im only doing this for debbie

Well. That weekend was a disaster.

Let’s start with fun stuff first though – I ordered my ribbons for Dragoncon!

So last week I said I wanted to be done with costume #5’s base so I could start rhinestoning by the end of the week. I was only a couple of days behind. I did drop the idea of having the whole thing be solid non-stretch. I finished the interior corset layer completely, it looked great, it fit great. I made the stretchy leotard layer for the outside. I got it dyed – it was a little messy but passable. Got it sewn onto the base layer. Got the zipper sewn in.

And I could. not. get. it. to. fit. my. butt.

It kept gaping weirdly right at like the lower curve of my butt which was not attractive. This was a bummer because everything else looked good?

Look I can’t post pics of this without spoiling what it is, so my blog readers get to know the costume and it’ll just be a surprise to anybody who doesn’t read my blog. I’m doing a Taylor Swift “Lover” bodysuit mashup with Padme’s lake dress.

Here’s the interior layer and the outer stretch layer.

On the dressform

Looks pretty ok from the front.

So for this outer layer I had modified my fav leotard pattern, just making it a little bit bigger to it wouldn’t fight the interior non-stretch layer too much and adding side front and side back seams. The fit issue at the back seemed to mostly be around that side back seam. So I kept trying to take it up. To add to the frustration here, I was also dealing with 2 more lining layers at the bottom that were only waist high, so it was 3 layers I was having to take up and monkey with every time.

I had hoped to be done with it Friday night. Alas, this is what I spent all friday night and saturday morning dealing with. Finally I just ripped the lining layers out and tried it on with just the outer layer so I could just focus on one layer. After taking it up several times, and it still not working, I finally unpicked the crotch seam and laid the original leotard pattern pieces over it to see if that help.

And turns out the issue wasn’t with my side back seams, it was with the center back seam. Once I took that up, the back fit. Or, it would have, if I hadn’t taken up those side back seams so much, cutting away excess and now left me with a leotard that was WAY TOO CHEEKY.

In any other projects I could’ve just taken off the 4 back panels and replaced those with new ones, but since this whole thing was dyed a gradient, I couldn’t do that. I had to take the whole thing off, throw it in the trash, and order new fabric to start over.

So since I was stuck on that, I decided to do something I felt confident in doing – shoes.

My boots for this costume had come in, so I got them painted. Chase added a sealant to them yesterday so they are ready for me to start stoning today. At least that’s one thing done.

After I painted those, I moved on to my Scarlet Witch boots. I thought these might take a few hours and be a little annoying but do-able. HAHA

So Saturday night I did a duct tape pattern, got it cut apart, and paper patterns made. All set to go for Sunday.

And then I spent all day Sunday… like 9 am to 8pm, struggling with ONE BOOT COVER. ONE. ONE BOOT COVER.

First my cut outs weren’t mirrored well enough so I recut my patterns and started over. Got them sewn onto the spandex Wanda layer and it looked good.

(Also to add to my day of frustration, these boots would NOT stand up on their own even when stuffed. This pic was taken a split second before it fell over.)

Then it was just all day of them not fitting the boot right. Having to make a new pattern piece for the back panel because it was too short. Having to take up the back panel because now it was too big. Having to edit the front seams around the inset spandex piece because it wasn’t curving right.

By the late afternoon I finally got it to where I could attach the bottom edge to the boot. I first tried my permanent tape which I’ve used for boot covers before, but it would not stay stuck to either the boot base or this suede boot cover. So plan B – I tried to sew it. That proved to be too difficult, I could wrestle a needle through the areas closet to the zipper but once I got near the toe I couldn’t reach it to force it through anymore. Plan C – e6000, which stained my fabric. Thankfully it was only on an interior corner where I tested it first, so we’ll keep moving. Plan D – hot glue. UGH my nemesis, I fucking hate hot glue except in emergencies. But here we are. I started gluing it on from the back side of the zipper around the heel. It was looking good, holding well. But as I got closer to the toe I realized it wasn’t sitting right. It either wanted to angle up too high, and if I forced the toe into the right place, it created an almost inch burble that stuck up right in the front by the toe. And there was no way to fix it because now the inside of my boot cover had hot glue all over it.

At that point I said fuck it, I ripped the boot over apart, compared the pieces to my pattern pieces and the original duct tape dummy pieces, edited the paper pattern, recut new pieces, cleaned up my sewing room and slammed the door behind me.

So that’s where I’m at today. Nothing to show for an entire weekend of work except my painted boots.

I had planned to start stoning today but I think after I eat I’m going to see where the wind takes me. My brain is still stuck on the boot covers, so I may go do those first.

In other news, I got a new cooking toy:

And Luna got the absolutely massive box it came in:

The only good news of this disaster weekend is that Chase found a jacket that will work for Beast so now that’s one less thing I have to make in the next month.