Page 74 of Marked By Shadows
“You can go. You know what we need.”
And I did. Those of us from the group lined up near the table, ready to move. Focused on what we needed and waiting for that starting mark.
“Everyone on your mark. Get ready,” said Freya, apparently MaryAnn was choosing for them. “Go.”
Everything else faded in that moment other than the fabric and the plans I had. The red was perfect, a linen which would help with the drape, though a little thin, the white was thinner than I expected. I grabbed the green and some muslin to help with the weight of the white and rushed back to Nicole. I held out my finds. “The white is thin,” I remarked.
“We can make it work.”
Nicole and I worked side by side. Measuring, cutting, and ironing pieces to ready them for stitching. Thankfully Freya had brought in a few extra sewing machines, so there was one for each group. I had no idea what I would have done if I’d been forced to hand sew everything.
I glanced up once or twice to find Alex and Jonah huddled together in their area. Alex seemed to be working hard to do what Jonah directed him. The two of them had a heap of green, brown, and orange fabric. I wondered what they’d thought of, but had enough to do that I had to focus on.
Nicole wasn’t kidding about putting together the school girl outfit. White skirt with green embellishment, white top with green sailor collar, and even the small red accents taken from leftovers of my fabric. Her ease at creating the pleats had me gaping at her for a minute. It was a bit like magic. No pins or struggling to hold the fabric for the skirt in place, she put it under the machine and folded in the pleats as she sewed.
“Wow,” I told her as I fished the drawstring through the pants I’d finished.
“What’s wow?” She asked.
“No pins,” I waved at her.
“I’ve made thousands of school girl skirts,” Nicole said. “I was worried you’d pick something we had to use lycra or spandex for. I hate both of those fabrics with a passion. Those need pins.”
I laughed, understanding exactly where she was coming from. “They make great body suits and leggings.”
“And wobble all over while you stitch,” she grumbled turning out her corners and pressing her seams together. “Don’t forget we’ll need time for accessories.”
“I’m on it.” I pointed to a batch of wood beads I’d found. She grinned at me and we continued to work, a rush of mad costume-making science.
Nicole held up her finds from the wig trunk with a long black wig and a snow white one. “I need to do some styling,” she said. “Do you have the ears ready for yours?”
I held them up, hoping the white with pink insides stood out enough against the fall of the snowy hair. I also had the headband which would give the little swirly thing often depicted as dizzy in anime.
“Need to finish stringing the necklace,” I told her.
She held her hand out for it. “Go change. I’ll need to fix your hair. Mine is easier.” She glanced at the clock. How had it gotten so close to ten?
“Holy crap! I didn’t realize we were that short on time.”
“Go change,” she waved at me. I grabbed up the heap of fabric that made up my costume and rushed off to the bathroom. Couldn’t wear my normal clothes under this, even with the billow of the fabric. Too many lines would interrupt the drape. The red had enough stability to it, but the white underlaying was thin and showed too much.
It took me an extra minute or two to get the ties all in place and adjust it based on the mirror. But it was only one of those waist-high mirrors, so hard to see everything. I raced back to Nicole. She looked me over and nodded. “Shoes off, he’s barefoot most of the time.”
“Oh,” I said. “Right.” I kicked off my shoes and added them to the pile while she went to change. Nicole reappeared in the schoolgirl outfit and helped me adjust the wig until it stayed, then she clipped the dog ears on, and took a few minutes fiddling with the headband with the spinning thing. If I were more tech-savvy, I might have been able to make it actually spin, however, the best we could do was make it pop up when I pulled a little string. The entire contraption needed to be strung through my costume.
“Ten minutes until stopping point on the costumes,” Freya called out. “We’ll have an extra ten for hair and makeup, but sewing will have to stop. If you have anything that needs stitching, finish it now.”
I heard a lot of frantic running of sewing machines and was glad we were done. Nicole was fussing with my hair. “Get your wig,” I told her.
She scrambled for it, and seemed to find hers easier to handle than mine. But hers was also a lot shorter and finer. I handed her the other necklace I’d been working on; it was made to look like the broken jewel she and Inuyasha had been searching for, pieces chipped off. The jewel itself I’d crafted from melting a bit of soap in the microwave, cooling it in the freezer, and cutting it to form the gem-like edges.
This time she gaped at me. “This is amazing.”
“Legit, right?” I asked. “Authentic. And useful when we’re done since you can shower with it. I do soap making for the shop when I get tired of working with fabric.”
She grinned. “We are going to rock this.”
“We are,” I agreed.