-
Sharpen Your Skills: Guide to Sewing Scissors
Let’s talk about all the scissors you might want or actually need for sewing (and a few bonus types for you costumers out there)! There are quite a few, so I’ve broken them down here with their uses and place in the cutting world: Types of Shears and Scissors Dressmaking Shears Dressmaking Shears come in two distinct varieties: Knife-edge and Serrated-edge. Both styles coming in sharp tip and blunt tip. There are also spring loaded versions to take some of the work off your hands. These are the mainstay of your scissor collection. They are meant to cut through fabrics as light as chiffon and gauze, all the way to…
-
Fabric Selection 101
Beyond a doubt, fabric selection is the most crucial part of sewing – it literally is the costume. When I was a starting seamstress, my fabric choices were ALL over the place, especially for skirts, I used lining fabric, charmeuse, silky solids, and a myriad of completely inappropriate fabrics for the styles I was making. Best part? They fell apart. Not just because I didn’t finish my seams, but because the fabric was quite literally, wrong. You can learn from my mistakes! Save yourself some coin to spend on the appropriate fabrics for a project. I’m going to talk all about wovens today and save knits for another. If you…
-
A Rose Petal Skirt
Taking inspiration from Dior and the 19th Century (specifically the mid 1860’s) I designed a skirt with petals that are short in the front and lengthen as they get to the back. These petals are more intricate than they appear, in fact, there are four layers of fabric to them: two types of organza, glitter tulle, and silk gauze. Each petal is made from a base of gold organza with a second layer of the iridescent organza. These bases were cut to the shape of the final petal. I sewed them together around the edge, but then added three rows of stitching from the top to the bottom spaced out.…
-
Let’s Talk Research
An upcoming project of mine is Arwen’s “Red Dress” from the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. So how does one go about actually making a cosplay that is fairly screen accurate? Read on and I’ll tell you all about research for this relatively simple costume. The first step is to break everything down into parts, so we have the following categories: Fabric, Sewing Pattern(s), Trims, Embellishments, Wig, Accessories, Shoes. In the case of Arwen, we are only using a few of these categories: Fabric, Sewing Pattern, Trim, and Wig. To figure out the fabric, multiple reference images are generally needed, in the case of Arwen, one or…
-
Making Fire
My 18th Century (specifically 1770’s) Charmander, aptly named “Le Feu du Charmander,” required a non-historical trim to create a flame effect. During the time period, fabric trims were, for the most part, various types of gathered strips of fabric or bows sewn onto the dress in artful, mirrored ways. No way would this work for the ombre look I was wanting to achieve – let alone match the texture I desired. The solution: nearly 200 individual ‘flames.’ I simultaneously regret and love this decision. I’m often quite conflicted when it comes to costuming and time-consuming techniques, this was no exception. Materials: Five 1-yard cuts of flame colored fabric 2 packs…
-
Tower of Terror Bellhop Hat
As a Disneyphile, there are a few cast costumes I think are cute, like the Haunted Mansion black and green striped victorian dresses, the Gibson Girl’s, and the Tower of Terror Bellhop. I remember walking past these costumes in the cast member costuming building and being so very jealous – the main entrance costumes didn’t have quite the same uniqueness to them. Then Disney had to go and release a new dress line. And one of the dresses is the Hollywood Tower Hotel Bellhop Dress… Be still my heart! The dress is accompanied with a hat and a purse, which are cute. The hat oddly…
-
Sansa Stark Mockingbird Cosplay
Let me first say that I am a huge fan of Game of Thrones. Seriously. Big fan. I’m absolutely in love with the costuming on the show – it’s beautiful, intricate, unexpected, detailed, and wholly perfect. Which is why I’m making Sansa Stark’s black dress (Mockingbird Dress) from the show. It’s simple but stunning: So naturally, I scoured the main pattern companies for a similar pattern. And what did I find? Simplicity 1137: the “replica” of the costume! With a few MAJOR differences: Feathered bodice: actually not feathered – they used chainette trim Bodice is a bolero – not part of the dress. Opening is in the back, not the…
