Stealth Sailor Moon Formal

I have been wanting to make a galaxy-inspired Sailor Moon dress for ages. This isn't a dress, but it's close.

I foolishly did not take before/during/after photos of this project because I was in a bit of a rush to get it completed before ACEN. (And frankly because today has been chaotic.)

I started with a long formal skirt and sleeveless blouse, both black polyester, that I found at a thrift store. I think both pieces together cost $10. I bought Krylon spray paint (gloss) in Rich Plum, Ocean Blue and Hot Pink, and already had part of a can of Rust-Oleum French Lilac (satin).The pink and blue are both Short Cuts (little cans, 3oz.) and I have some left over. The purple wasn't available in a little can (at the Joann's where I bought it) so it's a full-size can.

I am fortunate enough to have a dressmaker's mannequin, and I covered it with plastic bags so as not to get paint on it.The skirt has a lining, and I didn't want to get paint on the lining, so I cut the bottom off a bag and pinned the plastic tube inside the skirt to keep paint from getting on the second layer of fabric. Because this is a long skirt, I had to pin it to the shoulders of the mannequin to keep it off the floor and make it easier to work on.

I used sticker paper, and printed out the Sailor Moon planetary symbols (nine of them, times two, one set for each garment), and cut them out with the intention of using the stickers as masks to keep black areas in the paint. They did not stick well to the polyester, so I ended up pinning them to the fabric after all. The skirt was made up of 8 gores, so each section but one has a single symbol in it. I doubled up Uranus and Neptune. They are not all perfectly aligned, they are not all in a line/horizontal, but they are roughly centered in each gore. (This was my personal design choice.)

I was concerned that the purple wouldn't show up well on the black, so I laid down some of the pale lavender first, over each of the symbols, and randomly over the bottom 2/3 of the skirt. I was working outside in the garage with the door open, and the breeze kept my paint from being precise; I don't consider that a bad thing. Then the purple, then the blue (which was much brighter than I expected on the black), then the pink which toned down the blue, then I went in with a little more purple in some places where the blue was still too bright. I tried to keep the paint can strokes moving in crescents, no straight lines at all, and interlocking them (like 2 Cs hooked together). I stopped often, and stood back to look at it -- remember, you can add more paint, but you can't take it off once it's on!

Once I was satisfied with it, I got my stiff stencil brush (you can use an old toothbrush) and white acrylic paint, and spattered on "stars" using my thumb on the bristles. A little paint on the tips will make little stars, a lot of paint will make larger spatter and streaks -- practice on paper if you're not sure how it's going to look. Again, once it's on, it doesn't come off! Go slow, step back often, and stop when you're satisfied with the look.

You can kinda see the plastic bag
between the skirt and the liner.

I didn't remove the masks until the paint was dry, and saw that the masks were far from perfect. Still awesome, though!

I moved the skirt to a hanger and put the blouse on the mannequin and repeated the whole thing. I also had to cover a brooch on the blouse (with painter's tape) because I didn't want to get any paint on it.

The blouse was a different weight of polyester than the skirt, and it took the paint a little differently. The colors aren't quite as bright, but I didn't want to use too much paint and make the fabric really stiff. This is paint, not dye, it's definitely making the fabric stiffer. That's something to consider when you try this.

Painter's tape covering the brooch.

The hardest part about this was getting the symbols pinned on. Without those, it would have gone even faster. As it was, this was a morning's work to complete. I could wear this tonight, if I had an event to wear it to. The paint dries very quickly.

Both of the pieces I painted are Dry Clean Only. I don't know how well this technique would hold up to washing, I don't know how well it would hold up to dry cleaning... When I have to answer that question I'll update here.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I love the cloudy look of the nebulae, all the stars, and how the Sailor Moon symbols are there, but are kinda stealthy about it. And I love that it was easy to do, and took me less than a day to complete. Quick projects always make you feel like you got something done, right?

Both pieces, with the masks removed, ready for a night out.

I hope my process is relatively clear. I wish I'd taken more photos. (It really has been a day...) I'd like to do another skirt, a shorter one (long skirts aren't practical for everyday), and if I do, I'll amend this with more photos.

Pattern Review: Sashay Skirt

Last August, I got a pattern and some material, and planned to make a skirt from some DC Superheroine fabric. This past weekend I finally made it, and a beret to match (naturally). The Indygo Junction pattern for the Sashay Skirt could not be easier unless it sewed itself.

There is a single pattern piece, it's sized by adding panels to the trumpet skirt, and has an elastic waistband. The directions call for serging the seams, leaving them exposed, with the option of sewing them to the inside. I don't have a serger, and I don't care for the look of all those exposed seams, so I sewed them to the inside. Honestly, it took way more time to pin all those panels than it did to sew them together.

The hem is curved and I quickly discarded a rolled hem as being a huge pain in the butt. I ended up using bias tape to do an enclosed hem instead. The coordinating quarter inch tape stiffened the hem a little, making it tend to stand out a bit; it's an effect that looks quite nice. It was time consuming; my hem was nearly 6 yards around because of the number of panels I used. For all the pinning and seams that had to be sewn, I still got it done in a day.

It's a really cute skirt, hitting me just below the knee. The flared hem is flattering and the elastic waist comfortable. It moves nicely, swirling with my steps, and twirling in it flares it out without being immodest since it's straighter at the hips. The way its pieced lends itself to many different combinations of color and pattern. Make it all one fabric, or make every one different -- it's up to you and your own sense of design. I used 4 different patterned materials from a single design line from Camelot Fabrics, but this won't be the last time I make the Sashay Skirt. And because you custom size it by the number of panels, I can easily make a skirt for my daughter using that same single pattern piece, unlike with most patterns where you have to cut into a multiple-sized pattern pieces, making them useless to make another size.

NOTE: If you have a directional pattern on the material, you're going to need more fabric than the instructions call for unless you don't care if some of your panels are upside down. (One of my blue panels is -- oops!)

You can see here that the light blue panel on the left of the photo is upside down.

Lots of nice flare at the bottom.

Showing how the bias tape gave a little body to the hemline.

The bottom of the beret is of a sparkly pink material that doesn't quite match the
bias tape, but coordinates nicely with the pinks in the material.

I chose to add a little bling to my skirt with hot-fix crystals, and used the assorted color pack of 300 from Tulip. Cost-wise, they were 300/$15 for 12 colors (at Joann's) vs. the Swarovski Elements 90/$10 (for two coordinating colors). Since I wanted to add them to the skirt and to the beret, and since I had a lot of colors to choose from, Tulip was the way to go, even if they're not as nice as the Swarovskis. I have added 3 to each panel of the skirt, and then finished the beret so I knew I would have enough for both, and plan to add more to the skirt.

These are not as sparkly as the
Swarovski Elements iron-on crystals,
but they're about half the cost.

I consider myself a novice seamstress. I haven't done a lot of garment sewing. I've never sewn in a zipper, and I've never done buttonholes. Pattern directions often confound me because they don't make a lot of sense, so I tend to wing it. This pattern was a piece of cake. I'm so happy that I bought it, and I'm thrilled with my results. I highly recommend it.

Shoe-Inspired Jeans

I have been lusting after a pair of shoes for months. I had a coupon, and it was available to use today, finally.

[Cue angel choir]

Rock & Candy "Jackrabbit" in black

They come with cotton lace shoelaces... which are adorable... and fragile... so I replaced them. 

Woven laces tutorial here: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/angledcheckerlacing.htm

I've been wanting to do a pair of embellished jeans for a while, and this pair of shoes has inspired me. After I bought my shoes (and the new shoelaces), I headed to the nearest Goodwill. There I found a pair of black jeans that fit well and were in good condition, and also found a floral print knit shirt that has a pattern than nearly matches the floral pattern on the shoes. From there, I went to Joann's, and bought some fabric spray paint, dimensional paint, heat-set rhinestones, paisley-print felt, ribbon roses and lace trims. After I got home, I laced up the shoes (tricky, but it sure looks nifty), then went down to my stash of fabric to gather anything purple that looked like it might work. I also grabbed a couple of sequin appliqués that I really want to use somewhere. Gathered all together, this is what I have:

Now I'm not sure how I'm going to use all of that stuff, IF I will use it all, but this way I can play with the pieces together and see how they might work. I'm kind of kicking around the idea of making my own paisley appliqués. One thing I know I want to do is to lay the jeans flat and cover them with an old lace curtain, then use the spray paint to paint through the lace. I thought I'd freehand paisleys with the metallic black paint writer... but now I'm not sure I want to do something so simple. If I make my own appliqués, I can sew them on the machine, maybe do some embroidery and beading.

Brainstorming on paper: The sketch on the left shows the side seam of the leg opened up and a
lace insert added, with the sequin appliqué at the top of the split.

So many options!

In addition to the jeans, I want to make a Metropolitan Hat (from Folkwear patterns) to match. It's a very similar style to a velvet hat I had years ago that I loved, then donated to Goodwill because I never wore it. The Folkwear hat has a wider brim than the one I had, but that's an easy thing to alter.



And maybe if this goes well, I can make another pair of jeans to go with these...

"Jackrabbit" in mint green (looks aqua to me)

Hats

I love hats, even though it's a rare day that I wear one. Oh, I'll put on a ball cap to mow, or a sun hat to garden, but I don't often wear one for fashion. Not too awfully long ago, I encouraged my husband in his quest to find a fedora. We drove into Chicago, to Hats Plus, and found summer and winter hats for him, and I think he looks dashing. I rather love fedoras myself and had a straw one (that I loved but rarely wore) when I was a teenager. In a recent closet purge, I got rid of some... I never wore them, so why keep them? But dammit, I am 42 years old, and if I want to wear hats, why shouldn't I?

Yesterday, whilst running errands, we looked at a few casual hats at Target and JC Penney's. What they had were mainly cloches, fedoras, trilbies and variations on the newsboy cap. None of the fedoras were quite right, the trilby brims are just way too small, Marc didn't like the newsboys or the cloches on me, and the sequined beret was right out. So, frustrated and discouraged, I conceded defeat -- to my daughter's relief.

Back at home I started surfing, looking for someplace that wanted to sell me a hat that I might conceivably wear and not look like a dork. As usual, my personal sense of style and what the garment industry actually sells are vastly different. This is one of the reasons I wanted to learn to sew, after all. I remembered that Mom had given me some patterns that she had bought to make things for me, including a pattern for hats, from which she made many many berets. (Those I still have.) I have miles of fabric. I have piles of polar fleece, and polar fleece is easy-sew, has some body without being rigid, and I thought it would make some awesome hats.

©1986 - does that count as retro or vintage yet? Twenty-six years old...
the pattern may or may not be vintage, but knowing that makes ME feel old.

I dug out the pattern, and decided to try the pillbox style first, mostly because it used a small amount of material and was a quick and easy sew. I'm pretty sure that this was the fastest thing I've ever sewn. Unfortunately, hubby didn't like the silhouette on me; too hard. "Old lady-ish," he said. (I think it's cute and warm, but perhaps he's right about the silhouette.)

The star detail is made of felt, three layers, and stitched on with a button.
I thought that such a detail would keep it from being a boring pillbox,
but the hubs apparently didn't feel it was enough to keep it out of Oldsville.

OK, fine, I'll try again. I dug out some larger pieces of fleece, and found a lovely warm ivory and a creamy beige and decided to do some color blocking. I cut the top in beige, cut the sides on a fold to double the height in ivory, and then cut another piece (slightly longer than the pattern piece called for) to make a cuff at the bottom in beige. Since I was making it up as I went, this took a bit longer.

First I sewed the sides into a tube and stitched the top on, just like the directions called for. The only difference was that my tube was twice as tall. I cut the long beige piece on the selvedge because it had a nice rolled look to it, without being rolled. The disadvantage there was the visible pinholes from the manufacturing process. No problem; I stitched satin ribbon over the holes and got more detail -- problem solved. I sewed that into a tube, and then played with the pieces to determine how to sew it together. This piece needed to be longer (half an inch, maybe?) than the other piece, because it was going on the outside of the main body of the hat. Fleece is bulky, and I needed to allow for that. Fortunately for me, eyeballing it worked.

Once I got the cuff sewn on and everything turned right-side out, I tried it on. I thought I could just sort of smush it down to get the effect I wanted, but no. Fine, gathering it is. I used the front, back, and sides to gather it down, using a basting stitch and ruching it. I pinned on some embellishment, and figured I was done. (DH still didn't care for it, but allowed if I was happy, he was happy for me.) It bugged me a little when I went to bed, and it bugged me while I slept. I needed to gather it more, and use doubled thread this time. The four gathers were just not enough, and they were pulling the crown out of shape. This morning I added four more, and am much happier with it.

You can kind of see here how the gathering isn't consistent, since it's only on four points
on the crown, distorting it. Once I added more gathers, I got a much more consistent look
and the crown isn't pulled out of shape.

The feathered thing I got a JoAnn's, and was sold as a pair of elastic bracelets.
*shrug* I dunno, I thought it was goofy, too, but it worked.

So if he thought the silhouette was too hard before, the doubled/gathered sides softened it, plus the addition of the ostrich plume thingie and the vintage brooch made it more than just a warm winter hat. I love this hat, I really do, and I'm proud of it. I love the subtle colors, I love the texture, and I like the way it looks. (Like not love; I'd really prefer something with a brim, but I'm no milliner, and this was an experiment to see if I could do it at all.)

I ordered a couple more sewing patterns, and will experiment with those, too. I think I have to try a fleece beret while I wait for those to arrive...

Old Things Made New

I have skirts I love, but never wear because they're too long. Two things can happen: I can stuff them back in the closet and ignore them, or I can alter them so they suit better. (Or I could donate them.) Since I've already altered some of my other too-long skirts, this was a no-brainer.

 

PROJECT ONE

Ankle-length skirts on someone who is already short just makes a person look like they're standing in a hole. I don't want to look like I'm standing in hole.

There are three side seams in this skirt. The two in front I'm going to pull up the skirt about an inch above where the black starts and sew it in place. I have some velvet ribbon I'm going to sew over the seams to emphasize and make it look like the button I'm adding is functional and not merely decorative. I suppose I could stop there, and leave the back alone, but it's really quite long, and I don't want that much of a length difference between front and back...

 

...so I'll pull it up too, wrapping it over the waistband and stitching it in place. I also have a pretty black lace I'm going to sew onto the hem before I start all this. It's sort of steampunk-inspired; Steampunk Light, maybe.

PROJECT TWO

Same skirt, different colors. But for this one, I want to try something different. I'm going to open up those three seams about halfway, and stitch the corner of one "panel" to the next seam, then the next panel to the next seam, all the way around.  I have no idea how that's going to work...

...but it probably won't look anything at all like that. In the above photo, I haven't ripped open any seams yet, so who knows how it's going to look. If I don't like it, I can try something else!

PROJECT THREE

I love the colors in this skirt, but it's soooo long! I don't want to cut it off and lose any of the color or sequins, so...

...I'm going to turn it into a dress. It needs a wider belt (white?) and I think I'm going to try and make a shrug for it, too. The straps will be made from the tie that was in the waistband.

PROJECT FOUR

Cute dress, eh? Goodwill find, and it fits nicely... except it's too long. Gonna hem that baby to knee length, and maybe (maybe), I'll open the side seams a little for a sexy little glimpse of thigh.

PROJECT FIVE A, B, C

This is a tan polyester lace t-shirt, lined with more polyester. I'm going to rip out the lining and turn the lace into a shrug. It may or may not work well with the black and tan skirt. We'll see.

I got two more tees that I thought might work well as shrugs, but maybe not, after all. The tutorial for the shrugs (link above) says to remove the neckband, which is one of the things I like about black tee #1. Nothing fancy, just a small braid of the knit, but I don't want to remove it altogether. I'm going to see if I can find a way to keep it.

With black tee #2, not only does it have a neckband that I like, but it also has a tied keyhole back. Again, not sure how to make it work, but I'm going to give it a go.

PROJECT SIX

And here's the part where I've pretty much gone a little crazy. The only thing of the four items above that fits reasonably well is the cotton plaid capris, and they're a little big. The solid green capris (left) are a linen/rayon blend, as is the striped skirt. The paisley skirt (right) is polyester. The two skirts on the right are new, tags still in them, and much (much!) too big. I bought them basically for the fabric. In fact, all four of those pieces were basically because I loved the colors. I have in my head a dress or a skirt or an outfit... made from all those things. And no idea how I'm going to do it! :D All I know is, if I had not bought those two skirts, I'd have regretted it for a long time. I don't know what it is about them, the soft mossy green, mocha and beige just really grabbed me, and I love the idea of using a stripe with the paisley, and the plaid with both.

Since I have no idea how I'm going to pull those things together, I'll sit on that for a while, until I know exactly what I want to do. Just the two skirts would be fun as a spiral, like this (version #2). Not as colorful with only two fabrics, since I don't think I could get the pattern piece onto the pants (each gore needs a 25" x 23" piece of fabric), without piecing them or having a seam in the middle of the gore, but we'll see. Maybe it will work... or maybe I don't want it to. The different fabric weights, sturdy-to-filmy, might make for a bizarre skirt. Or it might be amazing! 

At any rate, I have more than enough to keep me busy and out of trouble while I wait for the weather to improve long enough to bring home the plywood for my closet overhaul.

Photoethnography

My husband referred to my need to document that which I am about to share as ethnography. Which I suppose is correct to a point, but I'm not planning on doing much writing, so it's more ethnophotography or photoethnography. (I think I prefer photoethnography.)

Without further ado, I present... The Lavender Suit.

I saw this mannequin in a shop window while we were on our way to dinner. When we left the restaurant, I grabbed my camera from the trunk and headed back to photograph it. At first glance, it appears to be a young man's suit, but a closer second look reveals it to be a man's suit rolled up to fit onto a child-size mannequin. The shoes, by the way, are either lilac ostrich leather, or embossed to look like ostrich.