Rapunzel Dress Part 4: Complete!

Finished. I put together the skirt, added a waistband, and hemmed it. That's all! The skirt was super simple and the top was crazy complex.  One costume down!

Rapunzel Dress Part 3: Finished top!

The top is finished!  It's not an exact replica, but I think it's pretty close.

Now if only Chaela didn't smile like a crazy person...

Rapunzel Dress Part 2: The devil is in the details

Did you ever notice that the sheer part of Rapunzel's sleeves are embroidered at the top and bottom? Me either, until I started studying the dress. You'll also notice if you study pictures of the dress that the sleeve fabric isn't striped, it's a bunch of pink ribbon stitched on with lavender thread. Yup. I guess it makes sense for her outfit to be ornate; it's not like she had much else to do locked up in her tower.

So far I'm cruising through this dress. I am a little worried that the embroidery on the sleeves might have gathered the fabric and made them too tight, so I'll let you all know about that. And the petticoat was too long, as predicted, but I think I'll just roll it because A) I might be able to use it again someday and B) I am too lazy to change it now.

Rapunzel Dress Part 1

I mentioned that my neighbor wants me to record my costume-creating process, so here it goes!

The first part is study, so I Googled Rapunzel images and saved the best ones, then looked for tutorials.  This website was insanely helpful.

During my study I noticed something convenient: Rapunzel's bodice sort of resembled the top for the pirate costume I made Chaela last year.  Score!  That meant that I could use that same pattern with a few minor alterations.  When I alter patterns I never destroy the original in case it can be reused (in fact I'm reusing this one two or three times this year).  The picture below is the pattern for the sleeve of the top.  The red lines are from when I resized the pattern last year, since the smallest size on there was a 7 and Chaela wore a 3.  The green lines are from this year, it's shorter because the sleeve on the Rapunzel dress is a short sleeve (though the sheer part extents to 3/4 length).  The easiest way I've found to create new pattern pieces is to take a good marker (one that's not drying out at all), lay the pattern piece over some tissue paper or whatever it is you want to use for your cutting pattern, and trace over every single line with the marker.  It will bleed through the original pattern paper onto whatever is behind it, so I feel like it's easier and more accurate than trying to trace around the edges.

So I do that to every pattern piece until I have all the ones I need.  Behold!

 I use tissue paper from presents in bags people have given someone in my house.  Side note: I ran out of tissue paper for patterns last night, so any presents would be appreciated.  Ha ha.

Next I cut the pattern out of muslin and sew it up really quick so I can try it on whomever it is for and make the necessary adjustments.  While trying this muslin on Chaela I discovered that I needed to make it a teeny bit bigger on the bottom but take it in about an inch under the arms.  I also discovered that the sleeve was about 3/4 of an inch too long and was able to experiment with the sheer fabric that makes up the bottom of the sleeve.

When I'm satisfied that all the bugs are worked out I cut out the real fabric and start on the actual top, which takes a lot longer than the muslin thanks to the fact that it's lined (the pattern is laid out on the dark purple lining in the picture).

I may or may not have accidentally sat on the top while sewing the petticoat, which is why it is wrinkly.  Obviously it isn't finished yet, but Chaela is visiting her grandparents for a few days and I don't want to go any further before I try it on her.  Once that lining is on, there will be no more tweaking the seams.

So I made the pattern and muslin for the skirt which, since I decided it would fit her (and hopefully am right) I went ahead and finished because it's doing double duty as the petticoat.  For this I just made a pattern piece.  I've seen a lot of skirts, so I winged it.  The piece is fairly narrow at the top and broadens out at the base.  I used a measuring tape to make sure that the length of the piece was consistent, meaning 23 inches long at each side, in the middle, and all points in between.  I wanted the skirt to be fairly full, so I cut six of these from the muslin and sewed them together.  Then I added a simple waistband and threaded it with elastic, hemmed it, and added the lace on the bottom.  Since I love fancy details and my machine has a few basic embroidery stitches, I put a band of embroidery around the bottom.

I am afraid that the petticoat may be a bit too long, but if that's the case instead of taking it off the awesome bottom of the skirt I'll cut a few inches from the top and re-attach the waistband.

So that's what I have so far!  I'm at a bit of a standstill on it until Chaela gets home and can try things on, and I can't start Joci's because I don't have her measurements either.  My preliminary idea for Joci's is to use this pattern once again to help me shape the bodice, but instead of having a separate skirt I'll extend the pieces I draw into a dress (if that makes sense).  I'll also have to do some other minor alterations, like change the shape of the neckline.  Fun times!

Chaela, Chaela, let down your hair!

My neighbor told me she wanted to see the process I go through to make my kids' costumes, so sorry people who don't care, you'll be seeing several blogs about it!

Today I tested my idea for giving Chaela her Rapunzel hair, because if it wasn't going to work I wanted time to think of something else. The idea was to get a ton of gold ribbon and braid it into her hair.

The process for braiding ribbon into hair is very simple; you cut double the length of ribbon of you want, fold it in half, and slip it onto a bobby pin. Then you cross a section or two of the hair (meaning just barely start the braid) and stick the bobby pin up in there behind it, then add the now-dangling ribbon to one of your three hair sections and braid like normal. Ta da! Very cute. See this post to see what that looks like.

Anyway, I decided to take that a step beyond with several bobby pins tucked all over Chaela's head and lots of ribbon.  Result:

Yay!  It worked so much better than I thought it would and was actually a tiny bit of a pain to take out once it was in, which is excellent because that means it won't fall out on its own when she's running around.  However, it's nowhere near as thick as I want and ribbon is relatively expensive, so the next step is to grab a skein of yarn that matches her hair and add a bunch of that.  If it doesn't work, that's ok, I know this does and if it comes down to it this is close enough.  Except it will look much nicer, I did this really fast and it's not very attractive.

Upon review, I really do go overboard...

Yes, I'm talking about it again: Halloween costumes!  I don't think it's unreasonable though.  I have at least three to make, one of which is fairly elaborate (Chaela's) and there are just over three months left until they need to be finished.  Oh, and I'm attempting to draft my own patterns, so... yeah.

In the spirit of things, I decided I want to compile a pictorial history of costumes I've made for my kids, so here they are!

2008

Chaela - Medieval Princess

2009

Chaela - Fairy

2010

Chaela - Witch

Joci - Black Cat

2011 - Pirates

Chaela

Joci

2012 - Disney Princesses

Chaela - Rapunzel

Joci - Merida

Kairi - ? (currently planning on Snow White)

The reason I'm so pumped today is because I went to the store and got Chaela and Joci's fabric!  I was going to have Joci be Cinderella up until this morning.  She kept pointing at the picture of Merida (when she could be bothered to point at all) and even though she technically wanted the other dress, I'm not doing wigs (any wig I can afford would be totally tacky).  So in the picture above, the blue and gold fabrics are Joci's and the pinks and purples are for Chaela.  It was an extremely frustrating process trying to find the right fabrics in the right colors for the Rapunzel dress, and in the end I had to sacrifice either the correct color or texture in the majority of the things I bought for her.

Here are some thoughts about the costumes before I start:  Chaela's chosen dress is complex; it has five different fabrics, four to five different trims, and embroidery... I'm not doing the embroidery and I only got four kinds of fabric, one can do double duty.  It's also not really a dress, it's a skirt and top plus a petticoat.  Yeah.

Joci's dress is really basic compared to Chaela's, all it has is a band of gold brocade at the bottom and gold trim around the neck.  I'm a little worried about the head thing (wimple?) but if all else fails I'll just get some ladies' opaque white tights and cut out a hole for her face, ha ha.

I'm leaning towards Snow White for Kairi, and since she's so little I think I may do a yellow tutu instead of a skirt.  I'm doing hers last, though, since she has the most growing to do between now and October.  I like the tutu in this picture, but I'd like the top to be closer to what Snow White wears in the movie.

On top of all this madness, if I have time I'd like to do a cloak for each of them because heck, if I'm doing all this work I'll be darned if the costumes I make are going to be covered in winter coats!  We'll see though, that  could easily be too stressful and/or expensive.

Sometimes writing is hard

So today I actually worked a little bit on a new project of mine.  You know, sometimes writing is so easy.  The scene just comes to me, like a movie I'm watching in my head, and I can't type fast enough to keep up.  Sometimes writing is like trying to see what's happening outside, except you're inside in a room with no windows, so your only choice is to bust through the blank white walls.  With your head.  That's where I am right now.

I feel like I can't "see" the story.  I know it's there, like it's an active thing that's happening just a breath too far away to get at.  So I'm chipping away at this white wall to get to it.  Chipping teeny tiny bits out of a massive stone wall to get to the characters and story on the other side.  I know it's there, but getting through to it is so much work.

Bringing Sexy Back

Or something.  Ha ha.

Two related things:

First, I have decided that if I get published, I will use some of the money to get laser hair removal and NEVER HAVE TO SHAVE AGAIN!  It will be my reward (on top of the obvious reward of being freaking published).

Second, part of me is sad that I'm done having kids because that means I'm out of excuses for being chubby.  Lame.  Now I have to control how much/what I eat and start exercising, and I hate that.  On the bright side, by next summer I hope to look closer to this:

Yes, friends I've made in the past five years, that was me many, many pounds ago.  By next summer I would like to somewhat resemble this picture, or just be closer to looking like that than to looking like I do now.  Wouldn't it be great if I looked like that AND could reward myself with laser hair removal?!  Yes it would.

(me singing) I'm bringin sexy back... dun dun la la la la la la....

I don't know the other lyrics, but I feel like that's ok.

Kairi's Blessing Dress and My Annual Obsession

I had a sewing day yesterday and I'm going to admit I'm thrilled with the results!  Here is Kairi's blessing dress:

I'm proud of myself because I made this dress completely without a pattern!  I did lean heavily on this tutorial from Kojo Designs for the skirt, but I constructed the bodice and added the little lace sleeves on my own.  I decided to forgo the ruffle around the neck, and even though I love the belt she did I don't have any white ribbon wide enough and am too lazy to go buy some.  Luckily for me, I made a mistake when I sewed the skirt onto the bodice and the unfinished side of the skirt ended up on the outside.  I decided it was cute so I kept it instead of spending an hour picking it out.  All that's left to do now is make a diaper cover and headband!

All this sewing got me thinking again about Halloween and how excited I am to make the girls' costumes.  Chaela wants to be Rapunzel from Tangled, so I'm having all three of the girls go as Disney princesses this year.  Now I just have to decide which princesses the other two are going to be and I'm having a hard time.  I think Joci would make a cute little Cinderella, but I also really liked Brave, and having her go as Merida would be fun except I'm not doing wigs (Chaela's hair is blonde and long enough for people to get the picture, so I'm going to braid it and add some flowers).  So I was thinking I could do the formal dress Merida wears instead of her main one, that way hair wouldn't be an issue.  Do you think people would get it?

And I'm totally at a loss for Kairi's costume.  Rapunzel and Merida are very recent princesses, so does it "match" if I decide to make my one non-blonde child Snow White(if she's still not blonde by then... you never know what their hair will do)?

Who thinks way too much about Halloween?  I do!

Anyway, I'd really love to hear you guys' thoughts and suggestions on which princesses Joci and Kairi should be, so leave a comment and let me know!

Awesome Random Things You Can Learn on the Internet

Brandon Sanderson (the author) is awesome (again).  He just posted this on facebook and twitter:

You all may think I'm a little obsessed, but seriously, how often does the master of a craft offer to share his knowledge at no financial benefit to himself?  This guy has already posted videos of his writing classes online and now he's going to let crazies like me virtually look over his shoulder as writes.  He could be making money off of this stuff, but he does it for FREE.  That is cool.  I think he's an excellent role model for wannabes like me.  

In related news, I attended my second official meeting with my critique group!  There only ended up being two of us there, but still worth it!  I am still beyond excited to be a part of a group that (in my opinion) will help me make it to my goal of being a real published writer someday and I hope I can do the same for them!

In unrelated news, we had a ton of fun on the 4th!  I meant to take more pictures but unfortunately that didn't happen.  Here's one I did manage to get!

Also, look what I can do!  I've always wondered how people braided ribbons into their hair, and now I know  how!

This was the original hairstyle, but thanks to Chaela rolling around  and being crazy I had to redo it.

I changed it to two braids because her hair stays in better that way.

Yay for awesome random things you can learn on the internet!  I <3 the free sharing of information and ideas!