Halloween Countdown

Well, I haven't been posting too much lately because there has been a surprising amount of productivity. I am almost done with my Halloween orders for 2006 - this year I've made 2 complete Jedi costumes, a knight, a cheetah, a belly dance, and a pea-in-the-pod is still in progress. If I get all that done, I have the stuff for a Padme costume so I can match Dave. THEN it's on to my marine ball dress - the fabric is en route.

Here are some final product pictures (I promise to chase down the kids on Halloween to get cute pictures of them IN the costumes):

The belly dancer costume - I'm still working on the hat/veil. She also has a coin scarf to go with it. The close up shows the jingle bells I sewed into the neckline so the costume makes a bit more noise. I also love the beads around the bra top.
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.
Here's the rather impressive cheetah costume - it comes with shoe covers, mittens, and a hat (along with the jumper). I didn't get a good shot of the tail...but there is one!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.

Baby Blue Bonnet

If you have been following along on my other blog, you will know that I purchased a bonnet while I was home in the US. We made a special trip up to Gettysburg for the sole purpose of buying a bonnet. The first stop was a disappointment: it's reputed to be the best shop in town, but the owner looked down her nose at me and said I should only try on bonnets if I was 'serious about buying.' We drove 75 miles to look at bonnets, but apparently that wasn't 'serious' enough. After putting up with her evil eye every time I tried a bonnet on, we left empty handed.

I was about to give up when we came accross a brand new clothing store! The store only had two bonnets, but they were cheaper than the first stop, made of silk, and great little hand-sewn details. I fell in love with the blue spoon bonnet, and here it is:

I see a matching dress in the distant future (distant, because the Jane Austin dress is first).

Finished, This Jedi Robe Is

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:

Jedi Robe II

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.

**A note on Fabric yardage - the pattern says you need 7 yards of 60 in. fabric. I got 8 yards of 45 in fabric. I had to refold the fabric the wide way, and managed to make this cloak out of less than 4 yds. Save yourself some money and order less fabric. I think Dave might get a cloak of his own this year....

Tudor Chemise

I officially declare this project finished. I ordered blackwork trim to sew around the edges (and I will sew it on), but I'm not making any more alterations.

This was by far the most infuriating project ever. If you don't recall from the previous post, none of the pieces were fitting together nicely, and then I discovered I'd cut the neck hole too big. Mind you, everything else about the chemise fits. But the square neckline in my size is so big it fell half way down my chest. What gives?I made a mock-up of the neck hole, and starting with a size 4, worked my way up. The size I finally chose was a whole five sizes smaller than the chemise I made. I took off the too-big-neck facing and then cut the smaller-size neck facing. Here's the mock-up: I ran two gathering stitches around the square neck and made it smaller to fit the facing. I had to repeat this process one more time (even though my mock-up was the right size, the pattern piece I cut was larger...I cut it from the same pattern size...again, WHAT GIVES??). Here's mock-up #2:The finished product fits, but the gathers pretty much ruin that nice square neckline. Harrumph. All the seams are finished so I might decide to wear it inside out with the neck facing visible. Inside out the facing lies flat and makes the chemise look more like it was meant to be.

Such a horrible experience. I had been contemplating making a Renaissance corset from this pattern, but after the problems with the chemise there is no way I'm going to dive into that mess. I have most of the fabric to start the Tudor dress (that the chemise is meant to go with), but again...I'm having a fitting issue, and I'm not sure I can solve it without a fitting double.

Wedding Dress Update

Many of you (by 'many', I mean my handful of faithful readers) have requested pictures of the "Dresszilla" wedding dress. I aim to please, so here are pictures of the dress to date:I took a close look at my seams and needlework, and I'm actually very pleased with the way the dress is coming together. Unique color and design choice aside, the fabric looks very nice and everything is coming together nicely. The dress is dupioni silk and is interlined with silk organza. We sewed on the freshly finished beaded lace this weekend:

The dress is supposed to fit in with the Bride's Renaissance wedding theme. Instead of a veil, her mother has made a matching blue Tudor French Hood with a white veil sewn on the back.

There's still some more lace to be sewn around the bodice. Then, I need to assemble the skirt and the bodice. I'm slightly nervous about this due to the weight of the 4 layer skirt. Originally there was only supposed to be three layers: lining, silk, sheer overskirt. Our version is lining, crisp silk, lining, crisp silk. It caused some issues when we gathered the skirt, and I'm expecting more issues when I assemble the skirt/bodice. My sewing consultant (aka Mom) suggested sewing in matching piping to reinforce the bodice edge if I have problems.

Future Projects!!

The wedding dress project has reminded me that I am a historical costumer, NOT a seamstress. And I'm just dying to get to a few of these projects:1. Finish the Tudor dress - I plan to surmount the neck opening that was made five sizes too big! I will start by taking out the square neck facing, gathering the cut square until the opening is smaller and fits, then cut a new smaller neck facing. It might not make a whole lot of sense, but I think it will work. I still have a horrible impulse to make up a renaissance corset...I have some silk taffeta left over from my Robe Francaise...
2. A Regency Gown, overgown, undergarments and corset. Why, you may ask? Especially, as even I am willing to point out, the empire style is not particularly flattering or forgivng for us curvy ladies. I can't explain it, but Jane Austin has won, and I MUST have one.
3. A medieval gown for the Malbork Siege in June. Dave and I are planning on attending, and I want to go in costume. I have a horrible confession to make - I want to BUY this dress. I don't know very much about the medieval period, and am not very impressed by the patterns I've seen. Plus, I fell in love with a gorgeous gown and petticoat on ebay. Maybe with birthday money...it wouldn't be much cheaper for me to make it myself.
4. A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. For those of you that don't know, I adore the costume designs from the new Star Wars movies. I have my brand, spaking-new, version of Dressing a Galaxy which has great close up shots of the costumes and fabric. And then JoAnns went and had a 99 cent pattern sale AND a sale on bridal satin. So I actually have the fabric and pattern for Padme's nightie. With all those zippers and beads, I can guarantee I'll never sleep in it.

Thy name is Dresszilla

I actually HAVE been sewing. I needed a bit of a break after my tudor chemise problems (side note: I think I have surmised a good way to salvage the chemise). I had volunteered to help my neighbor make her daughter's wedding dress. I know: I'm certifiably insane.

I have to admit, I don't think I'm ever going to do a wedding dress again. It's complicated, high stress and expensive if something goes wrong, and you have to manage expectations. It's hard trying to convey to people that even though I can sew, I am not a trained seamstress or pattern drafter. I need a pattern to follow, and I want to stick to it. Instead, people always assume you can "just change the sleeves," or "do a different collar," or worse yet, "just whip something up."
Anyway, all that stuff aside, the dress IS coming together nicely. The girl I'm making it for is in town, we've done a few fittings, and everything seems to be fitting. The dress is pictured above. We did actually use a different pattern for the sleeves - a medieval bell cut. The underskirt is almost a navy blue (not my choice, but it's her wedding dress). The overskirt, instead of being transparent, is white dupioni.

Tudor Chemise

Sigh. This pattern has not been going together as smoothly as it should.

Before I start to rant and rave, let me first say that the pattern pieces fit together very nicely, the pattern itself is very nice. Everything that I have finished looks very beautiful and historically accurate.

My problem with the pattern is the instructions. They have caused several moments of extreme sewing frustration. Examples: pattern pieces in the instructions that don't actually exist; instructions to cut the incorrect number of pattern pieces; interfacing that pops up in the instructions, but which I have not been instructed to cut out; complete lack of cuff assembly directions/illustrations. All this meant that the cuffs that should have taken an hour to assemble took me about 8 hours to complete. After FINALLY finishing the cuffs, I tried to insert the sleeves into the garment. The instructions said "match dots and then gather the sleeve to fit." So, I match the dots...and the dots lined up exactly...there was nothing to gather, because there was no extra fabric. What the **%@? AAARRGHH! I set it aside. I've had enough for today.

I'm concerned that the neck square may be too big. That's not the pattern's fault...it's mine for being too impatient to make a mock-up. The pattern even suggests it so you get the square sized correctly. I just didn't read that part until AFTER I'd cut out the pattern. Oops. Hopefully once I'm corseted it should fit with everything pushed up.

I have enough linen left to make a partlet, so that may be my next project. I'm still very tempted to make the corset...but these instructions have put me off. Maybe I should sign up for the pattern designer's yahoo account and see if others have had the same problems I have.

After the Long Break…

I give you the plans for my Tudor undergarments! I now have all the velvet I need to make my Tudor gown, and before I order the brocade I need, it’s officially time to start my undergarments.

I’ve won another gift certificate to www.denverfabrics.com. They stopped doing the drawings for certificates recently…maybe because people like me kept winning over and over again. I ordered some beautiful white handkerchief linen.

I was actually almost ready to start cutting out the chemise pattern my mom brought me from the States. However, once I cracked into the instructions, I realized this wasn’t the kind of chemise I wanted, changed my mind, and ordered the Margo Anderson shift pattern.

An added bonus of this pattern is it comes with several other undergarments, including a great corset pattern. I may or may not make up a version of it. Everyone that uses this pattern seems to rave about it. I could make do with my 18th century corset, but it doesn’t quite look right either.

Before I make it, I need to read a bit more about the corset. I’m not sure it will give me the nice conical Tudor shape. Kendra of démodé made this great version of the pattern.

Oodles of Fabric!

Hi all,

I haven't posted lately because I have been sadly without fabric. However, that is slowly changing! There is TONS of fabric on my Christmas list. I also WON fabric from Denver Fabrics online. I'm not kidding: you can check it out right here (I'm listed as Melissa of Dulles). With my $50 dollar gift certificate, I ordered red and black velvet for my Tudor gown. This is a change in plans, because I originally wanted an all-brocade gown. The gift certificate changed my mind. The red velvet will make up the body of the gown, and the black velvet is for the turned-back undersleeves. I still need to get some gold brocade for the sleeves and underskirt, and some linen for a chemise. Then I can start sewing!!

My father-in-law also made a recent trip to Korea, and bought some silk for me!! World's coolest father-in-law!!! I haven't actually seen the silk yet, but he sent me this picture (look at all that silk!!! It makes me drool!).
The silk is a very pale blue (even though it looks white in the picture). Look at the vendor's hand showing through the silk: it looks almost sheer!! Wohoo!! I'll have to come up with something creative for the silk. It's not as wide as U.S. fabric: probably about 22 inches versus the standard 45 inches. It will require a bit of research and some creative cutting. I can't wait!

Happy Halloween!!!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!
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.

Happy Halloween!

3 Hour Leia Costume

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.

I decided I really wanted to make the costume out of a polyester double-ply fabric, which is what the original Leia costume was made out of (plus, it's cheap). Knowing I would have to scour fabric stores for weeks in Poland to find this, I decided to order it from Fabric.com 3 weeks ago. I only just received the fabric on Monday. Late Monday night I opened up my package and found only ONE yard of fabric, even though I'd ordered 4 yards.

Plan B: find Polish fabric store, and quickly.

Tuesday, I planned to go to a few stores open late after work, but I had a meeting that kept me out until 8:15. That left today, Wednesday, for everything. The costume had to be finished by Thursday so it could go home for the little girl to wear to school on Friday.
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.

Happy Halloween, and may the Force be with you!

Indian Sari

While not technically a costume, and definitely not 'historical', I got out a sari project this weekend.

This all began after watching "Bride and Prejudice." If you haven't seen it, you really should. It's by the same director as "Bend it Like Beckham," and is another story about westerners encountering India. It's based of off Pride and Prejudice, and was great! I got a kick out of the Indian Ballywood-style dance/song scenes, including songs like "take them to love" and "thank you for getting this marriage into town."
Anyway, the Indian-themed weekend made me want to play dress-up, and I remembered that my dad had brought me back a sari from one of his trips, and it was buried at the bottom of my fabric box. I got it out, roll hemmed the raw edges (see below), and then learned to put it on.
I don't have a matching choli (top) or petticoat, but it was fun to get out and play with!

Day Dress - Dry Run

Ok, ok. The dress looks as if it's done, but there are a few more finishing details that need to be done before I can say it's done. Those things are: hem facing, hemming, collar, and tacking the skirt to the bodice (it prevents the waistband from peaking through where it shouldn't).

Take a look at the gorgeous belgian lace that Anna sent me and tell me - do you think it works for the collar, or is it too nice for this outfit???
Everything is looking pretty good, isn't it?!! I'll be happy to wear this around Gettysburg next time we visit, and I can pick up a matching bonnet. Poor Dave...just what he wants...to load hoops into the trunk of the car, and then upon arrival, walk around with his century-confused wife, while he's in jeans and a t-shirt).

So, here's what I did on Sunday and Monday:
I sewed up the sleeves. The sleeve puffs are gathered pieces of fabric that had to be hand-sewn to the sleeve, and then the sleeve was sewn into the bodice. The sleeve puffs took forever!! I managed to almost finish the skirt (with all those pleats) and pull the bodice together in the time it took me to do those silly sleeves!! They don't look that complicated, do they?
Next up was finishing the boning on the interior of the bodice, using single bias tape to finish the edges (I found some pink colored bias tape, hidden away). Then, I sewed in the hook and eye tape. That process had to be repeated a couple of times before I got the placement just right.

Finally, last night I covered some buttons and sewed them to the bodice. It's almost impossible to see, but here they are:Now where are some kids I can borrow so that me and dress can have an outting together?

Day Dress update

Every time there's a long weekend, I just can't resist the urge to spend it sewing with my favorite costumed dramas on in the background. I made a lot of progress today. I whip stitched the pleats of the skirt into the waist band, and then added the hooks and eyes. Since I can't hem the gown by myself, I can't say the skirt is actually finished yet. It will still need to have the hem facing sewn in as well. Check out the litte knife pleats!
Next, I moved on to assembling the bodice. I sewed the lining and gown fabric together (this is called flat lining), added the darts on each side, and sewed in some of the boning. It got a bit late, so I'll finish the boning and sleeves tomorrow. I hadn't realized that I'd run out of bias tape, so I'm stuck on finishing the edges of the gown. I think I'm impatient enough that I'll try and make my own bias tape tomorrow instead of waiting the two weeks it would take to order it.
I'll say it again: I love this pattern. Look at how nice the fit is!

Day Dress, Take Two

Happiness is a pattern that fits properly, and comes with good instructions!

For those of you who may not remember where I we last left this project, you can read about my frustrations here. I am now using a new-release Simplicity pattern, and so far it's working very smoothly. I already fitted the bodice muslin, and so far I haven't had to make any alterations. I do think the shoulders will probably have to be altered: look at where the edge of the bodice hits my arm. Although civil war shoulder seams were much wider then the actual shoulders, I think half way down the arm is pushing it. Believe it or not, I think the other evil pattern had a better cut at the shoulders. Oh well. The only perfect pattern is the one you draft for yourself, and since I don't know how to do that, the Simplicty pattern will have to work.

Instead of making up the bodice first (which is what I normally do), I decided to make the skirt so that I could fit the bodice over the hoops, petticoat, and skirt, to be extra sure of the fit.


I'm using a very simple cotton print fabric. The color shows up very nicely in this picture, where I was trying to show the knife pleats that I've been working on at the waist band of the skirt. I'm currently in the process of whip-stiching the pleats to the waist band. I'm using tiny stitches, so it might take a few movie sittings.

Fairy Wings

The little flower fairy dress is now 100% complete. Here are the wings, made out of wrapping paper. They sort of stuck out at a nicer angle when they showed them on the pattern envelope, but since I didn't want to string wire through them (3 year old child running around with protruding wires just didn't seem to be a wise idea) this will have to do.

I promise to get pictures of the adorable fairy herself, but I'm waiting to deliver the costume until we're closer to Halloween. Reason #1 is if I were a 3 year old girl, I would put this on and never want to take it off until NEXT Halloween. Reason #2 is I don't want it to get out around the office that I'm sewing Halloween costumes. While I would be willing to hire out, I don't think most people would want to actually pay my fee (whatever that would be) on top of an already healthy-sized fabric/pattern bill.

Anyway, I don't think my next project will be the Tudor dress. As much as I would like it to be, I am, alas, without a fabric budget this month. Since my mother managed to snag a new civil war pattern (top left) for me during JoAnn's 99 cent Simplicity pattern sale, I think I'll try to pick up the civil war day dress project again. The fabric is ready to go, and all I would need is to find some cotton muslin/lining material wich is very inexpensive.

Bippity, Boppity, Boo!

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!