Today’s Monthly Feature Interview is with Beth!

Beth is a dear friend of ours whom we met through Livejournal and has a love of working with her hands. She is also the moving force behind the resin portion of our own business, as when she closed her shop. she packed everything and sent it to us. We incredibly grateful for this push in that direction, and probably wouldn’t have done it without her.

To see more of Beth’s work, check out Fuzzilovies!
Her Etsy is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/FuzziLovies
Her Facebook is here: http://www.facebook.com/FuzziLovies

Where are you from?
I grew up in central South Carolina but currently reside about a mile west of Lake Michigan.

How long have you been crafting?
That’s a tough question. I’ve had my fingers in creative outlets for as long as I can remember. When I was five I decided that I wanted my dresser to be black so I colored it with a magic marker. Until my dad’s nose discovered me, that is. I wasn’t even done with one side yet! I could probably call my mom and uncover a plethora of similar stories from finger painting to crayons to taking things apart and discovering how they couldn’t go back together. In a more “official” sense, I’d probably have to say 2004, when I made my first cosplay prop set: Sailor Moon’s accessories from Sailor Moon R.

How did you get into sewing?
One of our class projects in 5th grade math was making a quilt. We were each instructed to make a 10 inch quilt square with whatever design we wished hand-stitched on it. I had always watched my mom with her own sewing projects (1995 was the year of vests *shudder*) so I was one of the few who was actually really excited. When it was time to turn in the project, I was accused of cheating. The hem stitch around the square was so tiny, precise, and elaborate that my teacher was convinced that I had my mom do it for me! I was later vindicated and as an apology my square was put in the middle of the quilt. I didn’t do much sewing after that aside from a few cross stitches here and there until 2004 when I discovered the world of cosplay.

What other types of medium do you like to work in?
I’ve done a lot of woodworking since I was young. I hand-carved a walking stick when I was 12, using nothing but an old pocket knife, which I still have purely for nostalgia’s sake because it’s fairly well useless now. I also like using PVC because it’s lighter; craft foam; clays of various types; and although I no longer use it, I did enjoy resin casting quite a bit.

How do you feel you’ve grown within the craft since you started?
You always learn as you go. Tutorials surface online, friends give advice, and experimentation can often produce wonders. All three have been major factors for me and although I don’t cosplay anymore for purely logistical reasons, I still learn whatever I can “just in case.”

When did you start your business? How has it changed over the years?
I’ve had two stores. The first was a very resin-heavy cosplay prop store that I ran from 2007 to 2010. I closed because I had bitten off more than I could chew, and got burned out. The real clincher was when I became pregnant with my second child and resin fumes would be very damaging to her so I figured it would just be best to end it, sell off what I could, and give away what remained to some good friends. The second store I’ve opened very recently in June 2012. It’s aimed more toward children, with stuffed animals and comfort items. Although it’s slow going right now because I’m just starting out, I feel more accomplished with it because everything is made very quickly, usually needing no more than 3 hours each. It’s all in my head though.

What is your favorite medium to work in (and why)? What is your least favorite (and why)?
I’ve always said that sewing is my therapy. I find that the feel of the fabric is very relaxing and the hum of the machine drowns out a whole lot of excess noise. My least favorite would be wigs. I’ve done a few and none of them have turned out very well. It seems like the only thing I’m good at with them is dyeing since I’m pretty color-savvy. I’d like to try again later because, like I said, I’m always trying to learn new things and a successful Sailor Moon wig would be a major achievement for me.

Do you have any goals set up for where you’d like your business to go or new avenues you’d like to pursue?
I would like to see FuzziLovies in some small local stores. I’m not sure I’ll ever get there, but it would certainly be very cool.

What is the biggest thing you’ve learned since you opened your business?
Commissions don’t always pay off so I have to be very careful with them. It’s how I got burned out the first time around.

Do you have any advice for people just starting out?
If you’re like me and math and business details aren’t your strong point, find someone you trust to help you. For me, that’s my husband. Without his guidance I would be running this business into the ground again. Also, be patient. Advertise locally, not just online. “Drop” business cards in elevators or waiting rooms now and then to get attention you normally wouldn’t.

 

Easy, Flat Fly-front Zipper

It’s been a while since I’ve had to put a fly into pants, so I hunted around for some good, online tutorials. I saw this one and I thought I’d share it with you.

So, do you have any tips or tricks when it comes to making the perfect fly-front zipper?

After a rash of “but WHY does this cost so much?” and “but I can get this on Ebay for $30”, it’s time, once again, to revisit our old friend – the explanation of commissioning prices.

If you haven’t read it already, check out our post “The Price Of Quality“.  We’ll wait here while you do.

Great! Welcome back! Now, I do understand that some people have absolutely no concept of how much materials cost. Visit your local fabric store sometime. Now, here’s a thought. The fabric for pleated skirts alone are, traditionally, 3 times your waist measurement. Let’s say you have a 28 inch waist; that turns out to be 84 inches or 2 1/2 yards.  If you want to go the cheap route, you can get some cotton for about $3.99 a yard.  So, cool. Congrats. The fabric for your skirt will run about $10.  Not too bad. Except, 1) that’s just the skirt, and 2) most of the time, you probably want a nicer material.

Switching gears, let’s say you want that pretty bridal satin. Well, that’s $9.99 a yard. So that bumps the price of the skirt up to $25. Again, not too bad, but – again – that’s just the skirt.  By the time you are done, on the average costume, you can have anywhere from $75-$300 worth of *simple* materials.  That thread that sews the costume together isn’t free, you realize, and it costs $3-$5 a spool. The stripes on the senshi costume are bias tape; that usually runs $3 a pack.

(And, yes, Joannes has coupons, be we can’t always factor those in because we might not always have some on hand. They are finite. Plus, some seamstresses don’t always USE Joannes; some fabrics are specialty and have to be ordered online.)

Before you even get started, you’ve got yourself a nice, hefty bill – and there’s still labor to consider. And that is where the big complaints come in. People hate paying for labor.

So, tell you what – next time you decided that a seamstress’ hourly wage isn’t worth it, I say we come down to *your* job, and tell your boss that you aren’t worth the money they are paying you. You should really be working, off the clock, for free – or maybe we can pay you 50 cents an hour. Maybe. If we feel you are worth it.

Bet you wouldn’t like that, would you? So why is it OK for you to tell us the same thing? Because, really, when you complain about the cost, that’s what you are saying. You are saying that our products and our time aren’t valuable to you, and that’s just not cool.

Today’s question is a tough one.

Q: Advice on custom made socks (as in a specific color stripe to put on a sock) or how to best put a print/stitch on stretchy material?

A: Stretchy material is tough to work with under the best of conditions. If you don’t have your tension right or you use the wrong stitch when sewing, you’ll end up popping stitches when you wear your item and have to fix it.

So when you are asking about adding embellishments to stretchy material, red lights start to flash. Dying might work, but the problem with dyes is that they can bleed into other areas. You would have to do some testing of your material to see how well it might take to hand dying.

You can also attempt cutting strips of fabric out and sewing them together. However, you’d have to make sure the grains match up, that you have the pull all going the same direction, and watch your stitching, because, again, you now not only are competing with basic stitches around the toe and heel, but at every interval of the stripe.

If you are really hardcore, you can look into silkscreening. We’ve not worked with it, but it’s a very specific kind of dying process that doesn’t seem to have the problems with bleeding that traditional dying does.

Other than that? Scour the internet and see if you can find a manufacturer that has something close to what you need.

We had some good and interesting feedback on our previous post, and we wanted to talk about them.

First, Lilacwire had a very good suggestion:

“My advice to anyone who brings an item to competition that they did not make (be it commissioned or purchased off the rack) – make sure to tell the judges. That way you can continue to compete, but they will simply not consider your wig or wand or what-have-you as part of the craftsmanship and you’re being completely honest.”

And, actually, this is very good advice over all. If you desperately want to enter something that you and another person worked on, tell the judges. Tell them which parts you did, and which parts you didn’t do. They have the last say in everything, that’s why they are judges.

And if you aren’t willing to tell them that you had outside help, even if it was someone sewing on a sleeve or doing a hem for you? You really need to ask yourself why you aren’t willing to admit that to the judge. If you really feel it isn’t that big of a deal, then let the judge decide. If you are right, then you have nothing to lose, do you?

Sombra from Tumblr added, “I’m mostly focused on the mascot type costumes. Depending on how they’re put together, I know some people used commissioned items within their costumes (resin head bases, silicone pawpads, resin eyes, etc.) Now do they assemble them themselves? Of course. Plus when it all comes together you can see the hard work that was put in. However those items were still commissioned. So if you entered with a commissioned resin base (despite you putting on all the fur, foam for structure, airbrushing, etc. to give it a finish look), would you say the mask is something that cannot be entered into a competition? Likewise if you placed bought paw pads onto the gloves, can the paws not be entered either?”

Again, it is up to the judges, but to be honest, that would be like saying “Well, I didn’t weave this fabric myself, so I guess I can’t enter it.” Tell the judges what you made and what was commissioned. Show them how you put it together. Let them make the call. I can’t see this being a huge issue.

The same goes with armor. Sei on Tumblr mentioned needing help making a mold of his back to make armor, and, again, while it’s the judge’s call, no judge in the world is going to expect you to do that alone. There are things that you will need help with, especially if you are doing hardcore costuming. Face casts for making your own latex is another example. Or any sort of body painting.

What we’re referring to here is seamwork or other items that you could, and should, be able to do by yourself. If you are at the point where you want to enter a competition for craftsmanship, then put on your big boy or big girl pants and create it yourself. Be judged on your own work, not someone elses. That’s how you learn to grow and improve in your craft.

Today’s article is about some dos and don’ts when it comes to the craftsmanship side of cosplay competitions. This is not referring to skits but to having your costume judged for quality and craftsmanship.

To people who take the time to compete in various masquerades or other live competitions, cosplay really can be ‘seriuz biznis’. For a lot of seamstresses, it means putting in long hours pouring over references, patterning, sewing and crafting. When you put that much time, effort, and money into a project, it really does become serious.

Every competition has its own rules, so it’s very important to read over those before entering. Also, rules can vary from category to category, so make sure you are reading the information for your appropriate skill level.

There are some universal rules of thumb to keep in mind. While they are pretty straight forward, you’d be surprised at the amount of people who try and slide things by, just to try and win an award. Skeevy, yes, but they do it anyway.

First and foremost – if you did not make the costume yourself, do not enter it into the competition. I see this one broken left and right, and it drives me insane. I don’t care if your Mom, your Dad, your sister, your brother, your uncle, your aunt or your BFF helps you – if they gave you anything more than advice, if they sewed on your project, if they crafted items for your project, if you did not do 100% of the manual labor – do not enter that particular project into the competition. To be blunt, it’s really douche if you do. The whole point of entering a competition is to showcase your work, not someone elses – and if anyone worked on it but you, it’s no longer solely your work.

Now, if you and a friend are entering as a group and helped each another, that’s fine. As a matter of fact, if the competition allows it, I encourage that. Crafting items with friends is a lot of fun, and then you and your group can show off your hard work at the competition. Just make sure to enter at the level of the most capable person in your group. (Meaning, if you have two beginners and an intermediate, everyone should enter as intermediate.)

And, please, do not enter commissioned items in a cosplay competition. If you think claiming your Mom or sister’s work as your own is douchey, claiming a commissioned costume as your own qualifies you as a total douche-canoe. Seriously. And, as a side note, this also includes wigs and props. Don’t pass off someone else’s work as your own, no matter what part of the costume it is.

When you enter a competition, make sure to enter at your appropriate skill level. If you are willing to cheat just to get an award, you really should reevaluate your priorities. If you’re new at cosplay or have tried competing a couple of times and haven’t won an award, by all means, stick to beginner. However, if you’ve ever won an award before, then you need to suck it up and move to intermediate. The whole point of competing is to learn and grow in your craft, not be a jerk.

Next, when you go to get judged, bring reference pictures and progress pictures of you making the costume. Reference pictures help the judges see how accurately you made the costume; progress pictures help them see the journey you made from pile of fabric to completed costume and generally tend to win you bonus points. The more you bring of each, the better off you are. The most professional of cosplayers will bring a whole portfolio so that they can go over bullet points with the judges and show them how they did various things. The point is to impress the judges with your skills and knowledge. (Oh, and before you even walk in the door, do a once-over on your costume to make sure you don’t have any loose threads and that everything is where it needs to be.)

If you are given feedback by the judges at any point, listen to them. A lot of times, the people who are judging are cosplayers like yourself and they may have a trick or two to teach you. They aren’t insulting you. They aren’t putting you down. They are trying to help.

Some competitions allow modified street clothes, and that’s fine. Check to see the ruling on it. However, once you get past a certain level (usually journeyman but definitely in masters), it’s really tres gauche to use modified street clothes in competition. If you are entering in masters, you should be able to make pretty much anything off the rack yourself, anyway. Save it for hall cosplay.

And finally, be a good competitor. If you lose, lose graciously. Everyone has heard the “but the judges were biased” story – and sometimes it’s true. Some judges don’t know anything about seamwork or quality, but most of them do. Just chalk it up as a learning experience and move on. On the same note, if you win, win gracefully. While no one likes a sore loser, everyone hates a gloating winner. Thank the judges, be proud of your accomplishments, and leave it at that.

If you play your cards right, you can have a great time and meet some really fun and interesting people whom you already have something in common with!

Q: I’m making a (insert name here) costume, and I don’t know where to start. Help!

A: The best thing to do when starting any costume is to collect as many reference pictures as you can. Front shots, back shots, side shots. Close ups of various parts of the costume – and if it has a prop you want to do, grab pictures of that, too. Then grab a sketch book. You are going to want to start sketching out the costume, piece by piece, bit by bit. I have 3 pages worth of doodles for Prince Endymion (from PGSM). I have sketches of the undershirt, sketches of the collar on the undershirt, scribbles of his vambrace and arm pieces. Hell, I even think I sketched out the boots.
The reason for all this sketching is so that you get a really good idea of how the costume will go together, and what you will need to buy to start crafting it. It also helps to break things down into bite sized chunks so the costume doesn’t seem overwhelming – and some costumes are incredibly elaborate, so the more you can simplify things, the less likely you are to have a breakdown once you start putting it together. 😀

As you go along, make notes. Look at the picture, decide what materials may work best for each section. If it is a piece that is going to rub against makeup, consider chosing materials that are washable – and possibly detatchable so you can clean it easily. Also make sure your pieces are consistant; don’t do holographic gold spandex for one part, then gold tissue lame for another. It will clash. You want the costume to flow as much as possible. (To that end, you may also want to make a color palette to work from. It will also help keep things consistant.)

Finally, once everything is sketched out, take your sketches and your pictures to the fabric store. A lot of times you can find a number of patterns you can mesh together so that you don’t have to draft them on your own. You will also have your color palette handy so that you can easily choose your fabrics.

Lots of costumes have bows on them, and making sure they are the right shape and size is important to the overall look of the costume. That means knowing how to measure the bows appropriately and pattern them in the shape that best suits the costume.

As always, Sailor Moon is my fallback reference of choice, so we’ll show you how to measure bows for a standard Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon costume.

First, find reference pictures of your front bows. With the BSSM senshi, bows not only vary from anime to manga, PGSM to Sera Myu, but also from season to season. For example, their original bows vary from their SuperS season bows. So collect your pictures and get ready to measure. (Note: as always, it’s better to have someone measure you, rather than measuring yourself. It’s very hard to measure yourself accurately; I don’t recommend it.)

Let’s start with the front bow first.

As you can see, depending on the bow, the measurement will vary, so you’ll have to adjust for that. Typically, you want to measure across the bust:

For smaller bows (like the first season anime bows), for the width of the bow you’ll want to do outside nipple to outside nipple, and add an inch for seam allowance. (This will vary from seamstress to seamstress. I don’t like having a big seam allowance, so I usually only do 1/2 inch.) For larger bows (like Myu bows), you’ll actually measure armpit to armpit. Round up to the next highest number if it’s a fraction.

To measure the height of the bow, look at your reference again. For anime bows, you generally want to measure from the top of the bust (where your bra starts) to the center of your bust; again, add an inch for seam allowance. Manga bows generally cover the whole bust, while Myu bows actually start at the collar bone and end at the center of your bust. Again, round up to the next highest number if its a fraction.

Once you have your main bow measurement, you can calculate for the tails. The height will remain unchanged; you’ll want to add 3 inches to your original width measurement. That will give you an extra inch and a half to each side.

Have I lost you yet? No? Good. Now for the back bow.

As you can see, the back bows vary quite a bit as well. Typically, the width is fairly consistant, it’s the height and the tails that change. However, always use your reference pictures as a guide.

To measure the width on the average back bow, you want to measure your hips at the widest point, then add 3 inches (1 for seam allowance, and 2 to give it a little extra dimension.) Myu bows actually get measured differently. Clasp your hands in front of you and have someone measure you from behind, elbow to elbow. Weird, yes, but it works.

The standard height I recommend for the main bow is from the small of your back to the center of your bum. Myu bows get measured from about the start of your arm pit to the top of your bum. (Gotta love Myu. Everything is HUGE.) Remember, when you attach the bow, it will rest around the small of your back, so don’t freak out. We’re going for proportion right now. Location matters later.

Next up, your trailers:

If you have trailers like your front bow, you just do some simple mathematics. This time, add 4 inches to your width. (It’s going on your butt. You need to compensate.) However, if you have dangling trailers, then you’ll need to measure again.

First, measure from the small of your back to half way to your knee. That’s the length of *one* trailer. Also remember that dangling trailers tend to be more narrow, so you don’t want them nearly as wide. Five inches plus seam allowance is actually a good size for the width of most trailers.

So there you are. You now have your basic measurements to create your bows. If you know how to make bows, then you are all set! If not, our next tutorial will be how to make nice, crisp bows, so stay tuned!

First I want to state that this is just my point of view based on my own, personal experience. I will do my best to be objective and constructive, but this is obviously going to be bias to my own point of view.

We attended this convention as artists rather than con-goers. While we both have been attending conventions for over 10 years now, the experience is different depending on what you are doing: regular attendee, panelist, artist alley person or staff – and for the record, Steph and I have worn all of these hats at one point or another. I, myself, have had a small hand in running a convention at one point years ago. But I digress.

Last year was our first time at a convention as artists. We didn’t know what to expect, so it was an overwhelming experience. We are still very new at this; we’ve sold at a total of 4 conventions now. Thankfully, we know people who have been doing this for years who have been helping us with constructive feedback. When you couple that with our regular convention knowledge, I feel that we can start to give a valid evaluation of our experience.

To say that things were disorganized. particularly in artist alley, would be an understatment. First and foremost, we were severely disappointed that the venue and dates were not announced until less than two months before the convention. We had friends from out of state who were planning on attending, but did not get enough lead time to do so. I also feel that it hampered attendance of working adults; trying to get time off work can be a nightmare.

Also, we had tried contacting the convention last year in regards to having our musical group do a performance there. We were initially told via email that they were interested. However, when I went to follow up on the lead later in the year, no one bothered returning my emails. We were essentially left in limbo, and to this day have had no further response.

That non-withstanding, upon arriving, we find out that the artist alley area was put together fairly randomly with its set up, there was no priority table assignment for those of us who paid in advance, and it was a “free-for-all” for where you wanted to sit. That last one worked out in our advantage this time, only because we were there an hour early and were able to grab a table near an outlet (so that I could sew). Unfortunately, the tables were ridiculously narrow; roughly 6’x 2′ if I had to hazard a guess. Most standard tables are 8′ x 6′.

Registration was a nightmare. Last year, we had to stand in line with regular attendees to get our arist badges. We were told to do so again once we got our tables – which, by rights, we shouldn’t have been able to do until we had our badges. However, artists were just going in and snagging tables around 9:30am, so we just followed suit so we could get wall space. We went upstairs, stood in line, and when I got to the desk I was told badges were being brought to artist alley and we didn’t need to be in line. We went back downstairs, but no badges were to be found. I inquired to the temporary head of AA (as originally the con chair was running AA, which I personally feel was not a very bright idea) about the badges, and he said we need to go back upstairs to get it. Getting fed up, I decided to finish setting up my booth before bothering with that. About 20 minutes later, one of the con staffers came around to inquire if we needed anything, we told him about the conflicting information. He said he’d get our badges. Eventually, all the artist badges were brought to the temporary head’s table and we finally, after about 3 hours, were able to get our badges.

On the positive side, in my dealings with Wasabi staff, they were open to objective criticism and willing to work with vendors to make things better. When artists brought their concerns about table arrangment forward, they were more than OK with rearranging the floor space. When we asked to close at 10pm as opposed to midnight, they were perfectly OK with that. On the whole, the people we dealt with were very accomodating and great to work with. We left with the hope that next year will be better; so we pre-paid for a table at the 2013 event.

I will have to say, though, our biggest problem was not with the convention itself, but with the hotel. We had a minor problem with our stay last year and were promised a room upgrade. We were told via voice mail we would be staying on either floor 6, 7, or 8, have a microwave and a refrigerator. That was super nice of them to do so, and we planned around this. (To save money, we bring food whenever possible.) When we got there, we were put on the 10th floor. There was no microwave or refrigerator. It was just a normal room. Instead, they gave us a couple “breakfast vouchers” for their really crappy breakfast buffet. (It consisted of powdered eggs, some sort of spam-meat byproduct, bacon and juice. I refused to even touch the milk, as it wasn’t even refrigerated.)

What happend next was nothing more than a clusterfuck. We went back to the lobby, explained the situation and requested to switch rooms. We were told, no. However, they were willing to send up a fridge and a microwave. OK. Fine. They were meeting us half-way. I’m OK with that. An hour and a half later, they bring up the fridge. It’s filled with mold. We call down to complain, and are told we’ll get another one. An hour and a half after that, I call again. The fridge is replaced, but we still have no microwave. Finally, they bring one up. It’s broken, so that has to be swapped out. Then, our toilet wasn’t working properly the whole weekend, but since they are booked to the gills, there’s nothing we can do other than deal with it. The final straw was when I got my bill and they *charged me for the refrigerator*. After having words with the clerk on duty and being offered more breakfast vouchers for my troubles, we packed up as fast as we could because I was OVER dealing with that hotel.

And we were not the only patrons with that kind of problem. A number of us talked to Wasabi staff, and were told that they are looking for other hotels and they will not be returning to the Red Lion next year. If they do, I will be requesting a refund for my table, because as much as I’d like the opportunity to work with them again, I will -not- give Red Lion any more of my money.

I wish I could comment on how the rest of the convention was, but we were behind our booth for 95% of the time we were there. I did manage to stop in the dealer’s room for a bit and briefly peruse the gaming area. The dealer’s room was nothing to speak of, as there were more artists in artist alley than dealers in the dealers room. I think there were 10 dealers total. And considering they charged the dealers the same as a convention three times their size, I have to say that I felt bad for the dealers that came. While they are on the main floor and tended to have more traffic, they also had higher overhead, so they had to jack prices to try and cover their costs.

This convention draws a significantly younger crowd, so the dynamics are much different than most the conventions we attend. The focus seems to be on the game room and the rave, rather than panel content and guests. I’m not sure how the cosplay track is, as we’ve had almost no contact with them whatsoever, but other than a masquerade, I don’t think they have a cosplay track to speak of.

Unfortunately, younger crowds tend to not have as much money, so the dealers and artists make fewer sales. It’s more of a hang out and party con, to be honest. It does have potential, though. It just needs a few more strong leaders in various departmental roles, and I think it could be a great con.

Hey there! Yaten back again to give you guys our next ask us Sunday! 🙂

Q: How do you go about using two patterns together? For example, taking the bodice of one pattern and the skirt of another to make a whole dress?

A: That’s a great question! A lot of times when you are trying to re-create something you need to use multiple patterns to get it as accurate as possible. And using the example in the question, let’s say that you need a big poofy skirt, but the top of the dress needs to be different then what you have in the pattern. Most of the time with dresses, the skirt is sewn on separately. That would be why there is a seam between the bodice and the skirt. So it’s a simple case of taking the bodice from pattern a, and using the skirt pattern from pattern b, and using them together. Of course this is all depending on the patterns. By simply looking at the finished piece on the front of the pattern you can usually tell if the two patterns will match up or not. I don’t know how to describe it more than that, it’s just about using some logic and common sense.

Now, it gets harder when you don’t have that seam at the waistline. There are dresses out there that are just one piece of fabric from top to bottom with the seam lines along the sides instead. Usually to help make it a little more ‘fitted’ looking. Look at my Movie Anthy dress as an example:

Movie Anthy

The original pattern for the dress had a scooped neck and I had to turn that into something that came all the way up and had a high collar. I found a pattern from jacket and cut the top part of it out in a scrap piece of fabric, then took the dress pattern and laid it over the top. There was some trimming involved in order to get the patterns to match up, but it ending up making what I call an “extension”. Something that I can just pin to the dress pattern, and then cut everything out in one piece. I do this a lot when altering an existing pattern, but I usually just draft the extension by hand now, which I don’t recommend until you feel more comfortable with drafting your own patterns.

Of course, you could have a bodice piece from pattern a, and a complete bodice/dress piece with no seam line at the waist from pattern b. So now you have the top you want, but the top doesn’t come off of the bottom that you do want. If you’ve never noticed, patterns always mark the waistline with a little dashed line. Just fold down the bodice you don’t want at the waistline and use the other piece as the extension by pinning it down. Just make sure the two waistlines match up and you’re good to go!

Now dresses are just one example of many where you can use multiple patterns for just one costume. You can use this technique on a lot of areas, such as mixing and matching sleeves, collars, lapels, etc.

I hope that this helps out! ❤