Sewing and Shit
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What the Hell have I been Doing? Season 2 - Week 3-4: 4/20/26-5/3/26

“Eat the frog” refers to getting your most difficult task done first so you can ride that win and get more done.

But I’m not much of a frog person. Gross.

I do better getting something small done first. It gives me proof that I actually accomplished something. Bite-size successes are still successes.

Now I have the appetite to keep working and make shit.


Base dress I have a new base dress. Or maybe it’s a shirt. Where do you draw the line?

⭐ This Week’s Focus

  • Xal fixes
  • Blade of the Black Empire (BotBE)

🧵 Shit I Did

  • Finished the base dress for Xal’atath 2.0.
  • Attended an electronics meetup and got advice on wiring up the Blade of the Black Empire.
  • Bought the rest of the supplies for the Blade and supplies to experiment with void orbs.
  • Opened up the airbrush packaging and watched some videos on how to use it.

🔮 Thoughts for Future Work

  • When sewing an invisible zipper, the lining side shouldn’t be hand stitched so close to the zipper teeth. Leave a little gap so the zipper doesn’t get caught.
  • I know the void orbs are supposed to be my lowest priority, but I need to mix in fun and exploratory tasks with the ones that are more boring.
  • Attending the electronics meetup at the maker space gave me energy to go home and get to work on my projects. That inspiration really helps.

📋 TODO — Next Week

  • Sew velcro onto the dress to attach the collar.
  • Pick an item to start fixing the cracked paint (will probably start with an easier piece like the front/back flaps).
  • Try the airbrush! What’s holding me back is that I don’t know how to clean it and there are are LOT of parts.

📸 Photo Dump

Invisible zipper This is probably my best zipper yet.

Lined zipper I hate hand sewing so much but I did it anyways for this dress because the alternative is machine stitching on an invisible zipper and…yeah no one is going to see it or care but I do.

Fabric cut Instead of “I’m going to work on the dress” I told my friend “I’m going to cut out the fabric”. This was a small, straightforward task that I could get done in a day. I even had this picture of proof to show that I did what I said I would. Accountability partners FTW.

Blade diagram I attended the electronics meetup at my local makerspace and got some excellent advice on wiring up the BotBE. This plan means I won’t have to solder dozens of LEDs and resistors. Yay!

Blade green The makerspace is filled with parts to play around with and conveniently buy. Here’s using an Adafruit nOOds for that fel-green look.

Pauldron edge One of my ongoing challenges is to get these pauldrons to stay up and not break. I tested a prototype wedge and it turns out, this is the sort of angle I need. Next is to construct a block that fits on my shoulders and under the pauldron, and find an attachment method.