Fit for a Fit

Acadia and I are not expert sewers (see? I don't even attempt to use the word seamstress). I will admit that certain parents have raised eyebrows at our methods. But, we did attempt the "traditional method" for fitting the coat. 

I mean "fitting" as alternations (taking the fabric where is sags and then letting it out when it's too tight). I like the word "fitting" better (it's shorter too!)

Anyways, we tried measuring our bodies and then putting those measurements to the pattern paper. Did we know what we were doing? No, we actually quickly abandoned the idea. Instead after we cut the fabric and thought to ourselves: "We'll just cut the pieces that we don't know bigger, so we can cut them back to their size when we do know."

Logical thinking huh? In the end, after many hours of thought and staring at the cut out fabric we came up with a decision. We would make the coats.

No, no, no we didn't put needle to thread. None of us wanted to risk that. We instead pinned each other into the coats. This accounted for most of last week, us laughing as the other strained to get the pins in. All in all, it took about two-three hours each to get a person into a coat.

In was worth in though, let me tell you. It turned out that Acadia's was way too big in the middle. Enough so that I could have stood next to her in the thing. I took it in on both sides, using a combo of yellow chalk (it turns out that it's a lifesaver for drawing on fabric) and pins. (just look at my half asleep illustration!)

Also the shoulders were too long, so we pinned those back too. On that, just draw up the top of the sleeve until it hits the knob of your shoulder. Then pin that to the shoulder, pulling it up until it hits the right place. (just look at another half asleep illustration!).

half asleep shoulder fitting

Also we were glad that we cut the sleeves bigger because it fit our arms just fine (we left roughly an inch and a half extra). Before they would have been like Axel sleeves (very tight). In length, we hemmed them to our knuckles roughly.

There weren't many other fitting problems, otherwise...just little things here and there. All I have to say is to experiment with the pinning until you find something comfortable.

Onward and upward! Now to sewing we go!

-Winn

I am attempting not to look at the countdown...*eye twitch* only 8 days left....

Cut of the Cloth

Sorry its taken me so long to update this...I went out of town and Acadia is loaded down with multiple school activities. BUT we have gotten something done. Last, last weekend we had a sleep over and took to the fact that scissors were very fun to wield.

Yes, you read that right, we wielded scissors.



pinning of right front piece



As of the last post, we had scaled and cut out our "custom fit" patterns. We decided it was time to cut into the black fabric.

We started by wrangling the fabric on to the table. It was a test of wills, us+wood table vs. slippery fabric. Half the time we were laying on the table trapping the fabric while the other did her thing. 

We first pinned the lovely pattern to the victim of choice. Usually we did about three or four pattern pieces at a time.

Tracing around the pattern, we ended up using a white colored pencil (Crayola works best). This gave us a good idea when it came down to the sewing where to point the needle.



In the middle of doing pleating lines on left front piece



Though, there was quite a large amount of chalk drawing from my end. This turned out to be a bad bad idea. Do you realize how much chalk can smear? Let's just say there will be some interestingly gray pieces.

Enough said.

 
We did find, that when your doing lines inside the pattern sheet (AKA pleating lines) having someone who knows how to fold paper is a good thing.

Acadia and I carefully folded back half the pattern (keeping some of the pins in mind you) and did those lines. It worked out better than I thought for just running off of caffeine in the morning.



finished right front piece...one more to go!



Chopping had to be the best part though, constantly, we forgot about leaving extra room for piping (extra half inch). So, it'll be interesting when we get to sewing that. As a rule of thumb, we left a half an inch to an inch around the white lines. That's without the lines that piping, just add another half for with. 

Discovering earlier that the sleeves were to small, we cut them bbbbiiiggggg. When we get to fitting it we'll cut them down. Better safe then sorry in my option. Again, since we didn't know about the shoulders either, we cut big as well. 

Here is the interesting fact, we cut both of our fabric out of 4.5 yards. Remember what I said earlier about needing 5.5 yards each? Nah, so we are returning happily 6 yards of unused cloth.

Note, our pieces where cut out of 52 (or 42) inch wide yards. That might be the difference and also the fact we aren't fully grown humanoids.

That's it for now, but I'm still worried about this pattern sheet...if it was wrong on the amount of fabric then...what else could be wrong?

Oi...that's the reason I'm blogging this. So you know ahead of time and to keep me sane through out this process.

Yeah right.

-Winn

ps. FINALLY got "the people" and "Who/What is Organization XIII?" updated 

Projection of a Pattern



this could be the best thing ever

 Patterns. That was a problem from the first second we clicked the link. A picture can only go one size before it just slips into the soap of black and white mush. It doesn't really work for two normally sized teenagers. I'm not a wizard of blowing up pictures.

I wish I was.

Nah, not so much.

BUT, my mother has super powers and an overhead projector.

Super powers because she's awesome and knows about all sorts of crazy stuff. Importantly, crafty stuff. Also she knows how to get a projector, give two teenagers a dubious look and hand it over slowly.

We cleared off a white wall, then took butcher paper and tape it.

Acadia then went and stood as I attempted to fit the pattern to her body. I dragged the projector across the old leather sofa sitting on a pile of books like an elephant on a tennis ball. With alot of guess work we adjusted it till it looked right. We dragged the pattern until it matched up to the butcher paper.

Then the dance of the pencils began. Between the two of us there was alot of lines to go over. I went down and she went up, together constantly discussing how our lines were not straight.

These patterns are big. Like feet long. That's one long line. I was weaving under her arms and she kept setting her elbows on my head.

We repeated this over and over with each piece, bantering back and forth. It took about an hour to just do Acadia's pattern.

Then it was my turn to stand in front of the bright lights as Acadia worked the projector to make it fit. It was funny because I couldn't see the pattern so I kept pointing to random parts of my body and the conversation went something like this:


"Is the line here?"
"No, it's there."
"Where's there?"
"There. You know...sorta near there...but not."
"Here or there?"
"No, it's there."
"Where's there?"

It was fun though, and together we got both the patterns mapped out in about two hours. We sat down on the ground and drew out two pairs of overly small scissors  and started snipping. It was fun, and we picked up all the little strips of paper afterwards.

Here you have it, two fully made patterns ready to go:

I hate to look at the countdown, 36 days....it bring stress. That's why tomorrow Acadia is coming over and we are doing tons of prep stuff!

I'm excited!

-Winn

The Mission for Cloth





the goal



Cloth. It seems very simple, yet for a costume it means everything. It was the hardest thing so far for us. By what the pattern said we would need 11 yards of fabric, 12 to be sure. It said that a material like denim would be best.

Of course, all this changes when you step in a fabric store.

Acadia and I strolled in, with Acadia's mother. We bee-lined for the black denim. It was the perfect weight, perfect sheen. Ah, it almost a gimmick how perfect it was. Then we looked at the price. $8 dollars a yard.

You can do the math. Meh, not the greatest.

Moving on, we went yard by yard, shelf by shelf. We told people that we were working on a cloak/coat. Didn't want to tell everybody what we were going to be.

We figured nobody would know what the Organization XIII is.

We finally settled on something that I won't even describe now, but let's just say that it was going to be really bad. We were about to have it cut out and the cutter asked what it was for. We showed her the pattern and she said, "Oh yeah, Organization XIII. I know them. You need this."

After quick discussion Anna(that's her) was a Final Fantasy fan but her friend was into Kingdom Hearts. Joyfully she was cosplayer and had a ton of advise. She told us stuff about pattern making, and what we need.

Back to cloth. It turned out that we got something called pontie (black cloth, heavy, but a bit see-through), but another wall came to ahead. Ah, look at the yards! There is only 4.5! What did you say you needed?

4.5 yards wasn't enough for one coat. Just our luck.

Anna came to the rescue again, saying that the fabric was common and we would be able to get it at the other store. We trekked over to the other store a day later. The store manger gave us a heart attack looking around saying that they were sure that they had just moved  the section. It turned out to be hiding behind the flannels.



fruits of our labor





  When it was all said and done, we have achieved the first challenge. We came out of it with 10.5 yards of black pontie and two 48" black sleeping bag zippers. All we need is a bit thread and a needle and we have two awesome coats.

I love to write that.

-Winn

Paper with Prototypes

Ah! Prototypes are born for the coats.

I do hate to jump into the abyss without knowing anything. I get nervous. Silly huh? So I busted out the scissors and Acadia and I started printing. We found an online pattern that we decided to use (I attached under the "project" page).

Together we taped and pasted together a suit. Logically we forgot to read the instructions and got the back all wrong. Typical of us, but that was okay. It was a prototype. Here's pictures of the lovely thing.

See? Told you it lovely. You can click on the picture to get a better view if you feel any indication. Anyways, It gave us a good idea of how much skill and needle work would be needed. It was fun to make to any degree. Then I moved on to the next stage. CLOTH!

It looks better than the paper. This was more difficult than it looked. It's usually the subject that's the problem. Yes, Ariel was the subject to the design, but she didn't mind it when I stuck pins in her or the constant dressing/undressing.

It was the cloth that made sewing difficult. It was had as many fits as a kid in a candy store. It's my mom's old canvas cloth. I thank her for allowing me to use it, but it was unraveling at the seams. Literally. There is a holes everywhere in the shoulders. I did patching though, and some sweet ironing.  

That's not even counting my hand stitching which is about as good if you told a five-year old to play sudoku. They would get the numbers on the paper. But maybe not in the right order. :)

I showed off the best part which was the right pocket. That's right! I made a pocket. I'm very proud of my very first pocket. I stuck my finger in it and the hem broke. Just my luck, I fixed it though.

There are the prototypes, it really told me alot about what we are trying to make. I like it. I can't wait to dig into it. It'll be great. Trust me!

Got it memorized?

-Winn

It Begins

Alright! Day one of the Organization coat project. Its exciting. Some much could go wrong here that it's hardly even worth mentioning. I will anyways. Together, Acada and I's experience in the field of needle and thread fills up to about a tablespoon. We both have crazy school schedules that could shut down the program at any moment. And of course the ever approaching deadline.

Sure, October seems far off but at this moment it's like only 41 days off. Just wait, I'll blink and it'll be 10. :) I wonder if we'll be pulling an all nighter on the 30th to get these coats done. I hope not. I don't like the clock when it points cheerily to 12 AM.



An Organization member in the game of Kingdom Hearts



But back to the coats, Acada and I will be making two human sized versions of the picture off to the left.

  Looks Pretty cool huh? This is what we aspire to look like on the faithful night of October the 31st. Did I mention that I have made a mini quilt and that's about it? Acada knows as much as I do, so it will be fun to put on all those that piping (raised edges I have learned) and the zippers on.

And that brings be to the purpose of this blog. I wanted to document the whole process through-and-through so people won't have to jump into the oblivion like we are.

I honestly don't know what we are getting ourselves into....but it will be fun. And that's all that matters in the end.

Wish us luck!

-Winn