sewing update
Okay, so it's not a monster, it's the sleeve . . . I wind up doing fake linings a lot, basically it's something between a facing and a real lining. For these sleeves, I sewed the side seam in the outer fabric (ultra satin, very heavyweight satin with a dull finish) and the lining fabric (not a real lining fabric, but a thin rayon blend). Then you treat the sleeve alone as if you were lining a whole piece; put the sleeve lining over the sleeve, right sides together, line up the side seams and pin and sew.
I had issues with the inner angles. :P No matter what I did, I couldn't sew and trim them in such a way to get a clean angle like I wanted. So I had to stop stitching short of those areas and then handsew them once they'd been turned.
Jacket was done like a real lining because I needed to finish the neck edge, with the exception of ignoring the sleeve area; turned through the center back neck. Since I have a serger, I can sew the lined sleeve to the lined body and then finish that edge. It's a cheat, but it saves a lot of trouble.
I really like the trim I was using on the jacket for looks, but it's somewhat problematic to sew on; it doesn't like to fold and can't be pressed. I did the straightaways on the machine but did the tips by hand. I used invisible thread for it, to minimize what shows on the wrong side.
I did the squiggly bits with a different trim. I drew the design on paper, traced it onto tear-away stabilizer, and pinned that to the fabric so I had a guideline. (Okay, so on this part, I wound up changing the design slightly on the stabilizer. :P) Attached by hand with invisible thread again.
Added a design to the center back also. That area isn't in the pics but it seemed like it wanted something. Couldn't extend the end of the cording under the other trim like I did in front, so I finished it by satin-stitching with a metallic thread.
Jacket done~ except for tassels. I put sleeve poufs in the sleeves to hold them up.
What's a sleeve pouf? Found out about them watching this random show on the DIY Network lol. Basically it's a little netting croissant you sew in to fluff things up in puff sleeves. Works a lot better than the plastic bags I wound up using in the Crack Lolita. XD; Here are the instructions.
Demo in a jacket for another cosplay (Günter from Kyou Kara Maoh!).
Designs for the tunic . . . small doodle, full size version, transferred to stabilizer.
I tried using sticky back Sulky this time because the tunic satin is rather flimsy. I thought about doing interfacing on the back to stiffen it, but I didn't want it on the whole front of the tunic and it would have shown through if I didn't . . . that's still an ongoing saga, because I've been having a dreadful time getting the stuff completely off. ><;
I'm having issues with my tassels.
I wanted to tint the bottoms green. The first one, I tried painting on Dye-na-flow and it wasn't as even as I wanted, so then I tried dipping it in a paper cup (Dye-na-flow mixed with some water), and it seemed to be working fine. But then I had the brilliant idea to dampen the others before doing this so that it might be less blotchy, and that made the color soak up waaaaay too far. I washed them to remove excess dye, too much came out, did it again, washed it again, and somehow the color has these . . . GAPS in it that make no sense to me. Like the dye jumped. I knew the metallic thread wouldn't dye and I have no problem with that, but I don't understand why the color is uneven on the rest of the floss. >_<
So I was leaving it alone, though I think I need to finalize what I'm doing with them today . . . I have photos of how I made the tassels, also, which I will post at some point in case someone wants to make tassels for something.
Rest of sewing . . . the skirts still need to be hemmed and I've been having no luck using a rolled hem foot. Not sure what the solution is there; doing it by hand, or faking a rolled hem with the machine (fold it, sew, fold again, sew again). The cumberbund is done. Still haven't cut out the pants but that's not a time-consuming project to make.
As far as the "hardscape" goes, the non-Magic Smooth pieces are done and painted, will put pics up latler. I've got another 5 pound kit of Magic Smooth in now. But I'm no longer planning to be at 100% for ACen, because I just don't think I have enough time to get the pieces properly sanded. Dunno.