Progress continues!!!

Yay!!! All the pieces are cut out!!

I went over to my partner's house and we laid out the DTC and patterns and decided which ones we actually needed. We discarded the lining and facing because we could do that by duct taping the inside of the clothing, and we also decided to leave off most of the pockets for simplicity's sake. In the end, we barely had enough cloth to fit everything, which was suprising considering that we had 5 yards of the stuff. My dress only took 4 yards and I had plenty left over.

So, I still need to finish putting stars on my shoes and trying to figure out how we're going to get duct tape to curve smoothly. The purse is presentable, but I still need to decorate it. I also need to finish the neckline on my dress and add a zipper...........

Purse! pt. 2

Once I get started, there's no stopping me...

Since I had the DTC intended for the purse lying around, I went ahead and made it today. It didn't turn out exactly like I designed it, but I'm still quite happy with the result. The strap was complicated, and it took a few practice strips and experiments before I finished that. It's all one whole strip of duct tape, folded down on itself in a certain way and partially unfolded and stretched out... Perhaps I'll draw up a chart of how I did it, it turned out looking pretty nice...

I still need to finish my shoes, and I'm hoping my partner can come over tomorrow and we can cut out the pieces for his tux. I've also figured out what I'm doing for the hairpiece and the corsage, so I'm pretty much on track except for finishing the neckline on my dress. I actually hadn't planned on doing a lot of this until spring break...

Purse! And other accessories...

I was doodling today and I came up with a workable design for the purse. Simple enough, but classy. I also went through the scraps left over from my dress and found a sizable piece that will definitely be big enough for it. I'm planning on using a shaped wire hanger wrapped in duct tape for the handles.

For now, I think I'll be working on getting everything we'll need to a presentable state before we move on with the decorating. My dress is almost there, I still need to sew the zipper in and finish cutting out the neckline, but after that it'll look like a dress. I still need to cut out the pieces for the tux and tape those together, but after that both of our outfits will be presentable and I can breath a bit easier.

I'm thinking of ways to fasten the tux, particularly the pants. I think a zipper and a hook-and-eye fastening will do the trick. Hook-and-eyes will probably work for the shirt and jacket too...

Still noting set for my hair. I've had this vague idea of an updo with something mimicking a smaller planetary ring, or maybe something more like an astroid belt. Like the laurel wreaths of Greece (see picture) except with stars instead of leaves. I just came up with that while typing and it sounds pretty good. I'll keep y'all posted...

Much progress...

My partner and I have been getting together the last couple Sundays. We decided to get a pattern for his suit (because we know next to nothing about making a tux) so we picked up a couple patterns at Joann Fabric and Crafts one week and finished cutting them all out the next week. Hopefully I can find time to cut them out of the DTC so we'll be ready to tape them together the next time we work on it.

On my to-do list:

1) Finish putting stars on the shoes. One of them is done already, I just need to remind myself to do the other one when I have a spare moment. It really doesn't take that long, I'm just forgetful...

2) Experiment with the design on the tux. Our idea is to put shooting stars on the tux jacket, so I need to figure out how to make long, curving strips of duct tape when the curve is too wide to cut out of a single piece. It'll just take some messing around with, I'm sure it won't be a problem. It just needs to be done...

3) Start thinking about hairstyle and accessories. For the hair, I don't want it to be too outlandish, but I do want it to be more than a few stars bobby-pinned into an updo. Maybe some kind of star halo or even a tiara-style headdress? And the purse. I haven't even started designing the purse. I have a feeling that'll end up being the thing I'm least concerned with when we get down to the last few weeks...

I should really get a solid date for the prom we're going to. I know it's in the middle of May somewhere, but it would be nice to know for sure...

Why did it take me so long the first time?

My new partner came over today and we taped up the cloth. All 5 yards of it. In three hours.

So that's done. We did run out of duct tape about 1 row away from being finished, but it's basically done. I can't believe it took me so long to do just 4 yards...

He left his tux here, so sometime during this week I can draw up a pattern for the next time we get together.

(12 black, 6 chrome, 1 purpe)

Big Update! Steps 6 and 7? Idk anymore...

The dress is all put together. Here's a pic of most of the pieces before we taped them together by peeling the edges of the duct tape away from the cloth and interlocking the two pieces (layering from bottom up: cloth 1, cloth 2, duct tape 1, duct tape 2. The top layer of duct tape stuck to the duct tape directly under it, which stuck to the cloth that originally went with the top layer of duct tape. Hopefully that makes sense...). After that part of the "sewing" was done and smoothed out as much as possible, we took a long piece of black duct tape and went over the whole seam top to bottom. It's suprisingly secure. I've also adjusted the dress with darts around the waist and bust by pinching up the extra duct tape cloth (Duct tape cloth will now be refered to as DTC because I'm tired of typing out the whole thing), folding it over, and sticking it down with a long piece of duct tape. And in case anyone's wondering; yes, I did finish the dress form/mannequin thing, but I don't have a good picture of it since my dress has been hanging on it and my sisters stuffed it to the breaking point trying to make it look "realistic" (fat). :P

I'm working on the fancier stuff now, mostly the neckline. The neckline is an unusual original design, and when I'd worked on it a bit, I realized I'd have to move the planned zipper from the back to the side, otherwise I wouldn't be able to get into the dress. I've also evened out the bottom hem with a good pair of scissors (so much easier than working with normal cloth!) and added a curving slit (triangular cutout? wedge shaped clothless spot?) that ends right above my left knee. I'll be adding a bunch of stars there too, to circle around for the train.

Unfortunately I've had to find another partner, but the good news is within a week I found a friend of mine who's willing to give it a shot. We're going to meet on Saturday to work on his tux design and start making his DTC, so we'll see how it goes!

(I'll say one black to tape it together and one purple for the neckline, so 6 blacks, 6 chromes, and 1 purple)

Step 5 Begun and Done!

I'm finished cutting out all the pieces I need for the dress, and I have plans for a friend to help me tape it all together later today. It only took me two or three days to finish cutting it all, mostly backstage during rehearsals again. I've been cuting out a lot more stars too, and I've started stringing them together to use for the train. It'll be about three feet long, maybe more.

I'll try to remember to take a picture of the pieces before we tape it all together. Happy New Year!