In which I finally finish my Hallowe'en costume...

What?  There are only 10 months left until Hallowe'en!

I had a bit of an ... adventure while making this thing.  What follows is a rambling tale of fabric and mayhem. With pictures. If you persevere to the end (or just scroll down), you can see the finished costume.

Here is the pattern. Because I like leaving everything to the last minute for maximum panic, I went to Designer Fabrics on Queen St. W the day before Hallowe'en and picked up these fabrics: .
I wasn't trying to match the colour scheme on the model, but these were the fabrics I liked/could afford.  The embroidered fabric is interesting.  Did you
know that real jaquard/brocade can run to over $50/yard?  I was already hyperventilating when I started looking for the contrast fabric because I thought I had picked out a nice raspberry-red crepe-back-satin at $5.99/yd, but it turns out that I'm and idiot and not all crepe-back-satins are the same and this one must have been woven by magical unicorns because, um, that was not the price on this bolt and it was too late to pick another.  Anyway, I found the embroidered material for not-quite-as-much-as-the-satin (and certainly a lot less than $50/yd!) and grabbed it and tried to reason with myself that the cost was justified since I will wear this outfit every three or four years for the rest of my life.  (Aged P's response to that was: "It may not fit you next year" which was oh-so-very-supportive and no doubt true, but I'd rather live here in Denial.)

Edited to add:  Actually, I think what Aged P said was "It may not fit you in a few years."  She doesn't think she said anything of the kind.

Now, I had planned to start cutting the pieces the Friday night before going out, but that didn't happen because it turns out that Rocky Horror requires a completely different type of costume.  Even though cutting out and marking the pieces is always the most time-consuming part, I was not worried.  Hakuna matata.  I would come home in the early hours of the morning, get a few hours sleep, then get up and have everything cut and marked by noon.  Then I would have pretty much the whole day to sew the dress, since I didn't need to be at Dovercourt until 9 pm.

I believe the word you are looking for is hubris.  Or pipe dream.  Or simply ha ha ha ha.

Of course I got home much later than I planned.  I actually did start cutting as soon as I got home, then drifted off to sleep for a few hours.  I woke up at 10.  I gasped and started pinning pattern pieces and cutting madly.

I was right about one thing: It. Took. Five. Hours. to cut and mark the eleventy billion pieces.  The sleeves alone have six separate pieces each, involving three different fabrics.  And there's a lot of fiddly marking bits to transfer to the fabric (and then again to the lining).  However, at 3 pm, I was done.  I had a cup of tea and assessed the situation.  I figured that I still had five hours and most of the sewing was long seams.  Damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead!

I admit I nearly gave up an hour later when my machine sort of broke.  I fiddled with it for about half an hour, then grit my teeth and started hand-sewing the lining.  Just for kicks, I tried the the sewing machine again when it came time to sew the lining to the bodice and it had miraculously fixed itself!  Only an hour wasted.

At 7:45 pm, I still had the sleeves to do.  At this point, I figured I would not bother with the back bands (the dress laces up in back) and would just pin it together, because safety pins are more authentically medieval anyway, right?.  I could hem during my door shift.  I was still optimistic.

The first sleeve took a lot longer than it should have because I kept attaching the oversleeve incorrectly.  Then I actually read the instructions about how to pin the sleeve, and still wound up sewing it on incorrectly.  More ripping of seams.  No matter.  We're down to the wire, but the second sleeve will go together in a trice.  I'll just start sewing the first sleeve onto the bodice and do a quick fit che...

Then I checked the instructions again and realized why it wasn't going to happen.  Look at the pattern again.  I forgot about the trim.  See, embroidered trim (or braid, or anything that would actually look right with the dress) is made by enchanted budgies and costs a lot more than I was willing to spend, having already pretty much blown the budget on the fabric.  Being terribly clever and resourceful, I instead bought this much cheaper ribbon because I have fancy stitches on my machine.  I would embroider it myself!  Tra-la!

You can see where this is going.  At 8:20, I had not yet touched the ribbon.  I needed to leave the house by 8:45.  There was no way I was going to sew a second sleeve, embroider nearly 5 yards of 1 1/2" ribbon, attach the ribbon, attach the sleeves, and get ready in 25 minutes.  I briefly contemplated not putting the ribbon on, but the trim is very important.  It covers up the fact that I can't sew square necklines to save my soul and hadn't bothered undersewing the lining.  I admitted defeat.  I went to my go-to autumn-fairy costume, did my shift at Dovercourt, and had a fairly good time dancing afterwards.

This is how much of the dress was done by Hallowe'en night: .  You see that thing hanging next to the main dress?  That's the sleeve.  That oversleeve is what sold me on this pattern: beautiful drapy goodness.

I kind of thought that since the pressure was off, the rest would be smooth sailing.  Little did I know...

The next day, I finished the second sleeve and the back bands.  The dress laces up the back, and the pattern calls for grommets.  Well, grommets = $$, and my machine has an eyelet stitch.  I thought that would be a perfect solution.  Of course it didn't quite work out.  The eyelets are much too small for the cord.  I was afraid that I was going to have to buy grommets after all, but then, because I am a near genius*, I realized I could just make buttonholes instead.  (If I were a full genius, I suspect I would have come up with the idea much sooner). Check out my clever method of making sure the holes lined up.

Here we come to a design flaw in the pattern.  This is the back, all laced up.   Notice the knots in the cords.  That's in the instructions.  It's to keep the cord from slipping back through the holes and to prevent further fraying.  This cord frays really well and very quickly. 

Anyway, I laced it up, then loosened the laces to try the dress on for fit.  Um.  My hips and butt are much larger than the maximum opening allowed by the laces.  I had flashbacks to trying on skinny jeans earlier this year.  My shoulders are even broader than my hips, so I couldn't get it on over my head.  Sigh.  I actually like the look of the tassels and knots, but I whipped the ends with thread (thank you, sailing school; little did you know how I would use the skills you taught me), painted them with clear nailpolish, then cut the knots off.  I may look into buying metal aglets later, but this will do for the present.  Now I can unlace the dress part-way, enough so that I can actually pull it over my hips, which is a good quality in an outfit, IMO.  (Jeans-makers, please note.)

On to embroidering the ribbon.  It turns out that I wasn't really feeling any of the fancy stitches on my machine after all.  However, no fear.  Aged P has just spent my and my brothers' remaining inheritance on a new embroidery machine.  It is fancy.  It does mirror images.  It sews in straight lines all by itself**.  It can take a hand-drawn picture and embroider it onto fabric with some software manipulation and a thumb drive.  I think if it made a decent cup of tea or poured sherry I might never see Aged P again.  It is so fancy it requires parental supervision to use.  I took my thread and my ribbon to Aged P's, where she gave me better, shinier thread and stabilizer, and spent some time playing with the many fancy stitches.  Here is the result:

I think the uneven lines give it more medieval flare.  Yeah.  I did it on purpose. 

And here, fair reader, as a reward for your patience (or for your scrolling down to see the bottom), is the final result.  Ta-da!

Comments: I'm a little disappointed with the ribbon; it's too dark.  I was trying to match the embroidery because they didn't have a gold ribbon.  I probably should have gotten ivory.  Also, I need a genuine medieval tirewoman to help me get into the thing; it's rather difficult to tighten the laces from behind.  Oh well.  I'm still in love with the sleeves.  I think the stiffness of the satin is what contributes to the drapiness.  

Don't be too surprised when I show up at your BBQ wearing this. I need to get maximum wear out of it.

My next sewing project is this dress (view A), using this gorgeous fabric, which I bought in New York.  I hope it won't be as complicated.  I'd like to wear it to the Holiday Ball.

*A number of years ago, I took an online IQ test from a site that also had "What kind of dog are you?***" and other silly tests.  According to them, I am a "near genius," which I thought was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen.   It makes me feel like Wile E. Coyote.

** Sort of.  As long as your attention doesn't wander too much.  Unfortunately, I'm easily distracted.

***Mountain Bernese.  That's a good thing, right?