June Bride

June is the month of weddings so I have put up a wedding display at the library where I work. I display a new dress each month and this was a bit of a problem at first because I don't have a wedding gown so I altered an existing dress to make it look like a wedding gown. Crafty I am.
  I altered  my Han's dress (designed by an amazing artist juliajm15). I covered all the gold with white satin and lace, removed the black velvet ribbon and had the emblem on the front of the dress with a bouquet of flowers.

 So with a display one obviously needs props and accessories. I make a wedding cake out of playdough (make the dough from scratch too, who says I can't cook?) and painted and proudly displayed it on a cake stand I made.

With each dress I change the display table to show coordinating items for a matching theme. It is also to help circulation of the items. This is what my display next to the dress form looked like. We have books, magazines, non-fiction DVD's, and fiction DVD's and it's all for free!!! Just bring them back on time or there will be a late fee on your card. Yup.

Back to the dress. I styled a cheep (like wal-mart after Halloween sale cheep) wig which actually turned out very nicely. The tiara was a gift from one of my friends for a birthday a few years ago.

 I also make the veil to which I added something blue.

Each of the "diamonds" are set individually and are double sided to give extra sparkle. The edge was hand beaded and is not perfect because I decided I wanted a pattern after I had already gone around with one bead type and then wanted to add another and it escalated quickly from there.

And that is my non wedding dress. I hope you enjoyed the show. Until next time.

Lily of the Valley

So I work at one of the most amazing places! I usually dress up in a new costume for the Holidays at work provided I get clearance first. I haven't been told no yet.
  Well back in January our Director bought a mannequin that for the library so my dresses could go on display. Every month I put up a new dress. for February it was my Belle inspired dress , March Ellen displayed an amazing Celtic dance dress she had made for her daughter's solo, April was Cinderella dress, May (what this post is about) was my new creation Lily of the Valley, and June was my Hanna dress that was designed by juliajm15 I just covered the gold with lace and took off the black ribbon.

So my lily of the valley dress is pretty cool. I didn't think it was going to work for a while but it came together and I'm happy with the outcome. I would have liked a stronger wire around the petals but they didn't have what I needed at the store so I took the next best thing.

The top is a wrap around with extra long ties so they can go around me a few times. The sleeves are supposed to  be like the smaller flowers on the stem. The skirt consists of 6 petal shaped sections that have wire sewn around the edge and a piece of boning in the center tip to help hold the shape. The petals are all tacked together to avoid any embarrassing moments.

I think it looks a little more like a flower when I'm sitting and the petals are pushed up and out like the real flower.

This is the dress form that my boss purchased for the display. We also have a long table next to the dress form that we put coordinating things (like books, movies,& magazines) that go along with the displayed dress.

I have a lot of fun with this and people seem to enjoy seeing a new display each month so that makes me happy. It's also nice that the dresses aren't just hanging in my costume closet doing nothing. I made them because I wanted them and thought they were pretty and it's nice that my boss appreciates my hobby enough to have me display them. Awesome Boss Award!!  That's all for now but there will be more soon as my brothers are taking me to the Renaissance Festival and they are getting new costumes....I hope...

Catch Up

    I finally have a laptop again!!  I've been without one since end of September beginning of October but thanks to my wonderful brother I am back!! 

This post will mostly be pictures of projects I have completed but was unable to post. Well, not all of them. The SD card that I was using is missing along with many of my pictures. Sigh. It's a good thing I have a back up card! Bad part is I only have a few pictures.

Okay so kinda funny...I have pictures of the shoes I  did for my nieces for Christmas but not the dresses I made that match.  

 

This is an embroidered vest I made for my friends birthday. The picture came from The Great Book of Dragon Patterns. I copied the page then poked holes all around the outline. I then took the paint pen and let it soak through the holes to leave a pattern to follow.  It took a few days to complete but it was fun!

The last pictures I have are of my reversible vest. It was supposed to be steampunk/pirate -ish  but as it went along it developed into a Regina Evil Queen wanna be. Never saw that coming! But  despite that I really love the vest. It is a great fit and I LOVE the high/low neck. The fabric draped on the form will be made into a skirt and top to go with the vest. It seems to soften the hard look and I like the contrast of fabrics.

 

And here is the reversed side. 

That's all I have for now. Hopefully I'll find the other SD card soon and will be able to fill in some gaps. 

Sunday Dress/ Test Run

   I needed to do a test run of this patter that I wanted to use for  my next costume,and since my mom is always asking when will I make something I can 'really wear' this was the perfect time to make us both happy.  I used Butterick pattern 6018, and really like the pattern and how the dress turned out. I had to raise the neckline about a inch and a half but it still wasn't quite enough so I added a bit of lace to make it more modest.

It has a side zipper that was a pain to get to work with the velvet. If you get the stitching to close to the teeth the velvet jams it and it won't move. sigh. But the dress is warm. I also added a bit of lace to the front waist to dress it up a bit. I had thought of making just a small batch of flowers for there but decided that lace would look better.

IS love how it sits high on the back of my neck. It makes me feel regal and very posh!

       The pattern was very easy to follow and it has a great fit. I think it's going to become one of my favorites.  

Riddler 1950's Style!

    This Halloween I've decided on a Batman theme. Funny thing is I'm not dressing like batman...or batgirl as the case would be. I saw some dresses on pinterest that I fell in love with and am going to work on Friday and Saturday as the Riddler's daughter and the Jokers Daughter. Best part is they are done in 1950's style so it's like a double costume!  The ridder style dress took a day and half to complete and I do like how it turned out.

    The first thing I had to do was to hep the poor tiny crinoline.  It was so flat it hardly did a thing and when I held it up next to my red one it was very sad and maybe 1/3 of the size.

  Here it is after adding two layers. There is about 300 inches in the bottom tier. It's not the best addition job but it did make it where it fluffs the dress out.

 
   I used a basic circle skirt pattern for the base and added 7 yards of tulle to add more fullness to the skirt.

 
I measured wrong when I cut the tulle though and it's about an inch to short so I had to tack parts of the bottom down so it looked like it was at least close to the same length.

After I had the skirt assembled I drafter the belt for the dress and added light boning.

 
After I had the bodice sewn I attached it to the skirt and put the side zipper in. It's going to take some wiggling to get out of but that's okay. I can do that.

And here it is all done! There are 16 large "?"  and 15 small ones on the skirt. I divided them among two layers so it would have some extra dimension. and of course the big center front one had to have sparkles!! One of the hardest parts is trying to make the question marks look random and not planned.

Back view.

And that's everything. I hoped you enjoyed this look at my Riddler costume. Now I just have to think of a name to use as the daughter of the Riddler. Hhmmm.

Autumn Fairy

    I finished the Autumn fairy dress just in time for "peak week" unfortunately not all the trees got the memo.
    The dress is made of two pieces.  The under-dress and the tunic. It took forever to get fabrics that didn't clash. Surprising how hard that actually was this time round. The sleeves consisted of three layers, yellow, yellow to orange ombre, and red.  I loved the sleeves.  The tunic laced up on the sides and the leaves were glued on with E6000, you can still smell the glue faintly as it is STRONG stuff. Seriously. use it in a well ventilated area.

    I also found a really cool online site that lets you touch up photos. I then had a lot of fun as you can see in the above photo. Everything is black and white except for me. I tried it the other way too just for giggles but it just didn't look quite right.

Sewing Space ReVamped!

   Sorry I just couldn't resist.I'm not really into vampires but that was just too good to pass up.
 Anyway...the reason I haven't posted in a while is because I have been at 4 camps this summer and in between that I have been re-doing my sewing space. Whew! so glad it's done and I can share with you that I haven't actually been lazing around doing nothing.

 I sat down to sew a medieval/fantasy inspired dress four weeks ago only to have to stop because my sewing space was driving me crazy and stopping my creative process. I hate when that happens. As I started to clean my sewing space I started thinking that it didn't just need cleaned it needed a make over! so the research started,  things like "what's the best way to store fabric?" and "sewing room organization ideas" are just some of the things I went over on pinterest.  One had a folding suggestion which I was VERY skeptical of because I didn't have just one yard of fabric I had up to 15 yards, but decided I would give it a try anyway just to see how it worked. WOW!!! I am in love with this and everyone should use this way of folding the fabric. It's not the normal square fold that I normally would do, it is a measured out and folded over cardboard (which is pulled out and not left in adding to bulk) to create  the perfect uniform rectangles that fit perfect on a small bookcase.   I got rid of about 6 boxes.

Just so you know how much this condensed the amount of space needed on the book case alone is the fabric from a large plastic tote of bolts of fabric and two boxes. Now when I pack a box it is packed! I pack things very well and there is no wasted space, so for this to be two boxes and a tote worth of fabric I am impressed. 

 
       This is my sewing station. In the cupboard I have a basket that holds my scissors and spare items like seam rippers and tape measures.   Then we have my sewing machine on the left with my serger on the right. Above my sewing machine are the notions and machine accessories I need when sewing and above my serger are my cone threads.

    I found that the empty pin boxes are perfect for holding my extra bobbins and it's such a time saver!  In the top drawer I have charms and beads that I use for accent pieces and inspiration for which way I want the costume to go. In the bottom drawer I keep the pins, sewing machine needles,snaps, hook and eyes etc.  In the organizer I have my tools in separate slots with things I need occasionally in the drawer.

I had more fabric than I thought I did. And I don't even have all of it out of storage! The dark "L" shaped hutch is a new addition to my sewing space and it is wonderful! I saw it by the side of the road and my wonderful dad and brother picked it up and hauled it for me.

I can open the closet without being embarrassed.

 I still have to sort through the storage bins but at least the major part of the organizing is done!

Here is all my scrap fabric. Everything here is less than a yard long.

    Here is what took 2 episodes of Merlin to accomplish. I emptied a box full of buttons and sorted through them putting them in categories according to color, size, and how many holes they had.  I still have an ice cream gallon bucket full to go through. sigh.

Well, I hope you enjoyed a tour through my sewing space.

Thanks for reading.  

Ruffled Petticoat

  One of the outfits I've been wanting to do for quite some time now is from a painting by Szinyei Merse Pál titled  Woman in Purple  from 1874.

   I'm not sure why but I love this painting.  I was about to start work on the dress when I realized I didn't have all the undergarments I needed for this endeavor.  I had the bustle and corset with an okay-ish corset cover but I didn't have a petticoat. Granted a petticoat wouldn't make a big difference in how this would lay since I was making it out of a poly/satin blend and it's very thin but I want a complete ensemble and if I don't make the petticoat now I'll probably never will.
    I made the basic structure but shortened it quite a bit since I wanted to add a pleated ruffle to the bottom. Yes, I do realize it was a bit of a stupid idea but I wanted to try.

    Back in the 1800's the clothes started getting really fancy with ruffles and frills since they had a sewing machine to help. Even the undergarments got a makeover. Mine wont be as deluxe as some that they made, it will actually be a rather simple with just a bit of frills to adorn the hem with the pleats.

After I had the basic panels cut I sewed them with a french seam then gathered them to the waist band. Making the pleats at the waist band even took a while but it looks good. I didn't measure these I just eyed it till it looked about right and pinned them in place.

 Then it was time for the fun part, the pleating. I made a pleater a year or so ago and I am so glad I did! This is what the process looks like. It's made out of a heavy card stock that has been folded accordion style so the folds are even. You take the fabric and tuck it between every fold and press with an iron to make the  pleats. I didn't get them perfect but they are close enough where they look good from a foot away.

  I have the front done and sewn onto the petticoat. I just don't want to know what will happen to those lovely little pleats when I have to wash it. I'm not pressing them all again as it took an hour and half just to pleat one half.

I'll be making the back have a double row of pleating one extending down lower than the other to give it more of a train support for the dress.

I'm hoping to complete the petticoat tomorrow and get the actual dress fabric laid out but we'll see how that goes. I hope you enjoyed this small view into the making of the ruffled petticoat.