Modesty's Costume Closet

 The next kimono I made was Ruka Rengoku's pink spring Kimono. Making this a cosplay kimono. Currently, the kimono is unpainted. But I wanted to pause and admire the progress made since starting these kimono projects.  Things that went well:  All the major seams are French seams. I did it correctly this time!  The collar was a bit easier to do this time.  I put the chikara nuno in correctly this time. At least for one of them.  I was able to do a blind hem by machine!  It fits!  Some things I learned:  Matching thread color is important. Hot pink really shows up.  This polyester silk is a bit more slippery than I expected.  My Clover Seam Iron is hottest on the rod part and not the flat part. Burned a little hole! (I was able to hide in the hem.)  What still needs doing:  I want to paint the flower pattern onto the kimono. I'm trying to make stencils to help me with clean lines. But I'm having trouble with placement. It's really annoying that my only reference has been

This post will offer ways you can put design onto fabric to match a character for cosplay or just to have a cool design on your garment.  The 3 main "categories" or methods are:  Painting Applique Sublimation/Screen Printing Painting This is the most accessible and often cost effective way to put a design onto fabric.  The benefits are: Can match character designs exactly Color availability Flexibility  Often inexpensive (although, you can always find a way to spend too much.) Some of the downsides: Sometimes only specific types of paint will work for your fabric (dark, stretch fabric, sheer, etc) It can be tedious for large amounts of fabric Some paints can crack, fade or even wash out in water Requires a steady hand and coordination Can get messy I like looking at Dharma Trading's website for research on what paints work best with whatever fabric I'm working with.  So there are many methods of painting fabric of all kinds. There's also a plethora of paint speci

 My first kimono project is to recreate Ruka Rengoku (Luka in the english dub...ugh...) blue flower kimono from the anime.  This one! So some quick analysis.  What kind of Kimono is it? Going through my "design tree" I have these main questions to answer: Who is wearing it, what's the occasion/formality level and what time of year is it? Who: A middle aged married woman. This means that the height of the garment is my full height and the sleeves will be shorter.  Occasion: Sick in bed. So this will be a very casual kimono...even though it's pretty. They're pretty pajamas basically. The screenshot doesn't show it but she's not wearing juban, the sleeves are horizontally and vertically short, the obi is not very wide.  Season: Summer based on the colors and floral designs. Based on this information, I deduce this is likely a yukata. (Or possibly a sleeping kimono.) Either way, I will be making a yukata which means:  short sleeves A hanhaba or heko obi cotton

With the iron-on pieces affixed to the pattern pieces, the rest of the project is simply following the pattern instructions...for the most part.  Just your run-of-the-mill sewing... Making Gathers/Ruffles The apron pattern trims the bib, pocket, and skirt with a gathered lace or ruffled edge. There is more than one way to gather trim. Pattern instructions usually assume you don't have a lot of fancy feet for your sewing machine, so they explain how to do things with a standard foot.   Standard Foot Method In this method, you take a length of trim and sew two rows of long straight stitches or basting type stitches. Gently pull the bobbin threads and scrunch up the fabric. Then take this scrunched or "gathered" trim and apply it to your pattern piece.  All methods point inwards because the pieces are turned out.  Gather foot One of the fancy feet you can get for your machine is a Gather Foot. It uses the feed dogs to create an even gather as it sews it down. It is possible

Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) needs heat to get the glue to fuse with fabric. Loads of official tutorials show how to transfer HTV to fabric using official heat presses. Needless to say, yes, heat presses are ideal for this process. However, this is a budget blog so lets look at best tools.  Tools Last blog, I kept referring to HTV as Iron-on...and that is because I'm using my normal, everyday iron. There are pros and cons to using a household iron for this process:  👍Convenient if you already have one on hand 👍Irons come in many sizes 👎It has limited surface area 👎The hot surface is irregularly shaped 👎HTV does not work with a steam iron 👎The iron needs to be very hot! 👎Cannot be used easily on round/cylinder shaped objects  Using an iron is possible but may not be the best tool in the following cases:  Applying a very large iron on piece Producing a large quantity of products with HTV You plan on selling what you make.  You are applying HTV to a curved object...like a mug, bas

 Die cutter and plotter machines use vector coordinates to plot movement of the blade/pen. That being the case, it works best with simple images, not so much with multi-colored images or images with thin lines. Vector or "stencil style" images and shapes work best for this machine.  For the aprons I had a combination of simple shapes, a stencil, and a mildly complicated solid shape. These images included:  3 circles for gold buttons 2 silver bars  Kanji symbol in silver Flame Hilt in gold and red Stencil Kyojuro in black Dimensions For this project, dimensions of the image were extremely important. The pieces that would have iron-ons included the heart shaped pocket and the heart shaped bib. Using the paper pattern I blocked out where the image would sit.  The pocket had a 3 x 3 inch block. With the dimensions and placement set, I could adjust my images to fit.  Simple Shapes Most die cutter machines come with their own software which converts images to plot points and cut li

This past week I was eager to use my die-cutter machine to make something. This did sidetrack me from working more on my swimsuit but It was just a fun quick side project. Lately, an email ad from Redbubble reminded me of the aprons I was looking at. Of course it was Demon Slayer related, how could it not be? But I did not feel like purchasing one when I could make one. The Cricut kit I purchased came with 4 sheets of glitter iron-on vinyl sheets. (Also known as Heat Transfer Vinyl or HTV.) That's when things started.  Pattern Hunt First, I wanted to find a pattern for the apron. I knew I wanted something with good real estate for placing iron on images and something with a pocket or pockets. Lately, vintage recreation patterns have been my jam and after a lengthy search, I ended up finding a pattern I liked.  Simplicity S9311. I picked the Yellow Apron. I liked the heart pocketed and slightly French maid looking apron. Went ahead and purchased a yard and a half of Poly Cotton Broa