Day 5: The basics

I apologize for not posting on Saturday like I said, I wasn't feeling good the whole weekend and I was struggling through to be able to have my first day making the poncho.
So I went to where the Seamstress' office / working place is and she showed me the basics of sewing and making your own clothing, like the sewing machine, how to cut and exedra.
It was surprisingly easy for me to learn! My favorite was the sewing machine.
The Seamstress asked me to cut out the pattern we picked out over the week so I will do that probably tomorrow.
I have to search for the lining this week, I am having issues with that because the lining thats good for it is a poly lining and it's the lining that's inside of coats or a suit jacket. It's not really soft.
The lining that's in the picture of the actual poncho looks very soft, like cotton. Unfortunately, cotton shrinks if put in the washer and dryer.
So I need to find a material that won't shrink and also is soft.
This detail matters to me because I never liked poly lining material. It was never comfortable to me, I just had to wear it because it's inside of coats.
Now that I think about it, silk would be fine as lining. I see it in a lot of coats too so maybe I should look for that.
But that's really all that happened Saturday, I will be at the office on Friday and stay longer so I should actually be done cutting out the material by then and send it to the embroiderer.
After that I will have to hand stitch certain parts of the poncho so the Seamstress will teach me that and she says it's very easy and fun so I am looking forward to that.
I should be done in no time with this project, it just depends how long the embroidery will take and me hand embroidering the V-neck and sleeves. But I am very excited and I cannot wait to be done so I can wear it and show it off to people.

Day 4: The fabric has arrived!

I know it's been a while, but there hasn't been anything to post.
I ordered the fabric about 2 weeks ago and there wasn't any word of where it was. So I tracked the shipment and they sent the fabric to the wrong address. So I had to wait another week, but it finally came!
I ordered 4 yards of the material just to be safe. If I ran out of fabric and ordered more, the color would be right. There wouldn't be a difference, so we have extra.
Now that I finally have the fabric, we can get started! All I really need is just the lining and that's it!
I am so excited to get started, this will be an unforgettable experience.
I should be starting this weekend, I can't really do a lot during the week because of school, so I will mostly be working on the poncho during the weekends.
Stay tuned, I should be posting the first day of making the poncho on Saturday...

Day 3: Search for the beads

I apologize for taking a long time to post another day. I was pretty busy, but here it is! So for this day we searched for the beads. I assumed that finding them would be a breeze because they were so simple. I mean how hard could it be to find wooden navy blue beads? Well it was, sort of. So let's start from the beginning.
We went over to the craft store and looked around the bead area. We looked and looked, but couldn't find anything remotely similar to the ones on the poncho.
And just to remind you how the beads look like, here you go:

They don't have to be exactly the same, but a least the same color. I could live with a little bit of change. It's not like people are going to be paying attention to the bottom. Even in the movie you don't really notice the beads. So while looking around, my mom bumped into one of our neighbors and it turns out that she does beading. So she was trying to help us find the beads, but still no luck. She suggested we go to another store that has a wide selection of beads and it was pretty close. So we left the craft store and went over to the place she suggested.
We get to the store and look in the isle where they have the beads. They had a pretty good amount so we were happy about that.
We looked around and we did find something!

They are definitely different from the actual poncho, with the beads being glossy or shiny, and having paintings on them, but they still have the same feel. The color is a navy blue and the brown beads are brown. As you see behind is the fabric I am using, I wanted to put them all together so you can see how great they go together.
So our search was short and sweet. Thank goodness!
Also, I wanted to show the ribbons I mentioned, but never took a picture.

So those are the ribbons' colors. Exactly like the original, and it of course wasn't hard to find.

After we found the beads, we went to the embroiderer to see if they could make the design and they could. They could do everything except the stitching around the edge of the sleeves and on the V-neck part.

As you see on the edge of the sleeve.
So I will have to do that part myself by hand. But it's okay, it seems like it's pretty simple to do. But I will definitely practice a few times before I start on the actual fabric.

I also want to mention that I did order the fabric and it should be coming any day now.
I start the basics tomorrow. I will probably modify the pattern I have and things like that. I will definitely take pictures to show what I will be doing.
So that's basically all that's happen since the last post. I am extremely excited and I have already begun to sketch other ideas I have.
One look I'm particularly interested in doing is the coat that Marion Cotillard wears in "The Dark Knight Rises" set photos. I think it's really nice and simple to do so it might be my next project after this. I can wear it to "The Dark Knight Rises" premiere, that would be awesome!
But I will probably be posting something tomorrow on how the first day goes.