Niece1 was asking me about how to dye a garment for her Halloween costume, and the conversation turned into a discussion about if I knew someone who could make her an Optimus Prime custom plush doll because what she wants doesn't exist. That's the problem when you're a 16-year-old girl who likes what's considered more of a boy thing! (I loved Transformers when I was a kid too, but the idea of any toys based on it besides figurines never occurred to me because that just wasn't a thing back in the '80s.)
Long story short, after she texted me a bunch of cartoon drawings from different angles that had wrong proportions ("his head is too big, but this is what I want" ) I looked at her Amazon wishlist because I remembered she had a handful of figurines on it.
So I bought this cute little guy who is basically the right proportions (legs just need to be a little longer) with the promise she will get him for Christmas after I use him to make a pattern I can enlarge to 18 or so inches tall. And the plush will probably be her birthday present in May.
#OptimusPlush
I spent the day priming things for paint and then I remembered to shoot a quick video. #SewingStudioBuild
I started cutting all the edges while Janet was away yesterday morning. When she got back after lunch, she pulled out a roller and started filling in. I'll put a pic below in the comments. #SewingStudioBuild
We broke for lunch and then came back with a portal ac unit plugged in to an extention cord from the house. Can't wait until they finished hooking up all the electrical and we have the mini split cooling the room for us - it was stupid humid today! #SewingStudioBuild
Why do you have to be so pretty, brocade? I love you, but you are so fussy to work with!
#derbydress
I made a rub-off dress... the only change I made was to increase the width of the waistband from 2" to 3", which I am more-or-less satisfied with. I'd do a few things, construction-wise, differently next time, but this is an easy, comfortable dress.
The original is from Talbots.
It’s been awhile since I’ve had something to show, but I’m finally getting the pictures up! Both of these were from the Paloma pattern in the Itch to Stitch “Sew Beautiful” book. I did the top first to test the pattern, and tried to add some length to the sleeves, since 3/4 length only works here about 3 to 4 days of the year! I apparently underestimated the length I needed to add, but I had to cut crosswise even to add this much, so I couldn’t have done more.
For the dress, I did add more sleeve length (slightly overestimated this time). I also added ties to the neck and pockets, though in retrospect, I probably should have put them in higher. Based on the shirt, I’d thought putting them in the top part would be too high. So I inserted them in the first ruffle layer and it is maybe a bit too low.
Overall, though, I think this was a worthwhile pattern to play with.
