Maleficent: Round 2 (the pattern shapes)

Good news- The muslin fit pretty damn well! 

muslin or cult robe: YOU DECIDE!

This shouldn't be that surprising, because Laurena is a returning client and I always keep all of my past client measurements, sketches and patterns. What I DO NOT always do is write names on them. I have a huge stack of folders for each and every client I've had in the past five years and then I have a folder of mysterious measurements, notes and sketches with no identifying names or costume drawings or anything. There was no 'Laurena' folder. 

THANKS A LOT PAST CRISSY YOU STUPID ASSHAT.

I finally found what I was pretty sure was hers and I went with it. A year or two ago I made her a really cool Storm cape, and the measurements seemed like the type I would take for something like that. Also she is HELLA TALL and these were for a tall girl. 

So anyways she tried it on and it was a pretty great fit. I made a few notes of where I wanted to add more flare, length, lowering the necklines and what not. Then I went back to my patterns and did a good amount of adding and subtracting. 

So here are my patterns shapes. I'm going to post my pieces before and after the post-fitting adjustments. Everything I squiggled on in black is a piece that I added in, but also they are side-by-side so just know that the newer version is on the right.

The front did not get a huge amount of adjusting. I wasn't sure how low of a neckline she wanted, so I had kept the original neckline from the pattern so she could tell me. Other than that all I did was to round out the bottom. I sort of just pieced things together before, but now I know what length and shape I need. 

front bodice pieces

The back didn't get too much either. I hadn't made it long enough, so I added on to the bottom and also rounded that out (that would be the squiggly black part). Again, I wasn't sure how low she wanted it in the back but with this depth she can still wear a normal bra- which is SUCH A GREAT THING when you are wearing a costume. 

back bodice pieces

Now the wings- I did not nail those. There was a lot of adjusting. Pretty much as soon as they were sewn onto the muslin I was like "Awww crappola. I need to add here and here and here."

So's I did. I added a curve to the top for more movement, opened the hand-holes up a little bit, added some width because I hadn't previously noticed that the sleeves fold over onto themselves, a little more flare at the bottom where it connects to the skirt, and then adjusted the curve of the bottom to be as long as the skirt.

wing-a-lings, same front and back

The skirt insert I did not do any adjustments to. It's definitely the MVP of this costume so far. 

numbah one pattern stunna. inserted on every side seam

Now the collar, that is what really brought me here. That is a stupid difficult collar to make. 

um yes excuse me- who's idea was this?

I found a lot of how-to's on this part, but none of them ran across from the front to the back. They all just attached at the shoulder and were one piece. Well let me just say, nay nay nay no sir that is not correct at all. These are curved up and down, run from the front to the back and stand up tall. You aren't gonna do that with one flat piece. So here is what I did:

first round on top, new on bottom.

I know that the actual costume has a leather collar. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out all of the collar details. For sure I still need to make a piece to sew to the bottom of the collar pieces. If I sew it on like in an 'L' shape, it should perk up once it's on a curve. Also I still need a facing so I can probably just make those the same piece. I think I'm going to use a foam base for the shape, glue some screen wire mesh to it and then coat it in 'leather.' I should be able to mold the foam with the wire and a heat gun.

Here's hoping I'm right...

My next stop is to the fabric store. I'm currently unsure of what I want to make the hip and back spine detail of. It's like a spooky scale-y spine or something. If you have ideas by all means let me know.