Spontaneous Star Wars Stormtrooper

I was not planning on making this. Indeed, when my nephew called with the request, my initial response was thanks but no. Unfortunately it turns out I love a sewing challenge more than is probably healthy.

So he is the scenario: My nephew Hugo, flushed with cash from spending two hours cleaning the house, decides he wants to buy a Stormtrooper costume. Not wanting some cheep polyester rubbish (can't blame her!), Sarah redirects this request by suggesting Hugo ask me to make it and pay me instead. As I said, my initial thought was no. Stormtrooper costumes are so complicated and layered and yuck. Not something I wanted to venture into. 

But I told Hugo I'd think it over and let him know. When I hung up the phone, I was thinking it over and my mind refused to let it go. How could I solve this puzzle? A comfortable, wearable and also recognisable Stormtrooper costume. Was it possible? 

I did a bit of research on the internet of what other people did for a DIY Stormtrooper costume, and found that people resoundingly made them out of foam or cardboard, but that the reviews were "looked great, kids loved the photos, but they couldn't wear it long term, it was too uncomfortable". So could I make one that was comfortable enough for my nine year old nephew to run around and have a nurf gun battle with his mates? Also remembering that this is Australia, and he's likely to overheat even in October.  

I broke down the parts, and figured it came down to the vest, waist part and belt. If I could make those and potentially a pair of basic white pants, he should be right to go. Fabric is way more comfy than cardboard to wear, and all it would need would be some strong interfacing, which I happened to have leftover from making some obi earlier in the year. So, I got to work. 

I did this costume in a week and a half, so not many photos at all. I traced around the girls for a basic pattern, dug out white fabric from my stash (I think I bought it for cheep table cloths for Christmas over ten years ago) and got going. I hand sewed the features of that waist part at church. Everything else was pretty simple, and I managed to have all the parts in my stash - black elastic that had come from someone's stash at some point, a sturdy clip for the belt and some scrap velcro from who knows where. 

The vest needed a bit of extra shaping along with the super sturdy interfacing, so I added a layer of cotton batting. The belt has blocky parts on it, which I sewed on and stuffed with some random stuffing from an old pillow. I did end up having enough time (and fabric) to sew together a pair of white pants and we were good to go. 

Hugo had a mask and a white shirt at home already, and he was over the moon with his costume. I'm pretty happy about how it turned out too, for a week and a bit of sewing with no pattern at all, and no trips to Spotlight for whatever I didn't have. Hooray! 

Library Mural: Part 1

 A little project for the September school holidays: just painting another mural at the girls school. This was designed by a local tattoo artist and is on the walls of the Library building. The decking outside the building has garden beds with grevillea and wattle flowers in it, often frequented by the colourful noisy lorikeets that inspired the mural. 

We did this one panel, but the plan is for the mural to wrap around to the adjacent walls too. Maybe next holidays? 

Kimono Days

Wearing traditional Japanese clothes, at least through the cooler autumn to spring months, has become increasingly regular for me this year. I like the comfort and simplicity of the yukata and the warmth of the kimono. Even though I've historically worn my kimono significantly less, I'm really beginning to appreciate the warmth through the winter months these days. Maybe I'm getting old and feeling the cold more, who knows!

Side note - love this kimono so much! Such a beautiful warm wool! Made it myself and same with the obi. (So hard to photograph at ten to six in the morning by yourself in a bathroom that is currently having a sink drain replacement!)

Since July though, I've had extra reason to be reaching for these when I'm considering my wardrobe choices in the morning, because I picked up an extra day of teaching Japanese at a new school. I wasn't really looking for more work, though Steve and I had thrown around the idea of me increasing to four days next year, but my principal came to me and said she had a friend who really needed a Japanese teacher. I figured why not? 

The job was literally handed to me (I got to choose my classes and day that I worked), and it was the same school system, so I figured if I liked it, a transfer would be easier. I just signed a six month contract, thinking that would be enough time to see if I firstly, could actually handle four days a week, and then if I liked it enough to stay. 

A day a week at a new school solely teaching Japanese was the perfect chance to wear a different kimono each week. I actually have enough that I could have worn them with no repeats, so that was a little bit my motivation, especially to challenge myself to wear some of the kimono that I haven't gotten out for a long time. 

I started pretty strong, but a kimono does take longer to put on in the morning, and the weather did warm up, so I switched to yukata toward the end of term three. I'm glad I did challenge myself to give it a go though, because I did learn that one of my kimono is just too small for me (pictured below). It's a vintage one that Sarah bought in Japan the first time she went, so it's beautiful, but small. You can still wear it, but it takes a lot of fiddling to get it looking just right. Sadly not worth it in my books, especially when I have eight other options I can choose from. 

Challenging myself to wear theses each week with no repeats made me really work hard mixing up which obi I wore with each yukata/kimono and finding new ways to tie them. Even though no one else noticed, I loved it! I forgot to take photos of myself every week, but hopefully this gives you an idea. 

In term four, I figured I would make it through October but have to give up in November as the weather is usually just a little too hot for comfort by then. I was right about the end of October being a little uncomfortable, but November started unseasonably cool. I could have made it at least another two weeks! Alas, I had already spent an afternoon packing up all of the yukata and kimono from the floor/walls of my room and I wasn't committed enough to get them out again. 

I had an uncharacteristic amount of Japanese outfits to clean up because my family had joined me in traditional dress for a Japanese evening in the Botanical Gardens. We sat in the Japanese Gardens eating our bento and enjoying Japanese music together. 

Perfection