Coming soon...

In the interest of posting more, I do have two--excepting hooks and eyes on the harem pants--new costumes done. I don't have good pictures of either; however, I do have pictures! These are for an upcoming Titanic dinner. I'll be leaving for that in 16 days. I feel quite good about having everything done!

First, my take on the Poiret Sorbet dress. Mine has velvet appliques and is a bit more fitted than the original, but it's my dress, and I wanted to be happy with how it looked. All within period ideals still, of course! And no, I won't be wearing a blue t-shirt underneath :)



Next is an outfit with harem pants. The bodice is a simplified version of the 1911 Lady Maud bodice in Patterns of Fashion. I wanted very sheer sleeves, so I don't have all of the support layers.



The green silk is the most fabulous lightweight practically sheer but taffeta like green and black shot silk that I was lucky enough to find on sale in the garment district many years ago. The rest of it is destined to be a Regency open robe :)



And these are just too funny. But silk chiffon lined with silk charmeuse? So luxurious...

Regency--Day and Night!

I've been a simply horrible Blogger! My Live Journal is nice and active with lots of day to day sewing, but here? Well, I've more than neglected it. So I decided it was finally time to present my dress and a half--a day and evening version of a Regency dress built around the same base.



For this year’s Jane Austen Evening in Pasadena, I decided to make a new dress and a half. Why a dress and a half? A day dress and evening dress based off the same base! I fell in love with a fashion plate that showed an embroidered muslin skirt worn under a dress Of course, I didn’t want to put all the work into an embroidered petticoat and only wear it during the day, so I found an evening spencer that I could also wear with the petticoat.

The Finished 1840 Ball Gown :)

I've been putting off posting pictures since I don't have very good pictures, but since I won't have a chance to take better pictures until Costume College if plans don't change, I thought I may as well!

Before I wear it again, I'm going to make it into a day version--detatchable long sleeves and a big collar cape thing--and put new buttons on my petticoats so they'll sit lower on my waist. The corset I wear with this dress is properly long waisted, but I didn't take into consideration that my petticoats would still sit at my natural waist. Oops. I did get a little length wrinkling because of that. There was also a little bias wrinkling that I may or may not deal with (I really wish I had cut this on the straight--I know many bodices were cut on the bias, which is why I did it, but this wouldn't have been an issue). It was barely noticeable in person, but in some pictures? It was rather, um, frightening. In spite of that (and quickly falling out hair), I don't think I've ever felt quite so pretty in a dress! This one was just so delicate and simple. Unfortunately, balls just aren't the best place for pictures--it's dark when you go, and you're so busy once you're there!

So enough of that, pictures, right?



I just love the sleeves (I normally don't like to gush about my own work, but I can't help it with these sleeves!). Instead of doing pleating like my inspiration dress, I just let the smocking loose and sewed the base to the lining (which is peeking out in this picture). Then I sewed a band around. I got the idea from the pleats on this dress.

The lace around the neckline I bought in probably 2002 at JoAnn for my first chemise. I dipped it in coffee for a bit to make it less polyester white, but even if it is polyester, it's a very pretty lace and reminds me of the lace around the neckline of my original c. 1840 bodice.

I used this excellent honeycomb smocking tutorial. I found that the smocking wasn't deep enough with a half inch square dot grid though. On the skirt, I put the horizontal dots one inch apart, and on the sleeves, I put them three-quarters of an inch apart. The vertical distance was still half an inch. Basically, I drew my grid as rectangles instead of squares.



I'm wearing it over my underhoop petticoat, corded petticoat, and a plain petticoat, my Regency chemise and Past Patterns 1840-1880 corset. The corset does open in front with the style busk that was patented in the 1850s, but apparently there was one front opening busk patented earlier, even if it didn't catch on. That, and mentioning the 1830s fashion plate that shows this style is all the documentation I'll give for that (if I were less lazy, I'd try to find where I read about the busk and a copy of the fashion plate, but I'm lucky I'm just posting!). I did think about my 1820s corset, since that style was still in use in the 40s, but with the straps and very little support, I just didn't see it working under this dress!



And a picture at the ball--a much better angle than the ironing board as tripod angle :)

A Sneak Peek!

I've been busy lately as I have a ball coming up this weekend. So exciting! Minutes ago, I finished my ball gown, and I thought I'd share a sneak peek of it. Full pictures and details to come soon!

1860s Yellow Print Dress!

Yesterday was the annual local reenactment. It's quite small, but quite fun. And we still haven't made it to see the battle! Oh well. I can quite honestly say I'm not a reenactor, but a costumer who wants to make things as accurate as possible and wear them whenever there's a chance.

With that, my yellow print dress! I'm wearing it with the embroidered collar I made ages ago, cuffs that are just rectangles of fabric tacked into place, and over my Eugenie dress underthings--same petticoat, hoop, corset, etc. I wore my green Regency boots because not only did I think they'd be pretty with it, but because they were sitting next to my desk and I didn't need to find them in my costume closet :)

The bonnet is the Eliza Corettta circle from Timely Tresses. More pictures below!



Pictures at the reenactment and Starbucks, before the reenactment. That one is the only picture I have without a bonnet--and the best of the tucks. And cameras pointing up? Never a good angle!

Triangle Trim Tutorial!

As it's been a while since I posted, I looked at my journal for a tutorial to post. And here it is--the triangle trim for my robe de style! It's rather versatile trim as well. Lauren of Wearing History also used this on her 1820s blue silk ball gown. I was lucky enough to see her dress in person--it was quite lovely!

It was very easy to do. I figured out how to do it one day at work--I was playing with the fabric belt on my dress, and all of a sudden, triangle pleats! I was quite relieved, as making about 9,000 little triangles was far from appealing!

So, here it is, how to make triangle pleated trim!



First, iron down the edges of the fabric. Just a little--it's too thick if you fold it to the middle like bias tape.



Iron so it meets in the middle. This can of course be skipped with ribbon.

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 :)