Keeping in check with all the fandom

Humor me, I have a fan-base, right?

Sure lets go with that.

Anyhow, I am very very very sorry I have not updated in QUITE some time. It has been a combination of things. The bedbug problem is apparently still there, and my life has once again been turned upside down. It is very hard to try to sew when your entire apartment is on the doorstep so they can spray.

Which by the way they have conveniently been forgetting to do. Or 'being sick for'. They were supposed to have sprayed between 8 and noon on saturday. By ten we are wondering what is going on so we call our Landlord. Apparently Orken called to cancel the appointment at NINE. DURING THE SCHEDULED HOURS. Oh and not to mention our landlord made zero effort to contact us immediately after Orken canceled. Charming.

Another reason has been work and faires and school which is two days a week. Though here is not going to be another faire for a while. I am quickly running out of time on my two pressing projects, Anton's Elizabethan doublet and my fox gown which is only at the out fabric of the bodice peices being sewn together.

Eventually I will have pictures and what not. I am under a retarded amount of stress these days.

Casa Ren faire =NO SEWING

Which for once I really have no problem with, I've been tired.

So this past weekend I was at Casa de Ren Faire in Gilroy CA. I got a chance to wear my silk french cut bodice and now am going to show it off, sans sleeves as it was too damn hot.

Also; Owl.


His name was Bubby and despite the look of terror on my face he was very sweet and like to be pet and cuddled.




Better shot of the bodice and my owly.



He looks so..owl like, and i look so...flabbergasted because I very much was. I almost crapped my pants. THIS WAS A DREAM PEOPLE.



Nice view of the whole thing, cept I wish I could get a full frontal. Ha. I said full frontal.


Oh by the way this was the first thing I ever sewed in my life, though since its been adjusted but nothing major has changed. Sigh I will always have a special place in my heart for this gown.

Expect updates on the foxy gown soon.

Bows on Bustles BONANZA!

The sweeny todd mock up is about finished, all I have been working on at this point are finishing touches in the forms of trims. I first started with some little black silk flowers I intended to scatter around the bodice front and back, but after sewing a few on I realized they looked incredibly like..BUGS. Which while I am going for a dark torn down look I don't really want people whacking my bosom and rear goign AUGH BUGS.

I ended up scrapping this idea and replaced it with; you guessed it: BOWS.

I love bows. I really do. I stuck some pins around the from apron of the skirt to see what I could come up with for placement, then counted how many pins I had and tied some lovely bows.



In the end I ended up shortening the front bows tails on the bodice. I spent my lunch sewing on wee little bows and I have to say I like it to much better. I love it when costumes speak to me!



I also had to tack down some pleats and bunch some things and tug and pull to finally get the tail to fall in the correct position. I also ended up putting another bow between those two yellow pins on the rump there.

Now the last but not the least thing by far is the hat! Which I will be starting on tonight considering really everything else of the dress is done. Cept dying the underskirt.

Bows!!!!

Busting out the Bustle...Gown

This three day weekend was the greatest thing that could have happened to me.

I got so much work done, it is a little but ridiculous! Not only sewing wise, but I set myself up with a new sewing area at one end of the living room, so I'm not crammed into my small room or half in the kitchen half in the living room.



And then the work began on the bodice. This is going to be a long update because this is the entire gown over the course of a couple days. Still trimless and the apron is hemless but you get the idea.

First: There was the issue of resizing the pattern just a smidge considering I cut it out too small. So there are four bodice peices, technically 8. The back has a side seam so two back peices, a side back, a side, and the front. I took the side back and side and on the non basque side of the side-back I graded up a half inch. On the side peice on both edges I graded up a half inch.

This was a complete shot in the dark and it WORKED. OUT. PERFECTLY. Yay. So I then proceeded to cut out my bits and just cut off the excess around the fashion fabric and interfacing which i had painstakingly basted on when it was 6 sizes too big.

Then sewed em all together.



What I also did was hand sew bias tape over the sideback and side seams and down the back for boning. I went back and stopped the boning in the back at the waistline, else the basque back wouldnt look nearly as nice. Then it was time to get the lining on



I was a little suprised how well everything matched up, usually I have some seam matching problems.



Ooo plaid.

So I knew that I needed to have it closed fully when I wanted to do darts so I had to sew the hook and eye tape on post haste. At this point it was monday night and I needed to go to work the next day adn the hours were just slipping away so the most I could do for a finishing point was to sew the hook and eye tape on because I could not pin the edges closed since they were going to be edge to edge.




At this point I collapsed into bed excited about everything I had accomplished.

The next day, I needed to dart, so I rushed home on my lunch and began the painstaking process. It was somewhat of a pain even with the dress form. The fabric is heavy with the interfacing. But with scooby doo in the background I did perservere.



This was taken before I fixed that pulling to the side there. Sewed em up, flipped it right side too and then this is what I had.



Front



Back




Dont mind me I was demonstrating how there was still some room in the bust. Thanks Anton.


I know the plaid doesnt match up at all; that is the point its supposed to look jumbled. Sweeny Tood people!!

Now for all the finishing. Well, I'm sure the lot of you don't need any special images of me bias turning so I'll just tell you, HEY I BIAS TURNED THE ARMSCEYES AND BOTTOM.

After the darting I had to run BACK to work, and spent my first hour bias binding the bottom and armscyes and pressing like an OCD washerwoman. At that point I needed to run out for some more thread, black bias tape, and some lace I planned on tea staining (that post tomorrow or later.). I also went to michaels to pick up some black silk flowers to decorate my hat and gown with (goth I know but trust me.). Found these tiny shallow crowned straw hats for 27 CENTS A POP. So I bought three.

Got home and immediately went to town on the apron. Ok, this was A LOT harder than advertised but since it was getting late and I was getting impatient to see how it looked finished, I didn't take any pictures of the during. Here are the finished as of now shots!!




The front came out looking great, keep in mind this is unhemmed and trimmed.




This is where I started seeing problems. The side is sewn too far down to the back, and the back extends too far to the side. This is what I get for rushing.


The back part required four double box pleats, and I didnt trust myself so I made them way too shallow. For the fox gown, there is going to be tailoring of the apron ON the dress form until it looks like it should.

All in all, though I like it as is. I might go back and do some seam ripping and looseing of darts and re box pleating, but like I said I like it as is.

Very happy and very excited. Going to start on the fox version probably tonioght and tomorrow.


Cheers!

I have not died!!

So, my life suddenly got very very complicated. I not only work 8 hours a day starting at 7:15 I also now have class four days out of the week until about ten. I have not had time to do ANYTHING. I have also had some terrible changes at work that have made it hard on my entire department, bedbug inspections, and a stolen bike.

So I have found a few minutes right now to shoot y'all an update about the two boxes of free fabric I scrounged!!

It was really neat, a block away from the boy's parent's house there was a yard sale with boxes and boxes and BOXES of fabric from a theater company that went out of business. All of it FREE!!! So I sifted through it all for a good half an hour, and now I am going to share the fun with you.





About a half a yard of the perfect color velveteen I need for my dickens dress. Not enough to do a lot with but I will think of something.



The perfect cream colored lace with little pearls. There is a really large amount of this and guess what: FOX BUSTLE GOWN.



maybe a quarter of a yard of this beautiful white eyelet lace that is good for something dickens y



over a yard of nice black uphostery velvet or a heavier velveteen..i dunno..its nice though.



About half a yard of nice grey wool




Nice poly silk, texture is really neat and the weight is nice. I feel some 18th c stays.



This is my FAVORITE. It is this beautiful tealy blue, only a yard and half give or take. I wish there was more!!! It is a large waled corduroy.





At least three yards of this interesting upholstery fabric. Will most likely be turned into the boy's quilted elizabethan fencing doublet.




very thinned waled corduroy in black, love love love it.




Light tan velveteen



Adorable cotton maybe a yard of it. I know this is eventually going to make some cute underwear, corset or something. If enough I would love to make a great little jacket of some sort, but probably a corset and edge some bloomers.


Random brown gaberdine yay.





Random yellow and yellow satin



Black satin



I nammed a whole bunch of this tie silk stuff, i see a steampunky vest in my future.



Lot of white linen mmm



Even more eyelet cotton!!



ANd last but not least some nice grey green wool.


Nice beef up to my stash, I have to say. Honestly I would have loved to take all of it, but that was over 20 boxes!!

Oh also I kind of threw this together,



The truly victorian late 1800s corset.

My life is insanity. I will update about the fox gown mock up as soon as I am able. Needless to say its been a bitch.


Well, Cheers!