MaeDey

More UFOs than the X-Files

[maedey-blog]

“Hail Mary, rose without thorns, You were born to comfort me. A queen of high birth, help me that I shall not be lost.” (13th Century)

Stories of the Rose: The Making of the Rosary in the Middle Ages, by Anne Winston-Allen

(Source: apenitentialprayer)

[maedey-blog]

Under & Over: OOTD 15 April.

CS-411, 23.5′- 6 hours.

I’ll probably continue seasoning the Waspie tonight.

[maedey-blog]

12 April 16- 15.5 hours at 23.5"

Is it just me or does anyone else love the shape these things take on once they've been seasoned? I don't know what it is...

[maedey-blog]

Ugh. Severe hiatus brought on by a rock n roll fight against an ever present "down" mood to put it nicely. Joshua G. has been on a night shift turn around schedule since the 22nd of January.... every 16th day off. So I feel like I have been living with a ghost of sorts. Over the weekend he said they were finally finished the shut down and would be returning to a normal swing. Sunday afternoon...Nope. Equipment issues again, take the unit back down, return to turn around shift. I try to keep myself occupied but it doesn't always block out those thoughts that manage to find their way back in.

I began corset training a month or two back. I am close to closing the back of a 22'' CS-411 from Orchard Corset. Although I really enjoy it I need to figure out the trick to wearing a corset with jeans. Because most jeans sit at your ass crack, the bones tend to slowly inch the waist band down.... never mind having to pee constantly since I sit all day and drink nothing but water for 10 hours makes the re-tucking a nightmare by hour 5. Due to a recent sale I picked up the mesh CS-201. I'm still seasoning it but I find I love the wasp waist better than the hourglass. There is also a definite give difference with the mesh vs. brocade, so it will be interesting to see the shape it takes on once it is seasoned.

In terms of sewing my western duster was obnoxiously too big despite the size being cut for a S woman. I have put it aside to work on other aspects of the costume while I stew on the next course of action. Pucker the hems by pulling them in to close the fit? Or make it the RIGHT way but dismantling and trimming it down? We will see.  

[ciciascloset]

I recently went through a bout of lack of motivation. Everything I had done seemed to not pan out. Every shoot I did failed to produce ANY pictures, which is very disheartening. I wasn’t having as much fun at cons as I used to have because I was away from these people when they were spending time together and making other friends. I had no motivation to keep cosplaying. However I’ve gained some of it back and now I want ya’ll to remember how to get back on a hobby you love. So here are some tricks:

1) Know yourself→ This might seem kind of a non sequitur but the start of my loss of motivation was directly related to my bipolar disorder. I was going through a depressive bout and felt no joy in things. It’s important to recognize the actual problem in order to solve it. 

2) Remember what is essential and what is not→ It’s easy to get bogged in details and forget the big picture. Photoshoots are not essential to cosplay, having every detail look “perfect” on the first try is not essential, having attention is nice and not wrong to want but it’s also not essential. It’s important to remember that at the end of the day cosplay is all about connecting with your character and connecting with people. I know this point is repeated often but it never hurts to use it as a mantra. 

3) Cosplay is not there to motivate you to do other things→ I’ve seen a lot of people lose weight for cosplay and use cosplay as a motivator. It’s great that this works for them but if you tie the both can be dangerous. Being at my current weight feels like a failure and tying that to my cosplay made me feel like I’m “too fat” to cosplay and like I have failed without starting. I feel like I failed at two things that are basically entwined, and that’s not true, Weight is not part of cosplaying and nothing can motivate you to lose weight if you don’t want to put in the effort. Sometimes it’s a small effort, sometimes it’s giant effort and sometimes the dream is impossible. If our dream is impossible then you might feel like cosplaying is impossible. They’re not tied and it’s fine to focus on one more than the other. 

4) Look at other’s work!→ Perhaps the thing that got my most off my ass was seeing @mangosirene‘s vlogs and work logs. I hadn’t seen them in a while and recently saw them again. I was in midterms so I did very little but after that I started working on my May cosplays again. Her work is pretty and amazing but that’s not what motivated me, it was the fact that she was just as run down as I was but she has continued at it. Look at others work, not too compare it to your own but to motivate yourself and to find inspiration again. 

5) Bask in the time off→ Sometimes you are feeling unmotivated because you need a break and that’s not a bad thing. Con crunch is something that isn’t sustainable if you find yourself doing it too often then you might burn out. Use that time off to analyze how to best get into it and how to avoid those things that are making cosplay difficult for you. Don’t get yourself down about it and keep attending cons. Cons will remind you that you do have friends and that you do have fun and you can meet new people even out of cosplay. 

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[cos-tips]

Cosplay Tip of the Day

Unless you have no option, don’t work on your cosplays when you’re tired.

Being tired means you’ll be distracted, more likely to make mistakes, and probably not in a great mood. Add these things all together with things like heat guns, X-Acto knives, and glues, and it’s a recipe for disaster. 

[maedey-blog]

This is so relevant as of late.

[moonxing-blog]

Character Aesthetics Pt. 7/? → Miles Upshur

[maedey-blog]

Added deeper darts and then brought the sexy 70s bell bottom leg in a bit. This didn’t seem to 100% resolve the issue of the pulling fabric at the crotch so that will require some finagling. Bought a zipper to properly close the front but because I didn’t check the notions I bought one 11 inches too short. Ordered a bunch of swatches today in tints of blue in different fabrics to see which one would present the best. Is gabardine too stiff? Is fashion denim to spandex-y? We’ll find out, anyway. 

[maedey-blog]

@i-got-spurs

@mentats-ghoul-herself

They finally arrived! :] Nice end to a mind numbing day at work.

[maedey-blog]

I started the muslin mock-up last night for the jumpsuit. Managed to sew the four main pieces together before I had to call it a night. With fingers crossed I tried it on tonight. I suppose it can be called rather successful since I wasn’t rocked with that stab of disappointment somewhere in the guts. I’ve never sewn pants due to what I imagine to be a deep hatred for the things and never considered I would find myself in a combo piece. I’m going to have to research how to better fit the crotch, though. I don’t think the torso is too long (considering I am hesitant to bend over) so I think the gaping might be due to another issue....too much extra fabric in the front?

Also, I the darts in the back will probably need to be deeper to help bring in the back. Sadly while I was hoping to skate by with a safety pin front it looks as though I will have to run out and get a cheap zipper to get a more accurate idea of how the fabric will pull when properly closed up.

[maedey-blog]

Vintage, uncut 1972. Almost didn’t want to cut into it.

[aspiringwriter22]

Thank you sableunstable.

Have a burning question you want to ask? Or a writer problem you’d love to submit? 

[maedey-blog]

How do you announce the beginning of something you may never see through? I received a FitBit for Christmas and despite hating the thought of working out I have found myself currently a member of the gym who checks their steps and stair count consistently. Will this record of progression help to keep me motivated? Hell if I know. I am an individual with too many varied interests so I guess we will just see how long I can keep this up.