Costume & Crafting Help

[Foxfur]

I LOVE wandergirl's outfit in her avatar photo!

<3 <3 <3

just made a scrap skirt like this last night, but with black fabric, black tulle and different purple stripes. love it!

Now I love it too!
Very nice.

[Savannah]

My new dressmaker's dummy is out of the box and assembled. I have named her Eleanor.

Baby steps.

[mgb327]

Rigby?

[theCryptofishist]

of Aquataine?

[Foxfur]

My stencils came in the other day. Happy, right? Nope.
It was raining and I'm not allowed to spraypaint in the house anymore

Fatal Stencils.jpg

Today it was sunny!
I painted up a scrub top and came up with this Burning Man ensemble:

Keepin It Fatal 02.jpg

Only problem is that folks will mistake me for DPW...

[theCryptofishist]

So, I'm looking for photos (or good search terms to find same) of examples when people did alterations adding cloth to shirts or other garments to make them larger. Splitting the seams up the side and sewing in panels is the basic idea...

[catinthefunnyhat]

Hi FIshy! The word you're looking for, I think, is gusset.
A quick search for "adding a gusset" gave me a whole pile of articles specific to renaissance-type clothing, but I found a few that seemed to use the term for general embiggening operations.

Here are a couple.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-gusset.htm
http://www.sempstress.org/demo/pattern-cheat-for-sewing-underarm-gussets-faster/#more-4034

I hope that helps get you started...

[theCryptofishist]

Well, it's very cromulent...

[wandergirl]

omg, somebody make me finish something. I have a serious case of costume ADD.

[tattoogoddess]

omg, somebody make me finish something. I have a serious case of costume ADD.

get back to work! You have less then 70 days to look playa fabulous!

[Fufa]

Never before have I realized how long hand stitching takes.

[lucky420]

Going to start a big furry coat for my son this weekend. He wore the one i made last year and loves it. My poor little sewing machine may be thrashed after this...

[wandergirl]

omg, somebody make me finish something. I have a serious case of costume ADD.

get back to work! You have less then 70 days to look playa fabulous!

haha, thanks!!
I... half-finished another new project last night. lol.


luck420, I've never tried sewing faux fur. do you have to use a different needle? I got my sewing machine a couple weeks ago so I am an extreme newb.

[Drawingablank]

omg, somebody make me finish something. I have a serious case of costume ADD.

get back to work! You have less then 70 days to look playa fabulous!

haha, thanks!!
I... half-finished another new project last night. lol.


luck420, I've never tried sewing faux fur. do you have to use a different needle? I got my sewing machine a couple weeks ago so I am an extreme newb.

Most fur sews fine with a standard needle, however if you have any issues switch to a needle designed for knits called a ball point needle. Generally a size 14 or 16 needle works on all but the heaviest furs.
This video has great fur sewing tips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSZjunUwixc

Edit: I would have embedded it, but you now need to sign in to youtube to view it.

[lazerfox]

I always hoped she would post more videos.

[lucky420]

wandergirl, no I just use standard needles when sewing fur. I trim about a 1/2 to 1/4 of the fur off the edges I'm sewing and that helps a bit. It really is rough on my machine though. I don't have a heavy duty sewing machine that would probably make a difference though.

Oh and I'm not really much of a seamstress. I pretty much just sew stuff for bm because no one really looks at the seams closely and it gets all dusty anyways.

I'll try and post a pic of my coat later today

[EmilyD]

Well, now that we have tickets in hand it's fur real and I've started on the largest sewing project of my life! It's a group costume which 10 people will wear in modules. So far so good, I've got the armature solved (garden stakes) and the base fabric (100% cotton - for coolness) and the shimmy/shiny fabrics for the over layers. Now I'm edging all the bits with my overlock machine. More reports to come as it evolves.

[EmilyD]

Costume/crafting help bump. Anyone who's stuck with a sewing/crafting problem...lay it out and we'll try to help you solve it!

[SquirrelHead]

Any idea where I can pick up rock bottom priced white king size flat sheets? I have some ideas about tye dying them and using them for "walls".

[tattoogoddess]

Good will maybe? If not fuck mart.

[Ratty]

Hey SquirellHead, I just 'bumped' a thread to the top for you. It has some ideas where to get stuff cheap/free. Hope it helps. It's "Need fabric, clothes and blankets to fashion into playa wear?".

[Savannah]

A few years ago I went to a thrift store and picked up a bunch of twin flat sheets in varying pretty prints, but in the same color family (medium-blue). Then I washed 'em on hot with a bit of bleach to be on the safe side. They were just 99 cents each, because they didn't have fitted sheets with them, but who needs those when you're just hanging them up on the playa for a bit of cheer?

[lazerfox]

My local goodwill's all have an entire section dedicated to sheets. Also try yard sales or craigslist. Just make sure to wash them well with hot water + a little bleach like Savannah said.

[tattoogoddess]

Dont forget you can also "tie dye" with bleach. I did this to one of my dresses turned out awesome!

[catinthefunnyhat]

What they all said... lots of sheets at thrift stores, usually cheap. But if you're set on white and king size, you might want to call around to local hotels/motels, find out what they do with their old ones. When I moved out on my own, I scored a beautiful set of high-quality, white cotton sheets for $10 from a hotel. They had an annual sale off-site where they sold all kinds of linens, dishes, furniture, curtains, coffee makers... basically anything that was outdated, starting to show the faintest signs of wear, or -- in the case of the sheets -- had been around for a year.

[tattoogoddess]

This is going to be my next project. Wish me luck!! lol. I think is looks harder then it actually is.

[Savannah]

Are you attending or acting in a play while you're out there?

Or do you simply feel bereft without a ruff in your life?

[catinthefunnyhat]

Are you attending or acting in a play while you're out there?

Or do you simply feel bereft without a ruff in your life?

She likes to playa ruff. Perhaps she'll enjoy Retrofrolic... or the Thunderdome .

[EmilyD]

This is going to be my next project. Wish me luck!! lol. I think is looks harder then it actually is.

Nice!!! Very Elisabethian! What will you be wearing it with, if anything?

[tattoogoddess]

Yep. It is going with my "queen of hearts" costume