4 days till A-Kon 27

OMG the last week and a half has been HELL on wheels. I finally finished Sarah's coat for Maddie Hatter. It was a PAIN in the ASS. Everyone says it looks AMAZING... I think it looks like crap. But that's because I can see the things that are wrong with it. Over the last few weeks, I remembered a very important piece of wisdom that my grandmother imparted to me when we were sewing together.

"The instructions for a pattern are very important. It will tell you which pieces you need and it will give you a general idea of how to put the thing together. Otherwise... It's a bunch of crap that will confuse the hell out of you. If you see something in the instructions that makes NO sense, go with your gut. More than likely it will come out OK, if not... You rip a seam or two."

The instructions for the pattern for the Maddie coat made NO sense what so ever. So I kind of put it together the best way I could think of to get it together. It's still not completely done, I have some more froo froo things to add to the back side, kind of like a skirt, but once that is done, I never want to see this costume again. And I don't think it's the costume so much. It's the fact that I had to make the fabric from scratch. Hours cutting the strips, more hours sewing those strips together, a few more hours using an iron to put on interfacing to stabilize the fabric and to keep the strips from raveling.

When I was in the store getting the iron on interfacing, someone suggested I use stitch witchery and I said HELL no. Stitch Witchery is basically it's a liquid that you put on a fabric to keep it from fraying. A very thin clear nail polish. For some things, it works great, but it does have a tendency to discolor the fabric. With as much as I was going to use, I was NOT going to spend more hours painting each seam. Sooo.... Iron on interfacing was my best friend. 

Getting everything cut out was a bit of a pill. I had what I "thought" was all the right pieces cut out and then I freaked out because I thought I was missing a pattern piece. I yelled at the cat because I was so upset about missing a piece. Looked over the instructions again, to find out that the piece I thought I was missing, didn't exist. At least it didn't exist the way I had gotten in stuck in my mind that it existed. For some reason I had it in my head that there were two long pieces for this pattern. Which isn't entirely untrue. There are. There is the front piece on the side, and then there is the back piece that ruffles along the backside. I had to stop and cut more strips to make more fabric, add interfacing and cut the back ruffle piece. 

*snickers* Butt ruffles....

Other things that happen while making this coat. I forgot to take out a pin the sewing needle hit JUST the right spot. I'm keeping it for posterity. 

I'd like to thank my cat for being a total pain in the ass this entire time. She took over my sewing area and did not want to give it back. There were several times that I had to evict her from my space. She was not a happy camper and has been lamenting the sounds of her people in the wee hours of the morning.

 

Last bu surly not least, I am finally off to make the Wonder Woman bombshell. I finished the shorts in about 4 hours, so I'm going to concentrate on the shirt tomorrow. Anyone know where I can get the belt buckle?