Category Archives: costumes

Ruffles.

Hermione red dress progress 5

I’m getting the most odd collection of blisters on my hands. What’s even more sad is I can clearly distinguish which have resulted from knitting and which are due to sewing.

In other news, this dress is coming along quite faster than I had thought it would. The actual dress itself was pretty simple to put together, it’s all of the ruffles that have been a strange sort of therapeutic nightmare.

Next up: fixing/finishing the ruffles, and then beads!

As you can probably tell, some of the ruffles are crooked. I also don’t quite like the way they lie currently so I’m going to stretch them out to the edge of the skirt and then trim them inwards so they’re fatter at the waist and taper downward to the edge.

As for beads, I can’t decide what kind to use. In the reference photos I’ve been using, they either look like very small sequins or seed beads. I’m going with seed beads, but I can’t decide if I should get red opaque ones or the clear ones with red in the center.

Hermione red dress progress 3 Hermione red dress progress 4

Last night as I was getting ready to take a shower, I happened to glance at my reflection and noticed something red on my belly button. After a sudden panicking flash of “OH NOES I’M BLEEDING” ran through my mind, I looked down and realized that a tangle of red thread had taken up residence in my navel.

I feel like this indicates some underlying issues.

3 Comments costumes - - - - -

Not yarn.

The streets are empty and Joann’s was crowded; it must be Superbowl Sunday.

I woke up this morning at exactly 9:37am with a burning desire to make a very specific dress that I’ve been squee-ing over for months. Hence the Joann’s trip.

BUT I walked away with this lovely bundle of stuff. And it’s not yarn! -shock-

Any guesses on what this lovely project is that is going to be eating my soul for the next week or two?

Hermione red dress fabric

Yeah, ok. Not very difficult.

Anyway, then I went home and decided to wear my new slouchy hat even though it’s nearly 80F outside.
Hello New York hat 2 Hello New York hat 1

I start on Halloween costumes ridiculously early.

I somehow managed to get the bodice right on the first try. This literally never happens.

The headband took me about ten minutes to make. I literally just took a thick plastic headband and attacked it with thick red ribbon and a glue gun. There was minor stitching on the actual bow part though but minimal.

For the gusseted sleeves I used Aranel’s tutorial, same one I used to make my Susan Pevensie archery sleeves. I just made the holes bigger. I can’t tell you how many tutorials I read where people cut corners by just sewing on strips of red fabric, or cutting holes without finishing them. One person even described painting red ovals on. o.O

</snob>

I also made a petticoat with two layers of tulle. I have two more strips cut out but it’s already so fluffy I want to try it on under the finished dress before I decide if it needs more poof.

I already can’t wait for Halloween! …..Maybe I should work on the part where I don’t have actual plans yet.

Buttons!

Dammit, it’s 2am. So much for getting to bed early.

In other news, I finally attached the stomacher to the bodice (I got tired of poking myself in eight places every time I tried it on) and put in button snap closures on the other side. The sleeves are still pinned on; I’ll get to that tomorrow.

Next up is just embroidering the crap out of the bodice and the skirt. Luckily there’s no embroidery (that I can see) on the polonaise overskirt. There’s just the front edge on either side of the underskirt, the peplum, and the little sticking-out panel that frames the stomacher (which I started earlier).

This whole project has actually been saving me quite a bit of money. I already bought everything for it, other than the $3 I spent on crochet thread, plus I’ve been working on it so much that I never feel like going out and participating in activities detrimental to my bank account.

I don’t think that previous statement could have made me sound more like a loser.