Monday, November 20, 2006

Curtain wire and sticky tape

'Tinkerbell' was finally finished and ready to be worn on saturday, with only a few hours to spare :-)
The outfit was needed to be worn for work, on saturday morning, starting at 6am.......friday 11pm, and I'm just starting the wings! The problem with it being worn to work, was that it needed to comply with workplace health and safety regs...ie..not backless or strapless or sticking out in any way...that was a bit hard for Tink!!
We got around the backless/strapless issue by cutting the neck and sleeves off an old skin coloured t-shirt, and stitching the bodice directly onto it at the front. The back was then tied, and the knot tucked away. Our original idea was to hide this with the wings, but we had to scale them down heaps to make them safer. After a LOT of false starts, they were finally made by sewing together some acetate sheets and green organza. They had curtain wire inserted in the top part to stop them from flopping, and in desperation of needed sleep, the bottom shaping was achieved with sticky tape!!
Finally, they were machine sewed onto the back of the 'skin' t-shirt. The skirt was made like an old fashioned apron (pinny), with a body width's worth of 'leaves' sewn onto a long waistband, which was wrapped around, and tied at the back.
The end result was really good, and she was impressed with how many people recognised her as Tinkerbell :-)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great costume! And very innovative solution to the strapless problem.

Shelley L. MacKenzie said...

The costume looks great. A job well done! Here via the knitting path.

2paw said...

You are very clever!! OHS could not be more pleased I think and Tinkerbell looks great!!