Drag Dress Part Last
Hey reader!
Happy 30th post!
Where we last left our story, I had one week to create a drag outfit for work. I have one of the best jobs. Anyway, I had created my hip pads and now was the time to make the dress itself. I found this awesome tutorial from OnlineKyne. It is a quick and easy tutorial on how to make a mermaid dress.
The only problem that I had, was that Kyne was working off of an existing bodysuit pattern he had. I don't have any such bodysuit pattern, so I would need to make one. I had read online about a thing called DTF. Before you clutch your pearls and are totally scandalized, DTF stands for Duct Tape Form. It is a pretty simple process that gives you a perfect dressform to work off of for your body - or in my case the new body I made out of couch cushions in my last post. If you are not sure what DTF means outside of this context, well then you haven't spent a lot of time on dating sites and you should consider yourself lucky.
Making a duct tape form of yourself is pretty easy, though it is a two person job. I put on my new hip pads and a well padded bra and began to wrap my body in cling wrap. Then I
passed the job of wrapping me in tape off to someone who wasn't wearing a hip new portable sauna dress made of clear plastic. I only needed the tape on the parts of the dress that I knew would be skin tight. The mermaid flair at the end of the dress is made with math more than anything else.
Caution: tape is not flexible. I am wearing 2 corset type cinchers and a lot of padding with plastic over that. This process can take some time, especially if you want to get it done right. Don't wrap yourself too tight that you start to feel dizzy because taking a deep breath will be tough for a few minutes.
Once that is all done, put a few marks on the form so you can remember where everything is. I put marks on the hip joints and the widest part of my bust. Then, get your mummifier to carefully cut you out.
When all is done you will have a super cool form that perfectly matches the shape of your body. If I were a better sewer, I would probably stuff it with fluff and use that as a dress form to make my pattern. If I was rich I would have hired someone to do this for me. If I was taller I could touch the ceiling in my apartment. It isn't that I can't get a chair, I just think it would be cool to do. Point is, I don't yet know how to use a dressform effectively, so instead I drew the pattern I wanted right on the tape and cut it out.
I decided to try and get a little fancy with the hips to give this a more expensive look. From there, I cut out the dress in my 4 way stretch fabric using soap I had made previously as my marker. Soap is a great tool for this because it doesn't leave a bunch of permanent marks and I had some laying around. You would normally use chalk but who keeps that in their house - unless I start a project where I make chalk. How would that even happen. Nevermind, I need to focus.
It is important to use 4 way stretch because I was doing this as a rush job. I didn't have time to mess with zippers or buttons or other such nonsense. Everything needed to be something I could pull right on. I used fabric from Yaya Han the cosplay artist. It was great to work with, but the plastic coating came off the fabric really easily. It made it unlikely to be wearable more than once or twice, which is fine for my purposes - but something to keep in mind if making a garment you plan on wearing lots of times.
I wound up with an iridescent tube with some really interesting shapes. I look a little like a sausage in a sci-fi series. Futuristic deli meat aside, I am so happy with the way the bottom tapers and the hip cutouts came out awesome! This technique was time consuming but the product was well within my standards. I botched the top a little in that the parts aren't symmetrical. I don't know why I didn't just use one side and reverse it for the bust like I did for the hips, but here we are. The 4 way stretch is also very forgiving!
Notice that there is not any finishing stitching on the top. I had a plan to use a sash across the top that will cover that, and this fabric has a plastic coating so it is unlikely to fray anytime soon. Plus, stitches would change the amount of stretch I could get and I didn't want that.
OnlineKyne taught me how to make the mermaid part of the dress, it is a little geometry and cutting out a circle. I also pinned thin straps of the fabric to the bra to hide the straps. They weren't attached to the dress itself and they really didn't need to be.
Last thing to make was the gloves. I tried a few techniques but this was a case of the simplest solution is the best. I traced my arm, cut it out twice and sewed it up. Tada, cheap one-time-use gloves in matching fabric. Again, the plastic started to come off the fabric, especially on the fingertips, but I am still happy with the overall design. I made that little over the shoulder strap to be put on at the end. It covers the unfinished edge of the dress as well as hides the fact that my straps are attached to nothing at all.
I have done drag one other time, and I think I am getting better at it every time. The first time I made a dress from a pattern and wound up drowning in tulle. This time, my apartment smelled like soap and I was constantly covered in glitter. Seems about right.
This is a project that anyone can do. Four way stretch fabric is super forgiving and a standard stitch is just fine for this work. Keep making cool stuff and give things a try!!!
Until next time,
JoshPrime
Happy 30th post!
Where we last left our story, I had one week to create a drag outfit for work. I have one of the best jobs. Anyway, I had created my hip pads and now was the time to make the dress itself. I found this awesome tutorial from OnlineKyne. It is a quick and easy tutorial on how to make a mermaid dress.
The only problem that I had, was that Kyne was working off of an existing bodysuit pattern he had. I don't have any such bodysuit pattern, so I would need to make one. I had read online about a thing called DTF. Before you clutch your pearls and are totally scandalized, DTF stands for Duct Tape Form. It is a pretty simple process that gives you a perfect dressform to work off of for your body - or in my case the new body I made out of couch cushions in my last post. If you are not sure what DTF means outside of this context, well then you haven't spent a lot of time on dating sites and you should consider yourself lucky.
Making a duct tape form of yourself is pretty easy, though it is a two person job. I put on my new hip pads and a well padded bra and began to wrap my body in cling wrap. Then I passed the job of wrapping me in tape off to someone who wasn't wearing a hip new portable sauna dress made of clear plastic. I only needed the tape on the parts of the dress that I knew would be skin tight. The mermaid flair at the end of the dress is made with math more than anything else.
Caution: tape is not flexible. I am wearing 2 corset type cinchers and a lot of padding with plastic over that. This process can take some time, especially if you want to get it done right. Don't wrap yourself too tight that you start to feel dizzy because taking a deep breath will be tough for a few minutes.
Once that is all done, put a few marks on the form so you can remember where everything is. I put marks on the hip joints and the widest part of my bust. Then, get your mummifier to carefully cut you out.
When all is done you will have a super cool form that perfectly matches the shape of your body. If I were a better sewer, I would probably stuff it with fluff and use that as a dress form to make my pattern. If I was rich I would have hired someone to do this for me. If I was taller I could touch the ceiling in my apartment. It isn't that I can't get a chair, I just think it would be cool to do. Point is, I don't yet know how to use a dressform effectively, so instead I drew the pattern I wanted right on the tape and cut it out.
I decided to try and get a little fancy with the hips to give this a more expensive look. From there, I cut out the dress in my 4 way stretch fabric using soap I had made previously as my marker. Soap is a great tool for this because it doesn't leave a bunch of permanent marks and I had some laying around. You would normally use chalk but who keeps that in their house - unless I start a project where I make chalk. How would that even happen. Nevermind, I need to focus.
It is important to use 4 way stretch because I was doing this as a rush job. I didn't have time to mess with zippers or buttons or other such nonsense. Everything needed to be something I could pull right on. I used fabric from Yaya Han the cosplay artist. It was great to work with, but the plastic coating came off the fabric really easily. It made it unlikely to be wearable more than once or twice, which is fine for my purposes - but something to keep in mind if making a garment you plan on wearing lots of times.
Notice that there is not any finishing stitching on the top. I had a plan to use a sash across the top that will cover that, and this fabric has a plastic coating so it is unlikely to fray anytime soon. Plus, stitches would change the amount of stretch I could get and I didn't want that.
OnlineKyne taught me how to make the mermaid part of the dress, it is a little geometry and cutting out a circle. I also pinned thin straps of the fabric to the bra to hide the straps. They weren't attached to the dress itself and they really didn't need to be.
I have done drag one other time, and I think I am getting better at it every time. The first time I made a dress from a pattern and wound up drowning in tulle. This time, my apartment smelled like soap and I was constantly covered in glitter. Seems about right.
This is a project that anyone can do. Four way stretch fabric is super forgiving and a standard stitch is just fine for this work. Keep making cool stuff and give things a try!!!
Until next time,
JoshPrime
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