Costuming

I don't get invited to parties. That's not an "Oh woe is me" statement. I'm always uncomfortable at a party, anyway, unless I know people willing to let me hang around with them. I don't do the wander up and commence speaking very well. I can hold my own in a conversation, but initiating it is not something I'm remotely comfortable doing. Plus, as I've aged, the idea of a party where the entertainment is standing around talking while eating and drinking, is not appealing. I far prefer parties where we play games. And, I don't have friends in the area who do parties where I feel comfortable.

So, I read of others' Halloween parties and am happy for them it was well attended and happy for me that I stayed home. But, I'm going to Disney World in October and part of the trip is to attend Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. I'm looking forward to it.

One of the things you can do is come in costume. That's something of a conundrum for me. I did a minion costume years ago because I had a rheumatology appointment on Halloween, but I haven't dressed up since. I still have all the pieces to do that costume. Then, my friend, Meredith sent me to JoAnn Fabrics by showing me pajamas in minion designs at Wal*Mart. Remember, I came home with two fabrics and a pattern for a shirt. I could wear the minion hat and one of the two shirts I intend to make, maybe get some white gloves. I could keep a crib sheet with me which has "minion speak" on it and reply to comments with minion-ese. All it would cost is the money and time to make the shirts.

In order to get to the shirts, I needed to finish the jacket I cut out last year but never sewed. I'm notorious for grand ideas which never get finished, but I've simply told myself no minion shirt until the jacket is done. I've actually made steady progress on the jacket. I have help.

Every outfit must have cat hair on it.

It goes together fairly quickly, with long seams joining front to back.

The hard part is the trim. It's a wide band which can be in the same color, but is shown with a different color. I decided on black satin. I'm very pleased with the result.

The trim has to be lined. I am used to fusible interfacing; which is easy to apply. But I worried satin wouldn't take very well to the heat and steam needed to properly fuse the interfacing to the stain. I worried that I'd wind up with very distinct iron imprints in the satin. A friend who actually makes costumes said that wouldn't be the main problem. Satin would pucker as the interfacing cooled. So, it was sew-in interfacing.

This brought up another issue. Did I have any? I pulled out the box marked "Interfacing and sewing assists". There was a bit on top in the box, but not nearly enough to put interfacing in all the trim you see. Then, I spied a bag on the floor of the closet. Inside was more interfacing than I needed for a dozen jackets, including sew-in. I'd purchased interfacing to go with the minion shirts, but that's going at the bottom of the pile. I need to use up some of the other pieces I have. Oh the problem of accumulation in the life of a sewer. Do I or don't have have enough interfacing or the right color of thread. Better buy some just in case. I have to stop "just in casing".

I encountered an issue at the neck. I don't know if I didn't cut the right pattern piece or what, but the trim band at the neck was not large enough to go around the neck without making pleats in the jacket neckline. I dug out the pattern and I seem to have cut out the right piece. I tried pinning several different ways, but none of them worked. I decided I needed to cut a rectangle piece to pin across the back of the neck. Digging out the leftover satin, I discovered someone had peed on it. I have no idea when, but the odor was unmistakable. I cut two squares, tossed the rest in the wash, and hand washed the pieces I needed. I sliced the neck piece in half, sewed this extension into the trim and finished pinning the trim to the jacket. The other piece went into the facing of the trim since you use the same pieces for the facing. It fit fine with an additional 3 inches of fabric. With this being black satin, you won't suspect this piece wasn't supposed to be there to begin with.

The next step was to prepare the facing. I did the same thing with the facing as I did with the trim; added the additional 3 inches. I'm sitting in the recliner, Mija purring next to me, and I'm having problems getting the facing to match around the bottom of the jacket. Something is off. I unpin the facing and lay it flat on the table.

When I was pinning the facing pieces together, I twisted one side of the bottom facing when sewing the pieces together. I was quite frustrated and had to set the project aside. How could I have missed this? Taking a seam apart is a problem, but doing it on satin was double trouble. It's easy to make the satin look awful when you have to remove seams. I couldn't cut another piece because the fabric was in the middle of the laundry chute and I really don't know if I can adequately remove the smell. I'm hopeful because there's enough satin to do something else with if I can salvage it. What to do. What to do.

I finally decided to use fusible interfacing to save the piece. This is the facing. It won't be primarily visible. This is also along the bottom inside of the jacket. I'm not going for a prize here. I'm going for having it done. So, I cut the facing apart, took a hunk of fusible interfacing and "fused" the two pieces together, after making sure I had them untwisted. The fused pieces didn't pucker as much as I was expecting, thankfully, so they pinned nicely onto the trim.

Once the facing and the trim were sewn together, you need to understitch the facing to make sure it doesn't roll forward. I remember, from my high school sewing days, that understitching was recommended for all facings but you rarely see it in the instructions. This jacket has that step. I clipped the curves and decided the best thing to do would be to pin the facing to the seam to make understitching easier.

In doing this, I encountered another problem, my RA. July was a tough month for me. There were bouts of achy joints. I haven't had it cause problems with my cross-stitch or sewing until now. I would hold the facing to the left, smooth it, and with the right hand, pin it in the direction I was going to sew. The holding and smoothing put more stress on my left wrist than I was expecting. After pinning half of the facing, I couldn't do anymore. The pain was too great. I wound up pinning the rest of the facing over two days and understitching last night.

This is where the jacket is today.

I need to press the facing to the inside. I'm going to add gold braid at the junction of the trim and the jacket, because, why not. That will pick up the gold in the bow ties of the cats. I should be able to stitch down the facing at the same time I attach the braid. The hem on the sleeves is just a simple 5/8 inch hem, but I'm thinking of looking through my trim box to see if I have any black seam binding. I think that would look great. I need to sew a "Made by" label on the neck facing, too.

There's hard pinning upcoming with attaching the braid so I have to be mindful of how my wrists and fingers feel. I really wanted gold piping but that's not made anymore, at least JoAnn Fabrics didn't have gold piping. I didn't want to spend $20 in gas searching for something which didn't exist. I probably could have found it on the Internet, and given how long it's taken me to get this far, I wouldn't have been waiting on something to complete the jacket, but what I got is distinctive.

So now my costume for Mickey's party has changed. I was going to bring this jacket to Disney anyway. I could put a pink shirt under it and wear it with black jeans, which I was planning on packing anyway. Then, I could get black cat ears on a headband. The Halloween costume stores which spring up around the holiday should be opening soon and I'm positive I can get black cat ears.

I don't know what to do. Minion or black cat. Minion or black cat. I guess I see how quickly the minion shirt goes together and how it looks.

Almost done.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

The Things I Save

In the ongoing slow process of decluttering, I found these.

These are "bunny suits" or, as they are more properly known, "Clean Room Suits". The blue one I had to wear then I went into the surgical area of a hospital where we had a seismograph, to download said machine way back before we had reliable remotes. The white one I wore when I had to download a machine in an animal testing facility. According to the Internet, the moniker "bunny suit" was applied because, once you have all the accouterments on, you resemble a rabbit.

When I pulled the machines from these locations, I was allowed to keep the suit. The hat, gloves, mask and booties which went with these in order to access the clean room area, had to be chucked but I could keep these since people knew I wasn't coming back. They sat on a shelf in my old office for years; mementos of a couple of very interesting jobs, but jobs I don't want to have to do again. We haven't had a need for instrumentation to be in clean room areas since, thank goodness.

I kept these because I always thought I'd use them for Halloween costumes. In reality, they simply took up space. I brought them home last year, when we moved and stuck them on a shelf. When I cleaned that shelf, looking for something else, naturally, there they were. I added them to a give away bag. There wasn't much angst in parting with these. I knew I wasn't ever going to use them. Sometimes the cleaning kind of does itself.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Perhaps Halloween

Before going to Virginia in July, Carole said she and Larry found "the perfect gift" for me. Who knows what THAT comment could mean. This is what the "perfect gift" was.

For those of you not well-versed in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, this is "The Black Beast of Arrrrgggghhhhh".

Perhaps this is the start of a Halloween costume. This year, Halloween is on a Saturday. The past two years, I've been able to come home and sit in the back with only the office light on, not answering the door. This year, it will be harder to hide.

I will admit that I have, perhaps, grown more curmudgeonly toward the dispensing of treats on this date. It used to be fun, but I don't find it fun anymore. Still, with this hat, who knows.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Halloween 2013

A little over a month ago, I had a rheumatologist appointment. She wanted to see me in a month and I realized that would be close to Halloween. So, I made my next appointment for Halloween and, in a fit of madness, said I'd come in costume. You might remember me posting about this.

I did some thinking and some Internet research. One of my favorite movies is Despicable Me. As I was thinking about what I could be, I sat down with a crochet scarf project and popped in the movie. It suddenly occurred to me. I could go as a minion.

How hard could this be? Having decided upon the idea, I set about to make it happen.

The minions wear overalls. I have no need of a pair of denim overalls, but, I did check to see what they might cost. $60 was the cheapest pair I could find in my size. No thank you. That alone is over the $40 limit I set for myself in making this costume. Then, I hit on the idea of making a bib and attaching it to a pair of jeans I already have. I could make the emblem the minions have on the top of their bibs and make a pair of goggles. I already had a pair of black gloves.

In early October, all the pieces were procured. A hunk of denim cost me $4.50. The black fabric for the emblem cost $3.50. I bought a pair of blue suspenders at Party City for $7.00. I found a long-sleeve yellow knit shirt for $8.00 in banana color. (If you don't know why that color is important, here's the link. The first 40 seconds is all you need to watch to get the gist of why 'banana' is important.) Everything else, I had. For $25, I had a costume that was trendy, thanks to the second version of the movie coming out in the summer.

The reaction today at the doctor's office was priceless. I honestly think they did not expect me to show up in costume and some of them had forgotten that I said I would. Everyone knew what I was trying to be. My boss didn't. I had to ask if my costume would "Grue" on him and then he said, "OH! Yeah! You're a minion!". The shirt I will keep and will wear again. It's very comfortable and, in the depths of winter, will be great to layer over a turtleneck.

Here is the finished result, taken at the doctor's office.

I forgot to bring my black gloves because it's in the mid 60's today and I didn't need them. As I rode up in the elevator to the 5th floor, I had to tuck my hair up into the hat. There were a couple of kids in the elevator with me and they got a kick out of me becoming a minion.

So, this was very successful. If you'd like to see how to recreate this, there are three posts below. I'm going to hang onto this. It has potential for another year.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

So You Want to Be a Minion - Halloween Costume 2013

After I decided what to make, it became a question of how. I tried on the suspenders just to see if these were going to work. Huzzah! They work perfectly. They are actually quite comfortable for being a Halloween costume novelty.

The next step was to pull out the denim and figure out how to make a bib. The denim hunk was 60 inches wide so I cut it in half. Then I realized it wasn't square.

Notice the top edge. It's wider at the left than at the right. I was going to have to square up the hunk before stitching or it would be a mess. I've been sewing a long, long time. When I first started learning the basics, fabric could not be counted on to be square. For those who don't sew, it has to square because of the natural stretch in any fabric. If the horizontal and vertical threads do not form a right angle, you'll never get something to hang right. When I was learning, we used to take one horizontal thread and pull it all the way through the fabric, creating an empty line, if you will. This became your cutting line. If you had any doubts about the selvage edge, which is the edge that comes off the loom, the above left in the photo, you needed to do that to the vertical edge. When you cut on those lines, you had a squared piece of fabric and could commence the business of cutting your pattern pieces.

In this case, the natural straightness of the table on which I'm working made it easy to see how to square up the fabric piece. I put the one edge that came out square along one slat and then cut along the other slat.

Ta da! Squared enough for my purposes.

When this was done, I folded up the selvage edges to make seams. All the edges of this fabric are seamed with 1/2 inch seams. I probably didn't need to, but I thought it would just look better.

The one edge that was from the loom, the selvage edge, at the top in this photo, was only turned up once. The other edge, where I cut the piece in half, was folded and folded again. These were stitched.

Then, I moved to each side. I measured 1/2 inch and stitched that seam on both sides. I decided to make a casing for the suspenders since the fabric was adequately wide enough, so there is no need to turn this seam in again.

Once the side seams were sewn, I measured with the suspender to be certain.

See what I'm aiming for here? If you look at a minion's overalls, they have a visible side seam running up the bib. If I chose to attach the denim to the bib, it would tear when the suspenders stretched, probably ruining both the suspenders and the denim. I'm going to make a casing through which the suspenders will go, and which will leave me room to stitch a seam that approximates the stitching on the minion's overalls. I measured the width of the suspenders and the current seam and then added 1/2 inch for the casing. This was then marked with pins on the front of the fabric.

I'm crazy like this but, if you're following along, lay the suspenders on the front of the fabric and check your measurements again.

The fabric was folded to the inside and pressed along the pin line.

Once both sides were pressed, I again laid the suspenders over the soon to be casing just to be certain of the width before anything was sewn.

Now comes a measurement part that I got off. The fabric hunk was cut in half. It was still really long for my bib. I measured myself from where I wanted the top of the bib to be, down to my pant top. Using that measurement, I would have over half of the fabric not needed. I hit upon the idea to fold that excess up and make a buttonhole at the fold. The business end of the suspenders would come through the buttonhole so there was less of a gap between the top of my pants and the bib. So, I folded up the fabric and marked where the buttonhole would go.

On the top side, I marked where the buttonhole was to go and how wide I wanted it.

Then, I took a deep breath and made buttonholes. I have never been very good at doing this. If I sewed more, I'd probably get reasonably good at it but making them bothers me. They turned out okay and aren't seen in the final bib.

Once the buttonhole was opened up, I threaded the suspender through just to make sure it was wide enough.

You can see how the fabric is folded up. It occurred to me, at this point, that the suspenders were lying on the top of the fabric and I had just made a buttonhole through all the fabric. Um...I can't sew the suspenders to the bib. My heart sank. What to do?

Then I had an aha moment. I would snip through the top part of the casing. Then, when the suspenders are threaded through the top casing, I can pull them out and push them into the right part of the bottom of the bib to come out through the buttonhole.

Once this snipping point was figured out, I ironed the fabric again to set the fold and sewed the outside seam first.

You can see, I'm close to the eye of the presser foot and the edge of the fabric. This seam is sewed top to bottom. When the outside seam was completed, I snipped above the top of the folded fabric to the line of outside stitching. You need enough of a hole to allow you to move the suspenders into the right part of the folded up fabric so the clasp comes out the buttonhole.

Then, I measured from the sewn seam back toward the middle. This is to make the seam line for the interior edge of the casing.

Happily, it was almost the same as the seam line for the original hem. I stitched that seam top to bottom. When that was done, I did a mental drumroll and started threading one side into the casing.

So far so good.

And, it worked.

I did have to pull the suspender out of the bottom casing and put it in again. Because of the folded fabric, for some reason, not all the layers let me push the end through the buttonhole. Threading the suspenders through the folded part of the casing, because there is more fabric there, was a bit difficult and I had to work in 1/2 inch increments. Fortunately, there wasn't much fabric to go before the clasp popped out of the buttonhole.

Here's the back side of the bib, now completed.

Here is the front side.

As you can see from the top photo, the bib is a bit long. Because I'm going to save this, I think I will lop off the bottom 3 inches, cover the exposed ends with bias tape and put the buttonholes in the tape. I'll still have the same effect but at the right length for the bib.

We're not done yet. The next post deals with the decal.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

"G" is For Grue - Halloween Costume 2013

Okay, we have ourselves a bib but what makes the costume is the "G" icon that's on the front of every minion's overalls. Here's what I did for that.

Step 1 was go to the Internet and find a large photo of the icon. I printed it out on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper.

Step 2 was to decide how I wanted the emblem to look. I didn't want to mess with too many different pieces of fabric here so, when I bought the denim, I also bought a remnant of black velvet. This would give a somewhat three-dimensional quality to the finished emblem.

I hit upon the idea of using both sides of the fabric so I ironed the piece on the wrong side. Having been rolled up for a good while, it was really wrinkled.

Step 3 is to cut out the emblem. It's a stylized "G" in a circle, so the circle was cut out first.

This is traced onto the back side of the velvet. My tracing chalk pencils have seen better days, but the white one was adequate to trace around the circle.

Step 5. When this was done, I cut out the "G". I'm going to make this from the front side of the velvet so it has to be traced upside down on the back side of the velvet.

When this was done, both pieces were cut out of the velvet and both the extra velvet and extra denim were added to the fabric boxes. Some day, I'll figure out what to do with them.

Step 7 is to sew the "G" onto the back side of the circle. I had problems with the black thread not coming off the spool properly so I grabbed the next darkest shade I could find. That wound up being a dark brown. It looks black when attached to the bib.

Once the "G" was attached, I measured, very carefully, to make sure that the circle was centered on the top of the bib. This part was very crucial for me. It's hugely noticable in the center top of the bib. If I was off on my placement by even an eighth of an inch, something didn't look 'right'.

Once I was satisfied with the placement, I pinned the circle, started at the top point, and stitched it to the bib. Because of the thickness of the velvet, there was a bit of puckering at the top of the "G", but it's turned under the point. Had I not used velvet, I wouldn't have gotten a pucker.

The last step, #10, was to thread the suspenders through both sides.

The bib is done. But you're still not a minion yet. You need the goggles. Can't be a minion without goggles. In the next post, I'll show you how I made goggles.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

You'll Be Needing a Hat - Halloween Costume 2013

To carry off this costume, you'll be needing a hat. Here's where I have a slight advantage. I root for the Iowa Hawkeyes, which means I probably have a hat that is the appropriate color of yellow. Second, I'm a pack rat. So, I set about looking through the winter hat bin. It's the same place where I have all my gloves, ear muffs, hats and scarves and yes indeed, I did have an appropriate yellow beret. But, I wear this hat and I don't want to have goggly eyes on the hat all through the year. How do I make goggles that won't damage the beret. I turned to the Internet for goggle ideas. 

The minion costume idea I found made goggles from styrofoam cups. As I didn't have any on hand and forgot to grab a couple from the event I attended the evening of the 17th, I figured I'd have to buy a package of them. Said package, even the smallest amount sold, would sit, under the sink or in the basement for years, yes, years, before being completely used. I checked under the sink just in case I had a couple I'd forgotten about but no, no styrofoam cups. I found a stack of a dozen of these, however.

They will work just fine.

I measured the length from the lip to the edge of the ring. Then, I put a slice into the middle of the cup and used a scissors to remove all but the top inch of the cup. I found you'll need to make slices in the side so it's easier to remove the cup body.

Once you've cut away all the cup except the top inch or so, you're left with a nifty ring that is just the right size.

The goggle instructions said to use a silver marker and color the styrofoam. Well, these kinds of cups don't take marker very well so I hit on the idea of covering the edge with aluminum foil. Using the measurement of the width of this ring, I took a piece of foil the length of the circumference of the cup.

I measured the width of the ring and added another inch to that measurement and cut two pieces, one for each goggle. I wrapped that length of foil around the rings, keeping the ring in the center of the foil. As I worked, I folded down the top half inch of foil over the edge of the ring and then did the same with the bottom edge. When you're done, you'll have two rings that look like this.

Now you need eyes. I took two paper plates and traced around the largest part of the rings and cut that out. I didn't have a compass at work so I was going to measure the inside iris and pupil, but, in looking about my desk, I found an aspirin bottle and an eraser were the right sizes so I traced around each. Then I colored in the iris with marker.

When this was done, I started to stick one eye into one of the goggles. You'll need to bend it around the edges just a bit to get it into the ring. It kept popping out until I had the thought to anchor the eye to a piece of tape strung across the back of the ring.

It still took a bit of force as a paper plate is rather stiff, but once a section of an eye was stuck to the tape, I added another piece across the first piece at a right angle. This was just enough tape to hold the eye in place.

You want to push the eye down onto the tape and then work around the edges, folding them up against the ring. When you're done, you'll have a couple of eyes that look like this.

Now, position the eyes on your hat.

On a beret like this, I could place the eyes pretty much any place I chose since the hat is almost a circle. Take a couple of safety pins, I used the largest I could find, and safety pin the goggles to the hat.

I made sure the pins went through the iris. They are almost invisible on the front.

One of the problems with the eyes is that on a hat like this, they won't stick together. In trying the hat on, I had one eye pointed one way and the other looking a different way, owing to the stretching of the knit.

I solved that problem with the omnipresent duct tape.

I cut a strip about a half inch long. That was folded in half and affixed to the exterior of the eyes, right were the bridge of the nose would be.

Another small piece was affixed to the front of the goggles right at the bridge of the nose, kind of like the running joke about fixing one's glasses with duct tape.

The small strip is almost invisible against the aluminum foil.

Now to make the goggle "strap". Here's where being a pack rat is extremely helpful. Given that I waited until the sort of last minute to finish this, and the car was in the shop last night, and it was pouring rain, and it was late, what could I use for a strap? I thought about the extra black velvet but that would require seaming and I didn't want to dig out the sewing maching because I'd put it away after making the bib the night before. As I was eating supper, it hit me. Viola.

I had an unopened package of wide bias tape in black. Even though Iowa's colors are black and yellow, I do not want to sew this tape onto the knit hat. The stretchy quality of the hat will tear any stitching I could do, even hand stitching. So, I utilized safety pins.

I put on the hat and wrapped the tape from goggle to goggle, adding an inch on either side. With that hunk of trim, I put one edge up against the goggle and wrapped the rest around the hat. The trim is safety pinned from the back adjacent to the eye and in the back middle. This allows the hat to stretch over my head without breaking any stitching or ruining the hat.

The ends of the trim are folded up onto the side of the each goggle and stapled to the side to they look like they are adjustable. (Finding the stapler was an adventure in and of itself. I'm thinking I don't need all the stuff in that bin.)

The end result is something close to a minion's head.

Plus, all the pieces come off the hat and can be saved for next year. The bias tape can be cut off the goggles and that piece used for something else. These instructions can be used whether you are making the goggles or the monacle.

I hope you've enjoyed these instructions. The look on faces of the staff, my doctor and the two kids in the elevator were priceless and it was an inexpensive costume to make. If there is something else you'd like to know to make the costume for yourself, just ask.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb