More Kanzashi!

We're out of the hotel and back in the house...  with no furniture on the main floor, the refrigerator in the garage and left over building materials still piled up everywhere (did I mention that our contractor....  to put it politely...  has subpar project management skills?) The cats think the piles of wood are dandy, though.

But I have a sewing room again..  yay! And I celebrated by leaving suitcases packed and puttering around in it a good chunk of the weekend.  What did I make?  Despite having a laundry list of projects that need to be done, I put my kanzashi making practice to good use and made myself a hair clip using some kimono fabric that I'd bought a while ago.

It was silk or rayon crepe and I learned quickly why the book I'd been using (Kanzashi in Bloom by Diane Gilleland) specified ballpoint pins.  Using quilting cotton, dressmakers pins went through the folded petal with no problems.  The crepe was heavier and took extra mass of the ballpoint pinhead as well as a thimble to get the pin through the folds.  On the upside, having the larger pinhead made it easier to manipulate the petal in the early stages.  Note to self:  Follow the directions the first time.

I also broke down and started sewing the second row of soutache on the 1890's shoulder cape that I did for HSF #20.  I still deeply regret using the (cheap) dupioni, but I hate to waste it (and all the time I put into it) so I think I'm going to add a longer under-cloak out of black wool at some point and see if I like it better. Maybe that qualifies for HSF#1 "Make Do and Mend" in January. *hopeful thought*

I'd feel better if I could find at least one period example of using 2 different fabrics, but I may just have to decide that, despite its origins as an HSF challenge, the project is steampunk rather than historical.