Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #15 the Great Outdoors Part 1

http://thedreamstress.com/the-historical-sew-fortnightly-2014/

I have join the Historical Sew Fortnightly!

With a new deadline every 2 weeks and amazing inspiration from other participating in the challenges, I am journeying forward with a small skip in my step to complete my first challenge.

The Requirements for the Challenge ~ due Friday 15 August. 
 Get out into the weather and dirt with an item for outdoor pursuits.

The Challenge: #15 the Great Outdoors
Fabric: 
Pattern:
Year:
Notions:
How historically accurate is it?
Hours to complete:
First worn:
Total cost:

For the Great Outdoors challenge I am working on a men's coat/justaucorps.  I technically began working on it in February last year, but due to school projects had to set it aside and then never had a chance to pick it back up.

My desire to build a coat like this begin back in September 2012 when my University mounted a production of Twelfth Night and the Costume designer for the show showed us the sketches. The time period was roughly 1710.  Each of my classmates were assigned a different character from the show to cut for,  and I was given the Duke Orsino. Thus began my love of justaucorps!

To cut to the chase, I built his costume and then decided that his coat was to fabulous not to build one for myself.

The great thing was our Orsino was roughly the same size as me, so with some minor tweaking to a pattern I had already worked most the kinks out of, I ventured forth ;)

After finding a delightful woven navy fabric at Dressew for $3 a meter I got to work.

After pre-washing, cutting and mounting the fabric, I began with the fun task of Pad stitching!!! It was then that I had to put aside this project.

But with renewed zeal and a deadline in less then a month, I am thrilled to pick up this project once again.

Check back soon for more updates :D

Oh the pleats ^_^

The New Year is Upon Us :)

It is simply astounding how quickly time can pass without you realising it… I only have 4 months of school left and no "real" classes anymore.  It still seems like just a few months ago that I started post-secondary and yet it is almost at an end.

University has been a very eye opening experience that I will not soon forget.  Now all I have left are my intensives which are going to be a lot of fun :)

First up, starting on the 7th, is CORSETRY ^_^
This was one of the BIG things that drew me to this entire course, I have always loved corsets and now I have to decide on the time period of the corset I am going to make.

I have narrowed it down to Mid-to-Late Victorian or Late Edwardian.  I am having trouble deciding because I have many gowns that I want to make from both time periods.


And in other news… my Christmas break has been lovely and I am really looking forward to spending New Years with my family :D


And although this doesn't technically count as a costume…
This is a little something I have been working on the past couple days.

If you don't know by now, I just kinda love Beauty and the Beast… just kinda :P

1st Summer Project :)

As school was ending last month, some girls from my class and I decided we would have a friendly summer sewing competition.  We each created a list of things we had to finish before we returned to school in the fall, and whomever actually finished the entire list won.

I love the 50's retro style and so as my first wardrobe item, I am designing and sewing a shirt dress with a ¾ circle skirt.

I bought a poly/satin charmeuse polka dot fabric for the dress and I plan to cut it out today :)

I drew some inspiration from the dress Diana Lane wore at the end of the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun"  

I will be posting updates soon, so check back often :)

Ciao :)

Final Project for School

Hello Everyone,

It has been far to long since I late posted. I have been fervently working away on my final project for school and next Wednesday I am going to present it to the class. The assignment was to choose a musical and PUNKAFIE it. We then had to choose 4 characters from the show and make them different types of punk, and then from that we had to realize 1 of the sketches on a 1/2 scale model. I chose "Jekyll and Hyde" and my punk genres are Victorian Goth(Emma), Steampunk(Jekyll), Vampire Goth(Hyde), and Raver Punk(Lucy). On the 1/2 scale I am creating Emma's Engagement Dress and I will hopefully have pictures up soon. Until then have a good evening.

Hit a few bumps...

Progress on the dress has not been going very good... I have been working on it almost everyday, but a couple of problems have arose >.<

The main problem I am having is the decorative triangular hip points that don't want to sit properly when attached to the bodice. I have changed the pattern slightly and have re-cut it so hopefully it will work this time (and if it doesn't I have to buy more fabric).

I hope to have progress pictures up by the weekend, so until then have a wonderful week.

ps: Happy Leap Year ^_^

Princess Dress so far

I really didn't get much done this week(visited with family instead), but I thought I would

share what I did.

Because I am drafting the "Princess Pattern" I have been a little crazy about double checking all my measurements and so it is taking longer then usual.

As you can see it already looks like a familiar Princess ^_^

My plans are to finish up the dress tomorrow or monday and have it ALL ready for my niece when she comes to visit next weekend :)

More pictures to follow soon :D

Happy Valentines

I hope Everyone is having a wonderful day

I finally have a photo of the fabric for the dress I am making for my niece, and here it is :)

Mock up for my Regency Corset

Here is my mock-up for my corset before I attack it with a sharpie

More pictures to follow