Candy W. Ardlay - Uniform St. Paul's #7

finished bows, and cosplay sketch, on my corkboard

bow pieces in pink and burgundy

It's been a long time, but I needed to finish the bows, so I could go on with completing the Hokuto Mad Hatter costume, with these out of the way. The best thing is, now I finished the smaller tasks for Candy, having over one year to make the dresses and style the wig.

Pretty Guardian Sailormoon, 2003

I basically used the same method as for the hair bows, and I wanted them to look like the Pretty Guardian Sailormoon bows, pretty stiff and solid.

I cut one long piece and a short piece in the main fabric and in the stiff woven interfacing, for each bow (I cut the knot later), and heat bonded the interfacing to the back side of the main fabric. Usually I would cut the interfacing half the bow's height, and heat bond it to the inside back of the main fabric, but both these fabrics are very drapey, so I decided to go for full interfacing, which proved being too much for the burgundy sablé, which is thicker than the pink, and didn't make my life easier.

Then I sewed the bow part, and the burgundy flaps, into a tube, by hand, using a running stitch, and 3 sides of the pink bow flaps, leaving an opening in the middle. I didn't do this for the burgundy, because I needed to add the stripes. I turned and pressed the bow parts thoroughly, leaving the seam in the middle. I also turned and pressed the pink flaps very well, leaving the seam at the bottom, and closed the gap, with a ladder stitch.

flat bow pieces, and starting the stripes

That's when the stripes saga began. First I had to decide how many stripes I wanted. The anime isn't very consistent, sometimes there are four, sometimes five or six. I went for the average, five stripes, besides I think an uneven number looks better. I traced them with pencil on the front side of the bow and flaps, and, starting with the flaps, and the centre stripe, I temporarily glued the piece of black 6mm grosgrain ribbon, on top of the pencil line. Then I started sewing the stripe to the burgundy fabric, using a very thin black cotton thread I wrongly bought years ago, to sew black fabrics, but it's too thin, and it breaks easily. Nowadays I only use it for non stressed seams, and doll clothes, and I still have a lot, because I bought the largest spool available... Taking advantage of the grosgrain grooves, I sewed the ribbon around the borders, with a tiny running stitch, near the ribbon selvage, so the stitches are the least visible possible.

black stripes

I did the same for the other four stripes, and once they were all tacked in, I pressed the flap ends inwards, and sewed them shut, with a ladder stitch.

It took me a while to do it on the bow part, double the length, and I had to insert my T ruler inside the bow, in order to be able to sew it on, without catching the back fabric. I also had to be careful with the stripes not becoming wobbly, because the glue would become undone while manipulating the fabric. This is also where I realized that a full interfacing was too much for this fabric, not making my life any easier and making it harder to sew crisp corners, or even tacking the ribbon to the fabric. I also thought I had measured the burgundy fabric right, and cut it on the thread, but it has a bit of elasticity, and when I heat bonded it to the interfacing, the ends were a bit off. It was an easy fix for the flaps, but the bow ends had around 8mm difference in some places. That's one of the reasons I didn't finish the pink bow immediately, I wanted them to be the same size, so I needed to finish the problematic bow first, and hide the interfacing. I don't know how many weeks it took to sew the stripes, but it was a while, and I only sewed a bit every evening, once in a while, crafting other things in between.

Only this week I decided to finish them, so I can put them away before they get ruined due to some small mishap. Starting with the burgundy bow, I marked the middle, and traced a line, and folded the ends to the back, overlapping them about 8mm to each side of that centre line. I did the same for the pink bow. Then, with a thick thread, I basted them together through the centre line. Then I folded the bow, following that centre basting line, in an M shape, and tacked the back and front centres with the thick thread. I repeated it for the pink bow, and did the same to the flaps. I did each step first for the burgundy bow, and then the pink bow right after, so that they would be the same.

finished bows and sorting out the way to attach the stars

Before attaching everything together, I needed the knot. I calculated how wide I'd like the flap, times 3, and cut it in the interfacing. Then I heat bonded it to a piece of each fabric, and cut around the interfacing, leaving about 1cm seam allowance. Then I traced the middle on the burgundy knot, and added a piece of ribbon, like I did for the bow. I folded each knot into a 3rd, and, folding the seam allowance to the inside, sewed them into a tube with a slip stitch. I usually don't do this, I just fold them, and maybe tack them at the ends, but these fabrics are slippery and the interfacing doesn't bond that well.

finished knot and pin

I tacked the flaps to the bow together (the flap seam towards the bottom), and folded the knot around both, tacking it together at strategic places. Finally I added a pin, to attach them to the dress.

1. with thin wires, to envelop the knot; 2. with a looped jewellery wire across

I wanted the stars not to be glued to the bows, first because I don't trust glue, and also because I'd like to be able to detach them, if I need to clean the bows for some reason.

First try. After backing the stars with foil cardboard, I cut two red felt circles, the same size, and sandwiched thin gold wires between them and the stars, with contact glue. The plan was to wrap the wires around the knots, but they were too thin and it basically didn't work. So I ripped them off, and cut two more felt circles, and made two loops in some jewellery wire, and sandwiched them between the felt and the stars. I didn't want to make a stem button, because the stars are already quite high, and I was afraid they would be wobbly and face downwards, once sewn to the knots. So I sewed each loop, much like a hook & loop situation, with thread matching the bows.

finished bows

Aren't they pretty? And now they (temporarily) live in my new/old corkboard, I found in the street.

+ I finally got this out of the way, and I'm very satisfied with the result.

- I would prefer the colours to be more contrasting, but they look more pink and more burgundy live. Even with the interfacing mishaps (there is a reason I don't like heat bond interfacing), they look very professional. I just hope the stars stay glued to the cardboard and the felt.

THE CUNNING PLAN

Take a break from Candy until I finish the Hokuto costume, and then order the wig(s). I say wigs, because I may order the Telulu wig together with this one, but I'm not sure when I'll start her costume. I'd like to finish the Foxy Lady first. I also decided to finish the Yuuko Shawl cosplay, and take it to the Cosplay Photoshoot next year. I already bought some fabric for the skirt.