Visas WIP (complete)

[Guest Aysel]

I've gotten the matte black paint on the dress pieces here are a couple of pics of that

 

 

 

aaannndddd I've got the big part of the veil together, I decided to make it a double thickness so I could have a little more weight hanging it down, I also tacked in some beaded chain to give a little more weight. My husband will be doing the gold painting since I'm the one making both this costume and his Nihilus

 

[Guest Aysel]

My husband is currently painting on the gold pattern, he first used my fabric pen, drew on the pattern and is now going over it for the second of 3 times.

 

 

 

[Guest Anonymous]

Wow! This is turning out awesome! I love the paint job and the overdress is looking great too!

[Volund Starfire]

Which paint job? The rattle-can or the hours of hand-made toiling?

 

Oh, and don't worry. If you think you see the name 'Katie' in the veil using runic script that is worked into the pattern, then you are just seeing things... I promise... Cross my heart...

 

Sincerely,

The husband (aka Master of Detail Painting)

[Guest Anonymous]

Why, the hours of handmade toiling of course . You are doing an amazing job.

[Guest Aysel]

outer dress is done other than the hemming at the bottom the pinwheels are prefect and subtle just the way I was trying to make them.

 

 

[Guest Aysel]

I have some update pics, and a few tips for sewing on pleather/vinyl for those that haven't ever done it before.

 

What you see me doing here is sewing strips plastic grocery bags over the hem of the pleather so it wouldn't stick to the foot or feed dogs of the sewing machine, if I didn't do this then it would have stuck and dragged so the hem wouldn't be flat.

 

 

I'm going to have to fix the sleeves of the inner dress since the inside hem can be seen. But it's ok since the sleeve part isn't integrated with the rest of the dress. I'll be able to take it apart and just replace it. I've worked a new sleeve pattern out to add about 4 inches to the length.

 

[Drago Lordist]

plastic bags huh? that's pretty ingenious. can you rip it off pretty easily or do you have bits get stuck?

[Guest Aysel]

it ripped just like it was perforated. which is why I used plastic bags this time around rather than the toilet paper I used the last time I sewed on something like this, the TP left lots of white bits.

[Guest Anonymous]

I love the pics where the cat is casually hanging out... it's a true family project!!!

[Guest Aysel]

if it's a pic of me holding something or modeling something she'll be less than 3 feet from me.....she's just like a 2 year old.

 

I have the belt done and I have pics but I've been lazy and haven't taken them off the camera yet

[Guest Aysel]

here's the face piece, I'm not sure how much I like this one, I cut out a couple of them so if I don't like the paint I can do another one, but what do you all think? this one good enough? It's only one coat of the paint cause I didn't want to completely finish it, come to the end and then not like it

 

[Guest Aysel]

 

both dresses plus the belt, I'll get a pic of me in it later.

[Guest Aysel]

here is the (almost) complete inner dress, it's hemmed but I still have to replace my sleeves with the better ones I've made (also paint them)

 

here is me in what I've got done so far, outer dress isn't hemmed yet, I should be getting this done tomorrow

[Guest Aysel]

outer dress 100%

 

 

I'd say the inner dress was 90% (still dealing with sleeves)

veil is around 50% (it's in pieces still)

belt 100%

[Guest Aysel]

 

I've got a little more finessing left to do but there it is

[Guest Aysel]

 

95% done! I need to swap out the sleeves and finish my gloves, does anyone see any hinky parts that need to be fixed?

[Twi'lek Pam]

Look at how far you've come! I'm eager to see this costume all finished up. (And jealous that you're finishing about sixteen months faster than it took me to make my Visas!)

 

I won't comment on the sleves or gloves since you're still working on those. The outer dress looks excellent, and I'm pleased with the rest of the inner dress. I would suggest tweaking the veil a bit more to get it to pucker less and lay properly. This is NOT an easy thing to do. I must have sewn, ripped the seams, and resown my veil at least ten times before I got a look that I was happy with... and yet I still have plans to start over from scratch and try again. I've already painted the front piece, in fact... I'm just dreading that sewing part so I'm procrastinating. Basically, the veil needs to lay flat to the sides. It might help for the curve of seam over the forhead to be a bit higher and more rounded.

 

Kristen did a fantastic job of getting her veil to cooperate... she's a genius with fabric:

 

 

Also, I would suggest looking into a bit darker fabric for the belt. The tone of your belt looks about right, but it's so light compared to the rest of the costume that it seems a bit distracting in the pictures. It really draws the eye away from everything else. (That bright-zone effect may change when you've got the right sleeves and the gloves on, so there's not so much light area around your waistline... but it's something to look into while you're working!)

 

 

Pam, who is still enjoying the cat cameos in the photographs

[Guest Aysel]

yea I'm unhappy with the sides of the veil as well, I'm thinking of just ripping the side stitches out up to the sides of the forehead since I"m happy with that part and getting them to lay flatter, I think it's just a matter of bringing it in a bit. as for the belt, we'll have to see what it looks like after I get the gloves done, if worse comes to worse I'll throw some black or dark red dye at it and see if that'll tone it down any.

[Guest Aysel]

AARRRGGGG! can I just say I hate (well not hate cause I love this character) the artist for Visas Marr. That veil, urg! I've gotten this version of this veil as flat as possible. I might eventually make another one, but for now I'm done.

 

[Guest Anonymous]

That version of the veil looks alot better, I must say.

[Guest Aysel]

I think I'm done, posting pics for pre-inspection and last minuet hinkyness that needs to be fixed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Aysel]

I need to know if my belt is too bright a red, I can fix it easy but I need a yay or nay on it

[Twi'lek Pam]

Hiya,

 

Your costume critique is written on my to-do list that I've been carrying back and forth to work with me. It's a doggone big list this month, and I'm cramming to get caught up. I'll try again tonight when I get home from work!

 

Pam

[Twi'lek Pam]

Hokay! Top to bottom...

 

Veil: You improved the veil quite a bit. I wouldn't call it perfect yet (none of them are), but it's much, much better than it was, and I think it's acceptable now.

 

Red dress: Nice work, looks good! The sleeves are a tiny bit short, but again, it's acceptable. Definitely a good color choice.

 

Outer Dress: Great proportions on that one. I'm wondering if it's possible to get the seams to lay flatter. Normally we tell people to iron their seams to make them look finished, but I don't want to see it be damaged, so ironing might not be a good idea. If you were to try that, try a scrap piece of fabric first, keeping the iron on a low setting, and puting a towel down between the iron and the fabric. I've seen iron melted pleather before, and it's not a good thing. On mine, I sewed a topstich along the seams to get them to lay flat. (It was almost as hard as making the veil! Sewing machines are evil, I tell you!)

 

Belt: I'm afraid the belt does still look too bright. It needs to be a darker tone. You've got the right design for it, just not the right color.

 

Gloves: Look good. I would suggest upgrading to leather gloves sometime.

 

Boots. Good choice. They look comfy.

 

Pam