Mirror Mirror costume.

I made this for a five year old. when we went to see the movie she was in love with it and asked if I would make it for her. the most challenging thing about making a costume for a five year old is it has to be one hundred percent machine washable. especially when I know her mother would throw it in the washer and dryer even if it wasn’t. so began the stressing about what to use. cotton obviously for the shirt. some sort of blend for the pants and vest. I used McCall’s pattern # 6530 with some obvious modifications for the shirt and pants. I made the pants legs much wider and changed up the sleeves a bit. the vest I drafted on my own. the leaves I used fabric I had left over from brides maids dresses I made last year. I cut them out then painted them, I didn’t do as many leaves on the vest as it had in the movie. a vest for a five year old is after all quite a bit smaller then one for an adult. I didn’t want to fight with tiny leaves they were already awfully small to work with. the other major change I made is that the vest Velcro's in the front as opposed to lacing. I figured lacing might be a bit complicated for a five year old. the Velcro is quick and easy. so she can put on the vest by herself, without frustrations. when I gave her the costume she was so excited, and wanted to play snow white for the rest of the day.

sisters wedding dress

Last year I made my sisters wedding dress. today is her first anniversary so I thought I would post about the dress. first off she wanted to make a dress inspired by our great grandmothers wedding dress from 1926. it was a simple enough design I told her I would do it for her. so began the journey of finding everything we needed for the dress. I also made the bridesmaids dresses, which were made from the same pattern. this is also the pattern I used to make my 1920’s dress for my decade project. I was quite happy with the way her dress turned out. and she loved it too which is always a good thing when working with a bride. oh and just something really neat my sister wore the neclace our great grandmother wore at her wedding. it was my sisters something old.
a few more pictures under cut. including one of my great grandmothers dress

1970's dress

1970’s dress at first I wasn’t sure I was going to use this dress, but I decided after some research to just use it. what I was having issue with is I used an invisible zipper and I was not sure if that was accurate. even if not everything is authentic I want my zipper to be. but then I was going through my patterns and found one from 1971 that called for an invisible zipper. so yea! I have another dress to add! this dress is probably as authentic as you can get. the fabric is vintage from the 1970’s. I used McCall’s pattern #4535 from 1975. I think it turned out cute. I love dresses from this time.

even the buttons are vintage I was going to use some different ones but then as I was going through my stash I found these and thought they were perfect, so I used them and they are much better then what I had originally chosen.

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

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.

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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*