Lobsters and Petticoat's

I haven't had a ton of time for sewing lately, even though I have about a million things I need to be working on right now. But I did manage to squeeze in a new lobster bustle and crinoline petticoat last month!

Being that Halloween is just around the corner, and I'm the crazy costumer that I am, I started thinking about my Halloween costume early in August. I had decided on a costume that I've wanted to make for a long time now, but unfortunately I don't have the funds to do it properly at the moment.

The costume was Christine Daae's wedding dress from the stage version of Phantom of the Opera. It's always been a favorite of mine, but unfortunately will have to wait until a better time when I can do it right.

Anyways, that was what got me going on these foundations. While I was playing around with that idea and researching materials, I started with the undergarments. I knew I needed a larger bustle than the half bustle petticoat I made a few years back for my 1870's ensemble, and because it was a stage costume and I didn't need to be particularly historically accurate in material's, I decided I should make a crinoline petticoat.

This was something I've been meaning to do for a while, but just never got around to because I really don't like working with tulle of any kind.

And this crinoline lived up to my expectations. It was a beast to work with. Partially because I was making up the pattern as I went, when I really should have sat down and crunched some numbers before sewing, but I'm just gonna blame it on the crinoline. Fine? Fine.

In the end, the petticoat turned out quite nicely. It's made up of two layers and is stitched onto a bask with an elastic waistband. I actually added another small ruffle along the bottom edge of the top layer to help keep the shape around the hem, but I haven't gotten any pictures of it at that point yet.

Please ignore my hideous carpet. We just moved and haven't had a chance to update the floor in my sewing room yet.

The lobster bustle came together quite easily, and is taken directly out of Period Costume for the Stage and Screen. I think I will end up making another one that's just a little bit biggest, particularly on the bottom half, but otherwise I really like it! It isn't quite done, it still needs a ruffle along the bottom edge, but it's wearable.

Sadly since my costume plan's have changed the bustle won't be used, but I'll may still use the petticoat. But more on that in another post!

A Velvet Gown (WIP)

In between the madness of moving and settling into our new home in Idaho, I've been working on a new film project. I'm assisting with the costumes for another Lightsaber Choreography Competition film, which we will be filming next month.

I'm making perhaps the most complicated costume for the leading actress, which is a floor length velvet gown, with all sorts of wonderful, tricky details. It's coming along quite nicely and is nearly done.

This is a little sneak peek of the gown while I was still working on the bodice and before the skirt was attached.

I'll share more details of the design and finished garment eventually, but that won't likely be until the film is released in October.

The Making of Padme's Picnic Dress - Part 2 Hair Buns Tutorial+Crochet Pattern

Today's post is going to be all about how I made the head piece for Padme's Picnic Gown. If you missed part 1, you can find it here.

When I was making this part of the costume I made sure to keep notes on how I made it so I could make a tutorial out of it, because I wasn't able to find one already. So I hope this is helpful to anyone else making this costume.

I would like to note that the crochet pattern I used was written as I went and I have not tested. Hopefully it will make sense.

To get things started, let's go over the needed supplies

Materials:

-Yarn. I was able to find the perfect color with a strand of gold tinsel spun into the yarn. You can find it at Joann's by clinking here.
-Crochet hook, 1.5mm
-Wig hair (I used some extra wefts from an old wig I re-tracked)
-2 hair nets. You can find these in the hair section at stores like Target. I found mine at Fred Meyers.
-Green ribbon
-Green embroidery thread
-Elastic

The first step is to make the buns using the pattern below.

Crochet Pattern:

Ch 8 and join with sl st
Ch 6 and sc in center of loop x6
Ch 6, sc in loop, repeat until reaching next round and increase to 8ch, then 10
On the 5th row ch 6 and sc into loop then ch 6 and sc into same loop. Repeat for entire round
Ch 8 and sc into each loop
After 2 rows, decrease to 6 ch for 1 round
On next round, decrease to 5 ch for 3 rows
Ch 4 and sc into loop for one round
Finish off and weave in ends

Cut two pieces of yarn approximately 12" long and weave into outer edge. This will be used to pull it closed later.

Assembling the Buns:

Take the hair wefts and play with them until you get a good amount/shape.

Place them inside of the hair nets and pull the excess net towards the back. If you leave the hair attached to the weft's, try to arrange the hair so that that won't be seen.

Place the hair in the bun and make any adjustments necessary to make it look nice on the outside.

Once you're satisfied, pull the yarn closed and tie it off.

Making the headband:

I made the headband from ribbon and elastic. Measure around the widest part of your head and cut the ribbon to that size. I decided the easiest way to get it on and off would be to use elastic at the back.

It took a little bit of playing with it to get the sizing right, but after playing around for a while I cut an approximate 2" piece of elastic and sewed it to the center back, cutting off a bit of the ribbon.

After it was stitched I added three rows of embroidery along the edges and the center of the band. I used a twist embroidery stitch.

When that was finished I used the same process for the flowers as I did on the bodice, cutting them out of the curtain panel I used and stitching them on the band.

To keep everything secure, I stitched the buns to the headband and while I wore them I pinned them to my hair with bobby pins to keep everything in place.

And that's it!

The Making of Padme's Picnic Dress (P-19) - Part 1

Today I'm going over how I made Padme's Picnic Dress.

This costume took a lot of time to make, largely due to the extensive embroidery. And by a lot, I mean I was working on this costume, off and on, for about a year and a half. But I'm really happy with how it turned out and I'm super excited to share how I made it with you all.

Worn at Emerald City Comic Con 2018

I want to start this post out with talking about the fabric. The fabric for this costume was really important, especially for the cape. Because even if I wanted to, I don't have the tools or knowledge to embroider that pretty floral design onto mesh fabric (yikes!).

I got lucky, like really, really lucky, and found most of the fabric for this project second hand at Goodwill. The cape fabric is a curtain panel, and they had a 5 some-odd yard piece of yellow chiffon, as well as another curtain panel that was a crinkled yellow nylon (used in the bodice and petticoat).

When I found the fabric I snatched them up and that's when I started planning to make this costume. I think I paid around $15 for all that. The only other fabric I had left to buy was canvas to use as a base for the bodice.

The fabrics

The pattern was self drafted and draped on my dress form. Below is what the bodice pattern looked like.

There were a total of 3 layers for the bodice; the base layer (canvas), the fashion fabric (crinkled nylon), and the lining (muslin). Once my base layer and fashion fabric were cut I surged them together, flat lining them.

Before stitching anything together I started working on the embroidery of the center front panel.

The layers, pinned and ready to be surged.

Because I'm not a great artist, especially when it comes to abstract designs, I traced the embroidery pattern from a close up shot in Dressing a Galaxy. The overall proportions were pretty accurate, except for the space between them, so I divided the pattern into three sections and pinned them each onto my bodice separately to get the positioning right.

I started the embroidery by outlining everything in a chain stitch using normal thread that matched my fabric. This part wasn't supposed to be obvious, and mostly add texture and an outline to work within.

When I was done with each section I tore away the tracing paper. I also did some of the green embroidery of the leaves at this point too.

 

Once the whole outline was completed I filled in the places that needed it with various shades of yellows and oranges, and eventually expanded to the sides (I guess it's worth noting that somwhere in between here I stitched the rest of the bodice together).

I would recommend looking up tutorials on how to do this part instead of trying to wing it, like I did, because I didn't do a great job. I don't have much embroidery experience, so I was pretty much making it up as I went.

Once the embroidery was finished (a year later XD ) I added the embroidered flowers. Because I didn't know how to make/didn't want to make these, what I did was cut them off of scraps from the cape fabric and stitched them on. 

They were a pain, but not nearly as much as they would have been if I had had to sew them completely by hand.

At this point pretty much all that was left for the bodice was to add boning and line it. I boned each seam except for the ones under the arms, and in the lining added three bones straight up the center to give a little extra support to the silhouette. I'm really glad I added those extra bones, they made a big difference.

The bodice closes in the back with a separating zipper. I would have preferred an invisible zipper, but I was afraid that the thickness of the canvas would have been too much.

The skirt and chemise were less intense to make, but still challenging. I hardly took any photo's of the process of making them, so I'll do the best I can to explain.

I decided to make the "chemise"/blouse a separate piece from the skirt because I didn't want it to be pulled down by the weight, as well as conserve fabric. Plus in a BTS video you can see that it's seperate and hand stitched to the lining of the bodice.

The blouse is a pretty simple design; it has a wide off the shoulder neckline with extra long sleeves, which have fitted cuffs and spaghetti straps. That's really about it. 

The skirt was also fairly simple too, it's made of several "A" line panels and is gathered into a waist band and closes in the back with an invisible zipper. I put the gathers to sides and left left the front mostly flat. The shape of the original skirt is interesting and I'm still not sure what shape it was, probably a circle skirt of some kind, so I did my best to imitate it by choosing where to place the gathering.

I made two layers for the skirt, one in chiffon, and one of the crinkled nylon to add a little bit of volume and thickness. To finish off the edges I surged both layers separately and then folded the edges of the chiffon layer under once and used a narrow hem. I left the other layer alone since it was shorter than the other and wouldn't be seen.

This wasn't my original plan, but I ended up using an extra cotton petticoat underneath. I used a light 19th century petticoat I made several years ago to add just a little bit of volume to the skirt and I'm happy with the end look.

The embroidery on the skirt is really simple. It was straight stitches with sequins sewn on every few inches. At first I attempted doing a chain stitch, but it was too bold so I went down to plain straight stitches and it looked much more subtle, which is what I wanted.

The sequins are four petal sequins and are identical to those used on the original costume. It took me a while of searching online to find them, but I was finally able to find a vendor on ebay. Unfortunately I don't have their information any longer so I can't leave a link.

Lastly, the accessories. The shoes I wore were these silver flats, which I found on Amazon. They look nice, but they weren't very comfortable for walking around for several hours.

I also made the head piece, headband and ear muffs included, which I will be writing about in a separate post with a full tutorial soon.

And that's all for todays post. Like I said, you should be seeing a tutorial on how to make the head piece soon. But for now, here's some more photo's of the finished costume at Comic Con.

P-19 Progress Update

I haven't been very active at blogging so far this year, but I've been busy sewing all month. Emerald City Comic Con is only 2 weeks away, which means it's time to hustle and get Padme's Picnic Dress done.

Because of the high mount of embroidery, I know I'm not going to have all of it done in time for comic con, but I plan to have enough to make it look good and will finish it afterwards.

Last week I finally (finally!) finished the bodice; embroidery, lining, and all. It's by no means perfect, but I'm quite happy with the end result.

The big piece I've been tackling this month is the skirt embroidery. It's simple, and has been going faster than I expected, but I'm still learning as I go and have a few spots I need to go back and re-do when I have the chance.

And finally, this weekend I got around to making the headband and hair pieces. The buns were crocheted, which is something I haven't done in a long time, but they turned out pretty well. I'm working on a blog post with a pattern, which you should see sometime soon.

Headpiece making supplies

The finished buns

The headband, in progress

I put it all on Trisha to see how it looks and I'm quite happy with how everything's coming together.

1914 Skirt Beginnings and Research Troubles

New years hit and I've been in a bit of a sewing rut these last few weeks. I haven't had a ton of time, or energy, to put towards sewing lately so I haven't been too productive.

However, I managed to get started on the first part of my 1914 era ensemble, the skirt. I'll write up a post when it's done with more details, but for now here's where it stands.

My goal is to make a hunting suit similar to the styles seen on Donwton Abbey, however I've had a hard time finding information on women's hunting clothing from the era. So far I've only been able to find one example. Apparently hunting wasn't as common of a sport for women as Downton made it out to be...

I have been able to find a couple of original jacket patterns, however, that I'm using as a reference to draft my own. Until I can find more information I'm just doing my best to make something that looks appropriate.

1914 Corset Beginnings+Inspiration

My sister and I recently started watching Downton Abbey together (this is my second time going through the series and her first time), and I've completely fallen in love with the clothing from the later war years. It's both elegant and practical at the same time, which really appeals to me.

I've been slowly coming around to the idea of working in this era, and watching Downton Abbey was the the final straw to break me. This weekend I started working on a new corset for the era.

The pattern I'm using is from Bridges of the Body, and it's been a great pattern. I had some difficulty with getting it to the right scale (as I do every time I try to scale up a pattern), but I was able to get it close enough and made a few adjustments once I had it printed out.

The mock-up came together quickly and surprisingly easily. My first attempt I was completely over thinking it and tried changing some of the dimensions because the original on the pattern were just slightly smaller than my usual corseted measurements, but that only ruined the lines and ended up being too big anyways. I ended up adding seam allowance to the original pattern and it fit perfectly, despite being printed slightly smaller than it was supposed to be. Go figure.

Corsets from this era are, to me at least, a little weird. The silhouette of the period was so long and slender, with far less emphasis on the bust and bum than was popular in the early 1900's. The corsets from this era usually sit with a low bust and extend past the hips and are *so* long. But it's slowly growing on me.

In case you're unfamiliar with the era, I thought I'd leave you off with some pretty 1910's inspiration. You can check out my Pinterest board for more WWI era goodies too.

Corset C. 1914 Via Bridges of the Body

Corset C. 1912-14 from the Kent State University Museum

Catalog C. 1916. I'm in love with each of these outfits

Project P-19 Update

In honor of The Last Jedi premier tonight, I thought I should post something Star Wars related. It's been a while (10 months, actually) since I've posted about Project P19/Padme's Picnic Dress, and I thought it was time for an update.

I'm still working on the bodice embroidery, and it's getting closer to being completed which means soon I'll be starting the next phase of embroidery: the skirt and blouse (which will be far less complex, but a larger scale).

Considering I don't actually know anything about embroidery and I'm just making it up as I go, I'm pretty happy with the result.

Since this costume has spent a bit of time in the UFO pile these past few months, I decided to give myself a deadline to finish it before Comic-Con in March. Wish me luck!

Making an 1841 Evening Gown | Bodice and Sleeves

Today I'm sharing the process of making the bodice of my 1841 Marie-Louise gown. I'm still in the process of making it, but I wanted to share what I have done thus far, mainly the bodice.

The pattern is self drafted, based off of a pattern from Patterns for Stage and Screen by Jean Hunnisett. To draft the pattern, I draped it on my dress form, patterned that, made a few adjustments and then went on to make one final mock-up before cutting into the actual fabric.

Speaking of fabric, the fabric I'm using is a faux silk taffeta from Bangkok Thai Silk. It looks more purple in the pictures, but it's a black-shot-red color.

I cut my pattern pieces out of both my fashion fabric and muslin and flat lined them by surging them together. Once that was done I stitched all the pieces together with a 1/2 inch seam allowance, leaving the back open.

On the dress form, before any boning was added.

The next step was to add boning. I used single fold bias tape for my boning channels, stitched directly into the seam allowance.

After I added boning to the seams, I decided that it needed more structure, so I decided to add boning into the lining pieces of the front side pieces of the bodice. I cut my bodice pattern out of another layer of muslin to create the lining.

To add the boning to the lining, I cut out 2 more pieces of the front side pieces, surged the edges, and drew my boning channels. I originally thought that I would place the pieces against the inside of the bodice, matching the seams, but I quickly realized that if I did that then the boning would be at the wrong angle.

Instead, I still used the same pieces, but I ended up stitching them at a different (crooked) angle to my lining. Since it would not be visible once the lining was finished, I decided not to bother redrawing/positioning them.

My lining, with the additional boning channels stitched.

Next I stitched the lining to the bodice with right sides together, and stitching across the top with a 1/2 inch seam allowance. I under stitched the lining before clipping the curved edges and turning it all outward.

Here's what it looked like at this point.

The next thing to do was the sleeves. These were also self drafted and based from the same book as the bodice. They were relatively simple to both draft and assemble. They consist of two pieces, the lining and the fashion fabric, which as you can see are quite different in shape and size.

Once the pieces were cut I surged them and ran a gathering stitch across the top and bottom of the fashion fabric pieces.

After that I gathered the top piece down to the measurements of the lining pieces. If I were to do this again and I would make the top piece a bit longer to give a little more volume, and I would center the gathers more towards the center instead of spreading it out mostly evenly.

Once I had the gathers pinned to the lining piece, I basted along both sides to hold the gathers to the lining. Then with right sides together, I folded it in half lengthwise and stitched with a 1/2 inch seam allowance, creating the sleeve.

After this, I attached the sleeves to the bodice by hand.

What the dress currently looks like (and also a more accurate color)

That's all for today's post. I'll have more posts soon about the bertha and eventually the skirt.