I had intended to do quick errands and then spend the rest of the night sewing, but my errands got a bit away from me. I needed buttons for a new blouse and sewing machine needles for thicker fabric (and groceries).

I went to Joann's because it's the closest store that I know has needles, but obviously, they were out. I did however take a look around and found a red velvet that's been haunting me for the last year and a half--specifically ever since I watched Revolutionary Girl Utena while I was working on a different project. I fell in love with Anthy's Rose's Bride gown, and ever since, I've been seeing this particular very nice velvet, and have been heavily debating if I wanted to use that or something different, but I cave and grabbed 10 yards of it since it was on sale. For now, it's going to be stored until later this year when I'm not working on three different items with a deadline.

I did end up doing a little bit of sewing with the Celebi hakama-inspired overskirt. I was using a thicker material that I wasn't sure how well my machine would like. In the end, she persevered with some unhappy clunking. At some point, though, I do want to get some denim-grade needles just so I don't have to worry about that again.

The overskirt was something I was lucky and didn't really need to do a mock-up for. It was just a lot of squares, and I probably overdid the math on it, but it works! All that is left is doing the waistband and the ties.

The Blouse

I am one last push from finishing this goddamn blouse. It really is one of those "trust the process" projects; after hours and hours of bitching and moaning about how absolute shit it looks, now that a lot of the finishing touches are being put on, it looks really close to a decent blouse. I've started incorporating french seams into another project I started as a relaxing alternative (more on that down below). All I need to do is figure out how many buttons I want to add to them, which will be the last bit of nerve-wracking I have on my plate. I've shortened the sleeves, so I have a bunch of extra fabric to work with to test my button-hole stitch.

If everything goes right, I should have it finished by Friday (potential foreshadowing)

Shiny Celebi Underskirt

My relaxing alternative project. I have managed to draft, mock-up, and sew most of this underskirt in less than 24 hours (non-consecutive). It's an a-line skirt, the first time I've ever self-drafted anything. I ended up following this tutorial, and I'm very satisfied with how it came out! I think it took me maybe no-more than an hour to do all the measurements, calculations, and drawing/cutting it out on butcher paper. The mock-up was fast and after just one last thing to add to it, it's going to look pretty cool!

The only thing I am going to change is the initial ruffle I was going to add to the bottom. From what I've read, most people suggest 2x the bottom hem to get nice ruffles, but I didn't like how it was looking. I've debating on upping it to 2.5 or 3x. 4x will be a bit excessive for my purposes, so I might just bump it up to 3x and then widdle it down if it turns out to be too much.

The fabric I made it with is a neat linen-cotton blend, so it frays like a bitch. I've defaulted to french seams, and my god does it take like a dream. The only thing that may give me a bit of trouble is adding a button placket to one side (I refuse to do zippers), but that should be easy once I do a bit of testing.

Reading!!

While I was working over the long weekend, my hold for the audiobook of Long Live Evil finally came in, and boy was it a ride. It's probably a new favorite reincarnation isekai alongside Villainesses Are Destined to Die and The Eccentric Duchess. Long Live Evil does so many things that I wish more modern incarnations of this genre do: the protagonist, Rea, is affected by her life in the real world and actively is focused on going home. We get main POVs from non-isekai characters, which gives us another view of her actions tinted by what was going on. Tropey stuff is both played straight while also properly explaining it.

I genuinely am thinking about adding this to my collection, and I'm hope book 2 of this series comes out in the next few years.

(Maybe I should start a Reading Bingo card come April)

I can't believe I found the perfect icon for my sewing entries. I always have at least one cat screaming at me or laying on my fabric as I'm working. (In fact, the two assholes in question are on either side of this laptop as I write this lmao)

I finally did some research for a bit more tips on how to work with satin, and I've put a bit of money into some dress pins. I gotta say, they are a bit nicer to work with so long as I don't lose them. One of my dumbass cats likes to stick things into her mouth despite being two years old, and she loves going after my regular pins. These dress pins are so, so much smaller, so I need to be extra careful. At least the box they came isn't flimsy.

My hope is to finish the rest of this damn thing (collar, sleeves, and placket). I think the buttons will be the most interesting in all the worst ways. Wish me luck!

Once this is done, I'll need to start on shiny Celebi! I'm very excited to work on them since the inspo is a taking heavily from the Taisho-era fashion circa 1910s (the fashion is great but everything else form that era sucks ass).