going on. Why do people have to steal things?) I took a few pics of Freya checking out all the models and displays. Here is my favorite. I think she found a friend she wanted to take home with her. Maybe next time.

I ended up getting some fun stuff on my second trip to Hot Topic. (I know I took forever. It's not a big store, but the really low lights makes it hard to see everything, lol.) I got 2 awesome awesome sweaters with skulls on them (one is long and black, the other is a cream and black stripe) 2 bottles of nail polish, and 3 sets of jewelry.

While I was walking along, I saw a child - probably around 7 maybe? - point at me. Totally normal. I don't mind. Recently I had a 3 year old boy point and me and say "Look, a bat!" (Not sure how I resembled a bat, but I was like "aw, he called me a bat!") I never know what I'll hear, but something along that line, or maybe just a gasp. But this child? She pointed at me, and then, here it came. "Mommy, look, an EMO!" Emo??????? Seriously? I have never been called that before. I guess that's her title for black make up and clothes? (It's not completely untrue, but still, I am no emo.) *face palm* Ah well, what do kids know?

Next came the drive to Bowling Green where we got lost trying to re-find the restaurant of choice for dinner. The food was terrible. That's one thing we'll have to re-adjust to. Around here, there are no decent Mexican restaurants. It's not exactly the right demographic for people to really have much appreciation for good Mexican food. It's okay, though. I truly do not enjoy eating out, and since I am here, if I must, just give me some Long John Silvers, and we're good. :D

Some more pics from the AG store:

I love Mary Ellen more than I expected to. I think she might be coming to live with me at one point!

Pants for tinies - Pipos PI, Delf Zuzu, and of course, 5star YoSD...

I intended to spend my weekend working on an outfit for my 5star tony Aiden Dante. I have plans for a suit for him - red blouse, black slacks, maybe a black vest, a suit coat and for sure a tie. I hadn't really gotten out many of my BJDs since moving back to KY, so I pretty soon found myself distracted just a little, hauling all of my anthros out of their container. The ones who did have clothes had cold weather stuff, and in the summer heat (with no a/c at the time - we have since gotten one as of last night, and I am one happy duck) it looked miserable. So, I decided to spend a little bit of time making them something that didn't look like they would melt in.

First, I sketched out some summer dress ideas for Honeysuckle (Baha girl.) Then, I settled on cargo shorts for the boys (Pipos PI Heero - he's not mine, but I sew for him like he is - PI Bao, and Delf Zuzu Wolffy) each in different colors. Hamilton (Heero) would have black, Percy (Bao) would have khaki, and Vlady (Zuzu) would be most unhappily stuck with denim. He's normally my romantic white vampy goth, so sticking him in something normal is cruel and unusual punishment for him. I do sympathize, so I am working on an idea for something cool and in his style, but until then, he has shorts.

I started with Vlady's, went onto Ham's, and then started working on a raglan tee for Vlady. I'm presently not happy with it, but I am pleased with the shorts. I had cut out Percy's, but didn't get to them until Sunday.

On Sunday I made Percy's shorts, and then began working on basic pants for Aiden, and finished them relatively fast. I do have an Etsy commission for 3 pairs of pants for this size, so not only was I making something for Dante to wear, but I was also working on stuff for my store. I am pleased with how everything except the raglan tee have turned out. I'll edit this post when I finish getting pics of everything.

Pictures!

Meet Dante - 5star Aiden (Long story ahead...)

Poor little Dante is a sweet and eager little Demon, ready to get his very first assignment into the human world. In fact, he is so excited that he spends his days - and sometimes his nights when he gets away with is - in the lobby of the Department of Human Assistance. (Basically, they handle those humans who go conjuring demons, selling their souls, etc.) He sits, just waiting until his name is called. His presence is met with a mix of annoyance, anger and pity. Sometimes the receptionists there take some pity on him and provide him with snacks and water, and a blanket for those late nights when he falls asleep on the couch. Sometimes they will run him out. When this happens, Dante will simply bide his time, wait till the coast is clear, and he will sneak back in.

Days come and days go. His name is never called. You see, Hell doesn't exactly want him. He's just....simple and kind hearted. Not attributes a demon summoned t cause trouble in the world of human's possess. Unfortunately, they can't seem to justify shipping him out. Oh, they've thought about. How could they excuse getting rid of the little nuisance?

And then, one day the perfect opportunity fell right into their laps......

Fast forward to the human world for just a moment here.

Meet Ambrose. You see him there - the tall lanky pale fellow with the long white blonde hair in the black pleather. He's hunched over another drink. One he shouldn't be having, just like his last 4. He's angry and fretting. He's furious at someone. Who, it doesn't matter. (Truth be told, I haven't figured out that little detail, so we will just move on.) And being drunk, he's not exactly plotting anything good. The bartender orders him a cab and gently prods him to leave, telling him he has had more than enough.  Ambrose's band plays there often on the weekends, so he is on friendly terms with all the employees there. He knows its true, and doesn't bother putting up any sort of fuss. This isn't his normal thing - he might enjoy a few drinks, but he knows his limits. Normally. But this isn't a normal night for him.

The weather isn't quite normal either. It's been a very humid summer, and the lightening storms have been phenomenal. And on this particular night, a storm was brewing.  (Come on, of course it was! Ambiance, folks, ambiance. :P)

Ambrose lives with his friend Draven at Draven's old creepy Victorian family house. Draven also happened to be out of town, and was due home in 3 days. (Had he been there, I wouldn't be writing this story.)

Ambrose was dropped off at the very edge of the long winding driveway. The cab driver refused to get any closer to the house than he had to. And while he wasn't exactly thrilled to be staggering in the pelting down rain, he just thanked the guy and headed onward to the front door. After struggling to first find the right key, hold on it to it long enough to try inserting into the lock, and then actually getting it in the right way (he was cursing his lack of control at this point) Ambrose was inside.

Surveying the spinning room through blurry eyes for a moment, he got into his plan. Draven's house held a very large library. His family throughout the years had amounted a very vast and odd sort of collection. Things like taxidermy, funeral rites, poisons, torture practices and other oddities made up the majority of it, mixed in with Gothic Victorian novels and other such crime stories. There was a section Ambrose had stumbled onto one day unlike the others. There were 2 books, both ornately bound. They contained some sort of spells - many written in what Ambrose could only guess was latin. Draven told him that his great grandfather had been heavily into Necromancy and other dark arts. He was told firmly to not ever mess with them. Draven, knowing Ambrose would take him seriously never bothered to move them or hide them. Ambrose never intended to mess with them. But....this wasn't a normal night, or a normal situation. (And Ambrose was drunker than a skunk.)

Once in the library he swiftly (not really, he stumbled, stubbed a toe which he would have broke had the alcohol not softened the blow, knocked over a lamp) made his way to the books, and scooped them up. He sat down at the beautiful carved desk, and began to flip through. He was in truth at first disappointed. Perhaps he had a movie moment for himself pictured already in his mind. Flipping through spells to turn people into toads, or some such. The only thing that piqued his interest was finding an incantation to summon a demon to do your will. This, this one might work. He could use some little demon to torment the object of his rage. Well, maybe *torment* was a strong word. More like annoy, bother, disrupt. The more he thought about the less he really wanted to cause this person that many problems.

But still. They had to pay. Right?

Ambrose concluded that yes, they deserved it. He dug a candle out of the desk drawer. (Draven always used candles wherever he was at. He preferred them to lamps, often times.) He lit it, cleared his throat and began to read.

To be continued so that this post isn't horribly long.....

Trying Kool Aid as hair Dye and some new make up

Since moving back to KY, I am pleased to once again find that they offer much more colors of lip stick that I might use instead of the basic colors that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. They have Hard Candy at Wal-mart that does offer a black. The reviews of it are plain awful, and in pics it look greasy with poor, poor coverage. It would be salvaged with some black pigment, but I find that after awhile it can get a wee bit uncomfortable, although it looks fantastic. I do plan on trying out the purple, purplish black, green and blue one of these days.

At the General Dollar they have a different line up of make up, but still a lot of L.A. Colors. Which is fine, as some of their products are good, some none so much. They had a sale, so I went ahead and grabbed one of the Matte lipsticks (Broadway Colors line), and 2  L.A. Colors eye shadows. (I desperately need a new black, as mine busted into pieces on the move, but its still usable.) I bought a cauldron color that has a bit of a sparkle to it without being sparkly, and a wine color that has black undertones. I like both quite a bit. The lipstick is a brownish, burgundy, blackish. Great color, matte finish, and one I can actually put my lip liner on top of to finish out the edges. I plan to buy the black of this brand, since it is also a matte. One of my blacks I use only as an emergency fix while out and about, as it tends towards greasy and required the pigment over. My other (Portland Black Lipstick Company) is seriously awesome, so another black isn't really important, but one I plan to try. I will also be buying the purple, dark blue and possibly the lighter blue. That one might be too light, but it might be fun to play with. Here's a couple of pics. They made them look lighter than they are. I'm struggling to get good pics up here in the attic.

Like the title says, I am trying out kool aid to dye my hair for the first time. Since my untimely reaction to hair dye back last fall, my hair has just been growing out in its natural color. I miss my hair being all black. I do plan to eventually go the natural route (henna/indigo) an idea my friend in another state and I talked about doing some time last year. Neither of us have thus far. So, I decided to try using kool aid. I went with the grape, as I would love purple hair. And adding purple to what's still black might look cool, right?

I didn't have enough to cover all the natural colored hair, but I got the top and some of the under stuff. If it actually does as advertised, I'll be happy. If not, well, no real harm done. The cloying grape scent will eventually leave my nose. :P Just 3 hours to go, and we'll see if it works!

The relocation post....

And my staggering ability to create eye catching titles for my blog posts continues!

As the title says, I have happily relocated from Ogden UT back to KY. It came up sudden like, and I honestly still can't believe I am back. One day it came up, followed by a week or so of packing frenzy. We were set to leave on Tuesday, and as plans go, we did better than expected. We did leave on Tuesday, but around 3:30 in the afternoon. Not a great start for a 4 day cross country move, but at least we were actually out the door at all.

The trip was as bad or good as to be expected. We didn't hit any bad weather. Seems we skirted around anything that was a potential. We made bad time the first 2 days, practically flew the third day, made fantastic time on the 4th day only to lose all that great time getting sort of lost in St. Louis, making us stay in Mount Vernon at a not so fantastic hotel. It was all just fine though, and having that extra night in a hotel was nice for being so tired. When we got into town, we found that the car had a dead battery. Cue the "Oh no, we can't get the car off the car dolly until Monday, the truck is due to be turned in on Sunday." The guys at the U Haul place were really nice and did not charge us for the extra day we needed on Monday. Turns out the car battery was dead.

So, Monday came and went after a relay race of hauling everything off the truck, only to have the people at the U Haul place accuse us of hitting their silver Mercedes. (You should see where they parked the damn thing to begin with. Just asking for trouble, if you ask me.) It was a weird feeling to have the wife of the guy who works there come running out to take pics of the side of our car where we scraped the railing in New Mexico. Apparently she had felt it was "so obvious" that she didn't bother to even check out the truck. They claimed we definitely hit them going  out that exit (we went out the other one) and were somehow oblivious to the fact that there was:

 A) no silver paint on our car. Looking at the damage on their car - missing paint patches, etc. there is NO way a vehicle could cause that much damage and not be wearing the paint to prove it.

B) She measured our car and the silver car with a measuring stick claiming that the damage was the same height AFTER our car was off the tow dolly. (It would have been 6 inches or so higher if the car was on the tow dolly, so those measurements aren't accurate.)

C) Our car had brown dirt all over from NM, and thin long scrapes, most of which wiped off with a little water. Now how does that come from the back end of another car that is missing paint? I don't think so. My regret was that we failed to wipe off our car before taking the truck back. They would have had zero to go on if we had.

You cannot not hear or feel hitting a car. I know people lie and you can't believe anyone, but there is no way we would hit a car and be oblivious to it. They also admitted they did not see us do it. It is really a bad location for a U Haul place. It's a very tiny place with people coming in and out with tow dollies, trailers, etc, so honestly, anyone could have done it. For all they know it was someone after hours using it as a turn around, and they only found it on Monday morning. I suppose we were the final customers on Saturday, so us it had to be. I understand they are desperate to find someone so they can collect the insurance to cover the damage, but I don't exactly appreciate this.

I've been here now over a week. Time has flown, and I am still in the "wow, just think where I was at this time 2 weeks ago!" We just got the internet turned on here, so I am back in business as far as sewing goes. The  next few posts will be back to my normal sewing/commission posts. I had to get this one out of the way though first.