Infinity dress ... take 3

I think I finally cracked this dress. With a few new ideas I ran out for another $5 bolt of 5 yards of fabric. This dress does need about 5 yards of fabric for the dress.


I first needed to take a few measurements to determine how wide to make the straps and how big to make the inner circle for the skirt.

For the straps: Measure from the center of your chest across the widest part Denote this value W. Making the straps this wide will ensure that you will be able to cover everything however it could be slightly too big. (I would prefer to error on the side of slightly too big) After completing the dress I realize (W-2)inches would have been wide enough.

For the inner circle: Measure around the widest part of your body (usually the hips) and call this measurement B. Next take the fabric and loosely hold 4 inches next to a ruler, then stretch the fabric as much as possible and measure  against the ruler call this a. Now denote A=a/4 (If this A is very close to 1 then the dress won't quite work well it should be at least 1.5 closer to 2 works and more than that would be fine as well).
Let r= (B+1)/(2Api) making sure all measurements are in inches (all calculators should have a button for pi which is about 3.14). r will be the radius of the center circle.

Let the length of the dress (which is restricted by the width of the fabric) be denoted C(in inches). The the radius of the outer circle, R=r+C.


Take a square of fabric measuring R inches along each side. Fold the square in half twice so it has one corner that is all folds and each of the others aren't.

Next take a pencil, chalk, or crayon tied to a string so that the length of the string is R. Hold one end at the corner of the fabric and use this to trace the quarter circle. Next repeat the process with a string of length r. Cut on each of these traced lines. Now you have your bottom skirt.

Next measure out about 8-9 feet of fabric and cut two strips of width W(or slightly less than W depending). It is better to make the straps too long that too short.



You also need a strip of fabric about 4 inches wide and at least as long as B. This will be the waist band so you can cut it to the proper length later.

If you want to edge of hem the sides of the strips now is the time to do it.
Once that is done take one short edge of each of the strips and overlap them by about 2-3 inches. Fold the skirt in half and place the outside edge of each strip at the half way mark on the inside circle of the skirt with the right sides of the fabric together. Gather the strips a bit to make sure they fit with only 2-3 inches overlap and pin in place.
Next fold the waistband in half with the right side showing and place one end about where the two strips overlap. Pin this around the entire skirt. (it should complete the circle with possibly some extra that will be cut)
Finally you will sew along this inner circle making sure to use either a zigzag stitch or stretch the fabric to account for the stretch needed. (I used my serger for this part)
After sewing completely around cut of any extra bit of the waistband. And then hem or edge the bottom of the skirt if you want to.

Final step is looking online for some tips on how to wear the dress. Since I do like wearing a bra and don't want to show too much skin I found some wonderful videos on youtube by Monif C.

Enjoy let me know if anything needs clarification.

Finite Shirt

I put elastic in the back of my "infinity" shirt and then realized I needed to secure the sleeves somehow. I crossed them and tacked them in the back on either side of the elastic.
After putting on the shirt, I couldn't get the shirt to stay closed in the front so I sewed the middle of the front.
Then I did the same to the sides so that I ended up with arm holes and didn't have to worry about exposing anything.

Now I think this shirt can be worn one of two ways, with the crossing in the front or back.

If it crosses in the front the neck line is much much lower and the shirt becomes better for evening wear.
If it crosses in the back then the neckline is appropriate for day wear.

un-tangled

After hours and hours of brushing and at least half a can of Motions Oil sheen my wig is for the most part. Untangled.
Using the oil sheen helped loads and keeping it untangled as I worked bit by bit. I started with small sections and worked my way across. I must have spent at least 5 or 6 hours working on it. I set up my laptop to watch Xena while I worked and that helped me keep track of the time. I also realized after the first 20 minutes that I needed to wear a mask while using so much spray on the wig.

I'm really happy with the results, although I thought more then once of just buying another wig instead of detangling the one I had.

Next I need small curlers to curl the bangs so they poof. After some searching online into how to cut bangs into a with without them, I realized that it is much easier to get the traditional poof in most anime hairstyles but sectioning the backs and curling them separately. Also a tighter curl will drop as opposed to the loose ones I was trying before. I added the yellow ribbon, the entire roll of ribbon was under $2 at walmart, and I used an elastic cut to tie the to pieces of hair together before tying on the ribbon so it wouldn't slip out.

A tangled nightmare...

I spent a long time trying to put my long green wig into a ponytail. Tonight I tried to take it out. I realized much too late that putting it up in a high ponytail doesn't really work the way I tried to do it. So instead of dressing like Mion with her signature ponytail I decided to take out the ponytail and use the wig for Shion. I had a feeling I'd want to take the ponytail out when I started So I had only used elmer's school glue and hairspray. I used a bit of shampoo, laundry detergent and conditioner to clean the wig.

It took a bit of scrubbing to get the hair to unstick from itself however as of now it seems that the glue and hairspray are gone. I now have to wait for the wig to dry (overnight). I also have to detangle it.

This is quite a job since I can't yank on the hair. I'm using spray detangler and will have to slowly work my way up only trying to brush about 2-3 inches at a time.  Hopefully the wig and I will survive this process.

Shion part san (updated)

I have finished the shirt. The only thing I may do is mess with the collar a bit by tacking it shorter since I left enough length on it to mess with later. I serged the sides and the collar to the shirt without breaking a needle! (knock on wood).

I went back to walmart and got three packs of needles for the serger. I may have been having issues because I was using the wrong sized needle for a project. Although I'm starting to think my problem was not oiling it. I read online that you are supposed to oil every month if you aren't using it frequently and every project if you are. We'll see how this holds up for now.

The only things I have left for this costume is just a few little things. I need very low heel white pumps, stockings (that is the only way I'll leave the house in a skirt that short...) and her signature gold necklace.
For the necklace, I'm not completely convinced it's not attached to the shirt, however I think with a bit of scouting I can find some cheap jewelry to alter. For the most part all of my cheap jewelry comes from the hair store since most of their necklaces and bracelets and earrings are under $3 each.

This was a really short project so I'm thinking ahead already... really far ahead.. to next Halloween. In the mood for trying to pull off some sort of fighter I've been re-watching Xena and would love to dress like her but the costume seems very complicated to make it realistic. Then I started thinking maybe a video game character like Chun-Li...

 

Update:  

More pics of entire outfit:

Shion's outfit

I finished the skirt. I added two hooks in the waistband and two gold buttons. I also found that the hidden pocket I sewed into the waistband is large enough to hold my cell phone which is a huge plus! I think her skirt is a bit shorter than mine but then again she is drawn...

I also added to the shirt. I sewed the sleeve to the neckline after trying to size down the shirt. At the moment I think the arm holes are a bit to large and I would like to serge the entire length of the side however that can't happen until I buy more needles for the machine and figure out what's wrong with it.

 

This post is mostly just pictures. 

Enjoy!

infinite shirt

   I've been messing with this pattern for an infinity dress for a while now. Since I rarely wear dresses, instead of having tons of fabric turned into dresses I won't wear, I decided to try and adapt the idea to a shirt. Instead of having the long straps (I'm almost positive they would still have to be at least 90" long and I would rather not use that much fabric in a shirt) I decided to have short straps and sew them into one of the multiple designs. Yes that's right infinity times a sewing machine is one.
Using more of the $5 fabric I decided the black fabric would be good for a test run although it doesn't stretch. I plan on adding in a waistband to the back section and with it elastic.

I cut out a 35" square piece of fabric to cut the circle section from and then used the remaining part cut in half for two 35" long straps.

In order to finish the cut edges I used white thread in my serger and did the rolled hem (The only stitch I can do on it at the moment).  I then overlapped the two straps and attached them to the circle.

After trying on the 'shirt' at this point I realized that since the straps aren't long It is impossible to hold it in the proper position while wearing it, so onto the mannequin it went.

I decided to cross the straps in the back and will sew them crossed to the back of the dress. However I can't decide if i should do this before adding the waistband or after. I'm beginning to think after this way the straps won't have any slack once the back portion is condensed with the elastic.






On the hanger it doesn't look like much but hopefully I'll get it finished in the next day or so and it will fit.

Skirting the issues...

Lately I've been having quite a few issues with my serger. After hearing a more or less metalic sound and having the machine 'hiccup' the left needle breaks. I'm not sure why and this is maybe the 5th needle I've used. I oiled the machine and it seemed to be doing ok for a little while but then I switched thread and snap broke the next one. So until I think of a better way to deal with it I removed the needle and have been sewing with just 3 threads.

On the down side I'm not sure how to get everything working properly, on the up side I discovered how to do a rolled hem on my machine and used this to make the skirt. I took out the left needle and switched the plate to the rolled hem plate. I used this stitch to go around three sides of the skirt.

I then put in about 5 darts into the waist and added a waistband, again using the rolled hem to attach it. I also added a tiny slip pocket to the inside to hold important stuff like a few cards and cash (not much so it doesn't become visible). All I have left is to add the two gold buttons to the outside and at least 2 buttons on the inside and a clasp on the waistband to hold it on. 

I'm very happy with how the skirt is turning out so far, I may even need to wear something like this not for a costume.

let the light shine through!

Several years back I bought a bunch of blackout curtains to help insulate my apartment. It also helped with sleeping during the day since no light gets through. I really like them so when I moved I hung them back up in my new bedroom. Unlike the old apartment no light comes in through other rooms because of the orientation. So to have sunlight in my room I have to have the curtains and blinds open. However they face the road so that means zero privacy. I have been meaning to get relatively sheer panels for a while now but have kept putting it off since they tend to cost anywhere from $10-$25 each. I don't need very wide ones since they're going on an already full curtain rod but I did need at least 2.

Thanks to the $5 bolts, I was able to get some lacyish material that would obscure vision but let in the light. I made two 30" panels and still have fabric left over (which may become more curtains or clothes or something for cosplay, who knows!)

I made a 3 inch wide lip to slip through the curtain rod and voila! all done. It took approx. 20 to measure (more or less) cut the fabric sew the lip on the serger and hang them.

 Now I can have lots of light coming into the room without worrying about a lack of privacy. At about 5 feet away all I can see is the outline of the shapes outside.