Checking In!

It's been a horribly long time since I posted, and even longer since I've posted anything costume related. However, there is a very good reason for that--I teach 6th grade, and school started three weeks ago. I'm rather dead to the world. I have a much harder time adjusting to the school year than I should because I essentially work the same hours that I slept in the summer. Really. In the summer I usually sleep from about 4 something in the morning to about 1 in the afternoon, and during the school year, I work from 7 something in the morning to 2 something in the afternoon, and then there's the lovely thing known as grading.

Anyway, enough of that! Since a costume blog post is nothing without pictures, I thought I might as well post a picture of a project that I'm working on. Though working might be too strong a word at the moment. Since work started again, I've done about 18 inches of straight stitch embroidery :)



It's a 1925 bathing suit that's at the Met, is patterned in Women's Wear of the 1920s (can you tell I love this book? A friend calls it the Pink Book of Awesome, and it's a totally perfect name for it), and was patented in 1925. How incredible is that to have SO much information about one suit?

So work goes on on that. I have some absolutely beautiful Appleton crewel wool to embroider it. I'm also planning on making a hat and bathing shoes. Making the shoes? Should be interesting!

It will be a bit before I get that finished, most likely. It's planned for a day at the beach prior to Costume College 2012.

In what I'm working on and need next news, my Regency Renaissance faire costume is done, so the event after that is a Civil War reenactment-lette. I'm making a dress with a very bright yellow cotton print for that. It'll be a yoked bodice, box pleated skirt, bishop sleeves with pleats sewn down at the top. I'll keep the blog posted! Right now, only a pocket is done, and that I sewed the print upside down. Um, oops? But it doesn't show! It is my ease back into doing things project, and as such, it will be completely hand sewn as that's so much easier for me than lugging out the machine.

So, I'm just posting to say yes, I do still exist! Though I'm not completely sure I feel like I do this time of year :)

A Brownie No. 2 Model E Camera!

This is a little different than my normal posts, though this is still costume related! I hope to use this for costume photography. How fun to take a picture of costume with a period camera! This is the second one I bought--the first was a model with bellows which were full of light leaks.

The Spotty Bodice--Construction! Part Five--the Cuffs and Belt :)

First, a note about the overskirt. I took almost no pictures, actually, I don't think I took any until I was done. I'll briefly summarize. The front piece is a rounded trapezoid, and the back a long rectangle. I pleated the edges of the trapezoid and sewed them to the long rectangle, leaving a the seam open on the left side for a placket. The rectangle is faced with spotty silk, since both sides show. The whole thing is lined with Egyptian cotton. The closure is hidden in a side seam pleat. The back is gathered and cotton tapes pull it up into puffs. Not terribly helpful, I'm afraid!

11 April 2011--In which I finish the spotty bodice, and breathe a huge sigh of relief :) My cuffs are a little different than the original. I believe the original was doubled. Mine isn't. Why? One more inch of fabric and I couldn't do the evening bodice the way I wanted to :)

Ok, I still have the belt, but the bodice is DONE!!!



My cuffs are obviously to a different scale. That can be so hard copying. But I like them, and they're very, very, very securely sewn on and I'm out of fabric (if I want to do my evening bodice as planned). So there. Most importantly, I like them :)

The Spotty Bodice--Construction! Part Four--the Organdy Collar :)

From 6 April--I used my pleated organdy for this, of course, seen in this post. My first attempt made a pretty collar that looked awful on me. The next post shows how I fixed that. You can see the difference in the dressform pictures! The last line of this post includes the epiphany from staring at it too long :)

The Spotty Bodice--Construction! Part Three--the Plastron :)

The series continued!

From 3 April--The construction of the plastron here is basically the same way I make 18th century stomachers. I didn't include any comments, as once again, I think the pictures speak for themselves.

The spotty stomacher is done and sewn in one side. Now just hooks and eyes. Unfortunately, I pressed the pleats a little flatter than I wanted to, but it's ok :)

The Spotty Bodice--Construction! Part Two--Lapels and Collar :)

The continued construction. Once again, I'm just copying my original posts with minor edits, the date, and a brief commentary after each date.

From 2 April 2011--For the lapels, we used an antique bodice that I own as a guide. The pictures are commentless--I think they speak for themselves!

The Spotty Bodice--Construction!

And now, at last, bodice construction! I'm just going to give a slightly edited version of what I posted when I was making it. It is a highly odd bodice, as there is no visible front opening. We managed this by having a center front closure in the lining, a layer that closed over that, but didn't close center front, and a plastron to fill in the center.

This dress at the Met was invaluable in figuring out what to do, as was information about a dress Kat had seen and shared with us.

So here are the entries, not really polished. I think it's interesting to revisit what I was thinking at the time, anyway! I put a little summary after each date to hopefully clear things up a bit :)

From 15 March--This is the first time I tried the finished bodice on, after adjusting pieces of my existing 1860s muslin to give the right look.

Since I had the corset on, I figured I might as well pin in the darts, right?

Remember that part in the skirt muslin where I said imagination is necessary? Well, it's needed here too. Yes, it's the "finished" piece, but trust me, all my bodices look this terrifying in the darting stage!