Geek Grrl Crafts

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Addams Family Cosplay: Making Separate Collars & Cuffs

I'm starting a new cosplay (sooper seekrit stuff). My costume requires separate collars and cuffs, so I'm learning how to make them.

Separate collars and cuffs were developed (read the history) in the late 1800s by a beleaguered housewife who didn't like having to deal with the "ring-around-the-collar" of her husband's shirt. They were used extensively throughout the Victorian era and persisted until just after WWI.

So, I got out my books and my drafting tools -- protractor, French curve, rule, and a pencil, as well as looking things up on the Internet.

First, I made a paper mockup of how I thought I wanted the collar to look on my costume. When I had an approximation of the correct angles, I started to draft.

The Burda website (link below) was probably the most useful on how to draft a collar, and walks you through creating a collar stand and actual collar using the measurements for your shirt.

I had to make several different versions of the collar with various "angles" to see which one would actually lay correctly on the costume. The steeper the angle, the more the points of the collar flare out (think 1970's collars), so I went with a fairly sedate angle of 7 degrees.

While making the 2-3 mockups of the collar, I learned a few things:

Tip 1: One of the keys to getting a really nice crisp edges and points is to make sure to press it well, which can be hard, but this tailor board really helps in pressing those hard-to-reach places.

For example, using the "tip" of the tailor board, I can effectively press the fabric down. so that points are easily pressed.

Tip 2: It also helps to sew and press only one seam at a time. For example, for the above collar, I seamed the top of the collar first, pressed, then did the side seams.

Tip 3: Use a point turner to help turn the points and to press the seams.

You eventually get a nicely turned collar.

For this cosplay, the collar didn't need to be super stiff so I used only a light interfacing on the collar. The rest of the stiffness comes from the linen.

Then it was onto the cuffs, which required a similar, but different design. This piece was a bit harder, as I couldn't find a lot of information. At first, I tried to actually make the cuffs just like the collar (in two separate pieces), but the mockups didn't look right. The cuffs shouldn't have that middle seam.

After ruminating on it for a day or two, I turned to costume.org for the book, The Cutter's Practical Guide 1893-1898 by W. D. F. Vincent, which had some good illustrations of the various types of cuff and collars, which was extremely helpful! (Cuffs are the bottom 3 illustrations).

I took the cuff pattern pieces I made, which was close to how I wanted it to look, and combined the two of them, aligning them at the bottom seam allowance.

Here are the mocks (from bottom to top), the collar, the first attempt at the cuff, to the final version of the cuff.

The final mockup looked pretty darn good, so I made the final ones in my linen.

Normally, cuffs and collars are buttoned into the piece of clothing and have button holes created for them. However, I decided to not use that function, but instead opted to carefully tack down the collar and cuffs for a slightly permanent fixture so that I wouldn't have any wardrobe malfunctions on stage.

More on this cosplay at a later date.

Resource Links:

Friday, June 10, 2016

Review: Dragonscale Handbag of Holding from ThinkGeek

I have a small bag fetish. I love bags of all sorts, and I started lusting after ThinkGeek's Dragonscale Handbag of Holding the moment I saw it. After all, it was red; it had "dragonscales", and it was a bag of holding. What more could a geek girl want?!?!

So, when it went on sale just before Christmas (at 40% off), I ordered it as a gift for myself. When it arrived in the mail, I was squee'ing with joy! But I wanted to really test drive this bag thoroughly before I could give my opinion of it in any sort of review. I need a bag to not only look stylish but be functional as well. I was hoping that this would be the perfect bag that would carry everything I needed on a daily basis.

Here it is right out of the box.

I loved the red, the dragonscale patterning, and the D20 embossing. This bag is really beautiful. I'm usually not a fan of polyurethane fabric (i.e. vegan leather), but I liked how this looked. Also, I didn't notice any off-gassing from the fabric, which can happen with polyurethane.

When you pick up the bag for the first time, you'll notice is that this bag is heavy! When completely empty, it weighs 2.2lbs. This fact wasn't a complete deal breaker for me as I have leather bags which can also be heavy, but it might be an issue for some people. This empty weight is about on par (if not more so) with a real leather bag.

The other thing you notice is that this bag has a TON of pockets. There are so many pockets that you might lose your stuff because you can't remember which pocket something was placed, which might have happened to me a couple of times....

The front has two pockets with magnetic closures. These are good for those things you might need immediately (phone, small notebook, pens, keys, small dice bag, energy bar, etc).

There are front and back "slide" pockets with inner handy zippers. So, if you just need to put things like papers, receipts, or random crap, you can do that here.

The inside of the bag has even MORE pockets. It's divided into three sections by a middle zippered pocket.

One side has separated pockets -- for wallet, small field notebooks, pens, sunglasses, etc.

The other divider has another zippered pocket and key chain holder so you don't lose your keys. (I particularly like this feature, especially since I always find myself digging around the bottom of my bag for keys.)

The bag has these "side" pockets, which are supposed to be for water bottles or something. However, these pockets are too small for a water bottle or travel mug. I tried putting in a sunglass case, but had to really shove it in there to make it work well. These side pockets are only useful for putting in your phone or something small and flat.

The first few times I carried this bag around, I got a ton of compliments on it from friends and co-workers (especially the geeky ones), but a bag is more than just a sum of its compliments or its components. It needs to be functional and carry around everything that I need.

Here's what I tend to carry around on a daily basis:

Crafty projects (1-2 knitting projects, ranging from socks to a sweater or shawl).
Small container of crafting accessories (darning needles, stitch markers, pair of small scissors, etc.)
Tea mug or a water bottle.
Work laptop (during the week) or iPad mini (during the weekends),
Small stuff -- wallet, sunglasses, keys, eye drops, lip balm
Snacks -- Usually an energy bar or small bag of nuts.
Shawl / fingerless gloves
Assorted paperwork (for work) or books (during non-working days).

Top to bottom / Left to right: Medium knitting project, small knitting project, Color Affection Shawl, Contigo Tea Mug, sunglass case, wallet, eye drops, lip balm, pen/pencils, notebook, laptop paper, keys, small crafting accessories. (Cat not included)

So, how did this bag hold up after 5 months of usage? It did "okay". It wasn't bad, it wasn't great, but it wasn't the "perfect" bag that I had hoped.

Pros:

Beautiful color. Lovely patterning. It's eye catching and you will get compliments on this bag.
Lots of pocketesses, especially if you have a lot of little things you want to carry.
The grey of the inside pockets lets you see everything quite clearly.
Covertly geeky.

So-So (not good, not bad):

Bag doesn't stand up on its own. It tends to fall over unless it's completely full.
Heavy when empty at 2.2lbs

Cons:

VERY heavy when full of stuff.
Can't fit a medium to large knitting project into the bag. (Explained below)
Mostly useless side pockets.
Straps (both shoulder and handles) aren't grippy and will slip off your shoulders.

This handbag of holding CAN hold quite a bit of stuff. However, it also becomes extremely heavy very quickly. I tried using it as my daily bag, but couldn't fit everything that I needed without the bag becoming much too heavy and big for me to carry around comfortably.

The fully closed bag looks like a a small pregnant dragon. I really can't fit anymore into this bag without being able to close it or being too heavy. The 13" laptop fits into this bag beautifully. However, I'm not sure if I could fit a bigger laptop into it.

When fully loaded, the bag is big and bulky. I have to use the handles because the shoulder strap slips off my shoulder if I don't carry it messenger style. As it is, even the handles slip off my shoulders regardless of the weight.

Also, the shoulder strap is not very comfortable wearing across your body (ala messenger bag) if the bag was full. The straps dug into my shoulder and back. Other reviewers complained that the strap broke easily, but I hadn't had that problem. I thought about replacing the shoulder strap with something more ergonomically correct, but it wouldn't match the bag (and yes, that is a consideration!)

If I only carried a smaller knitting project (i.e. socks), the bag no longer looked like a small pregnant dragon and the lines of the bag are restored. Less bulk means that it's easier to carry.

Photos of bag minus the medium knitting project

COMPARISON PHOTOS:

What you carry in this bag really does make a difference in how heavy and bulky it can get, which is true of any bag, but especially THIS bag.

Left photo: Fully loaded with all the items.

Right photo: Removed one medium sized knitting project.

The bulkier the bag, the harder it is to carry.

Left photo: Fully loaded with all the items.

Right photo: Removed one medium sized knitting project.

If I wanted to carry a bigger knitting project, I would have to forgo any laptop, books, etc.. With my current carry, the lines of the bag are already distorted. Stuffing a half-finished sweater into this bag made it look like a large pregnant dragon. As a crafter, the ability to carry only one small knitting project is a big disadvantage in any bag.

Conclusion:

Overall, this handbag of holding is only a "quasi" handbag of holding. It does hold a lot, but be prepared to carry around a heavy boulder on your shoulder because of it. For me, it's uses are limited.

As a crafter's bag? This bag is a poor choice if you want something geeky, stylish, and will carry your crafty projects with you.
For a convention-bag? This bag is also a poor choice. Due to the weight issue, it was obvious that this bag would be much too heavy to carry around a convention filled with all the con-necessities (extra water, snacks, etc) AND any purchases.
As a work / laptop bag or even a gamer bag? This bag is an okay choice. I began using it more as a work bag where I could carry my work laptop, papers, etc., that I needed for work. For that purpose, the bag worked just fine. If you have a bigger laptop than mine, you might find it hard to squeeze it into this bag. Any gaming books, character sheets, dice, etc., can fit into this bag without issue. However, I ended up also carrying another bag for more personal items, including my knitting projects.

If you're planning on simply carrying your gear from point A to point B (like from your house to your gaming location or to work), then this bag should work well enough for you --- pack your stuff, carry to your location, unpack it. The end.

However, if you plan on carrying a lot of stuff around for hours on end (like a convention) or just as your day-to-day bag, then I would find a much better bag to suit your needs than this one because of the weight & bulk issues and how the straps slide off your shoulders.

For myself, as much as I love the look of this bag, it is not utilitarian enough for me to use it on an every day basis as my "go-to" bag.

I found another bag for that, and will probably either sell or gift this to a friend who might find it more useful than me. (More on that other bag later...)

Monday, June 6, 2016

Shego Costume: Making Spandex Boots (Part 5)

Wowza, Fanime has come and gone, and I've not yet finished posting about my Shego costume build. So, I'll be updating with the rest of the dress diary. But just in case you want a refresher:

Making Shego:

As part of Shego's costume, she has built-in "boots" to her bodysuit.

So, I thought to do the same, which, of course, requires more research into making spandex boots. I looked at a few online resources (listed below) and took a little bit from various links to make my boots.

First, I picked out a pair of comfortable and cheap shoes from Payless Shoe store that I thought might work. You can also try your local thrift store to find a pair. I emphasize COMFORTABLE, because I'm going to be in this costume for hours and I need to have something that won't kill my feet after an hour. (Too many cosplayers have sacrificed comfort for accuracy, and I'm of the opinion that you can have both!)

NOTE: You definitely need an extra set of hands while making boots. My Viking was kind enough to help me.

I cut out the final leg pattern piece and left extra fabric at the bottom of it so that it could be stretched out over the shoe.
My Viking stretched out the excess fabric over the shoe (while I was wearing it) and used E6000 to glue the spandex to the edge of the sole AND onto the sole itself.

Make sure to test your glue, shoe, and fabric combination before you start gluing! I discovered that E6000 doesn't interact well with the shoes and it took a bit of the black off...right onto the GREEN FABRIC (although it wasn't visible on the black spandex).

It took a couple of days to finish the glue'ing process. My Viking was meticulous, and he'd glue down one part of the spandex to the sole of the shoe, then do the next. Once all the glue was dry, I sewed the legs to the rest of the bodysuit.

Here are the bottom of the shoe, which looks like crap. And I was a bit worried about slipping and falling as the rubber sole is partially covered.

Knitters to the rescue! I remembered something about hot glue and knitted slippers (from reading something on Ravelry.com), so I searched online, and discovered that you can use HOT GLUE to build traction onto slippery slippers, so I thought it would work for spandex covered shoes!

I heated up my glue gun, and zig-zagged across the bottom of the shoes.

It worked perfectly. Once the hot glue was completely dry, I didn't slip once.

Resources I found useful:

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Shego Costume: Making Gloves (Part 4)

This costume has required me to learn a few new things that I've never had to make before, including: working with spandex, making gloves, and making attached costume boots.

Making Shego Links

For this post, I'll talk about making Shego's gloves.

So, just like before, I did some research before making the gloves. My Viking has a couple of books on making leather gloves, but that seemed overly complicated, so I went onto the vast knowledge of cosplayers on the intranet to find something a little easier.

Of course, after looking at a few tutorials, my reaction was "It cannot be this easy!" However, it was that easy, and probably only works on 4-way stretch spandex, because spandex is super stretchy. I would not use this technique on a tightly woven material, such as cotton or leather, and would probably default to our reference books.

Most of the techniques I found use freezer paper to stabilize the spandex. I didn't have any freezer paper so I just did what worked for me.

1) Trace out your hand. Make sure that your forearm is aligned with your index finger. (I also marked out the location of my forearm, because the Shego gloves only go up that mid forearm.) I made two templates -- one right and left because my right hand is slightly larger than my left.

I flared out my fingers for a better fit.

Shego's gloves flare out a little bit, I did the same for my template.

2) I added about 3/8ths" of extra seam alloance to the template and cut out my fabric (right sides together).

If I did this again, I would cut out a large rectangular piece of fabric instead and trace out the pattern onto it instead so that it would be easier to manipulate on the sewing machine.

4) Using my regular sewing machine, I stitched along the drawn line. Between each finger, I went a lot slower and made sure to make a "U" instead of a "V".

5) I tried on the glove to make sure it fit well, made slight adjustments.
6) I cut off any extra fabric. I made sure to cut as close to the stitches when cutting in between the fingers.

7) Turn right side out and hem the edges as needed.

Resources that I found helpful:

Glove tutorial 1
Spandex Glove Tutorial 2
YouTube tutorial -- a bit more complicated method than the others, but if you have a more muscular thumb, this might work better for you.

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Monday, May 9, 2016

Shego Costume: Making a Bodysuit (Part 3)

Putting together a harlequin type costume is a jigsaw puzzle of sorts. I took a long look at a lot of screenshots of Shego and drew out how her costume for the front AND back. I also made some notes on the order of how each piece should be put together.

Yes, I did pull out my crayons to help color in sections.

I taped up the a master template of the outfit, along with all of the color coding, so I could look up and make sure I was using the correct piece. Having this template up (along with the drawings) helped quite a bit.

There were quite a few pieces that needed to be stitched in order. (And in some cases, I forgot to refer to my initial notes and sewed pieces out of order :-( )

There was the occasional need to rip out a seam that I just made to line up all of the pieces, but for the most part, all of the preparatory work I had done made putting together the outfit quite easy.

I was pleased that everything "seemed" to still come out looking pretty darn good!

Having the extra space from having the utility cart helped. I could lay out all of the pieces in order before sewing them all together.

Overall, the finished body of the suit looks pretty good. It was a right pain-in-the-arse to have to line up all of the asymmetrical pieces, but it worked out. And because I used a "pattern" that fit me, the suit fits perfectly.

I still have to make the gloves and boots for Shego, and maybe a few final finishing touches, and I should be done!

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Shego Costume: Making a Bodysuit (Part 2)

When I'm unsure of how to do something, my first initial reaction is to hit my reference books or the internet for information. My books had a lot of information on knits and stretchy fabric, which was applicable, but I wanted a bit more specifically on spandex. I learned a few things:

Cutting spandex:

Lay out your fabric on the table so that there is very little stretch on the fabric.
Use fabric weights not pins when laying out your pattern.
Use a rotary cutter instead of scissors. It cuts spandex a lot smoother. You can always use a sharp pair of scissors to nip the areas where the rotary cutter didn't quite cut through.

Sewing Spandex:
I found a blog entry at McCall patterns that was extremely useful, as it detailed how to sew spandex with either a serger or a regular sewing machine. I have a serger so that's what I used.

Some (but not all) things to consider:

Needles -- Use new needles, either a ballpoint needle or stretch needles.
Thread -- Use a polyester thread. If you have a serger, a wooly nylon thread works too.
Pins - Pin inside the seam allowance to prevent holes, which means you'll have to sew a teensy bit slower.

Test Swatches:
After I cut out all of my pattern pieces, I went about making test swatches using various settings on my machine. The purpose of this exercise was to see what was the best set of settings that worked with this type of fabric. Overall, I made 15 test swatches, which might seem like a really burdensome task, but I assure you that it's worth your time to do.

In some cases, the overlocking threads were too loose, so I played with tension.

Here's one particular swatch where I was having issues with ripples, so I adjusted my differential feed.

It took me about two hours to set up my machine, make test swatches, etc. Eventually, I got to a point, where I was happy with how the stitches looked and that they provided enough stretch to work well, but all the stitches were of a good tension.

Finally, I was at a point I could actually start sewing the costume! I started with a very small piece of the costume as a first run, and it looked great.

However, it was a weekday, so it had already gotten a bit late. But, I had gotten everything I wanted accomplished, so I put everything away so I could just start sewing the next evening. :-)