Gentian's Photographic Misadventures

[Gentian]

One day, Twilight and I were out for a walk. It's a route we frequently travel, because it's shady, with trees, bamboo, and flower bushes lining it. It's also frequented by students. Boys and girls from the High and Middle Schools zip up and down it on their bicycles all through the day. On this particular day, Twilers remarks to me that the uniforms are cute. She knew what they were, of course, despite having nothing like them in Equestria. I asked her to explain, and she took me through a shortish list of observations, and inferences explaining how she arrived at her conclusion.

She really is a remarkable lady.

I told her I agreed with her, and said I've imagined what she would look like all dressed up. She gave me a funny little look in turn, and said she'd like to find out too. She said that, since I was finished my last project, if I would mind making a uniform for her.

What a silly question!

And so began my sartorial ordeal, about which operas will still be sung a thousand years hence.

Seriously. You may think, judging by what I've posted on this account, that I enjoy sewing. I do not. It's simply there isn't much choice in the matter; I either do it myself or go without, and I wasn't about to let My Little Princess down!

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Twilight, being a pony, comes from a culture without a nudity taboo. She thinks ours is kind of funny, actually. So she has no qualms about standing here, by the uniform; here it is, all laid out.

When Twilight asked for the uniform, I knew just which design to use! I mentioned that Heat Lightning was inspired by a sewing project. This is the one I referred to. The school therein is Sussex Academy. Brownie points if you get the reference. This uniform is a design of mine for that very same school, featured in a series of short stories I've written. Some of them anyway.

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Here's another look at the uniform's components: skirt, sailor top, and the neckerchief. The top photo shows them more or less as they would be when worn. That is to say, everything's fastened. The bottom one shows the top undone, so you can get some idea of how she manages to get the thing on and off.

In a normal, human uniform, the neckerchief is a simple square of cloth, folded corner to corner in to a triangle, and worn. However, Twilight's vessel's proportions didn't allow this. If I had gone for a simple square, the point of the triangle, when folded, would have extended well beyond her tail.

No bueno.

So I had to settle for a greatly elongated diamond shape. As it turns out, this was the only piece I messed up on badly enough to have to start over from scratch. According to my measuring tape, the neck of Twiler's vessel is 25cm in circumference, on the plane of the collar, so I originally made it at 4x28 cm. Well, that wasn't long enough. This one, is 5x36, and has just enough slack, when worn, to look like we want it to.

The stripes on the cuffs and collar are split-stitched embroidery floss, but the monogram is ordinary back-stitched thread.

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Here's the skirt. You can see the fastener, and along the bottom some off-color stitching. That's used in the manufacture process. While folding the pleats, I sewed both ends with a whip stitch to hold them in place. Even after the final pressing, it seemed like a good idea to leave it there until we were ready for Twi to put it on.

You may also notice, that the skirt's waist-band seems wavy. It is. Again, because of the proportions of her vessel, I had to trim the skirt so it would fit around her wings, and be long enough to drape down the back of her tail, but short enough not to drag on the ground beneath her belly. The measurements ended up being 4 cm length at her belly, 6 cm at her flanks, and 8 cm down her back.

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Another of the sailor top, to more clearly display the monogram, and the neckerchief-loop it adorns.

The sailor collar is joined to the top on the left side; a row of collar green nearest the edge, and a row of top-beige below that, where it's most likely to be seen from outside. On the right, it's been given a double-long hem to tuck inside when fastened to give the illusion of being joined, and a snap closure to help hold it in place. You'll see more of that soon.

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Ok, 3 more shots of the sailor top.

The first, shows the monogram, stripes, etc. Pretty much the same as the previous pic, but this time it's unfastened. You can see the main snap-closure on the right.

The second one, shows the underside of the collar nicely. You can see how it's sewn to the top on one side, and given an extra long hem plus snap closure on the other. If you look at the top itself, you can see both snap-sockets. The one in the foreground is the main closure for the body-piece. The other is for the collar alone, and holds it in place.

The third one, is intended to show off the darts. In the human design, these are functional as well as cosmetic; a woman's shirt needs to flow around her bust and hips, while coming in at the waist. A mare's doesn't, but I love the darts, so included them as a purely cosmetic feature on Twilight's uniform. There are two on the belly, and two on the back, but because of the curve imparted by the collar, the ones on the belly are much easier to make out.

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These are my notes. I carry a Midori around with me, and decided to show these pages, since they're related to, no, excuse me, essential to this project. The top one is a sketch I made of the remembered design from my stories. You can see the darts around the hem, the location of the monogram, the color scheme and the fairly unusual 3-stripe pattern for the cuffs and collar. There's also a chest-piece to cover the cleavage, but the proportions of Twiler's vessel wouldn't permit it.

I think it turned out nicely anyway.

The bottom pic is of my sketches, notes and modifications of the patterns. I had no idea where to start, so made the first patterns with tissues right out of the box. Measurements forced alterations, and so did just plain revision, and there's the process, preserved as it happened. The text under the monograms, is the original draft of Heat Lightning, written at a McDonald's. Yay inspiration!

I might include a complete pattern, if there's interest.

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So, enough of that! Here's the Pretty Princess getting all costumed-up. You can see how the top snaps together. Remember, the sailor collar is unattached on that side.

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From the other side. You can see both a top, and a bottom dart.

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From left to right: Just the main snap closed; the collar-snap also closed, with the "wing" of the hem tucked inside; the neckerchief folded along it's longest axis, and worn properly.

Sweet Celestia, is she adorable or is she adorable?