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My cute little Medusa!

Paint, and rope, and snakes. Oh My!

The miracle of understitching :)

My cute little Medusa!

I had so much fun this Halloween! Because my five young children decided on costumes at the last second, I got to feel like I was on project runway-- trying to get Tinkerbelle, Rosetta, two Aquabats, and Medusa (this entry) ready for the ball. My daughter loves the Percy Jackson books, and wanted to spend the night as a Modern Medusa.

The foundation for the hair is a baseball hat with the bill cut off. I wound 18ft of .75" black rope (hot glued at first, and secured with stitching later) to resemble snakes. Six toy plastic snakes were intertwined (again I tacked them down with hot glue first, and then anchored with stiches) throughout to make the hair more realistic. I spray painted everything black, and highlighted with brown and gold. To make the tongues pop I used nail polish. I primed them with white, and then went over it with red. The easiest way I found to accomplish the painting was to run upholstery thread through the middle of the hat, and hang it on a tree.

The jacket, made from vinyl, was my very first attempt at ever making a jacket... and I didn't have a pattern! I'm thrilled at how it turned out. I had a great time taking measurements, making a "muslin," and adjusting the fit. I loved that I got to practice techniques like hand pressing (which I now know is essential for vinyl), understitching, and adding a faux yoke in the back (who know my daughter slouched so much). I can't wait to use Louise Cutting's "Fuse and Interface Hem" technique to "bag" the jacket, which can be found in the video section of this website.

user-2255386, member
Posted on Nov 5th, 2012 in garment construction, tips & tricks, fabric, fitting, reader's closet, sewing machine, jackets, edge, iron, collar, Snake

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