A Year of Fashion Illustration Classes

For the last school year, I've been taking fashion illustration classes at Canada College in Redwood City. This is the same community college where I took Pants Drafting & Construction, Bustier, Copying RTW, Intro to Theater Costuming, and Textiles. In fact, the professor for this class is the same as the textiles class, and she is basically everything I would've wanted to be in a different life: an illustrator, knowledgeable about the chemistry of textiles, and a teacher! And what a teacher -- I haven't taken a serious art class in more than fifteen years, when I took an introductory drawing class my senior year in high school because I dropped out of second semester AP Physics. That was all about shading and stippling techniques and I think I drew a pretty awesome pine cone, but that's about all I remember. And before that class, the last time I picked up my paintbrush to do a serious painting was in eighth grade. Even then, I was pretty lost because my teacher's instructions basically consisted of "get your paintbrush wet and then paint until it looks good."

The one painting from that era that I don't cringe at was copied from a calendar when I was in a horse phase. I don't have any real pictures of it, but I found it in the background of this picture from Thanksgiving four years ago. My parents still have it hanging in their dining room, bless them. 

With that background, it was like an epiphany when our prof actually gave concrete instructions on how to proportion figures, illustrate different fabric types, and use various media effectively. As I told her on my last day of class, I feel like a whole new world has been unlocked for me (you know, because I needed more types of hobbies that involve a cabinet of supplies). No more staring enviously at other artists' illustrations and wondering how they knew how to do that; now I can do it too! Er, kind of.

Last fall, after several weeks of drawing stick figures, blocked figures, various body parts, and types of fabric, our first assignment was to put all of it together to do a black and white drawing. I drew a 1920s-inspired figure wearing a beaded flapper-ish dress and holding a fox-fur stole. It's funny, I was so pleased with it when I drew it, but looking back at it now I see so many mistakes!

Her right shoulder is too high and her pose looks a little awkward. 

The next assignment was to do a figure in sepia and/or monochromatic pastels, i.e. not a lot of color, but shading and texture as a focus. I went for a 1930s look, with a drapey bias-cut satin dress and huge fur coat. In contrast to my first assignment, I still love everything about this piece.

In the category of draw what you know, most of my figures read as Asian. 

The third assignment was an illustration using colored pencils, so we were supposed to choose nubbly and textured fabrics to render. I illustrated what was meant to be a boucle wool coat with tweedy trousers. This was my least favorite piece from first semester, which at the time I attributed to the medium, but it's funny because I ended up using color pencil a lot during second semester. I think I just didn't know what I was doing yet. Also I went overboard on the background. Or maybe I just didn't like it because it wasn't a vintage look?

I realized that the white hair made her look a lot like Ororo Munroe, so in a late night, last minute decision I added in the background, then hated it. I've gotten too used to being able to Ctrl+Z everything!

Our final project was a watercolor illustration, and I went with an Erte-inspired Art Nouveau figure. Despite a mistake on the shading of the draped folds on her dress, I still love how this one turned out, mostly because of the cheetah. This was the illustration that made me fall in love with watercolor as a medium; I realized I could actually control the moisture in order to get the color to do what I wanted, instead of letting the moisture control me. It's amazing what a good teacher can help you achieve!

I debated whether or not to take Advanced Fashion Illustration during second semester, because I knew I was going to be super busy with prepping my AP students for exams, plus the inevitable exhaustion of pregnancy and the continued demands of caring for a toddler. I'm so glad I did it, though, because I was able to build on my momentum from first semester, and who knows when I'll be able to take another class? It took two years for me to carve out time for myself to take these classes after having SHB, and he's a fairly easy kid, so I figured I should do what I can while I still can.

We started the semester by drawing more "extreme" poses (read: more attitude) and working on profile and back views. This was my attempt at a Poiret-inspired cocoon coat (something I definitely want to make one day, if/when I find the perfect velvet fabric) from the back, using pastels and color pencils:

Backgrounds: not my strong suit. That tree is just sad. 

Then we experimented with timed drawings, where we used brush pens to quickly capture a figure's style and movement. Unlike my previous pieces, these poses were based on fashion magazine photos since the limited time didn't allow for coming up with and perfecting my own figure poses.

Working on more stylized drawings in fashion illustration class tonight. #nomorethanfiveminutes #nomorethanfifteenlines #sohardtoletgoofmyperfectionistside #letitgoooo #tryingtochannelmyinnerelsa 🤷🏻‍♀️❄️🌬

A post shared by Cation Designs (@cationdesigns) on Feb 9, 2017 at 9:27pm PST

We also spent a class period playing around with acrylic paints in the Stipelman technique, where, according to our prof, you just smoosh paint around until it looks good. I somehow ended up painting a pink wedding dress. I don't even like pink.

The first official assignment was to render four different types of fabric. I did a floral jacquard, an iridescent silk dupioni, a gold-flecked acrylic sweater knit, and a lovely ombre organza that had little colorful crinkles in it.

My silk dupioni rendering looks too dark because of how the light hit the fabric sample. Doing the jacquard was lots of fun though!

I seriously love this fabric; it's hard to appreciate the gold flecks until you see it in person and the light hits it right. I'm really pleased with how I captured the fuzzy boucle-ish texture though. This outfit is based on the actual costume I created for our high school's production of post-apocalyptic Antigone. One day I'll get around to blogging those costumes...

My inspiration for this figure/outfit was a combination of Zac Posen's 2016 Met gala gown for Claire Danes and the announcement of Noma Dumezweni's casting as Hermione in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I had this lovely iridescent organza with periwinkle in it and I imagined what Hermione's head-turning Yule Ball gown could've been. 

The next assignment was a fashion illustration portrait, where we were supposed to focus in on the face, which we hadn't really done before, while still illustrating at least part of an outfit up close. I chose to illustrate Anna May Wong, whom I've blogged about before, in her iconic Travis Banton sequined dragon dress.

I based the pose on this photo. I love how the sequined dragon turned out, but got carried away when doing the fabric at the bust area and it makes the dress look much less fitted than it actually should be. Also her face got too slim and doesn't look so much like Anna May Wong as it does my mom...

Then we spent several weeks working on an advertisement using a fashion figure; I really didn't want to spend that much time working on a random fashion line, nor did I have a business I really wanted to promote, so I ended up making a propaganda piece instead, for International Women's Day! I figured that I might as well advertise for something I actually care about, i.e. women's rights, and not a perfume or handbag.

I really wanted to capture the feel of teens-era women's suffrage posters, with the Art Nouveau-inspired font style and the vaguely military/heraldic imagery. I used an actual slogan from the women's suffrage movement on the banner.  

Our final project was to put together a presentation board with the technical flats, specs (measurements), photographs, and illustration of an actual garment, as if we were trying to sell/manufacture it for RTW. I chose my Roaring Twenties dress, as I figured that it would involve relatively few measurements, and since I came up with the pattern on my own, I could say it was really MY garment that I was showing off.

Even though taking these classes made for a hectic year (hello, late night drawing, rushing home from work to drive across the bridge in time for class, and extended screen time for SHB while Mommy finishes up last minute cutting and mounting on the days assignments are due!), it was so worth it to be able to make beautiful art again. I remember being in college and having an Elfwood account (anyone remember that site?) and marveling at their artists of the day and being so blown away by the art of Stephanie Law and Anke Eissmann especially, and wondering if I would ever be able to draw anything that beautiful. I've still got a long way to go, but art like that feels achievable instead of impossible now.

Ease-in to Motherhood

Thanks for inviting me to be part of the conversation on sewing and motherhood, Erin!

Before SHB, I used to get slightly annoyed whenever one of the sewing bloggers on my feed reader would announce her pregnancy, because I knew that she would either 1) post much less frequently, or even disappear entirely, and/or 2) start sewing irrelevant-to-me items, either baby things or maternity/nursing garments. Oh pre-motherhood Cation, what a selfish, clueless sewing blogger you were! The minute you had SHB, you basically became all those things, even going so far as co-hosting a sewalong centered around sewing for small human beings! I can't remember the last time I sewed a non-costume garment for myself (although to be perfectly honest, I was such a prolific sewer before pregnancy that I really didn't need to keep sewing to keep myself clothed), and the last thirty things I've sewn have all been plushies for SHB. So yeah. But let's talk in more detail about how motherhood has changed my sewing.

As I'm sure is the case for many of you, sewing is a vital creative activity that keeps my brain active and my heart happy. In my early sewing years, I relished finding ways to use the crazy fabrics I was finding at thrift stores in the form of bedsheets, and making fit-and-flare dresses out of them became part of my identity: I was a quirky green Ms. Frizzle wannabe who wore her fandoms on her sleeve (literally), I knew what looked good on my body and had the time and means to dress it how I wanted. After the fashion-related insecurity and teasing of my pre-teen years, it was such a relief and release to be me and, as I got older, the more I realized I only needed and cared to please myself. Sewing was the vehicle to self-love for me, not only with my body but with my mind and talents.

And then I found out I was having SHB. Suddenly I wasn't a selfish seamstress anymore, and while I did still sew for myself, I had so much fun making cute things for my coming baby, too! Having a baby meant rediscovering my love for sewing non-garment items, as well as discovering new forms of sewing expression, such as quilting. I was excited and felt like new worlds were being opened to me.

Then I actually had SHB, and it was miserable. He was bad at sleeping (I wore him in the Ergo and bounced on a trampoline to get him to nap for the first six months of his life), I was tired beyond belief (hello, 9 PM bedtime in anticipation of waking up five times every night!), and when I had a moment to myself (rare, as we didn't have any regular babysitters and I nursed SHB until he was two), I was so brain-dead I couldn't make my mind work enough to go through the mental exercise of sewing. I started just sleeping or wasting time on Pinterest when I had free time, but was still confused about my ongoing grumpiness until I realized that I wasn't creating, and I missed and needed it. Talking to other creative moms (mostly sewing bloggers I met through here!) helped me realize that what I needed more than sleep was to Make Things Again. I don't remember who said it, but basically what I needed to do was at least one irreversible thing every day. So many of my life tasks were reversible (baby needs to eat again! dishes need to be washed again! toys need to be picked up again! papers need to be graded again!) that I felt like I was in the Red Queen's race, running and running just to stay in the same place (or actually fall behind, TBH).

Once I realized things needed to change, I made a plan to Get My Life Back. For me, this meant sleep-training SHB. I realize that that's a controversial decision in a lot of parenting circles (and I had my fair share of nights crying while he cried because I was afraid that I was damaging him forever by not going to him), but it was the best thing I could have done for us. It took several months (like I said, terrible sleeper), but once SHB was out of our bed and out of our room, I finally had the space (physically and mentally) to create again. Even if all I was making was simple items for him, it was enough to see concrete evidence that I had Done Something With My Day. Around the same time, I was hosting the SHB Sewalong with Mikhaela and Clio and just having other sewing moms to commiserate with helped me see the importance of community. As my social psych prof used to say in college, misery loves miserable company, and while we weren't necessarily miserable, I felt so much better knowing that I wasn't the only one trying to figure out how to manage a needy, demanding being while still being one's own person with hobbies and a changing body that needed to be clothed.

SHB finally started sleeping through the night at around a year, and since his 7:30-8 PM bedtime is fairly early, I get the whole rest of the evening to be an adult. Sometimes that's sewing, sometimes that's just catching up on adulting tasks, but it's glorious to know that my nights are my own again (especially since I'm a night owl...midnight bedtime means I get a few hours to myself). I'd say that around the 18 month mark was when I felt like I really had a handle on this whole motherhood-while-not-just-only-being-a-mother-I'm-my-own-person-too business, and it's only gotten better as SHB becomes more independent and verbal. Now, at almost three, SHB has enough of an attention span and his own interests that I can even sew during the day sometimes; of course, that's only if the items are for him...

If you let a toddler find out that Mommy can make unicorns, he's going to ask for a pink unicorn. If you tell him that you need to put all these fabric pieces together to make the unicorn, he'll try to help, and he'll surprisingly do a pretty good job. He will, however, ask every minute whether it's done yet. #surprisedbyhowpatientlyhewaitedthough #justhoveredovermyshoulderwatchingittakeshape #lookmommyitcanstandup #butmommywherestheeyes #notejetblackinthebackgroundeatingsomecarrotswhilewaitingforhismommytobesewn #slowtoymovement #likeslowfood #buthesnothangrysothisisgoingbetter #slowfoodistheworstfortoddlers #imsewingathing #raisingamaker #zactothefuture

A post shared by Cation Designs (@cationdesigns) on Jun 2, 2017 at 10:41am PDT

While I've mostly reclaimed my creative time, I'm still working on how to reclaim my style. All those fun sheet dresses I made (mostly) still fit before I got pregnant again, but they're really not practical as a parent of a toddler. I'm satisfied with living out my geekiness in cosplay instead of everyday life; I don't think quirky clothing is as central to my identity as creating is. I believe strongly enough in slow fashion to not sew when I don't technically need to, so I think this is one of the areas where I'm content to wait and see. I'll wait until I'm done nursing for good to see where my body settles, and then decide what kind of style suits me then.

***

Now that those I'm-so-tired-I-hate-my-life-why-did-I-decide-to-have-a-kid moments are a (somewhat) distant memory, I sometimes wonder why I'm subjecting myself to the horror of having another small human being; I think knowing that the newborn months are short will help me make it through to the toddler years, which I find much more enjoyable. I have more mom friends now, both online and IRL, which will hopefully make a difference when I'm in the worst of the sleep deprivation and demands of two small human beings. I'm hoping that since I'm more experienced now, both as a mom and as a person, I'll recognize sooner the importance of having my own time to create, and make an effort to make room for it. My self-care mantra in this past year has consisted of trying to remind myself of the truth of the airplane oxygen mask -- take care of yourself first so that you can take care of your child -- instead of succumbing to the lie that I'm being selfish by not giving of myself constantly. We'll see how it goes in a few weeks when SHB#2 arrives!

THIS.

Sew ALL the Plushies!

One of my (not so) secret addictions is making cute plushies. Unfortunately, adults just don't need that many tiny stuffed things (or large stuffed things, for that matter), so while I occasionally indulge in this addiction by making gifts for people, it's hard to justify making things that are just going to sit around collecting dust.

[Enter SHB, a toddler who loves unicorns and dinosaurs.]

I know unselfish sewing for small children is supposed to be a thankless task, and for the most part it has been -- SHB is not into any of the quilts I made for him, nor the ocean-themed plushies and accessories -- but when the small child is finally old enough to make requests and then express definite (positive) opinions, it suddenly becomes supremely rewarding. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I love the mental exercise of 1) figuring out what aspects of a creature are most important to preserve for maximum recognizability, then 2) translating the 3D stylized creature in my head into 2D pattern pieces, and 3) coming up with a best order of operations for actually sewing up the creature. It's just enough work to feel like I'm exercising my mental muscles, but not so much work that my school-is-out-and-third-trimester-tiredness-is-really-kicking-in brain feels overwhelmed. Also it feels like a still somewhat productive activity as a means of procrastinating re: figuring out a potty training strategy and how on earth I'm going to deal with having two small human beings.

It all started with this Goodnight Moon parody book, Goodnight Unicorn. SHB loves the original classic board book, so I picked this book up at the library because I love parodies/spin-offs and the illustration style appealed to me. For some reason SHB totally latched onto this book, and kept asking where it was after I returned it to the library, and I totally went through a unicorn phase when I was in elementary school, so I was not at all averse to purchasing our own copy. SHB's favorite unicorn was the "jet black," and for some reason toy manufacturers only make pastel-colored unicorns, so it was up to me to make SHB's unicorn toy dreams come true. And of course, in a if-you-give-a-mouse-a-cookie scenario, he then wanted a mommy and daddy unicorn, and then a rainbow unicorn to represent his coming baby sister, and then because the Warriors were in the playoffs, a Steph Curry unicorn, and then things just spiraled out of control.

In the book, the rainbow unicorn and the jet black unicorn sleep in a barn at night.

Steph Curry unicorn with a basketball. I used leftover fabric from the Warriors' pajamas I made a couple Christmases ago. 

He just loves cuddling as many as he can hold at once. 

Current count at ten, but still requested: an orange one, and one with a "patootie," i.e. a cutie mark. I don't know if I'll get around to those, as that would require buying another bag of stuffing. 

And because SHB takes books very seriously, the unicorns needed a rainbow to slide on. Also to please make sure, Mom, that there's pink in the rainbow.

I used craft foam inside the rainbow to get it to stand up. 

I know, I know, he really doesn't need more stuffed toys, but how can I say no when this is the happy face I get when he sees the newest plushie?

And then he immediately has to get the book and copy the picture with his toys. 

I used Nuno Runo's zebra plushie pattern to make the unicorns, and in browsing her other stuffed toy patterns, discovered that there was a stegosaurus pattern as well. Unfortunately, making a stegosaurus just opened up an even bigger can of worms since SHB then realized he could request that Mommy make ALL the dinosaurs. This wouldn't be a problem if he only knew a few dinosaurs, but he has this pack of 30 dinosaur flashcards from the Target dollar section, so after stegosaurus he requested a tyrannosaurus rex, then a triceratops, diplodocus, ankylosaurus, parasaurolophus, brachiosaurus, pterodactyl, pteranodon, and dimetrodon.

I had so much fun designing this pattern! I'm really pleased with how the bony frill turned out. 

The diplodocus was easy; the ankylosaurus' wedge-shaped head, armored back, and clubbed tail was a little trickier. 

The parasaurolophus turned out exactly as I envisioned, but the brachiosaurus' neck had some grain issues so it looks perpetually perplexed with its cocked head. 

Dimetrodon was just a thicker version of the original NunoRuno stegosaurus, but the flying dinosaurs were trickier because they're so unlike any of the other shapes. The magenta one was version 2.0, because the first one was too skinny and fiddly to make, and was missing its hands. 

A favorite activity: matching the dinosaurs to their flashcards. Poor (magical) liopleurodon, of Charlie the Unicorn fame, doesn't have a flashcard. 

As I got better at making dinosaur patterns, I realized that my original T. rex didn't really look very accurate, so then I went back and improved the pattern to give it a boxier head and allow it to sit up better. And once I made two, because toddlers are nothing if not consistent, SHB labeled them as the parents, which meant that once again, we needed the rest of the family...

According to SHB, he is the purple one because he loves ube ice cream, I am the teal one, Mr. Cation is the magenta one, and baby sister is the seafoam one. 

I then turned the original derpy T. rex into a dragon since the unicorn book features a red dragon, but (and you can probably guess what's coming) it didn't look very dragon-y either, so then I had to make a better one. SHB requested purple, so I gave it orange accents so that it would look like Figment.

A pair of wings and horns does not a dragon make. "Mom, where the bony plates on his back?" Okay fine, you picky boy, I'll make a better one. 

There, bony plates added. Happy now? (Also the creeper gingerbread man who looks more like a voodoo doll than anything was added by SHB while I was taking pictures of the dragons.)

All this to say, SHB now has a veritable menagerie that he sleeps with every night. Which is more trouble for me, because now there are thirty-odd creatures that we need to track down every night and they barely fit on his bed, and if he wakes up in the middle of the night and can't find one of them in the dark, he'll start crying until I get up and help him find the prodigal plushie. Sigh. Mr. Cation has very little sympathy for me, though, since, as he rightly pointed out, this is really a problem of my own making. Literally.

This isn't even the entire collection of his "friends." There are more that can't fit, but this is the core group.

Eventually, I'd like to turn the dragon and dinosaurs into cleaned up patterns, but with only a month to go until baby girl's arrival, that's unlikely to happen anytime soon. My one goal is to make a quilt for her so that she has at least one new thing that's all hers and not a hand-me-down from her big brother...

My Little Gryffindor Seeker

One of the things I was looking forward to most about being a mother was getting to dress up SHB. I made a couple costumes for him when he was a baby, but ever since he started growing like a weed and taking up most of my mental energy, I haven't done much sewing for him. But since I made myself a McGonagall costume for Halloween, I figured I should make him some Hogwarts robes to match. While I identify somewhat with McGonagall, being a teacher and all, SHB's life is not much like Harry Potter's; he is loved and well fed and of course, his parents are alive. There are still some similarities, though: he is well-known at school and he sleeps in a closet.* And Harry Potter is the youngest Quidditch player in a century and SHB is definitely the youngest kid at school...so Gryffindor Quidditch robes it was!

I don't know what to do with my hands. 

I very briefly entertained thoughts of cutting out and sewing on the letters for "GRYFFINDOR" but dismissed it after thinking for like, five seconds about how tedious it would be.

I used the hooded jacket pattern from Kwik-Sew 3127 as a basis for the robe. Following these tutorials/patterns, I slashed and spread the body and sleeve pattern pieces and cut out stripes and such. I used regular fleece from Joann's, figuring that the warmth would be nice for the end of October -- WRONG! It was still quite warm so the robe wasn't quite comfortable for SHB. Add in the fact that I made it bigger on purpose so that he could wear it next year too, and he was not happy about wearing it. Of course. After all the time I spent, too! How like a toddler! I suppose it's my own fault for treating him like a doll...but oh how cute he looks in his robe!

Why am I wearing a fleece robe when it's 70-something degrees??

I also made him a little Nimbus 2016 broom as a prop. Thank goodness for the abundance of decorative brooms in stores around Halloween; I just painted the handle and added gold duct tape, then Sharpie-d the logo and model number on.

Um, why am I holding this? (Also I can't get enough of his little curled up toes sticking out of the bottom of the robe!)

In the end, SHB got sick and didn't go trick-or-treating on Halloween at all; he only wore this costume for half an hour to take pictures a week after Halloween. Turns out it was a good thing I made it so big, then! Next year! Or maybe for a con?

Or just endless pictures with Mommy.

Trying to get my phone to do autofocus and capture opposite colors was just too much, I guess. 

What are you, a young Napoleon? 

Summary:
Pattern: Kwik-Sew 3127, modified.
Fabric: 1.5 yards of burgundy fleece, half a yard of goldenrod fleece for the lining and decorations
Notions: Tiny eyelets for the front fastening and some black twill tape
Hours: At least ten. Topstitching and cutting all the stripes and such took the longest time.
Total cost: $10
Final thoughts: I think SHB looks adorable, but now that he's older and definitely has his own opinions I do feel a little bad making him wear a costume when he doesn't understand why or want to. I guess it's a good thing I don't make many for him? I always wonder how other geeky parents manage this; I see so many blog parents say things like oh, my kid loves Star Wars or Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, but their kids are quite young. Do they actually have them watch the movies or read the books, which to my mind can be quite a bit beyond say, a kindergardener? I would love to have SHB love my fandoms, but I can't see having him sit and watch anything longer than a fifteen minute Daniel Tiger segment right now, and even then he has trouble sitting through and following the whole thing (I know this depends a lot on the child and what they're used to, but we try to keep SHB's screentime minimal so he hasn't developed that kind of attention span). I suppose one could get a simplified version of the story (how cute is this imagining of The Hobbit?), but the purist in me wants SHB's first experience to be the original medium. Any geeky parents want to weigh in on this?

*I bring SHB with me to school and he naps in a Pack-N-Play in a cozy little supply closet while I teach. This is not nearly as awful as it sounds. There are no spiders, for one.

Professor McGonagall Cosplay

[I know I was supposed to write about the costumes for Antigone, but that's just too overwhelming to think about. I was so burnt out after sewing like mad for two months that I didn't touch my machine for another five months. It wasn't until the thought of Halloween popped up that I could stand to think about sewing another costume. Thankfully, it was a very inspiring costume.]

When I found out that the Silicon Valley Symphony was doing a series of Harry Potter movie soundtrack concerts, I knew I had to make a costume, especially since the first one was during Halloween weekend! Although I briefly toyed with the idea of a femme-Snape costume, I decided to stick with one of my teacher heroines, Professor Minerva McGonagall: strict, no-nonsense, fair, high expectations, but not above the unexpected biscuit-offering. As a teacher myself, I'd rather emulate her teaching style than Snape's.

I already had a RTW black turtleneck and a thrifted long skirt that I could use for her dress, but I knew that to really get her I needed the iconic green velvet robe and the huge pointy black hat. The hat was fairly straightforward to make, even if it was annoying trying to sew all the layers of thick fabric together. I used the hat pattern from the now-OOP Simplicity 9887, but with a much wider brim, and black cotton velveteen and heavyweight craft interfacing from Joann's. The bent tip and brim were wired with floral wire to help them hold their shape, and a pheasant-feather bundle from Michael's and a random stash button finished off the look.

A photo posted by Cation Designs (@cationdesigns) on Oct 1, 2016 at 5:47pm PDT

The robe was a little more tricky, since it was hard to find good pictures of her. I ended up watching this YouTube clip several times to get a good idea of how the seams on the back yoke of the robe looked (best shot is at 0:32-33), then modified the robe in Simplicity 9887 significantly in order to get the yoke lines and the fullness at the back, as well as the collared look in front. The sleevehead had so much excess that I was able to just gather it before inserting to get the look. I didn't bother lining it because I just wasn't feeling motivated, but in hindsight I wish I had at least lined the sleeves since the inside definitely shows.

I'm really pleased at how the collar and yoke integrate with the sleeve, but all those layers of panne velvet meant I had to topstitch everything since I couldn't press all that thickness into submission. 

I love how full the back came out, but I wish I had interfaced the front collar.
Panne velvet is cheap, but doesn't have much by way of body. 

The finishing touches were her wand and brooch. The wand was made possible thanks to a fortuitous finial find at a bead store, otherwise I have no idea how I would have mimicked the carved wood look of hers. I used superglue to attach it to some beads and a wooden dowel, then painted it all with my usual acrylic craft paints.

My finished wand compared to McGonagall's official wand. 

The brooch was definitely a lot trickier; I didn't want a goofy-looking handmade Sculpey one (McGonagall demands sharp perfection, not Becky Home-Ecky) so I asked my very talented brother if he could design and 3D plastic one. Boy, did he deliver! So many people at the concert asked where I had gotten my movie-accurate brooch! I used silver paint pens and nail polish to color it appropriately and the gems are just plastic rhinestones, and there's a brooch pin tacky-glued to the back.

I realized after assembling all these pieces that the look would be totally ruined if I had my regular purse with me, so I decided to make a book-purse as well. I bought a fake book (the kind that opens up to reveal a secret compartment) at Ross and glued on a faux-leather cover. Metal decorative corners and a carefully-calligraphed and cut out "Complete Guide to Transfiguration" bookplate completed the look. When I wore this costume to the Barnes & Noble HP Ball, I actually got stopped by a lot of people wanting to know if I had purchased my book purse there and where was the display so they could buy one too...high praise for a last-minute addition!

I based the color scheme and front cover on the movie version of A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration. 

When I put all of the costume pieces together, I definitely felt very McGonagall! This might be one of the most screen-accurate cosplays I've done -- enough so that people at the concert and the ball asked 1) whether I worked there, and 2) whether I got my costume at Universal, and then were subsequently amazed when I said that I made it. And of course, seeing all the smiles from little kids was the best. It was all kinds of gratifying and a fun reminder of why I loved making costumes and wearing them, even if I get strange looks en route to the event (when I met up with Elaine at an English pub before the concert, somebody called me Mrs. Harry Potter, and when I was walking through the parking lot to B&N a dude asked if I was a witch, and when I answered in the affirmative he said plaintively, "But...it's not Halloween!").

I know McGonagall is supposed to look stern and forbidding, but I was too excited!

Elaine in her grey cat hoodie was my Patronus. Because yes, McGonagall's Patronus is a grey tabby, and her Animagus form is also a grey tabby, so that means her Patronus is...herself. How's that for the ultimate cat lady? 

The concert was awesome, but the Barnes & Noble Harry Potter Ball was frankly quite lame. All they had was a cutout for taking pictures with, and lots of merchandise to buy. I hear other branches had funner activities like trivia contests and such. Oh well! I was able to browse all the books searching for Seraphina Picquery costume shots, though, so that was soemthing at least. 

Summary:
Pattern: Simplicity 9887, but heavily modified. The brim of the hat was extended by three inches all around, and the robe is pretty much a different pattern now.
Fabric: 6 yards of forest green costume velvet for the robe, 1.5 yards each black cotton velveteen and heavyweight craft interfacing for the hat, 1/4 yard of burgundy faux-leather for the book
Notions: Feather bundle and stash button for the hat, decorative corners from the scrapbooking section for the book
Hours: Four or so for the hat, twelve-ish for the robe, three for the wand, two for the brooch, and two for the book. A lot of the time for the crafty items was spent running around to different stores getting the materials, and this is not counting all the time spent researching. So at least 25 hours total for this cosplay!
Cost: $18 for the velvet, $15 for the hat fabric, $6 for the feather bundle, $5 for the wand materials, $8 for the brooch materials (nail polish and silver pens and rhinestones), $8 for the book materials; total cost of the costume, $60. Not bad!
Final thoughts: Um, I love it? I think that's pretty obvious. SHB does not like it, though. He doesn't like it when I wear hats, and this one is pretty huge. It's a costume better suited to cold weather since it's so warm to wear all that fabric, but winter also brings rain and high winds, which is less good for long skirts and a big hat. All in all it's very comfortable but cumbersome to wear.

Since I made a McGonagall costume for myself, it was only logical that I make an HP-related Halloween costume for SHB as well. Next up: the youngest seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team!