The dress is fairly straight forward to make. I'm using some of my fabric stash for this outfit:
I've cut out all of the patterned cotton shown on top, but when it got time to cut out the faille I just couldn't do it. I bought these two as a pair, intending the faille to be an 18th century petticoat, and the cotton to be an 18th century jacket (obviously not very period). The faille, even though it's only poly, cost quite a bit is very nice quality. It's going back into the stash, and I'm going to the fabric store tomorrow. I think a pink poly satin will do the job nicely. I also need to pick up some interfacing and a zipper. This will be very cute when finished.
Just a quick update to let you know that I AM still sewing, but preparations for my sister's wedding have slowed my progress somewhat, and I had to get my sewing machine serviced which put me out of commission for two weeks. The day I got my sewing machine back I finished Caly's Halloween costume (yes, it is sickeningly adorable when she puts it on, and no, Caly does not like wearing it). No pictures of her in the outfit until Halloween though!
I am currently working on a new set of 18th century side hoops. As I mentioned in my last post, the reeds in my panniers broke. Rather than repair the old set, I'm remaking them out of a stronger and period accurate cotton ticking. I have the fabric cut out, and all the pattern markings have been transferred. I just need to sew them up and order hoop steel tips. I'm using the same pattern since I really do like the shape they give my dresses. I highly recommend JP Ryan's pattern.
little Sophie dressed as a Pea in the Pod...her costume was flannel wool, but she's been bundled up again...so she's the pink pea-in-the-pod. She looks pretty comfortable, wouldn't you say?
Nadia made a great belly dancer! She looks like she'll be able to grow into this costume over the next year as well.
Lilly, my little cheetah, was not having a good night, so this is the best picture I could manage (you can't see, but she's actually sobbing here). I saw her at four different times during the evening, but she just wasn't a happy camper...Halloween was a bit overwhelming.
Lilly's older brother Adam had a fabulous time and really hammed it up for the camera. I really loved making this knight costume!
David and Dave, showing off their matching Jedi costumes. Dave needed a padawan braid to really make this pair costume go over the top, but oh well. There's always next year.
The top and the harem pants. I stuck on some little gemstones in the yoke of the pants. The mesh fabric on the top was a real bear to work with.
The knight costume - complete with silver stretch helmet! The costume is duck cotton, felt, and gold gimp for decoration. I really like the fusible interfacing that irons right on (that's how the lion was attached).
Here's a close-up of the "boots" - they're quilted gold lame and fit over sneakers.
Different angle that shows off the fake fur. I thought the fake fur was going to be really horrible to work with. Other than making a bit of a mess when cutting, it wasn't any harder/easier to work with. It did get bulky at some seams, but you could just cut off the fur to make the fabric thinner.
I really like Simplicity's new Star Wars pattern. I decided to make it out of Silk Noil (sometimes known as raw silk). There were times the silk was frustrating to work with, but this really only came up when I was trying to sew it to interfacing. The final result is great, and Dave has decided he wants one too. I've already ordered the fabric for him, and if time permits I might make a Padme costume I've had sitting around. It all depends on how much time I have left once my halloween commissions are in. Here is a picture of the entire Jedi costume:
You may or may not remember, but I have made a jedi cloak in the past. It was the same year attack of the clones came out, and the pattern companies still hadn't gotten their acts together in creating star wars costumes. 
As part of my Halloween business, I have received a commission to make a complete Jedi outfit. I had a snafu obtaining the silk I needed on eBay, and as a result I'm still waiting for the fabric to make the tunic. However, the cloak is done. It's Simplicity's new Star Wars pattern (#4450)based on several costumes from Revenge of the Sith (there's a Padme pattern that was cut from the movie...I don't understand why they marketed a dress that was not even included in the movie).
The cloak is made of flannel wool. The pattern was very easy, and went together quickly. I especially like the shoulder pleats. I tried to mimic this on the last cloak I made, but it was much more successful on this particular pair.
To answer your questions about Poland and Halloween: no, Poland does not do anything Halloween related. A couple of the restaurants in town had a few pumpkins out and offered 'Halloween' special menus, but I didn't see any Halloween parties, etc. One of the Embassy compounds had a special trick or treating for the American kids. The American households decorated and let the kids come around for candy.
I decided to impose myself upon a nice family so I could dress up and hand out candy. I got pictures of all the costumes I made this year, including this great snap shot of Nadia and I!
I didn't make the black shawl I'm wearing...it's actually a cute black cape that I got to wear for fall. When I pair it with a modern boot cut jean and leather boots, it's actually very modern and chic. But it turned into the perfect civil war paletot when paired with my day dress.
This was supposed to be a nice, easy project that would keep me occupied for a few days, but several events beyond my control turned this into a last minute mad dash.
At this point I was panicking because I was in a time crunch. I knew I needed the fabric tonight if I had any prayer of finishing the costume, I was only going to have about 40 minutes at lunch to shop, find a store I could get to on foot, and hopefully luck out and find fabric that worked. Big Kudos to my Polish colleague who gave me several addresses, and Polish vocab words: the second store had what I needed!! phew! Thankfully Princess Leia wore a nice simple dress, and the Simplicity pattern was cut out and sew up in about 3 hours.
What happens when one has entirely too much time on one's hands?? You finish the project that was suppose to keep you entertained for the next month in one weekend. Wrapping paper wings still to come, though.
One of the biggest challenges on this project was dealing with the various fabrics I had purchased. The sequins on the purple fabric have been glued on. Every time the needle ran through a sequin, some glue residue would coat the the needle. Then the thread would start sticking to the needle, and would break. This sometimes happened every 3 inches. It drove me crazy. Below is the leaf collar: this process involved several broken thread crises.
The nice pinkish fabric and the green organza would ravel if you looked at them funny. A lot of the edges in this costume were left raw and were not finished...which caused problems. I solved this by using fray check. 
Another source of frustration was attaching the skirt to the bodice. The skirt is several layers. First, you attach 10 petals to the bodice, and it looks like this:
After this, you cut three ENORMOUS skirt panels - a good two times taller then I am for a child-sized dress. Then I did the same with purple tuile. Then, I sewed the skirt and tuile together, and gathered it to fit the bodice. There was so much fabric, I had to gather it up as much as possbile for it to fit. Then there was the problem of attaching this massive skirt to the waistline. This picture tries to give you an idea of big it was: I had a hard time getting the fabric to fit under the sewing machine foot.
I think my favorite part of the costume is the adorable little flower petals hat, complete with a stem. It went together without a fuss, and I think is should look absolutely adorable!
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