Photography
here on flickr

Tutorials
bias tape application: here
outer bias tape corners: here
inner bias tape corners: here
ending bias tape [at the end of your fabric]: here
ending bias tape [in the middle of your fabric]: here

easy spaghetti straps: here
mold-making for resin-casting clear gems: here
how to take apart a brother 1034D serger : here
clip-on pony-tail deconstruction and reconstruction: here

here is the second part on how to finish up your bias tape ends. this one deals with how to join the beginning and the end of your tape together on your fabric. with this method, you will be able to cleanly and precisely match it to a seamline on the main body of your piece, which looks super-awesome.

note: this should NOT be used for joining individual strips of bias tape together! see here for how to make one long continuous piece of tape.

( magic in the middle! )

aaaaaand that's all. (for now.)

I think rose_of_pain asked about this in the bias tape corner tutorials from last year, so here we go....

today's topic is how to end bias tape when you get to the end of your fabric.

( odds and ends...and how to make them even! )

next up! joining bias tape.....when it meets in the middle of your fabric. stay tuned!

Well, I've got to delay working on my difficult ohayocon costume somehow. haha.

Have an easy spaghetti strap tutorial! good for if you don't have a loop turner. or if you can't find yours at 4AM when you need it most. D:

( pasta is delicious )

I have some more bias tape stuff coming up next...

Let me preface this post by saying that I have wanted a working serger really, really badly for half a decade now.

While I've temporarily hijacked 3 different sergers (one white, one janome, one singer) to experiment with, I've never lived close enough to someone that I can be like "oh can I come over and use it for a bit?" or anything, either. the closest person with a serger lives hours away. So I've pretty much just had to do without and make my intrepid way through the land of seam finishing as best as I could without it, via seam binding, 2 thread overlock, zigzag stitch, whatever.

In mid-december I finally found a job that pays decently and also has steady fulltime hours. so, long story short...it was finally serger time!

Back at my old job I'd cut fabric for a CCAD student (one that did know happen to know some sewing; it can be kind of hit or miss with their fashion design students...) who recommended a brother 1034D, and I'd looked it up on amazon and patternreview to find that even people brand new to serging generally were having a grand old time with it. Any serger that doesn't confound most of its novice userbase sounded like a good bet, and it was only $200, so I figured I'd give it a go since the only other machine in that range is the $200 singer that everyone and their mom has which I'm personally not all that fond of (tension is hard to balance, it's a singer, etc).

unfortunately, the post office was dealing with the Great American Blizzard of 2010 at the time of shipping, so in their distress they seem to have thrown it around a bit...

After wading through kneedeep snow (carrying the serger box on my head, oho!) to tote it from the apartment rental office where they had deposited it, I opened it up, set it on my table, plugged it in, stepped on the pedal and....

....nothing! D: the machine's motor went WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR but the machine's needle and gears weren't moving. I checked it over to see if there was some sort of tab to pull out to activate it, looked through the manual, but couldn't find anything in the troubleshooting or setup to indicate that this was a normal out of box function.

the fact that the motor seemed to be working seemed promising, so I decided to take it apart and see if I could fix it!

( so now you get Cassandra's guide to repairing your Brother 1034D serger when the post office plays tennis with your sewing machine while it is en route to you.... )

All in all, a pretty simple fix. :) If it had been something electrical or an alignment issue I doubt I'd have been able to repair it, but as it is I'm glad I took the initiative to take a peek inside it. I bet I'd have been charged half of what the serger is worth if I'd taken it to a sewing machine repair shop. :/

Oh man, I just found the coolest thing ever.

Gene2Music

You put in a gene sequence, and it plays music! Good for if you're a blind scientist, I guess.

Now I can listen to giardia instead of just ogle its cute flagella, ohohoho!

HI.

/three month posting hiatus

Here's a long overdue tutorial a few people on coscom requested ages ago...


^---on how to make molds for things like these. please note that for the super-tiny gems, I used the generic casting tray that is available any and everywhere, and for the medium sized ones I was able to use a paint tray as a ready-made mold. the five shapes needed for the waist cincher thing and the two sizes of larger gems I needed were unavailable, so I had to find another solution.

( a simple illustrated guide to mold making for clear cast resin... )

hopefully this is useful! sorry again for the wait. this was my first foray into the world of making molds and casting, so I'm far from perfect at it yet. perhaps it can still shed a little light on the process for anyone was previously mystified by the process, however. (I wasn't able to find anything that addressed making molds for easycast resin when I was researching things for the first time myself, alas.)

have another tutorial...


( inner bias tape corners )

Celica wig and pony tail clip ons from Zephyr came in the mail from Japan yesterday. I ordered late monday, it was shipped out tuesday, at my door when I woke up thursday. I love my speedy Japanese wig services.

This was my first time ordering non-heat resistant type wigs from zephyr. I wasn't disappointed~ the fiber is non-tangly and super-smooth. I was a little anxious about how I'd look in purple, but it was a really nice non-clashing shade. the sheen is peculiar but rather pretty. I like it.

Sadly, in between Japan and America, it seems like one of the clipons had broken in transit. D: SO I decided to engage in a little surgery to extract and replace it, and I took pictures along the way since I'd never seen a guide to the process (in case any one else ever needs to make their own clipon ponytails, or needs to replace a clip).

( Cassandra's guide to clip on ponytail deconstruction and reconstruction~ )

Since it would be retardedly short otherwise, I'm going to save my A&G con report for when I have RE photoshoot pictures back (much love to talianthala and chibblesc for being my zombie pistol fodder~ &hearts and to wolfofdreams for letting me borrow her fabulous shotgun to fend off the attempted munching with). We found this awesome dumpster/trailer area, and there were mirrors and erjgkjgkgg I'm looking forward to seeing how things turn out. I don't know why I haven't cosplayed from a horror series until now, since I like them a lot AND it was really quite enjoyable doing those sorts of photos.

In the meanwhile, I'm going to post pictures of the zephyr wigs I got in (right before I left for the con, LOL).

Once again, Zephyr's site is here if you want to look around. They don't have as much selection as cyperous when it comes to heat-resistant types (耐熱素材=heat resistant section), but they do have a nice selection of non-heat resistant (haven't tried these, so I don't know how they are yet).

I ordered late tuesday night and the wigs were on my doorstep friday morning, and I think I paid $20~ish for EMS shipping, which isn't too bad, considering.

I got a super long and a long straight in the heat resistant type (sky blue color). although they've later added them in, at the time they didn't sell heat resistant extensions, and my character has kinda ridiculous bangs, so I got an extra wig to cannibalize for wefts.

I left the pictures pretty large so you can see things properly. sorry if it makes my lj look weird. D:

( zephyr wigs )

erghh, the color is so lovely. I'm really relieved it wasn't a weird green/neon color, because I would have been heartbroken having to save up all that money again to try somewhere else.

okay, going to bed now. work in the morning at 7 AM (blah). hours have been up in the past few weeks, but we'll see tomorrow what the rest of the current week is going to look like...