Bonne Jenet - KoF (reconstruction)

Remaining Tasks
 

• Paint Telescope
• Hat
• Gloves
• Leg Harness (40%)
  
• Dress (80%)
  
• Shoes (modify)

OMG'd! I was lucky enough to be able to salvage my dye job mishap! All of the fabric I thought was tattered and unusable was indeed used with success. Lucky! Lucky! Also, I regret that there are no picture updates today as Josh's camera is full up on memory. Apparently it's the memory stick that came with the camera so it holds maybe 10 pictures. LAME. But tonight they will be unloaded and then some shots will be taken to update this post with tomorrow. Maybe I'll buy myself a digital camera with my tax refund.

I wrapped up my previous B.Jenet post by stating "... I am not yet willing to start afresh and re-cut new fabric for her. I still believe it's workable!". And I, for one, am certainly glad that I stuck by that as opposed to scraping what work I had put into it. I first took my dyed pieces and trimmed off the inch or so of the frayed bits and started working a little backwards. Sadly, as a result of the unraveled fabric, my muslin mock up was pretty much useless. >_<*  I made this dress pattern with three main pieces and a few inner linings, etc. This made it easy to readjust the sizing for it.

I stitched the bulk of it together and promptly finished off all necessary edges before even attempting to re-dart the dress. This way, I could be assured that there would be no added surprises when I rolled the hem. When you think something may be turning out too small, triple check your seam allowances. There is NOTHING more devastatingly brutalizing than finishing up a gorgeous piece only to have to donate it to a smaller person. I am trying to avoid this from happening. ; )

After all that could be accomplished with the dress was finished, I realized a few things that could be changed:

• Lower the scoop back (it's a few inches below my shoulder blades atm)
• Redesign position of the seams
  

BUT... It fits. Phew! I'm sort of kicking myself for not having considered the placement of the seams BEFORE I cut, dyed, and assembled the dress. During the mock up process I had been so caught up with the silhouette that I didn't give my seam lines a second thought. However, I became painfully aware once I was trying it on. Not only is there one glaring seam running down the front center of the dress, but another runs parallel down the right side. Ugh! I have a problem with the front seam because it looks plain tacky. Gross. And the side seam because it's going to run straight down the middle of my Jolly Roger. No good...

This begs the question: Do I begin again? Or do I settle?...  Knowing me I'll either start afresh begrudgingly or find some ass backwards way to get around it that for some reason just happens to work for me. /shrug. We'll see...

My telescope came!!! Now I need to paint it. w00t.

Painting a flawless Jolly Roger on the curved surface of an effected textile on the first try inspires one to be SURE to do everything they can to ensure success. I first cut a pattern for the eye patch itself being sure to include the dart of the curve. Then I traced that pattern shape into my sketchbook and drew a Jolly Roger within it. I then inked my drawing and laid the muslin over the traced shape, taped it down and, using my magnifying lamp, copied the Jolly Roger over to the muslin. Next I secured the muslin directly on top of the eye patch itself and used a .5mm Sharpie to make a dotted guideline along the line art thus "transferring" it to the eye patch. Black on black isn't the easiest to see, but being that I was working on polyester with a sateen finish the Sharpie dots had a slight color variation that I was able to carefully trace around. After that came the painstaking task of painting it white... with some SoSoft and the head of a needle... (I didn't have any stiff or small enough brushes and this seemed like the best solution). It took a little bit of time, but the end results were worth it! Her eye patch is so cute!

I tried it on with the wig and it looks dead on! I love it!

Oh yea! Also, I discovered that B. Jenet has TWO layers of skirt! So it looks like I'll be adding another layer to this.