Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Preparing for the Harry Potter Premiere --- the Cheap Way!

Yes, I've done the costume thing. I probably would again this year, except the group I'm going with doesn't do costumes and it's really not fun to do it by yourself. Plus, little time. So instead I decided to paint a themed T-shirt, which cost less than $10 and took me all of two hours (if even that) to complete.

First of all, since t-shirts these days (even ladies ones) aren't meant for people with curves, I had to do some alteration.
Taking the tee off with pins on proved impossible, so I used my dressmakers wax to mark the pin line.
Sewed a straight line on the wax, then reinforced with zig zag, always a good idea with knit fabric.
Fits perfectly!
Now, how to place the front logo so that it's centered and not running off the sides? I placed the safety pin while wearing the Tee, then used a ruler to measure off the rest of the rectangle.
I wanted the Harry Potter logo on the front, so I looked up a picture on the internet and freehanded the lettering.
Filling in the lettering. It's important not to get too much paint in there, so actually if I just did a single line down the middle and swirled the sides and middle together, it filled everything in nicely.
And done! Up close it's kind of bumpy, but two or three feet away it looks great!
Let dry for four hours, then repeat on opposite side!
I pondered for quite awhile over what I wanted to do on the back. Finally I decided on the Ravenclaw theme because it's cool and suits me and didn't give away any plot things so I can wear it wherever I want and not worry about spoiling fans who haven't read/seen everything yet.

Are you going to the premiere in costume/themed clothing? I'd LOVE to see it! Share your link in the comments!

3 comments:

Shaylynn said...

Ooooooh, that looks so cool! You got the calligraphy right on!

David Farrell said...

Definitely very creative work here. I doubt I could make any design near that detail by hand.

Elizabeth Amy Hajek said...

Thanks guys! :) I wouldn't have attempted it if I hadn't worked a lot with fabric paints before and wasn't a pretty good artist. But it was tons of fun! :)