Confessions of a Hair Nerd

It's true, I lose hours to figuring out new braids and I turn into a pile of warm mush on the rare occasion when someone plays with my hair. On the off chance that anyone else out there is similarly obsessed I thought I'd share some pictures of various braids I've done and see if anyone has something new and fantastic to show me in return :D

 Here we have a 4-strand Dutch braid. Dutch means that it's braided under so it pops up away from the head as opposed to a French braid that is braided over and the borders blur into hair sections being added.

 This is a variant on a crown braid done with a 2-strand rope braid instead of the more common 3-strand braid. This is one of my favorite summer time hair styles and it also works really well under wigs for those of you who like that sort of thing.

 Here we have one 2-strand rope lace braid and then two of them in opposite directions. This is great for wrapping braids like a headband. In my case, having anything wrapped all the way around my head causes fierce headaches so I double them back like in the next picture. The rope braided 'tails' are folded up and pinned along the part between the lace braiding. It makes for lots of texture and it hides the part.

 

In this next picture I took the two opposing rope lace braids and used them to do a 3 strand braid with the remaining hair. Because the ropes are so thin, the main part of the hair tends to fall straight while they zig zag around it.

 This one is especially lovely and works very well as a romantic style. It can look very different depending on whether it is done neat and sleek or messy. It's called a waterfall braid and it's done like a French lace braid but you drop a strand after every braiding.

 

Another lace rope braid but this time ending in a side braid. I wear this style all the time.

 This one was a fun challenge :D It's a faux hawk for a metal concert. I parted the hair from temple to nape in three sections. The two side sections got tightly rope braided close to the part and the center section was hair sprayed, teased, looped and twisted to form the hawk.

Playing Catch Up

I realized while posting about my dragon that I never shared my Halloween costumes from 2011! I received a commission for a custom sexy Tron costume that consumed most of my creative time so I finished tweaking my Mord'Sith costume and put together Storm from the X-men.

First I'll show you Tron! So this was a long distance project with one fitting for pattern drafting and one final fitting. Not the ideal way to work, especially with something like this stretch vinyl!
Here you see the outfit laid out neatly on the bed:

My client ordered a Tron disc from Amazon that we used to conceal and carry the power source for the elwire used to light up her bra, waist cincher and thigh wraps. I drilled a hole through it for the power switch to come through.

She was nice enough to share some candid shots of her night out on the town :) One of these days we'll get together for a professional photo shoot and I'll be sure to share when that happens!

Now for the updated Mord'Sith with some new straps and other subtle stuff:

And finally my Storm costume :D I wore white contacts and gave a disclaimer for my super pale skin ;) No one seemed to hold it against me that I failed at looking like a proper Amazonian princess.

Taking Shape

So far so good! I had to modify the pattern shape for the 'tummy/tail' piece because I misgauged how the shapes would work together. I simply removed the tail portion from the tummy pattern and it came together fine :) As you can see above, I grew rather fond of my wing frames and was no longer willing to hide them inside the wing fabric so I've hand sewn them to the underside of the wing. I believe my next step will be to sew the head with ears and horns. At that point it should be time to draft the patterns for arms and legs and get them sewn up. Can you tell I'm stalling on building the armature? :D I honestly think it's necessary but I won't lie, it's the newest-to-me technique in this whole critter and I'm giving it lots of thought!

Obviously I did not complete my dragon in time for AnomalyCon, the steampunk convention in Denver. I knew I was pushing it and having to pick a large number of stitches when revamping the tail pattern pretty much doomed me to be off schedule. Nonetheless, I am having a blast with him and can't wait to see him coming to life!

I got new photos from Don Searle of FantaScenes photography with my author friend J.A. Campbell (check out her blog here)

It's Like a Messenger Pigeon

I've recently been bitten by the muse with inspiration from a fellow artist and suggestions from another to create a steampunk flavored shoulder dragon. I'm headed to AnomalyCon next weekend and thought he would make a perfect addition to my day costume. To give you a little background, the character I've developed for design inspiration is something like a Pony Express rider. A messenger of sorts. I chose to make Victorian underwear into outerwear using faux tooled leather, and micro suede. This year I'm adding to the costume with a lace and leather dust mask, proper message tubes for my satchel and my carrier pigeon. I mean dragon.

Here's last year's rigg:

This year I've signed up for the whole weekend, including a grand ball so I wanted two costumes and more detail than I had time to come up with last year. I'm a bit of a snob in that I cringe at gears for purely decorative purposes. I'd really like for them to at least LOOK like they might have a purpose. Unfortunately, I am not mechanically minded.

Here's the inspiration for my dragon:

He was built by Dragontry- find more like him at http://www.dragontry.com/ She is a superb artist and her dragons are not only one of a kind but meticulously built and very reasonably priced. Alas, I am a die hard do-it-yourselfer possessed of a huge stash of fabric and minimal funds for bribing other artists to do work for me. So with a giant nod to the brilliance of Dragontry, I am making my own pattern and my very own dragon *crosses fingers*.

Here's what I've got so far:

I've already decided the tail portion of the pattern will need to be modified. I'm waiting to draft the patterns for arms and legs until I have the body sewn so I can see what shape will best help my dragon to perch securely and also so that I may have a better sense of scale. More updates to come!

Dyeing Your Own Silk Veil With Kool-Aid!

Supplies that I used in this project:

• UNDYED SILK VEIL
• PACKETS/CONTAINERS OF KOOL-AID THAT REQUIRE THAT SUGAR BE ADDED- This is SOOO important. Do NOT use the sugar free Kool-Aid or Kool-Aid that already has the sugar added. You want the citric acid and color, not the sugar which would make a royal sticky mess.
• SYNTHRAPOL
• PLASTIC WRAP
• MEASURING CUP
• MICROWAVE
• WASHING MACHINE
• CLOTHING IRON

1.  Rubber band fabric to separate areas of color if you're wanting clear demarcations between color shifts. I wanted a rainbow centered on my veil so I pinched the fabric at the center of the length, on one edge and placed a band at about 8" down, then continued banding down the length of the now sort of folded/pleated fabric. You could start at one end/corner  instead of in the middle to create a horizontal gradient or a diagonal gradient. You can also experiment with sprinkling dye into place for a textured visual effect.
2. Soak silk in apple cider vinegar. For this step I filled a mop bucket with vinegar and tossed my fabric in, poked it down so it was all submerged and left it there while I prepared the rest of my stuff.
3. Cover counter with long piece of cling wrap. I used one LONG piece that was about 6-8' long. This kept most of the Kool-Aid off my counter and later trapped the moisture and dye with the fabric while steaming.
4. Wring out silk and lay out on top of cling wrap. You don't want the fabric to be so full of vinegar that it can't absorb the Kool-Aid mixture. Bone dry, and the dye can't travel, too wet and the dye can't be absorbed.
5. Mix first Kool-Aid color with water (cherry). The idea is to make a thick syrup consistency. You could mix them all at once in separate cups but I was using my one liquid measuring cup so I just rinsed between colors.
6. Pour from measuring cup over fabric section. Be sure the drink powder is well mixed so that the liquid is of equal dye strength.
7. Scrunch to distribute dye. I just kind of worked the dye in a bit with my gloved fingers.
8. Mix, pour, scrunch each additional color

1. Fold cling wrap around fabric like a burrito and coil up, leaving a vent at end of coil for steam

1. Microwave for 1 minute, let sit one minute (total 4 minutes of heating time)

1. Carry VERY HOT fabric/plastic to wash machine filled with cold water and 2 caps of synthrapol
2.  Put untwisted end of plastic/fabric into machine, uncoil, and shake fabric gently from plastic into machine. The liquid dye will be pouring out with the fabric so the idea is to keep all the mess inside the wash machine to avoid awful cleanup chores ;)
3. Run normal cold water cycle
4. Air dry silk and then iron with steam on the silk setting. This should help set the dye.

Mord'Sith Hair Tutorial

Well friends I have finally gotten up the courage to make my first how-to video :) I had a few friends who were asking me how I did my hair for my Halloween costume this year so I thought I'd share my method. Previous methods that I had read about required the use of two synthetic braids but this method only requires one. Wore it last night when I went out dancing and not a hair came out of place! Please feel free to ask questions, ask for more how-to's or leave constructive comments!

T-shirt to Choli Conversion How-To

Don't ask me what the motivation was, I honestly don't know what planted the idea in my mind! I have a long torso and a growing collection of shirts that are just barely too short plus some that are just silly lounge arounds that I barely wear. I got it into my head to sort of re-build these into cropped tops for dance class because I always seem to have a shortage of good tops to wear at practice. It's relatively simple to do. Minimal supplies, not a lot of patterning or sewing know-how needed.

Materials:
1 T-shirt
matching/coordinating thread

Tools:
Rotary cutter and cutting mat (preferred)
sewing scissors
sewing machine
soap sliver or chalk


1.Put your shirt on and use a sliver of soap to mark how far under the bust you want to cut the shirt.

2. After marking, lay out your shirt on the ground as flat as possible. Try to match up seams and keep the sides from rippling because of twisted fabric.
3. Go ahead and even up your lines. Make sure the line is not lopsided. One side may be lower than the other because YOU are slightly asymmetrical. If that is the case, use the lowest line and draw across from there.

4. Use scissors/shears to cut along this newly smoothed out line. The line you drew on the front of the shirt should extend around the sides just enough that when you flip the shirt over, you can see the tail ends on each side. This will allow you to connect the tails with a straight line so you know where to cut along the back of your shirt.

**If your shirt is a blousey t-shirt, then you must remove some of the material from the sides and back to make it more fitted. If you don't, it will wrap around to the back and sort of bunch when you tie your rib cage straps. If you like that look, go for it. If not, then:
5. Cut little triangles of fabric off each side under the armhole. Wide bottom of the triangle down, point towards sleeve. If in doubt on amount to remove, slip your half-shirt on and pinch the fabric on either side of your ribs. It doesn't need to be super tight, but evenly distributed between the sides is good. Note how much fabric is pinched. For me this is usually about 2" to the fold on each side.

6. Here's where you have an opportunity to get creative. Simplest option: Make a 4" vertical slit along the center back of your t-shirt. This can be varied by making different types of keyholes instead. Keyholes are especially helpful if you need to remove a little more fabric from the width of your shirt to make it fit snugly. Your keyhole can be a triangle shape with a base and point aimed towards the neck of the shirt or it can be a circle or upside down tear drop shape. Fancier shapes like stars and hearts should be possible but they'll hang funny if they're not reinforced which I won't go into here- you want it fancy, you figure it out ;) If you're not good at free-handing shapes, use a round dish or print a shape from your computer (Microsoft Office software and some of the really basic art programs have shape art).

At this point, you may set aside the top portion of your shirt.

Making the rib cage strap from the bottom half of the shirt:
7. Make sure you have no wrinkles or folds in your lower t-shirt before marking and cutting.
8. Use a ruler or other straight edge and your rotary cutter to cut a perfectly straight line where your original chalk/soap line was drawn. (The idea is to cut off any jagged edges or curves)
9. Measure 4 inches down from your new straight edge and cut with the rotary cutter. You should have a tube of t-shirt material that is 4 inches high and the width of the shirt. Repeat this process one more time.

10. Cut the 2 circles of material to separate each into one long strip. Cut one of them in half to make 2 shorter strips. You now have 3 strips of fabric.

**Note, I also cut the sleeves on the white and blue tops pictured. This is another 'creative opportunity' :D


Sewing your new choli:
**Sew using a stretch stitch (looks like a lightening bolt) or a straight stitch set with a very slight zig zag (just barely moves side to side). This will prevent broken stitches when/if the shirt stretches while you wear it.
11. Sew a short strip on either end of your long strip to make your complete rib cage strap.
12. Sew the sides of your shirt if you cut off triangular pieces of material. If your shirt was fitted to begin with, you should have no side seam sewing to do.
13. Match up center front of the shirt with the middle of your rib cage strap that has been folded in half- it's still as long but now it's 2 inches tall instead of 4 inches. Pin at center front with right sides together and raw edges to the bottom.
**Here you get to decide how fussy you want to be about finishing. I'm not that fussy for this type of project- just an FYI. Knit fabrics don't fray so I'm not bothered by raw edges. There will be some.
14. Starting at center front, stitch rib cage strap to shirt around one side. Sew all the way to the edge of your keyhole opening. Repeat for the other side.

Viola! You now have a brand new dance top made from your favorite band t-shirt or funny slogan shirt :D If you try this out and share pictures somewhere, I'd love for you to leave a link to the pictures or your blog post on the experience in the comments!