main
side
curve
  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

2002 costume projects

Discussion in 'Costuming and Props' started by Nostradamus, Jan 1, 2002.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Jedi_Knight150

    Jedi_Knight150 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 26, 2002
    Whoa. Some of these costumes are really intimidating. With my luck, my attempt to make a costume will probably result in serious injuries. The most complicated thing I have every made so far was a hand-sewn beanbag. Now I'm going to attempt Jedi robes with leather tabards. [face_plain]

    (Okay, and I may have been good at crocheting at one time or another, but I can't remember how to anymore.)
     
  2. rvqavalon

    rvqavalon Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2002
    Disaster! I had a feeling this would happen but it's still devastating.

    I'm making an elvish-type dress for my sister using Simplicity 9891. I have it sewn to the point where all that I have left to do is sew the side seams together and add the sleeves. However, I've run into a problem. The dress is too narrow through the hips and seat area. One solution is to give the poor girl plastic surgery, but I'd really like some more realistic advice. I have no idea how to go about making this right and too upset to think rationally about it in the first place. HELP, please? Anyone?

    Thanks in advance, and please help!

    Kate
     
  3. FERDALUMP

    FERDALUMP Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    May 12, 2002
    Kate Gosh! I'm so sorry to hear about your mistake :( Of course, mistakes are how we learn.
    I would suggest making two "side panel inserts" to sew down the sides to give it a little more room via the sides. You can make the pieces look kinda trianglular to gradually add width from approxiamatly the waist down to the hem. That way you won't have it too big in the waist and bust area. The triangle pieces should keep the integrity of the flow of the skirt, and as long as they are cut right and sewn straight and pressed-they should work out OK. Just make sure that whatever you do to one side you do to the other-so that it is symetrical and the side seams remain on the side.

    If you have to expand too much up into the side seam you may have to also alter your sleeves to get them to ease in. You can re-cut them slightly larger--or can add a small expander piece to them as well.

    Obviously, these alterations will not be as good as a true fitted costume--but it should help out your fit problem and save you from putting more $$ into fabric.

    Ferd :)
     
  4. rvqavalon

    rvqavalon Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2002
    Thank you SO much, Ferd! I asked my mom and that's exactly what she said. I'm just going to make them triangular, since the bust is already bordering on large. And since I had to use some extra fabric for the sides, I think I'm going to have to piece the sleeve 'bells' together now, but that's okay, I think. Just one seam instead of two. And note to self: Be SURE to add seam allowance. No more dumb mistakes.

    Kate
     
  5. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    Ferd is right Kate, add some side pieces.

    ....I hate that when that happens too! That's how I got so handy with the seam-ripper.

     
  6. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    Last night I got 95 more pieces cut out to eventually make 5 more hats.

    Tonight I plan to start fusing them. That could take all night.
     
  7. GentleBant

    GentleBant Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 21, 1999
    Poor Nostradamus!

    Did you get to sleep, finally?
     
  8. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    Sleep?


    Hopefully tonight I can get the fusing done, or at least get started.

    I cut out more medium sized hats and at least one very small one.
    It will take me awhile before I can tell exactly what size they will end up being.

    I don't want to rush through the process, because I end up spending more time trying to fix mistakes, or worse, screwing them up beyond being fixable, if I hurry.

    The hats take a while to make, but I will keep everyone posted on the progress!

    ...and, yes I do sleep, occasionally.

    Today I nade the most stunning front store window display ever --- at work.
    It is so beautiful!

     
  9. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    The current major exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago is "Michelangelo and the Art of the Italian Renaissance" from the Medici collection.
    It runs through the beginning of February 2003. I have been to the exhibit and it is excellent! I saw several Italian Renaissance costumes in the paintings that I would like to make someday.

    I work directly across from the museum on Michigan Ave.

    So, this is my Italian Renaissance-inspired holiday display creation at work:

    I covered the front window display panel with a deep cranberry textured poly-suede fabric. The fabric looks almost like marble or leather and it absorbs all light. There is no shine to it at all.
    I was able to put the fabric on the panel so perfectly. The partially free-standing panel is over 8" tall and about 4" wide with a small shelf that protrudes about 15" from the bottom of the wall and goes about 3/4ths of the way across the panel. I have to cut the fabric precisely to get it to look and work right. I was able to apply it with no wrinkles or puckers and you can hardly see the staples.
    Then I placed a re-recycled and rearranged concoction of 2" burgundy velvet metallic gold wired ribbon, 2" opalescent white organza wired ribbon, a variety of large antique gold round ornaments, golden silk poinsettia flowers and golden & white tipped pine cones on a 4' 1" x 2" (piece of wood) that I found in the basement at work. I attatched that to the top of the wall. I found several rolls of more gold-edged wired 2" ribbons (krinkle gold lame, metallic gold organza, and evergreen crushed velvet) in my own collection at home. I formed those into a grand swag under the ornament piece. I hung a very beautifully framed reproduction of a Michelangelo painting on the wall with a few smaller similarly framed Italian Renaissance works by Raphael, Di Pietro and others below and surrounding it. There is a carpet of live red poinsettias in front of that and more lighted greens in front of that. It looks so opulent!

    It could almost even work for a window display somewhere in Theed on Naboo........

    .....we are trying to get the bosses to approve a "dress like the Itallian Renaissance" day at work.

    .....and the Renaissance dress that I did make for me last summer is in an Italian style....and one of the "Christmas" hats I made is also like an Italian renaissance style....

    It will work. It will be fun!

    Last night I fused all the new hat pieces.
    Quincy got sick at school yesterday, so I get to stay home today.
    I will work on getting some of those hats put together today.
     
  10. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    I finished all five of those Imperial hats in the past week.
    None of them may even make it to ebay, they are all tentatively spoken for!
    I will cut out the next group very soon.
    I have 2 extra days off next week. Monday and Christmas day.

    I completed the total reconstruction of the 'Blade II' quilted coat. Aaaaargh! I hate zippers.

    My 'Mrs. Claus' costume is ready to wear for next week's hospital visit.

    I have begun working on the Padme EP II wedding costume headpiece and I have begun to work in the Padme EPII picnic dress.

    I have the "2003 Costume Projects" new thread ready to post on New Year's.

    I have updated my website a little bit.

    I have my resume 95% in order and nearly ready to send out.



     
  11. Jedi_Samantha

    Jedi_Samantha Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2002
    I have the "2003 Costume Projects" new thread ready to post on New Year's.


    YAY!I cant wait! The new thread!
     
  12. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000

    The Mission was sucessfull!

    The resume is sent!

    Now I will cut out some more Imperial hats or sew some more Senator Amidala costumes and wait, and keep my fingers crossed.

     
  13. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    I just finished an emergency last minute Elven cloak.

    I FOUND FABRIC!!!

    For the wedding dress and the yellow picnic dress.....it is being washed & dryed right now.

    AND I am all over the next issue of the SW Insider.....all over it.

    Quincy is in 5 different pictures.
    I am in at least 3.


     
  14. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    I took out my 'new' sewing machine.
    It is the Singer touch-n-sew from 1970.
    I just 'wrote' my name in stitching.
    With some more practice, I should be to do a lot more.
    I am going to try and sew the 'vine' pattern into the sheer fabric in the Padme yellow picnic dress.
    Now I have 3 sewing machines on the dining room table........we haven't eaten a meal in our dining room for over two years.....

    All of the fabric came out of the wash perfect!
    I hardly see any of the alledged damage to the ivory fabric. I can cut around anything that didn't wash out.

    I drove to 4 different fabric stores today searching for more of that material I had seen the other week, but that entire bolt was damaged.
    I finally went back to the place where I had seen it and was buying he fabric for the picnic dress. I had all of my reference pictures out to compare colors and textures. THe ladies who work at the fabric store(s) always like to see what the heck I am buying all of this fabric for, so I showed them the 3 costumes for which I am searching materials. I showed them the one last piece of the 95%+ perfect for the wedding dress fabric I had found and told them the story. I said I would take any of it at any price just to see whether I could even remove the discoloration with chemicals.
    3 of them ran to the back room and started looking for it.
    After about 5 or 10 minutes they came out with the remaining bit of the bolt.
    I told them I would take it all and I didn't care how much it cost!
    (They let me have it for $1 per yard, and there were about 7 yards.) They have my name and number incase they find more.

    Such wonderful fabric luck today!

    I won't be posting excessively in the next few months, you will know what I am doing.

    ..........I will start the 2003 costume project thread next week and I will post my progress on it.

    The 2003 projects are starting to happen!

    Padme Yellow Picnic dress is first.
    The wedding dress will be happening next, but I will be doing headpiece beading concurently now when I have time to do hand work......
     
  15. rvqavalon

    rvqavalon Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2002
    I'm glad you had some good fabric luck, Nos!

    I finished the dress for my sister. What can I say, I'm an amateur. I'm not terribly impressed with my own abilities right now, but as they say, practice makes perfect. At least she likes it, so I'm pretty happy. I should probably be nice and iron it for her, eh? Hehe.

    Thanks for your help, everyone. And I'll try and get pictures if anybody wants to see, though I don't know when. I'm sort of ashamed to show my mediocre efforts here, with all you talented seamstresses looking!

    Kate
     
  16. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    I embroidered "TKvanB" in a piece of fabric with my 'new' sewing machine last night. The curves in the "B" are a little rough, but I think with some practice, I would be able to embroider my signature on a check eventually.

    .....I wonder how late JoAnne Fabrics will be open tonight. I may have to make an emergency trip there to get some varying-color machine embroidery thread. I don't want to waste a minute of my day off work on Wednesday. I could probably get all of the 'vines' sewn into that fabric for the picnic dress.

    Now I am off to work---dressed as Mrs. Claus! ;)
     
  17. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    YES! JoAnn was open until 6pm tonight.

    I got enough thread to last me through the day tomorrow---I hope--I got 10 different spools.

    I also bought every bag of ivory pearls they had.....and a variety of embroidery hoops.

    I wish I had several days off.
    Oh well. I will do what I can.

     
  18. rvqavalon

    rvqavalon Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2002
    Thank goodness for JoAnn's being open on Christmas Eve! I just spent almost $40 there. Most of it ($32) went to some nice blue crepe from the "Casa collection" for my next costume--Arwen's blue travel dress that was cut from TTT. I also got a spool of glittery navy ribbon and some thread to match the crepe. My mom bought some fun little stuff, too.

    Merry Christmas, all!

    Kate
     
  19. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    I went into JoAnn Fabrics last night in my Mrs. Claus dress (with lots of big jingle bells)

    I only finished off one spool of thread today. Oh well. At least I won't need to make an other emergency trip there for thread any time soon!

    I woke up at 4:30am this morning and I have been sewing on the picnic dress all day.
    I got the rest of the pieces cut out this morning.
    I am using the commercial simplicy pattern as a starting point. I am combining the upper part of that pattern with with the dress lengths of a girl's Renaissance pattern. I shortened the length of the corset by about 1" and am using the misses size 4 as a guide. I folded the center pattern piece so it would be one center piece rather than two separate pieces with an ugly seam right down the center.
    I am making the corset in 5 thicknesses so I can put tension on the inner structure while allowing the 'crinkle' texture of the outer fabric to be relaxed. I think I am going to use grommets in the back, since they will allow for the most adjustability. I have no idea how much Quincy will grow and how soon that will happen.
    I constructed the 3 inner layers pretty much as the pattern suggested making casings for the boning in the seam allowances. The three inner layers are 2 layers of a lightweight yet very strong nylon with medium/heavy fusible interfacing inbetween. The seams are going to be facing the seams of the outer fabric, which is a metallic thread crinkle cotton in a temple gold color. The fifth layer is a nylon lining. That lining is also a little loose to allow for tension in the inner layers.
    I added pin tucks in the front and back side pieces so it looks like the corset is made of 11 pieces.
    I started embroidering the design on the outer layer of fabric this evening. I am thinking about trying to do the cut out squares in the outer fabric. The inner fabric is the correct color to allow the show-through if I decide to do it.
    I also got about 66% of the vine patterns sewn into the outer layer of the dress fabric. I did both sleeve pieces and the entire front is done. I ran into a little needle problem this afternoon while working on vining the back and decided to let the dress rest for the remainder of the day. The under layer of the dress is the same temple gold crinkle cotton and the outer layer is a sheer fabric. It is like sewing Kleenex.

    I will do some of the hand sewing on the headband tomorrow.

     
  20. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    I got a lot of work done on the headband edging yesterday. The vining on the sheer layer is done for the time being.

    The Padme dress is going to work the way I am doing it.
    I have the sleeves and neck line sewn together through all layers. I am sewing the side seams separately starting with the sheer layer, then the under layer.

    I got side-tracked last night to sew together an "emergency" Aragorn leather tunic last night, but was then able to get back to the picnic dress.

    I finished the dress neck-line with bias tape and threaded elastic through it. I fitted this on Quincy last night so I could make it tight enough to stay on her shoulders.
    As she was standing there, the sleeves fell down from the elbows.
    This looked good, it will just mean that the ribbons will need to be wrapped tightly.....but that might not work for long. If this is too bothersome for her to keep in place, I can sew some supportive straps inside of each sleeve from the neck line to the elbow gathers that will keep the upper sleeve 'puffed' while not having to wrap the ribbons so tight that she immediately wriggles them loose.
    After I have the dress sewn together, I am going to start sewing on all of the little white flowers.
    I also finished the first embroidered shape on the corset last night. That is going to be time-consuming, but I can tell this will look better done by hand than by machine.


     
  21. Woofer

    Woofer Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 27, 2001
    Wow, this thread is almost 1 year old!

    I guess on Wednesday you need to start a new thread for 2003 eh Nos? :)
     
  22. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    The new thread will happen soon! ;)
     
  23. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 2000
    Wow.
    The Picnic dress is also nearly complete except for several days of hand sewing.......

    The new 2003 thread will begin either later this afternoon/evening or later on tomorrow.

    I picked up a tuxedo shirt for Vince to wear. I WILL have some pictures taken of his tux. He will look very, very sharp.
    We are going to a masquerade party tonight in our Moulin Rouge costumes. ;)
     
  24. Jedi_Samantha

    Jedi_Samantha Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2002
    *Jumps around*

    Yay a new thread for 2003! I cant wait!!!
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.