Construction notes for making Korra's season 4 outfit

29 May 2017 - cosplay

I decided to break out specific notes on construction because they're pretty specific and targeted toward people who sew.

Arm warmers

What was I thinking, trying to do a rolled hem for the thumb hole when I didn't even do that for the rest of the arm warmer? It just added bulk to the thumb area and made it stiffer.
My light-blue straps are coming apart. There isn't a lot of fabric and therefore not a whole lot of room for stitches. Backstitching probably would've helped a lot, especially 'cause this part gets stretched over the arm. And it puts pressure on the seams.
The fabric is a ribbed knit that I also used for the apron. The straps were from the shirt fabric.

BIAS TAPE!!! Made the finish on everything look clean (kind of*)! But basically impossible without an iron. Or ... bias tape maker? (I just bought one 1 year later... still haven't used it because I hid it too well in my pile of scraps to find at 2am.)
kind of* qualification: Using a stretch fabric for bias is hard. I have no idea how you're supposed to turn corners.
Having a high neck is hard. I have no idea how to keep it consistent across the neck. Or get it to stay up. I hear interfacing makes things stiff? Interfacing scares me. Someone teach me, plzktanks.
Fabric was some garbage knit that grew a hole in the front. Luckily, the white ribbon goes right over it. :D Nobody has to know.

Adding bias tape to my shirt; and doing something funky with the bias tape to fake the front panel

Why did I even do this? I just really wanted the boot colors and shapes to work. These were actually two pieces: a shin-cover and a slipper.
I made the band for the shoe part larger, but I forgot I had to sew it in and didn't account for that allowance on top of sewing it into a tube, so it basically looks like the same width as the straps on the boot except that I specifically looked for screenshots of her boots (really hard, actually), and they look twice as thick. It also means when I wear it, there's a slight gap between where the shin-cover ends and the foot part starts.
One hundred percent should have picked a lighter weight fabric for the dark brown straps. I used the same fabric I did for the skirt, which I wanted to be heavy. But. GAH.
The shin-cover was literally held up by the straps, which wrapped around and were held in place with velcro. Except, don't buy stick on velcro. It sucks. Buy sew in velcro. I tried to fix the fact the stick on velcro stuck to itself better than the fabric by trying to hot glue it (didn't work), and then sewing it (which also didn't work, and bonus, I'm pretty sure it gunked up my sewing machine which now refuses to sew zig zag properly, or maybe it's the fact I was trying to make it zig zag through sequences).

Now I know how to cut fuzz without it being completely everywhere: sort of separate the fur so you can cut at the base of the fabric instead of crossing all the fur. Thanks Wendy! It's still sort of everywhere, just ... less so.
The straps are long and thread through the buckle.

Skirt making progress pics

It's basically a little fabric loop that has some shape because I shoved a 3D printed pentagon into it.
Turns out, my 3D print actually failed, but this made it even better! It had a rough crosshatch finish instead of a smooth finish, so it had some grip on the strap fabric that's supposed to run through it!
I just glued more fabric cut to the right shapes on top of each other. The fact that this means the seams are unfinished bugs me. Just a little. Not enough to think about though.

Made this a step through instead of a tie. Seemed much easier to handle.
I made it two layers and sewed the sides and bottom together, leaving the top open. This lets it also serve as a kangaroo pouch. Perfect for shoving a phone in, which also causes the apron to hang properly and makes the bottom point pointy!

Okay. Seriously. Why did no one tell me that the backs of pants and the fronts of pants were different? Does everyone who's sewn pants already know this? Does everyone who's sewing pants for the first time know this? WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME?
But[t], okay, the point is this Korra has two butt-sides, which means there's a LOT of extra fabric in front.
I didn't end up redoing them because they'd be hidden behind the apron anyway.
I also didn't finish the bottom because they'd be hidden in boots anyway.
I made the top band really high up, and folded it over A LOT. Like ... a foot? Whoops. Better than not having enough fabric?

I now know the words "asymmetric bob with side swept bangs." I didn't want to show the hairdresser a cartoon picture, and didn't really know these words ahead of time, so finding example pictures was, well, a little hard. But worth. Who doesn't wanna feel a little bit like Korra every day?
I bought a flat iron. Have I used it since? No. I discovered that I can basically blow dry my hair straight with a brush.

And here are some hard-won reference images.

Zoom in on ~~my empty wallet~~ boot

Capturing Korra's colors

Outfit reference I found on Pinterest

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