April 2007 to June 25, 2007
I have yet another chapter in my dragon saga. This one is very cool. In April of 2007, I was looking for material to make Nebby III. Nebby is the name that I gave the dragon based on the Rush party dragon t-shirt. I looked in local stores and I could not find the right kind of fabric for the dragon. I needed something that was four way stretch and in the right color. I contacted several online stores and I finally settled on a rust color spandex to make Nebby. I ordered one yard of this fabric 3 feet by 5 feet to make Nebby.
When the fabric arrived, I thought there is no way that one little dragon can take up 15 sq feet of fabric, but I bought six magic markers and hand drew thousands of little scales. Although this process was very tedious and took me an entire week, it was well worth it. Had I silk screened like I did the last time, the paint might have cracked.
On May 31 I sent out a letter to the local promoter at Live Nation with some pictures of the Nebby II. I was hoping to get Nebby III signed. It was a leap faith because I wasn't even sure if I would be able to make him.
Now there was the matter of actually sewing Nebby. Linda was too tied up with other obligations to help me this time. I wanted to have the dragon made by the June 25, 2007 Rush concert in Burgettestown, PA to show the guys in band the dragon and to have them potentially sign it. I got really lucky and I was able to buy front row seats the first day of public sale. During the month of May, I must have called every seamstress and sewing shop in the Pittsburgh area to obtain help with making Nebby III. Every single one of those places told me that they had never made a stuffed animal before and it would be too complicated for them. I was so lucky to have Linda to help me with the first two dragons.
At the end of May, I was running out of time. I decided to sew the doll myself. I went to a local sewing shop for a sewing class to help me make the third dragon. The seamstresses told me at first that they would be able to help me, but when I went to take the class and showed them the 2nd doll, they said it would require detail beyond their skill level. I was really on my own this time.
I decided by the grace of god, I was supposed to make this dragon on my own. I asked my mom, Jean Mortimore, about sewing the dragon with her sewing machine and taking over her house for the next month with my project. She said yes but that I would need to buy a belt for the sewing machine. She also said that I couldn't have picked a more difficult project(or material) to learn how to sew. My mom said, be prepared to be frustrated. I said I am prepared and I know it won't be easy. The last time that I sewed anything, I was in the 8th grade sewing a pillow. I bought the belt and she showed me how to sew on a pillow slip. I sewed the pillow slip without too much trouble.
I had bought special crafting scissors with which to cut the fabric. I also bought the rust fabric for the majority of the dragon, blue fabric for the hat, ivory for the horns, the eyes, and the claws, a heavy black textured fabric for the wings, and cream colored vinyl for the belly. I bought six different kinds of threads for the dragon with three different types of needles. I also bought eyes and many creative items, some of which did work and some didn't.
I was ready sew and afraid to cut the fabric. Nebby III is an expensive little guy and I just wanted him to be perfect. I started by cutting out legs, six pieces in all to make his legs. I cut them all out not realizing I had to reverse two of the leg pieces of the pattern Linda made for me. Oh well, I hadn't lost that much fabric. I cut the other two pieces out the correct way. I had my friend, Dae Hite, come over and she sewed the first leg together with without too much trouble. She said then to me, it's your turn. I was really quite terrified, I matched the seams up and began to sew. Of course I had problems with the fabric bunching up on me. Dae said just go slow and stretch the fabric. I did this with some success. I actually made one of the legs myself. That night I had made progress.
Another night, I asked my mom for some help with the arms when Dae was over. I had some trouble with her machine(not loading the bobbin correctly). She was afraid that I was going to break her machine. I asked her to sew the arms for me. The pattern was little confusing due the abstract nature of how the hands were put together. After a failed attempt and more cut fabric, the three of us were able to figure out how to put the arms together. My mom sewed the arms beautifully. Thank you Mom, what would I do without you.
Next was the matter of the head. Linda and I determined that I needed more of a neck on 3rd dragon. I redesigned the head and gave the dragon more of a neck this time. I sewed the head together and tacked in the nostrils. Did I ever have a thread mess. The head was lopsided from lack of my sewing experience. Dae said that he looked like a drunk dragon. He was a party dragon but I don't think that is what Rush had in mind. My boyfriend, David Knight, took the nostrils off and tried to reposition them. In the process, he put several holes in the fabric. I had to remake the head. When I made the 2nd head, I had a similar problem but not to the same degree. I attached the neck and let David look at it. He came over my mom's and told me where to tack the fabric to make the dragon look good.
Next I cut out the body and the tail pieces. Again my lack of experience got the better of me here. I sewed the body together and left two holes for the legs to be attached. My mom said that I did things the hard way when I asked her to help me attach the legs. She was very frustrated with me, but we got the legs in. I attached the arms. They were attached a little bit imperfectly but I was impressed with myself.
I sewed the horns, the hat, and the eyes without too much difficulty as they were simple straight stitches. Now it was time to put everything together. I had to attach the neck to the body. I was a little frightened being that the neck had more width than the top of the body. I called my aunt , Jan Bett, and she showed me how to do a basting stitch to gather the neck and she helped me clean up the mistakes on the body. It wasn't easy but I know next time to make the neck width a lot smaller. The things you learn how to do when you sew a stuffed animal.
I took the dragon home and we decided to tack down the extra neck fabric. I glued the cream strips on his belly. David then glued on the eyes and nostrils. We stitched up the hat and the horns by hand. David decorated the hat with 33 years as Rush had been playing with Neil Peart for 33 years.
It was Friday before the June 25 Pittsburgh Rush concert. I wanted to take Nebby III to the concert for the guys to see and possibly sign. I took Nebby shopping. I needed to find him a t-shirt. To Walmart, Nebby and I went. I put him a shopping cart and we looked for newborn t-shirts. We couldn't find one so we went to Burlington and the clerk there help me get a t-shirt on him. However it was to geared toward a newborn. I needed something much simpler.
On Saturday, I called my Aunt Jan. She came to my rescue with a lime green t-shirt and she showed me how to make a t-shirt pattern. We spent all day working on the t-shirt and attaching the wings. My aunt was very creative to put a button hole in the t-shirt and we attached the wings with Velcro. Man is Velcro a pain to sew. When we were done, I had a really cool dragon. He just needed the starman logo on his t-shirt and his hat and horns.
David drew the logo on the shirt that night and on Sunday morning, I attached the horns and hat with some hand stitching and glue. Nebby III was born with 36 hours to spare. He would attend the Rush concert the next night with his older brother Nebby II.
On June 25, I woke up really excited. David called Live Nation to see if they would be able help us get Nebby III signed. He spoke to receptionist and she said that they would try to coordinate with Rush to have Nebby III signed. We waited all day and heard no response from Live Nation. We called out to the Post Gazette Pavilion where they would be playing and tried to contact the representative from Live Nation. We could not reach him. However, I still was hopeful, after all David and I held front row seats.
When we reached the Post Gazette Pavilion, we perched Nebby II and Nebby III on top of our car. Proud little dragons they were. They enjoyed the attention from the curious fans. David and I told the fans about how the rust dragon, Nebby III, was going to auction in October at Eucon in England. Many of fans remarked on how well Nebby III emulated the party dragon on the Rush 30th Anniversary t-shirt.
We walked down to our seats in the front row. David again asked a Live Nation representative, Gary, if he would be able to help us get Nebby III signed. Finally, we had somebody who was able to help us. He called another representative, Sean, with access to the production room. While we were waiting for Sean, Bucky, Alex's guitar tech asked about the dragons. He asked if we were going to give the dragons to Alex. Bucky said if Alex saw Nebby III, the rust dragon, he would take him home. David said no, that the rust one was going to auction for charity in October. Bucky then replied that Alex would definitely want to take him home. Sean took Nebby III back to the production room along with a document stating that he would be sent to auction in October.
Soon enough, the concert opened with "Limelight." I realized that we were 3 feet from Alex's microphone and pedal board. He had five adoring barbies staring up at him. Nebby II, the red dragon, got to watch the show from the front row railing. He had a great time jamming to Rush all night. Alex, Geddy and Neil had a great time watching him jam. During the break, David asked me if I wanted to give Nebby II to Alex. I was really torn, because Bucky said that Alex would really appreciate the dragons but I wanted to keep Nebby II for myself. I decided yes, that it was the reason why the seats that I bought were directly in front of Alex's microphone. Fate is was, before the first encore there was a blackout, Nebby II flew on stage. He wanted to be with favorite band who inspired him in the first place. Rush broke into "One Little Victory." I am a fan who likes to be surprised; I refused to read concert reviews prior to the show. When their dragon was flying on the big screen, little Nebby was waiting for Alex to acknowledge him as his new pet. Alex nodded to David first, David pointed to me and Alex nodded thank you to me. At the end of the concert, the roadies picked up little Nebby and were admiring him. He is traveling in Alex's pedal case. I am sure that he is having a great time on tour with Rush and the barbies. I wonder if he stole any of Alex's groupies.
My dream had come full circle. I dreamt that it was Alex who told his guitar tech, who I now know as Bucky, to give me the box of materials and laminate of the party dragon. In real life, Bucky told me that Alex would really like the dragon. Alex ended up with the dragon.
At the end of the concert, Sean, the Live Nation rep, brought Nebby III(the charity dragon) back to me. He spent the concert backstage in the production room, but unfortunately he was not signed. I don't know if the band got to see him but I'm sure the production manager did. David and I took Nebby III home and took some promo shots of him. He's going to Europe in October. I wonder where he will complete his journey.
What started out as a personal desire turned into a business quest. What turned from a business quest turned into a charity request. Where will this journey lead the dragons now?
I decided that I can't be without a dragon. So stay tuned for Nebby IV.
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