Next Project: A Cheerful Raincoat

One of my pet peeves about living in the northeast in the fall and winter is the color pallet. Everyone (and I mean everyone) wears black coats. So not only does this make finding your friend in a crowd difficult, it is incredibly BORING to look at. But I'm a rebel and refuse to conform! My next project is a new rain coat. I'll be working with laminated cotton for the first time, so it should be interesting to say the least. Below is the pattern I'll be using and the fabrics I selected last night. The dotted fabric is the lining and is a home decorating fabric to make the coat a little warmer.  I'll keep you posted as the project progresses!

BTW, Comic Con starts tomorrow! I'll be wearing my costume Saturday, so I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as I have them.

A Great Book

My boyfriend got me the neatest book for my birthday. For a guy that pretty much knows nothing about sewing, he managed to find me the best book about pattern making. :) I plan on making use of this in the near future... Mwahahahaha! (Not sure why I evil laughed there)

For anyone who is considering designing their own patterns, I highly recommend this book.  From what I've read so far, it presents everything in a way that is pretty easy to understand and also explains WHY you do what you do (plus it has lots of pictures!).

Coming Soon!

When I return from Baltimore, I will be posting details regarding the wig I made for my Rapunzel costume. I think it turned out pretty well for my first attempt at styling a wig. :)

Tis a Lovely Day for a Faire

Some friends of mine and I spent this past Saturday enjoying the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. I had the chance to wear another one of my projects. This dress was perfectly straight forward as I just followed the pattern, but I still do really like it. I can post the pattern I used another day, as I'm in Baltimore for the next few days.

On the left is my boyfriend as Dr. Who. A perfectly acceptable costume for a Renn Faire since he's a time traveler. He actually got the MOST attention out of all of us, with several people asking for pictures with him. I was only a tiny bit jealous. :)

The two to my right are my friends Courtney and Chris. Courtney made her dress from a pattern found on a website. I made Chris' pants and Courtney made the rest. Chris did sew on his buttons. Yay team effort!

How To Make A Rapunzel Crown/Tiara!

The really cool thing about the crown/tiara is that it can be made almost entirely from materials found at your local craft store.  The only thing I had to find online were those large tear shaped crystals.  And guess what?!  I'll give you the link directly to the site so you don't even have to hunt them down.

To begin! The list of materials you will need:

Craft foam (the sheets you find a craft stores that can come in many different colors.  They run about $.99 a sheet. I went with white.)
Mod Podge
Gold acrylic paint
Those little foam brushes (again, very cheap) to apply said mod podge and gold paint
Craft/jewelry wire (the thickest gauge you can find)
X-acto knife
Cutting board
Hot glue
Poster board (you can probably use paper, but I need something more sturdy)
Lots and lots of bling (clear crystals, red/pink crystals, a few blue crystals, and some faux pearls)

Step #1

Make your stencil!  Using the movie as a reference, draw out how you want the crown to look (this is where you use the poster board). Use your large crystals to trace the holes that will hold them. You want them to fit snugly. Keep in mind, you'll end up cutting the crown out a few times, so it's important that it is consistent.  I made the stencil as only half a crown, since you can just flip it over and voila! A symmetrical crown. Your x-acto knife will be your best friend in this project.  There just no way to do this easily without one.

Side note - At this point figure out the large you want the diameter of your crown to be and cut the stencil accordingly.

Step #2

Use said stencil to trace and cut out two crowns out of craft foam.  I ended up needing to use three, but my large crystals were a bit too large and heavy, so it caused the crown to sag a bit.  Buying smaller crystals should fix that problem.

Step #3

Hot glue is definitely the best thing to use here as it will not come detached unless you actually rip the foam.  I, unfortunately, do not have a picture of step #3.  It somehow got deleted, so bear with me.

Use your craft wire to reinforce one of the crowns you just cut out, especially around the area that will be holding the large crystals and the thin part that will be sitting on your head.  Unfortunately, I bought wire that was too thin, so I twisted pieces together to give it more strength.  Use the hot glue to attach the wire to the crown.

When you feel your crown in sufficiently reinforced, glue the second crown cut-out to the first, making sure it conceals the wire you just attached. You don't wan that wire showing. Hot glue the ends of the crown together to make a proper crown and gently form it into a circle.  You may need bend it a bit here and there to get the wire to the desired shape.

Step #4

Mod podge the hell out of the crown! If you do not put enough mod podge on the crown, the gold paint will not look good as the foam will absorb it.  I ended up using 5 or 6 layers of mod podge.  Do your best to get it into all the nooks and crannies of the crown.  The mod podge will also add some rigidity to your crown while also remaining flexible.

(You can actually see a little bit of wire here in the back where I messed up)

After you are done using mod podge and the crown is dry, you can GENTLY use some super fine sand paper to smooth it out a little bit.

Step #5

You've got the Midas touch! So shiny... You may need two layers of paint. Just let it dry then touch it up.

Step #6

Now for the best part. Bring on the bling!  I glued on all the small crystals and pearls using the mod podge.  It worked well and dried flat and clear.  I used super glue for the large crystals. I put the crystals in place and glued around the edge.  I ended up needing to scrape up some excess, but it worked well.

(Partially bling'ed)

And finished!

You may be asking yourself, "Hey, she said she'd let me know where to buy the tear-shaped crystals!"

Hold your horses, you can find them here:

http://www.chandelierparts.com/valueprismsandchandelierparts.aspx

The crystals are actually chandelier replacement parts!  I used one 3" prism and two 2 1/2" prisms.  If I did this again, I would definitely get smaller prisms as they were just a little too big.  It would be nice if my crown was a bit more delicate looking.  They also made the crown a tad front heavy.

If anything was unclear, I would be more than happy to clarify.

Also, please feel free to share this, but if you post it elsewhere, I just ask you place a link back to here.

Thanks for looking!

So Shiny....

So I'm pretty bored at work at the moment, so I thought I'd post a little teaser...

This is the crown I made from scratch for my Rapunzel costume.  Detailed step-by-step instructions to follow soon. :) 

How I Made My Rapunzel Costume

So as you may or may not have figured out by now, I have been working on a Rapunzel (as featured in the movie Tangled) cosplay costume for New York Comic Con. The dress was rather fun to make. As my Mom likes to call it, it's a bit of a "Frankenstein" dress. I don't design my own patterns, generally. Instead, I take elements from existing patterns and make them suit my needs.

So my dress is made from the patterns featured below:

The bodice follows one of the variations of the center pattern pretty closely. Rapunzel is wearing a Renaissance style dress in the movie. The pattern on the left is where I got the design for the puffy sleeves. I did alter them so there would be a bit less "poof." I made an Elizabeth Bennet costume last year for Halloween, so I just happened to have the pattern. Finally the pattern on the right was obviously used for the skirt, however, it makes a skirt far more full then what I was looking for, so I altered it as well. I reduced the size of the panels so they came together without needing to be gathered, thereby removing the fullness.

So the finished dress looks like this: (drum roll please.......)

(Yay custom duck tape dress form! Look at that hem. Beautiful!)

Tadah! I am pretty pleased with it if I do say so myself. :) The "embroidery" is actually painted on the fabric using a stencil I designed and cut from poster board.


I used Jacquard Textile Color fabric paint and I think it turned out pretty well. The center panel of the dress is topped by a layer of chiffon to get the nice deep purple. This was my first time working with chiffon, so that was a bit of a learning experience.

Anyway, I would be happy to answer any questions about the dress. I hope to have a picture of me wearing the entire costume soon.

Next time: Step by step instructions to making your own Rapunzel crown!