first day of summer dress.

this is the dress I made to wear for the first day of summer. I just loved the little fairies on the bottom. I used new look pattern #6902 for this one. I’m going to post a few detail shots under a cut.

Alice in Wonderland dress

I made this dress by remaking an old dress that I was getting rid of anyway. it was a one piece I turned into two. the old dress was blue and had a full tired skirt so I thought, hey why not? I had to completely remake the top. and added the sheer overlay, to both the top and skirt. I hand embroidered the bottom, but I feel it could have been so much better had I spent more time on it. I used a template for the embroidery from here http://alice-kingsley.livejournal.com/ the skirt is a bit shorter then I would have liked but since I was working with a pre-made dress I didn’t have a huge amount of choice in length. I made it as long as I could. and not that you can see it at all in the picture but I am wearing a black and white striped petticoat underneath, like what Alice wore in the movie. I love the way the shoes turned out. I found a pair of cream colored shoes on ebay then spiffed them up a bit with decor. which was in itself a process, that included steel wool, a razor blade, black leather dye, black shoe polish, and a bit of black paint for doing touch ups. glue and black rickrack. I made the gloves with a pair of netted socks that I cut down to be gloves and striped in blue marker. which you can’t really tell in the picture. for the most part I like the costume, I just need to take better pictures one day.

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

not the happiest with my 1860's bodice.

I was talking to my coworker today about my 1860’s dress. she has been into civil war reenacting for years now and I could tell she wanted to give me pointers on the dress but didn’t want to hurt my feelings since I took so long on it.. but really I wasn’t that thrilled with the way the bodice turned out anyway. she told me I probably need to shorten my hoop a bit. which I agree. its a bit too long. she said I should do it from the top so the hoop is higher and fills in the bodice better. that is the part that was bothering me so much is the fact the bodice points flip out. but then I started thinking about another dilemma and that is even if I shorten the hoop I think the bodice itself is too short. I forget sometimes I have a rather long torso. for now I’m not going to do anything but if I get real ambitious I might remake the bodice. I love the sleeves so I don’ t need to redo those. I had some fabric left over and I’m pretty sure without the sleeves is should be plenty. I’m also leaning more to a square back as opposed to the pointed one. I think it would fall nicer. this is something I need to think on for a while before deciding.

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

a dress for summer.

currently I working on a summer dress that I intended to make last year. I bought the fabric near the end of the summer though so I only got as far as cutting it out before the weather turned cold and I just saw no need for a summer dress then. fast forward to now. its hot again so I dug it out and am about seventy five percent done with the dress. I wasn't intending on lining the entire thing, only the bodice, but then tonight as I was working on it I decided too. I had an unfortunate event with the lining I had originally intended on using. when I pulled out the piece of the dress that had been stored away for ten months they were terribly wrinkled. I set the iron too hot and burnt a whole right in the lining! it was all I had left of that particular kind so I dug around in my stash and yea! I found something I could use. I had a lot of it, so I am lining the whole thing. hopefully it will look alright lined. sometimes these cotton dresses don’t do well when lined. hopefully everything turns out.

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

parade

the parade yesterday went swimmingly well. I was the last one to get there in the group but I was still there before the stated time so I figure it was alright. I didn’t really know any of the other people there other then my coworker. I had met most of them, last year. but meeting someone for a few minutes doesn’t mean you know them. and even know after being introduced to everyone I have no idea what most of their names are. everyone liked my dress and one of the ladies kept asking me about putting the design on it. she said she wanted to learn how to do it so I explained to her how I had just used a cotten yarn and zigzaged it on by machine. she was suprised how easy it was. it does look daunting. but really the hardest thing about it is the time it takes becasue it does take a long time to go all the way around the dresss.

1860's dress

I finished my 1860’s dress today. a coworker invited me to be in a parade on saturday. she does civil war reenactments. and since I was nearly done with this dress I went ahead and finished it. what better incentive then a place to wear it. I have seen the details on this dress on several differnt dressses and fell in love with it. as time consuming as it was to aplique the details it was actually easier then I thought. I knew I could do it I just had to figure it out. which meant studying pictures of the design till I figured it out. I used cotten yarn and zigzaged it on. I like the way it turned out. which is good considering the hours it took. I do have to admit to getting frustrated on the sleeves I was going to try something slightly differnt on them, but what I wanted proved to be impossible, litteraly . it could not be done without rewriting physics or somthing. so I settled on what I did, and am happy with it.

what decade shall I tackle next? I’m leaning towrds 1960’s as I have the fabric. but at the same time I’m thinking 1940’s. I have some really neat buttons that came from my grandmothers house and I do believe they are from then.

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

fabric hunting

I failed at finding any fabric for my snow white costume yesterday. I did happen to find some brown fabric, with a very similar print, but not yellow. I guess yellow is not the color right now. needless to say I din't buy anything. I was only able to go to one fabric store, there are a few more to hit. and a new one opening next month. I could look online, but there is just something about touching the fabric I need. I can judge weight, feel, how well it will sew, the way it will drape, and of course get the colors just right. but its not like I have to rush this costume I don't have anywhere in particular to wear it. I was thinking if I can find the fabric maybe Halloween