Lion Tamer Costume Finished!

There she is! Took me long enough, but I'm done!. This outfit will be worn with boats, black pants, my black leotard, and this. It's hard to see, but the black part of the jacket has roses on it to add a touch of texture. The vest is tea-stained to match the fabric I used for the ruffles. Overall, this costume cost me about $28 to make. Could be more, could be less because I was disorganized with my receipts *-.-*

I had pictures of the progress I made, but the files on my memory card are corrupt. I have no idea how to recover them, but luckily, the final result pictures made it.

The pattern I used was not my own, but Simplicity's 2525:

With some minor alterations, I was able to complete this jacket. The main difference is the volume around the arm holes. I took most of the poof out to give the jacket a more masculine appearance and to accommodate for the epaulettes.

I would be careful using canvas for the interfacing. I used more of a duck cloth to provide the interfacing, and it can be quite tight in the elbows. Otherwise, it is fine in the shell, and necessary for the collar.

The armholes are also to small for a girl with arms as big as mine. I made the armholes slightly bigger. I wish I had added more fabric at the end of the sleeves, but it'll do.

The fabrics I used are:
Broadcloth - red
Broadcloth - interfacing
Jacquard - black
Broadcloth - tea-stained white
??? - ruffles (I used someone's old scrap from a garage sale, feels silky)

Wacky Mad Hatter Hat -- Detailed, Step-by-Step Supplement w/Pictures and Alterations

This is a pattern and tutorial from Better Homes and Gardens. You can find the original here and here along with the basic patterns. You may need to create an account before you have access to their website and patterns. (It's free so don't worry.) I found that I didn't like their instructions; they were too confusing. So here is a supplement--key word: supplement--to their instructions. No copyright infringement intended; I just want to help people out with this craft.

Skill level: Moderate
Time estimation: ~1.0 - 1.5 hours


Updated supply list
I found I didn't need certain items or the ways they bound certain pieces didn't hold as well. Here is a better list detailing what's needed:

1. Old box of lightweight cardboard. Preferably one without a lot of folds. Folds will weaken the board and leave bumps on your hat. A good example would be a large cereal box, but the ideal would be something like a poster board.
2. Fusible interfacing Medium-weight would be best probably. I used a light-weight interfacing, though
3. Non-fusible interfacing ~Optional~ For more advance sewers and crafters who do not want to spend extra money on the more expensive fusible.
4. Fabric about 1/4 yard to 1/2 yard, depending on how large you plan on making your hat. Half a yard will be for quite large hats. Now would be a great time to use up those scrap pieces! I used a piece of stretch, panne velvet fabric. This allowed me to compensate for mistakes while experimenting with patterns and prevented the fabric from fraying on the edges.
5. Pins
6. Needle and thread Thread should match the fabric.
7. Wire or Floral wire Thicker wire should be used if you want to really alter your hat's brim shape. Floral wire will help keep the shape of the brim but will give you only a little bit of molding power.
8. Hot glue gun
9. Clothes iron
10. Sewing machine
11. Marker 
12. Tailor's tape 
13. Scissors 
14. Rotary blade ~Optional~

Updated Instructions with Pictures
I don't want to copyright infringe anything here, so these are my tips and advice on how to make this hat an alternative way. I will also give you instructions on how to alter the patterns so you can change the shape and look of your hat. Please, please, please go and sign up on Better Homes and Gardens to see how they do their project first. This will make it much easier to understand why I'm doing things this way.


1) Making the band pattern--- Make your patterns from the ones the website gives you. They say to blow up the pieces 400%. You can do this on your own, but if you are worried about the curved edges, you can easily print them out as guidelines. How neat your curves are really doesn't matter because you can always go back later and straighten them out in step 9. I drew my band pattern directly onto the cardboard with a marker to save time. You can do this, too, because no one will see the cardboard in the end product.

Altering the band pattern:

Let's say you don't like the patterns they gave you. Well, that's a really easy fix. 

Here is the basic pattern. I've labeled some areas of the pattern to show what that section will become once completed. The height is colored in purple. The crown/top is the largest curve in this picture, and the curve that will belong to the bottom of the band is the other curve. Whatever you may do to the pattern, the height (in purple) must be the same length! This pattern calls for about 7'', feel free to make it taller if you like.

A rectangle will make a perfect cylinder for your hat. This is good for top hats.

 By making almost a semi-circle, you will get a large flair with your hat. This will be very top heavy and very narrow on the bottom. This is good if you're going for a very cartoony look to your hat.

2) Cut out band pattern--- Using your newly created pattern or the pattern supplied on the Better Homes and Gardens website, cut out one band pattern from the lightweight cardboard. 

3) Altering the crown and brim patterns--- Using a flexible ruler such as a tailor's tape, do your best to measure the crown's curved line (the largest curve). How long it is will be the circumference of your crown pattern. Instead of struggling with the tape and getting sloppy lines to make the circle pattern for your crown piece, just take the number you measured and divide it by π. Take this number and add one inch. This will be the diameter of the crown.  

You do not have to have cardboard pieces for these patterns. You can use tissue paper, newspaper (iron newspaper first to avoid ink from spreading to your fabric and to straighten out crinkles. Butlers used a similar technique for their masters back in the day), or regular printing paper....whatever works. I used cardboard and butcher paper.

Do the same thing for the brim's section of the band pattern. Only in addition to the diameter you've calculated, add 2x the width you wish for your brim. For example, your diameter is 8'' and you want your brim to be 4''. You would add an additional 8'' to the 8'' diameter to compensate. 

Now you have all your pattern pieces and are set for the rest of the project!

4) Cut out crown and band fabric piece--- Using scissors or a rotary blade, cut out one piece of fabric with your crown pattern piece. Be careful not to cut yourself! Cutting out circular pieces can be tricky, especially with a rotary blade. At the same time, using your band pattern piece, cut out one piece of fabric. Add about 0.5'' around the band pattern to make room for a hem later.

5) Cut out fusible interfacing--- Using the same crown pattern piece, cut out one piece of fusible interfacing.

6) Iron fusible interfacing to fabric piece--- Iron the interfacing to the WRONG side of the fabric. Beginners, place the side of the interfacing with all the bumps closest to the fabric. 
.
7) Clip the edges of the circle--- Going about 0.5'' deep, snip around the circle. Clipping will eliminate bulk when we press this on our cone in step 10.

It helps to use a ruler and marker to mark the notches so you don't go too deep

8) Prepare hot glue gun--- Plug in the gun to get it warm.

9) Wrap the band into a cylinder--- Curl the cardboard around. Line up the purple, height lines as best as you can. Take the hot glue gun and run a stream of glue along the edge of one side. Press the other side to the glue. How much you overlap doesn't matter, but try to keep it under one inch on each side. 

Now's a good time to take your scissors and correct any areas where the cone isn't level. You can test this by resting both ends on a table--it should be able to stand on its own. 


10) Glue cylinder top to crown--- Lay the crown piece bottom-side up/interfacing up. Take your band. Along the side for the crown, run hot glue around the circumference. Quickly press this into the center of the crown piece.

11) Hem the band piece--- Using the hot glue gun again, hem the band piece's fabric. Leave one of the straight sides un-hemmed.

11) Glue band piece to cardboard--- Find the seam of the cardboard. Using the hot glue gun, run some glue along the length. Press the un-hemmed side to the glue. Make sure to press the wrong side against the cardboard, leaving the right side of the fabric on the outside. Also make sure to not turn the fabric upside down. Match crown with crown curves, brim with brim curves.

The glue will be hot. Use maker to press fabric to cardboard.

12) Make the brim--- Grab your pattern for the brim piece. Cut out two fabric pieces and two interfacing pieces. If you are new to interfacing, opt for the fusible again. If you feel you're a decent sewer, stick with the non-fusible to save it for other projects. If you use fusible, remember to iron interfacing to both pieces of fabric before continuing.

13) Cut an "X" into one brim piece--- Cut an "X" into one piece.

13) Sewing time!--- Press the correct sides together. Pin edges. You'll have to leave a small opening for wire later. I like to mark these with double pins so I know when to stop sewing. Sew 0.25'' away from the edge. Flip the piece inside-out. Check to make sure you sewed all edges. Correct if you can see interfacing.

 

14) Making casing for wire--- Turn the brim right-side out. Sew using a matching thread a casing. Sew about 3/8'' away from the edge. Complete the entire circle.

15) Wire--- Loop the end of the wire as pictured below if possible. This will keep it from catching. Feed it into the casing you just made. Cut off the end once finished. End the wire by twisting it into the beginning of the wire, or loop it again. I am using floral wire because that's all I have at the moment.

16) Slipstich close--- Using a needle and matching thread, slipstick opening closed.

17) Attach brim to rest of hat--- With a longer piece of thread, attach the brim to the rest of the hat using a slipstich. Make sure to pull the fabric on the band taught to avoid wrinkles. I found it was easiest to rest the hat upside-down in my lap as I stitched. Click the pictures below for larger shots.

 18) COMPLETE! 

19) Add decorations and you're finished!

Changes: I made several changes from the original. For starters, I swapped the glues, interfacing, and also altered the pattern slightly. I also changed the order around because when I followed their guidelines, I found some ways they could have been edited to make it simpler. Thanks again! Make sure to check out the original site at Better Homes and Gardens.

Alice in Wonderland - Halloween Party Updates

My party is going awesome so far! I calculated the total amount spent, subtracted how much I earned secret shopping for some of the items, and I came to about $18.22. I spending most of my budget on food, I think, since I'm currently making half the decorations out of card decks or papier-mache.

I finally finished my American McGee's Alice costume today! It's pretty much completely done; there are just a couple minor things I want to fine-tune before wearing it on Halloween. It looks pretty close to the picture and I feel I did a great job creating my own pattern for it. Can't wait!

I need to fix the back mostly: the bow's too droopy and the zipper's showing.

On a slightly different note, the funniest thing happened at the grocery store today. I saw a Halloween magazine at the checkout and just decided to flip through it to see if there was anything interesting.... Well, guess what I happened to find? An Alice in Wonderland themed party in there! I was completely floored. Usually when I find Alice themed parties, they are for the summertime and for kids. This is not only for adults, but for Halloween! I had to buy it.

This magazine was a special issue of "Better Homes and Gardens." They had some really cute ideas in there, but I'm probably going to stick with my ideas mostly. You can view part of it online here. They mostly had great food ideas and some decoration suggestions. I liked this one food idea: "Convert finger sandwiches...into saucy playing cards with hearts cut from roasted red pepper slice." That sounds pretty cute. The magazine says I can get the recipes on their website, but for some reason it's not loading properly. I'll have to try again.

One in particular I thought was absurd: "Use a few books to raise one side of an empty china cabinet...Then carefully arrange not-so-good china to look as if it slid topsy-turvy." Umm....I can easily see that falling over and hurting someone...not to mention damage the wall it was resting on.

Update: I have tried a Alice in Wonderland craft from this book! I give improved instructions, as well as pictures of my final results, HERE!


Lots of excitement in regards to Halloween! Working on the Jabberwocky skeleton as we speak!


Posts of Interest:
Alice in Wonderland Music Playlist
Mushroom Decorations

My leotard is done!!

My leotard is done!!! I just finished it. I made it out of the spandex Lycra first, even though it's probably the most difficult material. I will post pictures, advice about working with this fabric, and advice about using this pattern later once there's more light for pictures! (I was just too excited and had to post early!)

:D

Fabric Arrived! - Updated 3/1/11

My fabric arrived today and I open it up on camera pour vous!
(I accidentally dropped the f-bomb once since I was about to enter a state of strong exasperation. Otherwise I'm completely chaste. I apologize for the curse but I can't figure how to edit it out.) 

Yeah... Distinctive Fabrics... I don't know if I will shop with them again. This is mostly due to the steep cost of shipping for a small amount of fabric. This would be much better if you are ordering bulk.

Now, with the disorganization. I ordered samples awhile ago, and when I finally received them, I received someone else's samples. I understood this since the woman had the same name as me, but then when the second batch came, not all of my samples were available. I didn't get credited for another free sample in return for the one they couldn't give to me.

Now I have the wrong invoice? Huh, bizarre. Anyway, my fabric looks fine, and it's being pre-washed as I speak! I can't wait to finally have a leotard for class.

The shipping is very, very high. Considering that this is just fabric and doesn't need to be insured or surrounded in Styrofoam peanuts, that seems really high to me. This is definitely something you need to consider when factoring out your price. It seems that the lowest, standard shipping price from them is $10.75 for in the United States. The lady on the incorrect invoice I received ordered a lot more fabric but still had the same shipping cost. I received my fabric about a week after ordering, though it may have been a bit longer than that.

Still, perhaps the shipping price is worth it because you are allowed swatches, and not just any swatches, but free swatches. That's not too bad. The shipping for swatches is also free, but it will take awhile to be delivered since it'll be by snail mail.

Unless I can find a cheaper company that offers similar fabric, I'll be sticking with this group for leotard fabric. Perhaps later I will compare and contrast their Lycra blends with some suitable fabrics I can find at brick-and-mortar stores like JoAnn's, Hancock Fabrics, and other popular fabric stores.


Further Updates:
I have completed my first leotard using Distinctive Fabric's fabric, and I must say, it is definitely a quality fabric. I feel confident using it, and it's just as they said it would be in the description. So though some things have been off regarding Distinctive Fabrics, the descriptions seem to be quite on. The total fabric cost per leotard is about $13. Compare that to other leotards online of similar prices and you'll find that they don't have the same quality fabric and aren't made specifically for me. (Other factors would be the cost of the pattern, but even that would only add about five dollars per leotard.) I'm really happy with my fabric despite all the set backs and delays due to errors this company has made with the swatches, but in the end, I have a really nice leotard for class.

My ballet skirt's progress

I've started working on my skirt first. A little backwards, I know, but it has the easier directions so I want to give it a whirl first. Plus, I'm way too exhausted to put a lot of effort into my trial run, so I'm going the easy way.

The waist is sloppy since I had to pin the short ends of the belt to the dressform.

Right away, I'm running into some trouble. I can't seem to anchor down the chiffon so when I cut it, it tends to sway. This isn't too much of a problem. I did a good job on the main skirt, which is all I'm worried about, but for the belt it's a slightly different story. Still, it's not too big of a deal. BUT, I made a huge mistake. The problem with the fabric is that it's transparent, so when it looks like I have the wrong side up, it's actually the right side. I've already messed up a seam. I either tear it and another seam out and risk ruining the fabric, or I leave it and try to cover it up in a unique way. I don't know what I should do... I'm going to practice ripping out seams on a discarded scrap of the same fabric before attempting the skirt.

I'm positive I cut them the right length. I even double checked.

Also, an even bigger problem is that somehow the belt straps are too short. I'm pretty sure I followed the pattern correctly, but there's still not enough to wrap around the skirt. Luckily, I have a plan for this. I'm going to cut out another, longer strip and just add it to the ends. Once I tube the skirt, it shouldn't matter much. Besides, when its tied, it'll be hard to notice, I think.

I plan on working on this leotard over the weekend. I already have my trial pattern cut out!

It's really easy. There are only a couple of pieces: the front leotard, the back, crotch guard, bra, and sleeves.

New ballet pattern on its way!

I'm super sick today. I have a sore throat and can't move without getting extremely exhausted. In order to amuse myself, I explored the internet. In my wanderings, I came across a website called Jalie that specializes in sewing patterns for sportswear. This is all types of sports wear, from cycling to ballroom dancing. They also have some everyday patterns on there such as lingerie (another pattern I'm interested in since you rarely see patterns for them) and leggings. They have some pretty unusual patterns, which I absolutely love. Go visit Jalie's site here.

Jalie 2105 - Unitard, Leotard, and Skirt

What's really helpful is that these patterns come in adult and children sizes. That means adult dancers like me can get a leotard pattern that doesn't need much modification. SCORE!

Though there were many patterns I liked, they are also expensive. Granted, they are the same price as Simplicity and McCalls, but for those you just wait until they are on sale. These will probably never be on sale since they are a lesser known company. Only a couple indie sewing stores actually carry these products. Also, since this pattern company is located in Canada, you get higher fees and shipping rates. The shipping to my area is as high as eight bucks. Luckily, I found a better website located in the US that distributed this particular pattern for a much cheaper rate. In the end, I will only spend about fifteen dollars. Much better. You can find that great deal at Nearsea Naturals. 

I'm definitely planning on sewing the leotard and skirt. I've been meaning to buy some leotards for my adult class but have never gotten around to it. By sewing these myself, I will not only be able to customize the clothing for my needs, but will save me some cash. So, reviews and pictures to come once I begin the project!


Update: Leotard is finished! See the results here.