Revamping my first dress - Robin

When I made my first costume, I never had time to fully trim it.  Two years later, during my "finish those dang things" project, I did it.
I started with the shoulders. Lisa and I had no idea how to fit a drop shoulder over my broad shoulders and ended up with a too-modern look.  I draped fabric over the dress and played with trim to see what I could do with it

I also raised the draping on the skirt and added trim on the sleeves. Here's how it came out:

The dress dummy won't conform to my corseted self, so here's the best shots. I didn't take any photos from the Dickens Faire, so there's nothing with the dress on a human. You'll have to use your imagination.  To finish my "finish this" project, I need to make the ballgown top for this skirt.  More on that later.

Victorian Bustle Dress circa 1880 - Robin

This one I did in record time (for me), taking about a month.  I wanted to wear it to the Holiday Bustle Tea. We only had one fitting session and I had problems galore once I got it together. It is too tight across the bust point. After the party I started ripping it apart to refit. Lisa and I have decided that it needs an insert in the front to give me more room. We thought we'd left enough ease in the muslin fitting, but it still wasn't enough. Now I'm working on an evening bodice to go with the skirt and overskirt and we're leaving more than enough room. The patterns are all fro Truly Victorian - the 1880 Cuirass Bodice, the Waterfall Overskirt and the 4-gore underskirt.

The hat was a last minute job, more of an overly large fascinator than actual hat. The day before the part I found some black roses at the dollar store, leftover from Halloween. Adding feathers and ribbon, this is what resulted. Worked for me!

My Victorian Cape- Robin

Lisa and I made capes.  We started at the same time, but I finally finished mine. She made hers with a hood.  I added a ruffled stand up collar and used a button-on shoulder treatment that becomes a huge ruffled hood to fit over my bonnets.  This is yet another  "finish that dang thing" project. The hem baffled me as I could not get it right.  I finally ended up lowering the dress dummy to have the hem puddle on the floor and pinning the shoulders to the dummy so it wouldn't shift. I now love my cape and it has seen several outing.  Finishing things is good!

The I hate Elizabethan Post - Robin

So the Renaissance fair was close at hand and I could NOT finish this stuff. I got Roger's doublet done, but no sleeves. My bodice and overskirt were done, poorly, as I was rushing and making mistakes all over the place, but the embroidered underskirt was having problems and just would not be done, so I stuck a victorian skirt under it all and we went, with no sleeves. Poor Roger had no hat. I grabbed a hat I had and decorated it.  These costumes will need to be reworked. I hated this project from start to finish.  Lisa hated hers but at least she won a prize. She made us get into the costume contest with her for moral support (and also because there weren't that many people in it). Here they are in all their ugly glory, now stuffed in to the "finish later" pile.

By far, the most fun we had was when Lisa and I donned fencing gear and fought each other. We looked like giant hovercraft doing battle.

Shear Madness FTW (3rd place!) - L

I'm a giddy 3rd place for Connor Kenway.  Actually, I think my son might even be more excited than me.  

After cranking through a literal TON of stuff between October 1st and Christmas, I was getting a bit worn and stagnant.  But I'm all fired up again.  And that's good because I have more things I want to make than time to make them.

Right now I'm knitting.  I'm making a sort of scarf/wrap using amazing yarn I got for Christmas.  It's colorful and fast.  A total palate cleanser.

If you haven't visited the Shear Madness Facebook page, you should.  There are some talented and inspiring people posting costumes and sharing ideas.
Alternately, read the contest blog post and see the other winners and contestants at: shearmadness blog
And it's a perfect time to go over what's ahead for me this year.
His and Hers Regency outfits.
18th Century Court dress - masquerade Queen of Clubs
(I didn't get the fabric I wanted.  I've re-figured my plans.  And hair. Posting soon.)
Re-do the Kraken Bustle - it just wasn't right, and it didn't light up
Attack on Titan Survey Corp - 2 cosplays for Fanime (I will have a little help on this)
Coastside Young Actors Workshop original play - TBD costumes for 30 to 50 kids

I've got two sets of stays to get made.  Muslins are cut, fabric is ready.  All this stuff need new underpinnings.  Then I have to do some serious work to make patterns outta of dreck.

We went to Dickens and had fun.  I didn't take pictures.  We went to GBACG Christmas Tea and had fun.  I didn't take pictures.  Robin may have some.  Robin may actually post again.....

Anyhow, thanks to the judges.  I tried a LOT of new things making the Connor Kenway costume, and I tried to keep it cheap.  Just getting it done made me proud.  Acknowledgement makes it even sweeter.
The judges noted everything that I'm most proud of.

The quote for this costume 'I couldn't get eagle feathers, but seagull is close, right?'

Anteater is DONE! - L

All Anteater posts are here.  Please scroll to the bottom of this post for the most recent updates.  Thanks.

Remember this guy?

I finally cut a muslin and Robin fit it for me.  So now I'm ready to cut fabric.  The only thing....

I have a couple of things I NEED to do before Thanksgiving.  This does not count cleaning, shopping and prep for the actual cooking.

Here are my patterns.









The fabrics and trim:

The underskirt was fairly simple.  The pleating is going to take a long time because I decided to try to make the pleats look like pinstripes by pleating the white part  out.  Looks neat; takes forever.

 Finally a picture of the lobster tail bustle.  Fast.  Easy.

I added a layer of netting flat-lined to the back of the skirt to give the bustle extra pouf (recommended in instructions).

And a picture of the Sisyphisian pleating job I created.  I pleated one of the five panels and set it aside.  Also, I set the pleats with vinegar.  It really works.  The smell really goes away.  I can pick up the pleated panel and shake it, and the pleats lay down perfectly.  Which is good because I didn't have time to spent hours pleating.

This pleating will be a rainy day job for quite a while.

I did manage to squeak out the overskirt though.   It still needs a hem, and all of the trim.  I have sated my need to work on the anteater dress for now.

After nearly a month, missing in action, I am back with an update!  I have, quite literally, bled for this project!  Part 2 - Fit-erations.

You know when you have a good idea, and it totally poops the bed doesn't work?  It's been happening a LOT.  Let me list the things that have not gone as planned:

1 - The very cool pleating for the skirt.  Yes, the pleats stayed in, however the rayon fabric is just too soft and drapey.  After my first pleat-a-thon, I discovered that the fabric wrinkles easily and badly.  I re-pressed the pleats removing all horizontal wrinkles.  This knocked some of the pleats out of alignment, and the fabric wrinkled again (horizontally).  Making fancy pleats is boring but worth it.  I love 'em.  But I don't love them enough to know that I couldn't sit in a chair or a car for 20 minutes without wreaking havoc.  Even hanging on a hanger messed up my glorious pleats.  This idea will have to wait for a more appropriate fabric.  This girl knows when she's beat.  Moving on.  I ruffled the fabric and made two rows of ruching to go over it.  Not nearly so awesome, but I'm content that I've achieved the hairy, hairy anteater look.
(Ruching is merely pinned in this picture.  I wanted to make sure it looked straight.  And yes, the skirt sort of trains in the back)


2 -  The trim.  Here is yet another bad photo, showing the finished trim.  I sewed it onto the overskirt by machine, one layer at a time.  Mistake.  The white fringe stretched.  The satin black ribbon wouldn't give on the bias at all.  The brown lace stretched more than the white fringe.  So yes, I ripped it all out and sewed it on by hand.  I had to make careful snips in the black ribbon to get it around curves.  And the bodice has a lot of curves.

Here I am, hand sewing, in bed, watching Naruto Shippoden with my son, with a cat on my head.  (for the record, watching anything with subtitles while sewing is a really bad idea)


3 -  Fitting the muslin too snug.  Oh, yes I did.  Robin helped with this crime.  I flatlined my wool bodice with denim left over from my son's Assassin's Creed cosplay, plus I made a pleated center front that added bulk.   Luckily, I didn't cut all the seams to match the muslin so I could still close the front.

4 - Horizontal pleating on the center front.  This isn't a mistake.  I love it.  But ohhhh, the time.  Actually, these aren't pleats, they are tucks that are sewn in.  I sewed the tucks into the fabric before I cut it.  Otherwise it would have been 'change-of-plan' #4.  I'm not good enough to figure out how to measure for tucks on a curved edge before I cut.

Here is a sample - and no, it wasn't finished at this point.

I also started making a hat because just look at that anteater!  I need to have a hat.  I've made two other hats so I got brave and made up a pattern myself.  Lucky for me, feathers and ribbon hide a multitude of hubris.  Here's the hat pattern, and the pinned together decoration so far.  More to come.

 I still have a decent amount of work to do.  I need to fit and sew the sleeves.  I need to bone the bodice.  And I need to sew down the ruching on the underskirt.

And of course, I need to finish the hat.  Here are some views of the work in progress.  Please excuse the mess in the background.  Homework was being done on the floor all around me.  And it's entirely possible that Richard Armitage is on the TV in the last photo.  Because why not?  I'll be back to write a final post with a picture of the dress (and me in it).

And it's done.  Things got seriously annoying at the end.  Finishing work can be that way, can't it...

And I didn't quite finish it because I didn't get all the boning in so it is a bit rumpled in spots.  There is just something off in the boob region that I will have to fix.  But it's Christmas, we're all sick, and I am outta time.  So here it is:

I made a top hat! - L

I made the man a top hat.  I used the Lynn McMasters pattern.   I chose 100% plastic dupioni silk and got some dayglo pink halloween print flannel for mulling.  Who doesn't want to hide that print inside a man's hat?







I made the buckram frame, mulled it in pink, and tried to glue polyester fabric which is just...  ick.  It ain't perfect, but it's done.  The man is a sweetie who is more excited that he has custom made clothes, than that the items are perfect.  So...  Ta Da!