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DAY 4: Getting Started!
Oct. 25th, 2012 01:33 pmOh geez I havent updated in a long time! But this does not mean that I havent been working on my costume; in fact it's almost finished!!
However, looking back through my pictures - i didn't seem to take a lot of pictures in between stages... I dived straight into it and forgot to document my every move!
But all is not lost! ^ ^;; I will still post some before & after shots and i will describe all my processes as clearly and thoroughly as I can! It was all trial&error.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let's start with the gloves:
1st: Cut the tips off of the fingertips and fold them inside so that they only go up to the middle of your fingers. (I sewed the ends to make sure they wouldn't move later)
2nd: I bought "opera gloves" - which were a lot longer than i needed them to be so I had to reduce the length so that it reached a little lower than my elbow). Then sew that end as well.
3rd: With a black fabric marker, I made a rough draft of what the markings would look like. (see "before" pic)
4th: Since the black fabric marker wasnt as dark and black as i wanted it to be - I went out and bought some black fabric paint, which turned out to be perfectly black. I then went over the markings I had made earlier with the marker.
5th: With grey fabric paint, I went over the ends of the marks to give it some "layering-feel"; then i used a cranberry colored fabric paint and made some scratches along side the black markings. (see "after" pic)
Before & After
-
Onto the elbow hair:
1st: For this, my first plan of action was to sew the yarn onto the inside of the gloves, so that it would stick out of the ends (kinda like a scarecrow..) But then my sister came up with the brilliant plan of tying the yarn onto a hair tie instead.
To do this, we found some hair ties that fit around my elbow comfortably*. We then "de-threaded/ de-braided" our black, red, and white yarn to make it look more like fluff balls than braids. The black and red fluffs are tied onto the hair tie while we painted the white fluffs with yellow paint.
The pattern I used was- (black,red,black,red,black, yellow) repeated 4 times. (there should only be four yellow fluffs on each)
*make sure to use a slighter bigger hair tie - because it will get smaller with all the knots tied onto it! Make sure it doesnt cut off your blood circulation!
After
-
Next, the tail:
*This was very tedious work, but once you get into the groove, it will go by faster.
**I estimated on all the measurements of yarn, so you will have to also.
1st: The first thing I did was braid the black yarn for the tail-belt. I wanted my belt to wrap around me twice so i doubled the amount of yarn that i would of used if it just went around me once**.
2nd: For my tail base, I used 6 braids of black and white yarn. (I used three long braids and three braids that were half the length of the long ones - due to error in measuring. It won't make a difference in the long run whether your braids are all the same length.)
At first I wanted a really long and flowing tail, but decided against it after going through so much yarn. The end of my tail ends around the top of my ankle.
3rd: Tie strands of yarn ranging in length onto the braids. Make sure to fill up all the spaces on the braid (it'll take a couple of days to do this part). I tied all the black yarn on first, then added the white, then added the red. Feel free to experiment with different textures of yarn (thick, thin, curly..)
Keep adding yarn until you feel satisfied. You can always add on any leftover yarn you have in the future.
After
-
Now, the leg warmers:
*Because Jemima just has black and white leg warmers, I was able to buy a pair of both black and white leg warmers already made on ebay (I just can't sew or knit anything...)
1st: I left the black leg warmers the way they were. No cutting them or anything. (see "before" pic)
2nd: The only adjustment I had to make with the white leg warmers was:
-leg 1: cut one leg warmer in half.
-leg 2: fold the other leg warmer in half. (I left this one intact -no cutting- just folded it)
3rd: If I have time, I'd like to sew some elastic on the leg warmers so that they don't fall down. For now, however, I'm just using some more hair ties to keep them in place on my legs.
Before & After
-
And last but not least, the unitard/shoulder fluff:
*Details will be the end of you if you don't stick to your original sketches. I improvised on a lot of details for the unitard, but when i look back at my original sketch, there are some mistakes that I wont be able to fix...
unitard:
1st: I painted the unitard the same way as I did the gloves. I made a rough draft with the black fabric markers. (see "before#1 pic) Then went over everything with the black fabric paint.
2nd: While the black paint is still wet, I added some scratches of red fabric paint and used a sponge brush to blend it into the black paint.
3rd: I also used the gray fabric paint around the edges, where the black scratches would be meeting white areas. (Mostly found on the arms above the elbow and above the knees & thighs). I used a spongebrush to apply this to make sure i got an even coat. (see "before#2" pic)
-I also added the red scratches along side the black ones above the elbow and on the legs. (see "before#3' pic)
Before#1 Before#2 Before#3 & After
shoulder fluff:
*This part had me quite baffled in the beginning because I had no idea how to do it! In the end, I decided to go with the idea of sewing some fabric along the shoulder line and glueing the fluff balls onto the fabric.
1st: I used an old jacket that I could rip up, that way it would already fit my shoulder. I cut off the sleeves and used the round shoulder end as my test subject.
2nd: I pinned the fabric onto my unitard while my sister was wearing it so I would know just where to sew. I also made a relief cut in the fabric right above the shoulder, that way i could lift my arms without tearing the fabric. I then loosely sewed the relief cut together so that it would still stay above my shoulder.
3rd: Once everything is firmly sewed on, I then started glueing the black and red fluff balls onto it. (I used the same red yarn as my tail, but I used a shinier boa material for the black).
After (front) & After (back)
-
That's what I've done up to this point!! I've really had my hands full! There's still so much to do before halloween!
I just have a little more detailing to do on the unitard, plus when my shoes arrive in the mail - I'll have to paint one of the white. AND I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED ON MY WIG YET!!!
My first plan was to buy a cheap wig and just paint and style it... which turned into a disaster.... But luckily I've found another way of making a wig that I'll give a shot this week!
WISH ME LUCK!!! 6 DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN!! :))
However, looking back through my pictures - i didn't seem to take a lot of pictures in between stages... I dived straight into it and forgot to document my every move!
But all is not lost! ^ ^;; I will still post some before & after shots and i will describe all my processes as clearly and thoroughly as I can! It was all trial&error.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let's start with the gloves:
1st: Cut the tips off of the fingertips and fold them inside so that they only go up to the middle of your fingers. (I sewed the ends to make sure they wouldn't move later)
2nd: I bought "opera gloves" - which were a lot longer than i needed them to be so I had to reduce the length so that it reached a little lower than my elbow). Then sew that end as well.
3rd: With a black fabric marker, I made a rough draft of what the markings would look like. (see "before" pic)
4th: Since the black fabric marker wasnt as dark and black as i wanted it to be - I went out and bought some black fabric paint, which turned out to be perfectly black. I then went over the markings I had made earlier with the marker.
5th: With grey fabric paint, I went over the ends of the marks to give it some "layering-feel"; then i used a cranberry colored fabric paint and made some scratches along side the black markings. (see "after" pic)
Before & After
-
Onto the elbow hair:
1st: For this, my first plan of action was to sew the yarn onto the inside of the gloves, so that it would stick out of the ends (kinda like a scarecrow..) But then my sister came up with the brilliant plan of tying the yarn onto a hair tie instead.
To do this, we found some hair ties that fit around my elbow comfortably*. We then "de-threaded/ de-braided" our black, red, and white yarn to make it look more like fluff balls than braids. The black and red fluffs are tied onto the hair tie while we painted the white fluffs with yellow paint.
The pattern I used was- (black,red,black,red,black, yellow) repeated 4 times. (there should only be four yellow fluffs on each)
*make sure to use a slighter bigger hair tie - because it will get smaller with all the knots tied onto it! Make sure it doesnt cut off your blood circulation!
After
-
Next, the tail:
*This was very tedious work, but once you get into the groove, it will go by faster.
**I estimated on all the measurements of yarn, so you will have to also.
1st: The first thing I did was braid the black yarn for the tail-belt. I wanted my belt to wrap around me twice so i doubled the amount of yarn that i would of used if it just went around me once**.
2nd: For my tail base, I used 6 braids of black and white yarn. (I used three long braids and three braids that were half the length of the long ones - due to error in measuring. It won't make a difference in the long run whether your braids are all the same length.)
At first I wanted a really long and flowing tail, but decided against it after going through so much yarn. The end of my tail ends around the top of my ankle.
3rd: Tie strands of yarn ranging in length onto the braids. Make sure to fill up all the spaces on the braid (it'll take a couple of days to do this part). I tied all the black yarn on first, then added the white, then added the red. Feel free to experiment with different textures of yarn (thick, thin, curly..)
Keep adding yarn until you feel satisfied. You can always add on any leftover yarn you have in the future.
After
-
Now, the leg warmers:
*Because Jemima just has black and white leg warmers, I was able to buy a pair of both black and white leg warmers already made on ebay (I just can't sew or knit anything...)
1st: I left the black leg warmers the way they were. No cutting them or anything. (see "before" pic)
2nd: The only adjustment I had to make with the white leg warmers was:
-leg 1: cut one leg warmer in half.
-leg 2: fold the other leg warmer in half. (I left this one intact -no cutting- just folded it)
3rd: If I have time, I'd like to sew some elastic on the leg warmers so that they don't fall down. For now, however, I'm just using some more hair ties to keep them in place on my legs.
Before & After
-
And last but not least, the unitard/shoulder fluff:
*Details will be the end of you if you don't stick to your original sketches. I improvised on a lot of details for the unitard, but when i look back at my original sketch, there are some mistakes that I wont be able to fix...
unitard:
1st: I painted the unitard the same way as I did the gloves. I made a rough draft with the black fabric markers. (see "before#1 pic) Then went over everything with the black fabric paint.
2nd: While the black paint is still wet, I added some scratches of red fabric paint and used a sponge brush to blend it into the black paint.
3rd: I also used the gray fabric paint around the edges, where the black scratches would be meeting white areas. (Mostly found on the arms above the elbow and above the knees & thighs). I used a spongebrush to apply this to make sure i got an even coat. (see "before#2" pic)
-I also added the red scratches along side the black ones above the elbow and on the legs. (see "before#3' pic)
Before#1 Before#2 Before#3 & After
shoulder fluff:
*This part had me quite baffled in the beginning because I had no idea how to do it! In the end, I decided to go with the idea of sewing some fabric along the shoulder line and glueing the fluff balls onto the fabric.
1st: I used an old jacket that I could rip up, that way it would already fit my shoulder. I cut off the sleeves and used the round shoulder end as my test subject.
2nd: I pinned the fabric onto my unitard while my sister was wearing it so I would know just where to sew. I also made a relief cut in the fabric right above the shoulder, that way i could lift my arms without tearing the fabric. I then loosely sewed the relief cut together so that it would still stay above my shoulder.
3rd: Once everything is firmly sewed on, I then started glueing the black and red fluff balls onto it. (I used the same red yarn as my tail, but I used a shinier boa material for the black).
After (front) & After (back)
-
That's what I've done up to this point!! I've really had my hands full! There's still so much to do before halloween!
I just have a little more detailing to do on the unitard, plus when my shoes arrive in the mail - I'll have to paint one of the white. AND I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED ON MY WIG YET!!!
My first plan was to buy a cheap wig and just paint and style it... which turned into a disaster.... But luckily I've found another way of making a wig that I'll give a shot this week!
WISH ME LUCK!!! 6 DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN!! :))
