Part one of my Saturday suit is finished!

Bloomers, full circle knee-length skirt (that I drafted myself!), and jacket complete. Ruffles everywhere! I'd originally planned on wearing this with an ivory blouse, but then I fell in love with this vintage crinoline:



So now I've switched from ivory to black accents, but I can live with that.

I also finished up another new parasol to be premiered at Steamcon:

Costuming progress report

I got in some good sewing hours today, working on my current project.



The bloomers still need a waistband, but I had to put down the thread and step away from the sewing machine after I realized I'd rolled one leg's hem outwards instead of inwards and sewed the ruffled trim to the outside of the let. Will do the seam ripping tomorrow and get them finished.

There will also be two skirts to go with this outfit, a full-circle knee-length, lolita-esque one and an a-line floor-length piece, so I can go Steampunk flirty or traditional Victorian.

A Year in the Making, day 359

Guess what? With what I made today, according to my calculations, I am now at 367 items! Wheeee! I finished early, even with all the slacking off I've been doing this month. I'll probably still keep with the making for the rest of the month, just in case I've made a counting error at some point during the year. I'm sure that couldn't have happened, because I haven't done anything like, say, mess up my day count (twice). Right?

First things first - here's the new ad I just made for the programming book for Steamcon II, now less than 3 months away!



And then I decided to play with some of my antique crystal beads:

Antique Black and Grey Crystal Earrings on Sterling Silver Earwires



Antique Black and Grey Crystal Necklace on Sterling Silver Chain



Antique Aurora Borealis Crystal Dangle Earrings on Sterling Earwires



I am now going to go have a huge bowl of chocolate ice cream to celebrate.

A Year in the Making, day 304

Remember I talked about having cantaloupe with the lavender custard last night?



Yeah, it was tasty.

Hubby grilled steaks for us, along with corn on the cob. Nothing in the world like roasted corn on the cob. I have very fond memories of growing up, going to the Wisconsin state fair. They'd have these huge ovens, like pizza ovens, in which they'd roast the corn, and then they'd pull them out, shuck 'em and wrap the husks in paper towels, then dip the ears in melted butter and hand it to you. The home grill isn't quite as good as memory says, but it still rocks. I also had a filet mignon, perfectly rare. Life is good.

Spent today playing in monochrome - I found these frosted matte glass beads in grey and black awhile back, and then a few days ago found the perfect pendant to accent them:

Matte Black and Silver Multi-strand Necklace with Glass Leaf Pendant



I also started a project that I've been mulling for years this evening, and hopefully will get a chance to finish it this weekend. A few years ago I came across a piece of antique green cinnabar, carved in the shape of a butterfly.



I'd found some beads to go with it, faceted discs of green and black. At least I thought they were black. I wanted to mix it with straight black beads, and I'd finally picked up some black onyx last month, so I pulled them all out today to start work. I put the beads next to each other on the dining room table, in afternoon light with the french doors open, and I realized these beads weren't green and black. They shaded from green to puce to purple! So I made an emergency run to the bead store and found some deep purple fluorite rounds. I did a little bit with it today, and it seems to be coming together. I don't know that I'll get a chance to work on it until Monday, though, with the upcoming festivities for the holiday weekend. So stay tuned, green and purple Victorian goodness is in the works!

A Year in the Making, day 162

Happy Friday!

Munchkin is cheerfully counting all the Valentines she got at school today for the 6th time. I start to wonder how she can do something like that over and over and over again, and then I remember some of the jewelry pieces I've made over the years, and I realize she gets it from me.

It's raining here, actual umbrella weather. Normally I don't consider what they call rain here anything more than a persistent heavenly drool, but today was actually heavy enough to warrant the use of an umbrella.

In honor of the grey skies, I finally listed a piece I made last weekend:

Grey Glass Pearl and Celtic Knot Y Necklace



And now for something completely different! Another odd bit from the stash that I'd started to string as a pendant a couple of months ago, and then couldn't figure out how to finish. Well, I just recently acquired another box of bits and bobs, and found these vintage beads and chain that went with it beautifully. It's much chunkier and more masculine than my usual pieces, but that's good. I get told often enough that I need to more stuff for the other half of the species.

Raw Copper Pendant and Vintage Beads and Brass Chain Unisex Necklace



The pictures of the earrings I made yesterday went "poof" earlier. I took them, swear I transferred them off the memory card to the computer, but when I went to go edit them, they were gone. Not in my picture files, not in the recycling bin. Disappeared into thin air! And now I've lost the light, so they'll have to wait till tomorrow again. Color me annoyed.

A year in the making, day 149

Off shortly to enjoy high tea with a birthday girl, so I wanted to make sure I got this done before I lapsed into a finger sandwich coma. I'm pretty sure she's going to squeal when she sees what I found for her on Etsy - I'll post a picture later.

Two new necklaces already today, because I woke up at "Oh my goodness it's what time?!?" today. It's truly frightening, all the little odd bits I've got stashed away in my bead kit that I've completely forgotten about and been discovering in the course of this project.

First is this carved agate pendant that I finally strung:

Carved Red Agate and Matte Black Onyx Necklace



And here's one made with another of those metal loops I re-discovered when I made the stitch markers I mentioned a few posts back:





And I've listed the black and pink set today too:

Black Glass and Pink Crystal in Sterling Necklace Bracelet Earring Set