groundbreaking!
I did nothing this weekend except sew. It was marvelous.
First up, on the “Dark Lady” costume – my swatch came in and looked great! So I ordered a yard and it’s shipped, should be here next week and then I can finish up that costume.
So that’s 2 down – onto #3? As I said last post I got started on my Multiverse of Madness Wanda FINALLY. I’ve had the fabric for a couple of years!
Last week I had done an initial mockup for the bodice, and I’d gotten the pants made. I realized as I was typing last week’s post that I’d forgotten the stripe on the pants, so I went back and added that first thing last Monday night.
So then back to the bodice. First up was mockup #2:
I was really hoping mockup #2 would be the ticket, after making edits to the pattern based on mockup #1, so I used what I had left over my black cotton so I could use it as the lining. But dang it it needed more edits. (Also just holding the chestpiece up to get the visual effect. It’s obviously not shaped to me yet.
So onto mockup #3:
This one was good. I needed to change the armhole/upper chest shape, and then take it in in the bust and hips.
The reason I needed to get this really dialed in is because I only have 3 panels of this fabric and I don’t have room to make a mistake without having to spend $100 on more fabric and wait a few weeks for it to get to me. But with mockup #3 I felt like I had it down, so first i made the interior. Thankfully I had a long scrap of black taffeta and found enough black cottons craps to cut it all out of that so I didn’t have to make a fabric store run (what fabric store???? I don’t have one now :()
I got those layers assembled, pressed and sewn together, then sewed in the boning channels and put in the boning. I sewed the zipper on again one more time (so tired of sewing in this zipper but I didn’t want to guess on this) so I could try it on again before cutting the expensive fabric. Fits like a gloooove, so onto the real fabric.
The outer shell
I can’t press this fabric. It melts the design. It’s driving me crazy. So I sat and hand-sewed the seam allowances down to keep the seams looking “pressed.”
I got the outer shell sewn to the interior and the zipper in. Whoo! It’s pretty much done. I’ve got the edges pinned trying to see if I can “train” them since I can’t press it. If that doesn’t work I’ll need to hand tack it like I did the seam allowances, but I don’t want to do that until I know I don’t need to change this shape at all. And I won’t know that for a while – once I have the front panel and hip pieces shaped and attached. So leaving it “open ended” until then.
So that was all last week through Sunday. Yesterday I dug into the undershirt, using up the last of my fabric. I cut the sleeves first, because I felt like they were the most important. At first I was trying to come up with a pattern that included the thumb loop, but after messing with that for a while, I decided to just make the thumb loop a separate panel and sew it onto the end of the sleeve instead of having it all be one piece. So I got the sleeves cut, and then used a leotard pattern to cut out what I could of the body. Since I could only get like, a crop-top length out of what I had left, I extended it down with some scrap black spandex so it’d be a little more comfortable under everything.
It’s all done, I did a facing at the neckline. I just need to do the thumb loop. I was gonna do it yesterday, or at least get the pieces cut, but I cut my left index finger REALLY bad with my fabric scissors. Like I haven’t even cut myself that bad before. So I decided that was my sign to quit for the night.
With the pants (now with a stripe)
With the bodice. It all looks so disproportionate, but the bodice fits me really well. I do have concerns it’s a little long — which again is why I’m not doing that hand-sewing on the edge until I can try it on and see for sure if I need to shorten it a bit.
With a hip panel and chest piece. These are just balanced on the dressform.
So I can’t remember if I talked about it here, but the chest piece and hip panels I bought from someone on the Scarlet Witch costuming facebook group. I’m not sure what their history is or who made them exactly? I’m considering making a mold of the chestpiece and casting it the same way we did my Wandavision version because I really don’t like how stiff this one is. Even once it’s formed to me I don’t think it will be very comfortable. But those are roads to cross when we get there.
But I’m excited to have the sewing for this so far along?? Like I’m right on track with where I wanted to be at the end of May. The biggest sewing things left are the skirt (which the way I’m planning to do it, isn’t a lot of sewing. It’ll mostly be the weathering but I think I can probably have it done in a weekend), and the boots. I need to get some base boots ordered so I can figure out how I want to inset the black Wanda fabric into them. I may make an entire boot cover… we’ll see, I only have concepts of a plan right now.
Anyway, I won’t be working on anything this weekend. Going on an adventure. I’ll check back next Tuesday and let ya’ll know how the adventure went.
But just for my brain’s sake, let’s do a check-in on projects progress and a to-do list:
Troi:
-try everything on
-paint shoes
-style wig
“Dark Lady”:
-make trim from yardage
-sew trim on
Wanda:
-get thumb loop added to shirt
-add elastic straps to pants
-get skirt fabric swatched/ordered
-dye skirt fabric
-weather skirt
-make skirt waistband/closure
-order boots
-make boot covers??
-chase 3d printing stuff
-attachments for everything
Belle: (Goals just for the next couple of weeks, not everything)
-dye fabric
-Make petticoat