Well work has been very busy. Honestly I much prefer that, but the kids on Sunday were so upset when I told them I had to work. They shouted at me “it’s not fair! You worked all week!” And I couldn’t argue with them. I need to make it up to them this weekend. Will and I still alternate who wakes up with the kids every day of the week so on weekends I am guaranteed one sleep in day. The problem is while I would gladly sleep in all day, the kids are so excited to see me so I generally choose not to sleep in. I feel like their excitement to hang out with me is not going to last for much longer so I need to bask in it while I can.
Speaking of basking, 5 more days til the equinox and the leaves have already started to change. I’ve been basking in their orange hues. It is beautiful. I want to just sit in a rocking chair and marvel at the leaves all day. I feel like that combined with some meet ups with friends is really putting a spring in my step this week. Next I just need to get on to some new crafts and spend more time with the kids for a full recharge.
I managed to do some meal prep this weekend because I knew the week would be awful. I prepped for two dinners so I’d be prepared for working late. I made eggplant Parm casserole and potato leek soup (aka ghost soup). It is starting to become soup weather, which honestly is a vegetarian win. I feel like soups of all kinds are the absolute easiest vegetarian recipes to make. When I made a lot of omnivore back in the day I’d just throw a roast chicken or hunk of meat in the oven and then make some sides while I waited. For vegetarian protein I have to think differently and it’s sometimes easiest to just throw everything in a pot and enjoy it. (Especially when my protein of choice is frequently lentils! They are magnificent!) As a bonus my kids don’t seem to hate soup which is great because I make a lot of it.
So you might think all this talk of soup means I’ll be sharing a soup recipe with you… But nope! Total misdirect. I’m going to show you my Halloween costume from last year. Last year we went to a Halloween party thrown by some new friends in town… And it was clearly the wrong crowd for our costumes. Not a single person there had heard of Dune the movie, nevermind read the books. Alas. I need to go to more nerd gatherings. That said, I am pretty convinced our costumes were spot on. Since Will went as Duke Leto Atreides I went as his love and consort the Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica. I chose an outfit from the first movie when she actually appears with Duke Leto and looked attainable to complete in time for Halloween. I started with the yellow dress version but quickly panned to the blue/grey dress when I couldn’t find anything that matched at the thrift shop. Let me tell you it was hard to figure out what was going on with this costume from the movie. BUT I discovered that they have the costume on view in the Warner Brothers Design Studio in LA. I was about to send Ryan out there on a reconnaissance mission when I realized the whole thing has an online walk thru! So I took a bunch of screenshots from all angles of the dress that I could get from the wall thru! I never would have figured it out without the walk thru. Thank you Warner Brothers!
So it seemed the dress was made in 4 parts: a solid colored underdress, a long sleeved sheer overdress, a sheer shawl type thing on top of this and finally an over the shoulder sash. There was also a headdress/wrap thing of the same sheer fabric. I skipped the sash for speed.
Lady Jessica Costume
- I first took apart a dress I got from a thrift shop. Of course I have no pictures of what it looked like before, because I never remember to do things like that. I do remember that it was a size 16 so I had to take it in a lot. I also changed the neckline slightly to match the dress from the movie.
2. I made the outer dress using some stretchy sheer I had bought back when I owned a hat shop. I first drafted this on my mannequin and then added arms (that I also drafted, but I don’t have a picture of this…)
3. Then I drew a pattern for what she has on her dress on my computer and cut it out of HTV on my cricut then heatpressed it on.
4. Next I worked on the cape. Using the excess fabric from the hem of the dress I created the edging of the cape. I again created a design on my computer and then cut it out with HTV on my cricut and heatpressed it on. I think it would be better if this design was a bit more translucent but this was the best I could get.
5. Next I sewed on more stretchy sheer fabric, but I was totally lazy about this and didn’t really make it into a cape shape so it did not drape right! I should have fixed it, but I didn’t bother.
6. Then I added the headdress portion. I draped this over one of my mannequin heads and achieved a similar look by just tying it. When it looked about right I stitched everything in place and stitched on a bobby pin at the top so it would stay in one spot. I’m a bit annoyed because the tied part was supposed to sit in the back, but I was in a rush when our photographer was taking photos and it’s all messy in the photos.
How close do you think I came?
