I feel like I've been living most of the past month to the Run, Lola, Run soundtrack.

Costume College, at the beginning of the month, was awesome. I learned how to make gloves. I learned tambour embroidery. I sat in on classes about the changes in fashion that Eleanor d'Medici started. I learned how to make resin-cast armor and face-fitting plaster masks. I showed the teacher of the blackwork embroidery class what I'd done with what I learned last year (she gave me a skein of embroidery silk as a reward) and promised to bring my samples to her class next year. I flipped through books in the marketplace and decided on some I do and do not want. I got to chat and spend time with hoshikage and a good friend from high school. I got to actually spend some time talking with twjudy! And I met eldawen too!

Then came the Three Weeks of Hell. Constructing most of five costumes (source art: mine, hoshikage's, iaurcalien's, phaelin's, and Cyndie's; photos of results to come later) in three weeks is not a task I want to replicate ever again, but we managed. There were lots of very late nights, lots of stress, fortunately no sewing machine troubles, though at points we had up to three running... lost of trips to JoAnn's and Michael's, orders to wig shops, orders to shoe dyers (who claimed the style we were ordering ran true to size, which was so not true)... we were literally finishing things up backstage at WorldCon, putting the wings together for the first time (they worked; thank god, they worked!), and going onstage. Our timing, which had been perfect on the second run-through, was slightly off. But we survived. And were awarded Best Workmanship, Journeyman Class, as well as a Most Photogenic award. And then there was much collapsing done. Until the next day when we did a photoshoot. And then there was more collapsing.

I did get to go to two panels, and found some new artists that I must stalk, and purchased a Pocket Dragon for myself as a souvenier (waaah, what do you mean Real Musgrave's retiring and there'll be no more Pocket Dragons? ;_;)... and that was it. So now I clean, I relax, I catch up on missing sleep, and I try not to plot to open the very large box that just arrived that contains my birthday present from my Wonderful Husband.....

Y'know, there's a certain argument to be made that the modern equivalent of corset removal is not taking off one's brassiere at the end of the day, but rather the relief of shedding one's nylon pantyhose....

Have finally finished sewing all the leaves onto my bodice. Have also now got everyone else's bodice lining stitched in place (which involved a new blood sacrifice to hoshikage's costume as I ripped my arm on one of the pins...). Onward to more sewing!

Well. Cyndie's bodice mostly done (as in it needs the boning [cut and filed and tipped by my Wonderful Husband whom I love LOTS] inserted, the skirts attached, and the grommets, well, grommeted). Her sleeves are about half done. Her underskirt hoshikage is about half done with. iaurcalien's bodice is cut and pinned (the outer three layers) while the inner layers are actually sewn. We got choreography blocked and music decided on. So progress has in fact been made. I'd just feel like it was so much more progress if we could actually list anything as "done"... ah well. Perhaps tomorrow. Also got a mail back from CosWorx regarding our wig order. We'd gotten most of it on Friday (after placing the order on Tuesday--I love the speed of their service!), but the box was labelled "1 of 1," which confused us. Fortunately it was a mislabelling and the second half will be shipped on Monday, to arrive no later than Wednesday. And now I go to shift my sewing machine, as well as relevant pieces-in-progress and spools of thread, downstairs so that I can theoretically continue to work both after hoshikage goes to bed and before she gets up as well.

Okay, am on my third version of a mockup for Edel's top. Third time's the charm, right?

Think I'll also cut out the pieces for rough draft of the WorldCon bodice while I've got the lining material out. I know it's not going to be right (it's a drop point waist and I'm going to be trying the Martha McCain ACW corset pattern, which isn't, but which will theoretically *give* me a waist as well as cup support), but I need to make it up before I can declare how it's wrong.

So, off to cut and sew!

Hmm. Well, had a pow-wow with group members tonight and we ironed out what we're going to do in place of the set that got cancelled. It's still very pretty so I'm not upset about it. And I've gotten the yin-yang symbol for my Fuu costume cut out and pinned to the top. Yay for Wonderful Husband helping me figure out the maths of a proper yin-yang! Now to sew.