Gold dress.

So it's been a while since I blogged. This year has been a bit strange, and I have been working through some things, but every once in a while I do decide I want to sit down and sew. What I have not been doing much of though is taking the time to do photos of what I make. I did however take the time to get some pictures of my Halloween costume!

This year I attended an event that was 1980’s fashion themed. When I first heard what the theme was I think I actually moaned. 1980’s is not really my style and I know very little about the time period, so I decided to think about what things I did like about the 1980's. I ran through a few ideas in my head before settling on Vanna White. When I was a child I wanted to be Vanna, I wanted to wear a new pretty dress everyday and turn letters and everything about Vanna was just so glamorous to a little kid. I mean seriously a new fancy dress everyday! Not to mention between Wheel of Fortune and Sesame street I was reading by the time I was four. So yes I have fondness for the show which was airing all the way back in the 1980’s and is still on today. And thus began my search online for dresses Vanna wore in the 1980’s. I chose a few I liked, saved the pictures then checked out my fabric stash. Ultimately I ended up choosing the gold dress because I had fabric for it.

The fabric was not actually from my fabric stash though, It was a tablecloth. Yep I am wearing a tablecloth! the tablecloth is from my sister's wedding several years back. I figured we would never use it again, its been sitting there for years untouched and it was the perfect color so it was time to transform the tablecloth into a dress.

Turning it into the dress was not quite as easy as I hoped it would be though. This was mostly because I was being stubborn about not putting any money into the dress,(I had to buy the shoes and didn't want to spend anymore on a costume). I don’t have a one shouldered dress pattern, so I was determined to save money and draft it myself. This turned out to be a little trickier than I had anticipated. And took a lot of sewing, trying on, tearing apart, resewing, pinning, and more tearing apart. I did all this on the lining fabric as I figured it wouldn’t matter that much if the lining looked a bit worn out, no one was going to see it. After several attempts and redos plus crying a few tears I finally had the fit I wanted and was able to cut the fashion fabric. Once I had the fashion fabric it went fairly smoothly.

I had to do two more fittings but that was easy alterations, nothing major. I also had to figure out how to make the sleeve ruffle since I needed it to stand up but not be overly stiff. I had thought about interfacing, but thought that might be to much and decided on some crinoline and that worked fairly well. For the skirt part I used Vogue pattern #1189 from the 1980’s, and that part went really fast comparatively speaking with the rest of the dress.

The Bodice has two linings, one is a structure lining which I interfaced each piece to give the dress stability, the other is just a normal lining. I added boning to also help with stability. It zips in the back and I actually had a gold colored zipper in my stash which I was pretty excited about, because it would match so perfectly. I was a little disappointed that I accidentally put the sleeve on the opposite side of the dress Vanna wore, but that's the trouble with working with fabrics that have no right and wrong side. In the end though I was really proud of the dress I made and I think it turned out really pretty.
I also made myself an oversized scrunchie, to match, because what is more 1980’s than that?
I had thought about wearing a blonde wig to more embrace the Vanna-ness, but decided I would rather be comfortable and it was all about the dress anyway, so I went with my natural hair. And for a little extra fun bonus and because I had a little extra time I dressed my kitties up as letters from the letter board. And I will say it is not easy to take pictures of three cats standing in an assigned order while using the self timer on the camera so I could be in the photo as well. But here we are. Ayla as the letter C, Astra as the letter A, B.W. as an unturned letter (in case you can't tell she is going to be the letter T), and myself as a brunette version of Vanna White. I had fun dressing up the cats and fun dressing myself up, and I had fun at the event as well. all in all it was a rather fun Halloween.

P.S If you want to see a picture of Vanna’s dress that I copied; google “Vanna White 1986 gold dress” it should come up.

* This blog is not to be used for training AI*

Elf Jacket

I started making this jacket for another project back in september. I was trying to put together a halloween costume, but was not really feeling it. It was something I did not choose and just really didn’t like, but I had been told it was the theme for what I was going to attend. I tried really hard to make myself like the idea but kept putting it off. It turned out that was a good thing because of scheduling I didn’t get to attend the halloween thing I was going to and at the last minute they changed the theme anyway so I would have felt totally stupid wearing a custume I hated. Actually I probably would have scrapped the whole thing and worn an old costume. That is how much I disliked the original theme.

What I did end up with was a white jacket ¾ of the way done. I probably would have gone ahead and finished the jacket regardless of not going to the halloween thing (without the embellishments that I had planned) but I ran into some issues with the fabric I had chosen. First I found out it was dry clean only. And how did I figure this out… I washed it. But there were no instructions on the bolt so I had no idea. I had bought the 30 yard bolt at a tag sale for $8, not even knowing it was 30 yards till I started this project. It just sat in my closet for a few years trying to tell me what it needed to be. When I started this project I went ahead and unrolled the entire bolt so I could see how much fabric it was. And I was actually pretty surprised to find out it was 30 yards. I was going to use the fabric as the liner in the jacket as well so I went ahead and cut off 9 yards and that is what I washed. When it came out of the washer I was very disappointed to see all the lovely sheen had washed away. I almost gave up then, but decided it didn't really matter that much and went ahead and cut out the pattern. I am glad I only washed the 9 yards though, if I do decide to use the 21 yards left on something I will know not to wash it first.

In any case I worked hard at getting this jacket done only to realize the fabric was much too heavy to use as the lining. The lining bagged out horribly and it looked sloppy. It was around this time I realized the scheduling issue and decided to just give up on the whole jacket. The fabric was ruined and it wouldn’t hang right. So I just left it on the mannequin for the next few months.

Now jump forward to december 3rd and I am going back and forth between wanting to dress like an elf or not for a thing I was attending. Some people were going dressed like an elf, while others were not. It was totally up to us. And one of the gals said something to me about how she expected me to dress as an elf and she was expecting something great. She was not being bossy or anything we were just joking around. But it got me thinking maybe I could turn the disaster of a jacket into something beautiful.

And so began the remake. First off I knew I had literally three weeks to get this done and no idea what I was going to do. So I started scheming that day. I still wouldn't commit to yes I was going to dress as an elf because I was scared I wouldn't have time to finish the project. And I have been struggling with sewing mentally ever since walking out of a bad situation that involved sewing last spring. I am not going to go into any of that just that it really messed with me and made me feel like I was incapable of sewing anymore. Which I hated, and I kept trying to get it back. I have struggled with several projects since then and spent a lot of crying and being upset that I couldn’t love the thing that always brought me joy, but I was also determined to get that joy back and refused to stop sewing.

happy Halloween!

for Halloween this year I decided to be polychrome from the 4th wizard of oz book, “the road to oz”. this as my sister likes to point out to me is a bit on the obscure side, but there is a reason I chose this particular character.
but before I get into that long story I will give a quick overview of making the costume.
the shirt I used a vintage Vogue pattern #1189. I have had the rainbow fabric for years, someone gave it to me, and I have had it so long I contemplated getting rid of it, but then this costume idea came up, which is why its so hard to get rid of fabric, because eventually I will need it one day, even if it take ten years.

this pattern was actually easier then I anticipated. I don't generally sew with vogue patterns and they have a reputation for being complicated but this went together easily enough. the hardest part of the whole thing was cutting out the sequin fabric it made a huge mess, but then I knew it would. my floor was covered with them. I tried at first to serge the edges but all that did was cause three broken needles so I gave up on that idea. I should have given up on that with the first broken needle, but hey I can be stubborn sometimes. I decided though I couldn't afford to lose anymore, as I only had one more needle left for my serger, which reminds me I need to get some more needles.

after breaking the needles I put the garment aside for a few days before deciding on binding the edges with the selvage edge of the fabric. it had a good 2 inch selvage of black sheer fabric which worked perfectly for the binding.
the top zips in the back so I did a lapped zipper, which went in really easy. I was afraid the fabric would stretch as I sewed it but it didn't. everything about the shirt was pretty straight forward. though I did have to re-sew a few of the sequins as they were put on with a chain stitch, and after sitting for years and years some of it had started to unravel.

the skirt was an adventure in itself. it was not exactly what I wanted to do, but I ran into some trouble finding rainbow fabric. which I don’t get since I was shopping during prime Halloween costume making time. I wanted to do more of a circle skirt or a simple gather skirt. I just wanted something easy, so onto Joanns website I go, and search for rainbow fabric, and they have nothing! well they had stuff, they had it listed but everything was "in store pick up only". not a problem I have three stores within an hour or so drive but I did want to be sure they had it before I went because I don’t want to drive that far and then they don't have it. so I check my stores and none of them have it, so I expand the search to within 100 miles and no store within 100 miles has a rainbow fabric and I am not going to drive hundreds of miles for this costume. by the time I discover this though I needed to go to bed and decided I would look around online after I got off the next day I really would rather buy fabric in person I like to touch it and feel the drape, but in a situation such as this I can make an exception if I have too.

on my way home the next day I stopped at a dollar store, (not for fabric) and they had these little kid dress up skirts. I think they were for dressing up like a mermaid? not really how that works for a mermaid, but it's what the packaging said. they were cute fluffy little things but only 10 inches long. which is way short, but they were only $1 a piece so I bought out the store! I bought 10 in all, which really is all they had. the skirts were double layer so I figured I could take them apart and sew them long ways together, then gather at the waist. I think it worked out pretty well, each piece was 54 inches long so I had plenty of length, and I added a different color ribbon to each of the 14 seams, to make it look like I meant to just piece this together the whole time.
I think it worked out pretty well, even for having to re-design the entire thing.

now onto the why I chose this costume.
last year I decided I was going to read all the oz books by L. Frank Baum, and just his,I don;t think I could read all the oz books ever there are just too many. I have not read all the Baum books yet yet, but I am going through them slowly. I am currently reading the fifth one. I like to put some books in between long series though so I don’t bored of them, it will probably take me a while to get through them all.
as I was reading the forth book and came across the character Polychrome it made me laugh. “Polly” as they call her in the book is the rainbows daughter. I think its pretty cool the rainbow has a daughter Actually he has several daughters but Polly is the only one that made it to being a main character. she’s a bit annoying, a little bit on the ditzy side and she dances to keep warm, those are not the things that attracted me to her character though, no what gave me the idea I had to be her was the fact she fell off the rainbow. in the book she is dancing on the edge of the rainbow when bam! she falls to the earth, and her father, not paying any attention to her picks up the rainbow and Poly becomes a poor lost little girl whom Dorothy runs into and agrees to help poly find her way home.

now I am in no exuberant dancing kind of person. however I did once fall off a rainbow.
when I was a child our local park had one of the best play structures I have seen in my life. they had four different wooden buildings that were like forts. they each had two levels to them with platforms and a firehouse pole to slide down. two of them were connected by a bridge that was about 18 inches wide and four feet off the ground. another one had a small slide. there were also swing sets and an awesome 12 foot slide that was open, as in it only had sides that came up about three inches. and there was also a wooden arch that had metal rungs on either side of it for climbing, the very top of the arch was over six feet high, and everyone called this the rainbow.

there were different ways to play on this rainbow and varying views on how it should be played on. one could either climb on the rungs to make ones way over the rainbow, or you could use them like monkey bars and try to make your way over that way. the monkey bar thing though was very difficult and ultimately kids reverted to the climbing over the rainbow.
my mother didn’t like the rainbow for obvious reasons it was dangerous, and I was not allowed to go all the way over till I was bigger. I enviously watched my older siblings playing on the rainbow while never going farther up then the forth rung. till one day I convinced my mother I was big enough and ready to climb over the entire thing... yeah, I wasn’t.
there was a trick to making it over the rainbow, and that trick was knowing where to turn around at exactly the top of the arch so you would go over the other side feet first. I had seen many a child do just this trick, but I misjudged the middle and went to far, which sent me sliding head first down the rainbow. I tried hard as I could to grab on to the bars on either side of me, but I was just going too fast. I face planted at the bottom and was rewarded with a mouthful of dirt. I had so much dirt in my mouth my mother was convinced I had knocked my teeth out. but no they were fine. I was fine, a bit shaken but fine, and banned from going over the rainbow again. this banishment lasted until I was a teenager, actually my mother probably would have let me try again when I was around 10 or so but I was petrified of the thing, so I never asked. the summer I was sixteen or seventeen my cousin, sister and I went to the park one Sunday to do some pictures for our “band”. my cousin wanted to do some pictures on the rainbow and I was like umm.... ok.... but that day was Amazing! because that was the day I faced a fear and beat it. I went over the rainbow,I climbed to the top and turned around and climbed back down the other side feet first no face planting this time, just sucsess!

here I am on top of the rainbow with my cousin. and the weird thing is shortly after I tackled the rainbow they tore it down. they took away everything in that park because it was too dangerous, because it had too much of a potential for children to get hurt. because kids like me face planted off the rainbow. but I was glad I made it over the rainbow



* This blog is not to be used for training AI*

Belle costume

Happy Halloween!

this year for Halloween I was Belle, from Beauty and the Beast. the costume is based from the live action movie with Emma Watson. I absolutely adored the blue outfit in the movie, thus decided last year to make it.
yes I made this last year to wear last Halloween but due to unforeseen events I was unable to wear it. those unforeseen events happened to be a car breaking down. I needed new breaks and while I thought this was not going to be a big deal it turned out it was a big deal. the part that holds the breaks on literally fell apart while being changed and new parts had to be ordered so what was supposed to be a quick job turned into a three day job and I was left with no car for my Halloween weekend plans and ended up staying home.
so I did what any one who had spent hours upon hours sewing a costume I I saved it for this year. Yea!



unfortunately being made last year I cannot remember what patterns I used. I should have written it down but I didn’t. I actually only used a pattern for the skirt. and the back of the vest. I drafted the front of the vest on my own. the apron I didn’t bother with a pattern as its just a rectangle gathered onto a strip of cloth with the edges all hemmed.
the pocket was pretty fun to make. its a dish cloth that I made the slit in the front by sewing the edges together about 1 1/2” in leaving an opening for my hand, I then clipped the edges and turned them to the outside and hemmed around the opening. I then centered the opening and sewed up the ends then added that to a waist tie like a apron has.



the scarf was again just a rectangle I sewed the edges around.
the shirt I didn’t make I had it already and incorporated it in.
I also made a necklace that is Okay but nothing to brag about.
the shoes are just some shoes I had as are the socks.
I thought it came together rather well and am definitely happy with the end results.