The Supergirl Costume!

It's done, and here's the pictures to prove it!



got any questions? post a comment or write on my facebook wall...

x G

Supergirl, Wedding Dresses and Pillow Cases

'Cos that's just how I roll!!

ok, one thing, THE SUPERGIRL COSTUME IS DONE (cue fanfare!) but I'm not showing you it! I'm keeping the grand unveiling for my Sister in Law's party on Saturday, hopefully there will be many lovely people (mostly men prolly) there who are more than willing to take suitably high quality pictures of your truely, this one is not for shoddy auto-timed pictured against a magnolia wall, this one has to be shot 'out and about'

if you want to see a sneak peak (and GOD it's worth it) you should join my facebook page.

But a Geeky Seamstress' work is NEVER done! for I have ANOTHER party to attend on FRIDAY (the rock and roll life I lead!) This party is at a posh hotel in Denham. So I decided to wear the most posh thing I own.... My wedding dress!

no... really....

OH! it doesnt look like this anymore!

"Sometimes smiling makes my face hurt"

 oh God no... I wore white ONCE and it shall never be repeated!

ahem... I'm sure we can fix this....

Fantastic! now all I need to do is chop a couple of inches off the bottom and that my friends, is a rock and roll party dress. :-)

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!!
In this dog eat dog sewing world you've got to think 3 steps ahead to survive, and I'm already on to my next raft of projects! September is one of those months were birthdays lurk around every corner, I suffer from the impediment of living 30 miles away from my family so if I forget a birthday it's often too late to post a card by the time I realise (!!!). Anyhow I'm sure my family members would love some tat I've sewn out of an old pillow case.... no? .... not even if the pillow case looks like this?

That's an awful lot of fabric from one pillow case!

I just LOVE L-O-V-E it! If I was a size 8 I would make myself a shift dress out of it and build a time machine to go back to the 70's where they would SURELY make me queen of fabulous dresses!

So WATCH OUT if your birthday's in September one of two things are going to happen, (1) I'm going to miserably forget - hopefully not (2) you're going to get some tat made out of an old pillowcase.

I'm also aware that I've not really been 'geeking it up' enough recently so hopefully I'll get that shizzle in there too, BRING IT ON!

G x

Supergirl comes to Wonderwoman's Rescue

So the REASON I'm making a Supergirl outfit my excuse for making a Supergirl outfit is in preparation for my sister in laws birthday party in a couple of weeks time, but I went round on Sunday and she was slightly concerned that her one-size-fits-none costume was going to turn her into an impromptu glamour girl halfway through her party... not what you want to be remembered for... So this is what I did for her,
.
BEFORE

 AFTER:

(1) took in over the bust to reduce slipping
(2) zip added to improve fit
(3) gawdy trim removed and sewn back up, matching trim added to make the zip look at home in the garment.
(4) remove old super stretchy (useless) elastic, add new twangy elastic in back.

I was a bit worried when the costume looked like this:

but it all came back together :-) PHEW!

This is what I got in return:

bags and bags and BAGS of fabric from her stash :-) NOMNOMNOM :-)

G x

Supergirl Costume (pt 4, muslin extremism)

that's all you're getting.

G x

Supergirl Costume (pt3, 'S' Applique and muslin making)

Muslin making.... well... there's a first time for everything.
I never usually bother, but since I'm making this from scratch I feel it may be beneficial...

LUCKILY (sorta) I bought some fabric online for the supergirl outfit and it turned out to be completely the wrong colour! BOO! But it was stretchy, making it the perfect muslin fabric for the top (YEYY). I had to make the 'S' as part of the muslin because I wasn't confident about the effect the applique would have on the overall fit of the top.

Lets start with the Applique. .. . because I did the Applique before I constructed the garment.... it feels sensible.
INTERFACING ON EVERYHTING! I'm applique-ing a stretchy fabric onto a stretchy fabric here.. DANGER! So essentially I've got 3 pieces to start with I've got the front bodice, the backround the the 'S' (in this case some shiny black fabric) which is the diamond shape of the 's trimmed about hal an inch all round to make sure it doesn't show on the edges, and the 'S'(+diamond border) itself.. I need to interface the wrong side of the front of the T'shirt, interface the black diamond and interface the red diamond... I interfaced BEFORE I cut out the shapes. I cut out the shapes with the dressmaking shears rather than the stanley knife... it was fiddly... it was worth it

I basted the pieces together because the red - although it was interfaced- was insisting on stretching and shifting under the pins.

zigzag stitch, buttonhole length and A LOT OF PATIENCE later...

some stitches are neater than others, but, WHO CARES?! it's a MUSLIN! yeyyyeyyy!!! it'll be less noticable on the real thing because I'll be stitching red on red :-) it's all good!

So! I stitched that to my interfaced bodice:

 and then constucted the bodice, ((1)shoulder seams, (2)sleeve/shoulder seam, (3) sew all the way from cuff of sleeve to hem of bodice, all in one)
and this is what I got:

there we go, not right, but not insanely wrong... I need to do something about the armpit area, the sleeves are too tight and too short (I goddam hate sleeves) I need to do something about the sagging near the neckline... for more an armpit dysfunction see here:

anyhow, thats a lot of work foor one day, I'm just going to make slight fitting alterations, redraft the sleeves and get back to you tomorrow!

G x

Supergirl Costume (pt2, pattern drafting)

I'm not lying, I picked the Supergirl outfit because it's a super simple construction (or so I hope). My previous post shows how I intend to build it. It's essentially a long sleeved t-shirt and a circle skirt.... 'xept I've never made long sleeves before (DAMMIT) and the applique in the 'boob' area could spell sure death (DAMMIT).

Anyway I needed a pattern. I made the bodice block from a T-shirt I like, sellotaped some old newspaper together, drew around it with one colour marker pen, then made any alterations (neckline and hem really) added seam allowances and made a final cutting line, it ended up looking like this:

the big black line is the cutting line, they green lines are the construction lines... but you knew that!

et voila! my bodice pattern! ... I found a 3/4 sleeve in a pattern I had in my pattern stash and redrafted that for more length, but sleeves aren't interesting....
Here's a skirt and belt pattern!

I can't believe I ACTUALLY had to use Pi to figure out what measurement to use for the waist! My maths teacher would be proud I've finally found a use for it!!
As you can see I've added the 'V' shape on the hem... I didn't know what to do at the waistline so I've left that for figuring out with my muslin.

And a cape made much the same way.... for some reason the picture will not upload and stay portrait.... it wants to be landscape... I shall not let it.

Last bit of pattern making!
The LOGO!

Easy peasy, google superman, print out logo as big as you can, cut out the shapes with a stanley knife? ... ok don't use a stanley knife! use a craft knife like a sensible person... 

I also needed another template for that background to the 'S' logo, just another diamond, slightly smaller than the first.so that the edges don't stick out :-)

OK tomorrow! muslin making (first time for everything) and constructing that all important 'S'

smell ya later!
G x

Supergirl Costume

2 blog posts in one day?! I'm trying to be good... keeping a record of what I'm doing, as I'm doing it... anyhow... one day who knows?! somebody might actually read this shizzle.

Right... My sister-in-law is having a party beginning of september... a fancy dress party... 'heroes and villans' the Geeky Seamstress in me cried a little cry of happiness!

So this is what I'm going for:

This is what I've got so far:

and this is the fabric I've got:

I'm a little dissapointed... I dont think I'm going to use the shiny gold fabric (it's called 'lame'... that confused me.... shiny lame fabric?) because it's not on Helen Slater's costume and has only started to be applied to newer interpretations of the outfit ... I thought about making it into binding strip and hemming the skirt, cuffs and cape with it, but it's not stretchy and if I hem the cuffs with it I won't be able to put my hands through... and if I don't it wont look 'together' all the gold'll be on the bottom and nowhere else...

anyhow... thats what I'm thinking so far :-)

G x