Meet the blog’s new mascot, Ruby.  One of my other hobbies, other than cooking,  collecting unusual alcohol and dealing with religion, is sewing.  I used to do a lot of sewing of costumes for historical recreation and for science fiction cons, as well as for my friends.  I got out of the habit a few years back for various reasons.

One day, when cleaning up the house, I stumbled upon an old pattern I had bought more than 10 years ago.  It was a pattern for a dragon, and I had wanted to make one after I had been cheated by someone who was to make me one and who took my money and ran.  A pity that some people can be such vermin, but it did lead to me to this point.

The pattern was from Smallworks, a pattern company by the very talented Melinda Small.   The dragon pattern is here.  It’s very small and detailed pattern, and I was unable to accomplish some of the finer turning of the tail and horns so they’ve been altered to meet my sewing level.  The pattern does have very good directions but I have no idea just how one could actually do the turning through the narrow areas.  Evidently it’s not impossible, thanks to Ms. Small’s photos; I simply was unable to do it myself.  Ms. Small uses an old technique, called button joints, to great effect in this little beastie. The buttons can be seen as the small circles at the joints.

The fabrics are a odd dark red linen I bought years ago that is shot through with real copper threads. That’s what gives the glistening effect.  The purple is a black and purple shot taffeta.  I would not suggest using such a fabric, unless you know how to deal with the fraying edges.  I was using what was in the stash I have. The eyes are black faceted beads from an old broken necklace.  I intentionally used black thread so I could see what I was doing on this test subject.

Ruby is my first attempt at the pattern and she didn’t come out too badly at all.  I don’t think she’s a dragon; being an old Dungeons and Dragons player, I find that all dragons need four legs and two wings.  A critter like this with two wings and only back feet is a wyvern to me. 🙂  I know I know, fantasy purist….  I’ll be working on my own pattern for a while and hopefully get a working dragon before we go to GenCon this August.

Here’s couple of old pictures of my earlier costuming work for your delectation and amusement:

Finally, a picture of our cat, Muffin, being cute.