Construction: Toralei's Dress - TOTAL HOURS: (combined with others)

Web vs. Doll Differences noted:

Basically the Cartoon and Doll versions look pretty much the same when it comes to the color of red and the patterns of rough lines in white and black. The only difference I've seen is with the slit on the bottom of the dress. But that is a difference I've seen between images of the Cartoon version of her dress, sometimes it looks like she has a slit over each leg, sometimes only the left leg. 

 Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a garment to use the fabric from it than buy the fabric from a store. In this case, I found a cheap large dress that was also on sale made of a red jersey. It also was the right length and had a neckline that would work for Toralei's dress. I took the sleeves and tags off and then separated the side seams. The dress was then ready to be screened with the pattern. 

I used butcher's paper to create the pattern on the dress. The lines aren't just lines, they are wavy and rough and each needed to be measured and cut by hand. This took an extremely long time. Once I had enough strips cut out, I ironed them down to the dress, periodically checking the spacing and angle of lines to that of the doll and cartoon. I filled in all the lines with screen ink by hand with a paint brush. The black only took one layer, the white took 4! It was again very timely as I had to wait in between each layer for it to dry before I could start again. I also had a few issues with going out of the lines into the opposite color because some of them were so close together. After removing the butcher's paper I fixed up any of the "boo-boos" I had accidentally made. I proceeded to do the back the same way and then once both sides were dry I ironed them from the inside to set the ink.

In the photo below are only HALF of the hand cut butcher's paper strips after I took them off!

I sewed the sides of the dress up and tried it on with the scarf and belt. It was exciting! I had a visible costume starting to emerge! I immediately ran into the living room to show my partner Matt and dance around. We discussed how the belt looked with the dress under it, I was concerned about looking frumpy. I decided to take the dress in so it was less baggy on me and did this after pinning the appropriate reduction on the sides while wearing it. I also took some photos of myself in the mirror wearing these pieces. I NEVER do this. I felt kind of awkward about doing it because it is weird to see myself as only part of a character, like something is kind of unhinged. Below are photos of the original dress on the left and on the right after I reduced the sides to make it more form fitting.

After the sides were done, I turned the armholes in about 1/2", pinned them, and then sewed them down to finish them. I pressed the side seams open on the inside of the dress so it would hopefully lie more flat. Lastly, I cut a slit in the leg and stitched the edges after folding them in.