the nightcrawler - part three

Judging by the large size of my patterns and the nature of the 4-way stretch fabric I was using, I had to cut my fabric on a massive, flat surface. I usually cut all my fabric on a cutting mat, but knit fabrics must be laid out perfectly flat for cutting, otherwise you will have many, many problems with your sewing later.

Since my apartment has carpeting, I hauled my materials to my friend's apartment and took up half their living room floor. 

Always cut the big pieces first--I cut my 2 folded pieces first. I pinned the shit out of this fabric to avoid shifting while cutting. You can also use fabric weights to minimize breaking the knit stitches.


Laying the pieces out...

I bought 7-1/2 yards of piping. I used all of it while sewing. Yes, a little over 21 feet of piping.


For attaching the piping to the spandex, I used a zig-zag stitch and a zipper foot on my regular sewing machine. To sew the spandex to another spandex piece I used a very tight tension on my overlock machine. Make sure you have test scraps of fabric whenever you sew on your overlock machine to make sure you get the right tension, otherwise your seam will show on the reverse side when stretched.

I think sewing the piping to the spandex was worse than sewing silk bias binding on silk. IT TOOK ME FOREVER.

I sewed half the costume and did a test fit on my boyfriend. It fit to my expectations, so I will be uploading a preview shot this week hopefully! Next I have to make the gloves and feet... gloves. (feet gloves? Is there such a thing? They're not really socks I suppose...)