Thread: Costume construction faux pas!

I just sewed the two fronts of my new gold liquid lame' harem pants together. Need I say more?

What are your goofs?

Have also beaded through my pants on several occasions, turned the hem the wrong way on skirts, sewn pieces wrong side to right side.....

Turned hems the wrong way is something I have done a couple of times and have also handstitched things to my clothes if I am not concentrating. I also actually got a loose sleeve caught under the sewing machine needle and stitched that to a dress hem I was taking up,r:;. I then proceed to utter some quite choice bleep words..g.:

Back in my earliest costuming days (when I was both inexperienced and impatient),I was constantly setting sleeves inside out or backwards.

See it's a really advanced technique! First you sew it on inside out, stand back from it, curse, and then practice your seam ripping skills before you sew it back on the right way.

Originally Posted by Doozer

I just sewed the two fronts of my new gold liquid lame' harem pants together. Need I say more?

What are your goofs?

Ha, ha, ha! I did the same with capri leggings to wear under a saidi dress with 2 high side slits. (Don't have to say that it late and one day before the show) ,f::

Qamar

I found a pin sewn into my red costume after wearing it for about 4 years!

I have to constantly repeat "right sides together. right sides together." Or I will sew everything the wrong way.

I have a pair of harem pants I made that could fit an elephant, apparently I cut them wrong. Another time, I cut two inches and finished one leg of a pair of harem pants to shorten it, and then cut two inches and finished the same leg again. It used to seem like the seam ripper was my most frequently used dance prop.

I think my fave is still the time I sewed the dress to the tablecloth....

I stupidly tried to cover one of those gel cup bras with satiny fabric, then accidentally poked a hole in one of the gel pockets...which proceeded to then leak its contents all over the fabric, table, my hands, etc. Talk about a learning experience!

Bwahahahahaha!!!! This has totally made my day! I don't use a traditional pin cushion, just a plastic container. My cat knocked it over this morning. On the carpet. Thank goodness I saw it before anyone walked on them!

Yesterday it was a bead container that bit the dust. Teeny little silver beads in the carpet!

Panel round the wrong way and upside down. DOH!
Sleeve ruffle on backwards.
Wrong sleeve, wrong armhole...

I managed to sew the crotch shut on two seperate pairs of tribal pants. You'd think I'd have learnt the first time, but apparently not.

I also sewed a pin into the cup of one of my bedleh, and only realised when it stabbed me in the b00b mid dance!

Seam rippers see a lot of use in my house.

I just invested in a new nice SHARP seam ripper, so sharp it has a little holster! I do a lot of "reverse sewing."

used a totally different color bead on the back of the costume than the front. it was a two piece belt and i had made the first half quite some time before i started on the second. then i spent the remainder of the time trying to incorporate the two different colors adding embellishments i neither designed for nor wanted. it was just too sad to see so many hours of work set to waste, so i didn't rip out the beading.

@doozer- I have an industrial strength magnet to help with my pin box mishaps!

good greif, what *haven't* I done?

cut one panel of a pair of velvet pants with the nap of the fabric in the opposite direction from the other 3 panels

when working on 2 matching costumes, I sewed the front of the medium skirt to the back of the large skirt and wondered why the seams didn't match

I sewed the top of a skirt with a fold from the bottom half caught up *on the serger with the cutter down* (surprise cut outs anyone?)

& how many times have I sewn an entire long seam without realizing there was no bobbin thread? at least there's nothing to rip out, but re-pinning some of that stuff is a major pain- especially on pleats!

repeat after me, do not sew at midnight...

I'm good at sewing sans bobbin-thread. If I'm sewing late at night, I tend to sew the whole thing together, and sometimes sew one piece wrong-side-out.

My best oops wasn't a dance costume but a coranation dress back from the days when hubby and I were part of a live steel medieval recreation club. We were going to be crowed as King and Queen so I was working on a purple velvet gown to wear. I managed to cut and sew together two left halves and didn't realise it until I tried to put them together. Talk about having a "royal" fit.....LOL!

LMAO!!!!

I just realized I did one again....fused interfacing to the wrong side of the lining of my belt. Seems weird to do that but this sucker is gonna survive a nuclear blast when I'm done with it!

I somehow sewed the front panel to the back panel of a ghawazee coat, but I had flipped the back panel & sewed the shoulders AND the side seam together. The pieces were similarly shaped and then it didn't match & it fit so weird! Egad. And it took me some time to figure out what had gone wrong because the fabric was the same back to front. ... At least I did it with the "sacrificial" fabric, a tacky old flannel.

LOL! I have done virtually everything mentioned in this thread!!

My biggest faux pas is the dreaded "mis-cut". Because I don't use patterns as much as I should, I often sacrifice some really nice fabric to the costuming goddess. Watch that first cut - it's a doozy!

Originally Posted by Karnak

I'm good at sewing sans bobbin-thread.

Yep, been there, done that... And I keep doing it! ,f::..l;,

Qamar

Oh, I sewed things to my pant leg at least twice that I can remember when I am hand sewing.

In a rush to make gold harem pants for a performance the next day (and late at night, which never helps), I laid out my fabric, cut the rectangle in half, cut my little J shape in the corner, and hastily sewed the leg seams and the two legs together. When I tried them on, they were 8 inches too short! And that was before turning anything under for the casings! I had cut the rectangle in half the wrong way! With the fabric store already closed, I was royally screwed and went to the performance in mismatched pants (which I maintain is better than no pants at all).

I think I'll use the ruined material to cover a bra and belt set... It's a lovely gold. So that's my silver-lined but major mistake.

Oh, I thought of another. I used 1/4" elastic that was safety pinned in the cuffs of my harem pants because I wasn't sure I had the lengths right. They both came unpinned, and one actually stabbed me good enough that I had blood all over my foot. That one was painful AND embarassing.

I've done a lot of these when sewing late at night... sadly, that's usually the only time I sew... seems a bad sign haha!

Originally Posted by Zeevah

My biggest faux pas is the dreaded "mis-cut". Because I don't use patterns as much as I should, I often sacrifice some really nice fabric to the costuming goddess. Watch that first cut - it's a doozy!

Been there, done that....those mistakes end up covering bras and belts or as accessories.

My latest, not exactly a sewing faux pas but an unfortunate veil accident:

I like to carry my props around in my giant purse. There's usually a veil of some kind and a set or two of zills in there (you know you're a bellydancer when thread?). My black felt tip calligraphy pen leaked on my beautiful yellow and grey watercolor veil! ..cr.: Those spots wouldn't budge. No amount of soaking, detergent, cursing, or crying would get them out. The only thing I could do to save the veil was dye it black. It turned out GORGEOUS. After ironing it damp it floats like a dream and looks amazing.

This Halloween I'm going to do a veil to 'Little Miss Scare All--Black No. 1' by Type O Negative.....

When life hands you lemons, make lemon drop martinis.