2016 Review

Real Clothes
This year I made a lot of normal, relatively plain everyday clothes.  I reused patterns with only minor (or no) variations. And because of the simplicity of the construction I was able to finish some garments in a single sitting. Relevant posts here.

Firstly I made six shirts from Vogue 8328. I’d wanted to make this pattern for years but hadn’t had appropriate fabric. I made two versions of each view after which I decided that I didn’t like the fit very much. I have got a lot of wear out of the light grey one particularly.

I made two skirts from McCalls 6608 which I love. I got fabric at Christmas which will be a third skirt. These nicely replace my standard long skirts that were discontinued last year (just before mine all wore out). I wore mid-length skirts for a while but found that I really wanted to be a long-skirt person.

I developed a maxi-dress pattern which is very comfortable and pretty so I made three of them and, when the weather changed, I adapted the pattern to be a summer dress. I don’t think it works quite as well short as it doesn’t have the weight in the skirt to make everything sit right (although this might just be me being a long-skirt person). Blog posts for the first two here and here.

I made a couple of coats: a gold cardigan to go with one of the maxi-dresses and a fleecy McCalls 7025 to wear around the house when it’s cold.

Also from the McCalls range (which did very well out of me this year) was this dress, McCalls 7091.Posts here and here. While I do really like it I found that the pattern will need a fair bit of adjusting to fit nicely and comfortably. And I don’t think I want to spend the effort, not when making the dress itself is also a lot of effort – so many seams to be sewn and pressed and neatened... The skirt could be longer too.

I made another 40s dress, this time for cooler weather. It’s still in that phase where I am too aware of its problems to be sure I like it but I expect I will warm to it. I have more 40s dresses planned for next year. They have become the staple of my summer wardrobe.

For years people have been introducing me with “she sews all her own clothes” after which I’ve had to clarify that "actually I mostly make costumes and didn’t make anything I’m wearing". But now those introducers will be right.

Lessons
I continued to have sewing lessons this year. Lots of sewing lessons. In April I had a class for every day of every weekend except for one Saturday – and I made up for that by having one lesson on a Friday.

The stretch sewing course I did is largely responsible for my foray into making everyday knit garments. In the performance-wear class I made swimming togs and afterwards used that pattern as the starting point for my maxi-dress pattern.

In two garment making courses, in which I made a skirt and a pattern for a shirt, I learnt lots of finishing techniques and how to adjust patterns for my personal fitting issues. I also learnt that I have a lot of fitting issues – which explains why I have trouble buying clothes. (The reason I always wear skirts is that no-one, including me, makes pants that fit me).

I did an overlocker class because I won an overlocker and had several private patternmaking lessons for a costuming project.

Costumes
I didn’t finish any costumes this year. I am somewhat bewildered by this. I did, however, make a significant amount of progress on a couple of projects.

I started making Elizabeth’s first outfit from BioShock Infinite. I had patternmaking lessons to make the shirt pattern. Still to do are buttons and buttonholes, skirt hems, and accessories.

I continued working on my Assassin’s Creed costume, making a resin cast for the belt buckle. I didn’t expect to be good at sculpting but it worked well, so that was pleasing. I am still discovering how to proceed with the resin but I think it’s all going to turn out fine. I have also worked on the fabric component of the belt.

I did finish one costume-related item: a bag to go with my Misery outfit.

Events
At this year’s Canberra Show I won two first places and three seconds. My Eowyn costume won overall champion of the sewing section. The prize was a sewing machine (which has found a good home) and an overlocker.

In September I had an exhibit of my costumes at GAMMA.CON and entered the costume competition.

My church youth group occasionally holds ‘get to know you’ evenings where people present their interests to the group. It was my turn recently so I put up a display in the lounge room and told them about costuming.

My cousins came to visit at the end of the year and now both of them are sewing costumes! Having had lessons myself I’m more comfortable being a mentor as I now know some ‘right’ things I can tell them. I was pleased to be able to pass on the importance of seam allowances.

Miscellaneous
My favourite new sewing thing of this year has been my electric scissors. I was given them last Christmas and I love them so much. Now cutting out happens really quickly and my hand doesn’t get sore and the edges of the fabric are neater. However –  if you rush out to buy a pair make sure you give them a test drive first as some people find them hard to control and uncomfortable. But I think they’re wonderful!

I have continued to make glacial progress on my Bayeux Tapestry dress.

She who increaseth knowledge decreaseth sorrow

Since "finishing" my Assassin's Creed II costume two years ago I have been researching how to construct the non-fabric accessories to the outfit.

For the belt buckle/insignia I first looked into 3D printing. ACT libraries have a Makerspace with 3D printers available to the public so I went in for an introductory session. Unfortunately, the printers they had did not do as fine detail as I was looking for. I was also put off 3D printing by the university course I had just finished which included 3D animation. I was quite looking forward to not spending more hours with 3D modelling software – especially not on a project that involved an intricate design.

I did a brief experiment with carving foam but found I couldn't carve at all precisely. So on to the next method on my list: resin casting.

I bought some air-dry clay, ignored it for a few months and then decided to be brave and give it a go. I printed out a picture of the buckle at the size I wanted, sticky-taped it to a cutting board and then covered the whole thing in glad-wrap. The picture became my guide for sculpting. To get the pattern in the badge at the top I printed out a picture of the original and stuck pins through it into my sculpt and then joined the dots in the clay with the pin.

I was expecting to last maybe 10 minutes before adding clay-sculpting to the list of things I can't do – alongside drawing, colouring in, and playing the clarinet. I was rather astounded to find, in almost that amount of time, that sculpting was, in fact, something I CAN do. I found the air-dry clay much easier to work with than sculpy, the clay I have used for smaller projects.

The first sculpt I did took about five hours divided into 2 or 3 sessions over the day. Whenever I took a break I wrapped what I'd done in more glad-wrap to stop it drying out.

I was very happy with the first sculpt but it had a few issues that made it unsuited for making a mould. I had made each leaf individually which left gaps in between them that the mould medium would fill in, making it impossible to remove the clay or a cast. The badge at the top was too thick, making the buckle unbalanced and unlikely to sit well. Other parts of the sculpt were too thin.

So, armed with my new-found confidence in my sculpting ability, I made another one.

While I don't think the second attempt is as good, it was better suited for making a mould.This time I carved the leaves out of a lump of clay, which worked quite well. It was a bit more difficult to follow the outline from my guide but I'm pretty certain the non-matching up of the leaves was exacerbated by the clay shrinking. (I don't know if clay shrinks or not – but there were a few time when bits of the picture were visible that I was sure had been sculpted over the day before.)

I decided to use this sculpt for my mould. I used an arm from the first sculpt to test all of the following steps before I did them for real. I used brush-on latex to make the mould. (I bought each of the key ingredients to the process only when I knew the previous stage had succeeded.) I kept painting layers of latex on until I was confident the mould was sturdy enough.

Once the mould was done I filled in the back of it with playdough to make a solid base and messed around with a level ruler until I thought it was sitting flat. Then I detached the glad-wrap from the cutting board and flipped the mould over.

Some of the latex had dried under the clay and the edges of the sealant I used on the clay was generally getting in the way so the next step was to trim around the edges of the mould with a scalpel.

[Note: before making the mould I used sealant on the clay to stop it sticking to the latex. I wasn't careful to stay on the clay so around the edges of the sculpt the sealent formed a plasticky layer on top of the glad-wrap that was wrapped around the cutting board. When the latex was applied the sealant pulled away from the glad-wrap which meant in some places the latex did not get the full depth that it was meant to. So once I turned the mould over I masked off some of the edges of the clay with playdough and put another layer of latex on to make the mould deeper. I don't recommend doing that, but it's better than having a cast that's too shallow. I then went round the mould with the scalpel again (and a chisel, to remove the now dry play dough masks).]

The last step was to remove the sculpt, which required breaking up the fragile clay to leave the latex secure in the play dough base.

The resin was mixed and poured:

And removed from the cast (this time I broke up the play dough).

The cast has got some flash around the edges where the resin spilled over the edge of the mould which will need to be removed, and it will need sanding in places. Even so, if I made another one I would use more resin as some places are a bit sunken in and thin, only rising to proper thickness where it was in contact with the mould edge.

What I am most impressed with is how well the pattern showed up in the badge. The pattern was visible in the mould but the ridges were not very high so I wasn't sure it would come out at all in the resin.

Next steps: sanding and painting.



Assassin’s Creed belongs to Ubisoft.

I spied-a-bag

When I decided to wear my Misery costume to GAMMA.CON this year I also decided that I needed a bag to go with it. I went through an episode of Ruby Gloom (The Last Train to Gloomsville – because they go on holidays and therefore must have bags) and found some options.

I decided on the small maroon bag in the centre which has Misery's spider seal on it. She can be seen carrying it in other episodes.

To get the required size of the bag I put my drink bottle, phone and purse (the intended contents) on a piece of paper and drew a rectangle around them. The skeleton of the bag is buckram with gardening wire around the top and base.

I was making up my method of construction as I went, never quite sure that what I was planning next would work. But it all worked out in the end.

The outer layer is a sample of curtain fabric that's been in the stash for years which I edged with rickrack braid.

The top is all rectangles with wire around the centre edges. (Sorry if that doesn't make sense – I could barely keep the concept in my head when I was doing it). I put a zip in one side to create a pocket to keep small things I wanted to access easily (Lip balm... it's for lip balm. Lip balm is so important to me that it gets specially designed pockets).

I sewed the top and bottom right sides together. The wire made it very difficult to turn it out but I'm not sure how else I could do it. And ta-da:

The spider motif is hand painted onto green fabric that is wrapped over a buckram disc. I had to use purple paint instead of black because purple was the closest thing I had on hand and it was night-time so the shops were shut. The back closes with snaps. The handles stay upright and right angled because the fabric is reasonably stiff and I ironed them that way.

GAMMA.CON

Last month I attended GAMMA.CON which is a small pop-culture convention in Canberra.

Originally I had planned to go with a group of friends but when the time came most of them couldn't make it. I had never been to a con before so I was a bit apprehensive about attending alone – but then I was asked to be part of an exhibition of student costumes as part of the Cardif Collective stall.

I contributed five outfits: Viking, Esther, Ice Goth, Tia Dalma and 1901 Reception Dress. The TARDIS dress was made by another student.

I wore Misery (from Ruby Gloom) on the Saturday. Despite making it four years ago I had never worn it before except to take pictures. I had a hair tie safety-pinned to the end of the train so I could attach it to my wrist and draped the veil over my arm. This protected them from being stepped on but I will think twice before hanging three metres of fabric from my head again (actually I won't – but I ought to think twice). Even though I was carrying most of the veil on my arm, my neck was feeling it by the end of the day.

Because I was wearing and taking costumes I already had, the only thing I needed to make in preparation was a bag. I'm glad I wasn't working on anything more significant because even though I started work a week out, I was still up past midnight the night before to finish it.

On the Sunday I wore my Eowyn costume to compete in the costume competition. I had a good time with the competition which is kind of odd given that it was mostly waiting around, either to be judged or to go onstage, but it's definitely something I want to do again. I didn't get a prize but had a very positive reaction from the audience.

Other than that I didn't find the experience of being 'in costume' particularly noticeable. This might be partly because I was mostly by myself which allowed ample opportunity to forget about what I was wearing. But I also think it is because my focus is so much more on making rather than wearing. I had a friend come to watch the competition and going around the floor with them afterwards was a lot more fun for me than the day before had been. I definitely want to go again – but next time I will drag a few more people along.

Peacock coloured maxi-dress

When this beautiful bordered lycra arrived at Needlewitch I had to have it. It was more expensive than I usually like to pay for fabric. However, I first saw it at a time when I was going through a spate of Vogue 8323 tops which didn't use a lot of fabric so I bought 1.2 metres of it. But before I got to it, I started being dissatisfied with those particular shirts. I'd made enough that the flaws I hadn't been able to solve kept standing out and disappointing me. I didn't want to use my lovely fabric on a shirt I would be unhappy with.

Then I made this maxi-dress which I loved. (More about the pattern is in the linked post). This seemed like the perfect way to use the lycra. The big expanses of fabric would show off the print nicely. I got out my shirt-sized piece of fabric and found that, pleasingly, the width was sufficient that it could fit the pattern sideways. This meant that I didn't need as much fabric as I had used for the first dress and that the border print would be on the borders. But I still only had enough fabric for one of the three pattern pieces.

I hurried back to Needlewitch and bought the remainder of the bolt which was just enough. I got one back and the sleeves from the first cut of fabric and the front and other back from the second.

The dress has a viscose lining to help secure the shape. The neck and sleeves are finished with gold foldover elastic. The hem is twin-needled over edge tape.

I made a gold cardigan to go with this dress from some fabric in the stash. I used the same pattern as the maxi-dress, but increased the width of each pattern piece. The cardigan turned out surprisingly well for something that was thrown together the day before I wanted to wear it.

I continue to be exceedingly happy with this pattern. This fabric is spectacular and made a dress I am very pleased with.