Rydia Sleeves, Part II

So, about those intentions to blog concurrently with costume design...blogging definitely fell by the wayside.  There were a couple months where I had to take a hiatus and figured if I only had time to do one or the other, costume should come first.

As of today, I can officially say that it is finished with a week still to go before ConnectiCon.  Woohoo!

It's definitely a great feeling to have seen this process the whole way through.  Now, time to start sharing the rest of the process with you! 
Some of the posts were drafted back in January/February and simply never published until now, like this next part about the sleeves...

Sleeves are starting to take form!  At this point there are only a few finishing touches left to make, but I can't help give a sneak preview.  Again, this took me far longer than expected...I was hoping to spend perhaps 3 to 4 weeks tops to completely finish this piece.  In reality, it has taken me almost 6 weeks.  It's hard to stay motivated when ConnectiCon seems so far away.

Here are a few handy tips for how to get yourself back on track and to stay motivated:

1. Plan ahead how much time you will need to complete your project.  If you set milestones along the way, you'll gravitate toward trying to meet your self-imposed deadlines.
2. If there is a craftsman competition, register!  It will put the pressure on you to fully commit to your project.  (Be sure to register way in advance, as spots fill up quickly!)

It was not easy to sew the yellow boarder around the sleeve opening.  First, I sewed the outer edge the length of the green fabric to eliminate raw edges.  Then, I carefully pinned the yellow strip to the midpoint of the sleeve (with raw edges ironed and pressed underneath).  The hardest part was ensuring the strip length was even on both the exterior and interior of the sleeve.  I used a shorter stitch length when putting it all together.

The next step was to put a yellow/gold trim around the edge.  I traced a pattern in paper and transferred it into the cloth using pastel pencil, and then carefully hand painted the design.  The pastel transfer pre-painting is just visible below.  I was not very impressed with the quality of the paint job, but it looks ok from a distance.