So today I got up the courage to actually work on the project itself. I first took out a couple of old paper grocery bags and created a pattern. I used a corset that doesn't really fit me to get the basic idea of the shape of the pieces. Then I measured down my front from between my boobs to where I want the center of the front to stop. Then I drew curves for boobs from the center line to the outside, and created a curve on the bottom. Then I drafted out the side pieces. Next I measured out a back middle piece. I started with the same measurement for the longest part of the front, then I slowly cut it down until it was the right height. Then I taped all my pieces together and tried em on. I discovered I was about 4 inches short in size, so I made 2- 2 inch rectangle pieces to add to the back. Yeah, I am a big woman. I repeated the taping together, altering and taping again until I got to the size and shape I wanted. Then I pinned it to the foam.....
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The next part was the hardest for me. Tracing the patterns on the foam and cutting out the pieces. I suck at tracing, and I doubly suck at cutting out. I can't cut a straight edge with a thick metal ruler. I tried. I tried hard. I broke a retractable knife, an exacto knife and a pair of scissors trying to get good cuts. Did not succeed. I ended up having to use my flimsy exacto knife, which bent and sagged as I cut, making funny curves and/or 45 ish degree angles, instead of 90. Note to self: get a better retractable knife than just a dollar tree one. That broke quickly. As the lines were so unclean, I could not use anything but hot glue to put the pieces together.
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Slightly daunted, but determined to continue, I then pulled out my heat gun and warped the foam pieces. That was kind of fun. My gun works best on level 1, setting the dial to 7. I am unsure what tempurature that is, but it works.
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As I mentioned earlier, my pieces did not lay flush when places edge to edge. SO I pulled out my hot glue gun and put the pieces together. That is something I apparently suck at as well. I am still getting used to useing a hot glue gun. When I was a teenage crafter, all you could find int he craft stores was low temp glue guns, so nothing held together very well. Anything like body tempurature, leaving it in the sun for a minute, would make your project come completely undone. As such I completely rejected it as a good mode of glueing. Now there are higher temp guns, with stronger glues. I have been impressed with what I found. However, I still need to refine my technique. Heavy drips, uneven edges, burned fingers are just a few of the issues I had. But, nonetheless, I got it basically together. Yeah, this will not be my final product. Once I figure out where I am going wrong throughout, I will start over again. That seems to be my M.O. anyway. I generally totally suck the first time round, get it right the second. To see how well it fit me and to see if I needed to make any design changes, I hot glued velcro straps in. That is the worst way to put together your corset. Just saying. I have some black stretchy fabric I am planning on attaching to each side, so I can just slip it on over my head. The sleeves will be made of drapy halloween fabric in green and black and grey, and sewn to a piece of cotton. I can't wear this stuff against my skin, so I figured it would probably simplify things if I didn't attach the sleeves directly to the EVA foam lower part.
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Next step is to make the boobs. I have ordered some 6mm foam for those pieces. I plan to either try to use a heat tool to carve leaves so it looks like layered leaves, or scaled elaves, or cut and paste individual leaves out of foam on them. Then they will be painted green and brown. Then I will glue them to the curves at the top of the..um..corset seems the wrong word to use here. There is also a skirt. Am considering greaves as well. I also want to make bracers. I am thinking of using the 6mm foam to make a base, then I have this 2mm stuff that if heated I can make look like wrinkly leather fabric. I also found a round spider felt piece that I plan to use on the front of this thing. Put a skull in the middle of it. I will integrate spiders and leaves and stuff all through out. It will look awesome.
 | Now I just gotta finnish up her backstory. I am totally unsure at the moment who she is completely. I keep thinking Warrior Augra. I will have to sit down and flesh it out soon. And figure out how to do the headress. I was going to use my rams horns with it too. I am unsure now. We'll see. Depends on how it all turns out. To practice my painting techniques and to test whether or not I can glue stuff to it once it is painted I made a crown out of a piece of edging. But I am too tired to show that tonight. I think I will head to bed and save that for another post. |
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