Belt it Out!

Happy Almost 4th of July!  What a weird work week this is going to be, since all of the US gets Wednesday off.  Double Mondays.  Double Fridays.  Kinda sorta.  Are two Fridays worth having two Mondays, in a single week?  Probably so.

I was off gallivanting in Atlanta this past weekend, visiting some friends while they had a lovely house warming BBQ.  It was great fun, though not a great weekend for sticking to my diet … my friend cooked a ton of yummy noms, and it was delicious!

I also did no sewing while I was in Atlanta … I did however do some sewing last night.

After a short round of PANIC.  Why?  I discovered that I have exactly 5 weekends left until DragonCon.  At the end of the month, I’ll be on vacation.  In the middle of August, I’ll give up a weekend for my sister’s bachelorette party.  And then DragonCon essentially will be upon me.  So.  No more dilly-dallying.  I’ve got costumes to finish!!

Sunday night after I returned from the weekend in Atlanta, I was too exhausted to accomplish much.  Funny how a 6 hour car ride takes it out of you.  Anyway, I finished my side seams on my robe, and realized that I can’t hem the bottom of said robe until I go back to Hancock and buy EVEN MORE BIAS TAPE.  Oye.  I need a supplier.  I really do need to make a run for things, and I might get to go this week, but until then, no hemming will be happening.

Today, I tackled the belt part of Project Breyna.  It didn’t take me too long.  The jersey knit fabric I have been using for this project stretches significantly in one direction, and almost not at all in the other direction.  It just so happens that the way I cut the belt piece was so that the long horizontal part of the belt was not stretchy.  Also, I cut the belt according to Simplicity 4795, which meant that it was a bit wider than I wanted.  So I folded the belt piece in half, and stitched along one short side and one long side (see the arrows below).  I used the tissue paper trick just to be certain I had no wavy seams.  Then I turned the belt right side out (middle picture … no, that is not a dirty sock…) and ironed it.  I also ironed a hem along the unfinished edge, and then in the picture on the right, I slip-stitched it closed.

Now to decorate it.  I feel like I have done this trim stitching enough times now, that I could do some better pictures describing the process I have been using.  The first thing I have done each time I stitched trim onto a piece of this costume is measure the length of the piece I am adding trim to.  Then starting in the middle, I mark turn points with pins.  In the picture below, the 21.5 inch mark is the center.  I added 1.5″ to either side to mark the downward point of my design.  Then I measured 4″ to either side for the straight part of the pattern.  Rinse and repeat.

I didn’t above, but you may wish to mark how far from the edges your trim starts.  I used about a 1″ seam line here.

You will need your trim along with a piece of stay tape to match, at least if you are using a stretchy fabric.  Place the stay tape underneath the fabric and the trim on top of the fabric so that you have a three layer sandwich with the fabric in the center.  I use a zigzag stitch at the beginning and end to secure the trim.  Then use a straight stitch and sew down the center of your trim until you reach your first pin (shown in Step 1 below).  Lift the presser foot, turn the fabric a little to the right, and pull the stay tape and the trim to the left, making sure they stay on top of one another.  Lower the presser foot, and stitch to the next pin (shown in Step 2 below).  In Step 3, you turn the fabric and trim / stay tape in the opposite direction, and stitch to the final pin.  At this pin, realign your trim, stay tape, and fabric so that they are all parallel again, like Step 1.  Repeat this process until you reach the end of the fabric.  In Step 4, you’ll notice that when I do the second piece of trim for this pattern, I no longer use the pins, I just turn the fabric appropriately when the first line of trim turns.  Its a very symmetric pattern.

When I had finished the trim, all I had left on the belt was attaching some velcro pieces to make it close in the back.  This was my first velcro attachment, and it wasn’t too bad.  However, this did happen.

There was no question at all that this needle was bent.  It happened when I was trying to attach the sharper teeth piece of the velcro (the darker piece in the images below.  This velcro had a sticky back, which helped hold it in place when I sewed.  The fuzzy piece of velcro went on very smoothly.  I did a little criss-cross design in the middle of it, how cute! 😛  The other piece made my machine a little angry, so I just did a box of straight stitches around the outside.  If you notice, in the center picture, on the right, the outside of the belt looks a little wonky around the threads from this attachment.  I am glad it worked ok, but I am not looking forward to attaching more of this velcro.  It is like super sturdy strength.  I may pick up some more ordinary velcro before I have to do any more of that for this costume.

And the belt is done!  Huzzah!  Picture of the belt on with the robe, complete with Zedd dog photo bombing.  Not sure why this dog always needs to be in the pictures, but there you have it.

I intend to spend my 4th of July working on the head or shoulder piece of this.  I haven’t decided which one yet.  Huzzah!