Monday 30 April 2012

Production: Tiny Socks

I've started production of 30 pairs of Ball jointed doll socks.

They start out looking like funny blobs with elastic across the top.

And then look more like socks after. :)


Two more!

And here are some shots of the finished  outfits:
Tangled princess 

 And Snow Princess



Thursday 26 April 2012

Tuesday 24 April 2012

On to the next!

The fashion show is over!  And I promise to post some pictures of it here like I did on Facebook. Also Point of Light Productions did a photo shoot before the show with all my models so look forward to that  as well!

In the mean time before I get working on my Graduate piece ( to be in a gallery show all summer long!)

I plan on making some things for my ball jointed dolls!

My sister, two of my models and myself will be attending Anime North 2012 at the end of May in Toronto Canada.  Aside from handing out business cards and the like, I am making 30 pairs (30+ if I have time) of socks to sell at the smaller Doll North convention contained within Anime North.

I'm also entering a costume in their (doll north) costume competition  and a photo in their Photo Challenge. The theme this year is Clamp so I'll be making Li Sayorans outfit from the 2nd Card Captor Sakura movie and a Kero suit for another.

Never a dull moment or a slow down in working for this girl!

Monday 23 April 2012

Post show wrap up

The fashion show on Saturday went really well!  So many people showed up (I still don't know the actual numbers)!

I now have an official webisite Delirium's Edge Designs!

Thursday 19 April 2012

A girl from Colorado country.

I apologize right now if this makes little sense or is not well written. The fashion show everything is to be made for is on Saturday and I am more then a little brain dead from all the work  and hours I've put in this week.

The good news is, everything is done!  Just a couple little add-ons here and there (Wendy's hat and gluing the wings for  the cosmic warrior), so on to the photos!

Wendy's coat

Step one: Buy fabric that is at least 80% wool, which I did not :D I bought a cashmere wool suiting. It's like felt and wonderful to work with, however it dosn't shrink as much into shape when you steam it as an 80% wool would.
Here is how it started! The patterns laid out on the fabric with the seam allowances added in.

Then I cut out everything in the outer fabric, then in the lining and then in the interfacing.

And then I interfaced EVERYTHING.  You need a nice stiff interfacing (preferably an iron on) that will stay stuck to your fabric. You find that out by cutting samples of various interfacing weights and sticking them to the fabric.  Once that is done, you pull, twist, tug and peel the fabric (basically maul it and take your aggression's out upon it). Whichever interfacing stays stuck after that, is the one you want.

You interface all of the Front pieces, and then the rest tend to only be interfaced at the hems and up top by the neckline or shoulder area.  You also put some pre-shrunk ribbon around the arm and neck holes to keep them from stretching out.  Below is my front pieces all sewn and interfaced, along with the pocket bag for the front pockets.

Speaking of pockets, here is what they look like on the outside. The pocket flap echos the shape of the collar of the coat.

The coat,(almost all together) resting on a judy.  I've attached the collar, the front facing and front lining at this point.

My sleeves with the lining attached, are shown here awaiting attachment to the actual coat.

But not before I attach the shoulder pads.  Which involves a great deal of basting, both  permanent  and non-permanent. 

Below is some of the permanent basting,  the shoulder pad gets basted to the interfacing and to the seam allowances of the shoulder seams.

And basted on with a temporary  slanted stitch on the outside.  This is just to hold the shoulder pad in place while you sew in the sleeve.

With both shoulder pads now attached, time to attach the sleeves!

To attach the sleeve I first pin it on to the coat while it's on a Judy and then, once pinned, flip it inside out and transfer my pins to the inside and baste it onto the body of the coat.  After that, I sewed in a piece of flannel called a head roll, which makes the sleeve cap roll over nicely at the arm hole.

Alas I have no more pictures of the progress!  But all that was left was to attach the sleeve lining, hem the bottom of the coat and sleeves, attach buttons and make button holes.

Sunday 15 April 2012

Deliriums Edge Designs on Facebook

 I started a facebook group for my business, since my website (though very near completion) is not done yet.

Friday 13 April 2012

I said there would be more pictures right?

So here is the finished skirt in its natural habitat, hanging inside out on a hanger on my wall. (So it doesn't get dirty).

And here is a peak at the actual fabric of the skirt!
And here is where I was with the coat yesterday morning!  It's all cut out now and most parts are also  interfaced, but then I ran out. :(  I must remember that interfacing is only one layer and not folded on the bolt! Lesson learned! I'll get some more today.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Last one standing.

One last costume to go!

This time it's Wendy from South Park, as requested by my model Michelle.
I ended up choosing to make her yellow "legs" a skirt instead out of a cute yellow poke-a-dot fabric we found. Its nice and springy and should go well with the purple tailored coat I will be making.



The skirt is totally done, but I forgot my camera at school on my desk so no photos yet.  I spent today and tonight  fixing and making the patterns for the coat. I should be ready to cut into fabric tomorrow!

When I wasn't  working on patterns I was setting up a window display  in a local comic book store, featuring the 13th fairy.  It, along with eight other displays in various downtown businesses will be up from now to next Wednesday!

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Keep calm and carry on.

I'm not dead, just really busy!  The fashion show is next weekend after all!

I promise more pictures soon.

Friday 6 April 2012

Back into the fray!

And we have an official poster!
Tickets are now on sale at three local places: NBCCD (that's the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design), Read's coffee and the SUB store at UNB.  (also at the door the day of the show, but don't quote me on that).

All my costumes are now officially done, but I still have 2-3 weeks left before the show and didn't want to sit around twiddling my thumbs so I have added an extra costume.

That pile of fabric will become a tailored coat and a cute circle skirt reminiscent of a certain South Park kid.

Wednesday 4 April 2012

This is the hat that never ends...

It just goes on and on my friends,
some people, started sewing it
not knowing what it was
and they'll continue sewing it forever
just because,
this is the hat that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends...


Yes, I do apologize for getting "the song that never ends" from Lambchops play-a-long stuck in your head, but this hat really did feel like it would never en, but it did today!

This hat has taken me twice as long (or more) then it took me to make the dress it goes with, but I gotta say, it was well worth it!

When we last left off, I had made the base for the hat and the horns and trimmed away the excess buckram.  I later fit it to my model and after some tugging and pulling (the hat form was smaller then her head) I got it to fit her and drew on the shape for the skull cap.
The tape is on the point because the buckram was slightly wrinkled from the drying process and I wanted a smooth point.  I also made sure the hat curved up enough that it wouldn't cut into the models ears and give her a headache/ be painful.
With the form in the shape I like, it was now time to cover it! I used black Lycra to do it. It had just enough stretch and the buckram's texture grabbed it so it wouldn't slip. I pinned it into place and then hand basted it down to the skull cap.
This however, did leave me with a ridge of loose fabric at the top.  So I sewed it closed, cut down the excess and then basted that to the skull cap.
Now that everything is sewn down and nice and flat, its time to attach the horns!
 I hand stitched them to the Lycra first, and then went back over it, stitching through the Lycra and buckram.
 Now it was time to cover my horns! I did the same thing I did for the base, I draped the black Lycra over the form of the horn and pulled it till it was tight.  I then sewed that shut and pulled/pinned the excess to the skull cap.
After it was pinned down, I hand stitched 3 rows of stitching to the hat base to secure and flatten the horn fabric down to the hat and started on horn number two.
 Once that was all attached, I had to drape a cowl hood to go over the hood.  I started with muslin and with a little help from my instructor Joanne, we draped the shape of the hood while I wore it, and then marked the lines we wanted to transfer to an actual pattern with a black sharpie.

The result looked something like this:

Which I then pinned to paper and went over with a spiky tracing wheel and got a paper pattern, which looked like this:
Which I then placed on some blue Lycra I found and made a mock up of my hood (really it does make a hood, I swear).

See?
I fit this on another students head and took it in where it was too loose. Once I was done it was nice and fitted. The next step was possibly the longest.  Our Dear 13th fairy has purple stripes all over her hat (is it really a hat? She is a dragon after all) so I needed to stripe my fabric, which involved me  tracing out my pattern on black Lycra and drawing in where I wanted the purple lines to go, then cutting along those lines and sewing in 2.5cm strips of purple Lycra (folded in half) between the two pieces.  Not a fast process to be sure and it had to be repeated for all six pieces of the hood (two front pieces, two back and two horns).

Once that was done, and everything was hemmed and sew down (you didn't think I'd show the finished process yet did you? :D) I had to make the spines that come out of the back of the hat.  So I covered some heavy interfacing (felt) with black Lycra and sewed them on.

In the end it looked like this:

 Rar.

Oh yes, the 13th fairy is now 100% done. :)