Thread: How to glue fabric around a sphere smoothly without waving??

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Hey guys. I'm still working on my Sam from Trick r Treat costume and I'm a bit stuck. Here is a link to about where I am at the moment: Help on Sam from Trick r Treat!

A note to the mods: I'm making a separate thread from my original because this question I have pertains to more than just Sam. Also, adding things to my already long thread is often overlooked by people (who could otherwise help answer my question) who haven't seen it yet, as they may feel out of the loop and not even bother, or go to the last page if they got bored. So in an attempt to get some views from people who maybe can help, I've created this new one.

So my question is this (there is a pic of Sam in my thread I linked to). I'm struggling to figure out how to glue the (square/rectangle shaped) burlap mask around the paper mache spherical head I made. The problem is it's obviously going to wave and kink up a lot as I try to do it.

Is it even possible to do? Anyone have any good technique? I know it'll take a long time and patience, but I'm kind of stressing about getting this done on time. Thanks!

If you look at how the burlap is on that mask, it's split up the front and sewn back together. That's technically like sewing a dart or a gather.

Split the fabric and then cut out a long thin pie wedge bit of it, and then sew the two sections together once the excess fabric is removed creates a smoother form over a concave/convex surface.

I'd smooth the fabric over the surface and then fold it to see where the gather would form and pull together the two edges, then mark with some chalk and cut and sew up. Practice on some scrap first - it's a pain to get it right in the beginning without a pattern.

http://sewing.about.com/od/technique...ewingdarts.htm

Oh my, that's kind of confusing haha. I'll check out the site.

Thing is, I've already cut the fabric in half, but all I did was sew it back together so I could leave excess fabric to stick out and sew the yarn around it to create the middle line through the mask.

Maybe I'll just have to start over.... The hardest part of this is knowing where to start. Having no pattern makes it very hard.

Thanks for the response!

You may have to cut your fabric in a spiral and then attach it. Think of a peel coming off of an orange.

I've never attempted, but remember a similar problem in a physics class.

Okay guys, maybe I have an idea....

What if I used a fabric stiffener that would let me mold fabric into a shape and then dry like that. Like paper mache except with fabric? Anyone ever used that? Or know if that could possibly give me the desired effect I'm looking for?

The real issue is that burlap has little give or bias, and since you're trying to cover something that's all curve, there's no way to work on the bias...

FWIW, I would get some random scrap fabric and make a pattern. Measure the sphere you're covering--get the circumference (?) and divide in half. That will give you a distance from the top to the bottom. Add about 1.5 inches to that, to allow for seams. Depending on how many sections you want to divide the fabric into (I'd suggest at least 4 and as many as 8), you'll be making wedges of the sphere to sew together. They'll be the shape of a cat's pupil--pointy on the ends and curved out on the sides. Say you want 4 sections--divide the circumference by 4 and add about 1.5 inches to that for the maximum width of the wedges. Then start stitching your sections together--parallel with pointy ends together, with about a 3/4" seam allowance. The more sections you use, the smoother the fit will be, but obviously it will be more work. Once you work out the pattern with some tweaking and experimentation in scrap fabric, then use the wedge you like best as your pattern for the burlap.

I would assemble one half of the sphere, then the 2nd (by hand or machine). The last couple of seams you'd have to do on the sphere, with some fussy hand-stitching, but it shouldn't be too hard.

Does any of that make sense? I'm tired and not sure I'm explaining myself well