Modesty's Costume Closet

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

Octopus Dress Idea This is a side-step from all things mermaid tail related. I wanted to give a chance to all kinds of sea creatures when developing this series of blog posts. So if you're feeling more of a cephalopod or jellyfish vibe for your costume, read on!  You may want to get a swim dress or swim skirt pattern to help. I really like Simplicity 8139 . The concept is to create a panel skirt of sorts but shape the panels into tentacles.  On a side note, you can also just create a skirt of tentacles that you wear over a swimsuit. That is a slightly easier option and what I ended up doing.  Tentacle Skirt For 8 tentacles, you'll cut 16 panels. One for the internal side and one for the outer.  (Note: If you count your legs as a pair of tentacles, you only need 12 panels.) The total number of tentacles is up to you.  For each panel or tentacle, pin the inner and outer fabric with the right sides together. Sew along the bottom edge for each tentacle.  Align the sides of the tent

 Here's some photos of the full costume on me.  I would not call this the photoshoot. I did just get my photo backdrop so I will likely do more but it will have less of my apartment mess in it. LOL.  What Went Right: - Most of my plans went well! - Learned to knit! - Did some cool designing on things even if some of it was improvised.  - Dyed fabric - Sewed a lined kimono successfully - Kept a regular pace and finished in 2 weeks (over the course of 4 months.) - Ended up creating a new character and I'm perhaps making a story with all the kitsune I came up with. It's a lot. I'll share character designs later!  What could go better:  - Creating and attaching the sleeves, hindsight.  - The neckband doesn't stay down properly.  - Hair chalk did not work very well, will need to wear a wig - My kanzashi broke. The hot glue was not enough - Bought one more kimono pattern for reference - Bit more fabric research...find something that irons! - Faux Fur fox Tail or Yarn tail

Make-up is a powerful tool in a costumer's arsenal. You can create a whole costume around face makeup! When it comes to costumes there are (in my consideration) three kinds of makeup:  Fashion Make-up Theatrical/Stage Make-up Costume Make-up Fashionable at one point.  Fashion make-up accents the natural shapes of your face to make it look its best according to a fashion/cultural aesthetic.  Theatrical or Stage make-up is a major exaggeration of facial features that can be seen from a distance with the bright lights of a stage.  All done with eye liner and eye shadow. Costume make-up is a mix of both. It looks good close-up or from a distance. It exaggerates if it needs to or accents where it can.  However, all make-up has this in common: using color to create an illusion with your facial features.  Health Note: There can be allergens in some make-up depending on what it is made out of. Be sure to either test on your skin beforehand or check the ingredients (if you know what your al