The Importance of Checking Fit

Progress Delay

 

Honey got to try the outfit on for size today.

 

 

I pinned the chest and tummy straps in place.  They fit perfectly! Not too tight, not too much overlap.

Winning!

 

 

 The new design is definately a winner! Fits much nicer, looks a hundred times nicer!!! Yay!

It even fits nicely around the neck.

 

But. . . its way too long. : (

The positive is that it is the easiest problem to fix.

 

I cut it to size right way out so I could alternate between cutting and fitting quite quickly, just taking small strips until it was the perfect length.

 

The problem I discovered when I turned it back inside out to sew it was that the seam has been cut as well and made a bit more work pinning it into the right position otherwise there would have been a chunk out of the curve.

 

 

Here's a close up of the revised line.  You can see where the old stitching continues into oblivion, and where I have gone over the start of the new stitches.  The little section where it dips in a bit at the end of the old stiching is where there was a chunk of the old seam that had to be folded in to create a smooth line. 

Admittedly smoothing that section is probably unnecessary as all of these features are going to be well hidden once the costume is turned right way out again.

 

A final look at the now resized outfit before it gets turned right side out and gets finished off with a pretty skirt.

 

It fitted! - But I'll hold out on the photos of the final fit until the skirts attached.

 

: )

 

 

 

 



Honey is a Pink Fairy - Part 2

Honey is a Pink Fairy

Sewing!

 

The next step once the fabric is cut to shape and pinned together is the sewing!!

 

 

Now that I've sewn in cotton, I LOVE it!!!! Best fabric EVER!! Pretty colours, easy to pin, easy to cut and easy to sew!!!!

I am definately a convert to Team Cotton!

 

As you can see my cutting still has a little way to go, but my stitches are as straight as can be!! : )

 

The good thing about sewing it this way is that the rough edges from cutting are never seen! They'll be hidden away inside the costume.

 

Can't forget to leave that gap so I can turn it right way out!!!

 



To prevent the stitches coming loose when I end a section, I always reverse a little bit(still sewing) and then go back over the section to secure it. It only has to be about a cm, you can see in the picture where I have gone back over my stitches it looks a bit darker. 
I also often start sections with this reversal for security. 
The exception to the rule is when gathering is involved.  Both ends have to be left open so the thread can be pulled through, gathering the material.

 

: )

 

 

Honey is a pink Fairy!

Honey is a Pink Fairy!

Prepping the Material

 

 

Pattern all pinned out on the pretty pink cotton fabric.  The cotton is doubled over so I only have to do one cut and get identical pieces of the outfit to sew together. 

 

 

All cut out and ready to trim the tail end into a nice round shape and pin the outfit ready for sewing. :)

I cut the paper to the size I want it when all sewn up and right way out.  To accomodate the seams I allow an extra cm of material around the outside of the pattern. 

 

 

After a big night of creativity these guys never fail to make me laugh. So cute and tolerant!

 

: )

 



Getting Back to Basics

Back to Basics

 

The next project is going to be a revised version of the fairy costume. 

For the version 2.0 fairy costume we have gone with a pretty in pink colour scheme!

 

We even made the pattern paper girly!

 

Spent ages getting a ton of measurements off Honey!  Everything from how far it is between Honey's wither and tail, right down to how far from the center of chest to the back of her leg.  No measurement was too insignificant to factor in.  : P

At least she is less wriggly now so it was a much easier task than when we first started the original fairy project!

 

Wrapping paper is fantastic for pattern making because it is cheap and easy to find and comes in BIG rolls, so you can make heaps of patterns!  It also comes in pretty colours!

The design just before it was cut out.  The squares on the end aren't the chest straps, they're actually the belly straps.  The paper was just the right width for the pattern so I cut the squares for the belly straps and stuck them on where they need to be when I cut out the material version.

This is actually the first version of the revised pattern, when I tried it on Honey the neck hole was too deep and this also made the overall outfit too short.  I adjusted the measurements and the pattern now sits nicely on Honey.

 

Here is the finished pattern!
I round the edges on the tail end of the costume when I cut the material rather than cutting the paper to shape.  This is because the material sits differently on Honey than the paper when trying it on and may result in the finished product not fitting nicely.

 

Things that are different in this design.

•  Its much wider so it will cover more of Honey's chest. 
• The belly straps are part of the main structural outfit rather than added on later.
• The belly straps are much wider and shorter.
• The chest straps are waaayyyy shorter!
• Its longer
• Three different colours in the skirt instead of two - in this case ranging from baby pink to purple.
• Skirt is not going to be one piece, each layer is going to be sewn on individually.
• NO impossible to work with stretchy material!!!!

Next step is cutting the material!!

 



Honey is a Fairy Wrap Up

Honey is a Fairy Wrap Up

The good, the bad and the things that will be better next time!

:)

 

 

Just a quick wrap up, going through what worked and what didn't so I can improve on the whole design and have a better for the next attempt!

 

 

In the above photo you can see the bulkiness of where the skirt joins the main part of the outfit.

The material did look very nice (both the awful stretchy slippery stuff, and the chiffon), but next time I'll be combining a more straight forward material. The chiffon was perfect though, so I will continue to use that.

I still love the petalling on the skirt, but next time I won't put the straight skirt underneath, I'll have it all petalled. I especially like the two toned overlapping petals, but I am thinking I may change the two tone theme for a three toned skirt with three different layers, each a different colour.

 

To combat the bulky connection, I'm going to try attaching each layer seperately so they're not all bunched up in one spot.

 

Honey has pretty much reached full size now so I'm going to take the plunge and make the next one with shorter chest straps so I'm not tempted into laziness. This next one is definately getting velcro to do it up!

 

I'm going to make it drop alot lower on her body so it covers her chest properly!!!

I'd also like to make the stomach strap wider, and cut it out and sew it as part of the costume rather than making them seperately and attaching them afterwards.

 

So after a minor setback on the road to awsomeness I'm going to go away and redesign the whole outfit and hopefully end up with something way nicer. At the very least I have managed to get the basics down pat, and I've also learned a bit about what does and doesn't work so well together.

I will work through the wing process once I have a respectable costume to attach them too!

Check back for Honey is a Fairy Round 2!

 

:)

Honey is a Fairy Part 4

Honey is a Fairy

Part 4

 

All that is left to do is get the skirt onto the rest of the costume, add velcro to hold so the outfit can stay in place and come up with some ideas for wings.

 

I was initially going to sew the skirt straight onto the costume, but this looked ratty with the top fraying a little so instead I rolled the edge, like a supersized seam. 
This hid the tatty edge but unfortunately made sewing ( and pinning) the skirt in place very difficult.  The stitches became uneven and the whole thing looked a bit clumsy in how it was attached because it was so big and bulky.  

 

 With putting the stomach straps and the skirt on I also discovered that with one piece of stretch material and non stretchy cotton together it was difficult to attach anything without them moving out of alignment and ruining the fit of the outfit.  This was more of a problem with the skirt because it was bigger and because it combined with the problems that were caused just by the bulk of getting it sewn on.

The below picture is Honey trying the costume on before the stomach straps were sewn on. 

You can see in the picture the costume is tied on rather than held together with velcro. I wasn't happy with the overall outfit so I halted there and am going back to the drawing board for how to make it better.

The stomach straps were long enough to tie together as well.  It did make for a secure outfit but when I get it just right, the costume is going to be secured with velcro for a neater finish.  

 



.There was no time to make another outfit before christmas so Honey ended up wearing it just as a dress. 

She did get some lovely comments on how the dress looked, but I am very much a perfectionist  and I know I can improve it.

 

:)



Honey is a Fairy Part 3

Honey is a Fairy

Part 3

 

With the main 'jacket' part of the costume done, the next step is the skirt!

 

I started with two layers of the pale green chiffon, cut straight.  The next layer was pale blue chiffon cut in petal shapes.  The petal shape was done on impulse but it is definately my favourite part of the outfit!  It was also fairly quick and easy.

 

To top it off was an alternating green and blue layer of little petal shaped chiffon pieces.

 

I made the skirt twice the length it needed to be across the top so that I could gather it and give the skirt more volume.

 

I pinned all the layers together!  I kept these pins close together like with the slippery material because there were so many layers to hold in place!

 

I then sewed them together with two rows of straight stitch.  They needed to be straight stitch instead of the zig zag I used on the main so the gathering would work.  I did two rows for strength and gathered both.

 

The chiffon was so much easier to sew!!! The skirt was suprisingly quick to make.  I'm also pretty stoked with how straight the stitching turned out!! Certainly getting better.

:)

 

The bit that took the longest for the skirt was the gathering.  One thing I learned while doing this part is that gathering sucks! :P and anyone who has to do it on a regular basis has my respect!  Threads snapped, fingers hurt and its SUPER fiddly!!!

 

Despite how inconvenient it is to do I still LOVE the result and will use it again in future costume designs!!

 

 

 

Honey is a Fairy! Part 2

Honey is a Fairy

Part 2

 

Finally ready to get back into it, I had track down where all the sewing stuff had ended up after the move!

Luckily the basic green part of the costume had survived the move without losing any of its pins and was still in one piece ready to be sewn up. : D

 

Both sides of the belly strap. 

I sewed the tummy straps seperately first to get some practice with an easy section before moving onto the main part of the outfit. I had to redo my first one because the fabric kept moving and I found the thread was jamming and breaking.

 

•  I found the only way to combat the stretchy slipperiness of the top fabric was to add extra pins so they were super close together. No more than 2 cm between pins otherwise the fabric moved all over the place.

Once I was feeling (somewhat) confident with the fabric I was able to start on the rest of the outfit!

I sewed the front of it with the chest straps and both edges leaving a gap about the width of my hand over the tail end. I picked the tail end to leave open for two reasons.

1. The main reason was because the stitches that had to be done on the outside would be hidden under the skirt.
2. The second reason was because it would be less fiddly than trying to squeeze that whole costume through a tiny chest strap!

Once I turned it right way out I folded the seam inside itself, pinning it down so it couldn't escape!

It only took a few second to put the final stiches into the structural part of the outfit and then it was done!!

When the excitement died down, I ironed it all flat so the edges were crisp and it looked nice and neat.

It's starting to look like a dog coat at least, and my stitches are pretty straight now. Have mastered the stretchy fabric (somewhat), but will still avoid it in the future in favor of more agreeable materials.

: )

 

Getting Re-Motivated

Motivation

 

After making the pattern and then cutting out and pinning together the main part of the outfit the project got put on the backburner for a little bit as we moved house and got settled in a new area.

Lucky those chest straps were made a little bit longer because Honey grew and grew!!

 

The outfit came back into the spotlight in the leadup to christmas when Honey tried on the previous year's christmas outfit and it was WAYYY too short!!

 

Honey's looking to see why her bum is so breezy!

 

Mum originally adapted this costume from one of the little kid dresses you can get from Big W around Christmas.  She cut the skirt and the wings off and put them on a basic green coat she made in the same shape as Beau's tuxedo. It was even the same size as the Beauxedo which fitted her back then! 

The green of the costume is made with the same stretchy fabric I battled with on Honey's Fairy costume.  Mum was able to put all her experience to good use though and wrangle it into the shape she wanted it without too much difficulty.

 

Looking back it was a tiny bit too short, but nothing like it was this year!!

 

 

The two little munchkins all dressed up.  Honey (left) and Beau (right) won best dressed at the Greater Western All Breeds Obedience and Agility Club's Christmas Fun Day!!!

 

 I found the deadline to Christmas was a brilliant motivation and the whole costume progressed a whole lot quicker from here on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honey is a Fairy!

The Making of Honey's fairy costume. 

Part 1

 

The first thing I did was draw up a few very rough ideas of costumes I wanted to make. There were a few options in there like a cinderella dress and a snow white costume, but the one I settled on was the fairy costume. 

 

Once I had an idea of what I was going to be making I made a pattern out of wrapping paper based on the shape of Beau's tuxedo, but scaled up to Honey size. 

I then used the paper pattern, which is very VERY simplistic, to cut out the same shape in cotton for the lining, and a stretchy textured fabric for the outer layer that can be seen.

 

 

 

 

This photo (above) is the lining cut out and pinned to the stretchy fabric (which is underneath)

 

I pinned them together with the sides that will eventually be facing out, sandwhiched in the middle.  The reason I did that is so once I have sewn it up, I can turn it out the right way and most of the stitches, as well as the seams,  will be hidden.

 

 

In the above shot I've folded the material in half to get an idea of what it will look like once its on.  I've cut the sharp corners off the tail end so it's a nicer rounded shape. 

The chest strap is so long because Honey was going through a massive growth spurt when I designed it so I figured I'd cut the chest straps to size when I got closer to finishing.

You can see that the stretchy fabric is already rolling up from the edges and pulling away from the lining.

The stretchy fabric was very difficult to work with for all aspects of the costume. With the cutting process it was hard to cut accurately to shape due to the stretchiness.

With pinning and then sewing it to the cotton lining it tended to want to slip around and slide away from where it was meant to be. Not what you want on your first attempt at costume design!

I will definately not be mixing stretchy with not stretchy again in a hurry!

 

 

Meet Honey and Beau

 

Introducing the little lady who is the star of this blog

Honey!

 

 

Honey is a rare fawn mantel Great Dane who was born on 31st of May 2011.

The above photo was taken when we first met Honey when she was only a few weeks old. Back then she was only 6kg.

She's grown a bit since then!

 

 

 

This is Honey's best friend (and older brother)

 Beau! 

 

 

Beau is a Stumpy-Tail Cattle Dog cross who we adopted from DCH Animal Adoption back in 2005.

Beau is less wriggly than Honey and much easier to dress up.

He was the ring bearer at our wedding and looked very stylish in his Beauxedo (Beau's Tuxedo).

Beau will model all the boy versions of outfits I make.

 

 

Honey and Beau love to dress up, and my head is just bursting with ideas for new costumes!!

The only problem I had was an inability to sew. 

My mum is a fantastic sewer, and could at times be pestered into helping me put a costume together.  She made Beau's tuxedo for the wedding.

 

In a bid to escape the onslaught of outfit ideas mum offered to teach me to sew.

This blog is my journey to become a superstar sewer and create a range of designer costumes for furry humans.