To Hem Jeans

Who ever knew hemming a pair of jeans would be such a long process. 

Well What Do Ya Know

I finally got my prom dress done.  Since the dress was originally too big for me, I needed to make a few adjustments to the bodice and skirt.  I put darts around the top of the bodice and attached a belt to the waistband.  The combination of both modifications really trimmed down the dress.  It actually looks nice on me now instead of making me look bloated. 

I have to take pictures of the dress and accessory today.  I might post some pictures of the dress on my blog if I get enough time.  Camp prep is taking most of my time.  If fact I should be packing instead of blogging, but I wanted to post this brief update and a few other posts that need posting.  As I said, I’ll be gone all thins week so I won’t be able to blog.  ;_;  I miss my blog already.  Nevertheless when I get back expect a few more updates than normal as I will begin working on my convention costumes.  (See next post.)  Well talk to you in a week! 

New Costume Line Up

Since August is coming up, I’m getting ready for the local convention that is occurring.  This convention is more of what I like to call a geek convention.  It’s where people of various geeky interests (such as cosplay, role playing games, video game players, anime fans, manga readers, and the like) get together for a three day extravaganza celebrating a whole hoard of geeky pursuits.  If you are like me and don’t mind being called a geek because that is what you are then you should understand my usage of the term geek and geeky.  It is not meant in a derogatory way but merely to express that conventions like the above mentioned are out of the ordinary and for out of the ordinary people, mainly fans of out of the ordinary things like Star Wars or Fullmetal Alchemist.  I apologize if my use of the term geek offends you. 

Anyway, as I was saying, I am preparing for this said convention.  Since I love to sew and am a professed geek, I am making a few costumes for the convention.  There I said it.  I’M MAKING COSTUMES TO WEAR TO A GEEK CONVENTION.  Even though I’m slightly embarrassed to say so, that is what I am doing.  I’m so very excited!!!!!!!  This will be my first time wearing any of my cosplays out in public, hence the slight embarrassment. 

I will be making three to possibly four cosplays for this event.  My list is as follows:

Sophia Forrester’s vice captain uniform from Last Exile.

  

Sheeta’s pirate uniform from Laputa:Castle in the Sky.

                         

Fio from Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso

                

And an undecided possible fourth. 

I will be updating on these costumes as progress is made.  If I go, I might be making a Star Wars costume for Star Wars in Concert in a couple weeks.  It is still uncertain as to whether or not I’m going.  It’s a bit expensive but totally worth it.  Since I have camp this Monday through Friday, I won’t have much time to work on a costume for the event.  If I do go I would like to be in costume.  I’m still not sure what costume I would possibly make either.  Ah, decisions, decisions.  What ever will I do with you.  Decisions, you can make things very difficult some times. 

 

Mood: Contemplative  =_= 

Sophia Forrester Progress Report 1

As of a couple days ago, I now have all the fabric I need for my Sophia cosplay.  I still have to get a few more things like zippers, a bit of thread, and a few other minor items.  Still haven't found her reading glasses yet.  I’m starting to wonder if they even exist outside of the anime.  The fate of her hair clip is hanging in the balance right now.  I’m not sure whether or not to have the hair down like in this picture:

She wore her hair like this in the anime when she told Alex about her going back to the palace.  Her hair was also down when she talked to Claus about her plans.  I can’t give away too much of the plot.  -_^

Anyway, I could also have the hair pulled back into a twisted braidy-like bunish thing.  Like this:

         

This is her most common hair style.  She wore it throughout most of the series. 

I do like how sharp and vice admiral like the second hair style is.  I just have one problem, the hair clip.  How on earth am I going to make, much less find, the darn thing?!  The back one is what I’m most worried about but the two side/front ones pose an equal, if not greater, challenge.  If I do the second hair style, I might not have to buy a wig for this cosplay, but that’s only if my hair grows out in time, which I doesn’t seem like it will.  So either way I’m probably going to have to buy a wig.  Now I just need to find a good, decent, honest wig seller who has high quality wigs at a good price. 

Switching topics, while I was at the store studying this picture:

I discovered that the designs/appliqué on Sophia’s uniform are silver not white.  If you look really closely at her collar, you’ll see that the appliqué gives off a silver hue instead of a white one.  It even looks this way when the picture is printed off.  This was a major break through for me.  I also discovered that her collar is lined with silver fabric.  See below picture:

Both of these discoveries majorly helped explain why the fabric behaved the way it did.  Since the appliqué is silver, it can appear both whitish and silver when exposed to different lighting.  This also explains why the appliqué has a bit of a sheen to it as well.  These pictures help to illustrate my point.

           

Changing topics, I have had the hardest time finding the right fabric shade for the uniform.  The closest I’ve found is a silvery gray color by Kona Cotton.  Since it’s not perfect I might try lining the dress with a darker color fabric to get the desired effect.  I don’t know how well this will work so we’ll see. 

Other that that, I’ve had a relatively easy time fining what I need.  I even found some awesome looking pleather for her boots in the clearance section.  I don’t what I’m going to do for the redish orange soles yet.  I’m still researching that. 

Sorry my post is long and kinda random and jumpy.  There’s been a lot of things happening with this costume that I don’t know where to start or how to transition to my next thought.  My thoughts like to jump around.  I hope you enjoyed reading my post and look forward to the next ones.  My next post should be about Sheeta’s pirate uniform unless another idea pops up.  Thank you for reading and please tune in again to find out what happens next in the exciting adventures of my endeavors as a seamstress.

 

dilemmas

Another New Prom Dress

Darn patterns!  I do not like how much ease is incorporated into ready make prom dress patterns.  It can mess up perfectly wonderful dresses and turn them into alteration nightmares. 

Ok, Joanns Fabrics is having the Own Your Look prom dress contest.  Naturally, I decide to make another new prom dress for it.  Prom was in a couple weeks anyway and a ginormous sale was going on at Joanns.  Casa Collection fabric for 50% off is a huge deal.  I get my fabric and embellishments or as many as I can considering that I went on either the last or the second to last day of the sale.  Everything was pretty much picked over, but I found what I wanted (even though I had to back six times). With that done and taken care of, I finished up school and graduated.  My school’s prom is weird since it’s after school is officially over. 

Anyway, so I start on the dress.  Following the pattern perfectly, I carefully constructed my work of art.  Even though it took me just under a week, I was very happy to finish up the last details.  Or so I thought.  Excitedly, I tried on the dress only to find that it was at least 2 inches too big.  I was very distraught (I still am a bit) and mad at the pattern.  Even though I had followed it perfectly, the dress still turned out too big.  I realized that I forgot about this annoying thing called ease that is included in every store bought pattern.  Boy, is it a hassle sometimes. 

Frustrated, I tried to alter that dress but to no avail.  I was still too upset about the mis-sizing.  So, I put (ok, threw) the dress in my redo corner and focused on the matching shrug instead.  The shrug turned out exactly as the pattern said.  I didn’t even have to alter the pattern for too much ease.  Heartened by the success of the shrug, I began to alter the dress.  At first it didn’t work so well till I prayed and got the idea to put darts in the bodice and an adjustable bow around the waistband.  Both alterations worked really well!  I reduced the bodice to nearly my size (I still have to put in a couple more darts) and made the waistband look like it actually fit me.  I just have to fix the skirt a bit.  Since the dress has a high waist, the skirt makes me look a bit (ok, more than a bit) bottom heavy and slightly pregnant even though I’m neither.  I know that because of the cut there is not much I can do, but I still want to try to slim out the skirt a bit. 

Remorse For Lack of Updates

Sorry I haven’t been posting much.  Life has been crazy.  Finals as well as other school projects have consumed my time for the last two weeks or so.  I recently graduated as well so that ate up the rest of my nonexistent time.  School is finally over now to which I am extremely pleased.  Now I can concentrate on my sewing and various summer activities. 

Prom Dresses

Now that my bout with historical costumes is over, for me anyway, I am switching over to prom dresses.  The epitome of girlyness and fashion.  Why girls make such a big deal over these dresses I will never fully realize.  Nevertheless, they are a blast to make, especially when delighted eyes meet mine as I had over the finished creation. 

As of now, I am working on two prom dresses.  I’m still trying to start the ball gowns for my mom and sister, but their dresses don’t fit into this category.  Still, as I was saying, I have two prom dresses in the making.  One is a just-for-fun project while the other is for the Joann’s “Own Your Look” prom dress contest as well as for my spring dance.  Yes, it’s a bit late in the year, but fun nonetheless.  I really hope I can win, or at least place in the contest.  The college money would be extremely helpful.