Oh Rocky!

June's date night is going to be one of those memorable events.

Sometimes you just feel it.

And sometimes it's because it involves cross dressing, heavy make-up, and dancing to the Time Warp!

Yes, this Saturday night, Steve and I will be getting all dolled up and hitting the town for a Rocky Horror Picture Show evening.

I just hope his high heels come in time! Around here you have to special order things like that. Apparently there's not a lot of cross dressing in our little town.

Or I'm just not shopping at the right places.

Anyway, as you may have guessed, Steve will be attending the showing of the fabulous RHPS dressed as Dr. Frank- a Scientist. Meanwhile, I will be going as his creation, Rocky.

 Now, I know what you're thinking- Rocky's a man. But you know, we all have a little man in each of ....

Moving on.

(And for those of you who thought Rocky's a boxer, well SHAME!)

Look! Shiny!

 I asked my ever so talented pattern maker (aka Steve) to put his magic to use and make me a pattern for a top.

I should have guessed when he asked for the newspaper that this is what he was doing.

It worked, though, so I can forgive the.... ummm....classy pattern pieces.

And yes, you counted correctly- there are three! Three pattern pieces! Bwahahaha!

And look! Instructions!

Written in red.


With pictures.

 It's a pretty simple pattern actually.

Overlock the side seams.

 Overlock the raw edges.

This just helps later when you sew them down.

If you don't have an overlocker (or a serge machine in the States because for some reason it's not fun to call things by the same name world wide), get one.

Or use a zig zag or stretch stitch.

But seriously get yourself an overlocker/serge machine. One day I'd like to have one that does the seam like what you find on so many commercially made clothes. It would make life a little easier.

At least that's what I tell Steve.

 Now is a really good time to stop and pick up all the things that fell off the table due to the intense vibration caused by the overlocker being used on a rickety table that was never intended to cope with such abuse.

Wuss table.

 And while you're at it, why not take a moment to watch the drug addict teens searching for magic mushrooms in the undergrowth.

It used to bother me to have them out there. Then I noticed how many dogs choose those bushes to do their business.

Yeah, enjoy your drugs boys.

 Anyway, switching to my regular machine (see how much easier it would be if one machine could do it all?), I'm using a zig zag stitch to sew the top seam.

Hence why I didn't need to worry about matching the thread to the material.

 And sewing the neck piece on.

 The front laces up...

I'll give you a moment to take that in.


Got it? Right. So I'm making the laces. Or lace. No... Ok, if there's only one, is it still called laces? What's the singular form?

Hmmm.....


Making the string bit to keep my bits concealed whilst wearing the top in public.

Yes, it's wordy, but it works.

Yellow skinny snake.

You're coiled up on the couch.

Won't you cover me?

 So now using my Specialized Turning Instrument for Creative Knowledge, I begin to make the yellow snake gold. It's like magic.

A note of warning: When using the Specialized Turning Instrument for Creative Knowledge, it's a good idea to wear safety glasses for when the STICK flails around as you manically try to force the fabric on. Jade's Law- when a STICK is waving around manically, it's only a matter of time before you find yourself in need of a really cool eye patch.

 This is about the point where I remembered the shiny material has a tendency to stick to itself.

It wasn't going anywhere.

So I traipsed downstairs waving it around like I had suddenly become an epileptic ribbon dancer and showed Steve. Who took one look at it and said, "Don't use a stick!"

I'm not using a stick! That would neanderthalish. I'm using a Specialized Turning Instrument for Creative Knowledge. Totally different.

"Use a safety pin."

...

Secure Apparatus For Effectively Turning Your  Piece INside out.  

 It worked much better.

He's such a smart ass.

 Insert theme from 2001 A Space Odyssey here.

Golden fabric snake.

Ribbon of gilded pleasure.

I have beaten you!

 The original plan was to make more of those gold tubular thingies, but I REALLY don't want to.

Besides, I just got a grommet tool and I really need to use it.









Metal squishing fun!

 Ooooo pretty!

The grommets not bad either.

 Even on the inside.

 Ta-da!

Shiny.

Professional looking.

And did I mention shiny?

 Laced up.











Yeah. I'm beginning to get just a bit nervous here.







Once again deviating from the original plan. See, the original called for Velcro to secure the neck together.

I hate Velcro.

It invariably fails at the most inopportune moment, it's scratchy, and, quite frankly, I despise that noise.

It's a personal thing.

I do however love buttons. Buttons are awesome! They're cute and pretty and SHINY!

 Button holes on the other hand can be a bit of a pain when attempted on stretchy material.



Dammit.

Ok, fold the edges over to help hide the butchering of taking the button holes out (the first person to mention that the seams aren't straight will be beaten to a pulp. Deal?).

 I love my new grommet tool.

Notice the placement of the grommets. I was pretty sure I'd only need two, but just in case, I spaced them far enough that I could put another one on if I needed to.

Two worked fine.

Of course, this means another gold rope tubey thing, but it was only a short one.


 I tried to model this on my duct tape mannequin, but since it sort of repositions certain bits, it really needed to be on living flesh.

Thank you, Steve, for taking the pictures.

 The reason I'm so white (in addition to flash burn out) is that it's mid-winter here. That's the main reason I'm starting to get a bit nervous about this whole thing. I'm going to be walking around at night in this!

Extra doses of vitamin C please!

Yeah. I feel a bit exposed.

Steve assures me it looks good, though. I'm gonna trust him, and avoid mirrors!


Oh, and he's making me a matching skirt.

I'm literally going to freeze my ass off!


Happy crafting!