Well I was really hoping to say Troi was finished in my post today – at least, the dress was finished – but alas. I’m CLOSE.
Here she is as of Wednesday. I got the waistband on and the skirt attached.
And yesterday afternoon.
I spent most of Saturday morning getting the cuffs added to the sleeves, and the zippers installed. I had bought invisible zippers on Amazon (a pack of 10 because they can’t sell just 1 or 2) and had planned to dye them. But I didn’t have the right colours, so Friday night I went to buy dye and while I was there, found 2 normal zippers that were a dead close match for the colour of the dress. So I bought those and used them instead, figured that’s easier than dyeing and having to install an invisible zipper (I hate installing zippers in the first place, and invisible zippers even more). I did shorten them and they work fine. They match so well they are really not noticeable.
Earlier in the week I got the waistband attached and skirt on, as I said above. I did end up having to take the waistband off and shorten the dress on the sides and back – probably like an inch to an inch and a half. Which is nuts considering this fabric shrunk in the dye. It’s still slightly too long in the back and the zipper wrinkles when I stand up really straight, but I’m not going to keep messing with it.
Speaking of the zipper, I got it installed, and the back seam closed up.
I’ve got the bottom hem like 80% done, it’s done all the way around the bottom and up one side of the front slit. Just need to do the other side. I’m not super happy with the fact you can slightly see my hem tacks on the right side, but I didn’t have enough fabric to line these panels, so I just have to live with the little dots.
I would’ve had it done last night if I hadn’t decided to fix a few things. First after I took this second pic above, I decided to take the front of the skirt off the waistband. I didn’t like that little burble at the top of the front of the skirt. I pulled it up slightly into the waistband to clean that up. I also revisited both the bottom point on the waistband and the one on the neckband. I just can’t get those to look cleaner no matter what I do. I’m trapped by needing to stay an even distance away from the bottom line of decorative top stitching, and the interfacing is really fighting me trying to clean up those points on the inside. Plus pressing this costume is just a nightmare, I have to keep the heat down to avoid melting it (again) and it’s just not enough heat to press the seams the way I’d like. And I can’t see what I’m doing with the presser cloth in the way.
Anyway, I messed with both points again and just let it go last night. It is what it is, I don’t have enough space to keep redoing it. I’m going to press them one more time and call it done. Then I just need to close the lining layer of the neckband again, and finish that one side of the bottom hem.
I did work on some other things yesterday too, I needed breaks from the hem:
I bought a pack of headbands at the craft store thinking one would work fine as a base for her headband and I could put the other one in my bag of stuff for making Minnie Ears. But when I got home and started looking at references, it needed to be wider. So I sewed them bother together, then covered them in buckram to make one solid piece. It’s maybe a little big? I haven’t tried it on with the wig yet. We’ll see. This made my fingers SO SORE working with this buckram.
But it’s ready to be covered in my spandex now, and then I’ll start decorating it. I’m just going to use leftover Taylor rhinestones.
I also made my tights. Downloaded a pattern from etsy which worked great. Got them mostly sewn up – enough to try them on and make sure they looked ok. I still need to close up the toes and add the waistband.
And as I said above, my wig did arrive (thank goodness!) and I also picked up some shoes at the secondhand store this weekend. Was hoping to find something in a close colour range but I did not. Found some nude pumps and got some Angelus paint at Tandy to paint them. Chase is going to airbrush them for me. I’m just hoping we can maintain a shine on them.
In other costume news, Luna got a new box:
This is absolutely the biggest box I’ve ever gotten from Dharma. What was in it? A giant chunk of fabric:
It’s most of my Belle fabric. Not going to start on this til later. Also got my base wig.
Got to visit with Ms Mabel, and went out to Easter lunch on Saturday.
Luna says “hey”
And in costume-y news yet not costume-y news:
I did snatch up a pair of the Po-zus before they went out of business. Not doing a Rey costume but I do want to do a Rey bound at some point, so it’ll be nice to have these. I always wanted a pair in general!
To-do this week:
-press neck and waistband
-get neckband lining sewn back down
-finish hem
-put waistband on tights
-close toes on tights
-cover headband
-stone headband
-get better photos of costume #2/do a sketch
-get the other fabric for it ordered