Thursday, July 28, 2016

Halloween 2016

I am literally starting on this now in hopes that by some miracle, I can get them done in time. Also, we may have multiple events to attend and I am toying with having a few different outfits to chose from (its not like they can not be used for other events too), but not sure on that yet. Right now things are just in the "idea stage".


Possible Costumes for Me
  1. Mrs. Lovett - I have been wanting to do this for a long time. I had a simple version of it years ago, but really would like to do a better one. Not sure how close to the movie version I will go. I may be a bit more historically authentic. Maybe.
  2. Hobbit Costume - Another, I have been wanting to do for quite a while.
  3. Something from Harry Potter?? My husband wants to be Hagrid for Halloween so I am toying with the idea of making something from HP as well. Only things I can think of that I wouldn't mind from that would be a version of Mrs. Weasley or  maybe the Gray Lady. Or maybe Bellatrix LeStrange.

Possible Costumes for Husband
  1. Hagrid. He wants to be Hagrid.

Possible Costumes for Elaina
  1. Viking from How to Train your Dragon.
  2. Lynkel -- the famale version of the video game character.

Possible Costumes for Stephen
  1. No input as of yet, but I am sure it will have a million pieces.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Regency Tea


On my sewing list are outfits for a Regency Tea at the end of June. I of course, have absolutely nothing made for myself so this will be a from inside-out sort of thing. I had toyed with making my long corset for this, but really do not feel like messing with it right now, not when I have other things I would rather be sewing, so I will go ahead and make a bodiced petticoat for this. I also need to decide on the style of the dress that I would like for the event.

Pride and Prejudice was my favorite Jane Austen book and then film (the Colin Firth version of course) for the longest time. But as I have gotten older, I find I am really drawn to Persuasion. To me the characters are much more authentic, and I find I really relate to Anne Elliot. Perhaps because he family and friends take her for granted. Anyway, I really think I will be doing something Anne inspired. I love how she has such unassuming colors in the film (the Rupert Penry-Jones one of course), so I am leaning towards going that way. Not certain how appropriate it is for a tea...













18th Century Corset Update.

It is finally done. And I hate it. That is all. Will post pics at some point.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

18th Century Linen Shift and Silk Corset Update.

Rule #1--do not sew when you are sick. I screwed up the shift and wasted 2 yards of linen.
Rule #2--do not try to fit yourself in a corset, assuming it will be okay because it fit before. It fit about a year and 10lbs ago. So now it is finally done and the back is all wrong. Do I pull all the binding off and re-do the back? Toss it in a corner? Start over? Who knows... Very irritated to say the least.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

18th Century Linen Shift

Linen was on sale at JoAnn's, and they actually had one that was not a blend. With the sale and my 20% off coupon, I was able to squeeze 2 yards (which I hope us enough) out of my budget. If I can just feel a bit better I will try and get this cut out today.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Venetian Courtesan

 As usual, I have been MIA. I have been working, but not on anything for myself so I have not updated here. I have a HUGE LIST of things I need to sew for events, so I need to get busy and stopped messing around. Hopefully blogging will keep me on track? Hasn't worked in the past but I am determined to give it a try.

One of the things I have been wanting to make, for years, is a Venetian Courtesan. I had put it on the back burner because I had never decided how I wanted to go about it and was not motivated enough to figure it all out. Then I got my hands on this GORGEOUS fabric! 100% Silk Taffeta in the strangest gold, green, purple-shot colors you have seen. It changes constantly, and in person has a strange bronze quality to it. When I saw this a light went off in my head as to what I wanted to make. I don't want to say until it is finished, but this gown will do double duty as not only renaissance fare, but as a twist on a popular cosplay design. It makes me very excited.


I only have 6.5 yards of this which really isn't enough to do what I am going to do. Thankfully I am very short (5') so that saves me some, but I am going to have to be very careful with the design I pick. I will have to put some other fabrics with it but as of yet have not decided on what. I am ordering the fabric for the camica Friday while I think about this.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

1880's Bustle Gown.

I have been sewing away (between work and shuttling children) on an 1880s bustle dress that was supposed to be for an event today. Well, the fates did not cooperate so I did not get to go, but I guess that gives me time to tweak a few things I wasn't happy with but was prepared to overlook due to time constraints. So after this post I will be spending the rest of my day in the sewing room but thought I would get up the first group of pictures/construction notes on this project.

I had not intended on making an 1880s bustle dress for this event, I tend to like the more natural form gowns of the mid 1870s because I am very short and fluffy, so I do not need more "pouf." But when the lovely Mara gave me her Imperial Bustle, I figured I would just go with that period that way I did not have to make one.

I spent a lot of time on Pinterest and found a few elements I liked that I thought would work for my frame and lack of height. I do not have them saved so I will have to post the inspiration photos later. Anyway, besides the bustle and corset, I was also gifted some TV patterns and this lovely deep red (garnet) silk. So I decided to use that for my dress as well as to repurpose a lovely plaid silk dress I have been holding onto for years. Both fabrics are much lovelier than these photos depict.

                                     




I did not have an appropriate pattern for this era and had lent out my pattern book so I had nothing on hand. I thought about just completely drafting something but because of time, and the fact I just REALLY didn't want to, decided to take one of the patterns I was given and just alter it. A lot. I used the TV mid 1870s Dinner Bodice pattern as my base, cutting the neckline much higher and shorteniing the back peplum pieces, as well as adding width to the peplum from the waistline down to allow it to fit over the robust 1880s bustle.




For the skirts I knew I wanted to incorporate the plaid, but I did not have very much of it. I also knew because of my height and size I cannto handle a lot of drapes and ruffles. I found a fashion plate that had stripes of plaid going verticle on its underskirt so decided this would be a good idea. I took apart the plaid dress and measuring the length I needed for the strips cut out as many as was possible.

The source of my plaid fabric.

 



I did not have enough fabric to space these evenly all the way around the underskirt, so I placed the first 5, starting with center front, a set space apart, then I placed the remaining ones where needed, pleating the fabric up in between to make them look closer together than they were. The left side of the dress has one more stripe than the right as I planned for the drape to go all the way to the hem on that side.

                                      


Here is the finished underskirt pined to the petticoat for placement. It has a yoke like the petticoat to help eliminate bulk at the waist, but I wanted to drape it first and decide how I was doing the overskirts before putting it all together. I also decided that before I could be sure how I wanted to drape the overskirt that I needed to see how the bodice was going to work, so I started on that next. 

                                 


I love how the 1880s bodices are so fitted and go up to the neck, unfortunately I just cannot pull them off. I am too heavy and I do not have much of a neck anymore as I have two bulging discs at the base which has made it even shorter. I decided that if I went with the faux vest look I could leave it open up at the neck even if this isn't something that would have been done. To keep this from being to Christmassy, I decided to turn this into an 1880s Gryffindor inspired costume. I had been wanting to do a mid 1870s Professor McGonnagal, so now it will just be a different decade.

I had a lovely golden yellow shot silk left over from my corset (yes the one that is still not finished) so decdided to use that as the vest. It is perfect for the color scheme. I used a heavy twill I had for interlining, and as you can see it sewed up very nicely.