I have one more night to finish my part of Nightmare Moon (husbeast is working on wings and horn). I realized last night that the hoof guards were going to need to be sewn on by hand. I don’t like the way the glue I have looks.
I got the hoofguards cut out, traced the helmet, cut out the eyeholes and prepped the mane & tail.
P got into bed and then I threw on Underworld and got to sewing.
(N.B. I love hand sewing. It’s a bit crampy but I find it very satisfying)
Nightmare moon comes on a pace…
My little falcon is four years old and well into My Little Pony.
Halloween is coming and she wishes to portray Nightmare Moon.
As both a loving and a crafty mum, I’m making her a costume.
We started with research and creating a Pinterest board. There are some very cool interpretations out there. I decided on a decorated set of sweats.
We bought embellishing fabrics. It took me ages to find a periwinkle to match the illustrations. Everything was lavender, which is too red, or light blue, which is too blue. We also found some sweet, spangled tulle – upper right in the pic – that I can match with some regular tulle for the mane and tail.
We washed the fabrics, some by hand, some in the machine. Got them ironed and then set out to get the design done. I went with freehand sketching and it’s coming out really well.
Fun fact about me, I have an interior voice that is always looking for the ways that I’m not good enough. It told me that being “able to draw” meant that one should be able to draw something with no reference – just hey presto, with no model or anything. This is, naturally, bullshit.
I measured the sleeves and legs to get the right size. I got some reference images up on my phone and traced out the hoof guard motif onto paper and breastplate design right onto the hoodie.
Then I transferred the breastplate onto paper, added another sheet and traced out the back of the breastplate. I’m going to have one piece wrap around and I’m feeling very clever about it.
She has school Halloween on the 28th, so that’s my deadline. More to come!
Art is like gambling. The thrill of gambling is the uncertain return. We keep trying because we never know what we are going to get. Media is like that, we keep consuming, reading, playing, watching, listening because we never know when something will hit us in such a way that our lives will be made richer, stranger, or more nuanced by the perspective provided.
I watched a season of The Great British Baking Show (in the UK it’s The Great British Bake Off) and I am hooked. I have watched one of the series all the way through four times. I make my family watch it, I make my kid watch it and pick out dishes to make for her. I remembered that I love to cook. Spending a Saturday picking a recipe or two, shopping for ingredients, and making something is a damn fine way to spend time with my kid who is three and a half now and well into scooping, mixing, patting, and holding the top of the new KitchenAid Mixer.
My Grand Idea is to go back to the beginning and bake my way through the entire run of the show. Each episode has a technical challenge and I’m going to work my way through them posting a review of the episode and my attempt at the bake on a weekly basis.
Why?
Well, it’ll be fun. But also, I wonder, what does it take to be a Great British Baker? I’m one of those people who isn’t super creative as a cook but I can follow a recipe with no problem. I turn out reliably good food. The winners on this show? They turn out magnificent bakes. They innovate with shape and flavour. They step off the line and kick ass. Can baking a lot give me the confidence to try? Failure is just a lesson, will I find the courage to fail? The courage to think that I have something to contribute? At the very least, if I don’t become a great baker, will I at least become a better one?
Let’s find out!
-fh