Skeleton Closet: Attack of the Killer Copy 'Bat' + Pattern Review

And by 'killer' I mean awesome... hahah!
I should make a sectional of my blog for my copy cat dealings-- hmm.

So in one of my previous posts, I wrote that my mother sent me some money for a little retail therapy during my health issues. In it, I expressed the desire for a couple Hell Bunny dresses, but one seems discontinued while the other is not viable financially.
For the price of both of these dresses, I was able to purchase everything I needed for all the dresses I planned for in that post-- a total a 4, including the one I didn't mention much.

Last post, I revealed a sneak peek of the dress I was working on, but did not mention which one...
Well, dear readers...

Voilà!

Sporting my broken spare glasses...

This is the New Look pattern 6457 in view A.

From afar the pattern of the fabric merely looks like multi colored polka-dots... but when you come up close, it reveals itself to be eyeballs on a faint spiderweb background. This dress is meant to somewhat mimic the simplistic but outrageously awesome Hell Bunny eyeball dress.

As some of you know, I currently have a "thing" for eyeball things... this dress was an inevitable contribution to my wardrobe.

Knock-off dress with my knock-off hair bows

The dress itself needed some fit adjustments around the curvature of the bodice side front pieces, since I am not as well endowed as your average woman-- I still have the body of a teen that just barely hit puberty. And believe it or not, it can sometimes work in as an advantage.

Another adjustment to be done was the length of the skirt. It wasn't a huge deal since the pattern inadvertently lays it out for you.

The line which you're supposed to sew your ribbon trim also works in shortening the skirt overall. I chose to cut on the highest line-- on me, it creates the perfect length just a bit above my knees since I am merely 5 feet tall.

It goes without saying that the straps needed adjustment also. I have excruciatingly narrow and short shoulders, disproportional to my torso-- meaning nothing off-the-rack with straps ever fits properly.
The instructions mention only overlapping the front of the straps, while keeping the back untucked.
I didn't think that looked clean enough for me, so I simply did the same at the back as in the front.

Once the band is stitched on, the inside looks super clean and tailored. It would be even better if this dress was lined, but I didn't buy any fabric be able to do that.

The only disappointing factor was the difficulty I had matching the pattern of the fabric with seams; it's an absurdly random pattern, and I just couldn't find the magic formula to prevent cut offs-- I did my best, but it wasn't enough! Ugh. Guess that is my penance for mismatching my husband's shorts, heh!

Pattern overview:

• View A is a simple silhouette, there was little to no road blocks in dealing with adjustment issues; basic level knowledge. Great for the beginner.
• Optional extras: tailor's ham to press around curves for better sewing results.
• I would sew this dress again; it's fun, cute, and works really well with busy prints.

I'm pretty stoked that I now own an eyeball dress-- huzzah!

Also, you must check out my awesome tights, as I'm equally stoked about them, too! I found them at Dollar General... isn't that crazy?!

What I'm wearing:

• Dress: New Look pattern 6457
• Anatomical heart necklace: self -made
• Eyball hairbows: self-made knock off
• Tights: Dollar General
• Belt: Fairweather Co.
• Boots: K-mart

Mortem's Tricks or Treats: Things To Do While Waiting.

My husband has been home every day since Monday when the news was announced that the U.S. government shut down, and most everyone in federal jobs were sent on leave without pay until further notice. Without going too far into it, things don't look good for many of us, and it's quite shocking to see the negative responses of such an event-- it's been quite stressful with how sporadic the government has been. First the sequestration happened, which destroyed the chance to move those months ago... and now this. It feels like we can't catch a break.

We are biding our time until then, pooling and squeezing each resource available to us since town living is not as cheap as one may think. We're not hurting yet since we've been able to make the best of what we have... that is, everything aside from entertaining ourselves. Squeezing pennies means we don't have the luxury of even taking a drive, since anywhere of note will likely cost $40 in gas... and well, the only place of note nearby is a National Park-- go figure, it's closed because of the shutdown.

On the brightside, my health has been doing alright (knock on wood)-- I haven't needed the surgery as far as we can tell since my gallstones are still mobile; I've been getting the hang of which foods don't trigger a severe attack... I still wonder the long term effects taking all these pain meds means, though.

Enough of depressing realities...

After a comment from Lynoire regarding the eyeball hairbows... it got me to thinking, what else can the crafting of eyeballs be used for? Other than jewelry and, well, hairbows.
As a self-proclaimed seamstress, the answer should've came to me right away! Better late than never, right?

Pattern weight decorations!

I'm constantly in need of pattern weights since I somehow end up losing them.

Remember my post regarding DIY Notions? Well I was never able to find good enough buttons for my pattern weights, so they have always been rather unfinished looking-- I save my good ones for when I feel like shooting progress shots of my sewing (heh!). Well, now I don't have to! These were two crappy turn-outs from before, but on they went onto two of my weights.

The good and the awesome.

I love novelty sewing notions... I'm such a sucker for anything that can reflect my tastes-- especially my tools!

On a side note.. copper BB's would add considerably more weight than just washers glued together; they end up as heavy as the store bought ones shown in purple. My husband happens to own a BB gun, that's the only reason I was able to acquire them... otherwise, it's too expensive a material.

In other crafty news,yesterday my husband and I finally got around to building the foundations of a cardboard cat condo. It's not as grandiose as I would like since we lack the space, but well, the cats love it.

I even built in a staircase.

And yes, you read and see correctly... cats.

This past Sunday we made the adoption of our latest beautiful bombay boy: Khan Edgar. He came to us already fixed, chipped and updated with shots-- which is nice because the day after adopting him, the news hit us.

We wondered if it was a good idea to have two rambunctious boys, and worried that the integration would be hell, as so many have warned us it would be... 

Luckily, Poe is the sweetest most welcoming soul and has accepted his new stepbrother with open paws. After some initial hissing and sniffs on the first day, by the second day they were already snuggling each other... and it hasn't faltered slightly since... or maybe I should say yet? Heh.