aerinea_faerie

I love the Great Dickens Christmas Fair. I look forward to it every winter, and seriously wish I had more time for it. Many of my friends and acquaintances work Dickens, and it makes me want to be there to see them.

I'm having a bit of trouble with my costume and will have to rebuild my hoop skirt before next weekend. The rest of my costume was made before I had become a much better seamstress, and I know that I could do better now.
( Look here for my opinions of parts of Dickens )

So, I've been bad at updating about sewing projects lately. I recently finished a few things, mostly due to Oktoberfest and Halloween.

( Pictures ahead! )

It is really, really easy to develop an America-centric worldview, even when you are involved in hobbies like mine. Granted, mucking around on websites where the language choices are Korean, Japanese, and Engrish helps, but I wasn't looking at dolls when I was reminded that America isn't the center of the universe. I was looking at patterns.

I was looking at modern dress patterns on the various big-name pattern websites, trying to find something that I might actually want to use. I wasn't going through the companies in any kind of order, and I had decided to look at Burda. In the back of my mind, I am sure that I was thinking, "I've had such bad luck looking at American companies, let's look at the big European one for a bit," but it wasn't quite registering.

So, I'm looking at dress patterns. Ordinary, modern dress patterns. Suddenly, I'm seeing something I didn't expect. Two patterns for making a Dirndl. I find myself thinking, did I get into costumes by mistake? I don't remember there being dirndls in the costumes here before. I only remember seeing them on Folkwear, not any of the major sites. Hell, the closes thing I've seen to one of these on the major sites has been in the Halloween section for making sexy shepherdess costumes.

That's when I remember that Burda is a German pattern company, and some women, mostly in the tourist industry, still wear the dirndl. I felt stupid and told myself that it made perfect sense that a German pattern company would have more than one pattern for a traditional German outfit, and might even think of it as a normal thing to wear, as opposed to a costume.

Interestingly, it looks kinda comfortable. I might have to get one to play with.

We finally got our Comic-Con pictures up! Between the two of us, we got over 300 photos, most of them having been taken by my husband.

http://www.mobenloft.com/pictures.asp?pictureID=107

Steampunk Gallery:
http://www.mobenloft.com/subpictures.asp?subPictureID=160

My doll pictures are here:
http://www.mobenloft.com/subpictures.asp?subPictureID=158

I finished Klara's clothes, and I now have pictures.

( Pictures Below )

I've finished most of Klara's new outfit to the point that if I don't have the rest of it finished by the 18th I will be fine. It looks amazing. No pictures yet; I haven't really had the time for doll photography and I plan to do the main unveiling next weekend anyway.

One of the more annoying aspects is that I have decided to use real buttons for closures instead of snaps because buttons lay better. This meant that I had to go shopping for doll buttons. I have also been having fun with the bags o' watch parts I have and incorporating them into the outfit.

In other news, the Wimshurst is on hold for the time being. I can't progress much without Chris's help, and he hasn't taken the time to help me. Also, I've been distracted by doll stuff. Once the doll stuff is out of the way, I'll probably go back to doing whatever I can on my own, waiting for the time to be right so I can finish my machine.

I didn't get quite as much done as I wanted to, and didn't work on the Wimshurst at all over the weekend, but I did get some sewing done for my pretty dolls.

( Pictures Below )

I have a wonderful husband. It's been a while since he has done this, but he is taking our lovely daughter to visit her grandparents this weekend. I get to stay home, relax, work on neglected projects, and the like.

I think the first thing I'm going to do when he leaves is start working on doll clothes. I want to make some costume pieces for the dolls but I haven't had the time. I'll probably also work on the Wimshurst this weekend. As long as it doesn't require soldering, I can do it myself.

I know I'm a social person, but I am really looking forward to being alone.

I believe that we had a successful convention weekend. I went to the convention all three days, as did the rest of the family. Evelyn spent most of the convention confined to her stroller, but we had both an experiment in letting her be free on Saturday, and we let her walk at the end of the convention on Sunday.

Friday was a costumeless day for the family, with me wearing my normal amount of Steampunk gear, Chris being in his work clothes, and Evie in her favourite dress.

Saturday, we were a Steampunk family with Chris and myself wearing outfits inspired by the Girl Genius paper dolls. We looked awesome. It resulted in us getting a lot of pictures taken. Of course, we were outshone by the exquisite La Legion Fantastique. They are always a lot of fun, and they had a Moon Suit. My costuming just cannot compete with that kind of amazing. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful day. I got to look at far too many cool items, picked up a few comic collections, and found a wonderful skirt with adjustable bustling that I plan to wear to the opera on Friday. We also discovered that even with one of those toddler monkey backpacks with the long tails, Evelyn is far too easily distracted, and exhausted far too easily, to let her stay on her feet at a convention, and Chris had to go home to get the stroller.

Sunday was a quieter day, and Chris and I wore our more standard Gil and Agatha costumes from Girl Genius. Even then we were easily identified as into the whole Steampunk thing and were photographed more than a few times, occasionally with declarations of amazement. I looked for things for my dolls all weekend, but I may have to go to an Anime convention to really get a good selection. Almost every thing for dolls there was for smaller ones. We picked up a few more books, and we bought a gun from Steam Alchemy, blowing what was left of our convention budget. It was worth it.

Afterward, we went to dinner with friends. I really like going out with friends and wish it happened more often. I had a lot of fun.

Of course I spent a lot of time at Studio Foglio's booth. It is always nice there; I can point people directly to the comic I am dressed as, I can get away from the crazier press of people, and I can get into conversations with other Girl Genius fans. The most important thing is that Phil Foglio doesn't mind my hanging around.

I guess that is all for now.

Yes, I have been a quite one lately. I really can't think much of what I want to write.

Let's see...
mobenloft and I are talking about trying to make the Edwardian Ball at least when Abney Park are playing because they were so much fun at Steam Powered.

I am trying to collect the pattern pieces I need to make a natural-form era bustle dress. I plan to use the base patterns for a few variations, but not all of the planned ones may get made. One for a Christmassy one for winter Gaskells, one for a general use, and one that looks like the dress Agatha was sewn into in Sturmhalten before The Other was beamed into her head.

Evelyn is showing signs that she may be starting to read. Actually read, not just memorising her books.

Got a subscription to Make Magazine. Plan on doing some building soon. Muahaha!

I think that's it for now.

I haven't really taken the time to organise my thoughts from Steam Powered, but at least we have the pictures up. We have whole, new costumes that I made, some great pics of the Foglios (all of them), and a very cool machine made by Jake Von Slatt that I really want one of and plan to build.

I really enjoyed riding in the bus to see Abney Park with Phil and Kaja, and also had fun sitting next to them during the show.

Oh, yeah, a link to pictures.
Pictures!

It seems that the Folsom Renaissance Faire is the one that gets all the Steampunk talk in the guildyard. Last year at it, an upcoming Steampunk party caught my ear when they mentioned wanting an Agatha at the party led to my revealing of the Agatha costume I was already working on. This year, one of my guildmates told me that she is working on a Mama Gkika costume. She hopes to have it done by Wonder Con, which will be very cool.

Currently, I am working on second costumes for the Steampunk convention coming up. I'm almost done, seeing as I gave myself a month to work on things instead of a week. I hope to have no last-minute sewing and buttons held on with safety pins this time.

It's September. Fog season is more or less over, which means that the inland pressure that was keeping us cool here on the coast is gone now. This is the hottest it has been since June, but it's still cooler than Fresno. Fresno is still getting to the upper 90s/low 100s, while Oakland may hit 90 today. Berkeley, with temperatures usually closer to SF's, is closer to 80. To me, it feels excessively warm.

Although I don't want to make this mostly about sewing, I do have a lot of projects on the horizon. I need to decide if I'm buying or making Evelyn's Halloween costume this year. I'm going to make my first attempt at a Natural Form era bustle dress to wear to the Christmas Gaskells ball. I have some decorations to make for Christmas, and then I also want to make at least two more outfits that will work as Agatha costumes for Wonder Con. Plus costumes for Chris.

Ah, well. Better start that all in soon.

So, the party actually happened on Saturday, and I was working on costumes up until the very last minute. They still weren't done. We wore them anyways and made the birthday girl very happy. Once Chris updates his website, I'll be able to post pictures.

On a similar note, Chris has put up a section in his website's galleries for just costumes I've made.

I'm hoping that soon I'll feel relaxed enough to start writing up various ramblings and thoughts that go through my head instead of just talking sewing. Or not saying anything.

I am about 90% done with my costume for the party, and will be starting on Chris's tonight.  If I am very, very lucky, I will actually be done by the party.

Comic Con has always been a good meeting-people-I-admire convention, even more so than the Creation Entertainment (Star Trek and X-Files) conventions I used to go to as a teenager.  Unlike Creation cons, Comic Con has many professionals just wandering around or sitting at easily reached booths.  If the person you want to meet is a little on the obscure side, it's even easier.  This year was no exception.

I, of course, spent more than my fair share of time hanging around the Studio Foglio booth.  I did the same thing last year and was disappointed to find that Kaja did not remember me.  Apparently she was trying to hide the fact she was ill during Comic Con 2007.  But she did remember me from the photo Cheyenne took of my family at WonderCon.  She insisted on giving me a ribbon on Preview Night, even though I was only really wearing my goggles on my favourite hat.  Granted, the combination of Perkygoth, Victorian riding hat, and Steampunk goggles really does give the impression of Steampunk Finery, even when it isn't.

I got to meet Rebecca Guay, who is one of my favourite fantasy artists.  She is prolific in game artwork, but the first place I saw her work was in Cricket Magazine.  I was surprised to discover that Cricket was the first professional job she got, even before WotC hired her for Magic:The Gathering.  I even have a copy of the first issue she was published in.  January 1993.  Story: "The Spider and the Prince" by Mies Bouhuys.  I'm going to be looking out for her at future conventions and I'll bring that issue.  I've been planning on having her sign an issue of Cricket for a while, now I know which one.

I also got to meet Phil Plait, someone who doesn't really have anything to do with comics or gaming but is really cool anyways.  He's probably my favourite science and skepticism oriented blogger.  He's fun and funny.  He reminds me of some of my best teachers, al of whom were positively in love with the subject they taught.  It's obvious from his blog that he loves Astronomy.  I really thought that the only chance I was going to have to see him was right after the panel he was part of about Science in Science Fiction.  That was on Thursday.  But on Friday he was wandering around the convention taking pictures and came up to me and Gen, who was dressed as Kida that day.  I got to chat with him more, and probably lost Gen in the conversation.  On Sunday he came by the Studio Foglio booth while looking for books to get for his daughter.  He decided to hold off on buying any Girl Genius that day, but I really hope he looks at it and likes it.

Now, the crazy stuff that happened at the convention mostly centered around Studio Foglio.  The Webcomics area tends to be a lower traffic spot compared to the high-decible craziness that surrounds Hasbro, SciFi Network, Warner Bros, and a bunch of other loud media that only has a tangental, if any, connection to comic books.  The crowds can be really thick there, and I don't like excessive crowds.  Add to that the fact that I really, really love webcomics, and I'm more than happy to park myself around Studio Foglio for most of the day.  On Thursday I met Gen, who was dressed as Maxim.  I don't remember if she figured out that I was the Agatha with a baby or if I told her, but we began talking about costumes, Girl Genius, what day I had planned to wear my costume, and whether or not she was willing to dress as Maxim on Friday because I wasn't planning on dressing up more than once.

On Friday, we had so much fun posing for pictures together and talking that she was able to convince me to dress up again on Sunday.

On Saturday, Chris and I took Evelyn to the Wild Animal Park to avoid Saturday crowds at the convention and to spend some time with our daughter.  Up until then, we had been sending her to the daycare at the convention.

Sunday was great.  I didn't get to spend as much time exploring the convention as I had originally planned, but Gen and I did act out the scene where Agatha knocks Maxim's hat off in front of the Studio Foglio booth.  And posed for pictures.  And had a lot of fun.  And talked WonderCon.

I loved dressing up as Agatha and plan to do more costumes for the character, perhaps even having three days worth of them by February.  And maybe I'll have the Initiate's Costume that Zeetha makes her wear for next year's Comic Con.  Then I can spend a day vaguely comfortable.