The Goldfish's Logbook

The best part about being a NOOB is that you level up fast.

Today the drillers were waiting on some parts that were due to arrive this morning. The package arrived, but not all the parts were in it, so we couldn't work today. That meant I got the day off for cosplay! Weee!
So for the past seven hours I've been sewing. I daresay I'm on some sort of sewing high at the moment. I changed my approach and my pattern pieces are no longer coming out as puffy sopapillas. It probably would've taken a seasoned seamstress only a minute to point out what I was doing wrong, but since I figured it out on my own, it meant a lot more to me. Like double experience points.
I'm really grateful to Katherine for lending me her sewing machine. This is actually kinda fun. That may be because I'm still just sticking to the easy stuff. Deciphering the pattern instructions has been going very slowly and cautiously. I'm still a little wary and unsure when it comes to that stuff.
As I was sewing I thought of a few mods I would like to make to the machine (if it were mine). Like a slide to catch all the straight pins I was taking out, or at least a magnetic strip. And re-arrange some of the levers so that they'd be more intuitive for me and not so easily mistaken for one another. Or a flip-down magnifying lens. Then I thought, "Hell, why not steampunk-ify the whole machine? That'd be cool!" I think it'd be fun. Looking at the machine, it's so plain hospital white. I want something with more style and yes, testosterone. I would mod the hell out of my sewing machine from the inside out; I'd never be able to take it in for a tune-up, unless I had two outfits for my sewing machine, ala the hot rod kid.
Perhaps it's for the best that I don't own a sewing machine. It would be TOO awesome.

Yeah, it finally happened. I've been planning to do it for years now, but yesterday I finally did it. With Star's help, I used a sewing machine. Yes, I've joined the ranks of soft cosplayers. I was a bit nervous at first but the learning curve was pretty easy. There was a scary moment where I thought I'd busted her sewing machine until I realized that the bobbin had just run out of thread. Today I did it on my own, winding the bobbin, loading the thread, etc. I think I leveled up twice this weekend. Perhaps it's just my newb confidence speaking, but I don't see what's so hard about soft cosplay. I mean, that machine makes things soooo easy. Just cut the pattern and whiz, zoom! Instant garment! And you just need that one machine too, unlike hard cosplay. I've got half a dozen power tools, but every cosplay I do, I think of another tool that would make the job easier. So yeah, a whole new dimension of cosplay has opened up to me. Woooo. Oh yeah, and we finally went to see Wall-E today. Another great Pixar flick. I took two strong lessons away from that film. 1: Don't shop at Wal-Mart. and 2: Girlfriends with guns are dangerous.
So aside from that, I spent the weekend finishing up the costumes and prepping them for the roadtrip. I've got high hopes for this version of GIR. It's gonna be interesting, packing 5 cosplayers worth of stuff into one truck but I'm confident it can be done. Maybe I'll leave behind an unnecessary costume or two if need be. Tomorrow I'll finish up my packing and getting my truck ready too. Agh! I'm actually starting to get a little nervous! But still 90% excited. This is gonna be fuck-off awesome.

P.S. Dr. Mrs. The Monarch's new costume is dead sexy.