Just a Big Ol' Update on the Lunar Fairy!

So, I've been hard at work, continuing progress on my Lunar Fairy!  Two weeks ago, I worked on the frame for her wings!  Like a lot of this costume, this is something I made previously, then when back and tweaked.  The first frame was made of two very long pieces of wire that I bent to make the top and bottom wings and the brace to join each side together.  They have a similar look now, but instead of two whole pieces, there are 4 separate wings that will be joined together.  I ended up re-bending the wire to balance out the design, and that lead to me having to make two new separate wings, so I just went with it. :)

Top photo: Version 1 of the frame.  Bottom photo:  Comparison between the new frame (left) and the old frame (right).

I'll be working on getting the wings covered, soon.  I normally use iridescent cellophane on fairy wings, but I want to change it up this time and try using fabric.  I've never made fabric wings before, so I'm going to practice with some scrap materials first.  I've got some pretty silver organza to go on them as well, and TONS of rhinestones! The rhinestones I'll be using on the wings will not be Swarovski.  As much as I'd love to bling them out with those, they're pricey and if any of them ever came off I'd be SUPER sad, lol! So I have a box of stones from Michaels to use instead.  I bought the Firefly Path Resin LED wing tutorial so I could try out something different, but I'm not sure what I'll end up doing for sure, yet.  This will be one of few sets of wings I'll have made that will have straps instead of going down the back of a corset. 

I've also continued working on the circlet.  I added more chain and beads to the back, and tested out adhering a cameo setting to one of the filigrees.  Swarovski rhinestones have been added to the crescent moon, and the cameo. The circlet will be finished when I add the large rhinestones to the center, and add the other cameos to the remaining filigrees.  I'm still waiting on some rhinestones that I ordered from ebay a few weeks ago, but I went ahead an got a back up set of rhinestones in case the ones from ebay end up not being what I want.  I also ordered the base fabric for the dress!!  I can't wait to get started on that next!

My updated circlet!! Such sparkle, much wow.

A few days ago, I made a necklace to go with everything else.  I haven't decided on whether or not I am going to leave it as is or add a little more detail, but here's how it looks currently:

That's all I've got for now, but updates will be a-comin'!! ^.^

Princess Dreams: Embroidering Tiana's Leaves

I figured it was time to do an update on Tiana progress. ;D I've started the task of working on the leaf part of her dress.  This is another part of her costume that I started on a LONG time ago, but embroidery by hand or machine isn't something I have much experience with.  However, I didn't let that stop me!  I initially had to figure out just how many leaves I would probably need, so I just cut out a bunch of leaves, and spread the skirt out on my living room floor, which was my craft area at the time.  Then I took the leaves and started trying to figure out how to arrange them so that I could figure out a rough estimate.

Back in 2014, yo.

My initial plan was to sew the leaves to the skirt itself, but since resuming this project, I came up with another idea.  My current plan is to make the entire green part of the costume, into its own dress.  I made a base skirt using the skirt pattern from Simplicity 1553.  Once all of the leaves are done, they'll be sewn on to the skirt, and then attached to the bodice.  :)  The leaves are made out of green faux suede that I got from Joann (same as the bodice).  Next came figuring out how to do the veins on the leaves.  A friend suggested embroidery, but I didn't have a machine, and the idea of doing them by hand did not appeal to me (and still doesn't, lol).  I've since gotten an embroidery machine, but I haven't sat down with it enough to figure out if I can use it for this.  I also found out that my regular sewing machine does a satin stitch, which is the type of stitch I need for the leaves.  I also went ahead and looked up how to satin stitch by hand in case it came down to me just doing them by hand.  By the way, I determined that I need about 26 of these leaves...  Shoot me. :P

There has been a good bit of trial and error while figuring out how to do the embroidery by machine.  I first had to decide on whether or not the puff paint method (drawing the design in puff paint then embroidering over it) was the way to go.  I found out that my machine isn't a fan of trying to stitch over puff paint, so I switched to just a flat gold glitter paint and paint the veins on the leaves.  Below is a comparison pic of when I first started painting the leaves, and the present when I went back and re-painted them to be more accurate to the picture.

On the left: 2014 leaf.  On the right: the revamp.

Something else I plan to do for this costume is give it a pocket or two.  I decided that somehow, I need to start finding ways to put my phone and stuff somewhere, so I'm going to try to start giving my costumes pockets.  I took a 3-month industrial sewing class last year, and learned how to do pockets, so I plan on putting at least one pocket on the back of one of the leaves so I can carry my phone, debit card, and con badge somewhere when I need to.

It did come down to me deciding that I'd have to embroider the leaves by hand.  Metallic embroidery thread and my sewing machine just were not getting along.  I spent a LOT of time researching how to do embroidery with a regular sewing machine, and nothing I've tried has really worked out, so I just decided to do them by hand.  *SIGH*

My current progress on the first leaf.  One

down, 25 to go...

The plus side about doing these by hand is that I can choose to embroider with thick thread, as opposed to single threading on the machine, which I could have potentially had to go back over a second time, since I was using flat paint instead of puff paint for my guidelines.  I think that if I'm diligent with getting them done, I'll definitely be able to have them all done for when I hope to wear this in 2017.  Even though hand embroidery does take longer, I've been finding that it hasn't taken me very long to get to this point with the first leaf.  Not too shabby for someone who has never done any sort of embroidery, eh? :D  Until next time!!!