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DIY Suffragette Costumes

October 23, 2020

*This post contains affiliate links.*

When you think of “history”, do you see a series of black and white photos in your mind’s eye? I confess that I sometimes do. That is why I love to explore the past in a tangible way. For me, that entails clothes! In past posts, I showed you how to make suffragette picket signs and sashes. Now, it’s time to put together the rest of the outfits…

…In color! As with any organization, the suffragette movement chose its colors very strategically to convey its message: Equality for women. To my surprise, I learned that the main color used by all American suffrage organizations was yellow! Later, the National Woman’s Party was the only group to adopt purple, white, and yellow (gold): “Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause. White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose, pure and unswerving.” The Suffragist, December 6, 1913.

Well, I happen to really like purple, so I decided that we were members of the National Woman’s Party. Simple as that! And, would you look at what I stumbled upon at the Dollar Tree? Pre-made purple bows on hair clips!

You know what you can also find at the Dollar Tree? Hats! (In the spring and summer, that is.) I got two matching ones for Eliza and Annika. (One came via the thrift store.) All I had to do was snip off their pink flowers and slide the purple bow clip onto their white, elastic hatbands.

Voilà! I did the same “cheat” on my mom’s hat (center), and Emma’s (tan straw hat on the left). Emma’s hat was borrowed from my husband’s grandmother’s costume collection. This particular hat had a convenient loop of ribbon on its band that made attaching the bow a cinch! Easy-peasy suffragette hats on the cheap!

My hat took a little bit more work. (Of course!) I snipped off its white and yellow sequined flower. Those stitches had also held the brim up. So, I took needle and thread and re-stitched that part of the brim back to the crown of the hat. I made the last 3-4 stitches large and loose to make a loop for the hair bow to slide through and stay secure.

If photographing kids has taught me any lesson, it’s this: Give them something to hold, aka “props”! (I plan to discuss this further in a future post.) In brief, props serve as toys that the kids can play with, while also helping them to get into character. Physical items can help the costumes and setting to merge into a cohesive story. The props I selected for this photo shoot were bouquets of yellow roses.

A variety of flowers are associated with the woman’s suffrage movement, with yellow roses and sunflowers being the most popular. I selected these yellow roses from the Dollar Tree, since they would be durable.

Let’s put it all together and make our costume ensembles, shall we? It’s actually really difficult to find historically-appropriate dresses with sleeves. All of these outfits are assembled from blouses and skirts (my mom and me) or sleeveless dresses layered over blouses (the girls). Here is Annika’s little outfit. I’m pretty sure her shoes only cost a dollar. I already had the tights and vintage pinafore. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a blouse in her size or a good under-dress. (The pinafore was sheer with eyelet holes all over. It really needed some kind of layer beneath it.) Then, it occurred to me: I could use a larger-sized girls’ blouse! The sleeves and collar worked with the pinafore, and the shirt’s length also functioned as an under-dress. I’m not gonna lie; I felt pretty clever for coming up with this “cheat”!

Next is Eliza’s outfit! She’s already gotten some mileage out of these shoes, since she also wore them in our 1960s family photo shoot. In fact, I like to make sure that each of our girls has a pair of black and a pair of white dress shoes. This carries us through the year for church, and it also takes care of footwear for lots of costume looks.

Eliza’s blouse is a vintage one that I used to wear! (Wait. Does that make me vintage?) Her darling, eyelet dress is a Hanna Andersson piece I found on eBay.

Emma’s dress was an amazing find. I scooped it up for twenty-five cents at a thrift store sale!

Under her dress, Emma wore another vintage blouse from my childhood wardrobe. (Maybe I am old!) Tights, white shoes, a hat, flowers, and a suffragette sash and picket sign completed her ensemble!

*This post contains affiliate links.*

Speaking of great thrift store finds…(Okay. I’m always talking about great thrift store finds! This one is really fantastic, though.) Look at this gorgeous blouse with pin tucks and insertion lace! I have been looking for a blouse like this for YEARS. This piece is a treasure that will, henceforth, have me covered for looks from 1890 – 1920. The only flaw was the small, brown stain on its front. Fortunately, a soak in OxiClean took it right out!

The skirt I paired with the blouse definitely wasn’t the cheapest thing I’ve ever found at a thrift store, but I couldn’t resist its lace panels.

I completed my suffragette look with my modified hat, white knee socks, thrifted belt, vintage shoes, and, (of course) a picket sign and sash.

My mom’s outfit was also made of separates. Her skirt was a $5 vintage find.

The rest of my mom’s outfit came from various thrift store excursions, except for her blouse, which I bought on eBay. Her shoes deserve a special mention: vintage ballroom dancing shoes make excellent costume footwear for multiple time periods! They can be found in all sorts of colors and heel heights. Keep your eyes peeled for them!

If you’ve made it this far, you may be wondering, “What is up with all the white?” Well, lots of women in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods already owned white blouses and skirts as parts of their everyday wardrobes, especially for summer wear. These were clothing articles that were quite accessible and made a big statement when worn during parades, demonstrations, etc.

Additionally, the suffragettes wore white in a deliberate attempt to bolster their feminine image. Opposing propaganda sought to paint a negative image of them as aggressive and masculine. By contrast, men who supported women’s suffrage were depicted as hapless fellows left at home, holding the babies and wearing the skirts. When suffragettes gathered en masse, they were literally sending a strong cultural message of bright hope, purity, and femininity.

Speaking of gathering, I hope you’re ready to see the pictures from our suffragette parade photo shoot! Grab your sashes, hats, and picket signs and join us in the march. See you there!

*This post contains affiliate links.*


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DIY Suffragette Sashes

September 6, 2020

*This post contains affiliate links.*

What would a Suffragette be without her sash? Before we make our own, let’s do a little research!

During my image searching and reading, I learned that the colors associated with women’s suffrage in America were primarily gold and white. Purple, white, and gold were worn only by members of the National Woman’s Party: “Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause. White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose, pure and unswerving.”

Sash Collage 11

Top: Rare Silk Suffragette Sash made for the Women’s Political Union, NYC, 1910-1915 – Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques. Bottom: Suffrage Sashes, 1913-1917 – Emilia D. van Beugen, photographer

As you can see, suffragette sashes were made in several different color configurations.

Sash Collage 8
Top L: National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company Incorporated Postcard, 1915 – National Museum of American History. Top R: National Woman’s Suffrage Congressional Union Flag – National Museum of American History. Bottom L: Silk Suffragette Sash – 1stDibs Auctions. Bottom R: Suffragette parade marshals assembled in Washington Square, New York City, 1912, hand-colored halftone of a photograph – North Wind Picture Archives.

Sash Collage 9
Top L: Suffragettes at Capitol – Library of Congress. Top R: Suffragettes with Flowers, circa 1914 – Source Unknown. Bottom L: Suffragettes 1913 – Getty Images, Bottom R: Alice Riggs Hunt, New York State Fair in 1915 – University of Waterloo Library, Special Collections & Archives.

Weren’t these women gorgeous? I could (and did) stare at their exquisite clothes and accessories all day! However, everything they wore was part of a strategic message, so let’s get to work on making our own, wearable slogans.

Sash Collage 10
Top L: Inez Milholland, May 6, 1911 – Source Unknown. Top R: Green, Gold & White Fair, c. 1909. Leading member and children Women’s Freedom League – Christina Broom (photographer) Museum of London. Bottom L: 1924 Sally Hovey, Mary Kelly McCarty, Hazel MacKaye, Sherley Center Elsie Hill Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Bottom R: Sarah McPike, Alberta HillInez, and Inez Milholland led the NYC Woman’s Suffrage Parade on May 6, 1911 Library of Congress.

To start with you need ribbon! I used:

  • 2-inch wide, white satin ribbon
  • 1-inch wide, purple satin ribbon
  • 1-inch wide, gold satin ribbon

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Once I had the ribbon, I draped it over my dress form to determine how long the sashes should be. (Side note, my dress form is the best $25 I ever spent on Craigslist!)Sash Collage 1

I cut the white, central ribbon at fifty inches long, and placed a pin to mark where I thought the letters should begin. Eliza helped me with the stickers. I would have loved to use iron-on letters, but I couldn’t find enough at the store, and I didn’t have enough time to order them.

Sash Collage 2

I knew there was no way that the stickers would stay on these sashes, long-term. So, I put a bit of Fabri-Tac on the end of a toothpick and dabbed it under the edges of the letter stickers. Then, I sprayed everything with clear topcoat. As it turns out, these adhesive attempts were inadequate, but more on that, later!Sash Collage 6

Once the glue and spray dried on the white ribbons, I prepared to sew on the gold and purple ribbons down their sides. I did this by overlapping the colored ribbon edges with the white, central ribbon by about an eigth of an inch. I learned to leave a bit extra of colored ribbon past each end of the white ribbon and trimmed it to match the white ribbon after I sewed. This is because the stitching tended to shorten the ribbon, a bit.Sash Collage 5

After the gold and purple stripes were stitched, I trimmed all the ribbon ends to match in length, and applied Fray Check to prevent fraying.

Sash Collage 4

At this point, I thought I was done. However…The letters started to pop off as I bent and flexed the ribbon during the sewing process. They continued to peel away during the photo shoot. Amazingly, I only lost one letter completely. This is kind of a miracle, considering that I had to hold Annika a bunch, at the end! So, once we got home, I tried another glue in my arsenal: Elmer’s Craft Bond Tacky Glue. This worked amazingly well. This is the only glue I would use if I were starting over!

And that, my friends, is how I made our suffragette sashes! We wore them over our right shoulders and fastened them with safety pins. In my next post, I’ll show you how I put together the rest of our costumes. Until then, keep marching (and voting) to make the world a better place!

Sash Historical Collage 3


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DIY Suffragette Picket Signs

August 26, 2020

*This Post Contains Affiliate Links*

Good morning, dear readers, and welcome to the 100th anniversary of the of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution! That’s right: Women have officially been able to vote in the U.S.A. for one hundred years! While this is something to celebrate, we should not forget that our sisters of color still faced many unjust hurdles in claiming their equal rights.

Historical Photo Collage 3
Top Left: Nine Afro-American women posed, standing, full length, with Nannie Burroughs (Library of Congress), Bottom Left: Suffragists in San Francisco, 1915, Right: Josephine Bennett and daughters Frances and Katherine. Hartford, ca. 1916 (Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association, State Archives, Connecticut State Library)

 

One hundred years sounds like a long time ago. But is it, in the scheme of things? As I pored over these inspiring images of our brave fore-mothers, I wanted my girls and I to join them. In fact, our children are about to embark on a study of U.S. History. What better way to start the school year than by staging our own suffrage parade? However, we were going to need more than just costumes. I mean, just look at these amazing photographs of real suffragettes! Clearly, we needed some picket signs…

Historical Photo Collage 1
Top Left: (Library of Congress), Top Right, American Suffragette, circa 1920 (APA/Getty Images), Bottom Left: Margaret Vale Howe, a participant in the suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., March 1913 (Library of Congress), Bottom Right: British Suffragettes.

…So, I made some! Here is a sneak peek of the finished results. I thought it would be interesting to do a side by side comparison with a black and white version; for old times’ sake. *Ba-dum-ching* Anyway, read on to see how you, too, can join the march with your very own suffragette picket signs!

Sign Collage 13

I wanted something lightweight and durable for the board part of the sign. So, I snapped up two of these seasonal, hardboard signs at the Dollar Tree. I planned to use their plain backs as the fronts of our signs. Next, I went to the hardware store and bought two, 3/4″ x 3/4″ x 36″ wooden stakes for the sign handles.

Sign Collage 1

Once I got everything home, I removed the price stickers which, of course, didn’t want to come off. They left a sticky residue on what I intended to make the front of the sign. This would never do! Fortunately, rubbing alcohol removed the gunk.

Sign Collage 2

Even though the colorful parts of the signs would be painted over and turned to the back, I decided to try to remove some of the glitter on the lettering. This handy sanding block was very comfortable to use. It did a good job of getting rid of most of the glitter.

Sign Collage 3

Now, it was time to paint! And, wouldn’t you know it, but it was pretty much the hottest day of the year. (It’s basically a rule that I only spray paint when it’s either below freezing or broiling.) So, it was obviously not an ideal temperature for spray painting, but what’s a girl to do? Soldier on like a suffragette, of course! I got Rust-Oleum Universal All Surface Paint in Satin White and the companion Clear Topcoat in Dead Flat.

Sign Collage 4

I spread out some newspapers, in the backyard, and weighted the corners with rocks. Then, I sprayed both signs, starting with the colorful sides that were to become the backs. Once those had thoroughly dried, I sprayed the plain sides, which I intended to make the new fronts of our signs. This took a lot more paint than I thought, so I ended up having to finish with some old, white spray paint I found in the basement. It ended up spraying in tiny globules, which gave the sign a grainy texture. This would be a disaster for some projects, but I decided that this just gave the signs some character.

Sign Collage 5

After everything dried, I moved on to the lettering. I am not one of those fancy, hand-lettering people! The idea of free-hand painting “Votes for Women” on these signs intimidated me. *SO* I decided to measure everything and use stickers and glue.

Sign Collage 6

This ended up being quite time-consuming!

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Using my trusty T-Square and some masking tape, I figured out the center-line and line spacing marks I would use for the letter placements.

Sign Collage 7

Then, I lay the T-Square across the sign as a straight-edge rule to guide my “lettering”. I placed the middle letter of each word, first. This was the “T” in “VOTES”, the “O” in “FOR”, and the “M” in “WOMEN”.

Sign Collage 8

Once I finished placing the stickers, I carefully removed the masking tape. In order to make the letters stay more permanently, I dabbed a little Fabri-Tac on a toothpick. Then, I gently lifted part of each letter sticker enough to spread a bit of glue to it, before pressing it firmly back to the sign.

Sign Collage 9

I let the glued letters dry overnight. In the morning, I centered the wooden handles on the backs of the signs and secured them with masking tape. Then, I used two, short, wire nails to attach the signs to the handles. I paused in hammering when the nail head got close to the freshly painted surface. To protect it, I put a bit of masking tape on the nail head before driving it home.

Sign Collage 14

A quick top-coat spray finished the job!

Sign Collage 11

And, there you have it! These suffragette signs are easy to make, and would be perfect additions to a Halloween costume or a school project. I look forward to sharing how I made our sashes and assembled our costumes in future posts. Until then, Friends!

Sign Collage 12


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DIY Manta Ray Hoodie Costume Photo Shoot

August 16, 2020

Hello, costume friends! In my last post, I shared how to make this DIY Manta Ray Hoodie Costume. Hours of photo editing later, I am sooo excited to share our Lake Chelan photo shoot of the finished costume!

Ray Costume Collage

So, take a stroll down the dock with us!

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 1

When taking photos of our kids, I’ve learned that it helps to let them “play” a bit. This allows them to relax and get accustomed to the feel of the costumes. Of course, sometimes we’re really in a time crunch and this is harder to do!

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 2

It was a treat to just follow Elliott around and spend time seeing the world through his eyes. Or, should I say, “Manta Man’s” eyes?

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 6

This manta ray is catching some sun rays! I love how the light plays on the velvet “pile” of the hoodie material. Fabric selection is key when it comes to turning something ordinary into something extraordinary!

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 8

To add to that, I don’t limit myself by age or gender categories when I’m thrifting for raw costuming materials. Was this hoodie in the boy’s section? Nope! I want to write more about this, in the future!

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Lake Chelan is a magical place. Especially at sunset!

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This picture reminds me of a ray leaping from the water! To see stunning footage of real rays leaping and even somersaulting through the air, click here.

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The “Queen Bee”. What a cute, little fishing boat!

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 3

Still water and a quiet moment with my oldest son.

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“Manta Man” is on lifeguard duty!

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 4

Ready for take-off…

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 7

Golden glow over golden hills, with my golden-haired boy.

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Duckies!

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 10

We decided it was probably best not to actually swim in his costume…

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 11

With the sun continuing to set, it was time to head back.

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 12

It’s hard to say “Good-bye” to the lake after such a gorgeous day!…

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 13

…

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Isn’t he angelic? Could there possibly be any bloopers from this photo shoot?

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Of course!…

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 15

…

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Until next time, lovely lake!

Ray Photo Shoot Collage 5

“Jump!”

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To see how I made this costume, please click below for the detailed tutorial:

  • DIY Manta Ray Hoodie Costume

Until next time, friends!


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DIY Manta Ray Hoodie Costume

August 10, 2020

Wanna wow your kid? Take a humble hoodie (or a fancy velvet one) and convert it into a wearable, costume version of their favorite critter! This is especially fun if their “spirit animal” is a bit obscure.

Ray Costume Collage

For example, our second-born, Elliott, (superhero alias “Manta Man”) has loved sting rays of all sorts for several years. Here he was as a newly-minted seven-year-old at Lake Chelan. What a cutie! I mean, cool dude. (“Cool” is the new “cute” when you are a grown man of seven.)

Elliott Ray Collage

I really wanted to make Elliott a special costume to celebrate his seventh birthday and his deep, deep love for rays. So, I went to Goodwill in search of inspiration and raw materials. As usual, it did not disappoint!

Ray Hoodie Collage 1

I couldn’t believe my luck in finding this magical, teal blue hoodie in stretch velour. Its crushed, multi-directional “pile” gives the material incredible softness and sheen. (Which is also why it photographs so differently in nearly every shot!)

Ray Hoodie Collage 2

First of all, I had “Manta Man” try on the hoodie. I was glad to see that it was a bit big. I was pretty sure I could open the sleeves to convert them into the ray’s pectoral fins. It took some examining and brainstorming, but I figured it out! To widen the sleeve, I cut it straight up from the underarm seam to the top of the shoulder, careful to only snip through the top layer of the sleeve.

Ray Sleeve Collage 1

Then, I smoothed the sleeve perfectly flat and pinned it along its underarm seam. Stabilizing it in this way allowed me to easily slide the scissors down the top of the sleeve, snipping it open as I went.

Ray Sleeve 2

One sleeve open!

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Next, I repeated this process to open up the right sleeve. I checked the shoulder measurement to my first cut on the left sleeve, so that both sleeves would match. Then, I pinned the right sleeve and cut it open. (Please excuse my jankity eczema fingernails. It took getting a low-dose steroid shot in my derriere to finally help me get on top of my crazy hand problems. GAME CHANGER. 10/10 would recommend!)

Ray Sleeve Collage 3

At this point, I asked “Manta Man” to check my progress!

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Things were looking good, so I asked to borrow his stuffed manta ray to help me visualize how to fashion the sleeves into sweeping, curved fins.

Ray Toy Collage 1

Of course, I could have just done an internet search for manta rays, but nothing beats having a 3D object to study and manipulate!

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Before shaping the sleeves, I decided to remove the ribbed cuffs and use them to create “handles” inside the fins. This would allow Elliott to hold onto them from the inside and keep the fins stretched out.

Ray Sleeve Collage 4

Snip, snip! This knit material doesn’t ravel, so I didn’t worry about hemming the sleeve edges.

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Before plotting the sleeve cuts, I folded the hoodie precisely in half, lengthwise, so that I could cut both sides at once.

Ray Sleeve Collage 5

To achieve the desired shape, I trimmed a an angled bit off the top of the sleeve and a larger wedge from the bottom. Then, I flipped the larger wedge 180° to re-attach it to the base of the fin. This would widen it and augment the curved shape.

Ray Sleeve Collage 6

A quick seam in zig-zag stitch did the trick.

Ray Sleeve Collage 7

Okay! Back to those hand straps. As you can see, I jumped around a bit on this project. (That’s what happens when I’m making something up as I go along!)

Ray Sleeve Collage 8

I only needed one of the ribbed cuffs to make both hand straps. First, I cut it in half and zig-zag stitched each side to the wrong side of the sleeves. (The last, bottom-right image shows the stitching from the right side of the finished costume. It’s barely noticeable.)

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Time to make the ray’s white belly! I found the exact middle of the hoodie, lay it on top of some white polar fleece, and pinned it at the top and bottom of this center line. Then, I spread out my newly-created left fin and cut the fleece to match its shape.

Ray Sleeve Collage 8

 

I transferred the center line pins from the hoodie to just the fleece. Then, I folded it in half to cut around it and make the right fin.

Ray Sleeve Collage 9

To attach the belly to the hoodie, I pinned the right side of the fleece, down the top edge of the fins, to the back side of the hoodie. Then, I did the same along the bottom edge of the fins and stitched.

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To put the belly back to the front of the costume, I pulled the fleece panel over the top of the hoodie, which turned the seams neatly into the inside.

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Now, it was time to attach the bottom sides of fins to the sides of the hoodie and then to the belly.

Ray Sleeve Collage 11

Here are some images of the finished fins, to give more views of how they were pieced together. It’s a bit hard to explain! There’s a bit of puckering along the side seams, but I decided it wasn’t noticeable enough to re-do them.

Ray Sleeve Collage 9

Now that the fleece was flipped to the right side, I turned over and pinned its raw edges at top and bottom. Then, I asked “Manta Man” to model it to make sure that everything looked good.

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After verifying that the fabric layers were smooth, I zig-zag stitched across the top edge and bottom hem of the fleece belly panel.

Ray Front Pin Collage

But, of course, not before Eliza “helped” me with some of the pinning!

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With the main body of the ray complete, I could turn my attention to the distinctive add-on pieces. Check out this blue, stretch velour I happened to have in my stash! I still remember finding it at a yard sale, way back when Emma and Elliott still rode in our double stroller. Bonus surprise piece of purple velvet rolled inside? Yes, please! *Sets it aside for a future project.*

Ray Fabric Collage

This is the point where I would normally make a paper pattern/mock-up for the tail. However, I decided to just fold a bit of the material in half and eyeball it! (I’m trying not to second-guess myself, so much.) I re-folded the tail, lengthwise, with wrong sides together. Then, I zig-zag stitched down its length, leaving the top open.

Tail Collage 1

I turned the tail right side out and stitched it to the base of the hem, on the back of the hoodie.

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Now it was time to tackle the part of the project that intimidated me the most: Creating those alien-like cephalic lobes protruding from the ray’s head. (And, yes. I had to look up what they are called!) Fortunately, Elliott had more ray toys to guide my design process.

Ray Toy Collage 2

There was no way I was going to “wing it”, as I did for the tail. This was going to take a bit more experimentation. I lay the hood of the hoodie on a piece of printer paper and traced around its edges. Then, I sketched a series of lobe shapes to test and compare as potential pattern pieces.

Ray Head Collage 1

At this point, if you feel like this array of shapes is kind of awkward-looking and you want to giggle…You are not alone. *Ahem*.

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Moving right along…I settled on using the smallest shape. As ever, my faithful apprentice, Eliza, created her own “pattern pieces”, alongside me.

Ray Head Collage 2

Next, I traced my pattern piece of choice onto a folded piece of paper to generate two of them. I figured out how long I wanted the lobes to be, and generated another set of pattern pieces that would have curved bases. (These would be the interior, white part of the lobes.) These curved lobe bases were designed to be attached to an elongated oval shape that would lie across the top of the head.

Ray Head Collage 3

It always feels so good to be done with creating pattern pieces! I used them to cut two exterior lobe pieces out of the blue velour, one center piece, and two interior lobe pieces from scraps of the white polar fleece.

Ray Head Collage 5

I recently replaced the foam pad on my ironing board and saved the old one for such a time as this! (“This” being the need for some padding/stiffening in costume pieces.)

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So, I cut another set of all of my pattern pieces out of this thin foam. Then, I zig-zag stitched a foam piece to the wrong side of each of the corresponding fabric pieces.

Ray Head Collage 6

This anchored each of the fabric and foam pieces together, before stitching the cephalic lobe sections together.

Ray Head Collage 7

Placing right sides of the fabric together, I pinned and stitched the blue, outer lobes to the white, inner lobe pieces.

Ray Head Collage 8

Then, I turned the lobes right side out and stitched the white interior to the white center piece.

Ray Head Collage 9

Ray Head Collage 10

To help the lobes stand more upright on top of the head, I decided to enhance the curve at the base of the white, interior lobes, where the seams join them to the oval, center piece. Stitching this tuck in the material pulled the lobes upward.

Ray Head Collage 11

If you’re still reading, congratulations! You’ve made it to the final step! I hand stitched the assembled cephalic lobe piece to the hood of the hoodie by turning the raw edges under and catching it with small, “invisible hem” stitches.

Ray Head Collage 12

To do this, I pinned the front edge of the cephalic lobes piece to the front edge of the hood. As I went around the base of each lobe, I continually checked and adjusted the hood material so that the protruding pieces would look even on either side of Elliott’s head.

Ray Head Collage 13

Eliza helped me with this step by pulling the needle through after I inserted each stitch.

Ray Head Collage 14

Sooo close! I used a measuring tape to check the placement of each lobe piece for side-to-side symmetry. Additional stitches down the white, interior seam of the lobes helped them to stand even more upright.

Ray Head Collage 15

And that, my friends, is IT!!! Here’s a sneak preview of one of the pictures I took of Elliott…I mean…”Manta Man”, wearing his brand new manta ray costume! I will share more images from our Lake Chelan photo shoot in my next post. Bye for now!

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