I got Merida mostly finished!
I got the eyelets set into the neck with Chase’s help though I cut one opening too big and after a freak out spiral I ended up having to go back and wrap each eyelet in embroidery floss to fix it, but in the end it looks good and there’s no visible metal eyelets, so that’s nice.
I got the neckline and sleeve chiffon added too.
All that’s left is finishing up the belt – add a snap, and maybe a small piece of worbla just to strengthen the spot where the drape-y pieces wrap around. And I need to find a brooch or something. I tried what was left of my black/gold grim on one of the drapey pieces but I’m not sure I like it, it’s just pinned on right now.
Trying it on. Do I need a petticoat? I wasn’t going to wear one. I pulled out my small one to try it on with it and see but haven’t actually done that yet. If I do wear one, I’ll wear it wrong side out so it’s not floofy, just to give it more of an “A” shape.
Then I started pulling out stuff for my big photoshoot! I keep saying it’s this coming weekend but it’s not – it’s Thanksgiving weekend. I wanted to get it all pulled, ironed, and checked over so I could do any needed repairs. Most of it is Dragoncon stuff so no repairs needed there, but some older stuff like Hippolyta and Magik may need some love. Haven’t gotten to them yet.
Tonight I’m wearing Hoth Leia for the battlefront release, so I got that out, too. Since I was in this swing of looking everything for needed repairs, I noticed my collar eye (for my hook and eye) was missing. It had also been sewn on in GREEN thread so there were pieces of green thread sticking out everywhere. I decided to fix it, removed the remaining hook and replaced it with a bigger one and a new eye, and pulled out of all of the ugly green thread pieces.
Then I decided to replace the velcro on the belt. It has a tendency to POP open everytime I bend over (since I have to bend over so funny in this because there is no stretch to it), so I decided I’d replace the velcro with a hook-and-eye, too. I discovered something funny while doing this…
I must have been out of regular velcro and said f it… we’ll sew through sticky back. The backing is even still on it. What the heck! LOL. So yeah that definitely got removed.
And then I got a little crazy.
I cut the entire back off of my jumpsuit.
After I first wore my jumpsuit as Bespin Escape in Jan 2006, I realized that it was just not working. I’d used a stretch pattern, just made bigger and sized down, with VERY NON-stretchy material. I can’t move much in it, but the worst part was that the back just wasn’t long enough and the back of the collar was constantly being pulled down and pretty much choking me at all times. There is never any sitting in this unless I unhook the collar and unzip it part of the way. You can see this phenomenon happening in my favourite photo of the costume:
Over the next few months mom and I tried to devise various ways of fixing this problem without completely remaking it — especially once I made my Hoth vest and the back would be hidden. As you can see in the photo of the back above, we tried cutting out squares and to add extra fabric to the back to try to lessen that pull. Then we tried adding some elastic panels. None of this really worked all that well… maybe a bit. And it left the back of the suit looking like a crazy patchwork.
So Saturday, I was thinking, I’ll remove one of these panel pieces – the bigger one – and replace it with a piece of knit. I had some of that off-white knit from my Leia comics costume leftover, and I figured that would work well. But then as I sat there unpicking the stitches to take it out, I was seized by a madness. I grabbed my scissors and just completely cut the back piece off. In my head I kept thinking, I’m going to ruin this. I’m going to ruin it and I won’t be able to wear it Monday but oh well if I do I should remake it anyway.
But… surprisingly, replacing it worked very well with no problems.
I mean, obviously it doesn’t match, but it’ll be hidden by the vest. And guess what, the collar actually doesn’t pull down so bad anymore!!! Well, maybe a little but if before it was an 8/10 on the “Collar being pulled backwards” scale then now it’s a 2/10. AND it makes the back fit much better once the belt is on. It’s still not all that comfortable to wear (I’m going to have to drive to the event tonight with the entire top unzipped and off) but this did help immensely!