I would have killed for a sewing form when I first started the project. It was obvious that I needed one when it came time to create the fake leather of the outfit. I was able to rig one up using a close-fitting turtle-necked sweater. Propped the sweater on two home-made stepping stools and stuffed it with fabric to create a form which was so helpful in pinning. This is how the outfit looked before I started the hieroglyph:
This is a closeup of the glyphs. I will need to add more puff to make it pop, but it is definitely going the way I want it to. It's the fake leather material sewn over a fluffy piece of nonpilling fleece (the same fleece that I used to make my own chimp sweater many moons ago).
This is the jacket as it looks on a hanger. Looses its "oomph" as it no longer is 3D...but still a great and beautiful thing considering I am putting this together without a real pattern...just making stuff up as I go along.
I have already sent in my 50% deposit to secure the mask. Sometime down the road, when she is ready, I will receive Zira's appliances. This is one of the 8 masks that toured the world in celebration of Planet of the Ape's 30th anniversary. I will probably faint when I finally open the box. I hope that I look ok under the mask...kind of worried about the dang epicanthic folds I was blessed with, but at least my body frame is perfect for a chimpanzee from Planet of the Apes: Five feet tall, 105 pounds.