Adventures in sewing... (some nudity)

For a bit of a prewording to set the general mood, a awhile back I was really wanting to get back to my little storage box project, also in relative high spirits at the time, it turns out that the thing wants to troll me everytime I get back to it. last time it had warped because of the laquer causing a refettle and loss of motivation ... now a few months later it had straightened itself out, now needing to undo the adjustments from last time.. which I did, and lost motivation again though I did manage to put in the first bits of interior to it...

So I decided to go back to practicing something that I more or less suck at... which is sewing.

And the goal was to ape and reverse engineer a few things that had either deteriorated, or I have wanted for some time, but cant manage to get... because finances.

The top in question people should reconize as the photos go along... but I guess I could just come out by saying its based on one of the TC-Doll outfits they still sell ... the thing with this is, that like most things they still sell, it has a design quirk which I dont really like, which is the open back... so naturally I thought I could at least try to make something similar myself.

So I needed something as a base to start with, and I took out the "Your first maid outfit" book, which ironically I've never actually completed a single complete thing out of ... but it had a nice starting point for the main top body, which ended up something like as a proof of concept:

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Something also worthy of note, was that I also switched to using cardboard templates to transfer the cutting lines onto the fabric, and also the dart lines... which actually has been a bit of a revelation that I owe watching some old Mark Evans "XXX is born" stuff where an upholstery house used similar methods.

The thing with the maid-outfit book is that its still for L-bodies at the minimum, and I wanted a form fitting M solution, so some nips, and tucks, and whatnot other things and we ended here:

This is also where I tried using satin ribbon for some of the details, which isnt too bad of an idea overall.

next up some evolution happened, and I decided to split the front piece into two separate pieces, because the dart in the arm pit was starting to annoy me:

also in this evolution there was some fiddling to the sleeve top where it attaches to the body it was also shortened from the first iteration and made a bit more loose on the arm, also I dug up my patent solution for the collar for this sort thing from my bathrobe sets just for lulzies:

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and a side by side difference between the two:

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And this was when the tumbling down the rabbit hole began, and suddenly I was moving the shoulder line outwards, I wanted the main body to tug underneath the boobs, While I liked the shorter lenght, I didnt like it showing the body split line so it need to be elongated, I got annoyed by the split line of the front pieces ending up in the middle of the arm seam, and decided to move it right up in the shoulder split line...

so after a few days I had this pile of obsolete patterns to show for it:

And test top halves:

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Also a detached sleeve option I did for fun, which prooved rather nice, and will be used in some later ideas...

So finally I was somewhere resembling a happy place with everything, so I decided to cut out the final patterns onto some posh fabric I've had laying around which I had been eyeing for the project... only to find out that while at first touch it was very pliable, it just didnt really want to turn on itself, and prooved useless... so after spending a day in farming simulator all grumpy about it, I thought back to the miko styled prototype, and decided I might as well do a "Final" version of that theme.

So far I had done the double seam when joining the pieces, but for the middle back one I was detting a bit annoyed by the one sidedness of it, and decided to try a appropreate french-seam on it, with an actual support strip underneath it:

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With the outer shell complete, I did the inner pieces without too much finesse, since it was just to hide the raw edges:

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The inners were still separate because of how I was going to make this all come together, and also add a bit of flair to the sleeves while at it:

Cutting a strip of red cotton, folding it in two, and tucking it between the ends of the inner and outer sleeve pieces:

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And when flipped:

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I layed up my patent-pending collar design and slapped it on:

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Finding ourselves at this point so far:

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It doesent look much compared to the first miko protype, but all the little adjustments make it seem a bit better.. after adding the liner it seems a bit bulky, but not in a catastrophic way.

It still needs the bottom edge sorted out, with belt loops to boot, but Im probably going to copy that from the hotpants that i've been reverse engineering that made a sneak peek in one of the progress shots ...

Anyways... To be continued...

 

 

the doll that got me into Character dolls nearly twenty years ago,

-TOYNAMI's 2001 Tenchi Muyo! Princess Ayeka Masaki Jurai-  also got me into Sewing in general.

 

it began simply because i wanted to make her better Panties than she came with, -and better shoes-

and quickly evolved to modifying Barbie clothes to fit her, and eventually attempting complete outfits from scratch.

i've been at it ever since, and have gotten pretty good at making full sets of undies

for my long-since OBITSU-based girls, (Bra/Panties/Socks/Stockings)

and also good enough at modifying/improving existing doll clothes, though i remain fairly dodgy on making full outfits.

it ain't easy, but it sure is a skill well worth trying to master as best you can.

the potential freedom of personal tastes it can afford you in regards to your dolls' fashions is just about priceless...

 

Edited March 21, 2021 by Tasuke

Well, this isnt my first rodeo in this field to be honest, Actually my sewing machine is having its tenth birthday this year (low mileage basemodel mechnaical singer).

And the first thing I was trying to make back then was a onepiece / cat-ear hood type thing for a MDD / Parabox nemurihime hybrid.. which was a bit too ambitious as a first project, especially the hood.

so far the machine has been on scale upholstery duty (and 1/1 scale clothes maintenance).

I did the swimsuits for my last Alter photo's a year and a half ago which was also a bit of a learning experience in itself, but turned out better than I expected. before that it was four years ago with a bunch of bikini's and one bathrobe.

I just have a tendancy of letting certain parts of my hobbies sit for quite some time before getting back to them... even though you really need to keep at it to really get better, and not having to then spend time reeling in the slack from the pauses.

 

So... keeping this show on the road, while enjoying some of my favorite kind of crystal method....

I came across a bit of a interesting magic trick on twitter (which tweet I have since lost...), that involved inverting sewn strips of fabric so the seam isnt on the outside..

To make this happen you need a suitable piece of tube, of which I found sitting in my junkpile, in the form of a nasty cheap AM band RC car transmitter antenna...

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Dismantling one of these gives a few options in the end width of the strips, but just for funzies and the challenge naturally I had to go to the smallest diameter from the start:

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The twitter thing was a bit more of a professional effort with a fancy hook and all, but I ended up using some mig-welding wire, that was strudy enough to manage to pull the fabric through.

I did this once before without the tube, and was stuck at a end width of 10mm, because the fabric just jumbled up on itself with inverting, here the tube stops that from happening, or if you get ahead of it, you can use it to streighten the fabric back out and continue tugging it through.

This might be an obvious trick to folks who deal with this sort of thing more regularly, I thought Id share since I though it was neat.

So now I had my belt loop material sorted, so I just had to put it on the main body with the bottom closing piece:

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For some reason I got a little conscious about not using the sewing machine to make the final closure since I had supposedly gotten this far without visible thread seams ... only to then realize I had done the double fold seams on the main body of the top... oh well.

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The end result ... wasnt too shabby ... Obviously wont hold a candle against the korean / taiwanese Sewjuitsitsu efforts, but for once I wasnt too dissapointed with myself:

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I still would have prefered to have the body shorter and a lot closer to the under bust line, but at this lenght it just about covers the basic DD body torso seam.

On the positives, the sleeve ends worked out better than expected, and also the side effect of my over complicated collar, it has a bit of levitation going on giving a bit of a airy feel around the neck

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I still probably need to add some snaps to keep the front together at the bottom, as using the belt causes it to jumble up too much for my liking.

also the belt will not be red, While it goes with the miko theme, its a bit much on the top so I'll prolly swap that out for white or off-white satin in the future.

anyways... off to the bottom bits...

It actually *really* looks great, @finnleo! 

I know how hard it is to sew such tiny clothes, but you are doing an awesome job!

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Also Neris is so hot in these pictures! 

 

This looks fantastic so far! Awesome work!

I have thought of making my patterns out of card board,  but never get that far, lol. At any rate, the top looks amazing and I can't wait to see the final installments of the bottom.!

the cardboard templates are an extra layer of hastle to get them made ... but I do like using them better than trying to cut through a pattern on tracing paper - even with a currently single production number.

currently im in the middle of car inspection season thats keeping me a bit busy, but I have some ideas for the bottom baking ... though will it be a miniskirt, or a pair of pants remains to be seen...

and I made this thread as a general sewing thing of mine like the 3d prints thing, this miko'esque thing isnt supposed to be the last thing featured here... I hope.

Wow!!!! I can´t wait to see the final look!!!

Well, time to poke some movement into this project thread again...

even though the end results were a bit ... varied.

but long story short, I had decided that the bottom part for my little miko homage would be of the Pants variant, based on a strike witches fanart (yes... actual pants combined with that IP ... what is the world coming to..).

So naturally I set about trying to figure out a pattern, and oddly enough it was a bit less painfull as the top was, then again less parts involved too.

as a basis I took the deteriorated moonlight-something-or-another hotpants I had chopped up for research, and formed patterns off that incorporating the traditional hip/upper thigh opening of the hakama skirt.

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it took two and a half iterations of these to get them to where I wanted them, then again I had already practiced a bit with trying to copy the pants to begin with...

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I wasnt quite sure how I would do the belt bit ... and above I did a quick experiment with belt-loops by throwing in some satin ribbon I didnt need into the mix.

For the more serious effort, I decided to get all fancy-pants and do the double edged seams with the appropreate supporting fabric behind them on the outer piece:

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to add to the effort, I decided to line the thing also, with some junk fabric that was left from when I gutted a cheap blanked for its fillings...

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I couldnt really come up with a fully elegant solution to the tops... and decided not to sweat it too much, as this would probably end up as another one-and-done photoset item...

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it didnt end up too bad, even if I say so myself ... then again ...

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Im not quite certain does it end up a bit overboard with the cheeky department ... especially since in the final iteration the model would either be running commando or one of the "fake" C-strings (dont know? dont google.) I have laying around.

in anycase, the placeholder belt prooves that needs to be almost as thick as the top tubes, so that wont look funky...

it lacks the traditional fold detail that the illustration that inspired it had, but that would have pretty much scrapped the lining idea... but, all things considered im sort of happy for a change.

 

since this is more or less done, the next thing here might be me trying to re-visit a requiem arts pattern set I got years ago, which I did try to make into reality once, but it ended up a bit scruffy and have forgotten it ever since ... but with the more recent advancements, I guess might be possible now... heck might even try the first maid outfit book again...

 

I guess I might bump this one a bit as well...

The final product was shown in the last photbatch thread, but there was a few WIP photo's on my flickr on the subject.

So I decided to actually make a halter top version of the top in the previous post, and this time I also decided to see just how much of a difference fabric can make in the ease of putting the thing together.

and thus the outer fabric was a very thin mylar-esque stuff, that I had picked up form a scrap pile at a fabric shop, and the liner was recycled fabric from when I had gutted a blanket for its stuffing.

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The bell skirt pattern was just made by rolling up some copypaper into a suitable cone, and adding and subracting bits so it would be snug around the waistline. Not too bad as a lined results, although I do need to take the doll apart to put it on and off, as there is no opening seam to it.

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I didnt quite catch the main problem with the top in the above picture, which was that it would end up a bit too loose at the bottom, because of too much fabric at the back. the front would have formed over the bust quite well if not for this little misshap.

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The completed outfit featured satin strip as the collar detail. the sleeves have a rubber band loop put into the lining seam to keep them afloat on the arms, which was a rather neat side-effect. as already mentioned I wasnt exactly happy with the bottom part of the top, but I wasnt quite ready to try and make some fancy-pants belt setup like in the Volks red kouhai mini kimono outfit.

And again as a reprise, one photo of rise wearing the thing:

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So yes... fabric can make a difference to making stuff happen or not.

 

Very nice! Gives me some serious Space Channel 5 vibes.

Thank you very many

19 hours ago, sugarbeta said:

Space Channel 5 vibes

I did actually name the complete photo set "Discount space reporter" thats in the last batch I made in the DD photos.

It was one of those amusing moments, since I didnt really have ulala in mind even with the silver fabric, but after I got the bits together, I went "Hmmm, I wonder if I can find those headphones and a microphone..." ... sadly I have no rayguns to speak of. -- But its mostly the cone skirt, which succeeded surprisngly well, despite how it came to be.

I guess sometimes the project decides what it's going to be! Not that Ulala has a monopoly on mod or retro-future fashion, but it's really a remarkable likeness, lol. "Swinging Report Show" started playing in my head as soon as I saw her, it really made me smile.

I guess its safe to peek out a bit for some distractions...

On 2/24/2022 at 2:36 AM, sugarbeta said:

I guess sometimes the project decides what it's going to be!

mmm, this happens, with dolls on occasion too ... like my Rise that might some day evolve into an Aegis. though currently spends her time as a faux Anastasia..

On 2/24/2022 at 2:36 AM, sugarbeta said:

Not that Ulala has a monopoly on mod or retro-future fashion,

I guess you could trace the origins of this to the Jetsons in one way or another. Then again that started in the sixties, so can it be retro-futurism when it was made in a now retro period.

Also now that I think back on the period of SC5's original launch (i suddenly feel old again), I felt like Austin Powers had been some influence on it with the whole big dance routine released just a few years prior (Soul bossa nova for another ear-worm ... you're welcome).

But Ulala probably did influence some japanese stuff, Hatsune Miku got a specific module based on Ulala (Sega IP, so no surprise here), and Id say the "Haruhi Suzumiya space force" might have sprung from there.

Edited February 25, 2022 by finnleo

So even after getting a more posh sewing machine some time ago, I havent quite gotten a chance to use it for the hobby in any real form or fashion.

but now I decided to see if something could be done with certain outfits on the market.

So while I was paying way too much for knick-knack scale prop glasses (the megane kind) off mandarake, I plonked the cheapest damanged Miki Hoshii Pink diamond default outfit with them on the trip here.

Its in typical condition, where the lurid pink shell is starting to delaminate from over stretching.

I was sort of hoping for the boots to be in OK shape, since because the previous outfit set I had gotten some time ago had the wrong style with it.

but they are also toast:

So the general idea is to try and re-shell the outer fabric with something a bit more sturdy, and so the outfit came under attack with a de-seamer... and now my living room is littered with pink glitter since this fabric is just self-destructing with the tossing and turning around.

its also rather interesting to find out how the outfits were put together, and learning a few tricks they used while taking them apart, but at the same time the jacket has been a source of frustration, and I havent quite figured out how they closed the liner, though I have a fairly scary suspicion about it.

Unfortunately even though the white pleather was in decent shape when starting, but it took enough damage while dismantling that it might need a swap ... plus their weird stickyness as if they were at some point subjected to nicotine vape... unless it was something weird used to make it tacky when assembled.

But shall see if this was just money thrown down the drain or not.