Costume College 2026 Recap, Pt. 1

So we went to England for just shy of a month (of which I will do a separate recap later), and then I had one week to recover from the jetlag before I hopped onto another plane to go down to Los Angeles for Costume College. Literally one week - we stumbled off one plane on a Thursday and I got onto the next the following Thursday.  Fortunately it was just enough time; I started feeling on top of things again on the Wednesday.

I did not take a lot of photos at CoCo.  In fact, hardly any at all.  I've frequently felt like something of a dove among peacocks there, because, much as I love it, costuming takes up such a small portion of my life and energy and I don't have any big fancy garb.  But I do love learning the crafts, and... well.  Some medical stuff here.  I've finally tipped over from being pre-diabetic to actually diabetic.  I get it from both sides of my family, genetically, though not everyone has it.  But what that meant is that my doctor prescribed me one of the Ozempic clones to help keep things under control and, incidentally, help me bring down my weight a bit.  Said doctor actually tried to prescribe it for me last year for diabetes; insurance rejected it.  He tried again earlier this year, this time prescribing it for weight loss.  This time, my insurance approved it.  Which is exactly the opposite of what should have happened.  But whatever.  I am now taking a bitter pill each morning that reminds me of the flavor of grapefruit pith, and I have lost twenty pounds.  Which is... not terribly visible from the outside?  But it does mean I have a bit more energy and my ice skates have stopped hurting.

This weight loss also meant that though I don't yet fit into my medieval garb, I do now fit again into one of my old 1920s dresses.  The one I made many years ago from Decades of Style's 1925 Zigzag Dress pattern.  In light of that, I went with a theme: 1920s all weekend.  Which has the advantage of being comparatively light and small to pack.  I also wore my blue linen striped '20s dress, and the black and gray one I refashioned from a thrift store dress, which I've apparently never photographed for here either!  Due to weight loss, my corset was just barely fitting this year; hopefully I'll need to make another for wearing these dresses in the future.  I did get several compliments, and took a class on finger waves which gave me some idea of what to do with my hair, that (in addition to makeup) being a field in which I am hopelessly incompetent.

So!  Upon arrival at Costume College, or, more realistically Thursday evening, you check in and get your badge and bag for the weekend.  Then you can stand in the line for the other desk in the lobby, and sign up for any of the limited workshop classes that still have room left.  I didn't; I had already signed up for one each day, and none of the remaining classes that didn't overlap or conflict really appealed to me that much.  Instead, I sat at the coloring table and got to work!  For the last several years, CoCo has has these nice canvas bags, and a table near the registration desk absolutely loaded with markers and Sharpies so that you can make your bag yours.

On the right you can see all the badge ribbons I picked up over the course of the weekend.  The lacy one is the finished project from the Intro to Irish Crochet class I took; I thought it was terribly clever to have the class project to be a badge ribbon!  That said, I'm not sure I'll take it up as a hobby.  Anyhow, that's why I also got the I Finished My Project In Class ribbon.

I also decided to decorate the back of my bag this year.

And after briefly browsing the Trunk Show (small vendors selling their wares) which was combined with the Thursday night social this year, I went back to my room, pulled out the bits of fabric and sewing gear I'd brought with me, and added an interior pocket to hold the pen and notebook that every attendee gets with their bag, because in past years I've been sick of hunting for the pen in the bottom of the bag.  I also pulled out the schedule and used the Sharpie and highlighter I'd brought from home to mark my copy of the schedule for the limited workshop classes I had signed up for, and the lecture classes that I wanted to attend.

One Plane To Another

We spent a month with family and friends in England!  I took some handwork with me and promptly got it done, leading me to pivot to writing.  I ended up writing 30,000 words while on vacation!  Four of the last five chapters of my magnum opus that is going to end up being 205 chapters long.  I start posting those chapters next Friday.  Because we got back Thursday of last week, and Thursday of this week (ie, tomorrow), I hop on another plane to fly down to Los Angeles for Costume College!  So, I'm going to be busy on this Friday....

That said, one of the projects I took with me was this!

You may recognize the fabric from the Fiesta dress I made my Josefina doll, and the pattern from the green dress I made for Addy, both last year.  Truthfully, I've had this dress cut out and half finished for a long time, but what was stymieing me was applying the soutache braid.  My main sewing machine is a Singer 15 from the 1950s, and I was trying to find a foot that would allow me to machine sew the soutache trim on.

Such a thing does exist.  It's rare and costs over $150 when one comes up on the market.

So I finally accepted defeat and sewed all the skirt trim on by hand while in England.  It actually wasn't as bad as I'd been expecting, just slow.  Doing it on a doll size dress is... acceptable.  Backstitch works much better than running stitch.  But if I ever wanted to decorate something for myself with soutache, however, I would buy another, newer, machine that has a foot that can handle it, and dedicate it to that purpose.

Anyhow, the pattern is the Cape Island Dress by Kindred Threads, and while I have two tweaks to it (take some width out of the center of the front collar piece, and less foldback on one side of the skirt) it sews up very nicely.  I will probably use it again, as I have six yards of pink soutache to use up at some point....

But for now I need to go start packing for Costume College.

In and Out the Door

So at Jazzy's school I run Popcorn Fridays.  Which are apparently a modest but steady moneymaker for the PTA - I attended this month's meeting and saw the budget and it's a profit in the $400-500 range annually.  And there are some other parents (mostly moms, TBH) who are regular volunteers.  One of them, Jessica, expressed a wish for a Kirsten doll for her daughter before she ages out of such things, but she was having trouble finding one that wasn't too expensive.  I kept an eye out on Facebook Marketplace for a while and spotted a rather run-down Kirsten in a lot with five other dolls for $165.  (A brand-new Kirsten from American Girl right now runs $175.)  I checked with Jessica, bought the lot and got to rehabbing her.

I didn't get any before pictures, but she was covered in red and black marks, including a big black smudge right on her nose.  Her torso was stained.  Her hair was... let's say not great and leave it at that.

Final result:

I made her a set of underthings (chemise, pantalettes, and a tucked petticoat) as well as her birthday dress and apron.  I also made her school dress complete with shawl and some satin hair ribbons:

I dearly wish I had enough of that red to make another school dress because I now have two Kirstens of my own and only one school dress between them and this turned out rather well.  I am a bit proud of the shawl because the pattern called for a 16" square, halved diagonally, and the piece of fabric I found was only 13" wide.  So I cut it in half, matched the plaid, and hand-stitched it together to keep it perfectly on grain.  I still have the other half of the square to hem into a shawl for one of my girls.

I gave Kirsten to Jessica yesterday, when we were at the school making cotton candy for Field Day, and she seemed very happy with her.  Including the AG case I found at the thrift store for $10 the other week, she owes me $100.  Which is definitely not me pricing my labor for what it's worth, but I enjoyed the doll rehab and sewing work, and part of this was me doing a favor for a friend.  And it defrays the cost of the rest of that doll lot, which I haven't even really looked at yet.

Run as fast as you can, just to stay in place

Post title borrowed from Alice in Wonderland.

It has been... a busy six months.  I am not quite burning out but I am definitely feeling like I have too many balls in the air.  Thus I have told the Quilters By The Bay guild that I will not stand for re-election as secretary in July.  I've done it for six years; someone else can have a turn.  I have also stopped doing the Block of the Month for them, since routinely one person participated.  And who that person was varied from month to month.

I haven't done much too much sewing since my last post.  Only a pair of pajama bottoms for Wonderful Husband, and these two doll dresses.  I ended up using a glue stick on all the rick-rack for the blue dress, to get it to stay in place while I sewed it on.  My fingers got so sticky!

I have been volunteering a fair amount at the elementary school, being one of the docents for Hands On Art for Jazzy's class, and running Popcorn Friday for the whole school every week.

Costume College is coming up and I haven't sewn anything new for it this year.  Not that I'm ever the most creative and dedicated of attendees.  I go more to learn than to show off.

And I'm struggling to finish off my eight novels' worth of Tales of Arcadia epic fanfic.  I'm so close, but it feels like the nearer I get to the end, the slower I write.  I've got chapter 200 three-quarters done.  And I promised myself I wouldn't end up with another abandoned story.  I need to finish it, then I can pivot back to original writing.

Just got to find my mojo...

November Block Party

Apparently the Spools block was not a winner.  I had one person turn in one block.  Someone else told me that she loves that I do this for the guild.  (But she still doesn't participate....)

Anyhow, this month's block is another one that I pulled out of my archives and spruced (haha) up for sewing in the winter holiday season.

9 1/2” Tree Block

All seams are 1/4”.

For each block, cut:

• From a strip of 1 1/2” wide green fabric: a 1 1/2” square, a 2 1/2” strip, a 3 1/2” strip, a 4 1/2” strip, a 5 ½” strip, and a 6 1/2” strip
• From a strip of 1 1/2” wide light background fabric, cut TWO each: 1” strips, 1 1/2” squares, 2” strips, 2 1/2” strips, 6 1/2” strips. Also cut FOUR 3” strips
• From the background fabric, cut two 2” x 9 1/2” strips
• Cut one 1 1/2” square, of brown fabric

To make the block: Sew the 1 1/2” x 3” light strips to either side of the brown and green squares; the 1 1/2” x 2 1/2” light strips to either side of the 1 1/2” x 2 1/2” green strip; the 1 1/2” x 2” light strips to either side of the 1 1/2” x 3 1/2” green strip; the 1 1/2” light squares to either side of the 1 1/2” x 4 1/2” green strip; and the 1” x 1 1/2” light strips to either side of the 1 1/2” x 5 1/2” green strip.

Assemble these strips with the green sequentially growing wider, as pictured. Sew the 6 1/2” green strip to the bottom, then the strip with the brown “trunk” beneath that. Sew one 1 1/2” x 6 1/2” background strip beneath the pieced “trunk” strip, and the other on the top of the tree. Sew the remaining two strips (2” x 9 1/2”) to the sides. Press. Finished block should measure 9 1/2” square.

Bonus difficulty level!

Decorate your tree! Use rickrack or ribbon, embroidery or beads, sequins or buttons, to dress up your block as fancy as you want.

This Is Halloween

The boys wore their black-dragon-with-red-wing-insets and HTTYD Toothless costumes that I had made them in years previous.  With the loss of JoAnn Fabrics, it is a lot harder to browse pattern books and pick up material to make... well, just about anything these days!  Michaels claims to be filling the gap, but they're really, really not, and I refuse to set foot in Hobby Lobby for the same moral reason I will not eat at Chik-Fil-A.

So, because the costumes are hoodie style, I won't be putting pictures of the boys up.  I do not share their images online.  But what I can share are this year's jack-o-lanterns!

Jazzy went for scary!  He drew it; I carved it.

Squiddle also went for spooky vibes.  He carved his himself, though I did clear away some of the extra interior flesh to let the light shine brighter through the openings

My pumpkin ended up looking a bit skull-like, so I followed the contours for the carving and ended up with this goofy fellow.

And Wonderful Husband went for representational art.  Pikachu!

Also, this year it was absolutely downpouring all evening.  We usually get north of forty trick-or-treaters.  This year we eked out a mere thirty.  Needless to say, Wonderful Husband's Candypult did not get used.  Ah well, next year....

October Block Party

6 1/2” x 8 1/2” Spool Block

For each block, cut:

• Two 6 1/2” x 1 1/2” rectangles of brown or tan fabric
• Two 6 1/2” x 1 1/2” rectangles of white or cream background fabric
• Four 1 1/2” squares of white or cream background fabric
• Six 4 1/2” x 1 1/2” rectangles of the color of your choice

To make the block:

Place the 1 1/2” squares on the ends of the brown/tan rectangles. Sew diagonally, making sure to sew each seam in an opposite direction. You want trapezoids, not parallelograms! Trim the seams 1/4” beyond the seamline, and press. Sew the six colored rectangles together, making the “thread” on the spool. Press. Sew a white/cream rectangle to either side of the “thread”. Stitch the spool ends to either end of the block. Finished block should measure 6 1/2” x 8 1/2”.

Variation 1: To make the block simpler, instead of the six colored rectangles, use a 4 1/2” x 6 1/2” rectangle.

Variation: To make the block more complex, instead of the six colored rectangles, try string-piecing a 4 1/2” x 6 1/2” rectangle.