Festive Attyre

the "oh crap" moment

2012-01-29T16:09:00.004-06:00

Have you ever had that feeling when you try on a project for the first time and you discover that the absolutely perfect costume plan that you've had in your head for months and months is nowhere near as perfect in reality? Unfortunately, I had one of those horrible "oh crap" moments today.

This March, the DFWCG is having a steampunk tea party, and my plan was to make a super fabulous 1890's cycling costume based on this:

I found the perfect pattern for the jacket in 59 Authentic Turn of the Century Patterns, and I used my nifty apportioning scales to enlarge it to my size this week. The enlarging went pretty well for the bodice. The fit through the body is great, and all I would need to do is adjust the darts a little. The back collar piece was slightly too big, but it would be an easy fix. The sleeve, on the other hand, was WAY too big, which happens fairly often when you are enlarging one of these patterns that uses the bust measurement ruler for everything. I could go back and try to draft another one with a smaller scale, or I could just alter the sleeve that I have to make it fit better. I am not overly fond of the pleating pattern this sleeve uses, but again, I could change that with no problem. I also messed up and used the bust scale instead of the waist scale for the skirt of the bodice, so it was way too big and I will definitely need to redraft that if I decide to move forward.

So the pattern is working fine, but here's the problem. I underestimated the amount of effort it is going to take to tailor this thing correctly. The lapels and collar are going to take a MASSIVE amount of pad stitching and stiffening to make them lay right. And I honestly have no idea how to get the sleeves to poof out enough that they won't look sad and limp. There is obviously some major engineering going on in a jacket like this, and I'm not 100% sure that my skills are up for the task.

Of course, I shouldn't judge a project too harshly based on the first mockup, but I tried my muslin on today and all I could think was "meh". It makes me feel top-heavy and even with all the weight that I've lost this past year, I'm still not sure that my waist is small enough to offset the poofiness in this outfit. Plus, the thought of all that tailoring is daunting to say the least.

I just don't know. Maybe I'll put it aside for a week or two and let it ferment. I don't have a plan B costume for this event, and I've already bought all the fabric for the cycling suit, so I sort of feel obligated to push on through. What do you do when you discover that you are no longer in love with a costume that you were once super-excited about? Continue anyway? Find something else and not waste your time and energy on something you no longer love? I usually try to keep going no matter what, but the results of that have been mixed in the past. Sometimes I'm happy with the final results and I'm grateful that I didn't give up, and sometimes I waste weeks or months on something that I ultimately hate and often never finish anyway. Maybe I should try a different plan this time and cut my losses now and start looking for another costume idea.

We'll see...

pattern drafting with apportioning scales

2012-01-20T21:47:00.006-06:00

A lot of people seem to be intimidated by the pattern diagrams in the Frances Grimble books that use apportioning scales to help you enlarge the patterns. This technique uses special rulers that allow you to draw out the pattern in your own unique size for a custom fit. Once you get the gist of how it works, this technique requires almost no math and very little thinking. I *LOVE* using this type of pattern, and I've had really great results with the dresses that I have tried in the past, so I thought I would make some video tutorials to show you all how easy they really are to use. Please excuse my choppy endings. My video editor refused to work with these files, so they are pretty rough around the edges.

The first video talks about how to select the correct apportioning rulers based on your own personal measurements.

The next video walks you through the process of drawing a pattern piece with your custom rulers.

Important things to note:

1. The apportioning rulers in the Edwardian Modiste book can also be used for Kristina Harris's books of 1890's dress patterns (links to all below). Harris doesn't include the apportioning rulers in her books, so this is a huge help if you want to use her patterns!
2. The Grimble and Harris books that use pattern systems from the 1880's and 1890's only use the bust measurement ruler for everything that you draw, including the sleeves. But the system used in the Edwardian Modiste is slightly different, and there is a somewhat complicated way that you are supposed to measure your arm length. Finding this sleeve length measurement is probably the most difficult step of the entire pattern drafting process, but there is a description of how to measure your arm length on pages 7-8 of the Edwardian Modiste. You then use your arm length for the vertical measurements in the sleeve pieces (just like we used the waist length for the bodice), while the bust measurement ruler is still used for the width of the sleeve pieces. Grimble advises that you can also use the modern technique for measuring your sleeve length (simply measuring from shoulder to wrist), and this will get you close enough. I haven't tried either of these methods with the Edwardian Modiste patterns, but I'll let you know when I do.
3. As I mentioned in the video, skirts are drafted with a different set of rulers from the bodice. You use your waist measurement for all the horizontal lines (i.e. the 28" ruler if you have a 28" waist). For the main vertical line, you measure from the waist to the floor to determine the length of your skirt, and then select the ruler with that measurement for the vertical baseline on your pattern (i.e. use the 41" ruler if you want your skirt to be 41" long).
4. For dresses with the bodice and skirt all in one, you will use your waist length ruler for the vertical line on the bodice section, and the skirt length ruler for the vertical line on the skirt.
5. Be warned that the hips on these patterns will probably be too large for most modern figures, but you can always take them in if you need to on the muslin.
6. Even when seam allowances are not marked on the pattern pieces, they sometimes ARE included on the patterns. The armscye is a good example of this - you might not need to add selvage to the armscye and sleeve-head on some patterns. But you won't know for sure if you need the extra fabric or not until you make the pattern up, so it is better to add seam allowances just in case. You can always cut them back off if you find that you don't need them.
7. The type of corset that you are wearing is very important when selecting the proper rulers. The waist position on my Edwardian corset is much higher than it is on my Victorian corset. If I am wearing the wrong corset (or none at all) when I measure my back length from my neck to my waist, it will completely throw off the fit of your garment - especially on these late Edwardian patterns where the waistline is intended to be relatively high.

Well, I hope this was helpful! Let me know if you have any questions on any of this. I am actually more familiar with using the apportioning systems in the Fashions of the Gilded Age and the Harris books, but I know that the Edwardian stuff is the most popular right now. But all of the systems are very similar, so once you get one under your belt, the rest are much easier. Now go forth and draft fabulous patterns! :)

(P.S. - if you would like to buy one of these books that uses apportioning rulers to draft patterns, feel free to use one of these links and I will get a little bitty contribution to my book fund. Thanks!)

Mat Hatter costume

2012-01-15T20:19:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was the DFWCG's Mat Hatters Tea Party, so I wanted an appropriately flamboyant hat (and new costume to wear with it) to celebrate the event. I've spent the past 2 months angsting about what to make, and I think I started working on at least 3 or 4 other possibilities before I finally settled on a simple 1790's spencer and bonnet. But I ended up loving the final outfit so much that now I can't imagine wearing anything else!

To save time, I focused on making something new to dress up my round gown that I made for the Georgian Picnic in November. I didn't know a lot about Empire spencers, so I started by creating a Pinterest board of all the 1790's examples that I could find. I was amazed by how many dark blue spencers there were in the illustrations, so I went digging through my stash and found a dark blue velveteen curtain panel that I picked up at an estate sale last year. It was just enough fabric for a spencer, so I decided that it must be fate! It is lined with some golden yellow striped silk that also came from my stash, and I even found some burgundy cording in my bin of ribbons that was perfect for accenting the edges and back seams like you see in many of the jackets from this period.

I usually have some sort of period pattern diagram to get me started with my costumes, but this garment was 100% draped from scratch. I knew where the seams should be thanks to the illustrations and a few surviving examples, so I used one of my paper tape dress forms to drape the body and collar. I did look at a pattern diagram for an 1790's youth's skeleton suit to get the general shape for the 2-part curved sleeves, but then I just free drew the shapes and tweaked them for a few days until I got something that fit just right. I know it is not an overly complicated garment to make, and there are still a few nit-picky things that could be improved, but I am really proud of the results considering that this was the first time for me to make something using this method.

The most fun part of this outfit is definitely the hat. Once again, I made a Pinterest board to help me research 1790's bonnets, which was extremely helpful when it came down to deciding on the shape and adding the decorations. I found several examples of wide brimmed bonnets with a big bow and super-tall feathers decorating the middle front of the crown, and I thought that look really captured the quirky Empire style that set these fashions apart from other Regency period headwear.

The bonnet also marks another first for me - it's the first time I've ever built a fabric-covered buckram hat. I used Lynn McMaster's seaside bonnet pattern to make it, but I cut the crown down by an inch because I preferred some of the more moderate-sized examples in the fashion plates. It is covered in a remnant of bronze silk satin and lined with ivory silk, which also both came from my stash. I sewed the entire thing by hand and there is not a drop of hot glue on it, which is a small miracle for me. I am usually a HUGE fan of hot glue millinery!

Since the costume was made completely from materials that I had in my stash, I decided to splurge a bit on the finishing touches. I bought another Lioness wig in chestnut brown this time (I also used this style of wig for another 18th c. outfit from a few years ago). It is great for making a huge hedgehog style hairdo and there is a ton of length for various types of tails in the back as well. This time I straightened the long part in the back with a flat iron and looped it like the style seen in many illustrations from this period. I had some flyaway pieces that tried to escape from the ponytail at first, but I added a long flat barrette across the back of the loop after these first pictures, and that seemed to solve the problem pretty well.

I also have lusted over regency shawls for years now, so I asked around for suggestions on where to buy one. My friend Aubry from A Fractured Fairytale suggested this ebay store, which has a variety of rectangular shawls with paisley borders, which is exactly what I was looking for. It still wasn't as long as real regency shawls should be, but at $19.99 I couldn't pass it up! I actually ended up loving this thing so much that I bought a second one that is exactly the same, and I am going to try to sew two of them together to make one super-long shawl that will be even more perfect for drapey Regency goodness.

When I was younger, I didn't care for Regency fashions at all, and I swore that I would never wear this sort of dress. I'm not sure what happened, but I've turned into a complete convert and I feel so elegant wearing these styles now. Maybe I just needed to get over my obsession with tiny waistlines first, but I guess pregnancy will do that for you.

Even though I'm making a bit of a funny face in this last picture, it's actually my favorite one of all. I think I look like a meddling, match-making aunt from a Jane Austen novel in this shot. I need a little speech bubble that says "oh, ree-aaally?" LOL!

You can see the full set of pictures from this wonderfully fun event on my Flickr page.

1910's corset pattern and instructions

2011-12-24T11:29:00.003-06:00

In 2010, I wrote 2 articles for the online magazine Foundations Revealed about how I created a recreation of an antique corset from the mid-1910's. After a year on that site, I regained the rights to republish that article for free on my own website, so I thought I would share that with you all as a little holiday present from me! The original articles had more information about the research, pattern cloning techniques, and comparisons with the original garment, but I figured that people would be the most interested in the pattern and construction instructions, so this is a condensed version. This corset is a very easy garment to make up, and I hope this helps some of you with your 100 year Titanic anniversary and Downton Abbey costumes in 2012. Merry Christmas to you all! :)

a Sherlockian disguise

2011-12-20T21:11:00.001-06:00

This past weekend, the DFWCG took a costumed outing to the newest Sherlock Holmes movie. Most of our members opted for Steampunk attire, but I was drawn toward something even more out of the ordinary for me. I had no desire to sit through a movie in a corset and bustle, so I decided to go as Irene Addler in disguise as a man. Although I don't think she would be very successful blending into a crowd if she wore pants like these!

I actually made the pants last year for an Alice in Wonderland party, but I was excited to get an excuse to wear them again. I have a mad love for obnoxious plaids, so in my very warped opinion, these are probably the most fabulous pants of all time! LOL! I made them with the discontinued Martha McCain Civil War pants pattern - Simplicity 5023. I thought they made up wonderfully, and I would definitely use that pattern again for the boys in my life if they ever need Victorian pants.

The vest was a bit of a train-wreck, and it fought me to the bitter end. Nothing fit together right, so I ended up ditching the collar and faced lining and turned it into a very dumbed-down version vs. something with authentic construction. I also accidentally cut off the underlap for the buttons, so it barely fit me when it was done. But luckily, it is made out of wide wale corduroy with a long pile, so black velvet-like fabric combined with a poorly lit theater hides a ton of flaws.

The shirt was just a cheap men's shirt from Walmart with the collar flap cut off to make it more of a band-collar style. The wool scarf is something that I wear all the time, and the newsy cap is something that I had from a previous Halloween costume.

It was such a fun costume to make and wear, and I love having an excuse to play with menswear for a change. And even better was that my friend Ginger dressed up as Irene Addler in disguise too, so I had some company with my cross-dressing shenanigans! The only problem is that it is hard to manage a "tough guy" face when you really want to smile and giggle and act silly with your friends! We'll have to work on that a bit! :)

Georgian period toys

2011-11-26T16:03:00.003-06:00

I LOVE making silly props to go with my silly costumes, and our Georgian picnic gives me the perfect opportunity to research and recreate 18th and early 19th c. toys and games every year.

The first new toy that we tried this year was the Chinese yo-yo, or diabolo (diable in French), which has proven a bit hard to research, but several online articles mention that it was called "devil on two sticks" in England, although they don't mention a source for that tidbit. But illustrations of adults and occasionally children playing with diabolos show up from time to time during this period, and I love how beautiful the people look while playing this game.

I first tried using a wooden diabolo that I ordered online from a English historical toy site. But even though the wooden diabolo looked like the illustrations, it was so lightweight and hard to work that even my friends who are jugglers and quite good at the diabolo had a hard time working with it.

So we switched over to a modern diabolo, and that worked much better. Cynthia, our resident diabolo expert, was able to give us lessons, and several people were able to able to get it going pretty well and even catch a few tosses after a bit of practice. But nobody did it with the same elegance and grace as Cynthia! Clearly, I need to buy a modern diabolo and spend the next 12 months practicing so I can do this next year. :)

I also brought a variety of small wooden toys, such as a top, cup and ball, and a yo-yo. The top and cup helped entertain the kids, but I really brought the yo-yo for the adults. I've always been charmed by this 1790's illustration of a woman playing with a yo-yo, which was known as a bandalore, l'emigrette, or quiz in the period. If internet articles are to believed, the yo-yo was a very popular toy for both adults and children in the late 18th c., especially among the nobility, and the action of the toy was equated with French nobility and their emigration out, then back in to the country during the French Revolution.

For my yo-yo, I simply bought a bamboo yo-yo from World Market, then painted it with concentric circles, which seems to be the most common form of decoration. Of course, French revolutionary colors seemed appropriate as well.

But the toy that I was the most excited about was my period kite. I used the instructions found on the PBS Ben Franklin website to make my kite, and I made it with handmade paper, linen ties on the tail, and I painted it with a simple triangle border, which was inspired by this 18th c. pear top kite. I was worried that it would never fly, but it actually worked pretty well! Although it was a bit unstable and really preferred to crash spectacularly into the ground, we did get it up to a nice cruising altitude one time, as seen in the photo at the top of this post.

I had a blast running back and forth down the clearing with my fellow kite enthusiast, Ginger, and we even drew quite a crowd of onlookers while we were flying it. It was a blast, and I can't wait to try it again next year!

I'm always looking for new period toy and games to keep us entertained at our events. We've also played Graces and battledore and shuttlecock in the past, and I'm hoping to try ninepins or lawn bowling next year (if I can find an affordable set). If you know of any other good Georgian games that can be played outdoors, I'd love to hear about them! And just for fun, check out this excellent site for other 18th century toys and games in period art.

1790's round gown and open robe

2011-11-26T13:15:00.001-06:00

Last weekend, I attended the 3rd Annual Georgian Picnic hosted by the DFWCG. This event is one the highlights of my year, and was so thrilled to finally be able to make a style that I have lusted after for years now - a 1790's open robe. I started by assembling a collection of open robe images in Pinterest to help me get a better feel for the variety of open robe styles out there. Although I knew that I could fake a lot of things with this style and still get a really nice look, I wanted to take the time to try out some new period construction skills and pattern diagrams. I ended up doing more hand-sewing and draping on this outfit than on anything that I've ever made before, and I really loved the process, which is a bit surprising to me since I usually don't enjoy hand-sewing all that much.

The white round-gown worn under the open robe is a copy of this 1797 gown from Tidens Tøj. Although I was a bit intimidated by the pattern diagram at first, I was offered some help from dear friends translating the text, and it ended up going together beautifully. The sides and back of the bodice were covered with hand-sewn tucks that were mounted onto a linen foundation, and then the outer fabric was cut down to size. This was actually a really easy way to work, and I enjoyed having some mindless handy-work to keep me occupied during my lunch breaks. At times it seemed a bit silly to spend so much effort decorating a part of the dress that wouldn't even be seen, but hopefully, I'll find another occasion to wear the round gown on its own someday. The round gown is made up from some really lovely heirloom batiste that I got from Fabrique thanks to the gift card that I received from their remnant challenge last spring. Thanks again, Fabrique!

The open robe is made from some ikat cotton that I bought fromHeritage Trading Company, which has GORGEOUS block-printed and ikat fabrics that are perfect for dresses from this period. I used the open robe pattern in Patterns of Fashion for the construction, and although it looked like it would be easy to put together, it actually turned out to be pretty difficult. My main problem is that I don't have a dress form that is my size, and this type of gown is draped to the body. I ended up using a dress form that was close, but not a true match, so I had to get dressed up over and over again so I could try it on and make modifications... which was tiresome. But I finally got it to work, and the way that the pleats are top-stitched to the lining means that it almost holds the shape of the body even when it isn't being worn, which is pretty cool. The only real modification that I made to the pattern is making the sleeves full length instead of 3/4, and I added some tri-color death's head buttons to the front cross-over as a bit of embellishment.

For the finishing touches, I decorated a pair of cheap Target flats with a white paint pen so they would have a pattern similar to these 1790's slippers. The vamp is a little low on these shoes compared to period examples, so I had planned on making some rosettes to cover that part up some more. Unfortunately, that was one of the only things that I didn't have time to get done, but I think they still work pretty good either way.

For the headwear, I wore a turban that was made from a silk curtain panel that was cut in half lengthwise. I just wrapped it around my head and pinned it in a few spots, so it was about as low-tech as you get. Instead of using feathers to decorate it, I used a spray of wheat, which is a tip that I learned from Lynn McMasters' article about Geogian turbans and the charming illustration seen here. I tried quite a few colors of fabric before ultimately deciding on red, but I really liked the rich, jewel-like colors, and red/white/blue was a popular color combo in the 1790's thanks to the French Revolution.

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures of my dress from the picnic, and you can see the full set on flickr. I'll be back to tell you about some of the cool 18th c. toys that we played with in my next post.

Edwardian recap

2011-10-30T13:51:00.001-05:00

Once again, I am horribly late when it comes to post-event blogging. *eek* Where does the time go!?! But back in mid-September, the costumers from the DFWCG had their semi-annual gathering at the Antique Elegance Show, and I whipped up a sunny linen gown to wear to it. I used two vintage 1910's patterns from my stash to make the dress, which was a ton of fun. It practically makes me giddy to use real 100 year old patterns to make something new! I really like the way this transitional style still has the slightly poochy bodice and A-line skirt of the Edwardian period, but it is combined with the short sleeves and streamlined shapes of the 1910's. It's a very fun style, and so easy to wear.

The body of the gown was made with a dollar's worth of estate sale linen, and the windowpane linen for the top of my bodice was a curtain from World Market that my husband brought home for free since it was damaged. The hat was also from an estate sale and only cost $2, and the ribbon is made from a decorator sample piece of silk that I also got from free. I did buy some vintage mother-of-pearl buttons for the back closure for $5, and the buckle on my hat cost around the same, but all together, the whole outfit cost me under $15, which might be a record for me. I love cheap costumes!

One of my favorite parts of this costume has to be my hat. It was vintage straw hat with a shallow crown that appeared to have come from some Asian country, but I stretched the crown to make it wider, and then cut it off and raised it a few inches to make it deeper. It still doesn't have the massive crown size that true Edwardian hats usually have, but at least it is closer now. I covered the extension in the crown with fabric pieced together to look like wide ribbon. I am proud to say that there is not one drop of hot glue in this hat, which might be a first for me!

The super-sheer fabric at the top of my dress scared the bejeezus out of me at first because I couldn't figure out if should line it or just let my undies show (*gasp!*) I eventually solved the problem by buying a pretty 1910's brassiere, and I just let it show through the fabric, which is exactly what the Edwardains would have done. I learned a ton about period brassieres in the process, and I even went on to write a two-part article about them for Foundations Revealed, which will come out in December and February. The first article covers the history of Edwardian/1910's brassieres, and the second one will teach you how to make one yourself based on the vintage brassiere that I am wearing with this outfit.

Other than being neck-deep in writing articles this past month, the other reason why this post is so late is because I really wanted to do some faux-vintage photos with some of the pictures that we took that weekend. I finally found some time to do that today, and I am really pleased with the results.

I've been experimenting with faux-vintage photography for years, but I now teach a digital photo class at work, and my Photoshop skills have improved drastically. I finally have some better skills for making the pictures do what I want. I figured out that the biggest issue is to try and duplicate the shallow depth of field that you see in old photographs where you have a blurry, light background and foreground. Modern point-and-shoot cameras try to keep everything in focus, and it's a dead giveaway that the the faux-effect is a fake. It's amazing what a difference that makes! I also have some more sophisticated photoshop actions to create the sepia look now, and I overlaid the photo with a scan of paper foxing to give it a slightly speckled look. Here are a few original pictures that I was looking at for comparison when making my photo.

I also tried my hand at copying the look of a different style of period photography, inspired by this fun picture of two Edwardian ladies showing a bit of ankle. (oh-la-la!) I didn't have a suitable glass plate frame to use around the picture, so I used one of my scanned tin-types for the border instead. It gives it a slightly different look, and I don't think this fake is as convincing as the other, but I still like the results. My friend Christy and I had entirely too much fun posing for this picture!

You can see the rest of my flickr set from this event here.

Edwardian Collar Stays

2011-09-11T14:33:00.001-05:00

Now that I have finally caught up with blogging about my finished costumes from this summer, I can once again turn my attention to current and future projects. At the moment, I am finishing up an early-1910's dress that I am making to wear to the Antique Elegance show next weekend. I've really learned a lot with this project, and I've had fun trying out some period techniques that are new to me.

The bodice that I am making has a tall collar, and I knew that it would need some support to keep it from wrinkling or sliding down. The only problem is that my fabric is a very sheer windowpane linen, so I didn't want to use thick boning channels that would detract from the delicate fabric. So what did women in the 1910's use to solve this problem? A quick search on Etsy turned up this lovely card of antique collar stays, so I snatched them up for "research" purposes. Don't you love shopping for a good cause. :)

The card of stays was so beautiful and pristine that I wouldn't dream of using the originals for my dress, but at least I could measure them and figure out how they were made. The wire is stiff, but still bendable, and it is covered with white silk. It seemed very similar to millinery wire, so I drug out some of my own millinery wire and decided to give it a try. It was very easy to bend the wire into a serpentine shape, but the thread covering would become frizzy or broken if I bent it with any type of pliers. The thread didn't break if I bent it with my fingers instead of the pliers, but I couldn't get the curves in the wire as perfect that way. I wonder if my threads were breaking because my millinery wire is so old (it came from an estate sale) or if it would do the same thing with modern wire.

When I started looking more closely at the antique collar stays, I couldn't see thread wrapped around the wires as I originally assumed. They feel more solid and smooth - almost like they are wrapped in silk paper instead of thread. I'm not sure if wire like that even exists anymore, but it made me wonder if you could paint millinery wire with a layer of flexible glue, like Sobo or Elmer's, to seal the threads together before bending them. I haven't tried this yet, but it might be worth a try if any of you are considering making wire collar stays of your own.

The original collar stays were 3" long, but the card lists other sizes that they came in. I made mine be 2 1/2" and 2" long to fit my collar better. Even though my reproduction collar stays are not as pretty as the original ones, they still work wonderfully. I can't feel them at all when wearing the dress, and they blend in with the sheer fabric very well.

Telegraph fancy dress

2011-09-10T13:29:00.001-05:00

Wow, I am getting so behind on my costume posts! I started this entry a month ago, but I'm just now finding the time to finish it. Now that school is back in session, I'm hoping that things start settling down a little bit and I can keep up with all of my online projects a little better. Fingers crossed...

The other new costume that I made for Costume College this summer was my gala dress, which was an 1885 fancy dress costume (like a for masquerade ball) representing the telegraph. This is one of the most bizarre costumes that I've ever made, but also one of the most fun. I wish I could take credit for the zany design of this dress, but other than a few minor modifications, I just tried to copy the fashion plate as closely as possible.

The dress is made out of silk taffeta, and the gold arrows and ruffles are made out of silk/metal organza. For the bodice, I used one of the ball gown bodice patterns in Fashion of the Gilded Age where you use the little apportioning rulers to create a custom fit. It worked fabulously, and I made sure to keep a good copy of this pattern for future use. The foundation skirt is from Patterns of Fashion, and both the bodice and foundation skirt are flat lined with cotton calico to give them more structure. I also boned all of the seams in the bodice, which is something that I don't usually do, and it really helped to create a smooth fit. All of the arrows are machine appliqued using gold thread, and although that part was pretty time-consuming, I actually had a lot of fun doing it. The decorative treatment around the neckline was made by running gathering stitches across a super-long strip of the gold fabric, and then tacking the gathered parts to the bodice to create puffs.

This is only the 3rd bustle dress that I've ever made, and I while I think I did pretty good with the foundation skirt and the bodice, the overskirt was less to my liking. I tried to just drape something on my own at the very last minute, but looking at pictures now, I'm disappointed with how flat it looks in back. If I ever have an excuse to wear it again, I'm definitely going to take the overskirt apart and try a different bustling technique. Luckily, all that black fabric hides a lot of flaws, so I don't think it was too obvious to anybody other than me that the overskirt didn't live up to my expectations.

For the accessories, I made a faux-leather pouch that I sprayed with a little gold spray paint to give it a bit of a shimmer. The pouch closes with an antique telegraph messenger button that also has zig-zag arrows on it, which I'm sure nobody would ever notice in real life, but details like that always make me happy. I also made some morse code tape to wear around my waist out of brown paper tape that was folded in half and glued. Then I painted it white and punched a message into the paper tape with a hole puncher. Of course I had to entertain myself while doing all of that punching, so one of the things that it says is "tonight we're gonna party like it's 1885". ;) And finally, I found some online examples of real telegraph envelopes from the Victorian period, and I made my own reproductions to carry around in my messenger pouch to use as a prop.

I only thing that I didn't like in the original illustration was the kooky headdress made out of one of those glass telegraph pole insulators. I love silly hats, but that was even too weird for me to get into! So I decided to make a telegraph tiara using model train telephone poles and a very simple bridal tiara. I sawed the poles to the right lengths, super-glued them to the tiara, strung the poles with gold wire, and then spray painted the whole thing with gold paint.

So that's about it! I am totally hooked on Victorian masquerade costumes now, and I hope I get a chance to make another one in the future. The most fun part of this whole project was getting to wear my costume with other fancy dress people at the Costume College Time Traveler's Gala. I love dressing in themed groups, and we had quite a ball at the ball!

20's convert

2011-08-06T15:29:00.001-05:00

I'm home from my big trip to Costume College in California, and I finally have a little bit of time for blogging again. Hooray! I had meant to do some diaries about the outfits that I was making over the summer, but I ended up running so short on time that I had to keep myself off the computer as much as possible.

So the first new outfit that I'm going to tell you about is my early 1920's dress that I made to go along with a group of ladies who were all dressing up in prohibition-era attire. Let me preface this by stating that the 1920's are some my my least favorite fashions ever, and I NEVER thought I'd find a 20's style that looked good on me. The dress that I ended up with was actually my third try at making a prohibition-era costume this summer, but I am so happy that I stuck with it and kept looking for something that I could live with because I had a blast with the group, and I love the way my dress turned out!

I decided to focus on early 20's styles since I like that the waists were still defined earlier in the decade, and I prefer the fuller skirts to the more severe styles that you see later in the 20's. So I was thrilled when I came across this wonderful vintage pattern on etsy that was in my price range. It wasn't dated, but I am guessing from the style that it is from around 1921.

I looked around for a while trying to find some lace or net that I could use for a version like you see in View A, but when that failed, I decided to use a patterned silk crepe that had a vaguely art deco feel to it. The underdress and sash are made out of georgette, and I used vintage ric-rack rosettes around the neckline to add a little decoration. I didn't use the over-tunic on the blouse, but other than that, I made the pattern up exactly as it came, and it fit wonderfully with no alterations.

I think the best part about 20's fashions are the accessories, so I knew that I needed a hat to finish off the look. Wide brim hats were more popular in the early 20's than the cloche styles that we usually associate with that decade, so I took a wide brim straw hat and stretched the crown over a hat block so it would sit further down on my head, then I cut the brim down to a more medium size. I was wasn't really sure what direction I wanted to go with decorating this thing, but since I was running short on time, I ended up just wrapping the crown with net and adding some silk strips with vintage buttons to add some color and visual interest. It's really random and a bit sloppy, but a lot of early 20's hats look very random and homemade, so I figured, "hey, why not? It's period!" I also made a reproduction of an antique anti-prohibition button that I found online. It says "Texas - For Personal Liberty, Against Prohibition". I thought it was cute, and I am a sucker for anything that says Texas on it. I also wore a super-long strand of pearls that I found at an estate sale, a pair of T-strap shoes from etsy, and my Edwardian purse that goes with everything.

This was a delightful costume to wear - especially after being in non-stop corsets for the two previous days. I can TOTALLY see why women wore these fashions now. They must have felt amazing after decades of more restrictive clothing. I hate to admit it, but I think I'm a 20's convert now! ;)

it's a mod, mod summer!

2011-07-04T13:13:00.003-05:00

Next month, I'll be attending Costume College in Southern California, and there are plans to have a costumed pool party while we are there. I'm pretty prudish about showing off a lot of skin, so I floundered around for awhile trying to figure out what I could make. I finally took inspiration from an amazing piece of vintage terrycloth that I had picked up at an estate sale last year and decided to make a playdress from a 1967 Simplicity pattern.

The tunic was a snap to put together and so fun easy to wear. But I haven't worn a pair of shorts in at least 5 years, and I was getting some major cold feet about walking around the hotel in an outfit that looks like I forgot my pants! So I decided to make up a pair of super-wide pallazzo pants to wear over the shorts when I'm not at the pool. The pants pattern is from 1969, and I am totally in love with these things as well. I think I need a dozen pairs to wear around the house (and do yoga in!)

I think I had the most fun finding accessories to finish this outfit off. The head scarf is such an easy way to fix my hair, and I think it'll look even better once I get a haircut so can do a decent flip with the ends. I made the sash from a similar tunic pattern, and I'm not sure if I will keep that part as is, buy something else, or just wear the tunic with no belt. That's the one part of the outfit that I'm not totally sold on. I found the 60's blue-tinted sunglasses on ebay, and although I think they look a little silly on me, they are definitely fun, so what the heck. The vintage rubber sandals are from etsy, and I also have a pair of big white hoops and a straw tote with flamingoes on it coming in the mail soon. I can't wait to get it all together!

I also had a lot of fun "antiquing" these photos. I scanned some of my parents' old pictures to use for the border and for general color matching. But I also wanted to show you some regular shots so you could see my psychedelic fabric in all its dayglow glory. :)

Retro Ice Cream Fun!

2011-06-12T14:28:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was the DFW Costumers' Guild 20th c. Vintage Ice Cream Social. I'm starting to sound like a broken record after every event, but once again, I had a blast!!! We had a really great group of people come out for some sweets, shopping, and socializing, and everybody looked fabulous in their retro outfits. You can find all of my photos from the afternoon on flickr.

For my costume, I decided to make my first foray into 1930's fashions. I used one of my recent lucky pattern finds - a mid-30's Anne Adams day dress. I used some vintage rayon that I had in my stash for the dress, and I bought some silk noil for the contrasting sections. The button and buckle are vintage mother-of-pearl. This dress was a dream to put together, and I didn't even have to do any alterations other than lengthening the bodice by an inch.

And I am happy to report that my second version of the hat tuned out much better than my first. It is made out of heavy linen and I used the brim pattern from the first hat and the crown pattern from the second hat in these directions. I interlined the brim with heavy interfacing, and I wet the whole hat and let it dry while stretched over a hat block to make it nice and smooth. I'm so glad I stuck with it - I think the hat is my favorite part of this outfit!

So after my first time wearing 1930's fashions, I must say that I'm hooked! It was such a fun dress to wear, and I felt both glamorous and relaxed at the same time. I'll definitely be making more outfits from this era in the future!

reality bites

2011-06-05T19:19:00.002-05:00

The costume guild has a 20th c. retro ice cream social coming up next weekend, and I decided to make a mid-30's outfit to wear to it. The dress is coming along nicely, but finding a suitable hat has been a challenge. I have a number late 30's hats already, but hat styles change drastically at this time, so nothing I have is really "right" for a dress from earlier in the decade. Plus, I'm picky, and I really want something white, which makes the hunt even harder.

So brilliant me - I decide to make a hat! I found this fun pattern on one of my favorite sewing blogs, Sewing Vintage. It only took 2 hours to make, but sadly... reality is not nearly as charming as the picture. *sigh*

Of course, this happens a lot when working from vintage patterns. The reality of what the pattern looks like when made up is never as perfect as the idealized illustration. I could try to shorten the crown so it isn't so puffy, but I doubt the little slit parts will ever stay neatly closed like you see in the original picture. Maybe I just made the cuts come up too high or made the selvage too big thanks to the vague instructions. If anything, I'll probably switch out the slit crown for the solid one in the second view from this pattern... or maybe I'll ditch it and try something else entirely.

It was still fun to try though, and I LOVE experimenting with hats, so it was a fun little project even if it wasn't a complete success.

next on the agenda

2011-05-23T19:46:00.002-05:00

I don't think I've mentioned this publicly yet, but I'm going to Costume College this summer! Woohoo! Mostly, I'll be wearing costumes that are already in my closet, but I do want to make a few new retro outfits to wear to the classes, and I want something new and fun and over-the-top for the gala. I'll probably be working on all of these things simultaneously over the summer so I don't get burned out on one thing, so forgive me if I jump around a lot over the next 2 months.

The project that I am the most excited about at the moment is my gala dress. After changing my mind a million times, I finally decided to go for something totally random and different. I'm going to make a Victorian fancy dress costume inspired by the telegraph! Is it genius? Madness? Only time will tell! LOL!

Anyway, my plan is to make a pretty close copy of this 1884 illustration from the de Gracieuse archive (it was also found in Harper's Bazar). The only thing that I'm going to change is to omit the silly glass insulator headdress and make a tiara out of tiny telegraph poles instead. I think it'll be a ton of fun to make, and I'm hoping that I can wear it again at future steampunk events as well. It will probably be a few weeks before I get started on this dress in ernest, but I'm having a ball doing all the research and getting the materials right now.

And just for the heck of it, I saved all the fancy dress pictures that I found from de Gracieuse and put them in a flickr set. I hope to continue adding more examples to this set as I find them.

the anticlimactic ta-da!

2011-05-21T21:14:00.000-05:00

So I finished my 1883 dress last weekend and had a great time at the train event. Unfortunately, I was so insanely exhausted from it all that I didn't have the energy to do a blog post about finishing my dress right away, and then a week slipped by before I knew it, and now I'm already knee deep into my next costume plans. Whoops. So this seems pretty anticlimactic at this point, but I just wanted to post a quick note to say that I finished the dress and I'm quite happy with the way it all turned out. I've been wanting an "everyday" Victorian bustle dress for years now, and I am thrilled that this one fits the bill so well. It will be great for wearing to living history events.

I'm out of space on my website, so I'll have to go in and do some housecleaning before I can post an official page about it. But until then, you can see more pictures of my dress and the event on flickr.

sleevils-1/jen-0

2011-05-10T01:47:00.002-05:00

I think I have discovered the tragic flaw of this system of pattern enlarging - the shoulders of the bodice are WAY too wide when scaled up as much as I have it. But once I started thinking about it, that makes sense. I have a 40" bust, so the pattern has to be scaled up quite a bit to fit my torso, but the measurement from my neck to the edge of my shoulder wouldn't change significantly even if I was 50 lbs. lighter. That measurement deals with bone structure vs. "fluff", so it doesn't increase proportionally at the same rate as the bust/waist/hip measurements. Probably if I had read the entire book it would have told me how to deal with this problem while drafting the pattern, but I guess that's what I get for just skipping around to the good parts. My first try with the sleeves had them hanging way off my shoulders, more like an 1860's dress than an 80's one... which looks wildly ridiculous with a slightly puffed sleeve head. I took at least an inch off the width of the shoulders, and I'll try again tomorrow. It's nearly 2:00 in the morning now, so I concede defeat to the sleevils in round one of Battle of the Bodice. Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow.

bodice in progress

2011-05-08T19:26:00.003-05:00

I played around with the tabbed waist treatment on my bodice mockup for about 30 minutes earlier this weekend, then realized it was going to be too fiddly and time consuming, so I gave up. I decided to go with one of the longer coat shaped bodices instead, like the one on the left side of this 1883 illustration. I also added pleats in the back like the bodice shown here. I liked how both of these bodices have 3/4 sleeves as well, which I think looks more summery than the full length sleeves.

So once that was finally decided, I forced myself to be brave and started cutting and assembling my real jacket. I'm using wool twill for my bodice, and it is flatlined with cotton in a reproduction print that I didn't particularly like, but it was cheap and I figured it would make a fun lining.

The first time I tried it on, it was a wrinkly disaster, so I've been making adjustments and steaming and pressing for hours now. I went back and used the fitting instructions in Fashions of the Gilded Age where you add darts to the lining layer at the bust, side waist, and back of the shoulders and then press and shrink the outer fabric. This is supposed to make it fit the curves of the body better without having lots of darts on your outer fabric. It seems to be working, but I could definitely do more steaming still. The wool has a fair amount of stretch to it, so I think some areas like the side-back piece are just too stretched out, so I'm going to open up the seams and re-stretch and iron and try again. It's a pain to have to unpick and redo the seams, but I'm determined to get this thing as smooth as possible before I add the sleeves. I'm also going to add boning to the front bust darts, so I think the front is going to be okay, but the sides and back are annoying me.

Anyway. I know it's not a very exciting post, but I just wanted to show you an in-progress shot of the jacket so hopefully we can compare it to a much smoother finished version once it is done.

patterning the bodice

2011-05-05T06:51:00.001-05:00

So as usual, everything is taking longer than expected, but I finally got a good mockup of my bodice made. I wanted to try something different this time, so I used the single-breasted jacket bodice (p. 212) in Fashions of the Gilded Age. This particular pattern is a reprint of a pattern from Complete Guide to Ladies' Garment Cutting from 1883. You can see me drawing out the pattern in the artsy, but not incredibly clear photo above. For these patterns, you plot out all the measurements using an apportioning scale (a.k.a. a little paper ruler) that corresponds to your bust size. You just measure down a by a certain number, then across by a certain number, then make a dot. All of these reference points are eventually connected like a big game of dressmaker connect the dots. This scales it up to automatically fit your size, so in theory, no major size alterations are needed.

And much to my amazement, IT WORKED!!! This bodice fits me like a glove, and the only thing that I'm going to have to change is to add an inch or two to the length of the torso, but since I am quite tall by Victorian standards, this is something that I always have to do when working from period patterns. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to cut tabs into the bottom of the bodice like my inspiration pic or just leave it plain like this, but I am thrilled to finally have a good bodice pattern to work with so I can start cutting out my real fabric.

a finished bustle skirt

2011-04-30T19:49:00.000-05:00

Well, it took a week longer than I wanted, but I finally finished my bustle skirt! Woohoo! I love how it turned out, and it looks even better when it is on me and there are actual legs to help fill the bottom part out. There is a ton of fabric in this skirt (8 yards of plaid + 3 yards of foundation), but all the fabrics are so lightweight that is isn't too heavy, and hopefully, it won't be crazy hot. I expect hot - I just prefer to avoid crazy hot.

And now, I need to get cracking on that bodice! Just 2 weeks to go!

underskirt... check!

2011-04-23T21:31:00.000-05:00

This week, I decided to focus on making the underskirt for my 1883 bustle outfit. I waffled back and forth for a few days about whether I should attach the kilted section of the skirt to a yoke or a full foundation skirt, but I eventually decided that it might be easier to level the hem if I made the full skirt. For the pattern, I used the foundation skirt from the 1887 dress in Patterns of Fashion, and I just used some random cotton shirting that I picked up at an estate sale for the fabric. The foundation skirt, underskirt, and overskirt are all joined together at the waist to make a single garment, so this foundation layer will never be seen once the skirt is assembled.

The kilted part of the skirt is just a large tube of fabric, and I used a little less than 4 widths of the 45" fabric to make the tube. The pleating was pretty tedious, but I was VERY grateful that I could use the lines in the plaid to measure my folds. I sewed a stay tape to the inside of the pleats just above my knees to help keep everything in place.

When it came time to attach the kilted fabric to the foundation skirt, I caught a case of "teh stoopid" and I had a horrible time getting it all to come together right. I'm going to fast forward through 2 1/2 hours of dumb ideas and miscalculations and just tell you about the last 30 minutes where I pinned the kilted fabric to the foundation skirt so that the hem just touched the floor, sewed it to the foundation skirt, and then covered the raw edge with some hem tape. My dress form is a couple of inches shorter than I am, so the skirt is a little of the ground when I wear it, which is nice for tromping around outdoors.

Now I just need to re-bustle my overskirt, sew it to the waistband, and my skirt will be complete! Hopefully I'll have time to squeeze that in tomorrow.

bustle overskirt, v.1.0

2011-04-17T17:06:00.001-05:00

For my train dress, I am using several images from my 1883 Peterson's magazine for inspiration. This fashion plate is probably the closest to what I want for the shape, but with a plaid skirt and solid bodice like you see here. I could probably just drape something that looks similar, but I thought it would be fun to use one of the 19th c. patterns in Francis Grimble's "Fashions of the Gilded Age".

I thought the Sateen Dress from 1880 might do the trick, so I made it up exactly as the pattern shows. But as usual with these period diagrams, the illustration and the actual results don't always match up very well.

My main complaint is that the front of the skirt is so much longer than what you see in the picture. Having petticoats and an underskirt to fill out the bottom would help this a little, but it still seems too long to me, and I really wish the folds across the front would be more distinct. The slightly asymmetrical bustling in the back also bugs me. I know it is "right", but I can't help thinking that it just looks like I have a lopsided butt.

But it's still a good start, and I think these problems are easily fixed. I'm going to redo the front with much deeper pleats, which should take up the length and make the folds more obvious. And for the back, I think I'll make both sides match, and I'll add a pleat in the center back at the bottom to make the tail into two points (like my inspiration pic) instead of the squared off look.

And let me tell you - I'm so glad I basted this thing for the fitting instead of just sewing it up on the machine while hoping for the best (like I usually do)! I guess I am capable of learning from past mistakes after all. :)

a happy little bustle

2011-04-14T12:45:00.003-05:00

The next DFW Costumer's Guild event is something that I've been wanting to do for YEARS now. We are riding a vintage steam train in Victorian costumes!!! *squee* And even better, we are riding the train on the weekend of a historical reenactment event called Frontier Fort Days. This is seriously one of the coolest costume activities that I have ever been a part of, so of course I need a new bustle dress that is appropriate for the occasion.

I decided to make a dress from 1883 since the fashions from this year have small bustles and no train, which hopefully will equate to a less cumbersome outfit for a day of walking and train-riding. I already have most of the undergarments that I will need, but I decided to whip up a quick 1880's style bustle for my outfit since my other bustles are more appropriate for the 1870's. I already owned the Laughing Moon hoops and bustles pattern, so I decided to make up the 1880's short bustle included in that set.

This little bustle is so cute and perky - it makes me smile every time I look at it! The pattern went together like a dream, and it was a wonderfully quick and pain-free project. I made it out of a remnant of red and white ticking that my Grandmother gave from her stash, and it is boned with proper hoop steel for a change (vs. my crazy experiments with wire rope and piano wire).

Next on the agenda - a pleated plaid skirt. The event is only a month away, so cross your fingers for me that everything else is as easy as my happy little bustle!

Tokyo Pop Cultural Salon

2011-04-05T12:41:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, the DFWCG hosted a little tea party with the theme of Tokyo Pop. This could mean anything from traditional kimonos, to anime, to Harajuku street fashions. Anime/cosplay is not really my thing, and I don't own a kimono, so I poked around some Harajuku websites and discovered mori girl fashions. I think I've been a closet mori girl my entire life and didn't even know it! Mori girls are supposed to look like they came from an enchanted forest. This aesthetic has lots of loose layers, pale neutral colors, and details taken from nature. As much as I love dressing up in well tailored dressy dresses, I'm more of a laid back hippie in real life, so this suited me quite perfectly.

I wish I had more time to work on a proper mori girl outfit because my head is bursting with ideas now, but I only had one day to whip something up, so I ended up making a quick sheath dress from one of my 70's patterns. I lengthened the skirt to make it a maxidress, and I had to enlarge it a bit to fit my hips, so unfortunately now the top is falling off of me. Not my finest attempt at sewing, but I didn't have time for alterations, so eh... whatever. The dress is made out of a $2 curtain that I bought at Goodwill and lined with .25 cents worth of estate sale fabric that I dyed green.

My favorite part of this outfit is the shawl, which I bought on etsy. I've already worn it a few times in my everyday wardrobe, and I love it to pieces. The purse and belt came from estate sales, the bamboo bracelets were from a local antique shop. I finished it by making a floral headband out of some cherry blossom silk flowers from World Market.

The event was a lot of fun, and I really enjoy these more laid-back gatherings where I can just sit and talk and enjoy hanging out with my friends while wearing silly clothes. We also got to admire the hostess's amazing hothouse of orchids, we had a lady bring her ball-jointed dolls to play with (a little creepy, but beautiful at the same time), and I taught the group a bit of money origami as a fundraser for a Japanese earthquake relief fund. It was a lovely afternoon, and I thank Dawni for organizing this event for us! As usual, my photos are all on flickr, but here are a few of my favorites to give you a taste of the day.

1918 dress

2011-03-20T19:59:00.001-05:00

So before I got eaten alive by my cutwork skirt project (BTW, I just found out that I won 1st place! Woohoo!), I promised that I'd post more about my new 1918 dress that I made for the Chestnut Square fashion show. Well, I added a page on my website where you can see some more pictures of this outfit, and I thought I would talk a little more about how I made it here on my blog.

The dress is made out of two wool fabrics that I picked up at estate sales. The colors are so funky that I never thought I'd use them for anything other than mockups or linings, but I was surprised as how much more I liked them when they were put together.
I never could find an exact pattern for this outfit, so I combined several late-1910's patterns and did a bit of improvising to create my dress. The bodice is based on this similar 1918 New Idea pattern that I found on ebay. I changed the sleeves to be tight fitting at the forearms, and I used an antique collar that I found at an estate sale instead of the collar style shown in the illustration. The text that accompanied my original fashion plate told me that this was actually a skirt and bodice and not a full dress, so I decided to keep mine separate as well. The only problem with that is that my blouse has a tendency to pull out when I move around a lot, so I added a drawstring at the waist (which is a very period practice) to try and keep it tucked in. This helped some, so I probably will add some hooks or snaps as well to keep everything neat and tidy.
The skirt was a little bit more difficult to make up since I never could find a good pattern match for the style I was trying to recreate. But I looked at enough period patterns to figure out the basic shapes (mostly rectangular or very slightly flared), and then I draped the yoke at the top of the skirt on my own. The first time I made the skirt, it had too much fullness, so I took it all apart, cut off some width on both the tunic and underskirt, and then tried again. The underskirt closes on one side with hooks and eyes, and there are vintage buttons and loops on both side seams of tunic to add a decorative element. Both layers of skirt are joined together at the waistline.

I think the dresses from this particular era are totally made by the accessories, so I considered myself very lucky to already own some key pieces to put the finishing touches on it. I bought a pair of fabulous spool heel oxfords several years ago on ebay. They are from the 80's or 90's, but they are in wonderful shape, and they are a near perfect match for the style of shoe shown in the illustration. I didn't even know what I would do with them when I bought them, but they were just so cool that I knew they had to be mine! I bought the Edwardian purse last year at the Antique Elegance show. It is made of silk moire with a crocheted top and silk ribbons, and the condition is amazingly good. The little "Votes for Women" button was another fun little accessory that was given to me by a friend. And of course, I've already talked a bit about my hat. I love being able to mix in some real antique pieces in a historical costume, and the good thing about this period is that a lot of vintage accessories like buttons, lace, and purses are still around if you just do a bit of digging.

papel picado skirt

2011-03-17T19:50:00.006-05:00

Once again, my favorite local fabric store, Fabrique, was hosting their remnant challenge where you can win up to $200 in store credit by making something from the fabrics in their remnant bin. The selection of remnants was much more picked over this year, but I finally had a eureka moment when I found a piece of pink ultrasuede. It's a funky color and the stiffness of the fabric limited my garment options quite a bit, but it is perfect for cutwork, and that seemed like a fun way to turn boring fabric into something really unusual.

Since I already have some experience with cutwork, I knew what I was getting into (sore fingers and many many hours on mindless cutting!), but I also knew that it usually goes faster than you'd think and the payoff is well worth the effort. Although it is perfect for cutting, ultrasuede is not the most forgiving fabric for tailoring, so I picked a basic mock wrap skirt pattern from my stash that dates from 1977. This pattern has minimal shaping and and no zipper, so I was hoping that it would be simple enough to work with the suede.

Next I drew out a border design based on Mexican papel picado (perforated paper) banners. As an art teacher, I thought it would be fun to take a traditional art form that we study in class and translate it into fashion. The hardest part was getting the design to curve to fit the shape of the hem, but luckily, Photoshop came to the rescue and helped me bend the borders without too much frustration.

Next, I printed out my patterns for the entire border design and stuck it to the back of the ultrasuede with spray basting adhesive. I used an exacto knife and a leather punch to cut the pattern, and it took me 6 days to get the cutwork done... which is actually much faster than I expected.

The only part of this project that gave me problems was assembling the skirt, which I thought would be the easy part. HA! I underestimated the amount of time it would take to make the lining due to the scalloped hem, the ultrasuede liked to stretch when I sewed it, my experiment with spray fusing was a failure, the skirt was too big, and the waistband just refused to go on. But I pushed on through and the skirt was finally beaten into submission. I turned the skirt in to the fabulous ladies at Fabrique with 3 whole hours to spare before the deadline.

When I was finished with the cutwork, I was left with a big bowl filled with little tiny scraps of the ultrasuede. These little pieces reminded me of confetti, so to celebrate the end of a VERY long week, I decided to indulge in a little silliness. I'll probably be sweeping ultrasuede bits off of my patio for the next year, but it was so worth it! :)

This was a fun project, and I enjoy having a chance to step away from the authentic historical projects for a little while and flex my creative muscles. Thanks to Fabrique for hosting this inspiring contest!

more adventures with cheap straw hats

2011-03-06T16:11:00.002-06:00

My son and I dressed up in our new outfits from 1918 for a fashion show benefiting Chestnut Square this weekend. I'll try to post more about my full outfit later in the week, but I wanted to start with a little post about my hat.

I had originally planned on making something using proper millinery techniques, but as usual, I ran out of time and had to settle for my more typical methods of "hot glue a bit of luck". So off I went to Party City to pick up another $5 straw hat to reshape. You can see the hat in its original (and horribly ugly!) shape here.

Like many other cheap straw party hats, this one is made of a woven blank that can be shaped however you want vs. a hat made with straw coils that is stitched into it's shape. It is like a pair of Chinese handcuffs - if you push down on it, it gets wider, and if you pull on it, it gets narrower. This is very convenient when you are trying to reshape the crown into one of the large 1910's styles.

To reshape a hat of this type, all you have to do it wet it, and then hold it in the shape you want while it dries overnight. I wanted to make my crown shaped like a flared top hat, which is a style that shows up quite often in 1918. I squeezed the middle with my hands (which also made the hat taller), then wrapped some hair bands around the middle to hold it like that. I flattened the top just by stretching and pinching the edges. The brim had a tendency to flip up, so I weighted it down with random bottles that I had in my bathroom. As you can see, no high-tech tools are needed for this technique! :)

I was inspired by a variety of images from my 1918 New Idea Quarterly for the overall shape and decorations on my hat. The first picture shows the hat that was actually worn with the dress that I based my own outfit on. Although I changed the shape and decorations some, I decided to at least remain faithful to the color scheme of the original, so I used black velvet for the top of the hat and a lighter mauve wool that coordinated with my dress for the lining of the brim. The second illustration shows a hat with a narrower brim and the flared crown that is more similar to the overall shape of my hat. The third hat has a crown covered with pleated fabric, which gave me the idea of covering mine with a similar technique. The picture on the far right has a narrow hatband halfway up the crown at the smallest part of the flare, which I decided to use as well. So although my own hat isn't a direct copy of one particular style, I tried to capture the feel of 1918 millinery by combining a variety of elements from these different illustrations.

To cover the hat with fabric, I traced around the various parts of the hat directly on the material, cut it out (plus a little extra for wiggle room), used spray basting adhesive to stick it to the straw base, then finished the edges with hot glue on the parts you can't see and a strip of bias edging around the brim. Forgive me for glossing over the fabric steps, but it was 2:00 in the morning when I was working on it, and taking step-by-step pictures was very low on my priority list at that time. I also took some shortcuts which resulted in the annoying wrinkles on the top of the brim. I skipped the spray adhesive on that section, which I regret now. I could definitely do better with some more time, but sometimes "good enough" is good enough, if you know what I mean. Luckily, I'm tall, so maybe most people won't see that part of the hat very often. ;)

Covering the flared part of the crown with a flat piece of fabric would have been more tricky, but still doable with a bias cut strip, more spray adhesive, and a bit of luck. But I decided to avoid all that fiddly work by covering the rise of the crown with a 5" wide pleated silk moire ribbon that has been burning a hole in my stash for the past few years. I wanted to be able to remove the ribbon if I ever decided to use it for something else, so I skipped the hot glue this time and hand-tacked it to some grosgrain ribbon, then I simply tied the narrow ribbon into a bow to hold it all on the hat. A few more hand tacks at the bottom of the pleats hold the ribbon to the crown so it won't shift around. If you don't happen to have a bunch of 5" wide vintage ribbon burning a hole in your stash, you could also do the same thing with a long strip of fabric.

And that's it! Total time for making this hat = 2 hours. Cost of materials = around $20. The thrill of having a big crazy hat to finish off your 1910's outfit = priceless.

Fabulous 50's fun!

2011-02-13T08:59:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, I got together with two of my costuming friends and we went to a "Fabulous 50's" fashion show at a local antique mall/tea room. It was even better because Christy and I used it as an excuse to dress up in our new vintage 50's outfits. Girly outings are always more fun when you are wearing gloves, pearls, and fur!

I tried to pincurl my hair, but the back refused to cooperate, so into a chignon it went. *bah* I also didn't have a hat that I really liked for this outfit, but that problem was solved beautifully when I picked up this little $7 beauty at the antique mall after the fashion show.

The fashion show itself was fun too, but I was surprised by how "normal" a lot of the dresses looked without 50's hair, makeup, and undergarments. It's amazing how much those finishing touches matter when capturing the look of a period. My favorite part of the fashion show was the evening wear. Most of the gowns were so timeless that they looked more like something from this year's Academy Awards red carpet vs. something your grandma once wore!

I got pictures of nearly every gown in the show, and you can see them all in my Flickr album. There will also be a repeat of this show, plus even more 50's fashions, at the Antique Elegance Show next Saturday at 9:00.

State of the Union

2011-02-09T09:14:00.001-06:00

So even though I've been pretty quiet this winter, I have been staying busy behind the scenes - so busy that I haven't had much time for blogging. But we have another snow day today, so it seemed like a good time to play catch-up and give you a little "state of the union... er... of jen" address!

1. I've been working on getting all the DFWCG event graphics made and posted to our website. We have some really cool things planned for this year, and if you are in the area, I hope you'll join us for some costumed shenanigans in 2011!
2. I added some more vintage patterns to my flickr archive.
3. My 16-year old cheap-o beginner sewing machine finally bit the dust, so I bought a shiny new Janome Magnolia this week! I am totally in love with this thing!

4. I am working on two new costume projects right now that my son and I will wear in the Chestnut Square fashion show next month.

My dress is inspired by this 1918 dress from the New Idea Quarterly magazine that was given to me by my grandmother, and it is being cobbled together using a variety of patterns from my own collection and from CoPA.

My son is getting a suit made with one of my new old patterns from 1919. I'm really excited about both of these, and I'll definitely be posting more about them soon!

winter recap

2011-02-02T22:20:00.000-06:00

It seems like it has been forever since my last blog post... although you really haven't been missing much. Mostly I'e been working on 2011 planning with the DFW Costumers' Guild, and taking a much-needed break from tight-deadline, stress-inducing costume projects.

The one thing that I did mean to write about back in December was the Victorian Christmas ball that I went to with my husband. I've always dreamed of attendig a real live ball (*squee!*), but we ended up not knowing anybody there, and I'm afraid that we were quite the timid wallflowers. But it was still fun to get all dressed up and go somewhere, and I was pretty happy with the way the dress turned out.

I had just enough scraps remaining to make a new bodice to go with my 1868 silk daydress. I had to piece the bejeezus out of it to make it work, but it was fun to give this older dress a new life. For the pattern, I used the 1870-71 ballgown bodice from Patterns of Fashion. It went together well, but I wish I could have done some more tweaking on the bertha before I wore it. As usual though, I was sewing up until it was time to get in the car and go to the event, so I was pretty happy to just have it wearable.

I also re-boned my elliptical hoop skirt that I made with the Laughing Moon pattern. The first time I just used wire rope (bought from Home Depot), which wasn't strong enough to hold out the bottom hoops in back under the weight of a heavy skirt. But I went back and reinforced it with piano wire (from a Hobby shop), which did the trick nicely. I love the shape of this hoop - it is small, but gives the skirt such a pretty flare.

Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures that night, and the ones that I did get were dark and blurry, but maybe this is better than nothing. You can see more on my website.

2nd annual Georgian Picnic

2010-11-14T21:41:00.000-06:00

We had our 2nd annual Georgian Picnic for the DFWCG yesterday, and just like the first one, it was a delightful event, and one of the highlights of my year. Thank-you to everybody who came out for it! I had a blast catching up with old friends and making new ones as well. I am one happy little costumer now. :)

Even though I had a year to plan for this event, I procrastinated until the week before the party to make my costume, so I decided to dig out my Regency 2.0 dress (a.k.a. the Cremesicle gown) that I started last summer and finish that one. I don't think this is the most flattering dress on me (the phrase "trussed up like a Christmas turkey" kept coming to mind), but it sure is fun to wear. I've always liked the look of Regency military-style spencer jackets combined with uber-girly ruffs and bonnets (two good examples in this blog), so I decided to go all out with it and tell my modern "less is more" sensibilities to take a hike. I recently watched Bright Star too, which is probably why I was more willing to go with the Regency foofy madness - my dress reminded me a lot of the one Fanny wears at the beginning of that move. But with that being said, I might take it down a notch or two when I wear this outfit again in the future. I think it would be a lot more attractive with a different hat and hair, and maybe leaving off the the ruff (although I do love a good ruff!)

Anyhoo, I'm especially happy with the way the spencer jacket turned out. I made with with some gorgeous bright orange and burgundy shot silk taffeta, which was a nightmare to work with due to wrinkles, water spots, and grain issues... but it sure is purdy to look at. ;) I used the pelisse pattern from Patterns of Fashion for the bodice, and I just improvised on the little peplum and decorative tabs. I think I'm most proud of the collar though, which I carefully tailored using hair canvas and pad stitching, thanks to the fabulous tutorial on Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing (thanks Gertie!). It made a world of difference in the way it looked, and was surprisingly fun to do. I'm looking forward to doing more tailored pieces in the future, and I think I'm going to shoot for an 18th c. redingote with a huge collar for next year's picnic.

I ran out of time and didn't get a chance to finish the bodice of the white underdress, but a friend of mine on LiveJournal pointed out this cool example of a spencer worn with a skirt instead of a full dress, so that made me feel a little bit better about it. The fabric is vintage sheer striped cotton that I bought at an estate sale last year, and I am looking forward to finishing it so I can wear the dress alone some too.

I won't spam you too much with pictures here, but you can see my whole set on Flickr.

Halloween fun!

2010-10-31T12:52:00.005-05:00

Mike and I were invited to an Alice in Wonderland party for Halloween this year, so we decided to go as the semi-obscure characters of the Walrus and the Carpenter. I don't think anybody at the party had a clue who we were supposed to be, but we had a lot of fun anyway!

I made my pants from some super-fab estate sale plaid wool, and I used one of the Martha McCain civil war era pants patterns (Simplicity 5023). I loved that pattern and I had a blast making them! It was such a nice change of pace from complicated girl stuff. The rest of my costume was all scavenged from things around the house or from Dallas Vintage. I actually made a square paper hat like the one in the original illustrations too, but I decided that we were going to confuse people enough as is without throwing another bizarre costume element into the mix!

Mike just wore his old Victorian costume with the addition of whiskers that I made by cutting pieces off a $5 old man wig, and the tusks are plastic window blinds that I cut into the right shape. He thought the little round John Lennon glasses would add a funny finishing touch (goo goo g'joob!)

I didn't take a ton of pictures, but you can see the rest here if you want. We had a lot of fun dressing up this year, and thanks again to Kaycee for inviting us! :)

another site update

2010-09-26T20:19:00.002-05:00

I wanted to tell you all that I just posted a new page for my Regency jumper that I made earlier this summer. I think a lot of people have already seen these pictures elsewhere, but maybe not everybody. It feels good to finally get these costumes webbed. Now if I could just find the time to take pictures of all my new undies sometime.

site update for Edwardian

2010-09-23T22:53:00.001-05:00

For the past two weekends, I've attended events where I was able to wear my 1911 day dress that I made for the Suffragette Picnic earlier this summer. I never was completely happy with the pics from the first event (mostly because I was wearing a modern bra that time, which ruins the silhouette of the bust), so I was thrilled to get anther shot a getting photos of this outfit. You can now find a few of my favorite pictures on the gallery section of my website.

finds

2010-07-15T22:07:00.003-05:00

My "look what I found at the estate sale!!!!" posts are probably boring as all get out for you guys to read, but I love playing show and tell, and it helps me remember what I bought and when and how much it cost. So anyhoo... after a bit of a dry spell, I've had some really good luck estate shopping these past two weeks. Wanna see what I got?

First of all, I picked up 17 new old patterns from the late 60's through the 70's. This isn't my favorite era of retro fashions, but I have to admit, they are starting to grow on me - mostly because I can see great possibilities for garments that could work in my everyday wardrobe. For example, I love the clean lines in these 2 patterns from 1970. With the right fabrics, they would look so chic and modern!

All the patterns were $.50, which made them cheap enough that I could buy a few just to marvel at how hideous 70's fashions could be!

I also picked up some fabric yardage for $.50 a cut. In addition to a few basics, I found these fabulous prints that I can't wait to use with my vintage patterns. My favorite is the green and white daisies on terrycloth. I have no idea what I'll ever do with it, but it is so over the top crazy that I'm determined to make something fabulous someday! I also love the small scale print on blue, and although there isn't a lot of it, I think it would make a sweet little 40's blouse, or maybe trim on a dress.

At another sale, I picked up some great lace and collars for $1 apiece. There is 10 yards of the wide eyelet trim, so I am already daydreaming about pretty Victorian or Edwardian undies.

Next, I got a few women's magazines dating from 1900 - 1924. They have some nice fashion plates, but the articles and embroidery diagrams are the best part. My favorite article teaches you how to make fabric flowers. I plan on scanning and posting the instructions for anybody who wants to give them a try (as soon as I can unearth my scanner).

And saving the best for last, here is my super-fab $2 coat. I lovelovelove this coat, and it has a real fur collar and is in perfect condition! I love it so much, I've been wearing it around the house on this 100 degree summer day!

I've been having a blast searching for estate sale treasures lately, and I am going to be SO sad when I have to go back to work again and miss out on all the early sales! If any of you in the DFW area are interested in estate sale shopping, you might want to join the 24/7 Estate Sale mailing list. Just be sure that you leave some of the good stuff for me! ;)

building a straw braid bonnet

2010-07-12T14:51:00.002-05:00

Last year, I bought 10 yards of beautiful 1 1/2 wide straw braid at an estate sale, and I've been dying to do something with it. Since I've been working on Regency costumes lately, I decided to try my hand at making a stovepipe bonnet with a small brim, like these examples that I found in period illustrations and in the movie, Northanger Abbey. It seemed like a good starter project since the shapes are quite simple, and it wouldn't take as much braid as one of the wider brimmed hats.

To begin, I made a mockup out of paper. I traced around a slightly flared plastic pot for the crown, and I made a cone with a flare that I liked for the brim, then measured out from the middle point to draw the inside and outside edges of the brim. I also cut out a circle for the top of the crown, but I didn't even need it in the end.

Next, I took the paper brim template, wet the braid, and then started pinning it directly to the paper. I made each row of the braid overlap the top half of the previous row, and I used the zig-zag designs in the braid to keep it somewhat even. I think most people start with the top of braid hats and work their way down instead of working up, but I wasn't sure how far my braid would go, so I figured it would be better to make the hat shorter if I needed to vs. not having enough for the brim.

After the entire brim section was pinned plus a little extra starting up the crown, I started hand-sewing the rows together using strong, golden-yellow thread that is used for jeans. I used basic basting stitches in the middle of the braid, and I would remove one pin at a time from the paper and move the template out of the way for the part I was working on so I could sew the braid without catching the paper.

After the brim was all basted together, I put the crown template into the opening, and started pinning the braid to that section.

Once the sides of the crown were all basted together, I removed the paper template, and then started folding the top row to the inside to make the flat section at the top of the hat.

To make the braid lay flat while working in toward the center, I had to pinch little tucks in the inside part of the braid and then sew these tucks down. On the right of the picture above, you can see what it looks like with the tucks, and on the left side you can see how the braid tends to poke up without them.

When the hat was basted together, I re-wet it, then turned the entire thing inside out. I sewed the flat edge of the rows to the layer beneath with tighter whipstitches to hold it all together better. In the picture above, I have the top of the crown and the top few rows sewn down. I think you can see how it looks tighter and more solid than the bottom parts.

When I was done, I flipped the hat right-side-out, and it looked like this. It was still wet at this point, so I pinned the back of the brim up and let it dry upside down so the brim could flare out more naturally in the front (you can see that it gets very flat when sitting on the table).

When it was dry, I removed the pins from the back, and it held its shape with no problem. Then I sewed on a simple ribbon band with a few loops on each side of the head. I also went back and tacked down the scalloped edge of the braid around the top of the crown to soften the edge and keep the pointy bits from sticking out so much.

And here you can see the finished product with my new Regency dress!

I considered sewing the braid to a buckram and wired base, but I liked how light and open and airy the braid looked on its own. The hat is pretty flexible still, but it holds its shape wonderfully and is very cool and comfortable to wear. And just FYI, I ended up using about 9 yards of braid when I was done.

Of course, finding vintage straw braid like this was a HUGE stroke of luck, and I doubt that I'll ever find anything quite like it again. I looked around online a little to see if anybody sold wide, decorative straw braid, but I didn't come up with much. It is possible that you could take apart another hat though and reuse the braid if you like the "rustic" look of this type of open braid. About halfway down this page, you can see a natural open weave hat that might give you a somewhat similar look, or you could always use the more common solid braids too.

All in all, it was a very fun and surprisingly easy project. I hope this little tutorial will inspire others to give straw braid millinery a try!

40's blouse for 4th of July

2010-07-04T21:03:00.002-05:00

I recently found this wonderful vintage fabric in a local antique shop, so I decided that I needed a red, white, and blue blouse for Mike's family's 4th of July party. Don't you think the leaves look a bit like fireworks? I made it with an Advance pattern from 1947. It went together great with no alterations necessary - I just left the pocket off since it seemed fairly pointless. I also used a cool new trick that I learned from Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing (which I adore, BTW!). Since the fabric was semi-sheer, I used a flesh-colored silk organza for the interfacing, which kept the faced areas from having pattern bleed-through or being brighter white than the rest of the shirt. I'll definitely be using that technique for now on!

summery seventies top

2010-06-19T20:23:00.002-05:00

I've made a vow to start using the vintage patterns in my collection to make things that I can wear in everyday life... and if I'm honest with myself, that means I should focus on simple separates vs. dressy dresses. I usually wouldn't look twice at a pattern from the 70's, but this McCall's top from 1975 seemed so incredibly modern that I thought it would be fun to give it a try. It also worked out great because I had less than a yard of this cheery vintage floral print, and this is about the only garment that I could find that would make use of such a small piece.

This shirt was super easy to make and only took a few hours to complete. I think it would especially be cute in the longer length as a dress, so I might have to try another one at some point in the future. The only change that I made was raising the placement of the belt by an inch or two, which I kind of regret now because it looks like a maternity blouse! But it is incredibly cool and comfortable, so I'm sure it will get lots of wear around the house this summer.

more patterns in the archive

2010-06-17T15:10:00.001-05:00

I have updated my pattern archive with my children's patterns, and a few other recent purchases. The pattern you see here is one of my favorites. I'm dying to make this outfit for my son... and of course, a matching late-1910's costume for myself!

I've also started using some of these patterns for fast and frivolous summer sewing projects, so hopefully I'll have some fun new garments to show you all soon.

hat decorations

2010-06-05T21:15:00.002-05:00

After reshaping my beachcomber hat into a more suitable shape, the last step was just to decorate it. I looked through some of my books of Edwardian fashion plates and decided to do a cluster of roses on one side with a fabric band that was loosely inspired by the hats from this 1909 Mode Illustree picture.

I am a big believer in hot-glue millinery, so all of the decorations were quickly added just hours before the event started. I glued strips of silk to the crown first to create the band, then added heirloom-style silk roses that I bought on sale at Michael's. I filled in the gaps around the flowers with smaller strips and loops of silk.

front

back

I also made two super-long hat pins by sharpening the ends of some spring steel rods, which you can buy at hobby shops that cater to the model airplane crowd. Then I just superglued a few glass beads to the other end.

Unfortunately, I didn't look in a mirror when putting my hat on at the suffragette event, so the flowers were too far to the side and back for my taste. But it still looked great for side-view pictures, and overall, I was very pleased with the way it turned out. I hope this tutorial gives you a few ideas to help you with your next millinery project!

suffragette recap

2010-06-05T19:42:00.002-05:00

I had a wonderful time at the suffragette event last weekend! We had 12 ladies in attendance (including the wee ones) who were wearing a wonderful range of fashions dating from the early 1900's up to the early 20's. We did a little shopping at the farmer's market (yay cookies!) and then came back and shared a yummy light picnic lunch. I really enjoyed chatting with everybody and taking lots of pictures in our beautiful setting. And I had a blast making the banners and poster and researching some of the writings of the suffragettes. This was definitely a theme that was right up my alley! I'll be posting more about my dress and hat this week, but for now, here are my pictures from the event.

reshaping a beachcomber

2010-05-23T20:56:00.001-05:00

My original plan was to make a 1910's hat for my suffragette costume out of straw braid, but I ended up running short on time, so I decided to go with a tried and true method instead. These cheap beachcomber hats can be found at Party City for $4.99, and there's usually a good variety to the size and color as well. The one that I picked out was a medium size.

The first step is weaving the extra straw back into the hat (or you could cut it off if you aren't feeling that ambitious). It took me about an hour and a half to do it, but it was strangely satisfying work! My best advice is to trim the ends of the straw so they are blunt instead of pointy, and to weave the parts on the flat of the brim before you do the edges.

Next, I wet the hat and weighed down the brim with a bunch of bowls so that it would lay flat. Then I placed a large bowl on the crown plus a bit more weight to push it down. These hats are like Chinese handcuffs in the way they are woven - if you push down on them, they get wider, which works wonderfully for making the wide crowns that are so characteristic for the hats from this period.

I left it like this to dry overnight, and now it holds its new shape. Easy peasey!

The crown is a good bit wider than my head now, so I sewed a strip of fabric to the inside with a drawstring that ties in the middle. This helps to stabilize the hat so it doesn't bobble around so much, and by adjusting how tightly I tie the cord, I can adjust how high it sits on my head.

Once the straw is shaped, you can cover it with fabric, like I did for my black 1910's hat. I made that one with a beachcomber too, but I shaped the brim up by tying rubber bands around it instead of laying it out flat. You can also paint or dye these hats, but I think I'm going to leave my straw plain since a rustic look seems appropriate for a summer picnic.

Here's a crappy picture of it on my head so you can get a feeling for the scale, but you'll have to wait until this weekend to see the decorated finished product!

suffragette ribbon

2010-05-20T17:23:00.000-05:00

I painted a suffragette ribbon today. It is based on the one found here, but I omitted the shadow on the letters to make it easier to paint. If any of y'all want ribbons like this, you can either paint them there (I'm making a stencil to speed up the process), or I'll make one for you ahead of time and have it ready for you. Just let me know! Of course, feel free to make your own in a different style too. I think some variety would be cool!

the pros and cons of perfectionism

2010-05-16T18:48:00.005-05:00

So in my last post, I was angsting about the darker green trim. Even though all of you good readers, my husband, and my mom all told me that the green was great and I was crazy for worrying about it, I knew it wasn't going to make me happy. I just had to go with my gut on this one. But unfortunately, the bright-white stripes in my fabric didn't match the off-white of my silk. Oh noes! So silly me, I threw it in the wash with a few cups of coffee and didn't bother to finish the edges of my pieces first. How bad could it be?

Uhhh... bad.

This has to be the frayingest fabric that I've ever had the joy of working with. It frayed through my 5/8" selvage and beyond. I was so upset on Friday that I was seriously considering ditching the whole project, but by Saturday my stubborn nature had taken over, so I gave it one more try.

I was able to fix the skirt by trimming off the tangled mess and turning the seams into French seams, so that wasn't too big of a deal (but my skirt inset is on the wrong side now - oops!) But the bodice was more problematic. I tried trimming the selvage down and assembling it with smaller seams, but it didn't fit anymore. So I took the little bit of fabric that was remaining and cut all new bodice pieces, even though this meant that I had to carefully piece a few sections because my remaining scraps were so small.

All this silliness cost me a day's worth of work, but now that the dress is assembled, I am SO glad I did it. I looooove the white trim. It looks so much more delicate and soft than the green did. Seeing this dress come together is making me absolutely giddy. I still need to make the undersleeves and dicky and mount it all to the underbodice, but I still have 2 weeks to do that, so I should be fine.

color indecision

2010-05-14T20:02:00.002-05:00

The dress is going together now, but I'm having second thoughts about my trim color. I found some silk shantung in a darker pewter green color, and I've spent the past few days cutting bias strips, carefully basting it to the edges, making buttons, and twisting cord out of embroidery floss. But now that it's coming together, I don't think I like it. It almost overpowers the delicate green of the main fabric. Now I'm wondering if I should switch the green trim out for off-white, like I had in my design sketch.

So what do y'all think about the darker green trim - yea or nay? It would cost a couple hours of work to change it, but nothing too serious. I'm about to hit the point of no return though, so I have to decide by tomorrow.

an interesting fashion statement

2010-05-10T19:08:00.001-05:00

I worked on my new 1910's corset last week, and although I still need to add the garters and bottom edge binding, it was finally done enough to try it on. Quite an interesting fashion statement over my work clothes, don'cha think?

design choices

2010-05-01T22:06:00.001-05:00

Thanks for the feedback about the fullness of my skirt. I feel a lot better about using that one now, but I got bored and made up some design sketches just to see if I liked anything better.

1. The original dress. It's clean and elegant and I like being faithful to the original. But I think it looks a bit bath-robe-ish, which makes me hesitate.

2. The double layer Butterick skirt. I've made this one before so I know it looks good on me and is easy to make, but I'm not crazy about the way it looks with the kimono bodice. They don't seem to fit together just right.

3. This skirt is inspired by an antique 1910's pattern that I bought today. It's one of those transitional styles, and the back looks very much like the original skirt, but I thought the center panel with some tabs would give it a nice tailored look. I think this one is my favorite at the moment.

4. Straight skirt with a border, inspired by that photo I liked. I like it, but I'm not sure I love it. I could also change the color of the borders, but I'm still having a hard time picking a color. I found a blue-gray that was pretty, but it didn't seem like the most "period" choice, if you know what I mean.

Anybody want to offer a vote? I'm going to think obsess about it for a week and then start cutting.

1911 mockup

2010-04-30T21:36:00.003-05:00

I made the mockup of my suffragette dress this week. I like the bodice, but I'm not sure about the skirt. It's fairly full in the back (I usually prefer the very narrow skirts for this period), and I never could figure out how to make the back pleats fall like they are charted in the Patterns of Fashion diagram, although I'm sure I can fake something. Also, I omitted the decorative gore in the bottom of the skirt because I thought this would save me time (wow that's a lot of buttons!), but now it seems way too plain without it.

So I can either keep the original skirt and add the gore back in, or I could switch out this skirt for the double-layer one in the Butterick pattern... or... I dunno? Maybe just a straight skirt with a contrasting band at the bottom? I'm just afraid that would make me look shorter. I think some virtual mockups might help me make a decision.

Anyhoo. Here are some more pictures of my trial run.

I probably have more poochiness in the front than necessary.

You can see the lovely raised back waistline here.

I have a LOT more booty than my dress form does, so that should give it more of that Edwardian S-bend shape.

Now that I have a workable mockup, I'm going to switch gears for a bit and make myself an Edwardian corset. I'll definitely need one before I can fine tune the fit of this dress. I look like a lumpy mess in these styles without one!

suffragette dress diary

2010-04-25T21:22:00.001-05:00

I haven't done a dress diary in AGES, but I thought that I might give it another try just so I have something to blog about. I'm organizing a suffragette picnic with the DFW Costumers' Guild on Memorial Day weekend, and although I have a backup dress already, I'm hoping that I'll have time to make a new costume for this event.

My plan is to use this green linen/cotton striped fabric to make something similar to the 1911 dress in Patterns of Fashion. I probably won't make an exact copy in regards to the trim and smaller details, but I think it'll give me a really good pattern to start with. I also adore the dress on the right here, so I might do a belt and the contrasting hem like you see in that photo. But I'll have to find some suitable fabric if I want to do that. So far, I haven't had much luck because I can't figure out what color would go with this weirdo green. I'm thinking that a gunmetal gray would be nice, but I haven't had much luck finding anything like that.

So first on the agenda: enlarging the pattern and making a mockup. My goal is to have that done by next weekend. Wish me luck!

new clothes for my man

2010-04-25T19:10:00.000-05:00

We went to Scarborough Faire the weekend, and Mike was finally able to wear his new Alsatian costume! It took me over 3 years to get it done (with about 2 3/4 of those years spend moldering in my to-do pile), but thank goodness it is finally finished!!! Now I can sew for myself again without all the guilt and mopey "I guess I'll wear this same old costume" comments from my man.

And if anybody is joining me from my Festive Attyre website, welcome! Hopefully I'll be better at blogging than I have been at webbing these past few years!

pattern luv

2010-04-04T15:51:00.000-05:00

I finished adding all of my women's vintage patterns to my flickr archive. There are a few VERY old ones from the Edwardian period, but most are from the late 50's - 70's. I've had so much fun getting these organized and categorized and searchable. Next month, I'll add my children's patterns.

pattern love

2010-03-18T16:18:00.002-05:00

I added all of my 30's and early 40's patterns to my flickr set. I hope I get around to making some of these soon, but in the meantime, it's fun to look at all of the charming fashion illustrations. Some of them are so beautiful!

1904 ribbon corset

2010-03-17T19:31:00.002-05:00

A fabulous local fabric store, Fabrique, hosted a remnant challenge this past month, and I decided to give it a try. I came home with the three fabrics seen on the right, and after a few weeks of waffling back and forth over what to make, I decided that would use the peacock silk brocade for a ribbon corset based on the 1904 corset diagram in Corset and Crinolines. The super-cool blog Bridges on the Body helped me muddle through the construction, and the only problems that I had with this project came from the fact that I had to cut my silk on the bias to get the feather placement like I wanted on the sides. Of course, using bias construction on a corset is a HUGE no-no, but it is lined with some heavy-duty groisgrain silk that acts as the real strength of this garment. My corset has a few minor wrinkles that probably wouldn't be there if I had cut it on the straight, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared that it might be.

I had a really hard time deciding how to trim this thing, but I just kept thinking of Tim Gunn and his admonishments on Project Runway to "use your editing eye!" I kept scaling back my desire to be flashy with beading or contrasting ruffles until I ultimately ended up making some self-fabric fringe by fraying strips of the silk. I also used braid made of embroidery floss down the center of the fringe to give it a little more interest and to hide my lines of stitching. I love how the fringe echoes the look of the feathers, and it adds even more "oomph" to the bust and hips, which emphases the hourglass look.

I'm sad to say that I forgot to take a picture of the back of this corset before turning it in for the contest, but I'll try to take a pic and post it next week. I found some great 000 2-part eyelets at Walmart, of all places, and I ADORE how they turned out. They had antique gold, copper, and black at the store I went to, but no silver. How weird is that? I'll have to look up the brand the next time I'm shopping there so I can check for them online. The lacing is done with some cotton twill tape that I dyed to match the dark brown of the silk. Oh, and I also wanted to mention that I bought my busk and boning from Vogue Fabrics, and I was incredibly pleased with the price and speed of shipping.

And now for the real question - what am I going to do with this corset? Since I'm on such a vintage kick lately, I've been daydreaming about pairing it with a New Look blouse and pinstriped brown pencil skirt for a midcentury spin on a steampunk outfit. What would that be - atomicpunk? Or I might make it into a fairy costume, or maybe I'll use for the period it was intended for and wear it under Edwardian costumes... but it sure would be a shame to hide such a flashy set of undies!

starting a vintage pattern archive

2010-03-17T16:28:00.001-05:00

I've been saying that I need to do this for years now, so I'm finally getting off my lazy butt and starting an archive of my vintage sewing patterns. Eventually, I hope to separate them by decades, but right now, I'm just putting them all together in chronological order for ease of browsing.

16 patterns down, 100-something more to go! Woohoo!

1958 dirndl skirt

2009-12-28T18:16:00.002-06:00

I was having one of those "I have nothing cute to wear" days today, so I decided to make a new skirt to go with a sweater that I got for Christmas. I dug out this 1958 Simplicity playsuit pattern and some vintage plaid that I bought at an estate sale, and a few hours later... ta-da! I have cute skirtage! Woohoo!

This was by far one of the easiest garments that I have ever made. There isn't even a zipper or hooks - just one button and the opening is cleverly hidden in the pleats. I usually don't wear skirts that are this full, but this thing was so fast and stress-free to make that I'm a complete dirndl convert now!

vintage finds

2009-12-23T09:46:00.004-06:00

I stumbled across 3 great vintage dresses in my size while wandering through an antique shop yesterday. At only $25 apiece, I thought they were quite an amazing find! I need to get a few minor spots out, but other than that they are in great shape. Wanna see what I got?

I need to make a proper slip for this one since it is so sheer! It's hard to see in the picture, but the fabric has dainty brown scribbles all over it - very suitable for an artist, I thought! I probably won't wear this dress with my oxfords unless I'm doing a reenactment event, but I just wanted to see how it would look with "sensible" 40's shoes. I think it would be cuter with ballet flats though.

I almost didn't get this one since crazy zebra stripes aren't really my thing, but now I'm so glad I did! I think it looks much cuter on me that it did in the hanger. I think this dress will get the most wear of any of them since the style is so timeless.

This one has the most amazing detailing with pintucks covering the top and sleeves and a few down the skirt. It makes me wanna go swing dancing!!

1790's gown recap

2009-12-16T20:08:00.004-06:00

I posted a new page on my website about my 1790's zone gown this week. Now I just need to get the rest of the photos uploaded to flickr...

Estate Sale finds

2009-12-03T19:20:00.006-06:00

I stopped by an estate sale after work today, and while I didn't come home with the amazing haul that I found last month, it was still pretty decent. I got about 10 yards of heavy linen and silk/linen blend for under a buck a yard. I have no idea what I'll use it for, but you can never have too much linen! Plus I founds some vintage blue and tan small-scale plaid that is begging to be a retro shirt for the boy. I picked up few more sewing patterns from the late 50's-70's as well. I usually turn up my nose at anything post-1960, but all the fabulous projects on sewretro have me looking at this era in a completely different light lately. They might not be that useful for costuming stuff, but those simple shapes make some really cool modern garments when done up in fun fabrics, and I'm feeling the urge to do more stuff like that lately. Plus, I LUV me some A-line skirts!

I also picked up a $16 black mink fur collar (probably to recycle somehow) and a few little boy items. The children's garments are in pretty bad condition, but I'm going to see if I can make patterns from them and do repros for E. My favorite is this peacoat. Isn't it adorable?!? For those of you who know anything about vintage children's clothing, when do you think it would date from? The construction and buttons and fabrics look exactly like the Edwardian items in my collection, but those little military style boy's outfits were popular forever, so I just don't know. What do you think?

party like it's 1949!

2009-11-27T18:12:00.012-06:00

I never really thought much about 20th c. vintage fashions in the past. They just seemed too "normal" to me, and I preferred to research and recreate more exotic historical costumes from the Edwardian period or earlier. But then last year I was invited to a 1940's themed costume party, and as I started poking around on ebay for something to wear, something strange happened. I fell completely, hopelessly, madly in love! Now I'm quite obsessed with vintage clothing, and I've spent the last year on a treasure hunt for old patterns, fabric, dresses, notions, and accessories. My long-term goal is to start making pieces that I can incorporate into my everyday wardrobe. As an art teacher, I tend to dress very casually most days because it is so easy to ruin things while working with messy art supplies. But I have this incredible urge to be girly right now, so I'm trying to find more excuses to wear cute dresses and get my retro groove on. I want my outside appearance in the day-to-day world to finally match how I feel on the inside - quirky and creative and fabulous! ;)

One of my favorite things about retro sewing is that you can still find yardages of amazing old fabrics to work with, and most aren't even that expensive. I have a mad love for vintage novelty prints, so I snatched up this kooky mid-century modern gladiator print (how did they come up with this stuff?!?) last winter when I saw it on etsy. It was listed as rayon, but it is super shiny and feels more like acetate, so I almost abandoned this project after cutting out the pieces because I was worried that it looked too dressy for me to wear to work. It probably would have languished in the abandoned projects pile indefinitely if it wasn't for Sewretro's party dress contest this month. I decided that it would make a great party dress if nothing else, so I dug out all the pieces and got it assembled in just two days while I was home for the Thanksgiving holidays.

The dress pattern is Vogue 6788 from 1949, but I switched out the sleeves with another pattern from that year because I liked the 3/4 length better. It all went together like a dream, and this project gave me an excuse to use some of my vintage notions as well. The hems are done with some old turquoise iron-on hem tape, and the belt is made with a fabric-covered belt kit - both found at estate sales. I also got to play with a nifty little contraption that marks both sides of pattern pieces at the same time, which worked great with this pattern since it had the punched holes for the markings instead of being printed. The buttons are vintage as well, and I'm pretty sure thy are bakelite.

And now, on to the pictures!

Since this was my first try at sewing with vintage patterns/fabric for myself, here are some of the things that I discovered:
- I really need to learn some proper techniques for putting in a zipper. The pattern didn't include any instructions for that, and I thought I could just wing it, but it looks pretty crappy on close inspection.
- I also need to figure out what techniques they used for interfacing collars and such during this period. Again, the pattern didn't mention anything about interfacing. I ended up flatlining the collar with some stiff cotton fabric, but I really don't like the way it feels. It's too heavy now.
- vintage acetate (if that's really what this stuff is) is NOT fun to work with. There are old storage fold lines running across the entire dress that absolutely refuse to press out, and it shows every little crease and pucker where my tailoring is a bit lacking.
- I can't sew a straight line to save my life! I did a bad, BAD job of attaching the fabric to the belt backing, but I'm scared to take it off and try again, because the belt backing is a bit like cardboard and I'm afraid it will fall apart with more stitching holes. That was waaaaayyy harder than I thought it would be!

But all in all, I think this dress was a success. I wore it out today and had several ladies squee over me, so I think that's a pretty good sign. :)

Hello, world!

2009-11-26T14:54:00.003-06:00

Most of you who are reading this blog probably know me from my costuming website, festive attyre. You'll also probably know that I have been horrible about updating my site since my son was born two years ago. I finally seem to be finding more time for sewing and creative pursuits lately, but I still have a hard time making myself get it all uploaded to my website. Dealing with dreamweaver is just such a chore! But hopefully blogger will make that part much easier, and eventually, I plan on embedding this page into my homepage and using the layout for a much-needed site redesign. Anyhoo, I have some fun new stuff ready to post tomorrow. I can't wait to show y'all what I've been working on!

Happy Thanksgiving!