Mistress of Disguise

Hounds and Jackals

2012-01-30T08:31:00.000-06:00

So, I wasn't as productive yesterday as I had hoped to be, but I did manage to finish the head pieces for my Hounds and Jackals game! First, I made my hound.

I've been told it looks like Snoopy, which makes me pretty happy.

I decided then that I needed to rework my jackal. He just didn't look quite right...in fact, I thought he looked like a duck. So, I futzed around with him for a while until I was happy.

Muuuuuuuch better. He looks more fierce now, like a jackal. Not like a duck. I don't think a duck can be particularly fierce. Anyway, the set is finished! Now I have to get my hands on some silicone so I can cast these, and other things, and get the final pieces made in resin. More to come!

Egytomania

2012-01-29T00:15:00.001-06:00

Okay, so I told myself that I wasn't going to start on this yet, but....I sort of did anyway.

I spent the day sculpting some of the pieces for the headdress. My first sculpt was one of the little cobras for around the top.

I just love him, he's so cute! Then came some of the feathers for the back. Since there are two overlapping layers, I sculpted two different lengths.

I wasn't originally going to start work on the large top feathers, but once I worked out a gameplan, I decided to work on it anyway.

This is just one quarter of the top piece. I'm going to make a silicone mold of it and cast it in resin so I can have identical copies for the two sides, front and back. I'll then make any needed tweaks, make a new mold, and cast it again for the final copy. So, there's lots of work still ahead of me.

I've also taken a bit of a diversion. I mentioned on my Cleopatra post that I was in love with the movie The Ten Commandments when I was a kid. (Still am, really.) There was a scene where they played a game called "Hounds and Jackals", which was actually a real game in ancient Egypt. I've wanted a set of Hounds and Jackals since I was a kid, and now that I've learned how the game was played, I'm finally going to make one for myself! I'm basing my set off of the one in the movie, which in turn seems to be based on, at least in theory, the one found in the tomb of Reny-Seneb, which was made of ivory and ebony like the one in the film.

This is the game from the film. Isn't it lovely? I started work on it tonight by sculpting the head for the jackal playing pieces.

It needs a bit of tweaking, but it's a good start! I plan to cast this fellow in resin and attach the head to a tapered wooden dowel. I don't have a lathe, or access to a lathe, so I'm going to have to try and finagle something from ready made items. But first, I have to sculpt the hound, which I'll hopefully do tomorrow! :)

Elizabeth Taylor's Gold Gown from Cleopatra

2012-01-27T00:18:00.000-06:00

Sooooooo....Cleopatra.

First off, I've been obsessed with Egypt since I was a kid. I watched The Ten Commandments on infinite repeat and devoured books and programs about Egypt. I sketched hieroglyphics instead of paying attention in class, and had a porcelain cat statue I named Bast. All my imaginary friends were ancient Egyptians.

I never really got over my love of Egypt, and every once in a while, my love for it comes surging back, and things like this happen. I start to build things.

So yeah, I think I need this gown. At some point. There's going to have to be so much hand sewing of sequins and casting of resin noodles that it's going to get pretty silly.
What dress, you ask? This one:

I admit, I originally just wanted to make the headdress. And what's a headdress without a fabulous gown to wear it with? Just a pretty display piece, that's what! Of course, the gown is crazy in its detailing, but, thankfully, its construction is pretty simple. After looking at some screenshots and auction pictures, I managed to work out the seams and come up with some sketches.

Yes, the quality of the pic is terrible, but you can see the seam lines pretty well. The dress itself actually has a high waist, with a princess seamed bodice. There are small darts on the skirt to make it fit smoothly over the lower torso. The skirt itself is split both front and back to reveal an undergarment, either a skirt or a dress.
To show you what I mean a bit better, here's a pic of the dress from a recent Hollywood auction.

Don't you just love that there's that crazy zipper down the centre front? I mean, seriously, that takes some balls.
The gown is completely covered in sequins. They are in a sort of scale pattern on the upper half, becoming more dense around the hips, and then leading down into lines on the skirt itself. The sequins on the bodice aren't actually in any definite shape, like leaves or feathers, or whatever, but instead are simply four lines of sequins, looking like this:

The sequins on the skirt are in parallel, diagonal rows, all pointing down and toward the centre front and centre back splits.

It's hard to say exactly what's going on with the under skirt/dress since it wasn't included in the auction, and available screenshots aren't close enough to give us much detail. There are a few things I was able to work out, though.

There seem to be narrow lines going down the length of the skirt, which look to be lines of sequins, but may also be some form of pleating.

From looking at the colour photos, they may be pleats, especially looking at the hemline of the gown in the second photo. All I know for sure is that it's gold, and that there are lines that are...something.

The cloak is an interesting piece. The top of it, around the shoulders, simulates scales or small feathers, while the rest of it is segmented to represent large feathers. Cleopatra represented herself as the reincarnation of the Goddess Isis, so this makes sense when looking at statuary of Isis.

What I find interesting is that the feathers are not outlined with sequins to give them their shape, but are actually surrounded by "voids" in the lamé fabric. It seems that the entire cloak is backed with some sort of transparent fabric, which acts as a stabilizer for the lamé. Since you can see the underside of the fabric in the shot above, the cloak is clearly unlined. It also seems to be heavily encrusted in sequins, with the feathers having closely packed horizontal lines of sequins. The scales also have sequins on them, though it's hard to make out the pattern. It may be that they are sequined similarly to this other gold gown:

These sequined patterns are created with simple vertical rows of different lengths. I wonder, too, if this wasn't the original pattern of the sequins on the bodice of the Isis gown, since the auction described the dress as "Constructed entirely of sequined heavy gold lamé on silk, with some sequin loss, especially at shoulders."

And now for my favourite part, the headdress. Thankfully, we have LOTS of references for it, since it went up for auction and they took some nice shots of it for the catalog.

It's hard to describe what's happening, simply because there is SO MUCH happening. We have the large feather crest and sun disk out of the centre top of the crown, ringed with serpents supporting small sun disks. There are small scalloped scales leading into two rows of gold feathers, leading back into what I can only describe as...fusilli. That's all I can see when I look at those spiral thingies on the back of the crown. I see pasta. Delicious golden pasta. Ladies and Gentlemen, Cleopatra was actually a Pastafarian.

Anyway, There are dozens of these little golden noodles on the back of the headdress, all sewn to a black cowl and secured with golden disks with blue gems in them.

So, there it is. I'm not going to push to have this finished this year since I have a huge load of costumes already on the books for this year, but researching it was fun, and I may take a stab at it at some point.

The Silurian Sculpt, a new Cardassian, and a Bit of Bling

2012-01-20T20:55:00.000-06:00

I have actually managed to be productive, even with the start of school! First off, I've started a new Cardassian look, which I intend to wear to Sci-Fi Expo in a few weeks. Below, you can see the sketch I did of the design. I based it off of a couple of different designs from the DS9 episode, "Destiny". And, I realized afterward, that it looks like it's a dress worn with Hammer pants...no, no it is not. Those are supposed to be tails. :p

I've started on the bodice, which you can see pinned together below. I decided to go with warm colours, autumnal reds and browns. You don't really see Cardassians in red too often, but I love earth tones and think they go well with the grayish skin.

Besides the new Cardassian look, I've also been working on a bit of jewelry. I made a simple Bajoran earring for a client, with red accents. He requested it be a clip on, since it's for his young daughter.

And! I have finally finished the Silurian sculpt!

I picked up a 100 pound bag of UltraCal-30 from a local distributor, and soon this sculpt will be cast and on its way to being a bona fide prosthetic! I'm quite happy with how it turned out, let's just hope I don't manage to do something stupid and screw it up during the casting!

A Bunch of Bajorans

2012-01-13T01:07:00.000-06:00

Tonight, my friends let me glue things to their faces.

It was actually me practicing applying prosthetics, and they generously volunteered their noses. I think things turned out pretty well, considering it was my first time applying pieces to other people!

Couldn't quite get TC's to turn out right.

Lovely E makes a wonderful Bajoran! Her makeup definitely turned out the best!

After applying their noses, we decided it would be fun to go to dinner as a bunch of aliens, so I applied a nose to myself and we all went out for burgers. :) I'll never get tired of the double-takes!

Things turned out pretty well, but I think I need to create a new prosthetic. This one is a bit too wide, especial for a female face. So, round two of sculpting will commence soon. :)

Prosthetics-palooza!

2012-01-10T02:33:00.000-06:00

So, I've become completely addicted to making prosthetic appliances. It started before Christmas, when I began working on a Denobulan prosthetic that one of my shipmates from the USS Navras, and it just snowballed from there.
First, I finished the Denobulan set.

There are four pieces in the set - the forehead, the chin, and the two ears. I had so much fun making them, that I decided to do more.

So I made a Romulan.

The plaster cast of this one caused far more trouble than the Denobulan, cracking right through one of the forehead ridges when I tried to pull the plaster. But! I did manage to save it and repair it, and the latex cast looked great. No pics of the latex on that one, since the foam head is currently occupied. You'll see by what in a moment.

So, after I pulled the Romulan...I made a Bajoran.

This one is currently being cast in latex, even as I write this, and my dear friend and long-time photographer, 10th Muse, has volunteered to let me glue things to her face. So, by the end of the week, I'll have pics of someone actually wearing one of my pieces!

Once the Bajoran was finished, I began to get ambitious. My love of Silurians took over, and I started sculpting.

Unfortunately, once I got to this point, I began mucking around with the side of the head to adjust the shape a bit, aaaaaaand....

...half the face fell off.

Yeah. x.x Thankfully, after a short moment of panic and a couple of hours of repair work, I was able to wrangle the Silurian back into submission. There's quite a bit of re-sculpting I have to do, since most of the scales on the top and on the "horns" were squished while I was trying to save the whole of the sculpt. But, it's back in one piece, and I'm happy with how it's looking. I have already put 7 pounds of clay on the sculpt, and I had to go and buy a couple of more pounds so I can actually sculpt the back, but things are progressing swimmingly!

I'll also be doing a new Cardassian sculpt pretty soon, since I've been commissioned now for a lovely set of scales. :) I absolutely love this stuff. Like I said, I've become addicted. Now I need to build up my stock of SFX makeup supplies, like adhesives, removers, brushes, foundations, etc. I've become the unofficial makeup guru for my ship, so I need to have my stuff together!

And, speaking of my ship, guess who made Crew Member of the Month!

2011 in Review

2012-01-07T00:40:00.001-06:00

Well, it seems that a lot of costumers are doing this, so here's my little 2011 costume review post, in no particular order! :)

The gown of 10,000 pearls! One of my favourites of this year, it's almost entirely hand sewn. There are still some things I want to add to it, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Black and Gold bustle gown. Not really a new gown, as I made this dress ages ago, but I had pretty much taken it apart and resewn the whole thing, not to mention make a whole new skirt for it, so it counts!

My "Sleepy Hollow" inspired Rococo gown. The original dress was a poorly constructed Robe a la Francaise, which I refitted, made a petticoat and stomacher for, and trimmed.

My first ensemble that could really be considered Steampunk. Black and white striped satin, copper coloured satin, and a bodice that was three sizes too small. Oops! Going to have to come up with something new to compliment the skirt, which I'm still totally in love with.

Black and white 50s skirt! Made on a whim, it's one of my favourite pieces. I wear it all the time!

A simple costume for a Harry Potter party!

The New Year's dress! I technically finished it in 2011, so it still counts!

Cardassian solider!

My Cardassian formal gown!

And my Cardassian civilian look!

So, there it is. I only managed 10 new costumes for myself in 2011, but I did do quite a bit of sewing for other people, so there are a few more costumes under my belt for 2011. I have 10 costumes planned already for 2012, and we'll see how many of those actually end up made, and how many extra things get tacked on!

A Brief Study of Doctor Who's Silurians

2012-01-05T19:55:00.001-06:00

I may have a thing for reptilian alien species. Cardassians, Silurians...I think they are beautiful.
I fell in love with Silurians the moment I saw them. When The Doctor peels off Alaya's mask in "The Hungry Earth", I had the same reaction he did. "You are beautiful!"
I resolved then and there to recreate this makeup. But, it's not exactly a simple design. There is a lot going on, and, to make things more difficult, there are notable differences between the designs for males and females, and most of the really good photos of the makeup process were, of course, on males.
Fear not, my fellow Silurian costumers, I'm here to help. First, let's take a look at the basic design.

The Pieces

The Silurian makeup comes in three pieces. The first piece applied is a thin layer of scales that is applied across the back of the neck, which you can see in the second picture above. There doesn't seem to be much detail in this piece, just your basic scale pattern. It stretches around the neck toward the front, to about the line of the cheek.
The second piece is the cowl. This is the main part of the makeup, and is made of a thicker, rigid rubber, and is almost like a helmet. These pieces simply slipped onto the head and had a bit of adhesive applied to the front of the piece where it connects to the face.

The last piece is a silicone face appliance. This piece was made by having the actor wear the cowl while having their face cast, so the makeup crew could then sculpt the facial appliance to exactly match up to the seams and details of the cowl. You can see the process in this article by The Sun.

These three pieces were the same for both male and female Silurians. The cowls seem to be a bit of "one size fits all", since during the Doctor Who Experience makeup demonstration, it was said that they "found a cowl that fit [the actor] pretty well", which says to me that they were not custom fit to the wearers.

The Design

There are three main crests on the head, one down the centre top of the head, and then one to either side. There crests have scales running up the length of them, with small scales outlining each fin. Wider scales fill the space between each crest.
There is a triangular area of wide scales on the forehead which taper down toward the nose.

The scales on the face are much smaller compared to the rest of the head, and sort of ring the eyes and mouth. The scales here move diagonally, where as the ones on the cowl move straight back toward the back of the head, and follow the natural features of the face - the brows, the cheeks, the chin, etc. The scales are smaller toward the centre of the face, and are smallest toward the inner corners of the eyes, and between the nose and upper lip.
The scales along the bridge of the nose are wide and flat, with two rows of small scales between the forehead triangle and the nose bridge.

There are large, round scales that move along the cheek, starting with small scales at the edge of the mouth, and gradually becoming larger and more pronounced as they move toward the back of the head. These scales stand out slightly from the rest of the face, creating a raised ridge along the cheekbone. There is also a large, round, flat patch along the jawline on either side, which is slightly larger on the female.

There are four ridges in the back, the top two having a bit of an upward dip in the centre, and the lower two being straight across the bottom. The scale pattern here is diagonal, with very little variance in size.

Colouring

Colouring varies from character to character. Restac has a lot of red/brown colouring along her major ridges - the top three crests, the cheek ridges, the forehead triangle, and the jaw patches. In contrast, her sister, Alaya, has almost no variance in colouring. Her highlights are more a paler shade of green, with a very light hint of yellow here and there, and a slight touch of red on her forehead and fin. Malohkeh has very similar colouring to Alaya, though with more pronounced yellow tones.

Now that we've gone over the basic pieces, let's look at the differences between boys and girls.

The first thing that you notice is that the crests along the side of the head are longer in the female. They extend farther back and slightly inward. The crest on the top of the female head is also longer and more flared, with a bit of a fin in the back third of the crest. The male's top crest, on the other hand, looks to be entirely made up of scales, without the fin detailing on the back. The side differences can really be seen well during the application process.

The back of the head is also a bit different.

The female ridges extend out farther from the head than the male ridges do, and are more flared. You can also see how much farther the crests on the side of the head extend back on the female, sort of wrapping around the head to protect the back ridges. The males crests, on the other hand, are comparatively short, and extend straight back with very little of an inward curvature.

So, there you are! A very basic breakdown of the Silurian makeup. There are, of course, a million details to these appliances, and I've only gone over some of the very main features of the look here, but it's enough to get you started so you can start your own sculpt. Here are a couple of other resources which will help you with your own Silurian look.

A Screencap gallery for "The Hungry Earth".

A Screencap gallery for "Cold Blood".

Carnival du Freak - New Year's Sideshow Ball

2012-01-02T23:14:00.001-06:00

The Lord of Lace certainly knows how to put on a party! For New Year's, he had planned a sideshow/carnival/circus ball, and he certainly didn't disappoint.

Our dear Lord of Lace as the Bearded Lady!

It was lovely to see as many people in costume as there were, as well! We had a lizard couple, a Voodoo man, a couple of fortune tellers, a bearded lady, and many other wonderful carnival inspired costumes.

I arrived early to help with some of the setup, and to help the Bearded Lady dress for the evening, since he was borrowing my clothes for the event. While he was making himself pretty, I layered myself in black fluffiness, only to discover that I had made my bodice about an inch too small! Thankfully, the Lord of Lace was able to sew me in, and just before the other party guests began to arrive! I was even lucky enough that a friend had a pair of tattoo sleeves at home that I could borrow, so I was still able to be the Tattooed Lady!

Everyone brought a bit of food, so there was a huge array of things to eat, everything from wontons to chocolate Guinness shortbread cake. And, of course, there was plenty of champagne!

There were all sorts of wonderful party games planned for us carnival goers. (I'll post pictures of these when I get them!) I entertained everyone by driving things into my skull with a hammer (it's wonderful to have friends in the sideshow to teach you fun things!), and T.C. juggled apples for us. We played and danced and had a fabulous time until midnight, when we turned on the TV and counted down to the New Year.

New Year's Gown Shenanigans

2012-01-02T17:10:00.001-06:00

First off, a belated Happy New Year to everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful time ringing in 2012!

I spent the week before New Year's Eve CRAMMING to finish everything on the dress. I had stopped about half way through the skirt, so I still had to finish all the petals and blinging and make an entire bodice. And a petticoat. And fix the stomacher. Thankfully, I actually managed it!

Below you can see the skirt finished, with the first bodice and a very sad looking stomacher that I had cut short at the waist because I originally had different plans for the bodice.

The original bodice design was going to be much more over the top, with ruffles and craziness and no sleeves. But, since my tattoo shirt and tights hadn't come in yet, I changed the design up and just created a simple bodice with a pelpam. I extended the stomacher and added more false pleating to match it up with the rest. I added a bit of sequin trim and some lace to spice it up, and called the whole shebang finished!

The party itself was a rousing success! The Lord of Lace had truly outdone himself, decorating the entire place like a carnival, with balloon darts, bobbing for apples, tarot reading, a concession stand, and even a pie eating contest! We all had great fun playing musical chairs and counting down to midnight. I'll have another post with all the shenanigans from the party, but here are a couple to whet your appetite!

Lots and lots of stuff!

2011-12-19T00:27:00.000-06:00

Okay, okay, so I should have posted a bit more often. After all, it's been a while since my last update of any substance! I did put together the nagabakama tutorial, but that's not the only thing I've been working on.

I had finals.

Then, I started sewing again.

First up, Queen Esther! I probably should have done more work on her by now. After all, there's a lot of hand sewing and beading that I could be doing. But, after running out of trim for yet another time, I hit a mental block that I just don't think I'll be able to get past until I get my hands on more trim. But! The good news is that I'm only a couple of feet away from finishing the skirt, and I have the top of one sleeve finished!

The skirt is not going to look the same when it's finished. I plan to cartridge pleat it into a waistband once I have the last bit of trim applied. But, this is the current state of the gown until I manage to buy more trim.

Next up, the dress I've planned to wear to New Year's. The Lord of Lace is having a party with a Sideshow/Circus theme. He has decided to go as a Rococo Bearded Lady, and he asked me to join him in Rococo-ness (no, don't twist my arm!), so I making myself a new ensemble for my Rococo Tattooed Lady!

I wanted to show off my tattooed legs (tattoo patterned tights, FTW!), so I needed to make a new set of shorter panniers. I used leftover fabric from my nagabakama and some hoop boning I had on hand and threw them together.

I'm currently working on the skirt. The bottom layer is a simple tulle skirt that's a bit longer than the over layer, which is going to be made of several layers of tulle petals that are trimmed with black lace and completely blinged out with crystals. Not sure on what the bodice will be quite yet, but I'm working on it!

Third on the list, is my Tal-Shiar officer uniform. When I ran out of lace for the Tattooed Lady project, I took this off of the in-progress rack and started back up on it. I assembled the back panels and did a bit of fitting. I need to still quilt the one side-front panel, and both of the back panels, before I can work on those signature gigantic sleeves.

Last, but not least, I've started work on a new prosthetic sculpt. The first officer of my ship (chapter of Starfleet International), asked me to help him bring his Denobulan character to life. So, I broke out the clay and started scuplting!

So far, so good. Next step is to cast the forehead in plaster before moving on to sculpting the ears and chin.

So, see! I have been doing stuff!

How to Make Heian Era Formal Court Hakama (nagabakama)

2011-12-02T22:23:00.001-06:00

Whew, what a long and formal sounding title to what is going to be such a silly post!

In this round of How to Make Pretty Stuff When You're Rather Broke, we venture into the world of Medieval Japan. I've started on a set of Heien era court garb, and, logically, am starting from the inside out. One of the first bits to make were the nagabakama, or formal hakama for ladies. These formal hakama were sort of like wide trousers, or a split skirt, that had long trailing legs that the women actually would tred on while walking. They were worn over a kosode, which is the forerunner to the modern kimono. In the Heian era, though, it was strictly undies.

I'll post a tutorial to make kosode a little later. Right now, we're making nagabakama! First, let's talk about the supplies you'll need.

5 1/4 yards of red fabric. Always red fabric, hakama and nagabakama were almost always red. I used cotton because it's cheap, but you can also use linen or silk.
Lots of pins
A tape measure
fabric scissors
A stern feline supervisor

Lay your fabric out flat, at double thickness folded lengthwise, like it is when it comes on the bolt. From the cut edge, measure out 67 inches. Then, from the selvedge edge, measure up 18 inches, down the entire length of the 67 inches that you marked. This will give you a large rectangle.

Go ahead and cut out this rectangle. Since your fabric is doubled, you'll end up with two panels of fabric, 67" L x 18" W. I know it will be tempting to just cut a straight line up to the folded edge, but be sure NOT to do this. Just cut out the rectangle from the fabric, like so:

Why is this important? Because that narrow strip left at the folded edge is going to become our waistband and tie, and we need it all in one piece!

Repeat this step again, marking another 67"L x 18"W panel. Remember to mind the narrow bit at the top and not snip it off!

Next, you'll mark out another rectangle of fabric. This time it will be 55 inches long instead of 67. This shorter panel will be the Inside Leg panel of your trouser leg.

If you have more than 5.25 yards of fabric (I had 8 yards, so I didn't need it all for this project), you can go ahead and cut through the entire width of the fabric now, up to the folded edge, to cut off the excess, and to create your tie.

You'll now have seven panels of fabric - 4 panels that are 67 inches long, 2 panels that are 55 inches long, and one panel that is 189" long.

Now it's time to start assembling! Attach a 67 inch panel to either side of one of the 55 inch panels to form a sort of H.

Repeat for the remaining panels.

Now, make sure to have your Certified Feline Supervisors inspect your work for quality.

The Roll Test

The Scrunch Test

This project is Fabric Cat approved.

Once your work has been approved, you can move on! Once your panels are attached to each other, go ahead and hem the bottom edge. Believe me, it's much easier to do it at this point than to do it later down the line!

Now, with right sides together, match your two panels up at the "U" created by the centre panel. Stitch this together to form your crotch. I serged the seam to give it a bit of extra strength, but you can just stitch over it twice to reinforce it if you don't have a serger.

Once your crotch is sewn, open up your trousers and bring the outside edges of your pant legs together, keeping right sides together. You'll probably have to pull one of the legs inside out to keep things from getting wonky.

Pin your pant legs together. When stitching the seams closed, keep the first 15 inches from the top open. (I noted the 15 inch mark on the photo below with bright blue.) When you lay out your hakama like this, you can really see how huge they are!

Once your side seams are stitched closed, go ahead and turn under the raw edges on the opening we left.

Now it's time to pleat the waist to fit. Take half of your waist measurement and subtract 2-3 inches from it. (If you want a larger opening at the sides, subtract more.)

Once you have your measurement, pleat the front of your trouser waist to this measurement, using six large knife pleats that point toward the centre seam.

Repeat for the back of the waist. Run a line of stitching through your pleats to keep them in place.

Now it's time to attach your tie. From one end of the tie, measure in at least 30 inches. This will hang free at the right and be used to tie your bow to keep your nagabakama on. I, personally, like to have 45 inches to create my bow. Make sure the length you use is comfortable for you!

Mark your measurement with a pin. With right sides together, pin the back of your trouser waist to the tie, making sure that the tie will hang loose to the right. (I almost did this backwards when I made mine, it's simple to get mixed up.)

When your back waist is pinned to the tie, measure 2-3 inches (or whatever amount of gap you want to have) from the left side of your trouser back, and mark this.

Then, continue to attach your trouser front waist to the tie from this mark.

To confuse you further, here is a picture full of pleats.

This will leave you with the shorter end on the right back, and the longer end on the right front when you put your hakama on. The tie should be able to wrap around your waist at least twice, and then create a bow with the shorter tie on the right.

Now, I just attached the trouser waist to the bottom edge of the doubled tie and serged the raw edge, which I then turned under. However, if you like a cleaner edge, you can pin the trouser waist to just one edge of the waistband/tie, then turn under the other edge and hand stitch it in place. I, however, am far too lazy for that.

Once your trousers are attached to the waistband, you can go ahead and finish off the raw edges of the tie. Once you have done this, you are finished! Go flounce around in your spiffy new garb!
And I absolutely promise that I'll have better pictures of my nagabakama once my kosode is finished. ^^;

Accessorize with cat hair.

PS! You can make a regular pair of lady's hakama by just changing a few measurments. Instead of 67 inches long for the leg panels, make them 40 inches. For the inside leg, change the measurement from 55 to 30 inches. Otherwise, just make them the same way! This is how I made the hakama for my Kikyo cosplay, many, many moons ago.

Moving steadily forward...

2011-11-14T22:26:00.001-06:00

Have I mentioned lately that I hate hand-sewing? Because I do. And yet, I somehow always find myself in the middle of a project, hand-sewing things!
So, I've been working on Esther ever since my last post. I managed to put another 42 yards of trim down on the skirt before running out again, so I went on to the bodice. What I thought would be something to be made quick work of turned out to be a week long hand-sewing project, with lots of beads and blisters, and worn out fingers.
I had originally bought a trim at Michael's that I intended to use on the front of the bodice. The only problem was that it was white, and not metallic gold. "No problem!" I thought, "I'll just spray paint it." Nope! The trim had other ideas. It soaked up the paint like a sponge, turned a dull brown, and became completely stiff and horrible.
So, I went to Joann's thinking I'd find something suitable, but for some reason they decided to stock up on the tacky stuff before I got there, so I didn't find anything that would work. On a whim, I browsed through the newly arrived Christmas ribbons, and there it was! A lovely metallic gold filigree trim. It was wired, but so what? It's shiny! I bought it, and some plain gold lame ribbon to put behind it since the filigree trim was very open.
I had to do a bit of surgery on the trim before I could use it. I used it as-is down the centre front of the bodice, but on the narrower lines I had to cut off about half of it to make it look right. No big deal, I could still use the bits I cut off for other parts of the gown!
Since I didn't want my machine to eat up the trim or destroy the filigree, I decided that hand-sewing was the way to go. I also added the beading down the centre of each line of trim, in 3mm acrylic gold beads. The hand-sewing was worth it in the end, but boy was it time consuming!

The trim about half tacked down and beaded. You can see the trim in its original state down the centre front, the rest of it has all been altered.

A closeup of the trim and beading! You can really see the filigree pattern of the Christmas trim nicely here, it's a shame it doesn't show up better in the other pictures. (Of course, I probably should use something better than my camera phone to snap pics, but it's just so darned convenient!)

Here's the bodice assembled at the sides, and you can see what what back pieces look like. The trim on the back panels is the same trim that's on the skirt.

And the finished bodice! The bodice is boned with 1/2" wide cable ties (hooray for hardware stores!) and fully lined in black. I bound the waistline and neckline edges with black bias tape and then attached the trim over it. You can't really see it on the bottom edge, but there is some filigree trim over that gold ribbon.

Next step, the sleeves. There are going to be a lot of gold beads in my future...

Finally, some sewing!

2011-11-05T23:39:00.001-05:00

So, now that the blog is mostly updated, I decided it was time to get some sewing done. (Of my own, that is!) In keeping with my pledge to not buy any new fabric through the end of the year, I dug out an old project and started back up on it. And, believe it or not, it's anime cosplay!

Admittedly, it's been a while since I last worked on this. I haven't been to a single anime convention this year, except to deliver costumes to customers, and I haven't felt the desire to work on any anime cosplay in quite some time. But, I've always loved this dress. And, I had already bought the materials and started on it, so I wasn't going to have to buy anything new! So, I dug it out and got back to work on it.
The first thing I had to do was remove some of the trim I'd added to the skirt. Because I couldn't find any gold/black striped fabric, I had decided to simply sew lines of metallic gold trim to the skirt panels. I had opted for one line every 5/8", but after looking at it again, it seemed too crowded. I removed every other line, and left it with one line every 1 1/2", which looks much better, and is closer in look to the reference image. It is, however, harder to apply them at this interval. The 5/8" interval I could eyeball and still end up with straight lines, but not anymore. I have to mark out each line one the fabric before sewing down the trim, so I've pretty much doubled my work time on this skirt now. Oh, well. (Here's a tip...I don't have tailor's chalk, so I've been using a white coloured pencil to mark on the black fabric. It works beautifully!)
Here's my progress on the skirt so far:

I feel like I'm going to be completely cross-eyed by the end of this project from staring at stripes all day! Still, it's coming along nicely. So far, I've used somewhere between 42 and 50 yards of trim on the skirt alone. I've been buying the stuff by the bolt (36 yds), and just ran out again today. >.< But, I've been using this trim on loads of other things, too, so I know the last bolt wasn't entirely dedicated to the skirt. I'll have more progress after a trip to the fabric store!

Whew!

2011-11-03T20:05:00.001-05:00

I've finally finished updating the costume portfolio with new graphics and layouts! There are still a few things to do, like add a couple of old costumes that have graphics, but no posts, but that's all to come. Right now, I'm beat!

Pardon the clutter! Oh, and I has a skirt!

2011-11-01T00:40:00.000-05:00

If the blog looks a little messy right now, there is a good reason for it. I'm revamping everything to make it a little sleeker, a little less cluttered, hopefully a bit easier to navigate. The front page is finished, but I have to tweak the html on the costume portfolio and get some new pages set up, so please pardon the mess while I straighten everything out!
Oh, and by the way, I actually did some sewing! I was feeling a bit down, and sewing is sort of my version of retail therapy, so I made myself a new Alice Lon style petticoat and a fun new 50s-ish skirt. :) You know...if the 50s had had goths.

Some 2012 Costume Plans

2011-10-24T11:12:00.001-05:00

I know, I know, I've been horribly neglectful. I just really, really haven't had much umph to work on any projects lately. I even have to drag myself to the sewing room to work on commissions. So, I haven't been making much progress on anything.
But, despite that, I do have a few things to share. We're nearing the end of the year, which means that the cosplay list for 2012 is starting to come together! I'm planning to venture out to quite a few more out-of-state cons next year, and my wonderful friends are planning to go along with me to some of them, which means group cosplays! Here are some of the tentative plans for next year.

Costume Con 2012 - May - Tempe Arizona:

Evil queen from the upcoming Snow White movie! I've become slightly obsessed with this gown, so I might as well give myself a deadline so I actually complete it and it doesn't end up languishing half-finished in the Stash.

Mina's red gown from Dracula. I've always loved it, and dammit, I'm going to make it! 2012 is shaping up to be the Year of Red Gowns.

Mina's blue gown from Dracula. This gown didn't really strike me when I watched the movie as much as it did when I researched it later on. I adore the embroidery all over the bodice. The dress itself isn't really that complicated, so I have high hopes to have it done quickly.

San Diego Comic Con - July - San Diego, California:

Catwoman from Arkham City. This is for a group cosplay with my friend/photographer and her fella. I wish Harley Quinn would have been free, but Erin claimed Harley for herself. But, the more I research this costume, the more I like it. It's very intricate and detailed, with lots of fiddly seams and such. I think it'll be a fun project, once I actually figure out what the hell I'm doing.

I've always loved the classic pin-up look of the Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre I costume. I definitely want to bombshell it up with this one.

This list is ever evolving and shifting, with ideas coming and going constantly, but these are the few I'm pretty sure about. Of course, there are a handful of local cons and there's always TrekCon in Vegas, for which I have a thousand tentative ideas. I promise I'll have some sewing news...soon...ish.

Dallas Fan Days

2011-10-09T10:26:00.000-05:00

It is October y'all. It. Is. October. There are so many costumed events this month, I had to go and get a dry erase board calendar just to keep track of everything.
Yesterday was Day 1 of Fan Days here in Dallas, a sci-fi convention that used to be geared toward Star Wars, but which recently embraced all other forms of sci-fi.
The original plan was to make new Star Wars Imperial uniforms with the Lord of Lace, and tromp around the entire con like we owned the place. But, we ran out of time, the uniforms were never made, and he ended up having to work, so it all fell apart. But, it turned out that my shipmates from the USS Navras, the chapter of Starfleet International that I'm a member of, were meeting up at the con for some shenanigans!
And, George Takei was going to be there. I had to go.
I almost didn't make it. The convention center is all of 45 minutes away on a good day, but the city of Irving had decided that, hey, why don't we make our construction zones really confusing and take down aaaaall the labels on the exits. So, none of the exits had names or numbers, just the word EXIT without any identification. So, instead of taking 45 minutes, it took me nearly 2 hours because people were confused, I was lost, I ended up at DFW airport and had to escape, and it was just a big mess. I had left the house in plenty of time for the photo op with Takei, and I almost missed it!
Thankfully, I didn't miss it. I parked and made it into the building and up to the photo op area, only to hear a bunch of people start calling my name! It turned out to be my shipmates! They let me in line with them since they were near the front and the end of the line was somewhere around the corner.
And Mr. Takei was awesome. He poked fun at our bald captain, telling him that he "had the head of a captain!", gave our resident trill an "Oh my" because, yes, her spots went all the way down, and he told me I had a lovely uniform and wore it well.
We nanced around the dealer's room for a while (again, Cardassia was almost completely unrepresented, tsk tsk!), where we ran into the crew of the USS Joshua, another local ship, before heading up to hear Mr. Takei's Q&A panel. He was a riot to listen to, and we learned that Star Trek VI should actually have been called "Captain Sulu to the Rescue".

We spent more time in the dealer's room, where we were flagged down by one of the Trek actors so he could get a picture with us! His name was Rick Fitts, and we ended up hanging out with him at his table for a while. Very cool guy. I also met Richard Jefferies, the brother of Matt Jefferies, who designed the original Enterprise, and who Jefferies tubes are named after! He and his wife were just wonderful, we ended up talking for a long time. :D

The crew ended up leaving once the con shut down at 6 and heading to Chipotle for dinner, where we hung out for a few hours before dispersing. It was a fabulous day of geekery and shenanigans, and I am so glad I am part of such a wonderful crew!

The Evil Queen Has Me

2011-10-06T23:10:00.000-05:00

Oh no. I have that feeling again. You know the one. Some movie has released some teaser images, and you spot it. THAT costume. Yup, it's happened to me.

These images are teasers from the new Snow White movie, by director Tarsem Singh. I love the gaudy red colour (I have a weakness for red costumes), the peacock feathers embroidered on the bodice and sleeves, the headdress. Everything.

I've already decided that I have to make this dress. I'm shooting to have it finished by Costume Con next year.

Making a House of Flying Daggers Hat or How to Butcher an Easter Basket

2011-10-05T01:18:00.002-05:00

Sometime last year (2010), I made a House of Flying Daggers costume on a whim. One thing I really wanted to get right was the hat. It was THE thing that made the costume, and is one of the most iconic costume pieces from the movie. I wrestled with how to make it for a while, until one day, while strolling through the craft store, I happened upon the answer.

Balsa wood Easter baskets.

Yes. I could make this work! Here's what I did.

Step One: Butcher the Easter basket. The thing was cheap (about $3-5) and easy to pull apart. The nails used to hold it together were very small and easy to pull out, and the entire thing was disassembled in under an hour. The only part that gave me any trouble was getting the handle off, since it was held together with large brads that were a little difficult to get out. But, otherwise, it wasn't that big of a deal.

Oh, be sure to keep the nails and brads that you pull out of the basket. You can use these later when assembling the hat. I, personally, only used the brads, but by all means, use the nails if you can.

Once I had taken the basket apart, I had a pile of balsa wood strips. They're looking a bit silly right now, but we'll fix that soon.

The next part was to make a paper pattern to follow. I didn't really have any rhyme or reason as to how I went about this...I basically just cut out small circles from scrap paper and played with shaping them to get the right angle for an Asian style hat. Once I was satisfied with the angle of the hat's slope, I used the little circle I'd come up with to cut out a full sized pattern.

Here you can see the pattern that I made. It's basically a large circle with a slice cut out, forming something of a "dart". I wish I could tell you the dimensions I used on my pattern, but I made this a while ago and didn't take notes as I went. :-/

In the picture above, you can see something of a frame taking shape. This was made using the top edge of the basket, which was the thickest part of the Easter basket. It was double layered, so I got two long, sturdy strips out of it.
Be sure only to make your frame up to the edges of your dart. You can see above that my frame is a little shorter than the pattern I made, but it's not a big deal. This isn't an exact science.
This is when the brads came in useful. Since the basket handles were attached to the basket at the ends of the top edge strips, they already had holes drilled in them to keep the handles secured to the basket, and I could match the holes in the strips and use the brads to secure them to each other. It's like the basket wanted to be a hat all along.

Moving right along, once I had the pattern figured out, it was time to prep my balsa wood. I set a large pot of water on the stove and heated it up to boiling, then took it off the burner and let it cool for a few minutes. I wanted the water to be hot, but not scorching, so I wouldn't hurt myself while softening the wood.

Once the water was at a workable temperature, I could set strips of the basket into the pot and let the heat and moisture soften the wood. This took the kinks out of the strips and left the wood pliable.

Here you can see the before and after for one strip of balsa. On the left is the strip before being soaked in the hot water - very gnarly and wavy. One the right it's lovely and straight. It still has a bit of waviness to it, but it looks much better than what we had. It's also soft after being soaked, so it will be easy to work with.

The first part of building the hat was to get my spokes in place. I used the longest strips of the basket to do this. They don't all have to be the same length, don't worry about them all being even. As long as they are generally the same length, you'll be fine. If some of your strips are really too short to reach all the way from one side to the other, snip it so it will at least go to the centre. (What you cut off can be woven into the hat later on.) As you add each strip, secure the overlap at the centre with a dab of hot glue. I did this each time I added a strip so the centre would be sure to hold its shape. I didn't want there to be a chance that the hat would fall apart.

Once your spokes are in the place, you can start weaving the other strips in and out of your framework. Be random with this! The original hats looked random and organic, so don't worry about making a proper pattern with your weaving. Also, don't fill it in too much. You'll be adding more strips in the next step to do that.

See? Random. You can cut up your longer strips to fit into spots that seem to be lacking. The wood will be soft enough after soaking it that you can do this with a regular pair of scissors.

Once you have a bit of your hat filled in, go ahead and close your "dart", by bringing the two sides of your opening together.

Go ahead and dab some glue on the bits that overlap to secure the shape of your hat.

At this point, the hat is looking a little sparse. Weave some more of your strips into the hat, moving around the hat as you go. Be mindful that you don't put all your strips going in the same direction - go diagonal in both directions, vertical, horizontal, back to front, over the top, etc. Just don't be messy.
Try to cover up the join in the back where you brought the two sides of your "dart" together. This will help disguise it, and add more stability. You can also weave strips over the top of your hat, to help cover up the ends of some of those shorter strips that ended at the centre.

Here you can see the top of the hat, where I've started to weave additional strips over the centre join to hide the bit of messiness left by the shorter strips.

I tried to use as much of the strips from the basket as possible when weaving my hat. I didn't worry about the strips ending abruptly, just making sure that the ends of any short strips were tucked behind other strips to disguise them.

As you can see, I have some pretty funky ends going on. Not to worry, these will be trimmed when I add the bottom frame.

Now it's time to join the hat to the frame. Overlap the bottom edges of your hat on the frame and start gluing the bottom edges of your strips to the frame. Don't worry if some pieces hang farther over the frame than others. Just make sure that all your spokes are glued glued onto the frame.
In the pic below, some strips have been glued down to the frame. The strips on the very right of the picture are not yet attached.

Once you have attached the entire hat to the frame, trim off the excess that's hanging down past the bottom edge of the frame.

Congrats, your hat is pretty much finished!

To finish off the hat properly, I braided some long grasses and glued them onto the bottom frame to hide the edges of the hat that had been glued down. I just picked some long grass and used that, but there are long decorative grasses in the floral departments of craft stores that would work just as well.

The Black Hat Society's Midnight Dreary Feast

2011-10-03T11:43:00.002-05:00

October is definitely the month for costume events, and the month had started out in fine form. The Black Hat Society got together once again for a Poe/Steampunk/Mad Scientist/Alchemy themed dinner. Our host, lovingly known as the Lord of Lace, had written an entire murder mystery event for us to play along with, with several of the guests chosen to be cast members. The plot involved a wealthy scientist and his dysfunctional family. It was discovered that the deceased had had an affair with pretty much every person at the table! And, it was not truly a murder, as the professor had discovered the secret to human-animal transformation, and converted himself into a pig! Unfortunately, the maid had just that day discovered a pig roaming the property and had taken it to the butcher. Oops! But, the maid had done a fine job of preparing him, and the professor tasted delicious.

Everyone did a wonderful job of getting into character. There was the lush mother with her giant snifter of wine, the shrew of a daughter (who had a bottle of arsenic and a book entitled "How to Poison your Unloving Father for Dummies"), the professor's assistant with his trophy wife (who were both having affairs with the professor), the insane adopted son (who, every time we glanced over at, was swatting at imaginary flies or gnawing on his plate), the grounds keeper (who was having an affair with the lush wife, and who was played like the Rainman), and the nervous and fidgety maid (also having an affair with the professor). Everyone was brilliant, and the script was hysterical. We were all in fits of laughter all night long, and had a grand time.

Our hosts had prepared a wonderful meal - starters of baked brie and made from scratch croissants, cheeses, and fruits, and a main course of delicious ham, potato salad, green beans, and cranberry rice. It all tasted fabulous! I had intended to make a cheesecake for the evening, but ran out of time, so I brought a red velvet cake instead, and a few bottles of wine.

The entire room was decked out with test tubes full of different coloured potions, giant urns of bubbling and smoking liquids, books on alchemy, and every wonderful thing. Many of the props were built specifically for the occasion, and were quite beautiful. Our hosts did a wonderful job of getting everyone involved in the plot, and keeping us entertained.

Stripey Bustle Skirts and the Red Contouche!

2011-10-02T18:16:00.000-05:00

Whew! It has been a busy week! It feels like it's been so much longer, so much has been going on.

I started work back up on the red francaise, and it's going swimmingly. I managed to find the rest of the fabric in The Stash, and it was enough to make the front of the petticoat. The back of the petticoat is a burgundy taffeta which is slightly darker. I'm not worried about it, though, since it won't be showing.

My original intention with this dress was that it would basically be a copy of the teal gown in the Madame Pompadour portrait. Up until this point, I've pretty much stayed true to the portrait, but after removing that horrible white lace that I had added, I decided to stray a bit from the painting. This is how the gown looks without the lace. Needless to say, it's much better!

More trim! The ruching hasn't been tacked down yet, but this is how it's looking. The sleeves are also in the works now, but haven't been finished yet.

This is how the gown was when I went to my regular night out with my friends last Friday. That's when my dear friend Chance, the Lord of Lace, said he was going to have a Poe themed dinner the weekend of the 1st. Well, of course I had to make something new for it! Besides, I only have one complete bustle ensemble, and that just wouldn't do.

I had fallen in love with the Steampunk Bustle the Dreamstress made a while back. I have a weird obsession with black and white striped fabric, and when I saw it, I had one of those, "OMG!" moments. And with that luscious bronze satin? Heaven!

So, I based my skirt off of her bustle. Instead of building the framework into the design, I just had it as a regular skirt, and I brought the ruffles in the back all the way up to the waistline.

It was definitely slow going. Each ruffle took over 2 hours to make, and the striped satin was hard to come by. Joann's usually has it in stock only at Halloween, and it goes fast. I bought all that my nearest store had - a whopping 1 1/4 yard. :-/ I managed two ruffles out of it. I had checked my other local store, but since they were on the verge of a move, they hadn't even received any Halloween fabrics. The closest store that had any in stock was at least an hour away, so a trekking I did go, and I bought the entire bolt, which was all of 5 yards. Thankfully, it was enough to get me to where I was going!

I absolutely loooooove this skirt. There's some amazing movement in the ruffles when I walk, and it's sooo fluffy!

The original plan was to make an overskirt and a bodice to go with it, but with the time constraints I was working with, I had to retool the design. I nixed the overskirt, and changed the bodice design to something simpler. The skirt had eaten up so much of my time that I only had half a day left to make the bodice, so I neglected to actually do any fitting while I was making it. As a result, the bodice is waaaay too small in the bust, and oddly too large in the waist. Ugh. Still, I was able to sew myself into it before the evening. Of course, it being too small assured that I had MASSIVE amounts of cleavage, so I threw on a cheap capelet and didn't take it off all night. Still, the skirt was amazing. And, I had actually bought the entire bolt of the bronze satin because of the original design I had in mind, so I have plenty left over to make a new bodice!

This is the only picture I have from the Poe dinner so far. I'll post more as I get them!

Also, I'm completely in love with my hair from that evening.

I used a long brown wig and braided it with a bit of the same bronze ribbon that I had used for the skirt. I pulled my own hair back and clipped on a curly ponytail fall, then pinned the braid in front of it. I decorated it with a couple of silk orchid sprigs and some hair crystals. I think this may become my standard fancy hair for Victorian and Steampunk stuffs. :D

The Burton-esque Gown

2011-09-24T13:30:00.007-05:00

My wonderful photographer friend has finally posted some pics from our shoot last weekend, and they are fabulous! She makes me look amazing, which is always wonderful, and the gown looks fabulous. :D We spent most of our time in the local botanical gardens. We had been hoping that the forecast of overcast and rainy would help us get a Sleepy Hollow sort of vibe, but as soon as we arrived in the gardens, it cleared up and became a sunny, beautiful day! So, we ditched the Sleepy Hollow theme and just went with a general "look at my pretty dress!" theme.
After the gardens, we invaded this fantastic fortress of a church on the other side of town. The architecture really gave the feel of being in some grand estate or a castle home. We were trying to be a bit sneaky since services hadn't let out yet, but we felt better once one of the priests spotted us and said, "I love your outfit!"
I'm sure there will be more pics to come soon, but I couldn't wait to share these. :D

Sneak Peek!

2011-09-18T20:13:00.002-05:00

Just a little teaser for the shoot I had today with my dear friend, Erin. I finished the Burton-esque gown and we hit the Botanical Gardens. I ended up making a black taffeta petticoat with a wide pleated ruffle to go with the gown, and trimming the gown itself with black lace and some gold ruching I salvaged off of another gown. The stomacher was literally hot glued together last night, and is made of plastic cross-stitch canvas, beige twill, gold faux silk overlaid with black lace, and a bit of black braid.
The wig had laid dormant and half-finished for years, and I didn't have time to finish it before the shoot, so I clipped on one of those curly clip-on ponytails at the nape of my neck and brushed all the curls up over the unfinished parts. The rest of the back was hidden with the black ostrich feathers, which I pulled off an old Mardi Gras mask and pinned in my hair about 5 minutes before walking out the door.
More photos soon!

The Stash Dash Continues - The Teal Contouche

2011-09-12T15:54:00.002-05:00

I really had no intentions of working on this gown at all when I started the Stash Dash. I didn't even remember that I had this fabric! I had bought it for a friend years ago, and made a ~~very bad~~ gown out of it. (We'd then invaded New Orleans in our bad gowns and pranced around they they were the best things in the world. At least we felt awesome!)
Anyway, I tore the dress apart, stuffed the fabric into The Stash, and forgot about it. So, of course, while digging around for the de-stashing, I came across it again, and decided to give it a second life.
There was only enough fabric for the gown itself, not the petticoat or stomacher, and Joann's doesn't carry this particular colour of satin anymore, so I had to improvise. I found the fabric online, but instead of the $4.99 I paid for it back in the day, it's now $15/yard!!! I only ordered a yard so I could finish the sleeves and make a stomacher.
The petticoat is one of the "Chinese brocades" from Joann's, that happened to match the teal of the satin beautifully. They barely had 3 yards on the bolt (2 yards and 30 inches, actually), so I decided to make a very straight, flat petticoat that would use as little fabric as possible. I used these instructions, and used what fabric I had left after cutting my two main panels to make the sides panels. It wasn't much. Since I had so little fabric, it turned out very narrow, but it was enough to fit over my panniers!
Stomacher and sleeves will be finished once the fabric arrives, and I'll share pictures of the finished gown then. :)
I've also found it nearly impossible to capture the colour of the satin correctly. It's either too blue or too green, but it's never the same colour that you see in person. So, I took these outside in different lights so you can see how different it looks in different light. I wish I could capture the true colour! The back also looks a little wonky in the middle picture, but that's because the front had become unpinned during all the moving around trying to capture the colour. It's a bit off kilter. ^^;

Commission - Eva from Metal Gear Solid

2011-09-12T11:19:00.000-05:00

This was a commission for AnimeFest 2011.
The jumpsuit is of khaki twill. I actually had a bit of trouble with it, because I had forgotten to compensate for the stretch allowed in the pattern, so the first jumpsuit I made wouldn't even fit my size 0 mannequin! x.x Thankfully, round two went much better, and I was able to tailor it to fit properly.
The thing that took the most time were the zippers! EVERY pocket on this thing has a large metal zipper on it, which ATE needles. Blah. But, I'm super pleased with how the whole thing turned out, and my customer looks totally amazing as Eva, so yay!

Some Quick, Cheap Panniers that Don't Suck

2011-09-09T00:40:00.000-05:00

So, it's the night before your big event, and you decide to prance around in your panniers, and celebrate life with wine and fireworks. Then, before you know it, WOOSH! Your panniers catch on fire. Now you have nothing to support your skirts at the event tomorrow!

Fear not! You can make a quick and dirty set of cheap panniers with this little tutorial and a few things from Wal-Mart. What you'll need:

3 yards of fabric (You won't use all of it.)
3 packages of quilt binding
2 package of double fold bias tape (Yes, there's only one in the picture, but you'll need two.)
1 roll of soaker hose

I know what you're thinking. Soaker hose? Really? Yes. It's been used beautifully for hoops for many years, and is waaaay cheaper than the hoop boning that you'll buy from costume suppliers. Be sure to get the flat plastic hose and not the flat fabric covered one. The fabric one is limp and floppy and won't do you any good. (That's what she said.)

First, open up your fabric so that it's a single width. Then, refold the fabric so you have a fold along the width the the fabric, instead of along the length. You don't have to fold the entire width of the fabric, just enough so that you have 25 inches of doubled fabric.

Once you have your fabric refolded, it's time to start measuring things out. Measure 21 inches up from the bottom edge, along the fold, and mark this. This is the length of your pannier from waist to hem. From the fold, at the marked waistline, measure out 16 inches and mark it. Along the bottom edge, measure out 25 inches, and mark. Connect the waist mark to the bottom mark with a slanted line. Curve the waistline up at the outer edge somewhat, and mark this on your fabric. Do the same to the bottom edge.
You can kind of see what I mean by all of that by clicking on the above pic to see it larger. I have everything marked out in pins. Cut out two of these shapes. (You can cut out this one and use it as a template to cut out the second one so you don't have to measure everything out again.) These are the main body of your panniers.

This will give you a better idea of the final shape. The bottom edge looks a little wonky, but it's nothing a bit of a snip won't fix. Don't worry about this being perfect, you don't have to be very fiddly with any of these bits.

Once you have your two main pieces, you'll need to cut out your side top pieces, which will be added to the waistline. Along the fold, measure up 8 inches. Along the bottom edge, measure out 15 inches from the fold and mark. At the mark, measure up 1 1/2 inches and mark. Connect the top of the 1 1/2 inch mark to the top of the 8 inch measurement at the fold with a curving line. (Click on the above pic to see it better.) Cut out two of these.

Sew one side top piece to each body piece, the straight edge of the top connecting to the waistline of the pannier body. Your top piece will not reach the edges of the pannier body, but don't worry about that. There's supposed to be a small gap so your drawstring will be able to come through at the centre front.

Sew your two body pieces together along one of the sides. Now is a good time to hem.

On the outside of the pannier, begin adding your boning channels. Measure down 7 inches from the waistline seam. Use the quilt binding to make your boning channels, opened it up so it lays flat. The 7 inch mark should fall at the middle crease of the binding. Pin down your binding across the entire width of the pannier body to make one long boning channel.
Repeat this, measuring down 7 inches from the middle of the first boning channel to where your next channel should lay, and repeat all along the length for your second channel.
Your last boning channel will be right along the hemline, so no measuring is necessary.
At the waistline, create two curved boning channels on either side of the vertical seam, between the waistline seam and the first boning channel. Consult the pictures below if this is a little confusing.

Stitch the boning channels down along each edge to form a casing. Stitch closed one end of the curved channels only. Leave the long main channels open at both ends.

Now it's time to make your waistband. Open up your double fold bias tape, and pin it to the top edge of your pannier, wrong sides together. Stitch along the crease line. Once your tape is stitched down, turn the tape to the inside and stitch it down along the bottom edge to create a casing. This will be the channel for your drawstring.

Now it's time to cut your boning to length. Again, it's not an exact science. Snip off the metal end of the soaker hose and lay the hose down on top of the pannier. Make sure your hose extends about 6-8 inches past the edges of the fabric so that you will have a bit of overlap once you put everything together.
Repeat for all of the main channels.
For the curved channels, measure your hose so that it's about the same length as the channel, minus a couple of inches.

Shove what are now your hoop bones through the channels to create a tentacle monster! The bits sticking out are the overlap that you included when you cut the boning. Sew closed your open seam, and tuck the overlap into the channels. The rubber should grip to itself pretty well to keep the boning from moving, but if you're worried about it slipping out of place, you can secure it with a bit of duct tape. (Yes, this is ghetto costuming. Didn't you know?) Make sure that your boning is shoved really tightly into the channels; you want the fabric to be taught, without the gathers that you see on rounder hoop skirts. (Scroll down to the picture of the finished panniers to see what I mean.)
Stitch closed the open edges of the curved casings so that the hoop boning is secured in the channels and won't escape.
You can either use what was left of your bias tape after making your drawstring casing, or you can use your second package of bias tape, to make the drawstring. Simply run the bias tape through the casing and pull it through.

Once your drawstring is in, put your panniers on a mannequin, or a willing victim. They'll look like a weird bell at this point, but we're about to fix that.
With some of your remaining bias tape, cut four equal lengths of tape. They don't have to be very long, maybe 6-8 inches. Crawl up under the skirt and pin these tapes to the inside of the panniers at the middle boning channel, the idea being that when they are tied, they will pull the front and back toward each other. Stitch them into place. (Go ahead and hand sew these, wrestling the panniers to the machine at this point would be pretty silly and probably drive you crazy.)

Once your tapes are stitched on, tie them together on the inside to draw the panniers into the narrow shape we're looking for.

And you're done! Not bad for a couple of hours work and all of $25, huh? If you're wondering whether or not they'll actually support a gown, here's the panniers under a (very crinkled) gown!

Eee...should have ironed that. Oh, well. But yes! They DO support a gown!

If you want your panniers to be a bit wider, it just takes a bit of fiddling with the measurements. Instead of 16 inches at the waist and 25 at the hem, you could do 20 at the waist and 29 at the hem. Just remember that your top piece will need to be 1 inch shorter along the waist measurement than the main pannier piece!

The panniers created from the measurements in the tutorial are what I would consider small to medium sized.

Have fun making these! If you use this tutorial to make a set, I would LOVE to see them! (Show me your undies!)