Monthly Update: September 2024

This is absolutely just a really long blog post.

In a perfect world, this would be a video. But I have, apparently, lost the ability to concisely convey thoughts without a script. Writing one for a vlog seemed both unnatural and weirdly formal, but without one I would probably film for like three hours and still forget things.


So this will be a blog post and there will be some other exclusive videos this weekend. They are mostly done, I swear! But as I have recently learned, "mostly done" when something is like an hour-long takes a long time to actually be done. 

But even if that wasn't the case, I would be writing this anyway. Because, at some point, I mentioned wanting to get back into the swing of monthly updates—because selfishly, I would like to reflect on them AND I would also share what I’ve been doing and failing to document on social media. 

On my break, I got so used to more casual posting on Tumblr/Discord that now Instagram feels like both a lot of pressure and unnatural. Like, when you have no option to respond to something with a meme, is it even a valid form of communication? 

Kidding. Kind of. It’s hard to describe. Hopefully, I will return to the habit eventually, but it hasn’t happened yet. 

In regards to getting back into the swing of things in general, I was really hoping there would be sort of a snowball effect after finishing my last project. But that really hasn’t happened, which is frustrating. I feel like I’m approaching where I was mentally two years ago, which is a big improvement from where I was a year ago…

…but I wasn’t particularly happy with my mental state two years ago, either, so it’s hard to be thrilled with that sort of progress. But it is what it is, and it’s better than nothing.

(Maybe the snowball effect will come, quite literally, with colder weather? One can hope.) 

Okay, update time — though I’m warning you, it’s a mix of dogs, ideas, complaining, and sewing.  

We’ll start with sewing. Or more specifically, the fact I finished the mermaid dress! 

(For the record, it is neither finished nor zipped up in this photo, but it is currently finished.)

This skirt was hellish to construct to a degree I can barely put into words. Well. I did put it into words, like five minutes worth, and I’m writing this to take a break from editing that footage so I won’t reflect too much on it now. But let’s just say: What I thought would take a day took about ten. 

This beaded fabric is very heavy, heavy enough that it becomes 10%-20% longer when hanging unsupported because it warps under its own weight. So getting that hem level was a chore.

The mesh is also weirdly opaque. One layer looks fine, but a second layer is horrifically visible. So any attempt to overlap the fabric to avoid drawing attention with straight seams has the opposite effect.

And adding un-beaded mesh with the intention to bead over it to smooth the transition between panels basically creates an outline that draws more attention to it. 

Trust me, I tried. 

I had to keep reattempting the seams (like 6x times) because they looked so bad using the traditional methods (see above and below), and it got progressively smaller with each attempt until it didn’t fit. 

It kind of ended up working out in the end but man, it was 1000% times harder than I thought it would be and I’m not even exaggerating.

Oh, and it also bleeds EVERYWHERE so my hands were constantly green while working on this, which did not improve my mood. And now my furniture and table are also green, so cleaning that up will be fun. 

Anyway, the finished video about that will hopefully be up tomorrow for early access. 

(Also, I bought myself a plant as a reward. If you live on Long Island, Bloomin’ House Nursery is insane even if it is quite empty this time of year. The monsteras they have are gorgeous.

Also, kind of relevant because roots, I guess, I finally re-did my hair so that is a testament to my current ability to function, I guess.)

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So. That was yesterday, now let's rewind a bit to the start of the month.

This isn’t sewing-related but it had an impact of sorts. Minnie got swarmed by yellow jackets. She was 100% fine despite having over a dozen clinging to her for several minutes. The vet couldn’t find a single sting.

I, however, was not so lucky. I got a single sting while attempting to get them off of her. My forearm swelled up like this for a week and left me weirdly groggy even after I stopped the Benadryl. So I think the consequence of my being swarmed/stung many times a couple of years ago has resulted in a minor allergy which is awesome. 

(I felt too weird to upload this into canva so no cute collage. But seriously, I don't think this is normal??)

A few days later Posie had a vaccination appointment and also had a few lumps aspirated so samples could be sent off for testing. I was very worried might be mammary gland tumors returning. I thought we were past that being an issue (remnants of ones missed during her first operation were removed in April of this year and no “new” growths were noticed in 3~ years until these.)

She is getting older now and has a minor heart murmur and frequent operations won’t be viable forever, so for numerous reasons, the thought of them being tumors and this being a reoccurring thing was upsetting. 

(Clearly, Posie was upset about the idea too.)

It took a while to get results but they are benign lipomas so that is good! 

Seriously though, that photo of her is hilarious to me, she looks like she should be in an animal welfare ad. She was drugged before the appointment for her anxiety and then spent an hour digging before we left, leaving her looking like a sooty orphan. 

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My projects this month actually existed beyond the mermaid one (the skirt took a while but not THAT long). 

I spent a good long while drafting and brainstorming for Halloween projects and I would have liked to start sewing them, too, but my fabric orders took their sweet time coming in. 

(Oh man, speaking of fabric, I spent like two hours filming a video of window shopping fabric online over Labor Day only to later realize my cursor wasn’t showing in the footage which makes it kind of impossible to follow what I was talking about. So that’s a bummer.)

Anyway, the “main” Halloween idea is meant to utilize this sequin velvet mesh that has been haunting me for like three years. I want to do a very dramatic turn-of-the-century robe over a very frilly chemise-style dress. You can see the references below.

I actually began drafting this before I hit a bit of a roadblock in regard to neckline. 

The robe has such an unusually low V, and a lot of more interesting and frilly chemise necklines seem like they would fight it for attention. But on their own, I find those design details more interesting, more compelling, and more flattering. 

So I’m very conflicted and not quite able to commit to a particular design for the underdress just yet, which I had initially wanted to construct first. 

I ended up stepping away from this and working on the mermaid dress because it became obvious this wasn’t going anywhere fast. And even returning to it now, a couple of weeks later, I’m still unsure of which direction to go in for the underdress. So, I’ll be making the robe first, I guess. 

Here is the progress on the robe mockup. This was surprisingly hard to draft/fit for what it is, but I’m pretty happy with this. 

It IS worth noting this is fit without foundation garments. I have not yet decided if I will brave my corset drawer for this one.

After a lot of indecision over everything else, I have at least decided on the fabric. There is the velvet mesh mentioned above, but I also found a very pretty cotton with metallic bronze threads running through it, which is the only material I bought for this. 

I have a couple of trims in my stash that match it well, too.

Though the cotton shown above is the only material I bought for this, but below you can see a lot of the options I considered.

Speaking of stash fabrics—

Brainstorming for Halloween ideas involved pulling out a lot of fabric and trim from my storage and just kind of…throwing it on my table and draping it over my dress forms basically and seeing what ideas stuck. 

I was originally considering going with a black-and-white theme. I had this black and white cotton and a really cool shockwave pattern lace that I was thinking about using for some sort of blouse. 

I ultimately came up with an idea for this, an 1890s sporting/day ensemble. Then when googling complimentary fabrics (ie, “large black and white prints”) I found this octopus print design on Spoonflower which is massive, like the octopus is 30” by 30” or something, and how cool would that look on the side of a skirt? 

With that in mind, my Labor Day shopping spree resulted in picking up a couple yards of this polka dot wool and a striped knit, and I just love all of these together. The idea of leaning into the day ensemble with some of the materials and a sporting ensemble with the others appeals to me so much.

But this definitely requires a corset which makes fittings more time-consuming, and I’m worried I wouldn’t have the motivation for that. 

Maybe someday!

Another idea that manifested out of my massive stash exploration was this…

Since I’ve missed two Halloween’s worth of projects the HUGE and unlikely stretch goal would be making three this year. I thought it might be fun to base them on traditional movie monsters as a bit of a theme though they could all have distinctly different vibes. 

So there was a ghost idea with a grey lace, a vampire idea with black velvet, maybe a zombie with green, etc. 

(This was the vampire idea that I ended up resisting buying fabric for but I might pivot back to it. The idea of a houppelande with sleeves patterned like bat wings is very fun in my eyes.)

The other one kind of evolved from trying to figure out what would go under the orange velvet mesh—or what the orange velvet mesh would even be used for. Originally it was going be more of a medieval thing with the velvet portions fussy cut out to create trim reminiscent of dagging. 

So I had all my linen/beige/white fabrics pulled out and not really enough of them for anything beyond a chemise individually. But I really liked how they looked together. 

I was trying to come up with a way to use them together for a kirtle and piecing it without it looking insane—because it had to be pieced, I didn’t have enough fabric for a whole dress out of individual one and part of the charm was how they looked together. 

I ended up draping a rough pattern for the top and making a mockup, and along the way, the idea kind of evolved into a mummy-reminiscent idea that I could lean into by piecing the fabrics horizontally sort of like bandages.

This worked with the movie monster idea—but I realized that could be seen as culturally insensitive since the root of the whole monster is based on vilifying a burial practice and I don’t want to go down that route. 

(Can you tell I lowered the neckline of the mockup by like 4"?)

I still like the concept of using all these fabrics together because the textures are so fun, and the idea in general existed before any theme beyond that fact. But I think if/when I return to this, the piecing will go vertically instead, and be more out of necessity like I originally intended.

It could be a fun stash-busting challenge, now that I think about it.

With kirtles from multiple fabrics on my mind, I was trying to allow that to justify me purchasing these super cool skull lace fabrics from Jo-anns. Obviously, it is not historically anything. But it would be fun. And you could have a crossed neckline like a skull and crossbones, which is extra fun. 

I managed to resist these for now but I’m still tempted. It’s probably just a matter of time. 

A fabric I couldn’t resist, though, was this cotton. It was on sale for $7/yd from MetroTextiles and the colors were just so good. I can so easily picture this as a huge skirt with diagonal seams and matching stripes. 

I was expecting the quality to be kind of bad but liked the idea and price enough to buy it anyway. But it’s pretty great, like a really high-end cotton sateen, and stiff enough that I wouldn’t have to line the skirt to get a dramatic effect. 

I also like the idea of a lace bodice sort of like they have on The Gilded Age where it's all lace and very fitted. Then with a little jacket over it all.

This color palette isn’t speaking to me in this season, but maybe in spring! 

I think that is kind of it. 

I’m really not sure where time went this month, but I seem to feel that way every month.

I think between the dog issues/benadryl-induced delirium for a week I started a bit behind, and brainstorming did not go as smoothly or quickly as I had hoped. 

Obviously ,the mermaid skirt didn’t either. When something you thought would take one day ends up taking TEN it sort of ruins your sense of time, I think. 

But hey, it’s done now! And this month is almost done too. And so is this post. But I will have some new video stuff up tomorrow and the following day so keep an eye out for that!

Thanks for reading and I hope you all had a good September! 

~Angela