Taylor: Final Project Post #2

So, as all of you well know, I am going to be the mad hattress. So far, I have bought the fabric and assembled a skirt.

Chocolate Brown Satin

Crazy small pattern

Originally, when I embarked on this quest to become the mad hattress, I had formulated a plan. I had a hat, I had a top and some accessories. Little did I know that I was going to have to make adjustments. I had originally planned to make a skirt from a square dancing dress. I was of course only going to use the skirt part of it. However, after I had bought the 5 yards of chocolate brown satin, we discovered that the pattern was too small for me. I seriously think that It wouldn't have fit Kate Moss, and that chick was skinny. For real though, this skirt was tiny. So, I had to make some adjustments. And by adjustments, I mean that I made an entirely new pattern.

And...by made an entirely new pattern, I mean that Sister Dooley walked me through making the pattern for a circle skirt. It was fun. All I needed was tracing paper, a measuring tape, and some basic geometry that I learned in 4th grade. I drafted a pattern in an hour, tops.

After drafting the pattern, I started to cut the fabric. Alpha helped me with that. Who knew that Satin was so tricky. Just as a forewarning, cutting is an art. Everything needs to be as smooth as a military bed spread before you even pin the dang thing. It was fun, though. Getting out the wrinkles and smoothing out the imperfections in the satin satisfied the inner anal-retentive nut case in all of us (and by us, I mean me, but you I know you know how that feels, too). Just so you know, anal-retentive is not vulgar. It is a Freudian term that can sum up someone with perfectionist issues, and we all have one of those in at least one area. Haha

Anyway, as I was saying, I assembled that bad boy.  I need to hem it by like 1 1/2 inches, but for the most part, the skirt is done, but I need to stuff a LOT of petticoats under it.

I still have some stuff to do. First of all, I need to assemble the rest of my costume. I plan on borrowing (teehee, I already have). But I can mix and match as my satisfaction comes and goes and what have you. I plan on making my character very fancy proletariat.

Lauren Hadley, Final, Progress

So far, my final project is going as planned and is going well. I do wish I would be closer to finishing but I still have much to do. 

My original plan was to create the shirt in size XL, because my husband did not want it to be too tight. However, when I pulled out my pattern to see where to begin, I noticed I bought the pattern for sizes S, M, and L. Oops! After much contemplation and even changing my pattern for a moment, I  Another adjustment I made to the original plan, is instead of following the pattern which would create a long sleeve, I am shortening the sleeves. I choose to do this because I wanted to create a more casual look.

chose to stick to my original pattern and do a size L.

Although the project is far from completion, I have finished many steps. My husband helped me to cut out all the fabric, I added pockets to the front and yokes on the shirt, and I have attached one sleeve. I am very glad I choose to do a short sleeve instead of long sleeve because I do not have to worry about doing cuffs, something I have never done before. 

In order for my project to be fully complete, I still need to attach the second sleeve, stitch together the side seams, and add a flap to each pocket and try and the collar. The collar is something I have no idea how to do and is something which will probably take me a while to figure out. 

Besides the shirt I am making from scratch, I have found green shorts to match. I still need to find some sort of green hat, either a baseball cap or a beanie and also brown shoes. To incorporate the red feather as seen in the Disney production of Peter Pan, I want to either add it to the hat somehow, or make it into a necklace for him to wear. 

I am starting to fear that my project is beginning to look too casual, although that is what I originally wanted. I don’t want people to feel that I just took pieces of clothing my husband already owns and have him model it down the run way. I want to be sure to use original pieces for the costume, things my husband has never seen or worn before.