Project runway Halloween

Halloween, for me, has started to take on a Project Runway type feel.

In Project Runway, each week the remaining designers are given a challenge, a budget and soem time to work on a design. About halfway through, the mentor Tim Gunn, comes in and critiques the designs. Then the models come in for a fitting. Usually the next day the models get styled (hair and make-up) and a runway show is presented with one or more designers being eliminated. It is a fun show to watch because of all the drama. I've seen all except for season 9 (don't ask) and feel like I've seen nearly everything bad that could happen, happen. Models lie about their measurements and garments don't fit, designers run out of money for fabric, designers run out of time, and of course garments that didn't turn out the way they had expected.

Of course, I am not a designer. I need a pattern (patterns are forbidden on PR and in fact one designer was kicked off because it was discovered he had pattern books among his belongings) for one thing. For another, I really do not work well under pressure. And finally, I have no Tim Gunn. So yes, I had patterns. And yes, I had time. and yes, I even came well within budget spending $70 all together. But for some reason, I also had problems, lots of problems. In fact I've decided to list my top five here.

Top five problems I encountered this Halloween

5) Kind of anti-climatic but the number 5 was how LONG it took me to make the petticoat for the poodle skirt. I know I already wrote about it, but Oh my.
4) The "poodle" fabric. It was supposed to be "sherpa remnant" but no fabric store nearby had that, so I ended up going with something similar I found at Michael's. It frayed like nobodies business and shed EVERYWHERE. I have leftover and I'm considering a doll "pimp jacket" that's how weird it was. I ended up having to use FrayCheck on the smaller pieces, and I surged the edges of the larger pieces.
3) Sizing! I measured the poodle skirt girl and made the size her measurements suggested and the petticoat was TOO SMALL. It was easily fixed by adding ribbon waistband, but then the skirt, based on the same pattern is snug. The panic that set in when I thought I might have to add some felt to the poodle skirt was crazy. However, everything has been tried on and fits. At least for now.
2) Up until now all the problems have been with the poodle skirt. I did have one grrr issue with the medusa costume and that was, again I sized it according to measurements and the neckline is HUGE. Also, and I think this may be user error, but the sleeves are set kind of funny, so when i tried to take in the neck it made the sleeves look bunchy. Medusa is all set to wear an all black outfit under her costume anyway, so she's not too distressed.
1) Buttonholes. I know this 50s poodle skirt has just been the worst. The blouse has buttons. My machine does buttonholes pretty nicely, but you have to program the first one, and for the first 15 I tried, I was hitting the wrong reverse button--my machine has 2 and one works for buttonholes and one has a buttonhole symbol by it. Then I switched to my old machine which has a buttonhole foot. You put the button in it and supposedly it will do the rest. Well.... I couldn't get fabric to feed through it. And I tried perhaps 5 or 6 times before I gave up. Then I got the buttonhole figured out and it took at least 5 more tries to get the right size. So away I started sewing only to run out of thread on the 3rd buttonhole (of 5) and have to reprogram the buttonhole.
All told, I made at least 30 buttonholes and 5 of them now are on the blouse.

Last night we had our final fitting, and all clients were happy. Tomorrow we go to the runway, with styling to be done in the morning (heaven help me). It is supposed to rain on Halloween though, so School may be our big debut and final showing.