Cosplay - Marisa Kirisame

I am done with my son's Cosplay and wanted to share some last pictures. Above is the final product, I am so happy with how it turned out and so is he!!

Ya terminé con el disfráz de mi hijo y quería compartir unas últimas fotos. Arriba ven el producto final, yo estoy muy contenta como quedó al igual que mi hijo!!

I shared all the patterns that I used in the previous post, above is the modified pirate's shirt and the vest. To the shirt I added cuffs and finished it with the gold binding that I made miles of to use on the edge of the cloak.

Ya les dije todos los patrones que usé en el pasado post, arriba está la camisa y chaleco. A la camisa le agregué puños y el bibo al bies que hice para el borde de la capa.

The cloak is lined with bleached muslin, the black fabric is twill, both from Joann's. The belt on the waistline is a belt from my closet the one on the hat (my husband made it) and across the chest I made. The hat (wool felt) I found in Target and to that I added the brim in the shape we wanted which I placed sandwiching the original brim. The broom my husband put together. The scarf I put together with scraps of the white and black fabrics I used since I couldn't find a stripe fabric that would work; the trim I found at Joann's.

La capa está forrada con muselina blanca y la tela negra es twill (gabardina?), terminada con el bibo dorado que hice. El cinturón en la cintura es mío de mi closet, el del sombrero lo hizo mi esposo y el del pecho lo hice yo. El sombrero lo encontré en Target al cuál le agregué el borde con la forma que queríamos. La nueva ala del sombrero cubre la original por completo como un sandwich y está hecha con twill y cartulina y entretelas para darle forma rígida. La escoba mi esposo la hizo. La bufanda la hice de los retazos que quedaron pues no encontraba tela de rayas que me viniera bien, el adorno en el borde es de Joann's. 

My husband added the silver spikes to a chain he bought in Home Depot. I beaded the leather chords and used hot glue to keep them spaced like the illustrations of the character showed.

Mi esposo le agregó los pinchos plateados a una cadena que compró en Home Depot.  Yo le agregué las cuentas a unos cordones de piel y usé goma para que se mantuvieran seguras imitando a las ilustraciones del personaje.


Hope that you enjoy taking a peak at some different sewing. Next up an outfit for me!!

Espero que hayan disfrutado viendo algo distinto en el mundo de la costura. ¡Lo próximo es un conjunto para mí!

Cosplay for my youngest

I am deeply involved in a multiple piece costume based on a video character (Marisa Kirisame) for my son. Below is the drawing he first showed me when he said he would really like have this costume, adapted for a guy for the next Otakon.

En estos momentos estoy cosiendo un disfraz para mi hijo menor que está basado en un personaje de un videojuego (Marisa Kirisame). El dibujo que ven fue lo que él me enseñó para preguntarme si yo pudiera hacérselo pero modificado para un hombre. Planea ponérselo el mes que viene en la convención de Otakon.

Marisa Kirisame

In the process I have used McCall's 6279 (OOP double breasted shirt dress) for the vest, Vogue 9075 for the pants, McCall's 5957 for the cloak and 4952 for the shirt. The belt shown in the pictures came from my closet.

Para coser todas las piezas he usado Vogue 9075 para los pantalones, McCalls 6279 para el chaleco (que ya lo retiraron, es un vestido camisero),  McCall's 5957 para la capa, y 4952 para la camisa. El cinturón en las fotos lo saqué de mi closet.

I'm working on the cloak right now which I made lots of gold bias binding for. I started cutting for the black and white scarf since I have lots of remmants from the other pieces. I believe this is easier than trying to find striped fabric. The stripes are pretty wide so this will sew up fast.

Ahora estoy trabajando en la capa y la bufanda. Para la capa hice un montón de cinta al bies y para la bufanda estoy usando los retazos de las telas (es de rayas bien anchas en blanco y negro)



Here is a picture of how this costume has been realized in real life

Aquí tienen una foto de cómo se ve en la vida real.

The sewing for all the other pieces is finished but I have to add lots of embellishments: silver stars(that I found at Pacific Trimmings to the vest and pants as well as some chains and beads and the belt on the bodice.

Aún me queda agregar muchos adornos: estrellas plateadas (que conseguí en Pacific Trimmings) y cadenas, además de otro cinturón atravesando el chaleco.



The hat is waiting for a belt and my husband made the broom.

Al sombrero le falta el cinturón y mi esposo ya le hizo la escoba.



So far, so good.

Por ahora todo va bien.

A satisfied customer

My progress in my last summer garment (a knit dress, more on this later) was interrupted by a request from my youngest.

Interrumpi la construccion de un vestido veraniego pues mi hijo mas chiquito me pidio que le agregara unas cuantas piezas a su disfraz favorito.




He is right now at an Anime convention and wanted some additional garment/accessories for his cloak.

En estos momentos esta en una convencion de Anime

He needed a place to keep his phone/money so I suggested a bag. I needed only the leather cord for the strap, the rest was all from my stash.

Necesitaba donde guardar el dinero y el telefono asi que le sugeri una bolsita. Solo tuve que comprar el cordon para trensarle un tirante, el resto de los materiales salieron de mi coleccion.

The pants were made with a pj pant pattern and he wanted a patch to add to the look. The shirt and cloak were made previously.

Los pantalones se los hice de un patron de pijamas y le agregue el parche que queria de la misma tela de la bolsita. La camisa y la capa las hice anteriormente.

Mis lectores, perdonen la falta de acentos. Mi esposo ha cambiado el teclado y no puedeo conseguir el teclado en Espanol.

A perfect ending

My family and I spent the last week in the Yellowstone area. This is the second time we have been there, loved it so much the first that four years later we returned.

Mi familia y yo pasamos la semana pasada en el parque Yellowstone. Es la segunda vez que vamos, la primera vez nos gustó tanto que volvimos cuatro años después.


When we were in Minnessota waiting for our connecting flight I decided that I would after all join sewing friends at Winterthur to see the Downtown Costume exhibit. So on Friday, we arrived at 11:00pm on Thurs, I got myself together and drove into Delaware.

Cuando esperabamos el vuelo de Minnessota a Baltimore, decidí que iba a encontrarme con mis amigas que se iban a reunir en Winterthur para ver la exhibición del vestuario de Downton Abbey.  Así que el viernes cogí el carro y me fuí para Delaware.

Karen, Andrea,me and Bonnie


We had perfect weather that allowed us to visit the beautiful gardens.

El tiempo estuvo perfecto para visitar los bellos jardines.

And the clothes...

Y la ropa...

Edith's wedding gown

One of Mary's dresses

Cora's dress?

Mary's dress when Matthew proposed.

Mary's, an Edwardian dress

Also had a very nice conversation with one of the ladies answering questions and found out all sort of wonderful details about how some of the outfits were put together.

Tuve una conversación muy agradable con una de las señoras que trabajaba en la exhibición y me dió muchos detalles de la confección de los vestidos. 



Karen has been writing wonderful detailed posts about the exhibit, please go check it out!

Karen ha estado escribiendo acerca de la exhibicion no se lo pierdan!



I had a week of inspiration and now I'm hoping to get to my sewing machine!

¡Mi semana estuvo llena de inspiración, ahora espero poder usar mi máquina de coser!

Mother's day celebration

Entrance to the Chinese pavilion

Yesterday we went to the US National Arboretum to celebrate Mother's Day, I forget why we had to postpone the celebration, but yesterday was the perfect day to walk the gardens.


Ayer fuimos al US National Arboretum para celebrar el día de las madres, no me acuerdo por qué tuvimos que posponer nuestra celebración, pero ayer fui un día perfecto para caminar los jardines.

Mountain laurel in Fern Valley

 It is our tradition for mother's and father's day, rather than giving/receiving gifts, to pick something that we would like to do. I always pick an outing to a garden.

Es nuestra costumbre en ver de darnos regalos para el día de las madres o padres, escoger una actividad que nos gustaría hacer. Yo siempre escojo ir a un jardín.

Blooming azalea bonsai

Woodland plant in Fern Valley

 We have been at the arboretum many times but there's always something new to see as the exhibits change and depending on when you go something different is blooming.

Hemos estado en el arboretum muchas veces pero siempre hay algo nuevo que ver.

Burda Style June 2013 Blouse 118

 I got to wear the finished blouse today when my sons and I took my mom to lunch to celebrate her 82nd birthday. I am so blessed to have her, besides the arthritis, in good health.

 I did not do buttonholes on the very narrow sleeve band. I added a snap and sew the button on =)

I'm pretty happy with how the buttonholes turned out.

here you can see my modified facings

The fabric is a cotton batiste from Metro Textiles which I bought on my trip to NYC during PR weekend a couple of years ago and it was a very easy fabric to work with. I made french seams because of the sheerness of the material, it is such a nice finish.

The skirt is Vogue 1247 which I made last summer and gets a lot of love from me.

The pictures are showing a bit of wrinkling in the sleeve head but there are truly none, I don't know why it showed that way.

This a great basic, I can also see wearing it layered over a tank top. I am now working in the shirt dress which uses this same pattern but adds vertical darts to the front and back, with short sleeves.

A walk in the woods

Yesterday after the boys that came for a sleepover left, we decided that it would be nice to walk in the woods while it was snowing. Of course by the time we got everyone ready and we got to the park it had stopped. No matter, we still had an enjoyable walk. These days we are always amazed at our 12 year old beagle who comes alive in these walks. My boys talked non stop as always when they are together and my husband and I had a chance to look around us and find beauty in a grayish winter day.

The water beads on the trees were gorgeous, my phone's camera couldn't do it justice.

I have been doing some sewing so I will have something new to share soon. I don't know if I'll make an end of the year post, still deciding =)

An old dress gets a new life

My 32 year old prom dress made its debut on stage, Thursday this week, as Olivia's wedding dress in the very modern interpretation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night presented by my son's high school.

My mom made this Vogue pattern in 1980 and I wore it to the prom. As you can see from the picture I accessorized it with royal blue (peep toe pumps, clutch, belt, bracelet, even the orchid!), remember it was the 80s! I don't have the pattern any more but I know it came with a short and long version.

The dress came with me when I moved to MD after college and I used it at least once for a Halloween party, I thought I made a pretty good Greek goddess ;-)

I thought the dress would be perfect for the production so I altered it to fit the actress. She is shorter than me and bustier so I shortened the bodice and added a panel on the left side where the dress fastens to give her more coverage. The skirt length worked since she wore her stage shoes that have a heel.

Doesn't she look stunning?

I took my mom to see the performance today and she was thrilled to see the dress on stage. She happily posed with the actress for a photo after the performance.

Some things are worth preserving, don't you think?

This past week was a week of firsts for my family.

My oldest son moved to college, granted he is maximum 20 min away, but still it is a huge change for us. He is doing great and has been very good about sharing with us. I know it will get easier for me with time =)

My youngest son started high school. He is a wonderfully responsible individual so I am not worried about his success there. It is still a new school with new rules to learn and the poor guy caught a cold and was out yesterday so now he has work to make up.

I also started a new job, actually another part time job. I am now also a teacher's assistant at our community college. The class is intermediate Spanish. It is a good way for me to get in the classroom, like I wanted, and then hopefully get a better position.

With the start of school also starts theater sewing and that is always fun. I'm looking forward to getting involved in the fall production Twelfth Night. It looks like the costumes will be modern but I still don't have details.

I did start sewing Vogue 1250 which I think everyone has done. I will share with you how I handled adding extra room at the hip with this unusual pattern shape (no side seams).

I am also in the middle of painting my bedroom, but it has been slow going because of the busy week. Today I'm home so hopefully I will get some more done.

Next time more sewing!

A birthday celebration

My son turned 18 last week. Yesterday he had a second celebration with a couple of friends at home so I baked a cake and made quesadillas for them.

The cake is a recipe from Martha Stewart and the quesadillas she showed how to make on a show many years ago and have become a staple that I make for parties. It is a great recipe since you can add many things depending on what you have available. I have made them with black olives, salsa, chicken, green onions and then you can serve them with sour cream, guacamole...you get the picture. Here is a video showing you how to make them except I heat up olive oil in the pan.

The cake I have made before, yellow cake with lemon curd filling and chocolate frosting. I did not make the lemon curd, it came from a jar, but the cake and frosting I followed the recipe.

I used to watch the old Martha Stewart show but I'm not a fan of her new one. I do still go to her website from time to time.

Forida Vacation

This year for vacation we went to Florida. We spent about 5 days in Sanibel, enjoying the beach and the warm gulf waters. The rest of the time, 5 more days, we spent visiting family and surrounding attractions. Hope you enjoy my pictorial trip!

This was the start of our nature walk at "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge

The best part of Florida vacation, anoles! Used to try catching these when I was a kid, my kids still chase them.

Yum! Sea grapes...

Although we enjoyed our 4 mile walk, other than anoles and a few birds, wildlife was no where to be seen... The only alligator we saw

The shade and water provider in action

Leaving Sanibel we stopped at Edison and Ford Winter States, Ft. Myers. I fell in love with the location, the houses, porches and the gardens.

Fairy tale banyan trees

The living room at the Ford family winter home

Lunch stop in historic Ft. Myers

 Canoe trip, my boys and my niece

Homasassa Springs Wildlife Refuge State Park

Honorary Floridian hippo

Taking shelter from afternoon storm

Manatees one of the main attractions at Homasassa

Busch Gardens

One of the highlights of the Busch Gardens visit, feeding the lorikeets

Great vacation! Glad to be home!