dianaschnuth

It had been almost a year since my last t-shirt surgery, so I was getting that hankering for some sewing action. I’ve managed to collect a decent number of XL t-shirts that fit, but are kind of boring. I’d like to turn these into cute Diana-sized girly tees. (Unlike Threadless XL girly tees, which are about two inches’ circumference shy of being comfortable for me to wear out of the house. That does not stop me from ordering them anyway and hoping to shrink into them.)

My first reshaping attempt was using my Otaku Generation t-shirt. Aaron and I got matching Otaku G shirts free from the Otaku G crew at Ohayocon in January, and I’ve been meaning to surgerize it for a while now. It fits just fine, but I wanted to do something to make it a little more distinctive, and easier to tell my shirt from Aaron’s in the wash. 🙂

I followed this tutorial on resizing a t-shirt, for the most part, although I didn’t really have any resizing to do. Mainly, I just wanted to shrink up the armpits and make the sleeves smaller and more girlish. First, I lopped off about an inch and a half from the length of the shirt. Then I put the shirt on and figured out how much smaller I wanted the armholes to be, and pinned the armpit of one sleeve. I then marked the spot with white fabric pencil and removed the sleeves.

Enter the Singer Tiny Serger. While I watched my Logan’s Run DVD, I sat on the living room floor and serged up the armpits of my t-shirt torso a couple of inches. Then I adjusted the length and width of each of the sleeves, serging them up the armpit seam. Finally, I serged the sleeves back onto the t-shirt torso — inside-out, of course, so the seams were on the inside.

Three hours later (including movie-related distractions), this is how it turned out. I haven’t hemmed up the bottom yet (the “real” sewing machine was having bobbin tension issues), and I’m considering altering the collar and adding white bias tape. Until then, though, at least it’s all girly on my figure. I know it doesn’t look all that different, but it definitely *feels* more fitted.

As usual, I did have one or two screw-ups. I accidentally sewed the left sleeve on wrong-side out, so the red-and-blue serged armpit seam on the sleeve shows when I lift up my arm. I decided it adds to the character, though, so I’m not redoing it. I also serged some of the sleeve-to-torso seams a little loose (although I’m unsure how to do it any differently with my Tiny Serger). Once I get the Giant Singer (aka the “real” sewing machine) going right, I’ll probably straight-stitch next to my serges while I’m hemming the bottom of the shirt. And maybe fixing the collar.

For my next attempt at restyling a t-shirt, I’ll probably make the sleeves a little shorter and cuter, and maybe make the shirt itself a little shorter. I’ll also adjust the shoulders, so the sleeve attaches a little farther up my arm. I’m thinking my next victim will probably be either my Relay For Life 2005 shirt (once I find it) or maybe my Youmacon 2005 shirt. Should be fun!

Since Aaron’s Fullmetal Alchemist costume arrived today, custom-made in the mystical land of China, I decided I’d better start work on my skirt again.

I’m not sure how, I but I somehow miscalculated the number of pleats my skirt is going to have. I’d planned on 12 pleats in my six-paneled skirt, but… wait… *thinks real hard* No, that’s right. It’ll be twelve pleats. I’m thinking I might have sewn the pleats in a little too far, though, because the skirt is supposed to poof outward from the hips, and I have the pleats sewn in for about ten inches down from the waist. I didn’t think about the poofy factor at the time; I was thinking about the fact that the heavy material I chose isn’t going to hold a crease very well.

Well, if it comes down to it, I do have a seam ripper. I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it, though.

I have an idea of how I’m going to make my helmet, but I haven’t started it yet. The hardest part is going to be attaching the frame for the helmet to the ball cap I bought at Goodwill. First, though, I want to get the skirt finished. One project at a time.

Did I just say “One project at a time”?

*shakes head*

Tell that to my multiple webpages, soy candle backlog, neglected plants, and my upcoming podcast.

I was doing so well. I fabricated a pattern for my skirt. I cut out six flared panels from my blue skirt fabric. I set up the Singer Tiny Serger, serged the six panels together, and serged the waist and hem edges. After that, of course, I needed to sew a straight stitch next to my serging, especially since my cutting wasn’t the straightest, and some of the serging didn’t go through both pieces of fabric. o.O

Seam #1: no problem. Seam #2: no problem.

Seam #3: Houston, we have a problem. The damn machine kept jamming up. Tried a different seam — jammed up again. Opened up the little cubbyhole where the bobbin lives, untangled all the thread therein, and tried again. Still no dice. Finally, I ended up taking apart the little bobbin cubbie… and couldn’t get it back together.

OMG, all momentum had come to a grinding halt. And I had been doing so well.

So, I put the Sheryl Special on the floor and fired up the Schnuth Singer. I hadn’t used it before, so had no idea how to thread, how to wind a bobbin, nada. Jury-rigged some sort of threading that looked reasonable, got some test fabric—

And the same goddamn thing happened.

So, all my momentum’s shot for tonight. I have a skirt that’s pretty much put together, almost, and I have the hard part of sewing pleats still ahead of me. Once I can get one of the sewing machines to work.

This is annoying as fuck. I just need to chill out and clean up my mess and wait for another day.

At least I’ve gotten this far.

Update, Next Day, 7:20pm: I just located a diagram of how to thread the next model up, and I had indeed threaded it incorrectly. Now the tension spring is doing its job, and all is right with the world. Party on.

Every time I walk into JoAnn Fabrics, I get the feeling that I’m a little out of my element. However… I believe now I have all the necessary fabrics and notions to create Ritsuko’s skirt (see right). I’ll tackle the helmet later.

I think I have a reasonable pattern-plan for making a huge-ass flared pleated skirt. Being a very beginning sewer (er… one who sews? Not a drainage system, kthx), I couldn’t really come up with it myself. So, I combined a tutorial for making a pleated skirt with a tutorial for making a flared skirt… and voila! — a reasonable-sounding (looking?) plan.

However, I am determined to do this right, especially as I only have 4½ yards of medium blue cotton/poly fabric, so I can’t screw this up. My determination not to screw up was only bolstered by the fact that I just spent freaking $42 on my cosplay supplies — and that’s before making the helmet.

One question for those who sew, or who have textile-related ideas: The nice lady at JoAnn’s convinced me that felt was the way to go for the white stripe of trim on the skirt. I can’t really use ribbon, since the pattern will need to be curved to allow for the flare, and any white fabric I found wasn’t thick enough to prevent the blue from showing through when held over it. After buying three yards of white felt, though, I’m having second thoughts. I don’t think the texture of the felt will be appropriate to match with the cotton/poly skirt. I was thinking of something more fake-satiny, or the same cotton/poly as the rest of the skirt, but it’s all so thin it shows the blue through from underneath.

Any solutions to my conundrum? You have a few days to comment, as I plan to wash my blue fabric before sewing, like I’m supposed to. Strict determination to do it right, after all.

I got it in my head tonight that I wanted to do a t-shirt surgery, and make my “Drum Corps Unplugged” shirt into a tank top. See, I always liked the design of the back better than the front, anyway, so I figured I’d shrink it to fit and make it something I might actually wear, instead of something just taking up space in the closet.

I think this one was more successful than my previous two surgeries because a.) I measured correctly, both the fabric and my body; and b.) I only had to sew in straight lines. 🙂 Still, though, it didn’t turn out exactly according to plan: I had a brain fart while I was cutting the straps, and made them narrower than I had intended, and I failed to note that my hips are bigger than my tits, making the shirt fit kind of tight and funny in places, and causing the straps to become fashion suggestions rather than anything that actually holds the shirt on.

I may wear this to tomorrow night’s drum corps show with Donna, or I may save it to wear to next Sunday’s drill camp up in St. Clair Shores MI. Or maybe it’ll be an around-the-house shirt. I’m not sure how comfortable I’d be wearing it in public, mainly because of the fit around the waist, and the straps that seem to be afraid of heights.

I’m definitely improving, though. 😀