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Last Minute Costume Construction

What happens when you go out the evening of Monday, October 25, resolved to spend more money than you would wish on a costume that is not as high quality as you would wish?

If you’re me, you come away with a sewing project.

The only Costume Proper in the store that particularly interested me was only available in Small, and that ain’t me. So I went back to the car…but the gears started turning. There had been a green velvet cloak that I might have bought to wear over the unavailable costume, and maybe it was worth buying… I can’t reconstruct how I got there, but on the strength of that cloak and the fact that I owned suede ankle boots and a leaf pin I’d only kept because it was reminiscent of the ones the hobbits get in Lothlorien in the movies, I concocted a plan to be a wood elf.

I went back in and got the cloak; there were elf ears but they were the kind that’s a big production to put on and were also a sickly yellow color so I passed. That evening and the next day I accumulated brown tights, an antler headband (since I didn’t have ears), plus two yards of tan faux suede (found in clearance!), a remnant of sage green heavy slightly-stretch cotton, and a large skein of brown cotton yarn.

Tuesday night I set to sewing. I made a coordinating face mask from stash elastic and fabric (a brown leaf-patterned batik and unbleached muslin), cut out and started sewing two drawstring belt pouches, and cut the entire 190 yards of yarn into 4-yard lengths. I tied the lengths of yarn into a bundle at one end, combed them out into equal 3 sections, and braided them, tying them off at the opposite end afterward.

I also set the headband to stretch a bit since one-size-fits-all headbands tend to give me a headache.

Wednesday I started the tunic dress. Some poking around online for “simple tunic pattern” had reminded me of the scheme of 4 tall rectangles, sewn into a cylinder for the lower stretch, and with the top edges sewn to make shoulder seams. The unsewn upper part of the rectangles becomes a sharp V neck and the armholes.

The width of the fabric went around me quite comfortably so I measured and cut what seemed like a suitably generous length, and cut it in quarters the other way. My approach to making sure it worked out was to sew the seams only far enough that I knew they would work, then try it on and extend them as needed. I did the center front and back and the shoulder seams first, and decided after sewing about an inch near the bottom of the armholes that I would insert a narrow panel in each side seam. With no stretch to the fabric at all, I thought an additional couple of inches around from the waist down would help my mobility a lot.

I cut those side panels that night, but the rest of the sewing happened Friday, when I was off work.

When I tried the tunic on after assembly I thought, well, it’s really bulky and unflattering but it will do. After that I sewed all the seam allowances flat and hemmed the armholes and bottom (I’d done the neck already), and threw it in the wash.

Then I turned my attention to the drawstring pouches. I finished them as planned and hung them from my braided “rope belt” by their drawstrings – to realize that would have them banging into my thighs every time I took a step. Not enjoyable. Also, they would be much more out of reach. So I cut two strips of the fabric and folded them in thirds, then made a loop out of them to sew to the pouches for hanging. That worked well. I had to thread them onto the belt before putting it on but that wasn’t as awkward as I expected.

drawstring belt pouches laid out on floor — This is a remarkably awkward angle to capture a selfie.

Braided belt as worn, with pouches hanging on the sides — This is a remarkably awkward angle to capture a selfie.

Once those pouches were done, I was done. And rather amazed I’d made it in time for our big Friday night Halloween event!

When the tunic dress came out of the dryer I was pleasantly surprised at how well it draped, given that it has less shaping than a paper bag and no stretch to the fabric at all. Stitching down the seam allowances and washing it had somehow made it much less bulky. I did wish that I’d turned more fabric under at the shoulder end of the neck opening, but I’d already done an inch there tapering to the half-inch seam allowance at the center front, and I don’t know if non-stretchy fabric could do much bigger of a taper easily.

Simple tunic dress laid out on the floor

I accessorized with green and metallic eyeshadow and a tiger eye pendant, and the hubs and I went to a park by the river to take photos in the late afternoon.

Me in wood elf costume with a background of yellow autumn leaves — Success of this costume brought to you by the letters L and H, long hair.

Me in wood elf costume with background of orange autumn leaves — Success of this costume brought to you by the letters L and H, long hair.

That night I added a tree-patterned shawl secured with my leaf pin, and of course my face mask. I actually liked the face mask as a costume component because it kind of looked like I was going into battle. I had my phone in one belt pouch, and my keys and a pair of gloves in the other.

tree-patterned shawl with tiger eye necklace and leaf pin on top

Me in wood elf costume in a boldly painted hallway

Suitably geared up for the Friday night festivities! No one had any idea who I was. In reality, or in costume. Such is life. 🙂

Preventing Low-Riding Pants

Pants are difficult. Especially dress pants. If the hips and thighs fit, the waist is at least verging on too big. But dress pants’ waistbands are awful to alter – layers and belt loops and topstitching and often no pre-existing seams. What to do?

I realized that my current dress pants fit great right out of the wash, but as the fabric relaxed (mine all have a little lycra in them) they would sag down on my hips, ending up too low – they didn’t look or feel good and they became too long. I envisioned pants where the legs were made of the gently stretchy fabric but the waist was made from something with no stretch at all, and realized I could mimic that by stabilizing the waist with something non-stretchy.

So here is the technique! I did my first round of waist stabilization back in February, so I can attest it does work. It shows from the outside, but isn’t obvious, especially if you wear your shirts untucked as I do.

Acquire some narrow grosgrain ribbon, or another non-stretchy material.

1. Pin the ribbon to the inside of the waistband, just far enough from the top edge that stitching through its center will be below the top of any belt loops the pants have. You will have to pin from the inside of the waist but sew from the outside of the waist, so have the points of your pins sticking out on the outside of the waist or buried between the layers of the waistband.

2. Looking at the outside of the waistband, sew a straight line down the approximate center of the ribbon. It is more important to have it straight relative to the edge of the waistband than relative to the ribbon. When you get to a belt loop, sew a bit underneath it and then backstitch. Lift your presser foot, pull the fabric out a little (so there is a small loop of thread) and start stitching again past the belt loop, starting with a backstitch to get as close as you can to the belt loop (underneath if possible).

3. Trim the ends of your thread and the loops that bypass each belt loop. Complete!

Taking Out the Hems of Dress Pants

I’ve known for a long time that the commercial blind stitching used for hems of many dress pants and skirts is a chain stitch, which will pull right out if you start it correctly (and knot up if you don’t). Just this weekend, however, I figured out how to reliably start it correctly.

If you look at hem stitching with the end of the pants leg downward, it looks like the drawing above: a series of horizontal dashes with little slanted teardrops extending down in between the dashes. The stitching will pull out to the right. If you can easily see what you’re doing, you can pick away at the loose end of the thread – the left-hand end of where the blindstitch overlaps itself – until the loose end is attached directly to a dash, and pull from there.

If you can’t easily see what you are doing, as was the case with me this weekend (busy fabric, probably inadequate light), you can still pull out commercial hem stitch. There are four steps, shown in the diagram: first, cut the thread toward the left end of a dash. Second, pull the dash’s thread toward the right. It will probably get hung up a little (if not, keep pulling!). Third, pick at the teardrop to the left of your cut in order to free the dash thread. Fourth, pull the dash thread to remove the stitching as far as it will go!

When you can’t start at the very end of the stitching you’ll need multiple rounds of pulling to remove all the stitching, but it’s still very quick – especially compared to a seam ripper!