saxikath

(This is my filter for the Insane Costuming Project for Prophecy. Previous entries are here and here.)

It's been quite the weekend on the ICP front, with a lot of frustration -- but, in the end, success! Barring some cleanup, I think I'm done.

Things had been going fairly smoothly. I'd successfully made the two smaller headpieces (I've nicknamed the smaller ones Inky and Stripey), and was getting started on the final, larger, silver one (nicknamed Big Mama).

Inky and Stripey each started with six layers of seat cushion foam. Big Mama got nine -- plus two on the sides to increase the diameter at the bottom.

Then I went at it with the electric carving knife.

...and this is what gets left over.

Then I cut out the silver fabric... and then the frustration began, when I discovered (as I said in a public post) that my sewing machine Does Not Like this fabric at all. I managed to get the two pieces of the cone sewn together, and a few of the tentacles, but the problems were so annoying that I was getting intensely frustrated, and it was taking me way too long to do each one because I kept having to stop and go over sections again. My cousin A, who's still visiting me and has been incredibly patient with this nonsense, drove me out to a fabric store for an emergency purchase of knit-specific needles. Didn't help.

Then,

wesleyjenn, bless her, brought over her serger. That got me through the tentacles, which were the worst -- I couldn't use the glue gun, because the glue didn't stand up to the process of turning the tentacles right side out. The serger got a little cranky after that, but the glue gun came to the rescue. Big Mama's tentacles are glued on instead of sewn, and the Big Mama tunic is pretty much entirely glued together!

But, in the end, the headpiece was done.

For all the frustration, I am rather pleased with the result.

While waiting for the serger, I had sewn Stripey's tunic, so this was the first of the three to be totally completed.

The solid part of the tunic is a little short, but I think it'll work. The angle of my head means that you can see the foam underside of the headpiece, oops!

Then, there's Inky. I made the tunic a touch longer.

And finally, Big Mama herself.

Comparing this one to the previous two gives you a sense for the size difference. I actually had to duck slightly going through the doorways in my house while wearing that one!

So, it's done. I'm tired. But rather pleased.