Etsy and product build up.

So I have an Etsy store that I created to see about bringing in some extra money from stuff I am already doing. If I am creating something I offer it to my friends first at a discount, so they get to see what is going on and as family get first dibs. This has lead to me not having anything to put in my store because everything I have offered up so far has been jumped on. I am getting payments and craft trade for my work, which is wonderful that my friends love my work so much they are grabbing it up as soon as I even make an offer some one wants it. Some how though I feel like I should get ahead so I have SOMETHING to put up in the store. I am so pleased that my work is popular and at the same time a little embarrassed that my store remains empty. I am not sure how I am going to go forward to have a store and offerings for friends at the same time. I have a few things in the work, and may just post them and let them be a surprise ;)

Well....bugger.

So I have suddenly lost 30 some odd pounds in the last month and change, for reasons unknown and my body is not talking, it seems this trend will continue. Most of my costuming is made with draw strings so that if I gain or lose a few pounds I will still fit and there will be no difference in the costuming. So the SteamPunk I made is quite safe and will continue to fit and I will continue to perfect it. It does however put a crimp in the making of my other pieces of attire. I have a jacket as can be seen here that a size up or down might not make a difference but as it is fairly tailored I may have to wait a while before actually making it and cutting it out. I don't want to guess and be wrong either way. Grr.. this puts a damper on my plans to have this finished by the end of July. The chemise I will be wearing under it will not be an issue, but my corset may. There is enough play in the corset currently that I can lose a few inches from my waist and not have an issue. More than 3 inches though and I am looking at over 100$ for another corset as by that time it will no longer be tight enough to be a corset. Double Grr. I am happy I am loosing weight as will be my pain specialist, but I am unhappy at the total havoc it is playing with my costuming. Not even to mention just my general clothing. Worse, it seems that I am 1/2 away from being too big for my bras. According to the proper way to fit a bra when I lose an additional 1/2 off of my ribcage I will have to move up to a DDD bra. Meaning that my very carefully sewn and made tribal bras may no longer fit. This will not do! I may continue to wear them until I can afford to purchase the proper size and cannibalize the others for parts. I am going to keep a careful watch on my weight and measurements and wait until I hit a plateau to actually make anything else that might be fitted. For now it is chemise, over shirt, petticoat on the plate to get done. At least with those components with a few extra bits of awesome accessories, even without the jacket, the outfit will look complete.

Steaming the Punk.

As promised yesterday, I bring you today the something awesome I promised. A little bird tweeted you had all been good(bird, twitter... come on it is mostly funny), although I am quite cross no presents were on my door step this morning. So here it is, the long talked about start of my new new steampunk outfit.
Basic run down; the bottom layer is a full circle skirt in a 45 inch shimmery black faux satin 5 yards total cost around 13$, the next layer is a, cream sheer. You may notice that it brushes the floor and then some, I wanted a vintage "waterfall" look, that had a bit of a train. However as awesome as that would be it would be ripped to shreds and dirty within a day, so the material will be raised in front so the "apron" is shorter and will bustled a bit differently in back so that it comes down to the hem of the black but not the floor. And finally my pride and joy, the clockwork over skirt, the position you currently see it in is not the way it will be bustled this was simply to give and idea of what it would look like. You cannot tell at the top and I may alter it just a tad but it is corseted through button holes to bring the corseting idea down from the corset I will be wearing with this into the over skirt, I will possibly put more button holes down the sides to make it a bit more apparent. The ribbon is what will be holding the skirt shut and on. For the curious I do actually have a padded two layered bustle under the skirts to give me that much booty, but I may cut back to one layer or just empty out some padding. I will be working on the rest of stuff that goes along with it for my project of the month. I am also making a petticoat for it. I have had many horrified stares, living in one of the hottest states, heck living in a city nick named the Valley of the Sun, why would I want to add more layers? Simple, sweat and breathablity. Satin, even faux is not exactly wash and wear. A simple thin cotton petticoat will capture sweat, and give me a little bit of room to allow for air flow.

It needs work, tailoring tweaking, but the long parts of hemming that much material is done, as well as taking a basic design made with my very much lacking sketching skills into reality. Sometimes it makes you want to squee and squish it.

And yes I did... so shutup.