Gaskells Tomorrow Night

Tomorrow evening is the much anticipated Gaskells Halloween Ball. I have been working almost non stop on a costume for my eldest son Robert. Who like any normal 12 year old, when asked what he wanted to wear said that he would like to go as an 18th century gentleman... It's almost as if he reached into the costuming hat and pulled out the one era that I have absolutely no experience in and has not caught my attention as of yet. This is a big deal as well because Robert has invited a girl his age to join him at this ball, so I buckled down and got to it.

First I chose a pattern.

Simplicity 3644

Fabric-

White Cotton Poplin from my LA trip which was .99 per yard for the shirt

Greenish Blue Cotton Velveteen from Ikea (it was curtains)

Goldish Brocade from Triad

The great thing is all of these fabric were already in my stash, so I did not have to buy any new fabric.

Buttons:

I decided on plain brass buttons for the coat and slightly different ones for the vest.

Several times during this process I had to be reminded that I was sewing for a 12 year old and that this is not "garb". He will grow out of it entirely within a few months.

I started on the coat first:

Personally I think once Robert is done with it, witha few alterations I can turn this into a very nice riding habit...

The shrit was very easy to make and put together. For others considering this particular pattern, I would recommend making the neck opening a bit bigger. Poor Robert has to sqeeze in a bit.

As of now the outfit is complete except for buttons which I will be sewing on today while on the road to a wedding in the bay area.

I will post pics from Gaskells with the complete outfit asap.

The down side of all of this is that I have no idea what I will wear and will most likely end up in my regency gown. Sigh... Harliquinn Bustle gown for next year.

Irish outfit for Ashlin

Ashlin is my roommate and a great guy. Over a year ago my sewing machine was giving me problems so he bought me a new one. A nice Singer machine with some bells and whistles. In exchange I agreed to be his sewing slave. So far I have only made him a shirt. Ash likes to play with one of the Irish groups at faire and after an expensive trip to the Los Angeles Fabric District we agreed on a new outfit for him.

Here is a sketch or Irish men during the Renaissance period. Notice the baggy shirts with huge sleeves and the short jackets? This is what Ash would like, and he has also requested a pair of trews as well. The shirt is a leine and the jacket is called a kilcommen or is refered to as an ionar. He purchased some nice white linen for the leine and dark blue wool for the kilcommen.

He also bought me these shears to help cut the fabric. I normally use a rotary cutter but I think with the thickness of the wool that the shears will be better.

Shiney!

Last night I cut the pattern pieces, today I prewash the fabric. I am thinking I will be working on this project next week.

October is full of projects

The bustle gown is going to have to be put on hold until after October. I had planned to attend the Sweeney Todd Ball this weekend http://peers.org/ However a friend of mine has come in from England for a visit and has also gotten engaged. So... My Saturday shall be filled with friends, pictures of wedding gowns, food, and fun. I'm sure I will find a reason to complete the bustle gown but for now I have several things to start/work on/complete for October.

Events in October:

Folsom Renaissance Faire http://www.folsomfaire.com/

and...
 The Halloween Gaskells

http://www.gaskellball.com/

Folsom Faire is one of my favorite faires and it is very close to where I live. This year is also special because my oldest son will be performing there with his vaulting team. I've put many hours into preparing the team to demonstrate vaulting as a historically accurate sport during the Renaissance, so far the kids are doing very well and are having fun. Also our horses are a big hit!

Halloween Gaskells is always one of my favorites. I have gone on and off for almost 12 years. My favorite was about 8 years ago, my friend Wendy made absolutely the most gorgeous fox gown out rust and gold fabrics. I wish I had pictures... She had bought the rust fabric on sale for $1.00 a yard to use for a mock up of a victorian bodice pattern we had in a book. The illustration was only about 2 inches and she scaled it up and made the bodice. It turned out so nicely that she used it as inspiration for her full gown. I decorated my blue and black ball gown with peacock feathers and we had an evening full of fun.

Both of these events are going to involve a great deal of sewing so look for future posts...

1870's Blue Bustle Ball Gown

I have actually been working on several projects and have been pretty terrible about posting them. So after a few "reminders" from people who don't actually follow blogs I promised I would do a better job. I thought I was curious... I never used to even read blogs except if I was pretty bored or if I was researching something specific and I could find a good dress diary about it. Now I find myself jumping to familiar blogs and mumbling under my breath about nothing "new" to read about..

I've been working on a bustle gown for a little less than two weeks off and on. Some of my inspirations are based on the Gowns designed by Charles Worth. Here is one of my favorites. This is a gown from 1872 which is the time period which I am basing my gown on.

I really liked the lines of trim on the underskirt of the Worth Gown, so I incorporated that look into my gown. I chose pleated trim with lace. I will have darker blue rouching above the trim. I found the trim on sale at Joann's for $.29 per yard and so I bought it all. To my dismay there was not enough to do more than two full rows of trim. So I will have a matching blue ruffle on the bottom of the overskirt and also the darker blue rouching.

Below are a couple of pictures of where I am with this gown. I apologize for the poor quality in pictures. I will get newer/better ones soon. These were the only ones I took at this stage, and my other lamp for the sewing room with MIA.

Here is the underskirt and side drape over skirt. Both patterns are from Truly Victorian. I love their patterns and have used several of them.

The back view shows the sashes that are part of this overdrape. I had some embroidered silk left over from a Renaissance gown that I made, and by some I mean over 5 yards... I thought it would look really cute peeking out, to my dismay the cream of the silk is off from the off white of the cotton that I lined the rest with. I couldn't bring my self to tear out that many stitches and redo it so my OCD just has to deal.

Unfortunately this gown is going on the back burner. I have other commitments so I will not be attending the event I was making for. Instead I will be focusing on my October projects. These include: finishing Anton's Hat, making an 18th century costume for my son, making an Irish outfit for Ashlin, and completing at least one of the Renaissance gown for myself for Folsom Faire. Also the vaulting team may need repairs or new items. I will try to remember to keep this up to date. Blogging is not my strong point.

Anton's hat...almost finished

Here is what the actual hat that I'm attempting to make looks like.

Here is my hat so far... The wool isn't staying as still as I would like, some starch will most likely help.

Top of the hat

Inside of the hat

As you can see, It needs to be lined and the bottom edge of the sheepskin turned up with the lining. I will then starch the heck out of it so it can be molded a bit more. I made this hat from scratch without a pattern so I'm fairly happy with it in general, however there is definately room for improvements. Also most of this had to be completely hand sewn so it took a bit longer than I had expected. It has been a good companion during the few television shows that I watch. Hopefully it measures up for Anton.

New bustle gown in the works

Ok, I am actually going to move my sewing blog from Live journal and leave my live journal for more about my horses, kids, and non sewing hobbies.

Current projects I am working on include a Hat for Anton and I started a bustle gown and a costume for Robert for the Halloween Gaskells.

This update is mostly about my bustle gown.

Originally it was supposed to be a polonaise gown like this one. This is actually one of the patterns that I have although I was going to alter it and change it up just a tad.

Here is the fabric that I was going to use. I found it at Triad on sale!

So I was going to find a nice blue or even a yellow for the underskirt and trims. Well Joanns had a sale on silk taffeta and I saw a nice blue that I thought would look perfect. Let me tell you I learned several lessons from buying that fabric. One I will not order fabric that I want to match with something online again. Two I will not order from Joann.com again, they had the worst customer service ever and when I went to track my package their system told me it had been delivered to Abu Dabi. I'm not kidding, it really said that. Also the silk was not nearly the quality that I would have preferred. The fabric came and the color was totally off.

However, the color itself was very nice. So I put the plaid polonaise aside for not and started on a different concept for a bustle gown.

Here is the beginning of the front apron. As you can see, the color is completely wrong. It was much darker in the picture on the website.

More to come later....

Hat Adventure

A few weeks ago a friend of mine requested some help with a hat. I took my hobby of sewing back up last year and decided that there was a lack of good hats out there so of course I wanted to try to make my own. In doing so I learned that I enjoy making hats and even am begining to understand the concepts behind hatmaking. I have since created a pillbox, a french hood, and an italian bonnet. Each getting better and increasing my understanding of how buckram works.
This particular hat is fairly unique. It is a Russian style military hat and tht top is square in shape with a round base with a wide trim made of fur/wool. This is actually a difficult hat to find information and pictures on, but Anton did provide me with several.
Materials I will need:
Buckram - I will actually fuse 2 pieces together for extra stiffening.
Millinary wire - used for molding to shape and to hold shape.
Flannel - for Milling softening the edges
Dark gray wool felt - lucky for my my friend Clint bought the exact color in LA and has been so kind as to donate enough for the hat.
Cotton - lining don't want the inside to be ugly.

Tonight I will start playing with pattern plastic to make a mock up before cutting into any of my good materials. Looks like the top is a basic square of buckram 5 or 6 inches across the point of the square faces forward. There is about 2 inches of space between the top of the hat and the top of the wool. Here Anton is going to place a cockade. The wool trim is about 4 inches high and lucky for me already fitted to his head.

Pics to follow.