Wow, that was unexpected... o_o
I ran into umister today! After fabric shopping, I went by the plastic store so I could get a ride home with my father and she was there picking up some sintra. So, we chatted for a while and I introduced her to my father. It was quite a coincidence since I usually work from home and only drop by the store when I’m in the city.
Picked up a bunch of supplies for Ryuuren earlier in the afternoon and spent way too much on trim. And I have a bit of a rant on that… Why is it so hard to find nice metallic gold trim?! I was looking for something that didn’t have other colors or sequins mixed in and ribbons were out since they’re not flexible enough to follow curved edges smoothly. And much of what was left was an anemic gold rather than a nice yellow gold. Complicating matters was the fact that I needed two different widths so I had to find two trims that were about the same color. The wider one I settled on was $8 a yard and I wasn’t even that crazy about it; it was just the best out of what I could find at several different stores. So, the vest is taking about $11 of fabric (the orange brocade was left from the first Ryuuren costume so I only needed to buy some more of the blue brocade and lining) but $35-$40 of trim. -_- I think that’s about as much as all of the fabric I'm using for this costume.
And I’m still trying to figure out what to do about the thin green bangle bracelets. The difficulty is that there are supposed to be beads on them so I can’t just use a normal bangle. I had an idea about getting large binder rings and painting them since I’d be able to open them to string the beads on and hide the breaks with the beads but the largest I found at Staples was 2”. (I got wooden beads since they have huge holes and will paint them.) Maybe, I can cut a bangle open, string the beads on and then glue it back with a bead covering the break? I have some extras that might work since the bangles I painted for my first Ryuuren costume were sold in a set with some thinner ones. I think I’d rather not have to resort to molding clay beads around a bangle or trying to make my own bangle with wire since it would be difficult to get either perfectly round and smooth.
I also went by Pearl River to see if I could find something like Shuurei’s manjuu box. I couldn’t find one with a handle but I did get a red lacquer box. Will try to fill it with fake buns for photos. :-D
Picked up a bunch of supplies for Ryuuren earlier in the afternoon and spent way too much on trim. And I have a bit of a rant on that… Why is it so hard to find nice metallic gold trim?! I was looking for something that didn’t have other colors or sequins mixed in and ribbons were out since they’re not flexible enough to follow curved edges smoothly. And much of what was left was an anemic gold rather than a nice yellow gold. Complicating matters was the fact that I needed two different widths so I had to find two trims that were about the same color. The wider one I settled on was $8 a yard and I wasn’t even that crazy about it; it was just the best out of what I could find at several different stores. So, the vest is taking about $11 of fabric (the orange brocade was left from the first Ryuuren costume so I only needed to buy some more of the blue brocade and lining) but $35-$40 of trim. -_- I think that’s about as much as all of the fabric I'm using for this costume.
And I’m still trying to figure out what to do about the thin green bangle bracelets. The difficulty is that there are supposed to be beads on them so I can’t just use a normal bangle. I had an idea about getting large binder rings and painting them since I’d be able to open them to string the beads on and hide the breaks with the beads but the largest I found at Staples was 2”. (I got wooden beads since they have huge holes and will paint them.) Maybe, I can cut a bangle open, string the beads on and then glue it back with a bead covering the break? I have some extras that might work since the bangles I painted for my first Ryuuren costume were sold in a set with some thinner ones. I think I’d rather not have to resort to molding clay beads around a bangle or trying to make my own bangle with wire since it would be difficult to get either perfectly round and smooth.
I also went by Pearl River to see if I could find something like Shuurei’s manjuu box. I couldn’t find one with a handle but I did get a red lacquer box. Will try to fill it with fake buns for photos. :-D