Sew Dance

I somehow managed to work on The Accolade for a week. Barely. On Thursday I got tired of it and switched projects. But I did manage to get down to row 118. I tried to hold on to finish 120 but couldn't. 13 rows until the end of the 2nd row of pages. Say hello to TW's Celestial Dragon. Or rather at the moment a tiny hint of dragon and most of the upper left corner border. For only using 29 DMC colors only 8 of those are actually used as solid colors. Everything else is blends. Update on my dancing. Friday, as I may have mentioned was my first competition with my new partner. We placed 17/23 in silver latin. I thought we should've at least made it to the semi finals but we didn't. Back to the studio for practice. A bit of good news, my mom bought me a new dress for next time. Similar in style to the roses one I made but leopard and I didn't have to spend time making it. My mom took video and I will edit it soon.

First the good news. I danced in the (delayed) Fall Classic this weekend. I swept my smooth categories. Final medal count was 12 first in smooth single dances, first places in smooth scholarship and 3-dance, 13 firsts and 2 seconds in latin single dances, and third places in latin scholarship and 3-dance. I've linked my videos below. Smooth: Latin: I also got a picture with Tony and his mirrorball. Not the best picture of me, but oh well. I had been dancing for a while. My hair for latin. I think there were 30 bobby pins to hold it all in place. Now the bad news. I was let go from my job on Monday. I was planning on leaving there anyway but I had been hoping to do it on my own terms. So my dancing will be put on hold sooner than I had thought. This is an expensive hobby and with no income (my etsy shop hasn't really taken off yet) I can't pay for my private lessons. It also cuts down on adding to my stash on whims as I've taken to doing lately...

Well, I finished the first page (out of 16) tonight. Onto page 2 tomorrow. Onyx's birthday was the other day, she's now 8. I figured I'd post one of my favorite picture of her. My dance teachers are going through another mix-up/change. Who knows what's going to happen now... I worked on samba for a hour and a half today. I currently have two stories floating about for in my head for NaNoWriMo, I'm going to outline both for now. Not sure which is calling to me more or if I can even reach 50k with either of these. Plot 1: A human FMC is a ballroom dancer on Earth. MMC1 and MMC2 are both fae princes living in different kingdoms within the fae realm. MMC1 is a light fae and is constantly watching FMC with his powers. MMC2 is on the edge of the dark fae realms. MMC2 sets up an elaborate scheme and kidnaps FMC to his castle. MMC1 confronts him and tries to get her back, but teleportation magic doesn't work within certain perimeters of the castles exce...

I spent the majority of Sunday working on this dress. I hemmed the bodice and put the elastic in. I also created the collar and straps. I attached those and the bra. I also trimmed the excess fabric from the bottom so I could actually dance in the dress but not enough to cut the rose design off. This caused it to be higher in the front than the back. I'm really tall for a latin dancer so I managed to not have to cut any of the printed design off. I'm not sure how this design would've fared with a shorter dancer. Now I just need to make the skirt and attach the hooks to the collar and back strap. Something odd I noticed when I went to put the dress form on the pole, the knob to tighten the screw to hold it in place broke off. It's not thin plastic either. I need to figure out how to fix it before I make a smooth dress.

What is with the thing on the shoulder of Brooke's dress? The ballroom round begins. Donald. Well, that's one way to have a leather dress. I think I have enough fabric for the top left. This song is a jive, not a tango. It was sharp in the upper body, but the feet looked a tiny bit sloppy to me. They also had too much distance between their hips. I'll agree with the scores. Maria. She did two passes of basic Viennese waltz. The rest of the time they stood in place and did some filler. And a trick or two. The fog made it hard to see if she was doing heel leads. I like the style of her dress if not the color. over scored. I may argue that all 8's would over score it too. Melissa. Yay for tiger print dresses. She seemed to have missed a step our rushed one at the beginning but got back on track after the over-sway. The judges actually complimented her? I'm shocked. I'll agree with the scores. Katherine. Now that was a much better Viennese waltz. She move...

I know a lot of you visiting tonight are following a re-tweet from either @dwtsgossip or @dwtsmaksimfans. I thank them for doing that. Please follow me on twitter @khascat to know when I update my blog. Gladys. No hip action, her feet were flicking up off the floor when they don't be. Footwork looked odd and her ones were bent too much. She looked like her arms were a bit lost at times. She enjoyed it but she isn't the best dancer. I liked her dress. Way over scored. Maria. Not fond of the hopping in the choreography. Foxtrot is usually smooth. still too straight in hold. I had trouble seeing her feet long enough to tell if she was doing the heel leads. I don't know if I would have given them 9's. Roshon. He had hip action, at least the figure eights, and Chelsea didn't dance around him while he took two steps. Kudos for him. It was however not smooth enough for a rumba. More movement through his body would fill up the time more. He also needed to settle in h...

I love Santana. That reminds me I need to put some more of his music back on my phone... Just a note, like the quickstep, I've never danced argentine tango, but I know what it's supposed to look like. Jaleel. Little hoppy with his voltes but he had more hip action then I usually see fun a make celebrity. Kym's outfit is interesting. I'll agree with the scores so far. Melissa. Her arms looked a little dead and like she was slipping on the floor a bit. She was trying, she didn't mess up the steps but it looked a little off. The dress is interesting, but I've prefer to wear Kym's. I'll agree with the scores. Maria. Why is she dressed like brazilian samba but dancing salsa. Her laugh is still annoying. Salsa is not hard and she was doing basic steps with tricks. She could've used more hip movement, no rounding as she changed direction, just to the side if that. Hard to tell from my angle. It just looked odd to me. Scored too high. Katherine. Cle...

I know I usually do my updates Sunday but I wanted a little spacing between these types of updates and my weekly posting of DWTS opinions. Well, I managed to only get 3 rows done on 'insanity' this week. I wasn't expecting much and it's not enough to take a picture of. It took me almost two hours to do the first row, granted I was distracted slightly by TV. Upon nearly completing the next row, I realized I had gone down several stitches as 2x1 and had to redo them. Not easy with the stitch size and amount of thread already on the back. I had time during the week to work on it more given I was home sick from work, but I wasn't able to give it the amount of concentration it would need. I tried to but managed to only find I had messed up on the last stitch, another 2x1 but the other way then some conflict with the blends that I didn't want to deal with. Oh well. This piece is going to take me a long time even if I didn't screw up. I'm very tempted to scra...

Jack. Samba, oh boy. One of the hardest dances to get right technically. What's with the odd color choices for this couple? He had a little bounce on a very sort section. No hip action (what were you looking at Len?), hunched over, looked strange overall. I predict over inflated scores. And I was right. Maria. It wasn't too bad technically but the steps she took looked flat. She didn't have much time to use her arms as Derek had her in hold almost the entire time. It was more steps then I'm used to seeing in a rumba on the show by a female celeb. Too high of scores once again. Gladys. Song is more an American rumba than a foxtrot but they only follow international Latin on the show. I'm not seeing heal leads. It was smooth like the foxtrot should be but a bit underwhelming. I like the dress, reminds me a bit of my dress. I think they were judging on something other than her dance. Roshon. Not bad but I could pick on improper technique with this dance all day....

Tonight is quick step and jive. Quickstep is a standard dance so I don't know too much personally but I've seen it done enough in competition that I know what it should look like combined with my own smooth experience. Roshon. Song's tempo is compatible to a competition but not for the pros. Maybe bronze/silver pro/am. Dance wasn't too bad but was too jerky for my taste for the quick step. sure, it's fast but it's still smooth. Maybe scored a little too high but we'll see how the others stack up. Liked her dress. Sherri. Glad they didn't show the song down but I've barely seen any jive. Lots of shaking, not much else. Entertaining but no content, and not much technique on what I did see. Also lost contact before a trick. Dress worked for the jive. Scored too high for what I saw. Melissa. Frame needs work. looks too loose. Kept up with the choreography, not that find of the dress. Like the lines they hit. I will mention it should be easier to d...

The larger stones I ordered came Monday so I spent most of the week adding them to my dress. Sparkly aren't they? 16mm square Swarovski crystals in crystal AB. I spent most of the week adding them to the dress. I have a solid row at the top and bottom of the dress and skipping every other one in the middle. I did this because I didn't know if I'd have enough to fill them in completely. Turns out I did but my teacher liked it that way. He currently has the dress and gauntlets to stone (hey, he offered) and I unfortunately didn't take a picture of the dress before I gave it to him. Well, better to surprise you when it's finished. Although he's gotten it in his head for me to make another dress, same design but different colors by mid-June. Right... First I'm doing the black velvet to go with that belt I have and I still have the sparkly blue/silver sequined dress to make. Just a little under two weeks until Tri-state. Eek! Because I finished stoning the d...

Frederick is stitched, even if the whole design has yet to be completed. Have to finish the books and bottom shelf. Then off to the back stitching. I've also included a picture of Onyx, my little black fuzzball who happened to be laying at my feet while working tonight. As for the dress, I've taken it off my dress form and have started to sew the cut ends. This is giving me trouble. First I've been evening out the fringe. Then I cut it, then I have to take those cut ends, held together buy just one flimsy strand of thread which will unravel if pulled, and arrange it under the already stitched down part. I've done the front and back, which were even on both ends. Now I'm working on the sides. One which is going short to long, and the other long to short. And somehow I have to get them to look even. *sigh* I did order the stones I need for it today. I probably should update you on my actual dancing. We have choreography for foxtrot and Vien...

I have attached the fringe. Didn't expect it to drape down the dress like that did you? Also, you can see the back of the dress isn't nearly as puckering around the zipper as it was in my previous photos. I probably should have fixed that before adding the fringe but alas. It worked out in the end. Below are the pictures of how I'm going to drape the fringe. I was playing around with it today and did remove some of the interstitial string that you see but overall I'm still playing around with it. Then there's Frederick. I have finished page 3/4 as seen below.

Yes, 1/4th done (rough estimate) As you can see, I've moved on the the lower left quadrant of Frederick and what was dominated by brown, red and gold, now has some blue and purple. I realize the picture's a little dark, I didn't have him illuminated by my stitching light when I took it.  As for the dress, the bodysuit now looks like a swimsuit. I just have to finish off the elastic on the upper edges and fit the bra to it and it'll be wearable. Then I stick the skirt on and I'm ready to add the fringe. Yippee! And yes, those are my fuzzy slippers to the right of the picture.

I have two things to update today. One, my latest progress on Frederick. you can actually see his face. Isn't he cute? Two, I have a picture of my dress' progress. I inserted the elastic on the legs. Despite not using a blind hem presser foot for my serger, I only cut the hem slightly once. Need to work on catching the fabric more but hopefully no one will have to see that portion of the dress. *whistles innocently* Now I just need to work on the top and insert the zipper. I have a feeling that once this portion is done, the rest will be much easier.