Sewing (And Costume) Work-in-Progress Mass Update- The January 2015 Edition

This past month I’ve been sewing a lot. So much that I feel bad because I’ve been ignoring my art! Originally I planned on sewing my costumes for Taiyou Con and the up-coming Renaissance Festival and nothing else, but a few weeks ago my vehicle got hurt so badly I couldn’t drive it anywhere. I know this is old news (I talked about it in my last post), but because I couldn’t drive anywhere, I was stuck at home on my weekends with nothing to do. I did have a lot of sewing projects built up for months that I just didn’t want to work on, so I pulled out as many as I could find and then began finishing or repairing them.

One of the first costumes I pulled out was the bodice for my Miku Hatsune Cantarella dress. Since I made the dress back in 2011, I fixed the back of the bodice in 2014 so it would fit my growing bust better. Now that my bust has finished growing, the bodice was too small. When I fixed the bodice, I thought I’d grow an inch at most so adding some ribbon to make the bodice lace up was the best option. I ended up not growing an inch. I grew a few inches. So, in order for the bodice to be fixed so I can continue to wear it, I needed to add more fabric to the back of the bodice. I ended up adding so much fabric to the back of the bodice I could add a zipper instead of making it a lace up.

Here’s what the bodice looked like after I sewed the zipper in and before I pressed the seams…

After I found that bodice, I found another Miku Hatsune bodice, this time for the 7th Heaven Dragon 2020. Here’s what the artwork looks like…

This is one of many unfinished sewing projects that I need to complete and is one of the oldest. There are about three or so others I still need to finish, but I don’t put them in the same category as the 7th Heaven costume. Unlike the other costumes, this one still fits me. The others need parts remade or to be completely remade due to my growth spurts. The 7th Heaven costume, on the other hand, has parts that still fit me after my growth spurts ended. I finished all the skirts back in 2013 and almost two years later they still fit! (I cannot tell you how much knowing that boosts my self esteem) The bodice was started the same time the skirts were, but I ended up setting it aside because I began to feel my body shifting and getting ready to grow again. This past month, I found the bodice still incomplete and began to work on it.

As of this post, here’s how the bodice looks…

I still need to finish some of the edges, add a zipper, and the black pleats in the front of the bodice, but gosh. It’s almost done. I can’t believe it! I still have little things left to make for the costume and find a new wig (My old one is… um… showing it’s age) but the costume is close to being done!

A non-sewing costume related thing I worked on (Sort of) was to find a shirt for another Rose Tyler cosplay. This time, I wanted to make an Aliens of London/ World War III costume. I’ve been looking for a look-a-like shirt for months but couldn’t find one. I was planning on painting a picture of flowers and having a shirt made using my painting, but I found one for sale on the DW cosplay sales on Livejournal in my size. I bought it and here it is…

I can’t wait to wear it out. Knowing me and how sore I can get I’ll end up wearing the whole entire costume (Sans the wig) to the Renaissance Festival this year because I want to wear something comfortable. (Thus why I say sans the wig)

I have plenty of other costume things I’m working on, but that’s all I have photos of right now. 😛

I also made a little girl’s dress!

I don’t have a little girl… or any children unless you count my dog…. or know any little girl that can wear this dress, but I would stand in front of the Frozen fabric at Joann’s and sigh at the sight of this fabric. It has elastic already in the fabric so all I need to do is sew the back of the dress, add ribbons for ties, and it’s an instant dress! I wanted to get a yard and save it in case a little girl shows up and would love a dress, but the fabric cost too much for my personal sewing budget so I passed it up. One day I was looking in the discount fabric and found a fourth of a yard (I think?) at 50% off the normal price.

I since found some other Frozen fabric similar to the dress’ only in all blue. I got a yard of that and I’m currently saving it in case someone I know has a daughter that would like a little Frozen dress in blue.

As for non personal projects, I’m working on some things for my Etsy store. I’m making another Rose Tyler Idiot’s Lantern dress, this time in a rose colored satin….

I think this satin’s color is more accurate to the color of Rose’s dress than the light pink I was originally using. I made another dress because I plan on creating a listing that will allow the buyer to choose what size they want the dress to be. In addition to having multiple sizes available for purchase, I want the buyer to choose the color of the dress. So, I needed to make a second dress using the rose pink satin to be used as a reference for the listing. I’ll probably sell this dress once it’s done.

Another dress I’m working on is a Marvel Avengers dress…

This was originally going to be both my personal dress and a prototype for future dresses, but I don’t like the way it looks on my so I’ll probably end up selling it once I finish it. The dress is far from finished and I’m still trying to figure out what details I want to add to it.

I plan on listing both dresses when my Etsy vacation is over in March. I’ll have a lot of stuff to list come March, and right now they’re mostly sewing patterns I don’t need anymore. I did some almost-spring cleaning in my pattern collection and found many patterns I purchased before my growth spurts that don’t fit me anymore. I don’t know if anyone will buy them (Most are still in print), but it’s worth a try.

That’s about it for now!