I love how I had an extra YEAR to work on these dragoncon costumes yet here I am finishing everything up last minute and half-assed.
Literally all last week, if I wasn’t at-work-working, eating, or sleeping I was working on these floral pieces for Padme. Last week I said it was about half scissors and half hot knife – well I slowly got better with the knife and was only using that at the end, and could do one panel in about 20 minutes. Not bad.
First row going on.
I realized after I had everything cut that I made a dumb mistake – with my original plans everything was going to be a 12×12 square to fit in the silhouette. So I still had that stuck in my head and worked in 12×12 squares, so I had to join each panel vertically, which was a PAIN and the messiest looking part of this. I realized I should’ve just gone ahead and done my guides at 12×12 – but I could’ve cut the fabric at 12×24 and not had to join them. D’oh. I was so stuck on the measurements from the original plan.
Also I kept a horizontal “bar” of fabric across the top of each panel just so they’d be easier to place. I cut those away once I started joining up the second row.
These on the dressform look like some fancy tiktok dress.
Starting second row.
I took each panel downstairs, sprayed it in Super77, then came back up and placed it on the dress. Usually let it sit under a board (on my table) for about 15 minutes, then i’d hand-tack the sides of it in place, including joining it up to the next row.
It’s so far from perfect. After dragoncon I’ll tell yall all the hoops I jumped through to get it to even this point. Gotta finish it first.
All of the pieces are on and sewed on the edges — I’ve got to back through and hand-tack more of the pieces especially the smaller vines which aren’t sticking to the skirt well.
I realized if I ever want to redo this — I can always just flip the skirt around and do it on the other side. Nice to know.
So yeah that was Sunday-Saturday last week. I developed a callus on my right middle finger from pushing the needle through the taffeta. Having to wrap some duct tape around it now LOL.
Oh and here’s all my finished panels ready to be attached:
I put a piece of duct tape at the top of each of them just as a sort of “handle” to carry them downstairs. It barely stuck to the fabric but it was enough to be helpful.
And here’s my set up where I was cutting them, with a big pile of cut away pieces behind it.
So yeah the next week and a half I’m going to be focusing on more tacking — to make sure there’s no bits hanging off when I wear it. Figure I’ll focus on that in the afternoons after work and Wanda in the evenings after dinner.
Speaking of Wanda, here’s my hip panels.
I worked on these off and on all last week (while waiting on Padme skirt glue to dry) but finally really dug in Sunday. I discovered that the e6000 glue I’ve been leaning on heavily for this project really doesn’t work on that black polyurethane fabric, so I ended up having to hand sew these together, which my already callused middle finger did not enjoy.
(“But why don’t you wear a thimble??” Because I don’t understand how anybody sews actually wearing on those, I have to constantly take it off and on and it slows me down. I have a leather thimble I like way better than a traditional needle but it doesn’t sit in the right place/wouldn’t cover where I got this callus. I need to get one of those full-coverage leather thimbles. Duct tape is working fine right now tho, thank you.)
Also I sure do hope they look ok ON ME because I’m NOT remaking them.
Mold for the center “tuning fork” and collar for Wanda. As soon as this is pulled I can hold it up to me with the bodice on and make sure the collar of the bodice is sitting in the right place under the actual collar and finally close it all up, get the stripes and hip panels attached.
I also got the hand part of the gloves assembled and got a rough pattern for the upper portion made. I need to baste the zipper in and see if it’s all good before I apply the HTV and all the other bits.
So here’s my to-do list:
Padme:
-Keeping tacking on floral panels
-Paint buttons/attach
-finish styling wig
I’ve got the wig ready to go – Chase is painting the headpiece for me, and once I have that I can finish styling it.
Bail:
-Closure on shirt
Wanda:
-crown attachment
-close up bodice/sew in zipper
-attach stripes/hip panels
-attach belt buckle
-elastic stirrups on pants
-finish gloves
and PACK!!!! It’s a week and 2 days from dcon and I HAVE NOT PACKED. This is cause for concern. We haven’t even tested to see if I can get the bin into the car or not. Kinda thinking I may have to forego my big rolling bin this year that I’ve used the past several years. I don’t think I can lift it into the car myself and Chase can’t help with his back.
So besides all the costume work I also did manage to clean myself up a little bit. Got my lashes and hair both done this weekend.
I hadn’t had a haircut since April – usually I trim my bangs myself as I go but I DID NOT THIS TIME. They were SO LONG! I’d been either having to clip them back or curl them to keep them out of my face.
Anyway that’s all for this week. I think everything will get done. Still got one more weekend to work. Going to go write up my packing list now.