Update on Robin's First "A Gatsby Summer Afternoon" dress

Roger and I at a subsequent 4th of July Picnic, before the dress fell apart

Gatsby has come and gone, but Lisa is forcing me to post. As readers may recall, my first attempt at a rereleased Simplicity pattern from that era ended up in the muslin trash heap as a total disaster. So it was back to pattern shopping. I ended up with Reconstructing History's 1930s Ladies' Day Frock with Jacket #1317 and 1930's Ladies Princess seamed Slip which you can look at here: http://store.reconstructinghistory.com/rh1317-1930s-day-dress-and-jacket.html.  The site won't let me copy a picture from it.

I added an inch to the hips and all went well with this one. Some sewing techniques, like folding under the seam allowance and top stitching it down, were new to me but easily done once my modern brain got over it. The pattern has one omission in that it did not have an opening in the back neck, although the picture showed it.  I just put one in.  Lisa draped a better jabot for me (Thanks, Lisa) and that was that. Lisa also decorated my hat with stuff we bought in the Los Angeles fabric district when we were on a Costume College Shopping Safari. That stuff on the hat is actually a crinoline strip!

Here's the final product.  This dress fits me better than anything I've ever made. Oh, and the shoes are from American Duchess.  You can't see them, but they are great.  Love her shoes. The gloves I found on a trip to Europe in a fabulous glove shop that Roger spotted (He's good that way).

Post script to the post - the first time I had washed the dress, the seams started coming apart, even though I finished each edge. The dress is now unwearable and I am sad. I made a new Gatsby dress but it is so ugly I can't bring myself to write about it yet, let alone put up a picture. Oh, well.....C'est la vie!

Regency Dance Dress and Turban Finally Finished! - Robin

 Here's the final product of my first Regency foray. After making the stays and the dress last year, I had yet to finish the closings and the hat. Such a procrastinator! But as we have a Regency Ball coming up at the end of February, I got myself in gear and finished.

The dress is from Simplicity Costumes 4055, unmodified except for fit. The back is not historically accurate as I was only interested in getting something together to dance in. I ended up with too much back and overlapped it with double buttons.  Originally I had used hooks and eyes, but they popped open the minute I moved. The bow closes with hook and eye so it will hang correctly while dancing.

Now that my hair is l-o-o-ng, I really don't want to style it because all the curls will fall out the minute I sweat, so a turban was the answer.  But which one?? The answer came from a Costume College class Lisa took - Easy Regency Turban. However, mine was NOT that easy.  Here's why......

The back of the non-historic dress

The not-so-easy Regency Turban

starting the weave

the body of the hat

laying out the stripes

 I made the material for the turban out of ribbon bonded on to Pellon. The stuff I had was a bit stiff but I did it anyway. For the band,  I did it in stripes and machine embroidered the edge lines.  For the body of the turban, I wove the ribbon into a plaid that Lisa called "Sort of a Space Invader Plaid". This was a technique I saw in Threads Magazine a while ago and had wanted to try on something.  Evidently this should NOT have been the project to try it on.  This turban is supposed to be soft, malleable.  Mine is decidedly NOT. At first, all I could think of was "OMG, I look like a deranged Baker!", but as I sewed on the feathers and the jewel (from a hair scrunchie), I began to feel kinder towards it.  I will get some fake hair to make into tendrils to attach to the inside of the hat to frame my face, but as of now, it is wearable.  And by the way, the dog did not eat the pattern until after I had finished the turban. C'est la vie!

embroidery on the stripes

1830's corded petticoat - L - HSF Challenge #1

Did my my first HSF/HSM challenge!  I've been lurking forever.  It seems the challenges line up maybe sorta good for me this year.  We shall see how I do.  Anyhow, here it is, 1830's corded petticoat.
No pattern.  100" wide which is likely wider than it needs to be, but I'm pretty tall so I want to consider proportions.  I finally used cotton organdy which I now love more than anything. I really waffled about the cording.  I decided to use cotton cord (3mm clothesline from the hardware store), and enclose it in a facing.  True to every warning I read, the layers slip while sewing.  I finally resigned myself to having the facing a bit twisted and some bunching between layers.  I looked at a lot of pictures and read about a lot of how many cords and how high to cord.  I thought I could get away with about 30 rows, but ended up with 45.  This was determined by weight, how it looked as I worked, and by the overwhelming tedium of sewing interminable circles.  Just to make myself believe that there was a lot of thoughtfulness in this, I made each section 3 rows less than the section below.  My sections are (bottoms up) 15, 12, 9, 6, 3.  I have every intention of making a regular organdy petticoat to wear over this.  Just not right now.

During pinning and marking my cat would climb inside, and since he objected to being moved, there are already some little holes in it.  Just like a real antique!

Cotton organdy is very light and crisp.  If it gets a little wobbly, a quick iron sorts it right out.  Now I want to make all the pretty Gibson girl dresses.  Don't hold your breath.

Sewing cording in circles really makes me stabby, but if that wasn't enough, with just 5 rows to go, I was stricken by food poisoning/stomach virus that threatened to turn me inside out.  I've spent the last few days living on orange Gatorade and white rice.  No coffee.  So it's really a surprise that no family members were killed in the making of this petticoat.

Next up, I need to finish the WW1/Outlander mashup and put that to bed (for now).  And repair the Attack on Titan cosplay because we are going, en masse to 'Escape the Walled City'.  After I do all the laundry.

While I was working - L

I'm still working on my two bigger projects, but I've done a few other things.  I'm being driven crazy trying to modify a 1930's dress that I'm pattern-testing.  I woke up this morning with another idea on how to make it fit.  I have to size it up quite a bit and the FBA is in the center front.  Every time I try it, the center 'V' is way too deep or the bodice sags badly under the bust.  But I think I figured it out.  More to come.

I'm participating in the Lowell Mill dress group on FB, so I'm making a corded petticoat.  So boring and yet so frustrating.  I'm fairly confident that 1830's dress will not be flattering and the fabric is lovely yet frumpy.  I just really want to do it.  I don't even have any place to wear it, except maybe Dickens Fair.






















And I got my first paid commission.  A friend wanted a 1920's party dress.  She didn't need to be historically accurate and doesn't like the rectangular 20's bodice.  Lucky for me, she had an amazing sequined minidress.  I made a simple skirt with a silver sequined handkerchief hem overlay.  She also had a small feathered hair clip that we took over-the-top.  She's happy and I'm happy.

Last Minute Throwdown - L

I've been working on something.  I'm not making much progress, but I'm working.  It's a fantasy costume comprised of things I have laying around.  I started a post, but I lost access to my pictures due to a power cable malfunction.  It is soon to be resolved.  Separately, my son informed me that he was going to be William Lloyd Garrison for his Historical Figures character.  It's a large part of his grade for this quarter.  Students choose a name out of a hat and do a presentation in costume.  Most kids don't have mothers with time or sewing experience so they just need to make an effort to dress sort of like their character.  There were some inspired ideas.  One kid wrapped a white dish towel around his head to represent a wig.  I made something fast and relatively easy.  And best of all, it looks like I spent a LOT of time on it.  A tailcoat!  (not at all a proper tailcoat)

I had a 'sort of' jacket pattern for the Attack on Titan jacket.  I used that.  I made curved darts in the back for fitting and to make it look like a tailored coat. I made the tails by looking at pictures, because they are just curved flaps. I made the collar smaller, and crossed it over in front and added buttons.  I made a VERY simple vest.  The kind where you start with rectangles and cut big arm hole curves, a neck curve, a V and add buttons.  I made a cravat (8 x 36 inch rectangle).

The pants are from his suit.  The shirt is a regular shirt with the collar pressed up and tabs ironed into the front.  The top hat and cane are things we have lying around.  I didn't get a good picture because he just doesn't stand still for longer than 2 seconds.

What he had to say?  'I look GOOD'
What his friends said?  'Overkill much?'

I probably won't be back to this blog for a month.  Robin and I are taking a 'girl's trip' soon, and until then I REALLY need to clean the sewing room.  Last time I started to clean, I ended up down the rabbit hole of making a fantasy costume.  Yes, it will burn down the stash, but it is making one hell of a mess in the process.  And the holiday season is coming.  That time when the sewing room has to fulfill it's purpose as 'guest bedroom'.

Stuff that got done - L

 For a year or so, I keep hearing that I should meet the 'other' Lisa.  The costumer for a bunch of local theaters.  And then my son got a part in a local Shakespeare production of Midsummer's Night's Dream where she is costuming.  We met.  We talked at high speed for an hour.  I agreed to help with some bonnets for Oliver and the costumes for Oberon's boys.  She gave me the plain bonnets and a box of trim scraps.  I gave her back these bonnets.  The plain red bonnet is what the forms look like before trim goes on.  They are actually not bad!  And cheap, on Amazon.

I like to call this project 'Hurrah for Hot Glue', though some of it is actually stitched.

If you're not into bonnets, please scroll down.

One of Oberon's boys.  Tree bark fabric from Spoonflower that matches the trees in the park where the performance takes place.  And, for the record, when someone says 'Do you need more fabric?' the answer is always 'YES'.

These things are knitting needle cases.
I made up the pattern myself because I'm cheap.

The mustard 'cotton' and purple is a gift for my knitting girl.  The grey/brown and winter foliage is for me.  And for the first time I can recall, something that is meant to organize ALSO takes up less space than the box the knitting and crochet needles were stored in.

There, I'm sorta caught up.  Ive been dealing with family stuff and vacation plans.  So see y'll soon!

All the pins came falling out - L

Another sewing day!  We are headed to Costume College soon and realized we have nothing to wear! Yeah, we left it a little late.  I need to fix the Anteater skirt and then I can wear that.  Robin needed to take in her 1880's ball gown bodice.  We got that done.  We also worked on our Regency dresses.  Robin had her Regency dress in good shape for final fittings.  We got that done and she even cut out sleeves and sewed them in.  Her fabric is a sheer white cotton dotted swiss with an ivory under layer. Very pretty.

YES, I started this exactly one month ago.  And never finished it.  Here I go again....

We are using the Simplicity pattern based on Sense and Sensibility.  Why? Because Robin bought it a while back during one of those $1 pattern sales, and before we decided we have trouble fitting Sense and Sensibility to us.  Now we know that Robin doesn't have much of a problem, but I'm still 'challenged'.  The back was too big for both of us.  We both trimmed the side back piece.  Later, I also took a LOT out of the center back.  Both of us felt the volume of the skirt was meager.  And we each added about 4 inches.  I would only recommend this pattern for fragile young things.  For the more womanly, expect to do a few muslins.  And yes, that is frustrating when you are making a muslin dress.  Any-hoodle, moving forward...

I had my underlayer cut and sewn, only to discover that I didn't really need it.  My fabric was heavier than I remembered.  Also stretchier.  And therein lies my tale of woe.  Beware, my friends, of cotton gauze.  No pins shall stay where they are placed, if they stay at all.  I took the underlayer apart and used it as my pattern for the gauze.  Then I tried to baste, only to discover that there were no pins.  Where do they go??  All over the floor.  Once I basted, I tried it on and it was utterly unfit-able.  It just kept stretching.  Sooooo, back to the underlining and sewing it all together again.  Once I got them together the stretch was under control but the back had magically grown.  So I re-did the center back. And it STILL seemed huge.  Now we were scared.  (BTW, I did manage to get the chest mostly right.  A little too long but that was easy to manage).  

Fitting text, no sleeves

At this point we did something very smart.  We left the bodice tentatively pinned and moved on the skirt.  And woe was me again!  My fabric is plaid and while I made no particular effort to match the plaid, I really felt it needed to be straight across the horizantal line at the underbust.  The avoid causing sea-sickness in others.  The required gathering, basting, trying on, pleating, re-basting, etc etc.  It took seven tries to get it sorta, maybe correct.  At this point, Costume College was looming and I still envisioned having this dress to wear.  I would text a picture to Robin and she would text 'nope', 'better', 'still not there', and 'don't give up!'.

To keep this long story from getting any longer, we got them done except for closures.  Robin's snaps were sewn but too small, so as soon as she took a breath, her dress fell off.  My hooks got sewn but not the bars.  I needed a last fitting to resolve the 'magic' center back.  And Costume College was full of great classes leaving neither time nor energy to do fittings.  So the dresses are done, but we have nothing to wear them to.

All sewn up and no place to go....

Gatsby dress

That said, my Gatsby dress was well complimented (mostly on the vibrant fabric) so there's that.

 Here is a snap shot of JUST the hanging part of my Costume College wardrobe.

And an inadequate  picture of the pile of shoe boxes, petticoats, stays and hawaiian shirts piled on my suitcase.

Part of the reason I wanted my Regency dress finished was to wear it to my 'Quick and Easy Regency Turban' class.   It was, in fact, just as quick and easy as billed.  Except the part where I'm not finished.  User error.

I'm still coasting on the CoCo high.  I bought button molds to make thread covered buttons.  I got parchment paper to melt plastic into fabric.  I bought armor scales to knit.  I haven't done any of it.  Except a quick trial run of knitted armor.  I'm looking forward to making it into something, once I get the gauge right.

Tomorrow, probably, maybe, I'll post the other things I did in the last month.  All theatrical, and none of it paid.  And then something for ME.  And a present for an offspring.