Thread: Major costume surgery, need cheering on!

I got a lot of great feedback and thanks when I posted my step by step pictures of how I turned a prom dress into a bedlah. In a similar manner I'll be documenting a major bra surgery, and then the small things like relining. Mostly because I want a cheering section but secondly to help those who want to know how to do something like this. I will update as I progress and include any pictures you ask for in the process.

For months I watched this bedlah not sell on Tribe.



I wanted it, because how do you not want to buy a costume with a belt that looks like (as one friend put it) a Mexican wrestler exploded on it? As many of you now know, I have the "angry vagina V belt" so...yeah...high class isn't really my look. I think ZaBedazzler would have made a fine dance name for me if Ozma hadn't suited me. I resisted buying the set, thinking that the top looked...off. I couldn't tell if the model was just smaller chested than me or if the fact that the strap attached to the center (which isn't an easy design to create correctly) was affecting the fit of the bra....something held me back. I knew that I'd move the halter strap if I ever got it. Middle straps move breasts outwards and kill cleavage.

Mirabai, however, eventually bought it and I was safe...until SHE put it up for sale.

I've met Mirabai in person and she's not that much smaller than me, so I bought it.

Let's not go into the mess I put Mirabai through to get this. It involved an International money order, some seemingly lost mail...and thus it wasn't until a month later that I got the set. I totally owe Mirabai some drinks.

I ripped open the box.
Belt fit! It would need some lining and the hooks needed to be moved about 2cm...but so far so good.

Bra....I couldn't get it on. The tribe seller had added straps going from the halter to the back of the bra. These straps were simply red grossgrain ribbon and too short for me to fit the bra on...so I cut them off. I could still barely get the bra on, but I managed. The ribcage band was very tight. The costume flattened my chest. The hooks were also built on a bra-close base in a way that if you hooked it at its widest you could see the bra-closure...which just looks tacky.

Hmmmm...

I took off the bra and took a good look at it. I knew I'd have to move the center strap and make it into a halter that attached to the cup sides...

WTF? Something was weird about where the ribcage met the cups. I turned it around and found black thread. I got out my seam ripper and pulled and pulled. Ghetto fix unmasked! At the side of each cup a wedge shape of beads had been removed from the bra and the fabric was crudely "darted."

I thought this had been done to make the ribcage band smaller. I went to my craft store. I bought some on-sale red terrycloth-like fabric for the lining, some red felt as well (to provide an extra barrier between lining and the wire used on the flames to prevent sweat-rust issues) and found close matching beads. I started covering the damaged surface at a coffee shop (while being watched by little old ladies who saw only the cup shape and kept asking about the hat I was making) and headed home to put on the bra. I had covered one wedge shape.

It was at this point that I realized why the ghetto fix had happened, and that the bra had a major design flaw.

I would like to state that I do not blame Mirabai for not mentioning the design flaw. She;s a great person to buy costumes from, as many of you know! She had no clue it was there. You really need to have experience making and altering costumes to be able to figure out what is wrong with some costumes. It's much easier to realize that some doesn't fit you right and needs to keep moving until it find the right owner than to sit down and figure out if the fit problem is you, or is the design...or both... Mirabai thought the cups were too big for her, which was partly right, but didn't figure out why. In thinking the cups were too big for her she was right in thinking that they should fit me...they should have!

I live abroad and am a cheapskate who likes to design her own costumes, so I sat and thought. The ghetto fix wasn't about band-lenght, it was about moving the bottom point where the band meets the bra cup a little lower. As fixes go, it was on the right track...

With the darts undone the band that goes around the ribcage attaches at the top of the cups down to about nipple level. It's fair to wonder "Well, Ozma, what's so bad about that? I haven't seen many bras like that...but so what?"



The ribcage band is usually the part of the bra we give our "underbust measurement"...because it is supposed to be BELOW the bust! UNDER it. At the lowest part, the band needs to be strong and lay flat against your ribcage.The band should attach to the bottom of the U of your cups (with little buttresses coming up the side of the cups). If, like this costume, the band attaches high up on the sides of the U it can distort the cups, pulling the arms of the U into a wider arc, making the cups wider and more shallow.

If the band attaches at nipple level, you've got a major issue. The pressure of the band literally forced my nipples to compress against my chest, pushing the extra flesh of my breasts down and up. If I loosened the band pressure, the bottom of the cups would stand away from my ribcage and the bra would rest on, but not support, my chest...risking the dreaded underboob-ooze.

Let's get into what's wrong with this bra and what I did. I don't tell this tale to slander the original creator, she had some very solid ideas. I tell this tale as a guide to help those of us who do make our own costumes, so we learn from these mistakes...and for all of us who have opened a package to come face to face with the reality that challenges the dream of a costume we held in our head. Things can be radically changed. Very few people will ever want to do the sort of surgery I did...

I regret that the Tribe seller is the picture I am using to explain this, but I couldn't take a before picture of myself. It was too obscene and painful to photograph. I probably am a cupsize larger than the previous owners.

Let's get a general idea where the pressure is with this bra set up.

(rough photoshop)
This is where most of the pressure is.



Let's get side look at her breast.

Yup. Squished. That's not her shoulder, that's her breast.

For Mirabai I am sure that the pressure on the cups made the cups too wide for her tiny frame, and no matter how much she padded she couldn't seem to get cleavage. But, no matter how much you pad on this design, you're not going to get cleavage. The best you can hope for is that you move your breasts slightly above the pressure points and they flatly spill out of the top.

So. WTF was I going to do? Now that I knew the design was flawed, I couldn't bring myself to sell it to anyone else...and I liked the set and wanted to wear it. And I am d*mned stubborn.

I thought in the shower, it is where I do a lot of thinking.

"You need to cut off the band and make new ones from scratch!" I said to myself.
"F*** YOU!" I replied to myself.
"You know that's the only answer."
"F********* Yoooooooouuu!!!!"
"Well, unless you want to scrap the whole bra for parts and build the whole thing from scratch."
"f****....f**** you're right."

I went back to my room, put on some clothing, and manipulated the bra with my hands, like a pervert with an invisable girlfriend.

"If I pull the bra here...the cups move like this...but if I move this...then..."

pressure on upper edges of the bra:


Pressure moved lower and halter attaching at top of cups:

I figured that the difference would be drastic and worth doing. I would probably go from cups too shallow to ones needing some dramatic, but not overwhelming, padding.

And then I put tape over the lines I was about to cut, lay down paper to catch bead spill...and cut...cut...cut.



I think we all understand, this was scary.In the past I once took a two piece costume and slashed the beaded skirt for parts and made a bedlah belt of it (Bernie V now owns it)... this was scarier than that.

I then took some of the stretchy lining and used it to cover/cauterize the cut edges of the cups. The lining was also a design flaw. It seems to have been added before some of the beading edging was finished so you can't just seam rip it out cleanly.

The next morning I woke up and got to work.

I had grosgrain ribbon in my stash and used the ribbon, and the lining fabric I had picked up, to make my band base while watching the 3rd season of The Muppets.





I then played the dangerous game of band placement by pinning in the band, trying on, removing, trying again. I did not scratch up my chest, but I did give myself a thin 4inch scratch on my arm in the process.



After stitching it in place I took the train to my nearest craft store. I estimated that the surface area of my new bands might be slightly greater than the old ones, so I'd be unable to 100% cover the new band with the beads from the old. I picked up some rhinestone chain (matching the rhinestone chain in the flames) for the border of the band, and got some yellow beads for the sides of the cups to carry the flame shape down a little, so it didn't end abruptly where cut.

I then started the un-fun process of covering every exposed part of the band in beads.

A note to new costume makers: it is a common mistake to cover large areas with seed beads...beads of the exact same color and size. I know. I've done it. It's a waste of your time. Seriously. The effect is lost at a distance. It looks rich, but not THAT rich. If you want to cover every inch of the fabric in a color, do it with beads and sequins. The sequins take up more surface area and the facets of the sequins and the angles of the beads will catch more light...otherwise invest in really great bling-tastic fabric and crystals to scatter over it and save the beads for fringe and filling in/creating shapes, lines, and adding depth.

The fire set is covered in a layer of beads. When I got it I thought "this must have taken a lot of time" and it did make it look a bit more old-school time-intensive home-made....but when covering the bands in the same alternating diamond pattern of beads I thought thoughts of a less charitable nature....

When I went to bed last night:


This will be day 3 of surgery. I will keep you posted.

I remember that costume because I wanted it. I can't wait to see the new and improved bra!

love this thread, Ozma! I'm about to do the same with a bra, and this is great encouragement

I love these kinds of posts.

Ozma..I was so close to buying this. I had noticed that the cups seemed to be way up high under Mirabai pits, so I kept thinking the cups were big. Little did I realize that they were set too high! I commend you on the determination that it takes to accept this as a challenge and not just pass this on to a dancer who carries her boobs under her chin. I have done my share of surgery...but this, this is art!!!!

Mexican wrestler explosion!!! HHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHHAAA ha ha...snif.

nice work!

GO Ozma GO!! Looks great so far.

Ozma, I love your costume making/remaking posts. You've got such a gift for costume design!

You are a wonder Ozma!

I sit in awe of your talent and determination! Can't wait for updates

BTW-that vendor still has your torso gracing their ads...

What you have done so far looks awesome! I feel your pain, though. I just reconstructed a bra and was filled with trepidation during most of the process. Like you, I am stubborn and just knew that I could make it work! I can't wait to see the finished product!!!

I can't wait to read more! Thank you for posting this.

Looking good!

That looks great! Keep up the good work, I can't wait to see how it comes out!

I consider myself to be fairly handy at altering costumes, but this is an incredible undertaking. Go you!

BTW, the shower conversation with yourself had me ROTFLMAO. I do the same thing, sometimes even getting so worked up I start talking aloud. I only realize it when my hubby poked his head in the bathroom to ask who the heck I'm talking to in there!

This thread is totally gripping!!! ..l;,

Originally Posted by bintbeled

Ozma, I love your costume making/remaking posts. You've got such a gift for costume design!

And you're such a delightfully entertaining Storyteller, too! My favorite parts of this tale that I love so far: The comparison of the costume & a Mexican wrestler, and the self-conversation in the shower!

I remember that costume because I wanted it too! Good thing I didn't take it, there is NO WAY I could have even begun what you did!

Here's my supportive cheer for you:


Sew, Ozma, Sew!
Show us what you know!
Bead, Bead, Bead! - Succeed!

(I wasn't a cheerleader, but went to all of the games in high school, so this one sticks in my head - Go, ____, go! Show us what you know! Fight, fight, fight! - Alright!)

Thank you all!

I'm close to finishing one of the bands but am taking a mental holiday to tackle a little of the belt. I'll post belt details later.

tease.

Originally Posted by acmcgraw

BTW-that vendor still has your torso gracing their ads...

But at least they've added a picture at the end with my whole body and proper credit to me and my photographer.

Last night I beaded some more, but before I went to bed I got that urge to do something where the results would be more quickly evident. I wanted positive feedback and I didn't want the tedium of beading to leave me too burned out to finish. I want this done quickly.

One thing you should know about me is that in the seven years living in Japan I have worked hard to optimize my train time. There is currently a manners campaign going on for Tokyo metro trains. You can find propagandistic posters in black, white, and yellow urging you not to lounge around in the seats with food spilling everywhere, not to treat your seat like a your personal make-up station, and for god sake don't TALK on your cellphone.



These signs all have the catch phrase (in English and Japanese) "Do it at home!" A gay friend of mine has suggested that they should do a series depicting the appropriate level of PDAs (Public Displays of Affection):

Hand holding?: Ok! Cunnilingus?: Do it at HOME!

I'm safe, because not only do I not indulge in oral sex on the trains but they have also yet to target me with a "Your craft projects? Do them at home!" poster. To the delight of young men and old ladies, I knit monsters on the train. For the young, cute men I am willing to smile and do an impromptu monster-puppet performance for them. I embroider my crazy quilt on the train. And, yes, I've even managed to bead on the train. Don't ask me how. Prior to a trip into Tokyo or to work I sometimes prep costume lining. I trace, cut, and pin the fabric in place, roll it all into a small bag with my tin of sewing supplies, and do the mindless whipstitching in transit on the train while listening to music, npr, or audible books on my iPod.

The belt has a few quirks. The original creator didn't reinforce the flame shapes with wire, so they started drooping. Whichever owner did the ghetto-dart-fix on the bra wisely wired the belt...it's the same tell-tale black thread. I'll need to wire the bra flames myself. Because sweat isn't great for wire, or fabric, or thread, I'm pre-lining the wire part of the belt with red felt to create a sweat barrier before I put in a removable lining. The felt layer will also make it easier to pin belt the belt to a skirt.


I just traced the edge, cut, pined and stitched.

The construction of this whole set fascinates and confuses me.

All four ends of the belt have wire loops, the "eye" part of a hook and eye fitting, going down the sides. One half of the belt also has extra fabric sticking out on both ends. It's my theory that the original creator made this belt for someone with larger hips than me and that it "laced" up the sides with the red fabric under the laces..or that it was supposed to do this in theory but it didn't work out and they never removed the eyes.




I've removed the loops with my seam ripper and a wire clipper and removed those side flaps. The front of the belt has rhinestone edging, the back is all beads. The front part has the AB crystals stitched on before the lining. The back piece the AB crystals were after the lining. I ask WTF a lot. I wonder what my commissioned costumes will make owners of the future ask.



On the tiny train to city hall this morning I whipstitched the felt over the wire on one of the two belt pieces. I did a little more at lunchtime on a bench under the trees outside. I'm already the only white person in city hall, why fight being the freak? I finished the felt at home.


During the process I also replaced rhinestones and beads.

This thread rocks! I've got so many projects on the go - this makes me want to get 'em finished!

Thanks, Ozma. Cheer, cheer!

Do it at home!

I just felt like saying that.

I think you are very brave to undertake this project. On a train.