A Harley Quinn Romance

Today's Red and Black entry is another blast from the past.  This one comes from Halloween 2006.  My husband and I, for the first any only time, opted for a couple's costume for Halloween: The Joker and Harley Quinn.

I didn't use a pattern here because spandex is pretty forgiving (in terms of getting a fit, at least).  I wrapped the fabric around myself, safety pinned it in place, and then cut it accordingly.  The diamonds were a little difficult to sew on because the fabric needed to be stretched for that, which basically meant that I had to be wearing it.  It was easy enough to put them on the left side (using my right hand), but not so much on the right.  I am ridiculously right handed.

The gloves were easy: I traced my hand, cut it out, and sewed it together.

The headpiece was a little difficult.  It's a separate piece from the costume, and I had a terrible time getting it to lay flat.  In the end, I think I made three of them before one worked.  The points on the headpiece (dunno what else to call them; does anyone know the technical term?) are just curved pieces of spandex and stuffed with polyfill.  If I did this again, I would line them, because little pieces of the stuffing kept creeping out through the fabric.  I attached two jingle bells at the end of the points and added elastic around the face opening for a tight fit.  

Hubby's costume was created out of thrift store finds.  For the jacket, I cropped it to the waist, flipped the pieces around, and sewed them on as tails.  The fabric went against the grain for that, but for a thrift store costume, it wasn't too bad.  The flower was just some yellow satin I had in the stash.  I cut out a few flower shapes, layered them in a staggered fashion, and sewed them together.  The vest is just a satin blouse.  I cut off the sleeves and altered the neckline.  From those pieces I cut, I made the tie and pocket square.  His shirt and pants, thankfully, I didn't need to alter.

His costume is great because it shows how you can make a fabulous costume without spending a lot of money or time, or having a lot of talent.

We won first prize at the Halloween party we went to!

Revenge of the Coffee Dress

Regulars readers may recall when I sewed the coffee dress, I was disappointed in the sleeves, and was only intensified when I wore it to work one day.  Basically, they are supposed to neatly hug the sides of the shoulders; instead, even hiked onto the top of my shoulders, the slightest movement sent them cascading down my arms.  I knew it wasn't going to work when I was sewing it, but I followed the pattern anyway.  This is what I get for following the directions exactly for once.

The proper way to fix this would have been to rip out: the hand-stitching on the lining on the bodice, the understitching at the top, the stitching at the top between the bodice and its lining, the sleeves from the bodice, and then the sleeves themselves.  Then fix the sleeves and redo all of the stitching that I had just ripped out.  That would have been the right way to fix it; instead, I ripped out the stitching at the top of the sleeve. 

I then ripped out the elastic.  I should have known better than following the pattern's instructions to use a straight stitch on elastic!

Before I started ripping the dress apart, I measured the slack in the sleeve: a whopping 2.5 inches!  Utterly ridiculous.  And I'm pretty broad-shouldered, so it isn't as if this doesn't fit because I am particularly petite or something.  Anyway, not wanted the sleeves to be too tight, I took off 1.5 inches.

I prefer to use a casing or a zig-zag stitch on elastic.  I went with the casing here because I thought I could hide it a little better.  I just folded the top of the sleeve down (along where the original stitching line) and then sewed it close to the edge.  It's a good thing I didn't trim the seam allowance here (and I remember thinking at the time that it was odd that the pattern didn't call for that).

The original elastic length was nearly as long as the sleeve (another reason their darn instructions wouldn't have worked).  Since I took 1.5 inches off the sleeve, I took off 2.5 inches from the elastic.  I inserted it into the casing and then top-stitched the sleeves shut.  Much fast than ripping out almost everything.

I apologize for the blurriness here; I had to turn off the flash so it wouldn't reflect in the mirror.  The sleeves still aren't perfect, but they're much better.  I wore this to a bridal shower and a bunch of people told me I looked fabulous!

T Shirt Alteration

T shirts! As an engineer, my basic uniform is jeans and a t shirt. But as a female engineer, there are so many awesome shirts that are cut for a guy instead of a lady. (Though guys can definitely use this tutorial too - a male friend of mine is tall and skinny, so he has to buy larger shirts so they're long enough. I take them in on the sides and it works like gangbusters.) This is a pretty easy project and great for someone who is learning to sew, but you probably don't want to try this for the first time on your vintage The Damned shirt signed by Dave Vanian. (What you should do with that is give it to me so I squeal in a manner unbecoming in someone half my age.)

For this project, you will need:
-a t shirt you like the fit of
-a t shirt to alter
-straight pins
-scissors
-thread

Optional:
-marking pencils
-paper of some short
-pen, pencil, or a marker
-a Siamese cat that sits on everything you attempt to sew

First off, if you plan on doing this repeatedly, it might be in your best interests to make a pattern. If you want to make a pattern, then you're going to need paper of some sort. Place likes JoAnn's sell actual pattern paper, but you can use newspaper, wax paper, plain old printer paper, or whatever. I used newspaper because I am frugal. Here's the pattern I made for my aforementioned friend:




You'll just want to slide it under the t shirt you're using as a pattern and trace it. Then add seam allowance (I used 1/2 inch on the sides and 1 inch at the bottom).

Very important: make sure the shirt you want to alter has been laundered as you plan to launder it in the future - in other words, if you usually wash your shirts in warm water and tumble dry them on low, then do that a few times before you alter it. To avoid fading and shrinkage, I usually wash my t shirts in cold water, inside out, and hang them up to dry. YMMV.

1) For the t shirt you're using as a pattern, fold it in half and pin. If it has side seams, line them up. Line up the shoulder and sleeve seams too. If it's wrinkly, you can try to press it flat with your hands, smoosh it under some books, wash it, or even (shudder) iron it. It doesn't have to be perfectly flat, but non-wrinkly is good.



2) For the t shirt you want to alter, fold it in half and pin. The same standards for wrinkliness apply here too.



3) Place the pattern shirt on top of the shirt to alter. Line them up at the top and on the folds. Pin. Don't worry about it if the sleeves don't match up.



4) If the shirts are the same length or you're okay with the length of shirt to alter, then don't worry about this step.
Otherwise, measure out one inch from the bottom of the pattern shirt and mark. I used pins, but you can use marking pencils or whatever method you like.



5) Measure out half an inch from the side seam and mark.



6) Cut very carefully along the marking lines. Be sure not to cut the pattern shirt.



7) When you get near the sleeve seam, carefully cut off your excess.



8) If you're happy with how the original sleeves fit or they're the same length/shape as the pattern shirt, skip this step.
Unpin the pattern shirt from the other shirt. Re-pin, aligning the sleeve seams. From the underarm, measure out half an inch and mark. From the opening, measure out one inch and mark. Cut again, carefully.



9) Unpin pattern shirt.



10) Unpin the shirt to be altered entirely and turn inside out. T shirt material tends to roll, so pin close to the edge along the side seams.



11) Sew in a half inch seam. I like to use a longer stitch because t shirts like to stretch. I zig zagged the edges to prevent ravelling.



12) If you aren't altering the length, you can skip the next few steps. Otherwise, fold up half an inch on the bottom.



13) Fold up again along the fold line. Sew close to the top fold with the same long stitch. You can sew along the bottom fold too, if you want.



14) If you aren't altering the sleeves, skip this step. Otherwise, fold up half an inch (as in length altering step), and then fold up again. To sew, turn the shirt right-side out and and sew close to the top fold. You can sew the bottom fold too, if you want.



15) You're done!



T shirts are harder to alter if you have to move the sleeves or you don't have a pattern shirt. I'll cover those in future lessons.