Oh it seemed like such a great idea when I thought it up! But, I admit it….this outfit has sucked the life right out of me. Sewing mojo? What is that? Any mojo I had was sucked out of me. The outfit has been finished for 2 weeks and nary a post. Why you might inquire….is she unhappy with the outfit? Was it a big fail? Nope, it turned out wonderfully but blech I cannot seem to recover.
Pictures. I hear you asking for pictures. Hmmmm yup there are some and I will post one at the end. The one where you can see the outfit is silly and a tad embarrassing.
So construction. It was a journey. Ideas came and went. Starting with the bodice: I originally bought a pattern that I thought I could translate into the bodice. 2 muslins later and still not getting coverage over my boobs ( I was going for a g rating not an xxx rating with this outfit) and I realized ….nope not going to work. But then, when cutting out muslin number 2 I had a flash of genius, the old light bulb went off…..why not use a bodice pattern that I knew fit. You know, one of those TNT patterns that so many bloggers who I respect talk about. That aha moment meant that muslin #3 was a winner. It worked on the first go! So bodice sorted, just need to find fabric.
That right, you heard me, I worked out the kinks of the bodice before spending a couple of weeks finding the fabric. I eventually went with the ultra suede mentioned here. But really, what in the world was I thinking. Let’s use an unbreatheable fabric for an outfit to be worn in the middle of summer. Hindsight is 20/20 and that thought did not enter my mind.
Next up the skirt. I muslined that one and it was too big. I made it smaller for the final version. Guess what? Still too big. I fussed and fretted over making it smaller. It never seemed to get smaller. Finally, I gave up. Yup, you heard me, I just figured what the hell, so its big. So, the skirt won’t stay up on my waist with out some serious fold over and pinning of the waistband. The safety pin is my friend!
With the skirt done, it is trim time. I spent an entire day in the fabric district shopping for trim. Naturally, what I wanted I couldn’t find and had to do an about face with the plan. This meant me running blocks to return to stores just as they were closing. During the day of trim shopping, I found some feather boas that matched the blue in my outfit to a “T.” So, I complicated my plan further by determining that I needed to add feathers to the sleeves but did not bother buying the boas at that time. (Cue frantic last minute trip downtown to pick the boas up at a later date….yeah that was smart!)
Now we are heading towards the home stretch which means a sleep reduction and an increase in nightly sewing. From years of practice, before I changed professions, I would routinely live off of no more than 4 hours or less sleep at night (granted I was younger then, but as I discovered I can still do it). Thus, started the final couple of weeks push to get this done on time.
Recall, I did not find the type of trim I wanted. So making lemonade out of lemons, I spent 2 nights creating my own trim. I sewed various different trims together, by hand to create the look I wanted. Great idea ….right? Nope….wrong. Utter waste of time. Plus I used invisible thread on this part. Have you used invisible thread? Its evil I tell you…pure and unadulterated evil. So evil it deserves its own post!
After wasting 2 sewing nights of 6 hours each (yes I was keeping track) I had to start over on the trim. By now, handsewing was no longer an option. Machine stitching time. Also my plan was not working, needed to use different trim….luckily I had bought so much and such a wide variety of trim this was possible. The next 6 days were spent sewing on trim. Trim on the bodice, trim on the sleeves, and trim on the tabs. Meanwhile, there was the frantic trip to buy the boas I should have purchased a couple of weeks before. ( I haven’t even mentioned creating the tabs and all the bias binding that went on the tabs and the bodice.) And now the sewing is taking up more time; I am not just sewing all night but in the morning before work….byebye running….and I am not going to mention the all nighters….nope bad memories of feathers and almost crying…nope best forgotten.
Home stretch and I have not even started the obi/cumberbund thing. I mean how hard is a rectangle to come up with. Well, after a couple of hours muslining it…I cut one out and yup you guessed it….too big! Not a little too big….A LOT TOO BIG. Not a big deal except I did not notice until after all the embellishment was added to it. A variety of trims were added as embellishments but I ran out of time to completely cover the obi/cumberbund. The day before leaving for the convention, I was up all night finishing it up and finally added the hook and eye tape at about 5 am. I finished sewing at 6:45 am the morning I left. Whew……..talk about cutting it close
Enough with the words you are saying…don’t you know blog posts are all about the pictures. Yes, I know……so without further ado…viola….me in the outfit looking rather silly.
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| Me in my best anime kid pose. There are better pictures but you cannot see the outfit as well |
I feel better to get this finished and off my shoulders. Now that I have written this maybe I can go back to my normal sewing.
