Sequin Season
I have been doing some prep and sourcing for my next few themed lookbooks, but I was having a hard time deciding just what I wanted to do for the finale of the upcoming Blade Runner themed selection of outfits. For a moment I was considering making something quite editorial and sheer out of silk organza, but I've since decided against it because I just couldn't see myself wearing the design again for anything else in the future, and that's not very versatile is it? I've decided on another direction for the last dress (ahem, gown) for that video.
I was however considering another over embellished bolero, and had a bit of fun picking up some new sequins from Cartwright's Sequins (uh, not sponsored? Do I need to say this? I really don't know...I rave about them, but only because I like them!) to use for that project. I love that they have every color and size imaginable, and I quite like using flat sequins so I like picking up more of those. I restocked on matte black and shiny black cupped sequins in different sizes so that I can show you all how I did the more 3D flowers on my blue brocade bolero (seen in my Star Wars lookbook) as well soon.
Instead of my original iridescent inspired idea, I think I'm going to be doing a black on black beaded bolero with different textures of sequins and beads instead for the Blade Runner lookbook. It's something I could style in a more late 30's way in the future, or pair with a black pencil skirt for more of a 50's look.
Still, I could end up making an iridescent little bolero too with this weird fairy wing organza fabric I have in my stash that is going to need to be fused to another fabric or interfacing before I can sew with it, because it has no structural integrity! I tried to make a blouse with it yesterday to no avail. It's so weird and pretty though that I have to make it work somehow.
In the meantime I also want to make an ancient Egyptian inspired collared bolero (what, am I bolero obsessed right now? Goodness...) in black sateen to wear with other black sateen items in my closet already. I think I have enough left over fabric kicking around my sewing room that I can do a small project. I picked up these bar like gold sequins that I think would be just perfect for doing a Cleopatra worthy collar.
So here are a few photos from my sewing room showing what I've been coming up with this week in between working on other projects for the channel. I wanted to show you all how I plan embellishments like this Egyptian style collar. I taped my kimono sleeve bolero pattern together along the shoulder to then be able to trace out a shape I wanted for the embellished area. Then I started laying out and positioning different sequins to get an idea of the patterns and particular shapes I want to use. I have to clean this all back up again of course, but I can always reference the photos I took of the design when I start sewing the sequins down onto fabric later. Not that I have time for this extra little project!
I have a few more things to make for the Ravenclaw lookbook as well, which will be coming up first, but I try and plan things well in advance. Most of the projects for Ravenclaw will be coming to the channel soon, including another 1920's project, so hopefully you will enjoy the extra burst of sewing projects coming to the channel soon.
I'm hoping that doing a bunch of sewing now will allow me to take a few full days coming up soon to dedicate full time to researching literary agents, but only time will tell!
I just wanted to pop over here and update you all on what's happening in my sewing room this week, I hope you're all well! I'll be working on the Patreon exclusive drafting and sewing project video this weekend, and that will be coming out soon on the 20th. Would you all like to see the process for the Egyptian bolero as well in addition? Let me know <3
Comments (25)
Hi, Yesterday I put together a long, eloquent answer to you about the things we have been talking about the last couple f days. When I went to proof read it one last time, Computer Land or the Interweb conspired, and it went poof and disappeared. Very annoying. (Another thing that's annoying is that I still don't know how to break for a new paragraph) The first thing I want to say is thank you for your answer. I really don't want to be hurtful in my correspondence, at all. I know that the future can feel very uncertain. Especially when it seems like the world is pulling the rug from under your feet like it seem like now. As you maybe remember I have told you that I live a life without time, so it's hard for me to worry to much about the future, but I can see the feeling being there, all around me. This time it might even seem like there isn't a future to look forward to. Especially when every newscaster, disaster pusher and world leader is having too much fun proclaiming this being Armageddon and making everybody run around like headless chicken. However we humans aren't built to live in fear for long times, so as soon as folks put their collective heads back on and start paying attention to the fact that the SARS-CoVi- 2 is giving most people a mild flu, and that it isn't the end of humanity, things will start to get back to normal, whatever that is. Even so, I still think it wise to practice social distancing and meticulous hand hygiene, and all the other precautions to slow down the spreading of the virus, but I don't think that we need to regard it as the end of the human race. I don't know anything about the life of being an author wanting and hoping to be published some day, but I don't think this current paralysis, that we are seeing around us, is a permanent situation. So, maybe just taking a hiatus for a couple of months, and then when everybody has stopped yelling bloody murder, and normal life has been restored, taking another look at it, could be something to consider. In the meantime you have your day-job going. You even have someone like me, with the sewing skills at the level of being able to put a button back in if it falls off and, if my life depends on it maybe hem a pair of trousers, looking forward to your next installment of content. And when it's out saves it, like you do with the best, yummiest thing on your plate til the last bite, to be savored. You are quite good at what you do, I just wished that you would trust in that and know it. You are as good as the other Cos-tubers out there, and you do have a place at Costume College, just as much as they do. You just do a different time era then some of the more well known ones out there. To me it seems like every one of them claims to be introverted geeks, and if they say so, I tend to believe them. Over here in my part of the world, it's gone late and I need to get to bed. I'm one of the people in risk of getting this virus thing times two. I'm in self imposed isolation, and my husband when he goes out in the world for things like grocery shopping, doesn't interact unless he have to. Even so I have to go to hospital tomorrow, because this isolation thing has interfered with my hobby that doubles as my airway clearance, and I'm on my way to pneumonia, again. I don't complain though. I only had it once during all of 2019 and that could be treated at home. I hope I'm in time, this time too, so I don't need to be admitted. I do need to be there early in the day. This has nothing to do with any virus by the way. It's just my homegrown bacteria that is taking advantage of my not being able to go and work out at the dance studio for a few weeks, and are trowing a riot of a party in my lungs. I'm sorry I couldn't get this to you yesterday, as I thought I should have, and I hope that this isn't me overstepping again. If I am, just tell me to shut up, please. Oh and please let me know about the Mighty Algorithm and if commenting on your regular YouTube channel, will give you more revenue. Yours, Ann
Hi, Thank you and I'm stil sorry that I caused you hurt. I can understand fear of the future might be stressful, even if I don't really know what that is anymore. I think I have mentioned that live without time these days. I have done that for so long now that I can't really remember what it feels like to live with it. However my belief is that the world will relatively soon start moving again. Right now people are running around as headless chicken and every news caster, doomsday pusher and most world leaders are trying to sell us that this is Armageddon. I don't think it is, though. If it is then there wouldn't be over a billion Chinese people still living in China. It would be empty. Living in fear that this is the end of humanity, or shock is very tiring, and something that people can't keep doing for a long time. As soon as the people of the world put their collective heads back on and folks notices that in most cases they only get a mild flu, life will resume, and things will be back to normal.( And I still can't get this thing to break for a new paragraph. Annoying.) Even so I can understand your fears and frustration. This current world situation being only one of the many frightening things, even if it is the one that gets the focus right now. I'm one of the high risk people times two, so I'm practicing social distancing. I'm not leaving home until we are over the hump of the graph over here, and my husband is not having social interactions when he is out in the world doing things like going grocery shopping. And we are both masters in hand washing. Jokes aside I'm dealing with the side effects of having to cancel training with my dance partner and keeping away from the studio, and that is what keeps my lungs functioning properly. I probably most will likely have to consult my medical team tomorrow, (yes that turn of words was intentional) and see if I need to get on antibiotics again to keep my own private collection of bacteria from having a riot of a party and giving me pneumonia. Again. I shouldn't really complain. I had it only once during 2019 so that was really good. I didn't even have to have the antibiotics intravenously so I didn't even have to be admitted to hospital for it. For you having to deal with social distancing and then having a heap of snow dumped on you must be frustrating. I'm not making neither light of it nor making fun of you. Even if it's dry in the desert doesn't make it fun to be drenched in the rainforest. I have no idea about what the world of an author looks like, far from it. I am however, pretty sure the world will resume operations within the foreseeable future, out of economic necessity if nothing else, so I still hope that you will keep your dream alive. Maybe take a short hiatus, but not giving up on it just yet. You have a great day job that you are really good at. I mean having someone like me, a non sewer, looking forward to your next installment and then saving it when it gets out, like you save the best and yummiest piece of your meal til last, is a rare ability. You simply are gifted. I think that you just have to come to terms with that. If you can get paid on that I don't know either but I hope so. I usually tell people that have never been in contact with American culture, that in the US being really good at something usually pays off. Where I live, mostly not. Different culture, here that's all. I hope that I haven't overstepped again and put my foot in the mouth. Try to not be discourage by world events, and rely on your skill and creativity. Try to live your life large and live in beauty because you're worth it. Most people are, they just don't realize it before they get old and grumpy. You have heaps of people that realize it too. Believe them. Please. So back to the world of textiles. I think I have an idea for a competition dress now. It turned up when I was on the phone earlier today. I saw a combination of a midnight blue velvet with godets in that kind of shimmering plastic material you were trying to get a blouse out of, with a scattering of Swarovski crystals on it. Swarovski crystals is very important in the world of ballroom. You put on as many as you can afford. I have only seen one dress for someone over 16 years old, ever, without stones. It was a very striking black velvet latin dress with a single multicolored fringe going vertically in the center of the body. If reminded me of the Fire bird. Well enough chitchat from me. I hope that your world gets a bit easier for you. I still want the world for you just because of you, and I hope that you can get it soon. Please let me know about YouTube and the Mighty Algoritm.
Hi, the beading look fantabulous. Just a thought, if your "goal" is to be a published author, do prioritize things that would head you in that direction. I love the ideas you have re: sewing and I support you in that, of course. However I would support you in your writing too. If you wait and see if you can research agents because of your sewing channel, is that really the right priority for you. No answer necessary. Just think about it. Yours, Ann
Believe me I think about writing and how to find more time for it more than can possibly be quantified. Unfortunately I cannot just pause my sewing and youtube work, because it is what pays my bills. As I live in a capitalistic society, I have to prioritize what makes me money and allows me to live above anything else. My writing may never come to anything, because becoming a published author is a very pie in the sky kind of dream for any person to have. It is highly possible I will never get published, this is not something I believe because I am not confident in my work, it is something I believe because very few people ever get published. I am a realist, and prioritizing the work that allows me to survive over my likely impossible dream is the only way I can conceive to live. The right priority for me is to not default on my student loan payments, is to be able to buy health insurance in case I get sick. In an ideal world I wouldn't have to have a day job at all and could focus 100 percent on my writing goals, but sewing and youtube are my day job, they are an amazing day job that I also happen to enjoy, but my day job is not something I can sideline for anything else because I have to pay to live. My "sewing channel" is how I survive. This kind of suggestion that I put my job on hold, must not want to be an author enough because I don't drop everything to focus on it 100%, is very hurtful to me, because of course I want to, there is nothing I want more in the entire universe than to devote my self fully to writing, but I can't because I need income to live. Sewing is not my hobby, this is my career, and writing is my hobby, my dream.
As a Ravenclaw, I’m def looking forward that one a lot! I watched an AI podcast recently that spoke with the VP of YouTube’s algorithm and he said in terms of searching and finding videos (and therefore enhancing range/viewership), it was super helpful to be clear in the title and keywords. I always find your titles clear, but thought that info might be helpful for you so that maximum folk can enjoy your content :)
Egyptian Bolero for the win!
After my daughter saw your Star Wars circle tulle overskirt, she decided she needed one for a spring dance. Of course she can’t just have sequins on but she wants peacock feathers too. In two months, you’ll either be my favorite YouTuber or least favorite depending how this mad plan goes. Thanks for inspiring my daughter. I think. 😄
Egyptian bolero? Yes, please. I'd also love to see the fairy wing organza, as I have a gorgeous embroidered organza I'd love to use, but need to know how to line it. Fondly from cold, snowy Western New York.
Of course we want to see the Egyptian Bolero! :-D How could we not want to see it....? I love the sequin colors, they remind me of a peacock.
Yes, yes, yes - the Egyptian-style Collared Bolero would be fabulous - I'm loving the intricate pattern you've got going on there. I can't wait to see it!! Warmest regards from Down Under <3
I recently joined an art deco group, turns out Egyptian revival was a thing in that era. I'd be interested in seeing it.
Yes of course we’d love to see it!
Egyptian beading would be gorgeous!
We NEED to see the egyptian beading!! <3
Well, of course we'd like to see the Egyptian Collared bolero!
I agree, seeing the Egyptian Bolero sounds awesome and I'd love to see it!
Love the idea of an Egyptian Bolero as for some reason I’ve gone silly buying revival jewellery...
Have you considered increasing power to the structural integrity field of your organza..? Ohohoho, Star Trek joke and HECK YES do I want to the Cleopatra collar! The moment you mentioned it I pictured a Cleopatra collared aviator like jacket and that is going on the list of things I want to make.... one day..
Definitely yes to the Egyptian bolero!
So many cool ideas! Can't wait to see them. I would love to see the Egyptian-style bolero. Looks like some intricate work there. One idea for using organza or flimsy-like organza fabric, is to make a vintage style blouse, but just make the sleeves out of organza. Short or long sleeve. I love a good puff sleeve, but the sleeve could also be more streamlined. It can look sort of 80s (Bladerunner cough cough), which I love, but it can also look 30s and 40s depending on the shoulders and cuffs.
I'd like a peek at your writing.
Very interesting. Question (idea), Frida Kahlo was known for embroidery but did she also use sequins? If so, have you thought of vintage Frida?
I would love to see the Egyptian design!
I would LOVE to see the Egyptian bolero!
BOY, would I!! I’d ABSOLUTELY love to see that Egyptian bolero coming alive!! Wish I could show you the 1530s beaded forepart I’m working on now... seems we’ve got matching beading obsessions!