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Merry meet all,

The time is flying by fast. November is almost over. The moon is waning and is in the sign of Virgo. I personally don’t mind the cool gray days of November. But once December arrives I don’t find much to be excited about until spring. Samhain is the big Sabbat for me. The next Sabbat in the Wheel of the Year is Yule. 

I recently received my two copies of Samhain Secrets and the Handbook for the Dead by owl mail. In both books, my stories are published near the front of the book. As opposed to before in the past when my stories were in the back of the book. This is progress. I shall enjoy reading the other author’s stories in the books. The covers of the books are beautiful. I am proud to be included in them. 

Both books are great. The Samhain Secrets book is fiction and Handbook for the Dead is nonfiction but just as entertaining. It is probably more so since the authors’ paranormal experiences are genuine and likely scary. I can’t wait to read them. 

I have future projects imminent. I do plan to keep writing, no intention to stop. But for now, I have been slaving on a gorgeous goth dress. I never worked so hard on a dress before save for the blue satin Arwen gown, which I donated to a thrift shop. Well where would I wear it? So the black and red spider dress (covered in spider lace) is now my obsession. The red cotton is much easier to work with than satin. I don’t advise sewing with satin, unless you are very experienced. 

SLAVE LABOR:

This is the hard work on the gown so far:

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My gown was slave labor. But it is so beautiful. First I did the dishes. I need plenty of clean space to work. Then a while later, I did the dishes and put my sewing stuff away from the food. I did the dishes and put them away and the drying rack. (That was break time.)

I focused on the bodice – bias tape and lace up ribbon section. I didn’t know what to do first. So I did the bias tape first. I opened out the wide fold tape ( I hate single). I trimmed the wide bias tape for convenience. For the back collar section since I had the raw edge showing, oh what a slave labor. Because the curve of the neckline refused to be yielding, I had to add the bias tape and hugely understand how nasty the curve of the neckline was at the same time. Oh sure oh sure

But I persevered. So I stitched it right sides together, then took off pins then pressed. Immaculately. The right 1-1/2 inches of the collar didn’t obey me. I learned to work with it. I stitched the shoulder seam to the collar then wondered why it looked wrong. I seam ripped that and then noticed it improved. Ok. Then I looked at my work. The shoulders are not far from the neck collar. I stitched slowly and then having the bias tape down on the inside, I trimmed the seam allowance staying away from the stitches, and ironed extremely neatly. Sure enough, after salty words, I got the clean neckline polished edge I wanted. Ok so far so good. The rest of the collar was not easy, esp., when my thread in my needle kept popping out all night. Again, lots of salty words. Btw, I kept trying the whole bodice on as I worked on it.

Now, prior to this, I had made the corset section (or where it will lace up). I measured the section across of the bodice under the neckline= 22 inches I mean the chest area.. Ok so I wanted to center as accurately as I could the corset lace up section. So I thought half of 22 is likely 11. So I then cut that in half again and got like 5-6 inches. So I then decided the black rectangle of fabric would be 5 inches + the tiny 1-1/4 inches of fabric I stitched with true care on either side of the rectangle of fabric for the corset section. I also measured (several times over) how long the fabric piece would be- I had already decided width. 11-12 inches to lower hem. I measured and cut out the tiny 1-1/4 inches of fabric on a fold and I tucked in either side of the rectangle of fabric into the folds on either side of it. That was so no raw edges showed. I pinned it with pins going in vertically and hand stitched the slim pieces of fabric to conceal raw edges of the rectangle of fabric. Then I measured and cut out the mosquito netting same as the rectangle of fabric. I stitched that to it. I examined the stitching- yup it caught the edges of the slim fabric sections I had stitched onto the rectangle. The rectangle of fabric was black cotton so were the 1-1/4 inch and 11-inch in length. pieces. Once I was truly finished the bodice and had tried it on AGAIN! did I do more work on it. Adding the 1-1/4 increased it to like 6. So I kept measuring and being accurate all the way through with this project. While I stitched closed the center front sections, I kept an eye on sewing it together at around what you said with half inch sections. I am happy with it.

Then I had to add the bias tape to the rest of the collar sections. The needle kept losing thread, I kept cussing salty words, and the bobbin ran out of thread. But I persevered. I was not too happy with having to sew into tight corners and now I love sewing on the machine slow and slowly removing pins as I go. So I tried the bodice on AGAIN. When I tried it on, I tried breathing naturally and standing like I naturally would, I discovered it was not so bad. Oh and I topstitched the left and right sides of the bodice- show you later. I had stay stitched ( don’t ask) ugh the back neckline and I stitched on the bias tape and top stitched the back collar on the right side up.

So with the front raw edges concealed, ( whole bodice), I then concentrated again on the front lace up piece. I measured again at the breast line, yup good, still 22 inches from far right to far left side front of bodice. Ok there was my 11 inches and then again sure enough across the bodice where the collar and the lower front section was my 6 inches. I really concentrated on centering the black fabric piece. I also positioned the piece a little lower so the raw edge would be concealed when the bodice and skirt are sewn together. So then I stitched the bodice very front piece together. I tried it on AGAIN and I was ok. I pressed the seam allowance. THEN I sewed the rectangle of fabric on. I had the usual grumpy sewing machine issues but made it past that. I stitched it on well and I love how I had taken such care with the measuring, and positioning. The front sections that meet are concealed and now I can add ribbons to make it look laced up. You can help with that if you want.

OH yeah I also found some cool sheer 2-inch long sheer sort of ribbon. I pressed and measured out how much I wanted. I tried adding it to the rest of the collar but I love the clean collar line so much I just left it. It didn’t look right. So 6 inches of ribbon were stitched to the top of the black rectangle of fabric to hide the raw edge. Then my sewing machine got grumpy again. A quick glance at the clock convinced me to call it quits.

I shortened the skirt length by 2 inches. I also cut out new sleeve pieces -4 in total that measured 23 inches in length. I have to sew the cuffs. I will fancy that up too. I cut 2 of the black spider lace and 2 of the mosquito netting. All measuring 23 inches. The lace is the right side and the netting is the wrong side, But the lace needs stabilizing.

I sewed the sleeves and the sleeve cuffs together. The sleeve hole at the hem of the sleeve that my hand went through on one sleeve has an inserted bit of black cotton fabric just so my wrist would fit through it. The sleeve cuff is gathered on one side. The other arm is perfect. My hands fit through both and a tiny bit of wiggle room. I plan to stitch ribbon on both of the right sides of the cuffs to hide raw edges and give the cuffs a polished appearance. Wow this outfit is getting more and more beautiful day by day. But when I tried to stitch the sleeves in the armhole, everything went all pear-shaped. Nope not happening here. But I didn’t join sleeve to cuff till it did all fit right. I stitched black cotton to the spider web lace -fabric for the sleeve cuffs to stabilize the spider web lace. Otherwise, the lace would tear, unravel or snag on something. 

The outfit mocks me. It revels in its insistence to be difficult to be completed. I am so close. Soon. I keep telling myself that. I can’t wait to get to show it all off. 

I saw the movie Doctor Sleep. I don’t know about anyone else and I have not read the novel. But I loved the movie. Rose the Hat was quite the villain. 

I promise to post pics of the finished gown once I am done. Hopefully that will be this weekend! Till then, keep practicing your psychic abilities, stay warm, and comment on my blog posts!! 

Blessings, Lady Spiderwitch