Another new project!

I'm alive!

It's been a while, hasn't it?  Mostly because I've had little to report.  I've been majorly slacking in the sewing department, and I've only just started to make some progress in the two outfits I want to finish by October.  The Leo dress was delayed by fabric acquisition issues (which I hope are now resolved) and I fairly recently decided to make a riding habit (of sorts). The jodhpurs need buttons and a waistband, along with a bit of waistline adjusting.  The jacket, which is from the pattern I drafted for my red and black dress, is still in the mockup stage, but hopefully I can sew that up this weekend.  I just got the top hat pattern, so that will be cut out soon and I can start wiring it this week.  That still leaves the gaiters, vest, shirt, and short skirt (well, short for Victorian).  Oh, did I mention this would be in black and gold?  I had bought some gold fabric a while back, and what they said online was twill was actually sateen and too shiny for what I had wanted to do with it.  So since I'm already making a gold outfit with Leo, why not use more gold this year?  Last year was red, this year is gold.  I feel like I'm an extra in that one scene from The Wiz.  I don't like green enough to have a year of green dresses.

For this being my Victorian dress this year, Leo doesn't have a definitive plan yet.  Fabric constraints may prevent me from my original plan, which was to make a box pleat trim for the skirt.  I have 15 yards of brown velvet ribbon that I don't know what to do with yet.  Maybe I'll get more inspiration as time goes on.

Pisces is in the "I'm seriously going to make this dress so I need to finalize my jumbled cloud of ideas" stage.  I'm going to a convention in April called Figments and Filaments.  It's a costuming convention, so I want to make something dramatic and awesome.  Except for Scorpio, Pisces fits the bill.  Right now the only thing I have are sketches and some of the fabric on the way.  It's a start.

More updates soon!  Promise!

It is intellectually challenged, not a dummy

I haven’t posted in over a month, so I might as well post…

Over the past couple of weeks for sewing class, we’ve been making duct tape dress forms.  Normally, if everything goes right, it would have only taken those two weeks.  But May and I each had some patch work to do on our forms.  We used the duct tape as a mold and filled it with batting and spray foam, then covering it with the usual jersey fabic.  During the drying process, my form decided to settle at the waist, compressing my poor breasts and squashing my midsection.  So, after we tried pulling at the duct tape to see if it will straighten on it’s own…we ended up cutting me in half.  I mean it in half.  Magic trick jokes ensued.

I’ve been very slow on my petti progress, partially because of Thanksgiving, mostly because of my wrist.  I’m not looking forward to gathering six widths of fabric.  Though I may leave it short for future shorter dress applications.  I know Pisces will need it.

Speaking of Pisces.  And Sagittarius.  I’ve been making plans for these dresses pretty much over the course of this year, when I got the idea to do it for Your Wardrobe Unlocked.  I won’t be able to obviously, but the idea still stuck.  The plans for the specifics keep chaning except that Pisces will be Natural Form and Sagittarius will be Late Bustle.  The former because of the fantail skirt, the latter should be pertty obvious.  Huge bustle.  Horse’s hindquarters metaphor.  You get the idea.

Fabric?  This is what I have planned to use for Pisces.  I also plan on using a complementary solid color as well. (This is a major close up, FYI.  The pattern's not this big).

The back of the fantail skirt will be cut in the shape of a fish tail.  I may gather it to that look, which was my original plan, or just cut the shape.  Either another layer and/or the balayeuse will be of the original pattern’s size.  Also, I plan on having the fabric of the left and right sides going in different directions, the same as most pictures of Pisces (glutton for punishment, I know, I know).  The rest of the design keeps changing, but I hope I have the final incarnation this time.

 

With Sagittarius I plan on using the gold version of the fabic I used for the dress I made last summer for the wedding, along with a plum sateen and the white sateen I used for my red and black dress.  I love the tailored look of Late Bustle dresses.  It’s really the only thing I’ve seen that feels like my personal aesthetic.  I’ll be using Truly Victorian’s Tail Bodice (guess why?) and altering the front of it.  I may make it like the red and black with different fronts for the vest and jacket, or I may just cut away the front and form the vest that way.  We’ll see what I feel like doing at that point.  What I'm more concerned about is fashioning my own archery equpiment since I can't use a real bow or real arrows if I want to wear this dess to conventions (and the dress doesn't make sense if the archery stuff isn't there).  So plan on some DIY fails learning curve with that.

 

Some more eye candy for you…this baby is the reason why I instantly decided to put off my military project.  From De Gracieuse, 1873:

 

Can’t you just imagine that in black wool and gold trim?  And the cords!  The I don’t know if I would use black or brown fur, but…come on.  I have to make this with that outfit.  No question. 

Oh, here's the site for the De Gracieuse.  Like you need another reason to look at pretty clothing all evening...

http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/en/collectieindex/modetijdschrift_de_gracieuse/gmdh01_jaar

 

So yes.  Some things to think about when I can start up a project again.  I'm also picking away at the designs for other  zodiac dresses as well.  I'm excited about Scorpio the most, but it's also the most complex.  Trying to fashion a scorpion's tail out of a fantail skirt isn't easy and will require some major hardware back there.  Somehow.

 

Pictures to come when my dress form is complete, and I may hang some stuff on it to take more pictures of stuff I didn't get a chance to photograph.

Future plans, and a new pattern!

One of my costuming friends, Mary Gode, was ever so kind enough to give me the newest Truly Victorian bodice pattern as a gift (thanks again, Mary!).  Everyone was gushing over this new bodice, and I was no different.  I had been trying to figure out a way to make a pointed vest and jacket bodice since the Rejected Dress, and both the military dress and the Sagittarius dress require vests (the latter a faux vest).  This new bodice pattern gives me a template for that, and I couldn't be happier.  So the red and black dress will now be Early Bustle instead of Natural Form.  Don't care as long as I can make something pretty out of the fabric!

Speaking of Sagittarius...yes, that's my huge project I was talking about.  I plan on making a Victorian dress for each sign of the zodiac.  Eventually.  More to come on that.

So, after I get done with my dress for my friend's wedding, I'll be working on my corset, then this dress.  I've been submerged in Natural Form and recently Late Bustle designs, so I need to switch gears for Early Bustle again.

Speaking of my modern dress...it's getting close to being done.  That is if I don't decrease the width of the hem, which I more than likely will.  The hem is huge, since it's a circle skirt.  As in, it's about 155in long.  In comparison, my bustle skirt is about 115in or so.  Because of this, and because of the longer back, I decided to pull out my bustle and put it on underneath this dress.  You would think the dress was made for bustle wear.  This has inspired me to possibly make my own polonaise in the future, since that's what it looked like.  Interesting.  A pity I don't have my camera, otherwise I would have taken a picture.

Now, I need to be good and get some work done and not go on another hunt for fashion plates...

"Listen to your creative gut" is the moral of this story

This is what happened to my first Victorian project. I had planned on using a steampunk jacket pattern for it because I loved the look of it. But my mind started tugging at me. Pretty soon I wanted to change this and change that about the pattern, and it was apparent that my mind kept pulling at me so much that it was saying "this isn't what you want to do" from the beginning. So I made a plain bodice instead, my mind eased, and I was happy with the end result.

The tugging is happening again with this military outfit.

I realized I was trying to shoehorn this outfit into something that it's not, and I've narrowed my view of it to the point that I'm not inspired by it anymore. So one of two things needs to happen. Either scrap the military outfit all together (which I don't want to do) or find something else for DPP and do the military outfit the way I want to do it, without having to shoehorn it into "steampunk."

So. We're back to square one, ladies and gentlemen. Then late last night I came up with a tenative plan. I want to keep it a secret for now, but it does involve archery.

So what about all the plans I've made for the other outfit? I can actually still use a lot of it. The breeches and gaiters could still be used. I plan on making partial gloves in the form of archery gloves (And perhaps put plate armor pieces on the fingers? We shall see.) Nothing else has been bought or done, so I'm not backpedaling much.

And see? My mind's at ease again, so this was the way to go.

But Andrea, you might be wondering, what happened to the yellow and lavendar dress? Don't. Just. Don't. That dress is very very lucky I haven't started a fire in the barbeque pit and burned it. I'm through with it. It's not worth my time. Which means that along with a steampunk look, I also have to make a few pieces for the regular Victorian stuff this year. Oddly enough, the colors I'm working with will be dark purple and gold. The color family continues to haunt me!

I was going to make a crown pun...

But I'll spare you. I'm finished with my practice run of the crown!



It turned out better than expected, though as you can see, there's fuzz from the interfacing. I'm going to have to figure something out with that. I don't want to draw the design directly on the fabric, but I can't have that fuzz...especially since I intend to have this either on a black or red background.

In the end, I didn't find an acceptable way to do the monogram, so I either need to find another, plainer font, or something not as thin. Trying to make tiny horizontal stitches is difficult. I had a more successful time with all those tight curves in the crown. I developed a method for it.

First, I mark off the starting point and some guidelines so I can see where the stitches need to "flow" so to speak.



Then I start filling in the gaps. For tight turns, I go into the same hole on the inner curve side but continue as normal on the outter side.



Depending on the tightness, I may go in the same hole one or two times, but no more than three, otherwise it starts becoming bulky. Not sure if that's the correct way, but it turned out all right.

I'll tackle the final draft later with lettering and all, but now my sights are set on gloves. I got the Butterick glove pattern (because I'm too lazy to make my own, so it's worth the 99 cents) and the pattern's cut out and ready to go.  I may work on that this weekend, but I really should get the rest of the Project Runway stuff done.  Still haven't done the final steps in a couple of things.  So I'll focus on that before I immerse myself into handsewing these gloves.

How very fitting I'm doing all this hand sewing when I'm teaching a mini lecture on that very subject on Monday for sewing class.  I'm the unofficial hand sewing expert (yeah right).  Turns out that blind hemming and slip stitching have more variations than I thought...and I've been doing one of them "wrong" from the beginning.  Well, my logic is the same way with the above curve thing: I do something by trial and error, and it works, so I don't bother going the pro's way.

It's almost 2:30.  Let me get to bed.

So it begins...

I've been starting on prep work for the military outfit. Monday evening I quickly realized that the original Victorian pattern for the vest and jacket was horribly out of proportion. Luckily, I have a already-fitted Truly Victorian bodice and both volumes of Fashions of the Gilded Age at my disposal, so between those two, I think I can come up with something that looks like the original design.

I've also been looking into gloves. I'll be making military dress gloves, and while I'm not sure the modern pattern was used back then, they did have gloves that buttoned at the wrist, so that's a start. I'll save my sanity and buy a pattern for that.

And tonight I started something I wasn't planning on doing: embroidery.

The thought came up some night this week in the wee hours of the morning that I should do some insignias or what have you, like uniforms do, like patches that denote rank or what branch of the military they're in. So I decided to do (hopefully) two things, a royal seal and a royal cypher. What is a cypher? A monogram basically, and I've seen it used for the royal family in Britain on various things. So since that was simpler, I started on that first.

I am a cross stitcher, but I'm not embroiderer. So this trial run is looking shoddy at best, but I wanted to see if I could do it.

I started with just tracing my printed out design onto tear away interfacing used for machine embroidery:




Then I (attempted) to satin stitch. I used gold cross stitch thread and dark red sewing thread. After an hour's worth of stitching, here's what I have so far:



As I said, shoddy. I'm sure it will get better as I go along. The royal cypher always ends in R for Rex or Regina. I chose to use the initial of the family name of the monarch rather than the given name since royal families in this particular place aren't so boring with the naming of their heirs, so they have cyphers to honor the entire lineage, not just one monarch. I decided.

I may break my vow of "don't buy anything that isn't mandatory" and get the glove pattern next time it goes on sale. I want a lot of the tedious work done first, and I do need these gloves for this outfit. So that's how it goes.

Project in the future

The supposed end of Project Runway is coming soon, although my sewing teacher hasn't said anything about a real date yet, so my classmate and partner in sewing crime, May, hopes that we get another month...or two. She's working on five different after five dresses, so she has had a much more difficult time at it than me. But what I've seen of it is gorgeous.

In the end, yes, again, I amended my Victorian dress plans. After doing a mockup of the bodice, I decided that I didn't like how my torso looked in my corset, and I want to make a new corset before finishing the outfit. So there's that. The skirt is almost done, though.

So what's next? Actual working on stuff wise, not much. Planning wise...oh, I have plans.

Your Wardrobe Unlock'd, a wonderful resource site with articles for sewing and historical clothing, has a contest every year, and this year one of them is for Steampunk Historical Inspirations, or some combination of those words. So I plan on participating.

I have an idea for a roughly 1874ish steampunk military dress. I am not a huge fan of the brass and leather look, it's just not me, so I'm going more towards "ficticious military uniform" route rather than traditional steampunk. I've been using inspiration from both military outfits of the time and riding habits, some of which were heavily inspired by military outfits. My dress won't be for riding since I want it to be a bustle dress, but I may be convinced to make riding pants as an alternate outfit. Am I getting on a horse? Are you kidding me?

I was planning on starting this next year, but since the contest ends in February of next year, that won't work. So I've been trying to plan ahead for when I do have the funds to buy the things I need for this outfit.

Really the only things I can do now are the mockups for the bodice and hat, undergarments (not my corset yet) and gloves. Well, I'm going to TRY is what I'm saying. We'll see just how good my hand sewing skills are. This project hindges on me learning a lot of new things, all of which can go horribly south and the way of my original plans for the purple and yellow dress. Why can't I do easier stuff? Hello, my name is Andrea, and I'm an overachiever. Nice to meet you.