... and a Happy New Year!

So 2012 was cool.  I'm pretty glad the world didn't end.

Here are the highlights:

March: I went to my first ever writer's workshop: Writing for Charity, where I got to be starstruck by being in the same room as some of my favorite authors.

April: Praise all that is good and holy we moved out of that crappy basement apartment and into a place that actually feels like a home.  I turned 27.  Joci turned 2.

Summer: Was awesome.  Like, idyllic.  For real.  Kairi was born in June, which was also awesome.

November: Chaela turned 5.  Will's brother came home from his mission to Australia.

December: Will's family got together for Christmas.  Will turned the big 30.  We trekked to Ohio to be with my family for Christmas and we're still here!  The apocalypse never came.

So that's 2012!  On to 2013.  I have this thing where I only make a few resolutions, and that way I can make a real effort towards each of them.  I'll put them in bold so you know I'm serious.

1 - Finish and polish my two works in progress and write the complete first draft of totally new novel.

2 - Begin submitting a novel manuscript to agents.

3 - Yeah, lose weight.  At least 50 pounds.  We'll see how this one goes.  I need to make this a main focus of the first six months so that I can be comfortable with myself by the time I switch to summer clothes.

Or I could follow the example of one of my friends.  I think she has the right idea.  She is also hilarious.

Here's a picture of my kids eating snow on New Year's Eve.  Happy almost 2013 everyone!

Hello from Ohio!

Hello!  I'm in Ohio.  That's about all I have time for right now, but I'll try to blog sometime shortly after the New Year!

The Opposite of NaNoWriMo

That's what December has been for me.  I don't think I've written a word of any of my stories since I reached my goal, and it's almost halfway through the month!  This is not what I anticipated.

I think I'm getting back on track, though.  Last night I read the first two chapters of my work in progress and tonight before I go to sleep I want to read the rest of it.  It's been such a long time since I worked on it that I'm having a hard time remembering all the details.

Anyway, as far as other things, Will's brother came home from his mission, his family came into town, and Will turned 30 since I last wrote!  So a lot of things.  I'll probably post pictures sometime, but not right now, because my real life is hectic and I miss my fake world.

Also in awesome news, we'll be able to visit IL and OH this year!  I AM SO EXCITED!  I don't even know how long it's been since I've seen everyone, and I'm really happy that I get to get my kids together with my extended family!

I hope you all are enjoying the holidays!

I Love My Writing Group

I do.  I know most of you guys think I'm crazy when I talk about writing novels, but they get me.  It's so encouraging to be around people who share your dream and don't mind talking at length about made up people and places!

Guys, even though I only see you once a month (and sometimes every other month) you are some of my favorite people!  Julie and Deb, today was great!  Z, congrats on your beautiful little girl and I hope we see you again soon!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 30. WINNER!

That's right, I win!  At 51,513 words, my story is finished.  Now I can set it aside and work on other things for a little while, until I'm ready to revise.

This month wasn't particularly easy.  My housework definitely suffered.  Because I was staying up until 2 AM some nights writing, I slept in late and Chaela and Joci destroyed some things.  I learned that I'm not one of those women who can have it all.  Yes, I'm here with my girls, but do you know how much TV they watched this month so I could achieve my goal?  A lot, and I feel guilty about it.  But at the same time, I feel immensely fulfilled to have achieved my goal.  It's a conundrum.

Anyway, now back to the story I was writing before NaNo.  I hope to keep up my good habits and finish it sometime in January, but with Christmas coming, we'll see what happens.

I'm so glad I did this.  It increased my love of writing and helped me get more comfortable making up a plot, which I always struggle with.  Thank you to everyone who supported me and good luck with any of goals you are trying to achieve right now!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 29

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  1,548 words to go.

I would love to make something for you!

Some of my Facebook friends have mentioned that they're interested in ordering things from me.  I am definitely interested in doing that for anyone who is serious!  So here's a list of items and prices for anyone who is interested.

If you want me to make something, keep in mind that Christmas Eve is one month from today, so you need to tell me soon if you want to get it by then.  If I feel like I've gotten too many orders to be able to get yours to you by Christmas,  I will tell you.

Basic fleece beanie with applique - $10
Tell me what you want on it and I'll tell you if I can do it.  Simple designs are better.  I've done video games, colleges, and superheros so far.

I've got patterns for more complicated beanies, like one with dinosaur spikes down the middle.  I would be willing to do those for $15 and can send you a picture if you're interested.  I can also do My Little Pony beanies with ears and cutie marks for $15.

Fleece Hoodie - price depends on what you want. (I'm willing to do these in adult sizes for $10 more to account for the cost of extra fabric.)

My Little Pony hoodie
Note: Prices differ according to how much work each one takes.  Also, if you don't want hood embellishments like ears and horn, knock $5 off the price.

Rainbow Dash - $50
Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity - $45
Applejack (no hat), Pinkie Pie - $40

We can talk about designs.  It's a custom project, so you tell me what you want and as long as it's physically possible I'll do it.

I do the hood in the color(s) of the mane and the band on the bottom in the colors of the tail.  The Pinkie Pie hood is quilted with waves and curlicues. 

Other hoodie ideas - I'm open to anything.  Animals, cartoon characters, super heroes, characters from books... just let me know what you're thinking and I'll see if I can come up with a design for it!

Tulle tutus - $25.  Baby not for sale.  

Ok guys, I feel like you might be looking at these prices and thinking I'm crazy, but remember that the cost of fabric is included in this and I'm doing all the cutting and sewing by hand.  It takes me several hours to do each, and this is the cheapest I feel I can go and still have it be worth all the time I put into it.

If you want to order something, email me at caitlyn.hair@gmail.com.

If you have any other projects in mind, please feel free to ask me about them!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 23

Not much to say today besides the usual "Woo hoo I'm still going!"  It's weird for me to feel like I'm accomplishing goals; it's not something I do often.  Maybe I can take these new habits of achievement and apply them to my eating and exercise habits!

Ha ha!  Yeah, we'll see.

Well, tomorrow I'm going to hit 40,000+ words, so I'm excited about that!  Other than this not much is going on.  We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving with Will's parents, which was cool.  And now I guess we have society's permission to start celebrating Christmas!  Except we put our Christmas tree up almost a week ago and that's pretty much the extent of my decorations.  I might make more, but sometimes it seems like writing so much is sucking up all of my creative energy.  It's also addicting, so we'll see what I do when this month is over.

Anyway, my brain is mush and I'm thirsty.  Goodnight!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 20

2/3 of the way done and I'm still sticking with it!  Woo hoo!  The problem now is that I don't think the story will be anywhere near finished at 50,000 words.  Ugh.  Sometimes the really difficult thing about stories is how long they take to write.  I get as anxious about what's going to happen as the people who are nice enough to read for me!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 18

I broke 30,000 words today.  That means I have less than 20,000 words left.  Holy cow, I'm on the downhill slide.

Thank goodness.  I've been having a hard time keeping up lately, but I'm hanging in there.  It's still almost all junk, but hopefully when it's over I can salvage something.  My main character's personalities are still jumping around on me a little, but I've nearly got them pinned down.

Meanwhile, I still haven't stopped thinking about my other story even though I haven't been able to work on it.  Hopefully this time is just allowing it to mature in my subconscious and become even better.

Yeah.  We'll see.

You know, it will be pretty crappy to do all this work and never see anything come from it.  I hope that someday I'll have something that's not too embarrassing to see the light of day.

Someday.

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 15

HALFWAY DONE!

Yes!  That's right, I passed the halfway point tonight!  I'm happy.  I'm especially happy because I was too tired to finish yesterday and I fell about 1,000 words behind.  But I made it up and it's over half done!  Yay! That's all I have today.  Does anyone else have goals that they're trying to meet?

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 13

I feel a little like a runner; at first I had such a hard time doing NaNo.  My daily writing took more of my time than I could afford, it took so much more effort than I was used to, and yes, sometimes I even had sore muscles after (in my wrists).

But now I'm whipping myself into being a lean, mean, writing machine!  Some days, if I know the direction I want the story to go in, it takes me less than an hour to write those 1667 words.  Can you believe that?  I wish I'd been that fast in college!  I probably would have done a lot more of my homework...

Anyway, as I've often heard people say about running: now that I'm in shape, I love it!  Alright, not always, but I don't dread it anymore, because I know I can do it quickly and even half-decently.  Well, the story is half-decent, not the prose.  I've decided what I'm getting out of this is actually more of an extremely detailed outline, probably because this free, non-editing style is how I write when I outline.  It's nice to feel like that, because then the pressure I feel for it to sound polished right now is gone.

Also, I need to make a public apology for not coming through on my public promise.  I did not write a chapter in my other story last week.  Sorry guys!  I mean well, and maybe if I didn't have a million sewing/crafting projects to finish because of Christmas I'd be able to do it.  However, I spend half my free time and some not-really-free time in my sewing room right now, and unfortunately the stuff with a deadline is the stuff that gets priority.  I will keep trying to find time, though!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 11

I did it.  Today I've officially written more on my NaNo novel than I have on my other one!  It's weird, to have passed in 11 days what took me months to make myself do.  I think I may want to keep up this habit of writing for an hour or so every night when I'm done with this!

I'm sort of getting into the non-editing discovery-type method, too.  I'm not sure if things will keep going this well because I've never managed to finish an entire story this way, but there's definitely something to be said for the ideas that come to you while you're in the thick of writing.

I am getting  faster at making junk up, and I'm liking this story better as I go along and it gets more complex. I'm so excited to finish this and be able to say that I've written two books!  And I hope I can figure out a non-contrived way of ending this when the time comes.  Now that I've started, though, there's a lot more story than I thought there was.  I've been wanting to stay away from trilogy-type things until I actually get published, but this might turn in to one.

Anyway, things are going well with it and someday (after I've finished my other story) I'll definitely come back to this one to see what it will look like when it's cleaned up (a lot).

In other news, Chaela had a line in the primary program at church today!  For the non-LDS, a primary program is where instead of our usual meeting the kids speak and sing LDS children's songs.  I was so proud of her!  And can I just say as a biased mom, she has a nice clear little voice and I wouldn't be surprised if her clear voice and fearless, dramatic personality made her a very talented performer of some kind some day!  :)

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 9

I say it every day, but I can't believe I'm still on top of this!  It's gotten hard to want to write most days, but I make myself.  Look at me, accomplishing goals!  How strange.

Tomorrow I'll almost be tied for words with my other story, which I haven't worked on like I said I would.  Sorry guys!  I really do want to, but I don't want to give up on this good thing I've got going here where I actually finish what I start.  Don't worry, though!  I'm hoping my good habits will carry over and I'll finish it much faster than I would have without doing NaNo, and that taking this break from it will actually help me complete it more quickly, if that makes sense.

Anyway, there's still tomorrow, and I did promise.  Chaela is having a birthday party, but it's only a little one, so I should still have time in the evening if I'm not too worn out.  If only I had the willpower to do my NaNo words in the morning and could dedicate my less distracted evenings to the other one.  Oh, well.  I am trying to do all this and a few other things and not neglect my poor kids.  It's hard.

NaNo is almost 1/3 over!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 8

Wow, I can't believe I'm still doing this.  Yesterday and today have been huge struggles to force myself to write my words.  I sort of hate this story, but I'm also sort of starting to love it.  It will never be good as it is, but I think there may be some gems in there that I can polish up and use later.  At first I thought I'd have to (figuratively) trash this thing after NaNo, but now I think with revising (a lot of revising) it might be worth the trouble.

Anyway, other than that yesterday was Chaela's 5th birthday!  So that was awesome.  I can't believe I have a five-year-old!  She's such an awesome girl, so pretty and so smart.  Sometimes she has an attitude, but she's still pretty great!

Well, I managed to finish my words early enough not to collapse when I finished, so I think I might go sew some stuff for a little while.

I still can't believe I haven't given this up yet.  I'm starting to think I may actually do it!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 6 (kind of)

Well, technically it's after midnight so it's Day 7, but whatever!  I did my words.  Look!  It's over 10,000 now!  By the end of this week I'll have surpassed my word count for my "real" story (as I call it in my head).

I mean, whatever, my NaNo novel is ok, but I just haven't had the time to get as attached to it as I have the other one, and I'm not really sure that I will.  But that's ok, I'm still happy to participate!  Because I want to win!

Also, presidential election today.  I'll admit to being bummed about the outcome, but unlike many of my friends on Facebook, I do not think America will spontaneously combust.  Honestly, when it comes down to it, I think Romney=economy and Obama=social issues, and people chose social issues.  I don't think it was the right choice for the country at this point, but what can you do?

Anyway, whatever.  Tomorrow is Chaela's 5th birthday (I can't believe it!) and my first meeting as a Cub Scout leader (new church calling), meaning there will be a lot of baking to do, so goodnight!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 4

Still going.  My story is a YA fantasy novel.  I think it's a lot easier to write about teenagers, because you can just let the melodrama carry you where it will.

So tired, but proud of myself for getting my words done today even though I had a lot of other things going on.

Deb, Ash, and Lindsay: I am making a public promise to you to write a chapter of my other story at some point this week.  I hope I can keep it!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 3

I didn't think I'd get my words done today because we spent most of the day in the Ogden area, but I did it! I'm getting faster, this time it only took me about two or two and a half hours!  Yay!

And I'm glad that it's Daylight Savings tomorrow, because I get an extra hour!

I'm still not sure how much this will benefit me, but practice is practice, so I'll keep going.  And I'll probably update my blog most days, too, just because feeling like you guys are holding me accountable is helping.  Sorry if it's annoying!

I may tinker with how many words I write during the week so that I can take Sundays off.  We'll see.

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 2

Today was better.  That's all.

Alright, no, I talk too much for that to be all.  But today was better.  It took me much less time to get my words done.  I'm a little concerned about tomorrow because I'm going to spend the day at my sister's place, but maybe I can do it in the morning/in the car on the way there since it's an hour drive.

Also, I'm discovering something about NaNo.  While I am glad to be doing this and I do think it will be beneficial, part of me wonders how beneficial it will be.  If all I care about is the word count, I begin to toss things, like quality, out the window.  What good is having 50,000 words if it's 50,000 words of junk?

Anyway, I'm going to keep doing this because I set a goal and I'll be really proud of myself if I follow through, no matter what kind of mess it turns out to be.  Worst-case scenario I'll have an extremely well-developed idea that I can revisit at some later date, best-case scenario I'll have two submission-worthy manuscripts by the end of the year.

Woo hoo!  Day 2 and still going strong!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 1

This had  better not be how every day goes, or I don't know if I can do this.  It took me from about 10:30am until 5pm to write 1,680 words.  That is ridiculous.  I've done twice that number of words in significantly less time.  I blame this on a few things:

1) Lack of planning.
2) I sort of resent this story for taking my attention away from the other one, which I was finally getting into.
3) I have three children.
4) It's the beginning.

Still, I thought I'd have everything all wrapped up by lunchtime.  Ha!  Granted, I did have to take several breaks to take care of my kids, and some of them were an hour or more.

Ugh, I just got through one beginning and now I'm dealing with another one.  Also I have to sew some stuff tonight and make dinner.  Hopefully this gets easier.

It's NaNoWriMo!

(National Novel Writing Month)  Bam.

Yup.  And I'm pretty sure I told you all that I'm going to try it.  So here are the rules:

1) Write 50,000 words by 11:59:59 PM on November 30th.

That's all.  If it were a published book, you'd be looking at about 175 pages.  I really want to do this.

But it is now officially after midnight and I haven't outlined a thing.  I guess we'll see where this goes.  Tomorrow I must write 1,667 words (4-5 pages).

Wish me luck!

Rainbow Dash Hoodie

Ok, I mentioned the My Little Pony hoodies I'm making for the girls right?  

BAM!  Rainbow Dash.  (Remember, this is the new show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, not the old school show.)  I think I'm going to make some pony ears to attach to the hood and see what they look like.  

This is Rainbow Dash, Chaela's favorite pony.

I did the "cutie mark" by hand.  It turned out pretty meh, and also backwards.  I think for Joci's Twilight Sparkle hoodie I'll cut the shape out of fabric instead.

Twilight Sparkle

  I think it will look nicer.  Oh, well!  It's for my own kid AND it's the first one I've ever done, so whatever!  (That said, if anyone ever wants a custom hoodie or any sewing done, let me know!  I'm much more careful when it's for someone else!)  

Sewing is fun!

Yeah!

Look at my ticker!  It's moving!  I'm excited.  I love getting past the beginning of a story.  Beginnings are hard.

Thanks to my awesome husband for giving me two uninterrupted hours of writing today (during actual daytime!) as an anniversary gift.  Also, happy six year anniversary, Will!  You are great!  Love you!

More Costume Awesomeness.

Diane gave me permission to post this picture. This is the first costume I've done without being able to try it on the person first. I think it turned out pretty well, and the cuteness of the model doesn't hurt!

Next sewing project: My Little Pony hoodies for the girls for Christmas. I'm excited!

The Rules

You know when you hear bad news?  News bad enough to give you that sinking, curling, sick feeling in the pit of your stomach?

You do what you can to help, but it's not much.  And then you're just sitting around, waiting for news.  So there's the internet, all nice and distracting, and there's something funny so you laugh.

And then you think, "I can't laugh, something awful just happened."  Then the feeling of being powerless again, because there isn't anything else you can do.  But how can you let yourself be distracted when people you care about are going through so much?  Like maybe they can somehow feel you supporting them if you just keep thinking about it.

How do you guys handle it when difficult or tragic things happen to people close to you?

Halloween Costumes 2012: Complete!

Today I finished Chaela's Rapunzel hair!  With that, all of my required sewing/craftiness for Halloween is complete!  I've had some people ask me how I did it.  Well, I took an entire skein of yarn that matched her hair and about 6 spools of gold ribbon, cut them so that they were twice as long as I wanted, folded bunches of them in half and slid them on bobby pins, then put the bobby pins in strategic places on her head.  

To get it all to stay I had to start the braid and then put some of the stuff in as I was braiding.  It wasn't as good as I wanted it, but it was just a trial run, and as far as looks go, I think it turned out really well!  I even had some trim leftover that I was going to put on her dress.  That didn't work out, but since the trim was a sheer ribbon with silk flowers sewn on, I decided it would work really well for this, and I think it did!

The braid with no Chaela attached to it.  It's ALIVE!  Just kidding,
 but it is a little creepy to me even though it isn't real hair.

The whole effect!  And Joci with an apple!  Wrong fairytale, Joci!

Later in the day my neighbors swept/raked all of their leaves and let the kids from around the neighborhood jump in it.  They loved it!

Joci kept running up to me and yelling, "Fun, mommy!  Fun!"  That's pretty priceless.  I love my kids, and I love that they can experience everything I've always loved about Fall.

Progress

I will have you people know that I am almost finished with the beginning.  I've spent the last few days going over what I have and bringing it up to what I want it to be.  Tomorrow I should be writing the last chapter of the beginning.  Then it's on to the middle.

Also, thanks to the email of one certain person in my writing group (you know who you are!) I've done a Stupid Thing.  I have signed up for NaNoWriMo.

"But why is it stupid, Caitlyn?" you, the reader, asks, "You can use that as encouragement to finish this current manuscript!"

Ha ha, you silly person.  Those NaNo people are smart.  They make it into a competition.  I will be competing with myself.  You see, you can "win" NaNo.  Yes!  Winning!  I love to win!  BUT you have to follow the rules, and one of the rules is that you're not allowed to use anything you've already written.  Oh, you can outline and whatnot, but no prose.

"Winners" get cool internet badges that they can put in their profiles.  I want to be a winner!  I could try to finish what I'm working on now before NaNo.  Or I could go along at my current pace while outlining something new for NaNo and just write that while giving my current story a break for a month.

We'll see.  I'd really like the distinction of having completed NaNoWriMo.

Or maybe I'll spend November sewing instead.  I never know what I'm going to do.  Oh, yeah!  UN-PRE-DICTABLE!  (That was for you, Lindsay.)

Probably I shouldn't blog while drowsy.

Halloween Costumes 2012

I'm so happy to be able to say that I am almost finished with the Halloween costumes for 2012.  Whew.  For fun, here's the list:

Tangled Rapunzel - Bodice, skirt, underskirt, hair.  Almost complete; I have to finish cutting the yarn for the hair and do a trial run to see if my idea will work.

Flynn Rider - Vest, pants, boot covers, two belts, small pouch.  Almost complete; I have to sew some belt loops on the vest and both belts need buckles.

Pascal the chameleon - head, body.  Complete, even though Kairi hasn't tried it on yet.

Brave Merida Formal Dress - Dress, shift, wimple, circlet, quiver, and "fletching" for store-bought "arrows."  Complete.

Pirate Princess - Skirt, bodice, sash.  Complete.

Legend of Zelda Link - Tunic, hat, sheath, two belts.  Complete.

Hobbit - I helped my sister make a vest, pants, and cloak for her son's hobbit costume, but she did most of the sewing.

I'd really love to post pictures of all of these with the kids in them, so hopefully around Halloween I'll be able to do that.  I still want to throw together a few fleece cloaks, too, if I can figure out where the pattern got to.

Also, I think I've decided that I'm up for making custom costumes for people if they'd like them, so feel free to ask.  If any of you guys ever need one (or any custom sewing) send me an email or facebook me and I'll give you an estimate for whatever project you'd like done.  If you're thinking of a Halloween costume, ask me by the end of August.  

After this I think I'll stick to writing for a while!

Merida Formal Dress Part 5: Complete for real. Also, Flynn Rider Vest

Breakthroughs

So there was this picture of the Hulk punching through a wall I was going to use, but people are getting all crazy about copyright and whatnot lately, so I decided against.  Imagine it here.


As my mom pointed out to me the other day, my word count ticker has made zero progress lately.  Thanks in part to that one sentence (it doesn't take too much to motivate me, I guess) I have sort of buckled down the past few days and started working on this project.  Why is my word count ticker not moving, you ask?

It had to do with that wall.  I realized that my head was not the best thing to hit it with, so instead of going straight at it and writing from nothing, I went back and did some brainstorming.  Brainstorms are great.  In fact, there isn't anything better for knocking down nasty blank walls.

I got stuck when someone had to go somewhere, because I couldn't visualize it.  So I spent a day (yes, multiple hours) drawing a map.  Why did it take me so long?  Because I'm crazy and wanted it to be believable, so I built that thing from the tectonic plates up.  Not kidding.  I stared at some maps of real tectonic plates.  Then some maps of rivers.  Then I had to figure out the scale and what kind of population was believable.

Yeah.  Research.

Also, I am an idea thief.  Today I was watching Tangled with the girls, and there was one scene where I thought, "How would the movie have gone if this one certain scene had ended a different way?  Too bad I can't write that because I can't use these characters... wait!  That thing that I was thinking totally fits my characters!"  It was a lightbulb moment.  My story now has a place to go.  Tangled isn't the only thing I've stolen ideas from and tweaked, either, I admit.  But I hope I've done a good enough job of making these things my own that you won't see how unoriginal I really am.

And I found something cool that has been so great for generating ideas that maybe other writers may want to try it.  It's simple: make a list of your characters and their goals.  It gives you a really clear view of where you can build conflict, which is helpful to me because I'm bad at plots.  It also helped me to better know my characters.  This plus my stolen and twisted ideas have totally busted through my first wall.  Hopefully now that I've laid some more groundwork you'll see my word count going up soon!

My wall-breaking tools: research, idea thievery, and lists.

Now I am hungry and full of ideas, so I'm going to eat and write.

Merida Formal Dress Part 4: Complete?

Well, it could be that I'm finished, but I'm considering adding a little quiver and gluing some feathers to those arrows if I have the time.

Kairi's Blessing

Thank you to everyone who made it! We wish all of our friends and family could have been there!

Merida Formal Dress Part 3: Trial and Error

Well, overall I'm not as happy with this dress as I was with Chaela's.  There are still some things that need to be tweaked.  You can't tell in this picture, but the wimple is way too short and has a ton of excess fabric that makes it look nothing like the one in the movie.  I also need to glue a button I got onto the D-rings that fasten the belt to cover them.  Maybe once that stuff is done I'll feel better about it. I'm off to the sewing room to see what I can do!

Merida Formal Dress Part 2: Finishing Touches

Most of you probably figured that I finished the main part of Joci's dress when I posted a picture on Facebook and in my last blog post.  However, if you didn't, here is Part 2!

Here's a view of the dress from the back.  I made it lace-up because I'm too lazy/impatient to go to the store and buy a zipper.  The finished muslin/under dress shows beneath at the neck and ends of the sleeves.  It's not supposed to show at the neck, but it doesn't really matter because the wimple (the white thing Merida wears on her head) will cover it.

Here are the fastenings I sewed on today.  Snaps on the under dress and a hook and eye on the dress.

This is what Joci does when I want to take a picture that shows off the dress:

The circlet and wimple.  

Now all that's left for this costume is to have her try on the whole thing!  I'd also like to get my hands on the official bow/arrow/quiver set that Disney makes.  It would really make the costume complete!

Deep joy.

Just dropped the girls off for grandparents' weekend.

Ate an a-freaking-mazing beef sandwich from Cubby's.  If you live in or near Provo, go there.

Kairi is asleep.

Lunch with Rosalie tomorrow with no kids to force to behave in a restaurant.

I can sew all night if I want because I don't have to get up early.

Also this:

Deep joy.

Merida Formal Dress Part 1: Pattern Alteration and Muslin

First of all, don't you hate it when you're trying to sew and...

Sigh.

Anyway, I've had a lovely hiatus.  I got some writing done and finished about 80% of a pirate costume for my friend's daughter (which I didn't post about because it's straight from a pattern).  Now it's back to the grind, especially since I've had two more (non-pattern) costumes added to my list, bringing my total up to seven.  I'll post about them later, I suspect.

So, here is how I'm going about the formal Merida dress for Joci:

First, I have this pattern that I used four years ago to make Chaela's first Halloween costume ever.  

It's amazing for a long, basic dress with a fairly full skirt.  First I measured Joci and resized the pattern because the smallest size on there is a 3, and I needed something smaller.  You can see how lovely and organized I keep my sewing room.  The smallest size you see on there is the one I drew.  I also did the cutting a bit differently than last time.  I didn't have tissue paper (where are my presents, people?! ha ha) so I laid the pattern directly over the muslin and traced it with a marker that bled onto the fabric underneath.  I didn't mind this firstly because it's a muslin and secondly because I knew if I did it right I would finish all the edges, so none of the marker that ended up on there would be showing anyway.

Now, the sleeves on the pattern are substantially different from what I want.  Even the tops of them were weird, so I couldn't even trace those.  My solution to this was to lay out the two pattern pieces that attach to the sleeves and trace.  Like so:

Then I drew the rest of the sleeve to fit the measurements I'd taken of Joci's arm.  At first it came out like the one on the left, but when I folded it, it looked too small (besides not looking like any sleeve pattern I'd ever seen), so I added another seam allowance on each side and ended up with the pattern on the right, which I used.  While the curve is still weird, which made sewing it weird, the rest of it looks a little more normal.  A little.

Once all of the pattern pieces were finished I cut them out and sewed them together.  This is the muslin I ended up with:

I'm pretty happy with it for a first try!  All I want to change is to let it out about half an inch around the waist, and I don't have to change the shape of the pattern to do that.  So I'm going to tear this apart to use as a pattern on my "real" fabric and then sew it all back together, finish it, and add the other sleeve (and a bit of fiddly embroidery... you know, for fun) and this will become the under-dress for Joci's costume!  Part 2 to come soon!

The ticker you see here ^

is to help motivate me to write.  I'll try anything since I've been a major slacker.  In fact, this ticker and blog post are nothing but procrastination.  Oh well.

As you can see above, my goal for complete manuscript #2 is 80,000 words (which would translate to roughly 280-320 pages in novel form, depending on the format).

I am not close.  However, I am hoping that public accountability will help.  We shall see.

Rapunzel Dress Part 4: Complete!

Finished. I put together the skirt, added a waistband, and hemmed it. That's all! The skirt was super simple and the top was crazy complex.  One costume down!

Rapunzel Dress Part 3: Finished top!

The top is finished!  It's not an exact replica, but I think it's pretty close.

Now if only Chaela didn't smile like a crazy person...

Rapunzel Dress Part 2: The devil is in the details

Did you ever notice that the sheer part of Rapunzel's sleeves are embroidered at the top and bottom? Me either, until I started studying the dress. You'll also notice if you study pictures of the dress that the sleeve fabric isn't striped, it's a bunch of pink ribbon stitched on with lavender thread. Yup. I guess it makes sense for her outfit to be ornate; it's not like she had much else to do locked up in her tower.

So far I'm cruising through this dress. I am a little worried that the embroidery on the sleeves might have gathered the fabric and made them too tight, so I'll let you all know about that. And the petticoat was too long, as predicted, but I think I'll just roll it because A) I might be able to use it again someday and B) I am too lazy to change it now.

Rapunzel Dress Part 1

I mentioned that my neighbor wants me to record my costume-creating process, so here it goes!

The first part is study, so I Googled Rapunzel images and saved the best ones, then looked for tutorials.  This website was insanely helpful.

During my study I noticed something convenient: Rapunzel's bodice sort of resembled the top for the pirate costume I made Chaela last year.  Score!  That meant that I could use that same pattern with a few minor alterations.  When I alter patterns I never destroy the original in case it can be reused (in fact I'm reusing this one two or three times this year).  The picture below is the pattern for the sleeve of the top.  The red lines are from when I resized the pattern last year, since the smallest size on there was a 7 and Chaela wore a 3.  The green lines are from this year, it's shorter because the sleeve on the Rapunzel dress is a short sleeve (though the sheer part extents to 3/4 length).  The easiest way I've found to create new pattern pieces is to take a good marker (one that's not drying out at all), lay the pattern piece over some tissue paper or whatever it is you want to use for your cutting pattern, and trace over every single line with the marker.  It will bleed through the original pattern paper onto whatever is behind it, so I feel like it's easier and more accurate than trying to trace around the edges.

So I do that to every pattern piece until I have all the ones I need.  Behold!

 I use tissue paper from presents in bags people have given someone in my house.  Side note: I ran out of tissue paper for patterns last night, so any presents would be appreciated.  Ha ha.

Next I cut the pattern out of muslin and sew it up really quick so I can try it on whomever it is for and make the necessary adjustments.  While trying this muslin on Chaela I discovered that I needed to make it a teeny bit bigger on the bottom but take it in about an inch under the arms.  I also discovered that the sleeve was about 3/4 of an inch too long and was able to experiment with the sheer fabric that makes up the bottom of the sleeve.

When I'm satisfied that all the bugs are worked out I cut out the real fabric and start on the actual top, which takes a lot longer than the muslin thanks to the fact that it's lined (the pattern is laid out on the dark purple lining in the picture).

I may or may not have accidentally sat on the top while sewing the petticoat, which is why it is wrinkly.  Obviously it isn't finished yet, but Chaela is visiting her grandparents for a few days and I don't want to go any further before I try it on her.  Once that lining is on, there will be no more tweaking the seams.

So I made the pattern and muslin for the skirt which, since I decided it would fit her (and hopefully am right) I went ahead and finished because it's doing double duty as the petticoat.  For this I just made a pattern piece.  I've seen a lot of skirts, so I winged it.  The piece is fairly narrow at the top and broadens out at the base.  I used a measuring tape to make sure that the length of the piece was consistent, meaning 23 inches long at each side, in the middle, and all points in between.  I wanted the skirt to be fairly full, so I cut six of these from the muslin and sewed them together.  Then I added a simple waistband and threaded it with elastic, hemmed it, and added the lace on the bottom.  Since I love fancy details and my machine has a few basic embroidery stitches, I put a band of embroidery around the bottom.

I am afraid that the petticoat may be a bit too long, but if that's the case instead of taking it off the awesome bottom of the skirt I'll cut a few inches from the top and re-attach the waistband.

So that's what I have so far!  I'm at a bit of a standstill on it until Chaela gets home and can try things on, and I can't start Joci's because I don't have her measurements either.  My preliminary idea for Joci's is to use this pattern once again to help me shape the bodice, but instead of having a separate skirt I'll extend the pieces I draw into a dress (if that makes sense).  I'll also have to do some other minor alterations, like change the shape of the neckline.  Fun times!