Feels good to be sewing again.

We recently moved into a new house and so my sewing sat on the back burner waiting for space to open up and things to calm down. We have finally gotten mostly settled in and about %80 unpacked. I even spent an evening organizing my fabric and actually labeling the plastic containers that the fabric lives in so I know where various things are. My new sewing area is still a work in progress, however I have a lovely bay window with a seat. I'm having to use the dining room table for a cutting table, but I'm finding that works rather well as long as I clean up my mess afterwards.

I am currently working on two projects, my steampunk corset and a new ionar for my friend Daniel.
I have a couple of other things I am also working on but these two have the immediate deadlines.

Progress on Steampunk corset:

Pieces cut. I used the Laughing Moon Dore Corset Pattern because I really like how it looks and it's comfortable.

Khestral my sewing nemesis.

Busk inserted and basic seams all sewn. Shiny shiny fabric

Corset Challenge #1 a drawer full of boning and none of it is the correct size. I am weighing a few options including fining my cutters and cutting boning from the roll I have, using plastic boning, or driving myself the 10 miles to Sac Dry Goods and spending the money on new boning...

Project Two: Ionar for Daniel. Daniel had a very specific vision for a nice Ionar and so I have employed my long dormant hand work skills for this piece.

Very cute on my female dress dummy...

 I have been working on an Ionar for my friend Ash as well, however 4 layers of coatweight wool did not make my sewing machine happy. I have gone out and bought heavier duty needles and am going to give my trusty Singer another go at it. If it fails then I plan to drive to San Jose and beg the use of my friend Laurie's industrial monster. Which has the added benefit of getting to spend a day with Laurie.

And here is my first finished piece since the move. I have always wanted an apron and this fabric really seemed to want to be an apron. So Ta da!

More updates to follow since I now have a sewing area, and my computer area. Happy projecting everyone.

Steampunk Musings

I have recently begun hanging out with the local Steampunk Group in Sacramento. I have to say the people are just wonderful and welcoming. I have never done Steampunk before although I have seen some amazing costuming done with a Steampunk flair. This led me to a great deal of thinking about what Steampunk meant to me and how I would like to portray it. I have decided that since I do so much with historical Victorian that I am going to base my Steampunk around that. Since it's by far more about the fashion than the gadgets for me personally.

April 29th there is a Steampunk Ball here in Sacramento and so I am working on my first Steampunk outfit for it. Here are some pics of the kernal of an idea.

What I have here is the underskirt for my 1870's ball gown. Still needs the ruffle and rouching on the bottom. Robert's 18th century Pirate coat. And I will be making a corset out of some lovely fabric that my friend Maricica gave me for my birthday for that purpose. I have a riding hat that I never got around to actually decorating, a pile of peacock feathers for the hat, and a gold cord on the shoulder. I also will most likely have a black silk sash where I will be hanging my replica Derringer. I may find a way to lift the skirt up as well to show off red petticotes.

Everything is a bit wrinkled since I just kind of pulled it out of various boxes and threw it together. But I think it will be a fun little project. My goal is to create various Steampunk looks by using pieces that when put together differently are outfits that I could where to more historically focused events.

First step will be to make the new Corset.  Updates will follow, only 2 weeks to pull this off.

Costume Lust

I am utterly in love with this gown. Just thought I would share...

2009 costume wins

Since I reentered the costuming world summer of 2008 it has been a whirlwind of activity. First I had to come to terms with the fact that none of my garb from 8 years ago fit me any longer. My 24 inch waist is a thing of the past and I am ok with that. Next I needed to get my sewing skills up to par since I hadn't even looked at a sewing machine in 8 years either, and I only dabbled a bit to begin with. This year in particular has been one of a phenomenal amount of personal growth. It started with me working a cruddy job that had crazy hours and made me want to commit violent acts. Now I have a decent paying job that I actually enjoy. It makes a huge difference. I started a lot of projects in 09 and only actually finished a handful. My new years resolution is to complete my unfinished projects and not start anymore new ones until then. There is only one major 2010 costume project on my agenda and that is my Harley Quinn Steampunk Masquerade ball gown, slated to be worn for fall of 2010 with Maricica's steampunk Poison Ivy, and our signifigant other's Batman Villian steampunk ensembles. I am extremely excited about this project and am using it to bribe myself to finish my other projects.

So competed in 2009:

1860's Day Gown (ballgown bodice pending)

Robert's 18th century outfit (I will need to get some better pics before he completely grows out of it)

Tudor chemise

Tudor Peticote

Tudor Kirtle (plan to add a few jewels)

Tudor Overgown (undersleeves just missing jewels)

Revamp of my Blue Italian gown.

Italian Bonnet

No good piture of the finished bonnet, since the gown I made it to go with is not completed.

Doublet and skirt for Ivanna on the vaulting team.
(that is actually my Italian Bonnet she is wearing)

Also completed outfits for the rest of the vaulting team for Ren Faires.

That's my son wearing his pants, doublet, and shirt that I made for their historical performances.

Pillbox Hat

Basic Victorian Corset

(no good pics, just a simple laughing moon white corset)

Mom's DiscCon costume. I guess you have to be a Terry Pratchett fan to get it. But it won an award much to my suprise. There is a long explanation that goes with this one...

Wow looking at the list, I guess I have been more productive than I had thought. I think I will do a different entry for in progress projects.

1860's day gown success

Yesterday was Gaskell's and Dickens Faire, we had such a great time.

The day gown was a huge success, it was comfortable and turned out quite lovely.

Ballgown bodice did not get completed, but I was ok with that. I would rather finish it up for the next Gaskell's rather than rush and get myself upset over it. So here are some pictures of the gown in action.

Maricica and I at Dicken's Faire.

Shot of the whole dress.

Here I am with my two boys. Robert is the one on the left in his little 18th century outfit, and Mathew is on my right. Mathew doesn't do pictures so I had to sit there smiling until he was distracted enough to stand still...

And now I have a pile of unfinished projects that I will work on completing after a week or so off from sewing.

Happy Holidays everyone.

1860's Day Bodice

After hours of sewing on hooks and eyes down the front. I have a finished daygown bodice.

I will probably add a little lace to the collar and potentially to the cuffs.

I may add a couple of buttons or somthing to the back.

Now onward to see if I can actually finish the ballgown bodice. If not then I can shoot for the Jan PEERS dance to have it done by.

1860's bodice update.

So after a couple of days of wrestling with the stripes of my day gown bodice I decided to go ahead and make the ball gown bodice to keep my momentum going.

Mock up of ballgown bodice.

The front comes down a little further than I would like but over all the mockup fit really well.

And here is the front view.

And a side view.

So now I need to add boning, sleeves, lining, and a bertha or somthing. Oh and hooks and eyes to the back. Then I will have a nice little ballgown bodice to go with my pretty skirt.

After I got this far it was time to suck it up and get back to the daygown bodice.

First I recut pretty much the entire thing...

While recutting I thought, gee I really like chevron fronts... and so I cut the front pieces differntly this time.

Then I began to panic because matching the stripes had been so incredibly difficult the whole time. These thick stripes are really unforgiving. But At this point I only had enough fabric for one more mistake so I continued forward figuring that I was saving the other pieces just in case.

And I am proud to say that I think I mostly won against the stripes.

Here is the back view now.

The fabric is folded a bit so you can't see how well they actually do match up.

And the front.

The only issue now is the sides because there was just no way that I could really match the stripes at all of the seams.

So the vertical runs into the horizontal, but I have decided that I can live with it.

And I am quite pleased that the back side seams meet so much better than before.

Now I need to add the boning, lining, and front closures to this one as well.

One week and 2 bodices that are about %75 completed. Heading into the homestretch....