Day 17, 18, 19

I've decided to put these together because the majority of my days were spent doing alterations. We've made all of the dresses that need to be made, so the dresses had to be put on the girls and fitted. I have to admit that this is not something I like to do. The first time I got to see my dress on an actress I was so excited and nervous, but after I see how much has to be done: detaching the bodice and skirt, taking in the bodice at the back seam, taking in the skirt at the back seam and hemline-- I'm not too excited. It's a great learning experience, but terribly frustrating to take apart your work and put it back together. Things don't line up the way that they once did, and the silkier fabrics don't like seam rippers :/

I have had the pleasure of going to the costume shop managers' (my boss) house with another one of the stitchers--who actually lives in her office for now--to watch The Voice. We all come in and talk about it every week, so it was great to watch it together.

 Old navy tank top, thrifted windbreakers, thrifted belt, Forever 21 elephant necklace and earrings

My apologies for the lack of photos over the past couple of days. I haven't had the time to blog being that I was at my boss' house all week.

This is definitely one of my favorite outfits. They're just windbreaker- type pants pulled up to my natural waist, but they're so comfortable and balloon out at the right places.

We'll have our last fittings over the next few days, and then I'm not exactly sure what our next moves will be. I've got to get better at this alteration stuff though....

St. Petersburg

Here are a few pics of my weekend in St. Petersburg. We attended the Pride Parade and had a ton of fun. We stayed at the Ponce de Leon, a swanky hotel on the main street didn't provide much, but was so cute and stylish. If we stayed there again, I'm sure we would pay a little more to have a bigger room because ours was the bare minimum: a bed, tv, closet, bathroom. I was pleased nonetheless.

The Pride Parade was calmer than it could have been, but I loved seeing all of the bright costumes and happy people. My favorite pictures are the ones where gay couples are kissing next to the guy standing outside of the gates blocking off the parade, with a huge HATERS sign and a microphone spewing hate at all of the happy people. Who has time to stand around and hate? ugh.

I loved the weekend, although St. Petersburg is full of old farts and nothing was open on Sunday. We went to an awesome intern party for the St. Pete Times that I was also invited to because I coincidentally went to high school with an intern that works at the same place as Melvin. I can't believe how small the world is.

We all woke up after crashing at the intern's place and went to Denny's before the Pride Parade. I have to say, Florida has some of the best food selections. We've yet to have crappy food here.

All around good time despite the rain!

 saw a Soror!

If you're terribly offended by these pictures, maybe this blog isn't for you :)

Day 16

thrifted shirt, Forever 21 jorts

the bodice of my second dress

Day 16-- dress number 2.

I won't go into all of the details that made up dress 2 because they're pretty much the same as the first. The only real differences are the colors, my approach to the chiffon, and the strap across the collar bones. This dress was completed in about a day, and once I had finished it I had the chance to actually put it on the actress and learn how to do real alterations. I was so excited but very nervous. I was worried that my dress wouldn't fit my actress, and that my seam allowance may have been to large and then I would have to scrap the whole dress. In reality, it fit rather well. The bodice is a bit long because she has a short torso, and all of the skirts will have to be hemmed to right below the knee. I'll also have to take about 2 inches out of the back seam because a zipper will have to fit in. I'm not finished with the alterations, but they shouldn't be too difficult....

day 15

forever 21 knit shirt, thrifted linen pants, glass bead necklace that my mom got somewhere

This has to be one of my favorite outfits. It was so comfortable and easy to move in. I got a lot of compliments, which I don't normally get at this theatre. This may sound vain i'm being very self- centered right now,  but these chicks can be hard to please! Having only a portion of my wardrobe has forced me to not only thrift shop more regularly, but get more creative with my outfits. But i get nothin'! I'm used to compliments at UNC, but I seem to only get them here on my most basic outfits that I feel dumpy in :shirt/jean combos. I'm perplexed.

This one, however, seemed to work. </conceded rant>

sidenote: these are the embroidery hoops I'm eventually going to hang up on my wall. I got a package of 5 fabric squares from JoAnns that match my pillow exactly so I'm excited to get those hung up. I never seem to get energy until about 10 or 11, and by that time it's too late to hammer into the wall, so I may have to wait until the weekend to get these up.

...anyway

 Day 15 was great!

Dress one was completed. I attached the bodice to the skirt fairly easily. I placed the sheer blue fabric against the green fabric, and from the wrong sides of the fabric attached the two at the waist. The back of the dress is still open because there will eventually be elastic and a zipper placed in the back.

I matched up the lines and seams with the bodice, and with wrong sides together i sewed the two together. It was fairly simple, but it was a bit difficult to move around all of the fabric while keeping my tiny needle moving in a straight line.

I started dress #2 shortly after. It's a green and blue dress, and I kind of want it for myself. The neon green is one of my favorite colors, and looks nice with my skintone #imjustsayin

Day 14

hmph.

key earrings from London flee market, thrifted belt, Old Navy jean jacket (shown below), Nordstrom dress

my hair was frizzy, but very S- curly and incredibly soft

I worked with the skirt of the dress today. Normally, this would be the easiest part. A simple cotton dress would be made of a few panels, or even a circle, and just sewn with right sides together to the bodice. When you turn it inside out, the dress would have a nice waist seam. 

not this time.

This dress not only had a chiffon overlay, but had a zipper in the back that would be put on later, and a thicker, heavier fabric underneath. The chiffon was so incredibly hard to work with, because when you sew two pieces together, it has the tendency to pucker. That makes the seam crooked and it doesn't lay down properly. In other words, chiffon threads slip like hell and bunch up like ocean waves. I must have tried 4 or 5 times to sew the chiffon together. The chiffon dress had to be put together first, and then the heavier fabric underneath, then the two pieces would be put together and attached to the bodice last. I couldn't get the dumb chiffon to stay in place. I tried sewing without holding the fabric down, hoping that the machine would work its magic. That wasn't the case. I didn't learn until about the 4th time that I would have to pull on the fabric tightly, something that seems dangerous with such fragile fabric, to get it to lay straight. I also had to change the tension of the machine and widen the stitch length. 

After spending hours working on the chiffon I was tired. My eyes hurt from staring at the same fabric, hunched over and highly concentrated. Putting the thread through the fabric was no easy task either. I did feel really accomplished, however, when I ironed my chiffon and it stayed flat on the ironing board. That was the only thing I got done for that day, but to me it felt like a lot. I've never had to work with such a difficult fabric, or with different thread tensions and stitch lengths. Although it took forever, I definitely learned some new things!

Day 13

thrifted green blouse, black jersey harem pants from H&M in spain,  my late-great-aunt's gold hoops, Urban Outfitters peacock hair pin used as a brooch

Day 13 was fun yet frustrating.

I continued making the bodice (the upper part of the dress). Although my pictures won't show it, after putting together the two back pieces and the front panel with darts, I had to encase the edges with bias tape, like this.

source

Essentially, you take a pre- cut strip of fabric and fold each edge in and press it, then press it again at the almost- halfway point. The second press is where the dress fabric goes, and the bias tape folds over the edge of the dress with neatly pressed edges. There's more than one way to apply/make bias tape, but this worked for this dress.

 

The original pattern called for bias tape that was much too small, so I had to spend too much time remaking bias tape. It took forever.

These two rounded areas are for arms, So I put bias tape all the way around the half circles, then extended the bias tape up for what would become the straps of the dress.

The bias tape also extended across the collarbone for another bar across the chest as seen in the pattern (I'm doing one dress with the middle pattern, and one with the dress on the right)

The bodice was pretty much done after that. The skirt is a whole different story that I'll have to save for a different post. the. most. frustrating.thing.ever.

lol

Anyway...

I finally figured out my staple style. I did a flat- twist out with the butter I posted a few days ago. This time I tried it with olive oil gel and started at the crown of my head and made all of my flat twists extend from the center. My hair was much flatter and less frizzy, and the curls were much more defined than they have been in the past. I'm soooo happy with the results..

yay!

Day 12

Day 12: Sewing!!

My first real day of sewing! I started making a 1950s pleated dress with bias tape along the seams and up around the armhole. The bias tape also doubled as the shoulder straps. In other words, there was a piece of fabric that was used to cover up all of the side seams and went all the way around the arm and tied above the shoulder. For the most part, I followed the pattern. The costume designer and costume shop manager wanted the opening of the dress to be in the back instead of the intended side seam, so we had to change parts of the pattern.

I'm doing the middle pattern.

I started by serging all of the pieces together. Basically, serging is the process of making the ends of fabric neat by sewing around the edge of the fabric. Most sergers will cut the extra trim away, too, leaving the edge tidy and unable to unravel.

source

So I serged all of the fabric, half of which was an iridescent green thicker fabric and the other half a silky blue chiffon. Chiffon is the type of fabric that is terribly difficult to keep still and slips and pulls through the machine, making it bunch up. I had difficulties keeping it on the machine. After serging I flat stitched the two fabrics together. Flat stitching is where you sew two fabrics together, with both of the right sides facing you rather than sewing right sides together and turning it inside out, like many girls learn how to do when they make bags or aprons in a sewing class in school. Fairly simple. The back had two pieces that would eventually be put together with a zipper, and the front was just a long panel. I put four darts in the front for a more fitted bodice. 

front of bodice

That took me a few hours, mainly because it takes forever to change out the serger thread and put it in the machine. I started cutting out the bias tape at the end of the day, but I had to make it rather than buy pre-made bias tape, so I was in a little over my head and decided I would learn how to make itfrom start to finish the next day.

I'm so excited to have started sewing!

pictures of the shop

I thought It'd be nice to show ya'll some pictures of the shop!

the sewing machines. a crazy mess but we get stuff done.

 some of the oufits that were picked out before the fitting

 crinolines that go under the skirts

 more costumes

 work tables and fabric boxes

just some of the fabric we're using to make the costumes

wigs in the background, ironing tables, dressing rooms, and work tables

I love the shop, I just wish there were windows, though :/ it gets so cold sometimes. But other than that, it's great!