Costume advice?

loopy · Feb 18, 2015

The dress mesh is too thick and the wrong color - not the right skin tone - not even close. The seamstress I asked to fix it can't because of the bead work and sequins. Has anyone tried dying just the mesh on the dress or coloring it with makeup? She thought she could put a darker mesh under but it is so thick it doesn't change.

MalAssada · Feb 19, 2015

Can you upload us a picture? My notions of fabric are limited in my own language, let alone English :hopelessness:

loopy · Feb 19, 2015

This is similar - not exact - but close. The skin colored part is not just showing - it actually lines the full costume. And instead of having beads and crystals scattered, her costume has them in lines/rows.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CUSTOM-MADE...046?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51b9f3f976

In the photo the mesh (skin colored) looks thin, but it is more the weave of woman's tights and not nylons. It is MUCH lighter than my daughters skin - it looks almost white on her and not her skin color (and she isn't dark skinned, she just has a light natural tan).

loopy · Feb 19, 2015

So my thoughts are to try an color the fabric with strong tea or use a water proof make up and art brush and tape the dress to hopefully not smear it.

Skategmt · Feb 20, 2015

The picture of the dress... Its gorgeous! The idea with tea sounds like a good idea to me

NanaPat · Feb 21, 2015

Maybe you can get some scrap fabric from the seamstress to experiment on. It would be good to see how it "takes" makeup or tea as dye before starting on the dress itself. You can also experiment with your application technique. Don't just immerse the scrap fabric in tea, since you won't be doing that with the dress itself.

Good luck, and let us know how it comes out!

NanaPat · Feb 21, 2015

Oops, I thought the seamstress you talked to had actually made the dress. And I wondered why you didn't check the color of the fabric BEFORE she made it.

Where did the dress come from? Do you think there's any possibility you could get sample fabric from there?

loopy · Feb 21, 2015

Probably not able to get a sample, it was ebay. But the whole dress is lined, I can try the tea on the inside of the dress first.

NanaPat · Feb 21, 2015

Perhaps you could try another seamstress before you do that.

I can picture this:
- cutting out just the potion of the mesh that shows (leaving just a bit of extra fabric on the margins)
- finishing off the edges using the extra fabric
At this point, you have a dress with straps instead of mesh. Each strap is a strip of old-mesh fabric with decorations sewn on it

Then make a new top of the proper color mesh to cover the whole area that was cut out, but including the straps. Sew this to the top of the dress and tack the straps to it.

The only problem I can see with this is:
- wouldn't work with scattered decorations - only if they're in rows
- if you wound up with too many "straps", would require too much work
- you'd see a narrow line of light fabric (the original) against the new mesh. It would look like the decorations were sewn on white fabric straps instead of just sewn to the new mesh. Would this spoil the dress entirely?

desertskates · Feb 23, 2015

A dark tea should work. When I skated as a much younger adult, I used to do it. You can use a cotton ball or makeup sponge to apply the tea and then another in water to blend it to be seamless. Be sure to layer plenty of towels underneath. It's a beautiful dress! Your daughter will shine in it

loopy · Feb 23, 2015

Thank you for the encouragement!

I get the dress back this week.

Costume advice?

loopy

MalAssada

loopy

loopy

Skategmt

NanaPat

NanaPat

loopy

NanaPat

desertskates

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