Edge lace for my sleeves - I did this on my embroidery machine, on a poly organza with heavy wash-away stabilizer, and then cut the diamonds out and hand-sewed them on.
After much experimenting, the tricks to using metallic thread without it snapping are to keep tension super-low, let the thread spool out from far away (I have it in a mug about a foot away), and don’t make your stitches too dense.
Haven’t been posting much about cosplay, but I’ve been working on stuff so expect some photos over the next few days.
Tonight’s lesson: sometimes you have to try something, and fail… and try something else, and fail… and then keep trying to get it right. Four iterations of rosettes later, I’m finally happy.
Cosplay WIP - West Witch, Hat
Frankly the part of this costume I’m most proud of, because I had never made any kind of hat before and it turned out really nicely! I didn’t get all the trim done in time, but that’s easy enough to fix now that it’s not Katsu-crunch. Eternal thanks to @elementalsight who held my hand and offered lots of advice and help while I flailed over this.
Cosplay WIP - West Witch, Skirt Painting
I managed to take photos really quick while I was working on stuff, but did not have time/energy to upload them before Katsu (or even right after Katsu, haha). The underskirt edges were airbrushed, because I make a lot of poor choices but I wasn’t going to let hand-painting 30 yard of hems be one of them. I made some stencils/masks out of plastic, spaced with little wire loops (so that I could spray in between them without the wire blocking off fabric). I used basting spray to hold them down on the fabric, because it cleans up with soap and water if things got gummy. It took a good eight to ten hours to do both the layers.
The top skirt was mostly freehanded - I made some attempts at stencils but they didn’t give me the quality I wanted, so I ended up making a basic template to trace the outline off of using tracing paper, and then sat with a brush and painted in all forty of them. I ended up using part of a Gutterman thread spool to stamp the circles, because my ability to freehand circles with a paintbrush is basically non-existant. This took another eight hours or so total (which explains why I didn’t get a bunch of other stuff finished in time)
help me I am in fabric hellllll
More feathers - I don’t have the energy for a full write-up but basically, for whatever reason, the batch of feathers we got do not want to take up dye. All the tutorials are like ‘just swish them around for a few minutes’, and the two left hand groups in that photos were in the dye baths for a good two hours. The ones on the right I left soaking overnight and then heated up, which finally actually made them more or less the right color and shade.
In sewing, trying to stitch cording in an even geometric pattern across a surface that curves in more than one direction is… basically impossible, really, but you can fudge the sizing some. After a few attempts at laying it out with pins or straight edges, I made a little square of card (actually a business card I had in my wallet, I was in class and going stir-crazy), and started marking out the corners with loops of thread. Tedious, but it works. I have about half the cord down - hopefully I can get the rest done tomorrow. I also turned and ironed the hems of the scalloped underskirts. They still need to be painted, but they’re looking pretty good.
Finally, some fabric porn from my better camera - like I said before, my point and shoot doesn’t really capture the colors (for ex, look at the corset photos), and even the DSLR doesn’t get the full depth of the dupioni in a single shot. But man, is it gorgeous.
Emerging briefly from under my piles of fabric with evidence that I am actually working on things. Stuff being dyed (these fucking feathers, man), giant pile of underskirt hems, overskirt at a super awkward angle, inner layers for the corset. The dupioni I’m using for the overskirt and corset is gorgeous but does not photograph well with my point and shoot.
Cosplay Progress - fancytier Aradia and West Witch
Yaaaay Aradia’s almost done - just need to make wings and the little gear buttons for the cuffs and garter ends. The beading on the shirt turned out… decently (the flash shine makes it kind of hard to see). Boots were some grey Ugg-knockoffs that were $20 on Amazon - I took out the back seam, poked holes with an exacto knife, and then used one of my tapestry needles to thread the charmeuse ‘ribbon’ through. The soles are painted with red Angelus leather paint, which held up well on the sandals I did for D*C
Meanwhile, in Sakizou land: giant bling, giant hat, giant skirt. Making molds of the rhinestones right now so I can make copies in the colors I need, and then I sketched out the underskirt border on one of my muslin panels to get an idea of the size.
God I have so much to do still fffffff
All of my friend are posting their Sakizou progress and I’m just like ‘weh I have to pick a fabric’
Cosplay WIP - more West Witch corset
So I managed to get rid of the worst of the gaping, and create a more flattering silhouette - and then realized that the corset was about two inches too short for my torso. Which I really should have checked on the front pattern pieces before I cut the thing out, but oh well. I cut it apart right below the bust cups and added extra panels to increase the height, so now the fit is pretty decent everywhere except the cups. I don’t feel like dealing with those tonight though so… later this week!
Cosplay WIP - West Witch Corset
So, this is draft number two of this corset. I’m using McCalls M7330, which is the Yaya Han overbust corset, because I didn’t want to try drafting one - this is my first time making a full corset.
The biggest starting problem is that the sizing is hilariously wrong. My natural waist is around 35″, which puts me between a 20 and a 22 according to the pattern. Knowing something like this was likely to happen, I looked at the finished garment bustline (the only meaningful measurement given) and picked the D-cup size that was closest to my best, which was a 16
The draft pictured above? Not the 16 - that turned out to be too big to be worth taking in. This, instead, is the 14, which is the smallest size I could cut on the pattern I bought, and if you full-size it, you will notice there is still gaping at the top back and bottom front, even after lacing it totally shut down the back. The waist on the 14 is 34″, and the waist on the 16 was 36″. I’m going to have to take it in another 3-4″ to get actual waist reduction, as well as fixing the gaping. Apparently this pattern assumes that everyone has giant bulges on their back?
Cosplay WIP - fancytier Aradia
I really wanted to get all the machine-sewing done today, but I spent like half an hour fighting with my serger and then felt too demoralized to stay up late sewing. But I only really have the hood left to sew, as I got through the rest of the shirt. I ended up tweaking some stuff from the original design, mostly because I put on one cap sleeve and remembered why I don’t wear cap sleeves - wide shoulders and big biceps means they’re a pain to fit. So I used the original shirt pattern sleeves, which are more fluttery, but it work for Aradia, I think.
Also, my beading supplies from Fire Mountain Gems showed up today! I got the jacket ALMOST done, except - I forgot the jacket cuffs needed beads, so instead of having a comfortable oversupply, I am about ten beads short, and will have to order more.
Finally, as proof that I haven’t forgotten about it entirely, the skirt muslin for my Sakizou outfit. It’s like seven yards of fabric, it’s kind of ridiculous.
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