So where I left off with Jessica last week was I was pretty close to get it finished. I had to tweak that sleeve pattern once more.
But as I kept working on it I was really unhappy with it. The darts I’d had to add just looked awful, the sleeve openings were too low and droopy looking and everytime I tried to press the darts it just seemed to look worse? I was feeling really frustrated with the whole thing.
As I thought about it Monday night – convinced I’d completely ruined it – I finally came up with a solution, which meant almost entirely disassembling the thing Tuesday. I hated doing that, because having all these previously sewn spots on silk is gonna suck. But I did it. Removed the one shoulder/sleeve panel I’d already sewn in, undid the shoulder seam, completely removed the lining.
I decided that what really needed to be done was I needed to shorten the shoulder straps, thus pulling everything upwards. I shortened the straps/neckline by about an inch, and that helped pull the too low arm holes into place, and also pulled the darts up so they’re more on the side of my chest than come down into the curve of my chest. I also took the sides up while I was at it.
I got everything reassembled and that one little tweak helped everything look MUCH better.
I still don’t just LOVE the darts but they look less bad in the new placement.
Got the sleeve/shoulder panels cut down to fit the new smaller arm holes and got them sewn in, shoulder straps sewn back together too.
And after a light steaming I’m feeling a lot better about it.
Left to do on the dress is I still need to put the zipper in – I don’t want to do that until I have the leotard I plan to wear under it. Even with the lining it’s still a bit see-through so I’m ordering a shapewear leotard to wear under it, so I don’t have any bra lines and everything is smooth.
And of course I need to hem it — but I’m not going to do that til I have the shoes I’m going to wear. I have some picked out on amazon but I may go to the thrift store to see if I find anything else that might work instead.
With the veils
I’m really annoyed with how different the largest veil looks in comparison to the dress — but then scroll back up to the one of the front (from about hips up) and it matches well?? Like?? What??
That one large one has been the problem child since day 1 when it came out darker and less saturated than everything else. I did a colour correction that day but apparently that wasn’t enough. I ended up buying another order of Marigold RIT dye on Saturday — it wasn’t available anywhere locally so I bought it online thru the Joann app since they had a $3 shipping coupon. So next weekend I may take it out to the little pool to try to brighten it up a bit.
Also just scroll through these pics and look at how different the colour looks from pic to pic. I thought photographing blues in my sewing room was bad. But — as annoying as this is – I also feel like it’s the same way the actual costume from the movie photographs? Like the range of colour in my references from behind-the-scenes to screencaps to the exhibit photos is kinda the same “all over the place” range.
I had planned to start working the beaded tiara/face thing this weekend but didn’t get to it. I’ve got a sheet of Kobracast I bought for Wanda last year and didn’t use – thinking I am going to make the base out of that. I’ve ordered 30 yards of a trim I’m going to use as a base for all the major sections of both the face beaded thing and the “crop top” beaded thing – it’s arriving later this week, so there’s no rush to get started on a structure yet.
So since I was at a stopping point with Jessica I moved back to the Padme sleeves.
First up, I did another mock-up.
I’m pretty sure this is some leftover chiffon from the first fabric I bought for Bespin Leia in 2006 LOL
I’ve already done like 4 mock-ups before this – but they were all out of heavier fabric and I wanted to see it in something closer to the silk I’d actually be using. So this scrap poly chiffon did the trick.
So Saturday I made myself finally cut my real fabric. 1 layer of the crinkle silk chiffon and 1 layer of the newly arrived silk charmeuse. After I got them cut I basted them together.
Also as I was cutting I realized I cut the crinkle silk chiffon in the wrong direction. The crinkles on her sleeves are horizontal and I cut it vertical. Oh well. Couldn’t do anything about because it was already cut. My Bespin Leia crinkle direction is also wrong so we’ll just call it a trend.
I then spent basically all day Saturday messing with the elastic pieces that go under where the armbands sit. At first I sewed them on too high. I had to very carefully remove the elastic pieces, clean up the area and move them down about an inch. Got the seam closed and called it a night.
Sunday I was really hoping to FINISH the sleeves, but I got stymied by the fact the buttons I had on hand I had planned to use for the cuffs were too big. I had to order some new ones online, won’t be here til Tuesday. I didn’t want to build-in the loops for the buttons in the sleeves without having the buttons to test them on.
I did get the cuffs patterned, cut, interfaced and ready to go. I also got some piping covered in velvet to build into the bottom eddge.
Here’s hoping these cuffs work right – my pattern looked good but there’s no telling how it will look when I actually put it on the real sleeve and put it on my actual arm. It’s nice having these mannequin arms to work with, but they are significantly longer than my own arms so sometimes they can be deceiving.
Sunday night we went out to my parents’ for Fathers Day dinner and watched an episode of Picard.
In other news I’ve been cleaning the house, trying to get ready to have family staying with us over the 4th. I’m not use to having people upstairs except Kevin LOL So I’ve been trying to get the guestroom and Kevin’s room cleaned up and stuff put away.
And last thing is Kristie surprised me with a Star Wars sweatshirt I love:
Equally billed space twins right up top?? I love it.