NEXT!!! July 31, 2008

Now that I’m done with the last party I need to get started on the next one. There is a Mad Hatter Tea Party in the middle of June at my church. I’m going to be making a full Victorian costume for it…including the ridiculously big hat with feathers on it! I’m abysmal at drawing and costume sketches are far beyond my skill. I can see it in my head, but I can’t put it down on paper…so I’m just going to link you to the general ideas that I’m going for. This is the bodice I’m going to make and here is the skirt. I picked up some green and blue plaid for $1/yd at Joann’s (picture below) to trim the bodice and for the overskirt…I can’t remember the special Victorian name for these skirts, but there is one. I got solid green cotton also at Joann’s (on sale for $2 off/yd, making it $1.99…I’m proud of my bargains) to make the underskirt and for the primary fabric on the bodice. I haven’t decided exactly what to do for the hat yet, I’ll pick up some buckram next payday to get started on it. The first step, though, is the corset. More on that soon.

Hat work June 9, 2008

So…there’s a Mad Hatter Tea Party coming up at my church, complete with hat competitions. And what says big, gaudy, fantastic hat better than Victorian? Well…Landsknecht…but that’s a whole ‘nother story and they don’t sell those big huge feathers at the dollar store.

Anyway…so I’ve been working on a Victorian outfit for the Tea this weekend. Here’s a brief run-down of the bits and pieces and their progress…then I’ll talk about the hat. Please bear in mind that my concern is not being completely period…it’s looking nice and having a great hat.

Bloomers-swiped from an Antebellum gown I made 8 years ago

Chemise-My Italian under-corset chemise

Corset-My hemp-boned Italian corset…the lines are surprisingly close to Victorian, but I can breath in it

Corset cover-I haven’t even cut it out yet…this might get skipped for time concerns

Bustle-I found a picture of a “travel bustle” on-line and am roughly basing my bustle on it. Mine is a base of fabric, with ruffles sewn on it to hold the skirts out. My bum is pretty big so I don’ think I need a huge bustle.

Petticoat-the upper part of the skirt is sewn together, the ruffle for the bottom needs to be gathered into the bottom of the upper skirt, I need to figure out the waits pleats, and set it into the waistband

Skirt-ugghgghg…I need to pleat the skirt ruffle and I’m NOT excited about it. Maybe I’ll invest in a pleating machine…the main skirt pieces are sewn together, I need to figure out the waist pleats, set it into the waistband, and add the ruffle around the bottom once it’s pleated.

Bodice-the lining and outer fabric are sewn together. I need to add boning channels to the lining (I’m going to use bias tape for the channels, the boning will be zip ties), add the contrast guards to the front of the bodice, put together the sleeves, then put it all together.

And that brings us to the whole point of this exercise…the HAT. Now…let me forewarn you…a milliner, I am not. I’m faking it and just trying to make it look right. If you have millinery experience, I would welcome a lesson. I purchased 5 yards of buckram from Joann’s to be safe. I cut out the top and sides of the crown from buckram and sewed them together, basically make a pillbox hat. Here are the two pieces of the crown laid out on the outer fabric for cutting. After putting it together I decided that it needed to be half as tall.

I then started on the brim of the hat. It is currently standing at a 10 inch brim…the entire hat will have a 26 inch diameter. The brim will be a double thickness of buckram, with some sort of additional stiffening in it. I purchased 16 gauge copper wire and I’ll play around with that tonight. Then it’s just sewing together the outer fabric, covering the hat, and attaching the flowers, feathers, and ribbon. I purchased blue satin ribbon, peacock feathers, white/cream feathers, cream fabric calla lilies, and plastic grapes to decorate the hat with. I don’t know if I’ll use all of that, but I wanted to have it on hand just in case I wanted it.

I’ll be updating a lot this week as I force my way through this project. Hopefully I’ll get the skirt and bodice done tonight.

Andrea’s lesson of the day:

No matter how behind you are…always remember to eat.

OMG…I said something… June 9, 2008

I know…I’ve been an absentee bloglord.  Most of my creative energy has gone into baking delicious things and worrying about immigrations stuff.  I made these for my newly minted Maid-of-Honor…she said yes and promptly asked her husband to do the cooking for my reception (he’s an amazing chef).  The recipe for these treats is from Tana-licious.  They are modified cake balls.  I did them with chocolate cake and cream cheese frosting, then covered them with yellow and purple candy melts.  They came out delicious, but VERY rich.

I’m working on some big updates on my Victorian outfit…I’ve spent the last two days working on it and snapping pictures.  Hopefully I’ll get up a post about the hat tomorrow.

NEXT!!! May 5, 2008

Now that I’m done with the last party I need to get started on the next one.  There is a Mad Hatter Tea Party in the middle of June at my church.  I’m going to be making a full Victorian costume for it…including the ridiculously big hat with feathers on it!  I’m abysmal at drawing and costume sketches are far beyond my skill.  I can see it in my head, but I can’t put it down on paper…so I’m just going to link you to the general ideas that I’m going for.  This is the bodice I’m going to make and here is the skirt.  I picked up some green and blue plaid for $1/yd at Joann’s (picture below) to trim the bodice and for the overskirt…I can’t remember the special Victorian name for these skirts, but there is one.  I got solid green cotton also at Joann’s (on sale for $2 off/yd, making it $1.99…I’m proud of my bargains) to make the underskirt and for the primary fabric on the bodice.  I haven’t decided exactly what to do for the hat yet, I’ll pick up some buckram next payday to get started on it.  The first step, though, is the corset.  More on that soon.

Here’s the fabric with a quarter on it, so you can see the scale of the plaid.

You can call me flower if you want to May 5, 2008

I was absolutely amazed that I managed to get my costume for the party done. I showed up a bit later than I had intended to…but it was totally worth it. The costume was very simple…I went as a flower and was very glad, because my suspicions turned out to be correct…fairy wings EVERYWHERE! Lots of very beautiful and well done fairy wings, but I wanted to be a little bit different and I succeeded. I apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures, I have a crappy little digital camera and I’m taking them myself. Once my fiance is here I’ll have better pictures because I’ll make him take them.

I made a tu-tu out of alternating layers of dark and light green tulle, four total layers made from 8 yards of tulle. I cut the tulle into 18-inch long segments that were the full width of the tulle (54 inches for the light green, 72 inches for the dark green). Each layer was four of these pieces gathered along the top. Since I was in a hurry I didn’t bother to stitch them together at the ends of the pieces and you couldn’t tell any difference once the skirt was done. I then whip-stitched the four layers together around the waist to hold the gathers roughly in place while I was wearing it. I added a hook and eye to the ends and that was it.

I made a wrap around skirt to go on top of the tulle. It was a really simple circle skirt…all you folks who believed you’d never use high school math…here’s your opportunity. I didn’t want to gather the waist into a waist band, so I had to cut it out so that the inner circle was my waist circumference and the outer circle was the length it was supposed to be. Measure your waist, divide by 3.14, then divide that number by 2. This is the radius of your waist. Which means you can now use a compass to draw out your circle skirt…or go the easy way. Cut a string about one inch longer than your waist radius, tie one end around a pin and one end around a pencil…stick the pin in your fabric and use it to draw a circle. Now all you have to do is measure out from the waist circle however long you want the skirt to be. I wanted my skirt to wrap around, so I cut out a half circle and a three quarter circle, sewed it together at one end, then put a hook’n'eye on the underneath side and grommets to tie it with ribbon on the outside. I cut the fabric in sort of a petal-ly curve on the front overlap.

Then I made the bodice. I used the Simplicity #8715 bodice pattern. I’ve made this bodice before and it’s a good fit if you just want a fantasy/faire/costume bodice. If you’re trying to make something more authentic this is not it. I like to make my bodices in three layers. I flat-line the lining and inter-lining together around the top edges, then sew boning channels into it. That way you don’t see the boning channels once it’s all put together. Since this was a costume bodice I boned it with plastic zip ties (get them in bulk in the electrical aisle of your local home improvement store), if they’re the narrow ones, put at least two in each channel. I boned this bodice about twice as heavily as the pattern recommends. I’m a well-endowed girl and I wanted it to be a self-supporting bodice. I put in grommets to lace it up and put it on and found…..it was WAY too big. My fiance pointed out that if you aren’t used to wearing really tight corsets and you were going to wear a bra underneath this bodice you would probably be fine with the size it ended up. I wanted it tight and supportive, so back to the sewing machine I went to take it in by about two inches at each side seam. Now it fit fine and off to the party I went. (the front of the bodice is actually straight…I took pictures the next day and the front got a bit of a crease in it during the party…this is a danger with zip ties, especially when it isn’t solidly boned across the front. The crease will relax a lot once I pack the bodice away flat, but be prepared for it if you’re using these to bone with. I will go on a brief boning tirade…do NOT use the plastic boning by the yard crap that you get at the craft store for anything that needs to be supportive. It will crease the first time you wear it and the creases will never come out.) (Another note…I’m not sure why the bodice looks so beige in this picture, it’s the same fabric as the skirt.)

I want to throw in a quick note about lacing. When I first started doing historical costuming I did that standard crossover lacing that you see on everything. A lot of women like to leave an inch or two gap up the front so that you can see the chemise underneath…I can’t speak for smaller ladies, but I always had an incredibly difficult time getting that gap to remain even throughout the day. Inevitably it would be touching at my waist and gaped wide at my bust. I now do spiral lacing on my period accurate stuff (we’ll talk about that another day…there are lots of good resources out there on how to do it and how to set your lacing holes for it)…but on fantasy stuff like this costume I take extra time and lace it like the below picture. Just start from the bottom and cross over to the next hole and go in from the top. Cross straight across to the hole opposite it and bring it up from the bottom, do the same with the other end of the ribbon. Once your done every hole (except the top two) will have the ribbon going through it twice…lots of extra work, but definitely worth it if you want your bodice secure.

Lack of batteries means no pictures May 2, 2008

Obviously I didn’t update my post last night with pictures…I got home and found that the batteries in my camera were dead and I didn’t have any more. I’ll stop at the store sometime soon and get some. I did work a little bit on my costume for tonight (I had choir practice, so I didn’t get as much done on it as I wanted). Tonight I’m going to run home, cut out the bodice, the chemise, and the underneath layer of the skirt, then go to my friend’s graduation. Then I’ll rush home from the graduation, sew stuff together really fast, then go to the party.

Last night I whipped the four layers of tulle together at the waist so that it’s ready to be attached to the fabric layers of skirt. I have learned something important…tulle isn’t as horrible to work with as I was afraid it would be. I gathered it around the waistline and the whipping together was extremely simple. I used the really coarse tulle (usually labeled as netting) because it was cheaper. The costume altogether will cost about $15. 3 yards of chemise fabric that was on the Walmart $1/yd table. About 3 yards of bodice and skirt fabric that was on the Home Fabrics $1/yd table about two years ago, then 8 yards of netting that was just under $1/yd. I’ll lightly bone the bodice with zip ties (purchased in bulk at Home Depot a few years ago before I started hemp boning my corsets).

Hopefully there will be pictures tonight! They make everything more exciting

Last minute costume May 1, 2008

I realized earlier this week that my friend’s birthday is this weekend. She throws the mother of all costume parties every year for it. This year the theme is Midsummer Night’s Dream. I can’t show up without a costume, so I’ve been racing around trying to decide what to be and how to make it happen. I didn’t want to be a fairy, because I suspect there will be quite a few of them running around the party. I finally decided to be a flower…a white one, since I have about 10 years of white fabric sitting around just waiting to have something done with it. I’ll be using as little of that fabric as possible, because it’s intended to make a white Italian dress eventually (I’ve had it since long before my engagement, but I’m suddenly thinking that we might have to have a celebratory party at an SCA event sometime near my wedding).

The plan for the flower costume is pretty simple. I purchased 8 yards of green tulle in two different shades. I gathered that into a four-layer skirt that hits just above my knees. I’ll make a simple under-neath layer to keep the tulle off my skin (I’m allergic to nylon and I don’t want hives!) and a make petals of the white fabric for over the tulle. Then a white bodice for on top et voila! We’ll see how the bodice turns out before I decide whether to make a chemise for under it or not. I’ll add some pictures of the skirt so far once I get home from work. I’ll probably be up late working on it tonight so that it will be done for tomorrow.

Camicia blackwork April 26, 2008

So I decided to try my hand at blackwork for the very first time…you’d think that, being a beginner, I would have cut myself some slack…but noOOOooo…I was all “I’ll just count the threads!” I’ve learned a couple of important lessons in my first bit of blackwork experience. I should have drawn a straight line to follow for that very first pass. I think the problem was primarily that this was my very first time doing it and it was definitely easier once I got the hang of it. Hopefully the other wrist will come out better…and either way, they mostly get hidden underneath the sleeves anyway.

There were a couple of little things I learned about doing this particular pattern. On the first pass of the laced section in the middle I should not have done the tops of the long sections. They get passed over again when I do the other half (I hope that made sense). Here are some images of the embroidery so far. First is an all-over glance, second is a closeup sorry about the blurriness…click on the pictures for a bigger version.

Btw…I got this blackwork pattern from the Elizabethan Blackwork page. This is the pattern I am using. I added a glass, gold bead in each flower.

Enjoy!

The project April 26, 2008

I’ve decided to start a BIG project made almost entirely from fabric that I have on hand. I have several inspiration pictures, but this is the primary goal:

She’s always struck me as a little bit creepy in this picture…it’s something about her eyes, I’m not quite sure what (I don’t think it’s just that they point in slightly different directions). Anyway…I’ve loved her attire in this portrait since the first time I saw it. The headpiece and jewelry are simply fantastic and I adore the sleeves on this dress.

I haven’t quite decided if I’ll take the easy wait out and make them out of strips of fabric or if I’ll go all out and do proper slashes…I suppose it depends on how much energy I have after everything else. I’ll leave the sleeves for last because I think they’ll be the most work and I don’t want to get stuck on them and ignore the rest of the project. I’m already working on the embroidery for the cuffs of the camicia (images coming in a later post…I might get around to it tonight) because I just wanted to get started. There will be blackwork around the cuffs at least. The neckline will either be embroidered to match the cuffs or I might get really lazy and use some trim. I think the trim would better simulate what she’s got going on. On the other hand, I’m trying to increase my nice, versatile Italian under-things and I’d like to make this camicia interchangable with my other Italian gowns. I’ve got a bit of embroidery to go on the cuffs before I HAVE to decide.

I have some lovely hot pink silk that I bought at JoAnn’s for about $3/yd. It is BRIGHT pink and I have some cloisonne beads that match it. I think it will look lovely with the beads and embroidery in a green that matches the beads.

And now…back to embroidering!

I am… April 26, 2008

In the real world I am Andrea.  I love historical costuming and baking.  I play in the SCA, but I’ve been on a several year break.  I’m planning my wedding to my fiance, who currently lives in Canada.  We’re trying to get through the hell that is the US immigrations system, for more info see my immigrations page.

In the SCA I have a bit of multiple persona disorder. My two primary loves within the SCA are costuming and dancing, they change around a lot over which one is my primary focus at that particular event or moment. My two most visible personas are based on my love of those two things. Let me introduce you to them.

Maysun Nura al Ishfahani al Samarkandiyya is a noblewoman of late 16th century Persia. She has a deep love for Sufi poetry, particularly Hafiz. She can usually be found wherever there is good music, firelight, and dancing going on. She has an affinity for wearing lots of colors all at once and long flowing sleeves.

My alternate persona, who strangely enough is usually called Maysun as well…fancy that…is a Venetian cortigiana onesta, an intellectual or honest courtesan. She is well educated and independent. She loves to dance, learn, and has an affinity for good food.