Just throw in a couple pleats and be done with it!

The BBQ Pit
1

My daughter was kicking up a ruckus last night after she got home from work. She has been sewing a skirt for MLP:FIM cosplay (she’s Twilight Sparkle) and, after following my wife’s instructions, the waist turned out two inches too big. So it was all her mom’s fault, wah-wah-wah.

Me: It’s 10:15 and you need this done by 8:00AM and you are only trying on the skirt NOW?

Her: She wouldn’t let me work on it! Wah-wah-wah!

Me: You’re 22 and work evenings. Your mother works days. You couldn’t sneak in some time to finish it?

Her: Wah-wah-wah! It’s her fault! Wah-wah-wah!

Me: So throw in a couple fucking half-inch pleats. If you had done that instead of throwing a tantrum you’d be done by now.

Her: But I already put in the waistband.

Me: And you finished the bottom hem with safety pins so I know you don’t give a shit how it looks, though I don’t know why that was better than just sewing the fucking hem. But don’t trim the extra material inside because you might gain weight.

Her: But I plan on losing weight!

Me: Yeah, don’t we all. :rolleyes: And I don’t understand why you didn’t put in a drawstring waist so precise measurements wouldn’t be needed.

It was starting to dawn on her how ridiculous she sounded, so there was a wink in her voice when she said:

Her: Because I didn’t think of it. But Mom didn’t think of it, either.

Who taught my kids sewing? I know I didn’t because they would be able to figure out problems, but sewing isn’t something most people go to their fathers for help with. I assume that my wife forbade her and her sister from working on it because she expected them to show some initiative and make an end run around her when the skirt got started. I would expect and even hope they would and I might even tell them, “Here’s the problem. Most beginners could make this skirt in a few hours. You have two months to figure it the fuck out. I’ll be around if you have any questions.”

As I am certainly not at fault, I blame the school system for teaching for the test instead of teaching problem analysis and solution.

2

I think it’s only fair to place the blame squarely where it belongs - on the Hasbro corporation.

They have deep pockets. You need to start thinking lawsuit.

3

:confused: Who puts in the waistband before fitting the skirt to check the size of the waist? Did your daughter just trustingly sew all the seams and finish all the details according to the measurements her mother gave her without ever even trying it on at the basting stage?

If so, then yeah, no sympathy here. If you’re not going to make a muslin (and let’s face it, what casual sewer bothers with making a muslin anymore?), then you have to at LEAST keep checking the fit of the garment as you progress. Anybody who blindly cuts and sews and finishes an entire garment without any fittings is asking for a cruel disillusionment when they put the finished garment on.

4

I know!

Yes. :frowning:

And with a muslin you have a physical, long lasting pattern you can reuse. ETA: I’d say, “for when she wants to make a skirt for real,” except I suspect her next is for Rainbow Dash.

Fuckin’ Hasbro.

5

Duct tape will solve everything.

6

And fabric glue. Which would also make a prettier hem than safety pins but she forgot we have a couple bottles of it.

7

Did somebody hide the pit while I wasn’t looking?

8

In a hidden dungeon in Canterlot, it would seem.

9

Your daughter is cosplaying anything, to say nothing of cosplaying My Little Pony (how does that even work?), at the age of 22. Something entirely unrelated to sewing is pretty fucked up here.

10

Your attitude, mostly.

Well, and the daughters, but that’s due to being a selfish, entitled brat rather than liking to dress up.

11

Sew what?

12

Apparently by making an oversized skirt.
(There’s something really wrong with a society that gets upset when people dress up as ponies for a related get-together but doesn’t bat an eye at people dressing up as centaurs for Halloween. At the very least, since it’s MLP, one can assume they won’t be slutty ponies.)

13

Cinch it! That’s what the “Gap Girls” on SNL always used to advise.

14

And what does her boyfriend think about all this?

15

MLP is how she met him. He’s completing his masters and starts down the doctorate path next Fall.

16

I’m not upset - if you want to dress up like a pony in a skirt and go…do whatever people dressed up like ponies in skirts do, well, more power to you. It’s just incredibly weird. The whole fucking resurgence of one of the worst cartoons is weird. Cosplaying cartoons is a bit weird, cosplaying ponies is weird, an adult cosplaying a pony from a children’s cartoon is definitely far outside the norm of adult behavior. It’s a whole big weird appropriation. My opinion is let the 6-year-old girls have their shitty psuedo-empowering cartoon, but if you get off on dressing up like a pony I can’t very well stop you.

I can think it’s fucking weird, though.

17

You’re not familiar with the MLP fandom, are you? Bronies would be all over that shit.

18

Don’t hold back now - let’im know how you *really *feel about it all.

Shit, I’m almost afraid to ask your opinion of the 501st. :smiley:

19

And yet you know what cosplay is. :dubious:

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is supposedly written for both little girls and adults. I wouldn’t know, having fallen asleep during the first episode, but that’s what I’ve been told. The whole con (ACen) was full of cosplayers, including ones dressed up as sexy anime characters. I paused to let one cross the street in front of my car because I have a personal rule against running down cute women in bikini tops. I’m fucking weird like that. :wink:

20

Hey! I expect the Pit to be full of bile and excrement, but not this…this…glitter! Man, it’s all over the place now.