5 posts tagged “dye”

Remaining Tasks
 

• Belt Accessories
  
• Shirt (90%)
  
• Jacket 90%)
  
• Contacts (may use blue)
  
• Weapon (?)
  

My check off list is rapidly dwindling and I couldn't be happier! I bought a digicam so my uploading woes will soon be at an end! The events experienced with trying to haul people to my apartment to get progress shots and then badgering them to send those shots to me has been trying (to say the least). Only reinforces my theory of: "if you want something done you have to do it yourself" and that whole thing about independent self-reliance. I will be throughly ecstatic when my digicam gets here in the expected 3 days. w00t! I mean, at this point, so much of what I will be posting about today is old news to me and I hesitate to even post it. BUT it's news to you. ;)

My attention has recently been focused on the jacket. Once the jacket is completed (which should be happening tonight) it officially marks the bulk of the costume being done leaving me to attend to the fine tuning of "detailing". :D  Alright so before I delve into the ins and outs of the jacket construction let me share with you my new piercings!

The positioning isn't *exactly* where I would have liked it to be, but the piercer insisted that my ear ridges were too small to be able to support the piercing and it would have most likely rejected had I gotten them a half inch or so higher (as I requested). Well bollucks to tiny ears then. He also thought the smaller diameter hoop (on top) would have been too small of a diameter for the lower one so I had to go a size up which was a tad disappointing as well. But as it is, there were a few complications threading the hoops through and he had to bend them in the end and once they were in place, re-bend them back into the correct shape while they were still in my ear. The top is a 12 gauge and the lower is a 14 gauge. I have a history of my body rejecting piercings (as I am allergic to metal) but keep on getting pierced so we'll see how this turns out for me. I highly suspect that my issues before were more caused by faulty in-mall piercers telling me wrong advise. Turns out rubbing alcohol and constantly rotating your piercings is a surefire way for them to FAIL. I hounded the piercer for all the correct advice this time and will be taking proper care of it so hopefully it'll all turn out okay. ;)

Moving right along to the jacket (complete with crappy cell phone pictures!). Although this has already been successfully dyed and I have begun assembly, let me pretend as though this were all current information. ;) Making the pattern for this went pretty smoothly and I only had to make a few minor alterations to the finished muslin draft. When stitching it together I was sure to finish up the top stitching so there would be no measuring surprises for the finished draft. I am very pleased to report that my efforts payed off splendidly and everything fit as it should first try. My only concern is that the sleeves (for whatever reason) twist in at the seams. But they do so symmetrically and it looks stylized so I may just keep it this way. Regardless, I will be looking into *why* exactly it did what it did so I can keep tabs on that as a possible future technique. :)

Since there were no complications what-so-ever and I really don't have anything new to report. Here is a sneak peek at how it is coming along. Enjoy!

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.

Remaining Tasks
 

• Paint Telescope
• Paint Eye Patch
  
• Hat
• Gloves
• Leg Harness (10%)
  
• Dress (60%)
  
• Shoes (modify)

A few frustrating (but not impossibly so) setbacks with this one.... Let's address last night's dying process, shall we?....

I generally ALWAYS hand dye anything that needs to be dyed. I feel that I have more control over the saturation that way. This time, however, since I was dying the fabric for an entire garment as opposed to a single piece, I opted to "Machine Dye" the fabric to encourage a flawlessly even spread of dye. Sadly, I only had a 1/2 bottle of the purple that I had found so I anticipated having to re-dye it to darken the color. I, foolishly, did *not* consider the possibility of fraying fabric. >_<

Pre-treating your fabric is ALWAYS something that I *said* I should practice, but (for whatever reason) just never really did. I always ended up becoming overly impatient to work on the costume and have it completed to I said bollucks to the pre-treatment phase and on to the construction. SO far it has never been a problem. Although, in my own defense, I don't know to what extent the pre-treatment would have helped in this case seeing as they were cut pattern pieces with no selvage.

Anyways, the end result of last nights dying for Bonne Jenet was a heaping pile of frayed edges tangled together into one smirking failure. Tragic. BUT... I am not yet willing to start afresh and re-cut new fabric for her. I still believe it's workable! We'll see after this second dye job. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." -Benjamin Franklin

ps - This is the completed belt. I never got to post pics in my previous post because I was sans-camera at the time.

Remaining Tasks
 

• Belt Accessories
  
• Shirt (80%)
  
• Jacket
• Piercings
  
• Contacts
  
• Weapon

My poor fingers... :( I have been pinning *so*much* over the past few days that my finger tips are *actually* shiny smooth and extremely sore. I kinda feel like Happy Gilmore's grandma at Arts N Crafts time in the retirement home. "But.... My fingers hurt". Haha! While licking my wounds over B.Jenet's failed dye job I charged straight into making the final product of Wendy's shirt. I seriously under-estimated how long the shirt would take me to make, but no worries. I hope to finish it up tonight. :) On an aside, I think I will get her piercings this weekend. I have been meaning to punch some new holes in my body soon anyways. :) And they are cartilage piercings and small lobe gauges to boot!! Cool!

After a highly productive week of pressing ahead, I think I finally slammed into a recess in my energy. Either that or we are witnessing senility in action. /snicker. I think I must've sewed pieces backwards at least three times. >_< BUT! In the end they all fit how they were supposed to. Phew. I may have to go back and lengthen the darts, but that'll take only a second and will be the last thing that I do to it, so I'm not too concerned about it.

After the pieces were all correctly assembled, I went back and finished off the lower hem of the shirt for a clean finish along with the armholes, but there was a wrinkle in the fabric at one point so I took out the seam on the arm holes and am re-doing that tonight. The only thing left with the shirt after that is too mark the guidelines for the buttons and attach them among a few other minor adjustments. I think I'll be focusing on the jacket after that. :)

Remaining Tasks
 

• Belt Accessories
  
• Shirt (40%)
  
• Jacket
• Piercings
  
• Contacts
  
• Weapon

I was given the okay to blow the lid off of my next super-secret cosplay! I present to you Wendy Watson of The Middle Man; written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach (that's “Ha-vee-air Gree-joe Mark’s-watch” to *you*) and illustrated by Les McClaine. This comic is being recommend to you by me, a bona fide Comic Book She-Geek. And I am hoping that you'll stop by and say hi at the Viper Comics Booth at the San Diego Comic Con (2007)!


Phew! I've already been stealthily working my way through this costume! Okay, to catch you all up to date on my ninja-like progress, I have been working primarily on the accessories. The smaller the detail is the more imperative it is that you pay attention to it; it's that strong focus on accuracy that sets aside mediocre work from great work. Always a good thing to keep in the back of your mind. ;) At *any* rate, there have already been two trips to the fashion district specifically for Wendy Watson. Items that are 100% completed at this time are as follows in order from ponytail top to tippy toes:

1. Glasses
2. Tie
3. Gloves
   
4. Base for Belt
5. "Superhero" Pants (of the skintight nature. lolz)
6. Boots

I had purchased green contacts lenses, but sadly the overwhelming brown of my own peepers totally dominated the color out of the green and you couldn't even tell I had any contacts lenses in at all. Curses. -_- Needless to say, the hunt is still on. You think I'd be giving up that easy? Tsk.

Moving on to current progress, I have completed the mock-up for the shirt and am happy to report that no alterations were really needed aside from determining a final length of the shirt (of which I was intentionally saving until later). I had wanted to model the shirt's mock-up on my dress form before I made my final fabric cuts because shirt fronts can be tricky in the sense that you need to errrrr.... think "3-Dimensionally" and as a rule I generally always am forced to make some pattern alterations in this area. I wanted to be sure that the bust of the dress form didn't hike up the shirt front to the point where my arm mobility be virtually nil lest I risk giving the entirety of the dealer's hall a "free show". XD  The operation was a smash success and I am cutting out the final fabric tonight and hopefully assembling it completely (I even have the buttons already) in between the fabric dying of B.Jenet and dying a test swatch for Wendy's jacket.

Which brings me to my next point of discussion. :)

I bought an over abundance of Gabardine Twill because it is all around a good fabric to have on hand. It's a stiff cloth that is not too insulating, which should help me stave off the heat stroke that is sure to set in from wearing pants and a jacket (and a wig to boot!) in a stuffy convention center hall in Southern California in the dead of summer. If you read my previous post, you will recall that the fabric I bought is white. Thusly, it is easily dye-able and I am thrilled at the prospect of potentially being able to use it for BOTH costumes that I am actively working on.

This, of course, depends on either the success or failure of my swatch test tonight. I have a fairly large collection of dyes and happened to have had a Kelly Green that I had previously used to dye my Tanline Cammy costume, which I think would suit the needs for Wendy's jacket splendidly. Although Javi and I had talked about making the color have more of an earthy feel so if I can't tweak the green enough to be ideal for what he is looking for I'll be back on the trail for a more military looking green. But with any luck, the end result will be dead on so  do me a favor and keep your fingers crossed for me! :D

Before I close this out, I have to comment on how thrilled I am to be a part of this project. I think I'll have a lot of fun getting into character seeing as both Wendy and myself are both seriously sass-a-frassing, adventure-driven, obstinate, clumsy, spandex-dawning artists with a side of goober-ex and a pension for mischief. :D

Remaining Tasks
 

• Paint Telescope
• Paint Eye Patch
  
• Hat
• Gloves
• Leg Harness (10%)
  
• Dress (60%)
  
• Shoes (modify)

This costume is absolutely speeding by! Funny story: my room mate came home extremely drunk last night and, at first, I hadn't the slightest idea because this is such a rarity. It became apparent,  however, when he came into my room and started asking questions about what I was making and looks at the reference pictures I have tacked to the wall next to my dress form. He looks at the picture I have featured to the left and jumps into this lecture about "respecting my body" and how I shouldn't do the costume because of the T&A. He then proceeds to look at the picture tacked directly below it (which is a full view of the picture used in the banner) and exclaims how cute she was and how I should consider making a costume for her instead. XD It took me about a 1/2 hour to explain that it was the same girl at the the statue image was merely a fan service shot. LOL'd. I got a kick out of that one...

First thing is first, I got PERFECT fabric! Well... nearly perfect. I decided to use a Garbadine Twill because being that she *is* a pirate, it made sense to me to have the fabric be something sturdy and more canvas-y looking as opposed to prom-dress satin style. :P The only problem is that amongst all of the magnanimous glory that is the Fashion District, I couldn't find a Twill of any sort in the right color. T^T. I decided that I would buy it in white and do the dying myself (which is what happens tonight after work). For the burgundy bits, I found a flawless color in corduroy at Michael Levine! YESSS! Corduroy has a similar stiffness to the Twill that I purchased so they compliment each other well. Also, it being corduroy gives it very subtle stripes on the belt, gloves, and underskirt. Stripes are NOTORIOUS pirate fashion so I was pleased by the prospect of that. :)

I don't know about you, but I order my steps of creation based on ease and convenience. I would have preferred to have been able to paint her eye patch and telescope, but since I lack both the paint as well as the items themselves, I moved on to making the belt instead. This is an example of what I mean by convenience:

The gold trim I used is about 1 1/2 inches in width and needed to be pressed in halves before I could attach it. I measured out the elastic (which is around 4 inches in width), the fabric (making sure the ribbing of the corduroy was facing the correct direction) and the trim itself. I then turned on the iron and while waiting for that to heat up, stitched the fabric to the elastic. This was enough time for the iron to be ready so I pressed the trim and sewed it on.

The order of the tasks that you do is important if you want to maximize your time and minimize clean-up. Carefully consider what items you have and what you need to do to them to effectively decide how you want to organize your construction process.

The belt turned out looking fabulous. Once again, I apologize for the lack of picture progress updates. It really is a bummer about that camera. :( I opted to make the belt overlap in a point (like the statue) because it looks more like a belt that is a part of her outfit and less like a poorly constructed loop of fabric tossed on as an after thought. ;) It won't fit over the shoulders of my dress form, but it *does* fit over mine. Yay for adjustable limbs!

I stitched together the mock-up that I had previously cut muslin for (darts and all) and tested the fit on my dress form. It turned out to be too baggy in some areas, but I am okay with that A) because I would rather it be slightly too large than too small and B) because no one gets it perfect on their first shot. I pinned it to a more correct fit and made the necessary adjustments. Once satisfied with the shape of my mock-up, I de-constructed the entire thing and used my finished pieces as the pattern for the fabric itself.

I cut out absolutely all of the fabric I will need to make this dress so I wouldn't have to bother with pinning and cutting more later on and put the remaining fabric away for a rainy day and added a swatch to my swatchbook. I even cut out the elastic needed for the leg holster and the choker that attaches to the dress straps. Now that I have all of my final pieces cut and ready to go, I will be dying them tonight because I just happen to be fortuitous enough to have stumbled across some purple dye. w00t! Of course I will be testing on a scrap before I attempt the whole dress. If in the event that it gets screwed up (god forbid) I have enough extra to be able to re-do it. But obviously I'd rather not have to do that. >_<