February 8, 2022: Began working on my senior project. Started with the cape since I didn’t need to create a mock up and could start with the final version immediately. After cutting a couple pieces out Kevin recommended I work on the vest in the coming days instead because that would be a more intensive process.

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February 10: Started work on the quilted vest for Caesar. I used the size 46 pattern because it had the same waist measurements as the actor and I figured it’d be easier to make alterations by taking in the fabric than by adding more fabric. I got all my pieces cut out so I can start working on the muslin next, excited to start my senior project finally.

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February 15: Sewing the muslin together, not much to say I’ve made plenty of muslin mock ups working in the department. The vest is pretty simple structurally, 3 bodice pieces, the collar and the hem facings. I tried different needle lengths for the whip stitching to figure out which helped me get into a flow easier, the long needle was useful for slip-stitching. Nothing too complicated about today just basted the bottom facings to the bodice because it’s not worth slip-stitching on the muslin.

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February 17: Made a little quilted sampler block to figure out a pattern for the vest that Kevin would approve of. Personally I really like the grid and wavy lined one, especially with a contrasting white thread. I’m definitely gonna be saving that for a future personal project, maybe I’ll make my own quilted vest once the semester is over. Kevin like the the vertical brick pattern and gave me the go-ahead on quilting that pattern for the vest. Its vertical lines spaced 1″ apart, and horizontal perpendicular lines spaced every 2″. A very simple pattern which I’m fine with because I’ve never really quilted anything nearly as large as a vest before. With the sampler done and the actor unavailable for a fitting until next week I kept working on the cape, cutting out more pieces of fabric. I’m sad that there’s nothing more I can do on the vest until the fitting because I’m excited to quilt it.

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February 21: Cut out the rest of the cape pieces, nothing much to add.

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February 22: Worked on the cape more, got almost everything finished and looking pretty except for the capelets, but hopefully I can attach those before the fitting Thursday. Unfortunately the actor won’t be back until right before winter break and I’ll have to leave for spring break 2 days after his fitting. Feeling a little stressed because that means I’ll have under a week to completely finish the vest before opening. That means I’ll have to make sure to finish the cape before I leave for spring break so I don’t have too many things on my plate if I don’t need to.

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February 24: Finished the capelets but wasn’t able to attach them to the cape in time before the fitting at 5pm. Feeling very frustrated because of the miscommunication, apparently the actor could’ve come in earlier in the week, which means I could’ve had more time to work on my vest before opening. Nothing I can do about it now though. Finished attaching the capelets to the cape body and pinned the neckband to the cape but it got really late and I got tired so I decided to finish the cape after a full nights rest.

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February 25: Worked on the cape, had to work quickly to slip-stitch the neckband down so I could go home and pack for my flight tomorrow and still get a good nights sleep.

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March 6: After getting off the plane I drove down to immediately start working on the vest for opening. One potential saving grace is Kevin purchased a quilted vest Caesar can wear if I’m not able to finish the vest by opening which I’m thankful for but I hope I can get it done in time. Spent the night drafting the paper patterns for the vest which I should’ve done from the beginning so I wouldn’t have to waste my time doing it now.

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March 7: Completed the vest alterations and made sure it all lined up, cut out the sandwiches for quilting. Feeling very stressed I don’t think I’ll be able to get the vest finished by Thursday afternoon for the PWYC performance, nevermind opening night the on the 11th.

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March 8: Began hand basting the panels together before machine quilting, I personally find hand sewing relaxing but jeez I underestimated how finicky and long it would take to hand baste these panels together. I worked for 6 hours straight and just finished hand basting the back panel. This does not bode well.

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March 10: Well I’m definitely not going to be able to finish the vest in time for opening night, I just worked and basted the 2nd of 3 panels. I can’t describe how disappointed I am that the vest won’t be ready for opening. I’m happy that the cape is at least finished, and the silver lining I guess is that the cape will be the ‘star of the show’ and cover almost all of the backup vest, so at least my work will be onstage in some aspect.

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March 13: Began machine quilting the basted panels, needed a mental and physical break, I was beginning to feel like Sisyphus but as a seamstress whose forever basting. Got the back panel machine quilted and removed the basting stitches. I’m feeling pretty proud at how straight and regularly spaced my quilting lines are.

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March 14: More quilting whooooooooo. I quilted the 2nd panel and was extremely happy with myself seeing the quilt lines match up across the fabrics. Thinking about how I was when I first learned to sew freshman year I’m honestly really proud of the progress I’ve made in my sewing abilities. Also after machine quilting these two panels I can say for a fact I’ve learned that I don’t enjoy machine quilting like this. I preferred the hand basting even which I’m surprised to say. I know sewing is a lot of monotonous and repetitive tasks, but this is the first time I’ve really empathized with the truth of that statement.

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March 15: Basted and quilted the last panel! I can see that all 3 panels all match up along their quilting lines, which I definitely flexed to the 2 people that would appreciate that. Because of how long that took and since the show has already opened, Kevin recommended I stick with just the vertical quilting and don’t quilt the panels horizontally since I’ve already learned the technique and proven it. I can’t describe how strongly I agree with him.

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March 16: Cut out the pattern pieces and marked the wrong sides. I really don’t understand how the lines I drew on the pattern paper doesn’t match up with the quilting lines on the fabric but whatever. I’m really surprised that the CF fold lines match exactly up with a quilting line, that makes my life so much easier since I don’t have to mess around with different layouts and more math to figure out how to make the CF line up with the quilting.

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March 17: Took out the excess facing bulk and sewed the shoulder and side seams together. It’s starting to look like a vest! I’m really happy with how well the shoulder seams line up, it’s so close which was a pleasant surprise. I’m not surprised with how well the side seams lined up however, since I planned for that to happen, they matched up pretty well, one side the repeat over the seam was exactly 1″, but on the other side it was 7/8″. While annoying for my first time trying to match a pattern across a garment, I’ll gladly take the 1//8″ difference.

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March 21: Drafted the hemline facings, Kevin showed me how and after seeing his diagram I couldn’t believe it was that easy. But thankfully it was that easy and I cut the facings out easy.

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March 22: Began slip-stitching and finishing the interior side and shoulder seams. Kevin suggested that I could do a machine topstitch, but this would be seen on the outside and I felt that for a factory made garment, it’d look much more fancy if the stitching wasn’t seen on the outside, so I decided to slip-stitch all the seams and the facings because I like making work for myself. First attempt turned out a little sloppy but after that I got a feel for it and all the rest of my slip-stitching looks pretty peachy to me.

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March 23: More slip stitching. looking good though!

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March 24: More slip stitching: Armhole facing edition. The armholes were giving me hell until I clipped and graded the seams, which made it much easier for me to turn the facing to the inside. At this point I’ve got slip-stitching on taffeta down pat and spent my evening sewing in front of the TV like a retiree.

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March 25: Attached the snaps and finished the vest! It feels like a weight is off my chest finally having my senior project finished. However when Kevin asked me if I saw anything wrong with the vest I immediately noticed that the snaps didn’t match his design. I’m very frustrated with myself that I missed something that should’ve been obvious had I paid attention to the costume rendering more. I’m also annoyed with myself for making such a flaccid collar but overall I’m still really happy with this project and definitely feel like this vest and cape acted as a good culmination of the skills I’ve acquired and honed in my time working in the shop. Definitely happy to be finished for now though I don’t see any taffeta in my future for at least a couple months hopefully.