"Just because i cannot see it, doesn't mean i can't believe it!"
So as a self proclaimed nerd, New York Comiccon is a day that i tend to greatly anticipate. Last year it was some what of a let down, as a result of some issues with my costume.... Lets just say i was a Ramona Flowers lacking her Scott Pilgrim. This year, I made that somewhat calloused decision that my costumes would be one that would work as a stand alone, although with the option to upgrade to a group setting.Since i am going for three days, i decided that three costumes were necessary. Since Friday is the first day that i am going, I'm going to talk about my first costume - Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas.
Being the perfectionist that i am, i could not just go buy one of the licensed costumes that Disney sells. While the dresses have a pattern similar to Sally's dress, there is no print on the back, they are somewhat ill fitting, and lacking texture. So the obvious solution was to make my own.
I started out by taking a dress of my own and using it as a pattern to make a new dress out of some scrap fabric that i had around the house.
The photo on the left is a side view of the base dress, and the photo on the right is a front view. I decided that the best approach to making this dress, since it is largely patch work, would be to have a base dress and then add pieces of different fabric to the top of it, rather than try to make a bunch of different fabrics trying to fit into the shape of a dress without any real guide. You can't see it in the pictures, but there's a zipper running down the back of the dress.
The next step i took was to scour the internet for good pictures of Sally's dress.... and i found myself somewhat disappointed, so i wound up watching the DVD of Nightmare Before Christmas and just pausing the DVD when i saw a good image, and i decided to base my fabric selection on a few images, including the two below (just remember i don't in any way claim ownership of these images).
So after a trip to the fabric store i had about seven different fabrics, and a big job ahead of me. I sketched out how i wanted each section to fit together, and started my task. I would pin down a section of fabric, and then sew the panel onto the base dress... this was a VERY lengthy process, of getting all of the different panels down and sitting together and looking nice. There was a lot of re-pinning when i was setting up the different panels, so that i could be sure that all of the panels lined up nicely. I didn't put all of the panels together at once, because i was worried about panels shifting as they were sewed into place.
Once the paneling had progressed a bit, i started to add details to it, like the circles that overlay the yellow panel, and the black stitching that connects all of the panels. Although the black stitching between the sections was only looks, i still used a regular stitch to decorate it.
The bottom right panel had a design on it, so i drew that in with a sharpie as well. When the paneling and stitching on the front was done, i went and added the spirals to the purple section and the dots to the light pink section.
I'm really happy with how this costume is coming along, although i still have quite a bit to do. The front is still missing some stripes on the yellow section, the paneling is not quite done on the back, and all of the detailing on the back needs to be done. I know that in time it will be, and i have to say i am really proud of how this is working out, as i have never made a dress before. More to come in the near future, as it gets done.
