Harley Quinn Original costume

Ok, so you may have seen all the pictures in my slideshow that highlight my adventures in making my own Harley Quinn costume. So, I've been thinking about talking about how I made it and just doing an overview of the costume. I am going to do a few changed to the hood that I made. I believe that it could use a little bit of work. I have worn it to Dragon Con and took a lot of pictures. I'm not the best seamstress in the world, but I notice that the more I sew, the better I get! I hope that others notice it too!

First I found this pattern Kwik sew 3052

Kwik sew 3052

I used view A. Which I based on a 'mad love' picture of Harley with the joker where he was zipping down the front of her costume. I fell in love with that picture of them. So, I made the front zip costume. Nobody noticed the zipper in the front anyways, and it makes it easier to get out of also. The hardest part of making this was matching the lines in the middle. I had to cut out the pattern in black and then cut it where I wanted and then cut out the red to make sure it was the right length for me. so measure for your torso and I had to play with it a little bit. I advise basting this to make sure of the fit and cut with the black (or whichever you want to use. I had more of the black and it was cheaper to buy more.) I did not make a muslin with this fabric, because I didn't want to worry about the ease and the strech of the costume. Mine is a little bigger than skin tight. I also made the mask and some "shoes" that are more like spats really. I don't like wearing shoes but at Dragoncon, they make you wear them. I didn't ever go outside so it worked beautifully for me.

I made a circle for the white part to go over top the suit, and then cut out the half circles. My boyfriend wanted to help with this so he measured me and then drew on the fabric and cut it out and it was perfect. He just divided my circle by 5 so there would be the right amount of  "petals". I will take a picture of how this is done next time. I need to make a new one anyways, because someone spilled orange pop on mine and it stained.

this was me cutting out the arms and the extra pieces needed for the footies.

 

I had to carefully cut out the sections and cut the pattern in half to make it half black and half red.

I measured the piece in both colors and made a test piece in the red as a sort of muslin. I would really recommend this step.

Then of course is the sewing of all the pieces.

Which I was really excited about!!

most of the work is in the cutting and making sure the pieces fit together correctly.

 

I sadly no longer have this sewing machine, it was a good one for many years. sewing the middle together was difficiult with the seams streching and going all over the place. once this is set you add the zipper, I put it on the front but you could put it on the back to I suppose. Having it on the front makes it easier to put on and take off myself.

And here is a picture of me in the final jumpsuit.

I had fun making this and I am going to be working on some more Harley Quinn clothes soon.

Spring pins

I haven't sat down at my machine in who knows how long now. I find myself getting antsy for spring. I love when the world opens up again to the color and beauty that God gave us. I find myself wanting to match with all the beautiful colors. Pinks, yellows especially, bright spring greens, and florals aways grab my attention this time of year. I find myself planning a huge forray into the fabric. But as I have a stash of fabric already that hasn't been used.  I must control myself. Not to mention that I haven't finished anything in awhile. I may have to start bringing something in to work to sew while I am here and not busy or at lunch.(HA,HA,HA) I'm looking at some evadress.com patterns. If you haven't looked at her website and you like vintage style you reeally should! She is doing a wonderful job refitting patterns for us. And making a few herself. check out the star dress that she made from an art book. http://www.evadress.com/. I keep saying I'll be posting pictures and I recently got the flickr app for my phone, I am going to try and upload my pictures to there so I can add them easily to my posts. Thank you for being patient with me as I struggle along in the blog-o-sphere world.

I am now on pinterest.com here are my pins. http://pinterest.com/diniecita/ feel free to follow me I will be posting about some stuff soon.

I did some mending last week and I was really proud of myself. I've been organizing the garage, my sewing room (recent move) and trying to take college classes so I can finish my degree. It's alot sometimes. But, I am thankful to be working, have my school paid for and a time to reflect on the awesomeness of my life.

even though it is hectic!

 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Matthew 11:28



Garage clean out week 2

Welcome to week 2 of our garage clean out!!

Remember to check out the blog all month, every week for updates. 

We're doing the garage, the sewing room, our roommate is moving rooms. 

AND I work full time(as does my boyfriend) and I go to college.

Now, lets see what happened this week. We did quite a bit by just moving some stuff around and tossing out things. I made a plan sheet to keep us on the same page as we moved stuff out.

 

These are the pictures of the stuff that we tossed out or took to goodwill.

 this is stuff that did NOT fit in the trashcan.
After we filled it up with stuff I thought, " Oh, I should have taken a picture of that stuff." Since I didn't want to pull it all out. I just took this picture of the top of the can. It was empty when we started!!

Some stuff we took to goodwill. I'm sure we will find some more things to take!! We had 2 irons when we combined households. Why? well, no more!

Now I can show you the difference. WOW! It looks amazing already. Our roommate hasn't moved anything yet, but the upstairs rooms are still being worked on anyways.  

Our dogs are standing in a few of the pictures. Aren't they adorable??

Bear and Krunchee.

Since we haven't made the workbench yet, we thought we would use this bookshelf for wood tools.

Still need to work on getting the path to the water heater clear!

This is just us using what we have already so far. We will be working more on the gardening and woodworking sides next week. Even though classes have started for me. My BF's classes start right at the end of May. Lucky him, he gets to work on the garage more. I still think we're making excellent progress. I will be putting pictures of my new sewing room too. I got too excited and now have my unfinished projects out trying to furiously finish them! Thank you for following along with us!

looking for 'Threads'

Yesterday at work I was looking at the sewing sites that I like to frequent. And what did I find? THREADS has done a section on stripes. How to get different looks from the same striped material, how to work the stripes into different patterns by altering a pattern. The dress that is gracing the July cover is just so darn cute!! I would love to sit down and make one, but Dragon con costumes are beconing. As is the kindle case that I have been working on for Frank for his birthday (which was in April) for months. In my defense, I am tooling the leather cover and making it soft and somewhat drop resistant. It is a slow process, but he is a patient man( I love him for that!) 

The July issue of Threads cover

I had to have this issue and wanted to run out and get it right away.

To make matters worse, my fabric store stopped carrying it. Poop. Well, I drove home thinking about what store might still carry it.Oh, Banes and Nobles! So, I got Frank all ready to go(of course he wanted fancy coffee.) I got a cookie crumble frap, it was melted when I got it, and not that great. But, I got my magazine!

I also saw(and thought about buying) the newand improved couture sewing techniques by Claire Shaeffer. It had a lot of good information in it.

Has anybody read this issue or own this book? Maybe there is another book that you like to use for couture sewing style. What is  the best information in your opinion?

Is anybody planning on making anything with stipes soon? I know I am all excited about it.

Garage clean out beginning.

As you can see... we've decided to clean out our garage!! Exciting huh?? yeah, I'm not excited either, but I am eager to purge all of the old stuff and clean out. Ours turned into a double whammy. Since we have a roommate living here, a lot of his stuff ended up in the garage. I just moved in with my boyfriend, so a lot of MY stuff was in there and (shock) my boyfirend's stuff was in there too. We added some gladiator gear tracks that have hanging storage for the walls previously, but we then stopped. Woodworking, gardening, storage and trash area has become what we use the garage for now. The cruiser use to be able to fit, but not anymore. I am looking forward to making it usable again. Thanks to Laura @ orgjunkie.com for putting this on. We've been wanting to clean this space up for awhile.

now onto the shameful garage!!

I wasn't really great at getting the whole picture. I moved some stuff before I thought of taking this though.

 As you can see in this picture, our water heater poises a slight problem, as does the electrical box on the left side, they cannot be blocked! I have to think of a way to not block them up.

 My Boyfriend, Frank, making his exit after we argued about where to start.

 Yes, those are maxi pads....don't know why they need to be "stored". HA HA HA

Our roommates stuff. Which he says he will move if he can move into the other bedroom. That is a guest bedroom right now. I moved my sewing stuff into the empty bedroom and he is going to take all of the furniture in the guest room and put it in the room he is currently in, and of course the guest room will then be his old room. I painted my sewing room and it looks so cute. I will post pictures of that as well.

I intend on being able to put the cruiser in the garage once more. Along with a space for woodworking (BF), space for gardening(mine) and some storage space for me and my BF as well as some storage for our roommate, Aaron.

Wish us luck on our journey to an organized and well adjusted home. With 3 people, 2 dogs and 2 cats...life is always interesting.