Mood:
irritatedNow Playing: "Science Rock" - yup, the old 'Schoolhouse Rock' shorts, on VHS from the flea mkt.
Today I tried the first of the ‘Agatha Heterodyne' outfits - her underwear. Simple enough, right ! It's basically a lace-edged crop top and knee-length pants. Button-up front on the top, faux drawstring waistband on the pant(aloon)s. I have at least six different patterns I could use for it, ranging from Simplicity and Vogue, to the free patterns Emby Quinn has on her site (See Links on the main site), to Doll Shop Deluxe. Probably only take an hour, hour and a half to sew the base garments, then a bit more time to add the lace.
If you'd like to see what I'm aiming for, here's a link * ->
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20030507
Pfegh. The lace. That's the big stumper that has stomped me. I altered the Emby Quinn patterns and got a decent approximation of the top. Neckline wasn't as low as Agatha's, but I figured adding the lace would help. I kept the back closure - fit better that way - but added a simple tuck-pleat to the front, for a closure illusion. Not bad at all !
But then, the lace. The ()^%$#*+<@!> ing lace. Went through the whole ‘lace and ribbon' stash container - it's about the size of two milk crates, and a bit deeper, packed full - and didn't' find lace small enough. Found some that might work, but it wasn't gathered. So I gathered it. Attached it to the neckline and found out something fairly important...
There IS NO lace small or narrow enough to fit on the top the way it does in the darn images. If it's large enough to ruffle or sew, it's too big and out of scale. It'd have to be about 1/8" wide to be in scale, probably smaller, and sewing it on, even by hand, would be difficult. Then getting it in the right place...feh. It just won't work. I could do it easily in human scale, possibly even with some fussing and cursing in Elphie's scale. But 1/6 scale, I just don't have the skill. I don't know if it even *can* be done, by anyone.
So. What I'll probably end up doing is re-making the top again (it didn't take long) and using the stretch-stitch function to add a row of blanket stitching to the neckline, arms, waist, and knees. It'll give the illusion of lace without being actual lace. Since the garments are while, using cream off-white thread on top and a light grey in the bobbin will probably give me the look I want. Later, it's shown in pink, but I think a darker pink (and the grey beneath) will still work. Gosh knows I couldn't get the lace to.
Shoot. And I thought I was starting out simple...
*Umm, sorry about the linkage. You might well wonder why I don't just enclose a quick scan of it, especially since I still have Volume 1 from the library. I'm still kind of wondering myself. What it gets down to is this - I respect the work. And I don't own the book, much less have permission to share the image. Yeah, that never stopped me before, but in this case, it is. I just can't do it. Hence the link. I'm not trying to push anyone into reading Girl Genius, but I simply can't cut/paste it like I normally would. (sigh) This ‘respect' thing is making my life more difficult than it used to be...
