THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => MAKE => Topic started by: Lisabetta on 20 Feb 2008, 00:25
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I make costumes for conventions and I've just started designing my own stuff. I don't have a lot of pictures that don't have me in them, so I guess I need to dig the outfits out and put em on the dress dummy again. This is what I could find just now:
http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii277/Lisabetta_dePetri/?action=view¤t=Photo23.jpg
http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii277/Lisabetta_dePetri/?action=view¤t=Photo43.jpg
Yep, it's the Princess Bride dress. Floating around my house I have Mrs. Lovett, Elizabeth I, medieval Italian circa 1550, 2 Phantom of the Opera dresses, and a Columbia from Rocky Horror. I'll post em once I have pictures
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How fun =) I worked on costumes for high school theatre.
Right now I'm making a dress for myself to wear to the Renaissance Festival.
How long have you been sewing?
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Eeesh....8 years? I think?
Renfest is the bestest. What nationality/era are you working on?
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I'm not exactly sure what historical period it is. I just look through the costumes section of the Butterick catalog and picked one I like. I'm sure my theatre teacher would be very disappointed in my lack of dramaturgy. Lol.
Here's the pattern if you're interested in see what it looks like: http://www.butterick.com/item/B6196.htm?tab=costumes&page=8 (http://www.butterick.com/item/B6196.htm?tab=costumes&page=8)
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Oooh, I've used dress B from that a few times. Careful on the shoulder straps, they always buckle funny. I've started sewing them as separate pieces, not connected to the bodice.
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I'm starting to sew myself, and I think your Princess Bride's dress looks great. I'm looking forward to see you Mrs. Lovett dress. :-) I know you said you're doing the costumes for conventions, but do you also have like a little store of your own?
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Oooh, what sort of sewing do you do?
If by 'store' you mean professional-sounding cell phone message, receipt book, and a desk in my room with a sewing machine, then yes. If you mean anything else, then no.
I just finished unpacking my sewing stuff (I moved recently) and so I should have pictures up soon.
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My Grandma's teaching me confection. So far, I made a blouse with a square neck and sorta half puffy sleeves, and a pajamas' bottom. I'm currently working on making some sort of half-vest to go with one sleeveless shirt I bought. I didn't take the right type of fabric, as it is very "runny", but as stubborn as I am, and as much as I bought, I'm gonna succeed! :laugh:
That is so great that you have a store of your own!! I'm hoping I can learn fast enough so I can do that as a sideline, or even as a living. When my Grandma told me that people are willing to pay like $5 each pant legs to rectify the length, I thought she was crazy 'cause it takes (me) like 30-45 minutes top to do the whole pair. But good for you! It must be a really cool work. :-)
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By 'runny' do you mean it slips around when you're trying to sew, or that the thread pulls at it, or what?
If the first, it's generally fixable. I actually test a small area of the fabric to see if scotch tape will affect it, and if not, I tape it together while I'm sewing so it doesn't slide. I'm such a cheaterface.
Yeah, people will pay a lot for alterations. People are lazy, and that works to my advantage. ^_^
You should post pics of what you've done!
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By runny I mean that it tend to slides in every possible directions. It makes me think of water! But when I bought it, it didn't feel like that at all. When I put it on the table to cut with the pattern, it took me over an hour to cut like the back and the front of the vest! And the threads pull out a little if I'm not careful. It's a very fragile fabric. I have like nearly 3 yards of it, so I can make mistakes, but not too many!
I'll post pictures for sure!
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Ooh, a sewing thread!
Thats a very nice dress! Do you use patterns to make your costumes or do you design your own based on the costume? I'm new to sewing costumes so I'm just trying to learn from those with experience, sorry. What kinds of convention costumes do you do? I've seen some really nice Ren Festival costumes designed and made by individuals.
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I mostly fashion my own nowadays. Mostly, they're for Dragon*Con, because I am a geek, but I do have some RenFest ones, mostly made on commission. And eventually I will put up more pictures. ^_^
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Oooh, I'd love to see them! I've attempted a few cosplays but I'm no professional. What kinds of materials do you use? And how do you do the pesky details/accesories?
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The only things I've ever really sewn are a doll I made for my mum (she worked as a lab technician in a high school at the time, and the doll terminated in an unfortunate accident with acid) and the beginnings of a cushion cover. That cushion cover was gorgeous, four squares of pink and blue like a battenburg, and then silver embroidery threading across each square and little flowery buttons sewn on. Unfortunately the design took me so long that it never got finished, and as usual I failed my project. I'd love to finish it now but I moved and it's either still at my dad's house or lost. Either way I miss my cushion :-(
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I, too, am a geek and sew for Dragon*Con. But apparently for a completely different genre. For this year's Dragon*Con, I will be making myself and a friend two outfits each - one each for Weyrfest, and then anime-specific. I am going to dress up as Howl, from Howl's Moving Castle, and she will be Sophie. Our costumes will be of the first ones you see for each of the characters in the movie. Should be interesting ^_^ For last year's Dragon*Con, I had a Star Wars original character costume that I am STILL perfecting, piece by piece. If I can find my lightsaber over the summer, I will be wearing it again, along with my two new costumes. Yay!
Outside of that, I am actually a costume design major, and recently, I patterned, cut, draped, and sewed a chiton for the lead female choral in my school's version of Lysistrata. I also made a ram head and a sporran for one of the male chorals, and, sadly, I had to fashion a giant stuffed penis. I do believe that particular thing was by far the strangest thing I have had to make for my school. I've done more distressing work (Waiting for Godot and Grapes of Wrath), and I did a couple of pieces for Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Also, three semesters of training have me as now being AWESOME at hand-sewing stitches... so much so, in fact, that I tend to get stuck with jobs that are too delicate for the machines, which gets a little annoying. ^^;
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Ohmygoodness, I LOVE Lysistrata! So sassy. Heh. And I feel your pain on the being drafted...I just got stuck with doing ALL of Amneris' costumes for Aida when I went to see a rehearsal at my old High School.