Mie Makes Stuff

Because I’m just getting this shit recently and it’s all amazing.

Hot Knife - Holy fucking shit it heats up and you can slice and dice anything you fucking want pretty much. And you can get a multitool version of it with interchangeable heads so you can fry different patterns on to your work how fuckin neato is that? (Cut away from you. Cut away from you. Cut away from you. Don’t be me. Don’t slice yourself with a sharp and also vERY HOT blade. Don’t do it. CUT AWAY FROM YOU).

Dremel - Hand sanding is for people with strong arms (not me) and the patience of saints (also not me). Sand shit down at the speed of FAST. Multiple tools can be attached to the spinning doo-hickey and you can cut and grind and buffer to your hearts content.

Paperclay - Forget wall spackle for filling cracks in props, just use fucking paperclay. Plaster can suck on an egg, put paperclay over your props and sand that shit down for a smooth as fuck and sturdy finish. Build little embellishments with it. Build pretty much fucking anything with it holy wow its great.

Dentists Tools - Listen you’re gonna need poking tools. You can either look through the junk drawer for a pencil or pen to poke things, or you can spend 5$ and get a set of sharp metal sticks that bend every which way and are amazeballs for getting in to the nooks and crannies of your costume. They’re so useful please get them.

I’ve found that as a surface treatment, to smooth out and seal and a surface, spackle isn’t the strongest thing in the world (it won’t add strength to a project), but it is easy to use, lightweight, and can be sanded very smooth. If covering a large area of surface for the sake of making it smooth, spackle is the way to go. (I’ve used this as the surface coat on XPS foam for my Ultimecia headpiece and Condesce horns, and as the edge of my Juri Arisugawa sword, and have had no problems with it there. I’m sure I’ve used it elsewhere too, but those are the major applications I can think of.) 

For a crack filler, it can go either way. Paperclay is prone to cracking in and of itself during the drying process. It is also much heavier than spackle. For smaller cracks, it works well. For larger cracks, it may be too heavy, and may have problems with drying. I wouldn’t use it to fill an entire area, but would use it for smaller repairs, or, in rare cases, as a thin surface coat on a small area.

Spackle is good for filling in larger areas (get the lightweight stuff that’s the texture of a stiff buttercream) with a lightweight material, though the areas would have to either be very contained (a narrow and deep hole, like a crack) or wide and shallow, since it can’t be built up super easily. You have to wait for it to fully dry, add another layer, etc. But it’s good for filling in space when weight is a concern and certain shapes are involved. If you are trying to take a surface that is bowed inward and make it flat again? Lightweight spackle will be much lighter than paperclay. If you then want that space to have a harder surface, a thin layer of paperclay can go on top of the spackle.

I’ve found that spackle and paperclay have two different types of weakness: spackle is soft, in that it can indent or crumble (it doesn’t work well on sharp angles for that reason, unless you are very careful), and paperclay can crack (not the cracks that form during the drying process, but the dried material itself cracking), and doesn’t bear weight well, especially when in thin pieces (say, the arms of a trident…that was a mistake). Either way, you have to be careful with the material.

So, really, both have pros and cons. Paperclay is great for a hard surface, making small accessories and details (or things like horns that aren’t overly large), and for things that need to be sculpted, but is very heavy and cracks easily, so it isn’t as suitable for use over large areas, especially where things light take a hit. Spackle is good as a lightweight filler (especially if you use the “lightweight” kind) or surface coat (I’ve done this both with the lightweight and regular kind, though regular is easier to sand….but both can get very smooth, as evidenced by my Condesce horns) when covering large areas, but can’t be built up easily or sculpted into shapes, and has a harder time with sharp angles.

Worbla sealing technique

I’ve been asked many times how I sealed the Worbla on my Wrathion costume for it to look this smooth. I don’t have progress pictures but I can explain since it’s pretty straightforward. This technique not only allows you to have a smooth surface, it gives you the chance to refine the shape and erase seams if, like me, you’re unable to form Worbla perfectly. Also, if you use a flexible paint and varnish on top, your piece will remain bendable without cracking.

It’s time for the promised GLOVE Tutorial!

I’m so sorry that this took far longer than I said it would - I just finished my Bachelors Thesis and had to do some other exams. Now, I’m free and did the tutorial (without pictures, but if people ask a lot I will do a picture tutorial).

Glove Tutorial

Version 1: Elastic Stretch fabric

Version 2: Non-elastic fabric

Hey, folks! A follower recently asked how I added the orange collar seen in my sew a keyhole neckline with a facing tutorial. I shared the process with my Facebook friends a few years ago, so I thought I would update those old photos and descriptions and share them with you here! They’re quick and dirty, but it will help you get the idea of how to add a mandarin collar to a keyhole neckline.

Your finished neckline will look something like this, if you sew your facing to the inside. If you prefer a decorative contrast facing, you can sew the facing so it folds to the outside, like this!

Right, let’s go!

#1. Prepare your facing piece as normal.

Finish the edges with serging (or a zigzag stitch, or whatever you like) so it won’t unravel.

If you don’t know how to sew keyhole necklines with facings, refer to this tutorial here to learn!

#2. Cut out the inside of your keyhole’s facing. 

I don’t normally do this at this point when I’m sewing tunics without collars, but this time, it’s necessary.

DO NOT cut the slit of the keyhole at this time.

#3. Trace that hole in your neckline facing onto the body of your garment. 

(The photo below should be rotated, but you can see that about 2/3rds of the neckline is forward of the shoulders, because that’s how our bodies are built.) Cut this out, too.

DO NOT cut the slit of the keyhole now, either.

Handle both your facing and cut neckline delicately, as these can stretch out of shape if you tug at them too much, and then they won’t match when you go to sew them together.

#4. Make your collar pattern.

There are a couple of different ways you could do this. You could sew a collar that’s just a straight band, but the top edge won’t want to follow the neck, Something with a bit of curve is trickier to sew and attach, but it will fit the neck more closely and be more inclined to stay standing up.

I used this method for drafting the curved collar.

The line with arrows is supposed to be the grainline. It shows me how to lay my pattern out on the bias. This isn’t necessary, but it’ll curve around the neck more happily. The tutorial illustrates this better.

The writing on my pattern says ‘Mandarin Collar For Tunics, Cut 2 self on bias, blockfuse.’ This means that I’ll cut two pieces out of my main fabric to sew into the collar, while “blockfuse” refers to the interfacing I’ll add. 

NOTE: My pattern looks funky because I decided that the top curve didn’t follow the neck closely enough: I wanted it to be shorter, while keeping the bottom the same length. To do this, I cut the pattern apart in the middle and pivoted it together. This took a little wedge out of the center back of the collar, while keeping the bottom edge the same, so it can still be stitched to the tunic.

#5. Add interfacing to your two collar pieces.

I’m going to add some interfacing to my collar, which will help it stay stiff and stand upright. I used a lightweight fusible knit interfacing. I could have used a heavier interfacing, but this was  what I had sitting around.

Because cutting out your fabric in the pattern piece, and then cutting out your interfacing, and trying to fit the two together is HORRIBLE AND MURDEROUS, I have instead fused interfacing to a bit of extra fabric. I’ll cut my collar pieces out from the pre-fused fabric. This is called “blockfusing,” and it’s WAY easier.

More on blockfusing here, if you’re a nerd who enjoys these things. I certainly am!

Here’s my pattern piece laid out on the pre-fused interfacing. I’ll cut out two of these.

#6. Construct your collar.

Since we’ve last met, I’ve cut out my two fused collar pieces and stitched them together with a 1/4″ seam allowance, right sides together, along the top edge and sides of the collar, leaving the bottom open. This edge is what gets sewn to the body of the tunic.

#8. Trim the points of your collar.

The points of the collar can get bulky, so it’s wise to clip them down a little. Doing this will let the points turn better: they’ll look sharper once you flip the collar right side out.

#8. Turn your collar inside-out and press it nicely. 

Baste the edge of the collar shut with long stitches, using a narrow seam allowance. Mine is probably too wide, but that’s okay– I’ll have to pick those basting stitches out later, so they won’t be visible.

#9. Pin your collar to that raw hole we cut in the body of the garment and sew together.

You’ll be pinning right sides together. Don’t worry about the raw edge, we’ll add the facing and enclose all the raw edges with that. Use lots of pins. Make sure the collar meets at the center front with maybe a 1/8″ gap, and matches up with the center back points. Sew carefully at a 1/4″ seam allowance. It’s probably easiest to sew this with the collar, not the body of the garment, facing up. The collar will NOT want to squash flat, but that’s a good sign– it means that the interfacing we added is keeping it perky. Just sew slowly, and everything will be okay! Remember that the collar only has to match the body at the edge of the cut hole– it can misbehave all it likes beyond that, because that’s the only point we’ll be sewing down.

Here’s what the tunic will look like when you’re done sewing the collar to the body. (Excuse the beach towel– I needed an impromptu ironing board while my main one was out of commission!)

Note that you’re looking at the tunic from the OUTSIDE. We need to cover up that raw edge with the facing, so it won’t fray. 

#11. Pin your facing on from the right side of the garment and sew the keyhole facing as normal.

This looks super weird, but I promise everything is right sides together: the collar just didn’t want to lay flat for the photo. This is fine!

To clarify, from the top down, the layers go like this: facing, collar, actual garment body. (At the keyhole slit, it’s just ‘facing, garment,’ because there’s no collar there to work around.) 

Sew the keyhole facing with the facing piece on top, like this.

#12. Do these finishing steps, and you’re done!

Once it’s all sewn together, you’ll cut the slit open, flip the facing to the inside of the garment, leaving the collar on the right side, trim away some bulk at the seam allowance, and do some topstitching. Basically, we’re almost done! Topstitch the facing, so it won’t flip out from the wrong side. I also edgestitched the keyhole slit and stitched in the crack between the collar and the body.

And that’s all!

Going further: hoods and external facings with collars

If you would like to use this method for adding a collar to a tunic with a decorative facing on the OUTSIDE, the steps are identical– you’ll just start from the WRONG side of the tunic, not the right/outside.  You can also use this method to finish the raw edge of a neckline you want to add a hood to. But that, as they say, is an exercise left for the reader. Thanks for reading, and happy sewing! Let me know if you make a collar like this– I would be thrilled to see what you come up with! Best,

Mounting World of Warcraft Cosplay Shoulders

Hey franz! I did a quick walk-through video of how I did my World of Warcraft Rogue Shadowcraft shoulders. I received a lot of questions about my Death Knight shoulders and it’s basically the same principle. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below! Hope this helps! ^_^