Project Runway Chat Thread

Yeouch! I did that last time; made it quite difficult to hand sew. It was my fault though. Just being stupid and trying to short-cut. I've got everything together, story written, just have to cut patterns and sew! Oh, and make the two accessories.
But I have 27 angels to make, the rest of the 46 (15 done) medieval outfits to do, and November is a short month. I'll lose time Thanksgiving week since I'm the cook. Arrrgh! I need to say no now and then....

 

I guess starting early or late has it's pro's and con's Hope the cut wasn't deep!

I'm still working on my pattern and deciding on fabric, hopefully as soon as I finish with the pattern, selecting fabric will be easy. I had my little mishaps with this project....never break a needle on my sewing machine, but this time I did while sewing up a draft...needle broke in three places with the middle hitting my face just below my eye. The second was looking for fabric and trying get open the top plastic drawer....pulled too hard and the corner hit the inner part of my wrist, not once but twice, no blood but it looks like I was trying to slice it open! I know what my story line will be but haven't written it out yet.

How's everyone else doing?? Is we havin' fun yet???

 

I'm bummed. Not sure if I'll get to it. My sewing machine died on the last seam of Wiishu's bat costume. Since this is for the Pookster, I could do it all by hand, but so far, November has been swamped. I just realized we're almost halfway through. I had an idea, and it flew out the window. I imagine I'll be scrambling last minute on this one. As Wiishu would say: Darned it!

 

Yeah my finger is okay. it was my left index so not as bad as it could have been. Sounds like you were having a bad time too, @PRGerry, maybe it's the ghostly theme or something. Sorry about your sewing machine @Vindalootoo

I just need to get this one last thing done without damaging myself again and I will be finished. This nasty weather may keep me from using the cemetery as my glamor shot, but who knows, this is Texas it may be 90F next week.
Hope all goes well for the rest of the month.

 

Vindalootoo sorry about your sewing machine, is it repairable? Many years ago I had a Singer Golden Touch and sew...my best sewing machine ever! When it gave up after 20+ years I was heart broken, tried getting it repaired a few times with no luck at all, she is still in my pantry behind a few bins....why, just can't throw her out! After buying a few duds I did get lucky but not with a Singer again, seems like the old ones where the best!

 

I'm sure it is. Something just has it hung up somewhere. the motor runs, but the needle doesn't move. I can manually make the needle move, but it feels gooey, if you know what I mean. Don't know what it w/b, given what I was doing, but this dumb thing can hide things in the weirdest places. I haven't really looked into it, yet. Haven't had time. (Been a year, I tell ya!) I'm hoping when I get inspired, I'll be able to figure it out. Taking anything to get it fixed any more is the better part of $100 just to walk in the door! Sheesh.

I had a good old workhorse Kenmore that I traded "up" for this Pfaff. Biggest. Mistake. Ever. Touchiest machine I've ever worked with. It's possible something got into the feed dogs, but you can't get into anything to fix it. (Another negative, IMO. I can fix most mechanical things if I can get into them. This one...nope.) I'll investigate a bit more when I get through this 52 card pickup of scenes I'm doing right now. (Pesky how timelines in books need to make sense....)

What are you using now? I'm open to suggestions, tho I have so much invested in feet for this stupid thing, I'll probably have to stick with it...at least long enough to use them. Anyone else do that? Impulse buy cool techno toys, then end up doing it the brute force way anyway because you can't afford the time to figure out how to use them? I also find that most of the feet require a "lead" that tiny clothes don't really give you.

 

I feel your pain, sewing machines love to suck that tiny corner right down into the bobbin. My Brother machine did it and my borrowed Singer does it too. Wish I could find a plate that has a small hole for doing straight stitches. Had a machine that you could change out plates that had just enough room for the needle to go in and out. Perfect for this kind of thing, only problem is remembering that you can't zigzag without changing the plate - senior moments could be dangerous.

 

Vindalootoo
Ooh, tell me about those timelines. I've even gone to making up a spreadsheet to keep track of events. On to sewing machines.

I have a Pfaff, but it's about 20 years old. Pfaff is now controlled by Singer, but don't think that is a good thing. Singer sold its sewing machine division in order to build more weapons back in the 60s? 70s? A long time ago anyway. Right now I don't trust either of them.
I will agree with you on not being able to take things apart to fix them with the Pfaff. There is also no pressure foot adjustment. I learned on a New Home treadle machine and my main machine for 35 years was a New Home. You could sew over pins with it. My son and daughter fight over who is using it (he's in the SCA and does his costumes, she does doll clothes like me).
As to avoiding that 'lead' you need, try sending a scrap piece through first, right before you start the actual seam you want to do. It helps a lot, especially if you hang on to the piece as you start to run the machine. I do it often when I have a sheer I'm trying to work with.
Right now I have four sewing machines; my main Pfaff, an older New Home, an older White, and something else I haven't dug out in a while. All are in great working order. And by older I mean a full metal machine, none of this plastic junk everybody is selling. My machines make a lie of the word 'portable'.

 

I have that plate switch option with the pfaff. Love it. Magically, no senior moment yet, but I don't do a lot of zigzag. What I need to look out for is moving the needle over to get a smaller seam!

Oh...I've also used tissue paper under the fabric to keep the machine from eating it. That works pretty well. Tears away smoothly.

Back when I did my first PR, my Pfaff pulled one of its snits right when I started working (late). I ran down to costco and got a cheap Brother to fill in while it was at the doctors...then the machine magically stopped what it was doing and has worked fine since. The Brother would work for this if I could get to it, but I packed it away (kept it so friends can come sew) and my basement is in an uproar...which needs to be solved after PR, so I can't get to it. I had the pfaff upstairs doing my window treatments in the living room so it has thus far escaped the madness. I'm getting rid of a bunch of stuff but I need to sort for keep, give away, ebay, find a dealer (comics)... But CJ finished the next foreigner book last week and I took several days to do the edit on it, and now I'm determined to get this book moving again. Ah, the joy!

LadyFeather: spreadsheets huh? I think my final step is going to require a printout and scissors and tape. This is crazy because it's two storylines happening simultaneously in a handful of hours. They're physically several light years apart and they still have to interweave seamlessly without losing the flow of either! One is very internal, the other is very lively conversation with some good snarky banter, and yet they still feed off each other for the infoflow. ARGH! If I can get it smooth in the next couple of days, I'll turn my creative juices toward the Pookster. Right now, I'm making him keep his sleepy face on so he can't distract me.

 

I have been doing PR with Mookie for a couple years now and I always hand sewed his outfits because the tiny seams would get chewed up by the feed dogs when I tried to use a machine. I am a terrible hand sewer even when I take my time and try to be careful. However, I now use a product by Pellon called Fuse-N-Tear. The package says it is an embroidery stabilizer but it works great for sewing tiny seams. I just cut a piece about an inch larger all around than the pieces I want to sew, iron it onto the bottom piece and then run through the machine. You can get right to the end of the seam and even back tack a few stitches to secure the end, or just run the stitches off the fabric onto the paper. Because it is temporarily fused to the fabric, it is nice and stable and doesn't shift around. It is a mega time saver over hand sewing.

 

Heading for the store....THANK YOU!

As for bad hand sewing...you'd never guess. Your Mookster always rocks!

 

Wishing everyone a great 'turkey day'!

I don't think I need extra time, if all goes as planned I'll be able to wrap up my outfit tonight, story done and just worry about the photos

Watched some of the Butterball hotline pics on the news.....turkey goes on the table.....burnt to a crisp and the little girl yells.....turkey is ready!!! lol

How's everyone else doing?

 

PRGerry sitting here watching Wreck it Ralph surrounded by a pile of fabric and sewing projects, sorting. My Texas turkey-day feast included a charcoal grilled 14 oz. steak with potatoes and squash. Yum!

 

Full traditional Thanksgiving meal here; turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, 4 veggies, cranberries in everything, pies piled high. We're all stuffed.
I've not started anything other than to alter the patterns I want to use and gather materials. I can't start on the one prop until I get a large bottle of glue and the yard dries out from the sleet and rain we had yesterday. I have all the ideas of what I want to do except for the top or jacket styling. Right now I'm too tired to do anything so as usual, mañana calls.

 

Jury's still out. All creativity...every ounce...is going into writing for the first time in a long time. It's a question which comes first, the end of the book or the end of the month....

 

A merry and safe Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year to all!
As a Christmas gift for all of you here's images of the project that I finished after doing the Spectral Challenge. It was our last meet of the year; between my daughter and I we had 40 dolls. Most of the outfits were made after the Challenge was done.














The full slideshow of the meet is here:
http://resinheavin.net/DollMeets/Christmas Yule/index.html

 

Wowsers that's a bunch of outfits and they all look wonderful! I especially like the half red half green ones.
The one laying down asleep in the first photo cracked me up!

 

sheesh! When did you sleep?!? They all look fantabulous!

 

Wow LadyFeather....so many beautiful outfits! You have surly been busy

Wishing everyone the very best Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

Amazing. Beautiful job. What a daunting task to complete so many outfits with a deadline in mind.

 

Awesome job LadyFeather! I always look forward to seeing your work; you never disappoint!

Happy Holidays to everyone!

 

Oh, thanks all of you; I'm glad you appreciated them. It's something my daughter and I have wanted to do for a long time. Now I have to do the same for the 1/3 scale dolls - and I'm the only one who owns those. I really want to do my Hound as Creighton Pierce Billingham III, 23rd Earl of Whitehall. And a haughty albino to boot.
Everyone have a safe and happy holiday! I know that I'm going to try my best to have lots of fun!

 

Wow LadyFeather, that's some sewing list you have

I'm not sewing any thing right now. I'm waiting for my adopted fm60 to get here, hope she makes it for Christmas!

Wonder what the new runway project will be?

Christmas will be quiet for me, all family in Jersey, daughter in Ohio and grandson in Wyoming, thankful I do have some good friends living on the island from stateside

Enjoy, Merry Christmas!

 

Any word on the next project challenge? I've been waiting but haven't seen anything posted yet.

 

No new challenge nor winner's announced. I knew it would be hard to pick a winner on this one.

 

I keep looking ......and then get a little disappointed , I guess the holidays are taking it's toil !

 

I just PM'd and emailed elfmoon. This is very unlike her and I'm a little worried. I'll report back here if I hear anything. Hopefully it's just a simple case of holiday overload and not health or computer issues related.

 

elfmoon, we're all just happy to hear from you! Thank you so much for letting us know, and we sincerely hope things improve for you very soon. Difficulties during the holidays can be truly overwhelming.

Congratulations to the winners of the spectral challenge. All the entries were totally amazing!

 

Congratulations to the winners, you did a wonderful job! Creepy cool outfits!

 

Just take care of yourself Elfmoon, we all thank you for your time on this project and completely understand how life can get crazy. *hugs*

 

Hope things are looking up for you elfmoon!

Congrats frenchaddict, LadyFeather and PRGerry! Your costumes were so awesome this challenge!

 

feel better elfmoon, thank you for all you do! congratulations winners, lovely outfits!

 

Wild Turkey, hat and noise maker....what else does the new girl in the house need to welcome in the New Year!
HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!!!!!

new girl ny2 by PRGerry *Slowly coming back to life*, on Flickr

 

ugh never saw it posted again, I must be missing the notification, is there a particular place it is usually posted so we know for the future?

 

Aw sorry to see you missed this one Kitty Blue! Elfmoon posts the challenges in the BJD Games forum usually a few days after the previous challenge winners are announced.

 

I know I saw this posted somewhere but to be honest I don't remember what the answer was.....Are we allowed to post pic's of our challenge in other forums or facebook before the closing of the challenge? I do put my pic's in flickr but keep them private until after all is final

 

I don't think you are allowed to PRGerry until after the judging but I am not 100% sure. When I posted some of the photos from the Olympian challenge I waited until the winners were announced as I felt the challenge was officially over then. And just to be safe because I don't want to ruin my chances of entering future PR games lol.

 

Thanks for the answer, I was thinking no but wasn't sure.

 

I'm glad that you got it straightened out; viruses are no fun.
And the new game is up here and looks like a very interesting topic.

 

I'm once again faced with the same problem, too many ideas floating around in my head to figure out what I'm going to do!
I'm checking out supplies I have on hand and will check out some stores this weekend and maybe that will help make up what I'm going to do.

This is a fun project

How's everyone else doing???

 

I've managed to get together some materials that actually complement each other. I've got most of the patterns made for the accessories but I still have to rummage through my boots for something that will go with what I've chosen. As for the one part I'm torn between cork or 'duck' tape; maybe I'll use both.
But my main problem right now is the wig I want to use, the color matches the material perfectly - but it's too big for Zhang! I'm going to have to stuff it to make it fit and hope I can anchor it on his head, otherwise the bangs will be down to his chin.

 

Wow LadyFeather.....Your almost ready to start!

I don't have much for this girl so I'm just going to wing it as much as I can. She needs go out for a faceup but I need her now She is for sure so much easier to sew for as far as details go but by the same token I'm still trying to adjust to her huge size and boobies since I'm so used to the tinies!

 

I just needed a diversion from everything else I had to do. Everything just fell in place. The color wasn't even what I was looking for!
And don't count on it being the final choice. I've done a complete 180 on some of the projects after I supposedly decided that I had exactly what I wanted.
The picture is a bit dark but the flash washed everything out. Actually the colors of the stripe are pretty true.

 

So excited for the next challenge! This is my first time trying to enter my Trinity in anything so hopefully sewing for a giant girl will work out. Not too worried about the budget surprisingly. I have a size 2XL 1980's tunic dress that I picked up for 5.88 at goodwill a year or so ago that will give me most of the yardage I'll need without breaking the budget, some goodwill necklaces to tear apart and an amazing piece of antique lace that I picked up for $2 at an antique store. Actually, there are probably only 3 or 4 small things that I'll need to buy new. Yay for goodwill and their 88 cent craft supplies!

 

Sooo ... has anyone started on the actual sewing yet? Somehow Real Life got in the way and I've only just finished making up my mind about fabrics and the actual design ... nothing like some last-minute changes in a project with a deadline, right? As a matter of fact I'm still not 100% sure about one detail on the bodice part of my Queen's costume, but I'll figure something out ... hopefully.

At least I know which fabrics I'll be using - all scraps from other projects:



The white is my trusty Ikea "silk" - they stopped selling that a while ago and gave Ikea Family members 50% off so I got it for €2,50/metre. I joined that Family thing only for that It's never pure silk, but it looks nicely in-scale for doll stuff. The blue is a leftover from a Larp costume thingy, not enough left for anything human-sized so it went in the doll stash. I'm using about half a metre and I think it cost something €6-ish, but I'm not sure. I'm dead set on making this a "deplete the stash" project so I won't be buying anything new. (Well, except for fusible interfacing which I ran out of, but I use that all the time so I'm not counting it!)

 

Well, I took a look around my stash and can't really find anything that moves me. Hopefully I can get to the fabric store soon and then I'll make up my mind as to what direction I'm going in. I'm working on my pattern, so it's not like I'm wasting time

LadyFeather, Love those colors, very Royal!

ankhensepnamun, isn't it just great to recycle most thing.....sounds like you found some real goodies!

Jany, love the fabric selection!

How's everyone else doing???

 

My King of Spades needs his armor and I've been testing ways to put it together. Right now the best solution (and most demanding and time-consuming) is to hand sew the pieces together with beads. I'm sitting here with over 100 'armor plates' that need to be sewn together. I need a small sheet of black duck tape for finishing touches on the larger armor pieces but the weather is being miserable. I have the last of the parts I need ordered and they should get here tomorrow or Thursday the latest.
I've had the doll sitting next to my computer for a week now and he is a lot more attractive than I originally thought. He has a very peaceful look despite the scar.

 

I was just going to sign up friday night but was in a hotel without internet..lol. Alas though that is ok as I have tons of stuff on my plate this next month and half. Hopefully I'll be able to jump in on one sometime this year..lol. I like to observe how everyone comes along though and the finished projects. Congrats on everyone in the last challenge and good luck in the new one!

 

Aw, what a shame, Kitty Blue! Good luck with the other projects!

I've written out a full "battle plan" for the first time ever. I think I've got the pattern figured out by now - no time to do a test piece though, I'll have to take my chances.

 

Elfmoon so glad to hear they didn't get your monies, internet gets dangerous now! Glad to see you're back with us

I'm working, cursing coming from the craftroom from time to time but guess that's normal being my girl has boobs and I don't have a clue as to what the heck I'm doing! Well, one never learns if one never does I did find fabric that looks like it's useable ....I'll know by days ending!

Happy sewing everyone!

 

Update on armor: Looks great but the plates are too big! Now cutting the plates to new size ONE BY ONE and they have to be sewn on differently. I think I like this size/attachment better - less time consuming although I do wish I had one of those scrapbook paper cutters. I didn't do too bad with the hand cutting but a machine would have made them perfect - or at least that's what the manufacturer's say.

 

Looks like this is going to be one heck of a learning challenge