Ring Ring, why don't you give me a call?

 Hi.  It's been a while since I've actually gotten around to sewing anything, and after a good few months of focusing on other things, I finally have a new sewing project to share. 

I started gathering materials for this set of outfits, dare I say some of ABBA's WEIRDEST costumes lol, over a year ago for sure.  Most of the materials for these outfits were pretty easy to find, but finding a fabric that look similar enough to Frida's beautiful jumpsuit was proving to be quite difficult.  In total I had bought three different faux-snakeskin fabrics, and none of them really ended up looking right.  This one fabric that had sequins and a snakeskin pattern turned out to be too pink, another looked silver in the photo but was actually black when it arrived...  The last one I got was just a metallic silver fabric with a snakeskin pattern throughout, and it ended up being the closest I could find.  I'm not 100% happy with it, but it'll do.  Honestly, of all the outfits, despite how disappointed I am with the fabric choice, Frida's was the easiest to make.

Now, before we take a look at my recent creations, let's take a quick stroll down memory lane and take a look at the first ever attempt at these outfits a good 11 (I feel old now...) years ago.  I was not very good at sewing yet, that's for sure.  I didn't have the right fabrics, honestly was just using scrap pieces of fabric from my Mom's sewing projects as well as cut up old clothing that I didn't need anymore.  I think it's safe to say that these outfits were a big failure.  Like, you get the idea of what I was making but uhm... YIKES. xD 

I didn't have any sequins at the time, so I had the clever idea of using dots of silver paint on their outfits to represent the sequins....  Of all the outfits, Bjorn's outfit probably looks the best lol.  I love how I used a fabric marker to draw the blue stripes across his top.  And do you see the dark glue lines on the front of Agnetha's top?  That's because I didn't realize that fray check is not the same as fabric glue, and I was trying to glue strips of aluminum foil across the front. THE CRINGE.  Also can we appreciate the fact that the tights on Agnetha's pants and the tights on her arms are two different colors?  Benny's outfit does not even look a thing like the actual outfit haha.  The only connection is the fact that I took a feather from my dad's collection of old feathers from his old parrot, painted it blue, and glued it on.  Also the painted on belt on Agnetha's shorts........ *hides face in shame*

Okay, so these outfits from June of 2012 are pure trash, and clearly I had to redeem myself.  While these new outfits that I just finished making (stayed up a little too late last night trying to finish up Benny's outfit and as a result it ended up a bit sloppy...) are SO much better, they are unfortunately not my favorites that I've ever made.  I ended up having to use a lot of hot glue in these outfits for lack of a better glue, and as a result I have had to re-glue so many things in place SO MANY TIMES because hot glue doesn't stay very well.  I also didn't have rectangular sequins in the right size, so I had to trim down a bunch of round sequins that I had gotten a while ago that were too big for this project.  I'm quite disappointed with the hot glued sequins and stuff popping off all the time, so at some point I'll try to find a better glue that will stay in place and glue everything down again, but until then I am not putting these outfits on my dolls again.  I just know attempting to put them on again will cause everything to fall apart more....B

BUT ANYWAY, here are the new outfits.  They are actually quite good visual wise, and for that reason I am happy.  And if you notice any unevenness on Benny's outfit, NO YOU DIDN'T.

And here they are.  Taking a closer look, here is Frida's outfit.  It's super simple, just a very simple jumpsuit with wide legs, short sleeves, with a MASSIVE collar and a plunging neckline.  I need to replace the button on the front of the outfit that holds the outfit together with something better at some point.  I just used a piece of vinyl with strips of I think it's a crystal chain??? idk what it is haha glued across the front. But for now it works.  She also has a choker and arm bands.

Next up is Bjorn's outfit.  I think of all the outfits, I made, Bjorn's came out the best.  He's wearing blue high-waisted pants (Think Ben Swolo lol) with boot covers built in. I don't know if there are straps in the actual outfit or not, like if it's really a jumpsuit, but I added straps to keep the pants up on my doll.  On top of that Bjorn wears a stripey blue and silver top with shoulder pads that I made out of vinyl and a CAPE that has a weird pleat in the back! that I don't quite know why it's there.  I know Bjorn hates this outfit, but because of how ridiculous it is I love it haha.  He also has arm bands (I accidentally made the one on Bjorn's right arm facing the wrong direction...) and a choker.

And next is Benny's outfit.  I just had to make his shirt as I was able to reuse the pants from Benny's Waterloo outfit.  He actually likes to wear his Waterloo shirt, like the frilly white piece, under this outfit, but I didn't feel like putting it on.  I had thought about using one of those goose feathers that I had ordered not realizing it was from an unethical source, but I still felt wrong using it, so I made the ostrich feather out of blue yarn and cut it in the right shape to make it look like a feather.  I think it turned out really good.  And yeah someday I plan on fixing the unevenness, but not now.  I made the pompoms out of yarn as well, with a little bit of silver thread mixed in. Ideally I'd have used actual silver pompoms, I just didn't want to pay $12 just to use 3 pompoms lol.

And last but not least is Agnetha's outfit.  For an outfit that doesn't have a lot of fabric, THIS WAS SO HARD TO MAKE!  There's so many sequins glued on, thankfully only on the front of Agnetha's top, but they are always falling off and it's driving me crazy.  I made the shorts separate from the bells or leggy things haha, choosing to sew those to the tights instead.  Overall, it doesn't look too bad, I just need to secure the sequins better someday and somehow.  She also has a choker, which I made out of vinyl.  I also used vinyl for the silver stripes across the front of her top and on the leggies.

Seeing as I had bought all the materials for this outfit ages ago, and had been developing all the pattern pieces in my head all this time as well, it was nice just needing to sew everything together. i don't know when I'm next going to have time to make another set of outfits, but I already have a few ideas of which outfits those will be whenever I get around to make it. :)