Hobbit Dress

After Comic Con, I was left with a hopeless longing to travel through Middle Earth (I blame Karl Urban, but I digress). Thankfully, there was a Hobbit ball coming up. 

I dug through the costume closet, but nothing grabbed my attention, fit well (thank you health issues), or screamed 'I would be perfect for the ball!' Drats. Guess I had an excuse to make a ~new costume~

That meant that I had two weeks max to make something. Anything! I turned to the fabric stash. 

Plenty of options resided there, but would anything work together? The cool thing about the Lord of the Rings movies is the diversity of costume eras and classes to draw inspiration from. Each race had styles and embellishments that matched their culture, and all that with fantasy flair thrown in because why not? I could totally keep geeking out over the costumes in those movies, but I'll spare you. 

With that in mind, I pulled down literally anything and everything that even closely resembled something that might be worn in Middle Earth, compared those to patterns I already had on hand, and tried to estimate if I had enough material to make the idea happen. That was quite the mess, if I do say so myself. I finally landed on an earthy palette with some 1700's flair using American Duchess's Simplicity pattern 8161 from the Outlander series as a loose base to launch my Hobbit vision because I can't leave a basic pattern as it is. I did the jacket, ditched the sleeves, and added a peplum. The skirt and stomacher I did leave 'as is.' So all in all, not a lot of changes. ;) 

If time favored me, I also planned on using the undergarments pattern from that same line to make a chemise and bum pad to finish off the look, but that was the lowest on the priority list given how much time I had to put this all together. 

And so I sewed in any moment I could find. I must say, that was probably some of my more focused sewing, and yet, extremely relaxed. I don't know what was up. :P But that is why I don't have any 'in progress' shots. I would turn up my music and just sew. For the little bit of hand sewing that was involved, I turned on Gilmore Girls. I maybe got through two episodes, and I was done with the hand sewing. All this leaves now is the finished look. :shrugs: That might not be a bad thing. 

The really cool thing with this whole thing? Most of the fabrics were given to me or found for a steal at the thrift store. SCORE! Costuming on the cheap! :fist pump: The one downside to being able to use my stash - the fact that I have a stash to pull from. :P 

Let's do a supplies inventory:

Blue floral 'vest'- given to me

Brown linen/burlap stomacher - on clearance in the remnant bin at Joann's, maybe $3 max

Rust cotton sateen - given to me

Plaid wool flannel for skirt - Thrift store, 8 yards of material for $2/yard but I only used about 6 yards

Jute String - $0.99/yard, 3 yards at Joann's

Grommets - 2 packages of colored eyelets (because I only wanted to use the brown ones and the package had about 5 different colors, so in order to get enough of the color I needed, I had to pick up 2), $6.58

Chemise and petticoat (underneath) - repurposed from other costumes

Grand total: $24.55

WOOT! 

Now, I didn't have the time to make the structural underthings to :really: make the look. But now that I have the outfit, it won't take much to make those. Right? :sheepish grin: What I really noticed was lacking was pockets. The skirt had slits for pockets, but I just didn't have time to throw them together. Maybe someday. 

Until next time! 

SG

Some Rainy Day Sewing

 With the recent storms that blew through the area, there was obviously no desire to be working  outdoors. We battened down everything before things got particularly nasty, which left time to finish homework and some sewing. :shocker: So armed with a big cup of tea and time on my hands, I started digging in the fabric stash looking for inspiration.

I found some cheery yellow striped fabric with blue flowers on it in the scrap bins, and knew exactly what it should become. Whipped out the dress, put it on the tiny dress form, and stepped back. Yeah, the dress was done, but let's make it an entire outfit! I've got time! So a few things were added to the ensemble. Too bad I haven't mastered doll millinery because that would be the perfect final touch. I apologize in advance for the lousy phone pictures.

IT'S SO CUTE!!! I want one in my size please! 

It looks like something that could be worn to a summer tea party in the garden. 

 The extras for the dress are an apron, fichu, and bum roll. You'll see how much the bum roll helps to hold out the tiny dress later.

 The main dress is in two pieces, each with velcro closures in the back.

Details of the bodice

See how flat and floof-less the skirt is? The bum roll is one way to fix that. Just depends on the silhouette that you're trying to create for your doll. ;) 

 Until next time!

SG

2016 Project Plans

Looking at my schedule for the year, I'm going to keep my sewing project list toned down. I'm trying to finish my certificate at school, and I have a new job at a chef's garden that will fill up all the mornings that I'm not in classes leaving afternoons and weekends for homework. If I should fulfill my project goals, I'll be pleasantly surprised. If I go above and beyond that, I'll be really surprised. 

First on my docket is a new Regency day dress. This project wasn't in the cards until I went to a fun fabric store for my birthday, and I found this amazing cotton. I couldn't say no. I carried it through the store, petting it all the way. Fabric creeper, I know. But I don't know a seamstress that doesn't pet every single bolt in the store while perusing the aisles. 

Ahem. Back on topic.  

So I had this fabric. I didn't know what I could do with it. Until... Actually, I knew exactly what that fabric needed to become the moment I laid eyes on it. It needed to become a Regency dress because I totally need another one. So, it shall be a crossover dress.

I just got the buttons because I thought that they looked cool. I doubt that they'll actually work their way into the dress though. 

In case you can't see the print very well in the first picture, I got one closer up. IT'S ACORNS! 

The next project I have in the works is a working, middle class colonial dress with a caraco jacket and a red petticoat. The print was found at an antique mall (but really it's a modern Waverly), but the price was right. You might recognize the fabric because I did a post on it a while back. I've just been waiting to find the right fabric for the petticoat. The other day at the thrift store, I found a cotton sheet set that was the perfect color and it was also half off! SCORE! Now to actually make it. ;) I need to make some of the structural under pieces as well to make the look complete.  

Somewhere in there, I would like to make a pineapple reticule, regency stays, and an 1840's dress, but we shall see what actually happens. 

Until next time! 

SG

Colonial Jacket

My patterns finally came!!! 

Okay, I'll back up a bit. 

I found some gorgeous Waverly fabric at an antique mall in town, and it was begging to be made into a colonial jacket. The only problem is... I'm not very familiar and I haven't sewn much for that fashion era. After doing some research, pinterest scanning, and asking some gals who have more experienced in this style of clothing, I landed on J.P. Ryan's patterns. And my patterns have finally arrived. ^_^

My Waverly fabric and JP Ryan jacket pattern

But alack alas! I have other projects that are higher up on the priority list, so I can't get started right away. Oh well! 

Until next time!

SG

Rococo Panniers

If you love recreating historical fashions, you know what I'm talking about. You see gorgeous fashion plates, preserved gowns in museums, detailed paintings, immaculate reproductions, and you want to get that same look. You make a dress inspired by the originals. But the same conundrum rears its ugly head when you look in the mirror - it doesn't look the same as in the pictures! But how? Where do you wrong?  

It has taken me a while to get to the point where I've convinced myself that the unmentionables are a worthy investment when you're in the world of historical costuming. If you want 'the look,' you will need all the proper structural undergarments are a necessity. My Civil War wardrobe is off to a good start (corset, chemise, petticoats, etc). Now, I'm diving into the world of Rococo. 

What's one of the first things that you notice when you look at dresses from the mid to late 1700's? All that hip action! No, not like Elvis Presley. Skirts so wide that carriages had to be remodeled to accommodate the fashion trend (Ah, the royal French court). How did dresses reach such feats? Panniers. In a word, hip extensions. And I'm crazy enough to have made a pair of my own. 

Pattern: Simplicty 4092

Lady Catherine, the dress form, modeling panniers

The only thing that I changed was the addition of the ruffles. Otherwise, everything was straight forward and relatively simple. It was a bit of a wrestling match with the boning and turning things inside out and right side out and sewing things together, but everything you needed to know was right there in the instructions! I love it when patterns play nice. 

Oh la-la!

My next project challenge is going to be the 1700's stays (or corset). I've never attempted corsetry before, so this is going to be new territory. 

Just keep sewing!

SG

Throwback-Thursday: Burgundy 'Rococo'

A long time ago (January 2009 to be precise), I completed a monstrosity of a project. Up to this point, I had only done a few beginner sewing classes and some small, simple projects. For a class project, I jumped into the costuming pool with both feet and made my first attempt at a historical dress.

12th Night Ball 2009

I was so excited about what I had made. The years flew by, more costumes were added to the closet, and the burgundy behemoth was moved to the back of the clothes rack in favor of the newer dresses. 

Fast-forward four years to November 2013. A masquerade ball was approaching, and I stood staring at all the dresses. Which one? I hadn't worn the gold and burgundy gown in a long time. It was time to pull it out again. But lo, with several more years of research under my belt, the dress was suddenly woefully costume-y. Painfully costume-y. The dress assembly, the placement of trims, the silhouette, the closure in the back (horrid zipper installation), aahhh!!! Everything... 

I put the dress on Lady Catherine, the dress form, and sat back to soak in what needed to be done. Remove the lace and trim, change out the front panel of the bodice, rip out the zipper and but in a lace-up, etc.

Changing the closure was straight forward enough, so was ripping out the lace and trim. The front bodice panel was made from scrap fabric (Yay for fabric hoarding!). Yes, I held onto the scraps for four years. That just left the attachment of the lace on just the neckline. I didn't want to look like I was being eaten alive by lace. The result? I loved it. It still has a costume-y-ness about it because of the fabric selection, but it was vastly improved. 

The next 'improvement' to this ensemble will probably involve completely redoing the underskirt. In due time, in due time. 

Until next time!

SG