Reconstructing Wonka, Part 0

Two entries for the price of one today, mainly since I'm starting two serial entries. The first you already saw, and was my entry for the first challenge of The Amazing Lace.

This entry starts the diary portion of getting ready for our CONvergence room party, Wonka's Night Out. The premise is that Willy Wonka, now having a helper for the chocolate factory, has decided to give CONvergence a try. We're decorating the room with various bits and pieces he could have taken from his factory and brought to the hotel.

My job is to cover whatever needs covering in fabric. That means, practically, a Willy Wonka costume for Dan, an Oompa Loompa costume for Ryan, skirts for Lyn and I, Volunteer Oompa Loompa T-shirts for Lyn, myself, Dominic, and Matt, chair coverings, wall coverings, and whatever else we can think of.

Unlike a normal costume diary, I won't have to document so much of my inspiration/thought processes because, well, you know the inspiration already, and I'm going to try to get as close to that as I can. But you'll be able to watch the process of getting everything done. And I might swipe pictures from our room decoration crew (that would be Dan and Ryan) to show off. This all culminates on July 7-9 when we pull off a hopefully spectacular room party, and I present a deluge of pictures.

For now, it's day 0 of Reconstructing Wonka. Why day 0 and not 1? Well....

The scene of the crime … My living room is going to look like a combination textile/home improvement center until July:



Preliminary steps had already been completed. I’m starting on Dan’s shirt first, since it’s one of the easiest pieces. Basically, it’s a simple men’s dress shirt, with alterations for french cuffs and a stand up collar. And it’s in the most horrid red paisley.

I was deeply surprised (but grateful) when I found a very close match at SR Harris. This is either 100% cotton or a cotton blend. Either way, it’s near perfect.

That pattern is McCalls (something), that I forgot to write down the number for. And this is the first problem I encountered. I carefully measured Dan, who takes a size “large” in McCall pattern-land. I had a pattern for … XL – XXL. Damn. I could go out and get another pattern …

Or I could say hang it all and get some fabric out of my stash to make a quick circular needle holder.



I’ll be picking up the right sized pattern tonight, so hopefully tomorrow will be Reconstructing Wonka, Part 1