It took me quite a while to finish up a half dozen petticoats. I left them alone for various reasons. Disinterest, job stuff, teaching sewing classes. So it got put off for quite a while after I managed to get all those things ruffled up. So now I have an Early Bustle, Late Bustle, and Natural Form pettis, plus a bustle petti from the wire bustle pattern sans boning and overlay, plus two quick and dirty "gather fabric to a waistband" pettis for general purpose and Renaissance skirts. After I was done, I decided to put them all on. The volume was almost like a small hoop skirt. And it was heavy, and it chafed my waist. I wasn't wearing a corset, which would have helped some, but something tells me that having over twenty yards of muslin hanging from your waist probably isn't going to be light as a feather.
Plans have changed again. I'll be making a Victorian dress, of course, but it's not what I planned. After breaking down the cost, I have concluded that the Sagittarius dress is just too expensive to make right now. Not just the dress but the archery equipment I have to make (since the real ones aren't allowed at conventions). So that will be put off. Pisces as well because I want something that I can wear for Rural Heritage Day. So I decided to use some stash fabric and start on my paisley polonaise dress, which I will now dub the Leo dress:
The gold is a tinch too dark and rich for it to work 100%, but it looks so good with it that I have to use it. The brown is pretty dull in the picture; it's a richer chocolate brown. Also doesn't quite work, but I'll use it for trim and the hat, so I'm not super concerned. It's okay if everything isn't matchy-matchy.
I haven't decided how to make the "mane" part yet or how I'm going to do the glyph, but they will be detachable since I want to wear this as a historical dress. And I'm not going full on costume with this, so I'm not going to be a 19th century member of Cats with claws and makeup and such. That's not really my thing. Think of it as fancy dress.
I still have plans to work on my first Renaissance dress (if I can get the stupid bodice to fit...) and I told myself I would try to do something practical...but of course I can't just do something normal. So I'm hopefully going to start a mockup of a tailored suit with Vogue 8333. That jacket in that color wool is my dream suit. Alas, I am not worthy of such wonderful fabric yet, so I shall stick to something less extravagant. I have this thing for suits. Especially on men. I don't care who the man is or whether or not you think he's attractive, put a man in a tailored suit, and he's at least 20% handsomer. Bonus points for three piece suits. Why don't men wear three piece suits all the time anymore?...
Suits!! There was a young man on Cake Boss who did his work in a dress shirt, vest, and tie with an apron over. (And trousers, obvs!) Presumably his jacket was stowed elsewhere. Cake-making suit-wearing man. Hawt! You'd think more young men would get this and adopt the style.
ReplyDeleteI like your gold with the patterned goods. Looking forward to seeing this come together. The obvious leonine touch would be a fur collar, but maybe a looped ribbon trim in feline shades?
Oh man, a guy in a three piece suit AND makes cakes? *fans self*. Come on guys! If you wear three piece suits, even if you ditch the jacket, you will get all the ladies. Or you'll at least get me and other women who appreciate dapper-looking men.
DeleteSpeaking of men and suits...yesterday I was shopping at Kohl's and found a pair of dress pants that fit pretty well. I marveled at how they weren't low rise like most dress pants, that the pockets were deeper, that the back pockets were fuctional and the crotch seam was finish with binding. Come to find out they're men's pants, Haggar actually (I thought because they were higher end pants, they sized the women's pants like the men's, but no). Yet they fit better than many women's pants I've tried on. Odd that they were in the women's section...but hey, they fit, and they were $20 when they're normally $70, so wins all around. I'm definitely going to copy some of the construction details when I make my suit.
Funny you should mention fur. I saw this mink faux fur trim at Joann's that I was thinking of using for a winter coat, but it could work here. But I like the idea of the looped ribbon too. I was also thinking of using ruched strips of ribbon sewn in layers and making a high half collar like the TV tail bodice has, then continuing it around the neckline of the polonaise. I'd do that regardless of the type of trim I used. Hm. Decisions.
Also, you and your half-dozen petticoats make me feel like a sloth. :p
ReplyDeleteWell, considering that I started these petticoats in, what, November, that's pretty slow, even for me. But ruffling that much fabric gets boring quickly. I'd hardly call you a sloth, miss I made a dozen dresses in how many months? Riiight. Sloth isn't even in your vocabulary. ^_^
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