aerinea_faerie

Once, back when Hot Topic was still occasionally a good place to shop, I bought a wonderful light jacket there. It was short, fit well, had lacing on the side back seams and the sleeves, and was perfect for those San Francisco days where it's too warm for a real coat but too cold to go out in just a t-shirt. It was my favourite jacket, and I had it for years.

Well, like anything that is worn on a nearly daily basis for years, it began to wear out. This was about two years ago, around the same time I started thinking about doing Girl Genius cosplay. The decorative lacing had faded to brown, and some of the seams were starting to pop. The fabric was wearing thin in places. It had reached the end of its lifespan, more or less. So I decided to do something before it really fell apart.

I took a seam ripper to it.

That may not seem like it makes a lot of sense, but I was able to recreate the pattern for it by doing that. I learned how it had been constructed, and now could make as many as I wanted, and even vary the design. The first jacket I made with it was the green jacket I use for my green Agatha costume. I'm now working on a second jacket made from the pattern. This one will be brown with the side back lacing added. Eventually, I may make a black duplicate of the original, but the pattern is wonderfully versatile. Until then, I will just have fun making what I will.

So, last year one of my friends decided that for her birthday this year she wanted to have a Villain's Party.  For some of her friends, she made specific requests.  Chris and I are among the specific requests, so it isn't like we didn't have some warning.  But I am also the mother of a growing child, don't always have the funds I need to get cloth, and about two months ago we moved to a larger place.  Our previous place had a very messy area that was nominally for my sewing, but it had a habit of being taken over by things that weren't my projects.  I now have a new sewing area, but it only became workable about three weeks ago.  I spent one week hurriedly making Chris's vest for his Gil costume, and only declared it functional for Comic Con.

I now have a little more than a week to buy, cut, and sew fabric to make two costumes for the party.

At least it won't be too difficult to make Shiori's Rose Bride dress.  The only really hard part is finding fabric the right colour.  I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't a specific request.  Utena isn't really my fandom.