Finished ½ Scale 1868 Dinner Dress Reproduction

It has been a while since I last posted.  School has end, I am moving in just under a week and I finally took some portfolio pictures of the 1868 dinner dress I began working on last November.

Here is the original gown

Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum  

And here is my take on the gown

There were many obstacles and hurtles that arose while building this gown, but over all I am very happy with how the dress turned out, especially how well and easily the fabric dyed :)

American Duchess shoes ^_^

I have been following American Duchess for well over a year now and I get so excited each time she presents a new shoe design.  As someone who is a bit of a costume history buff I love how much thought and detail goes into each shoe creation :)

I was extremely excited to hear that the Duchess was hosting a shoe Giveaway for the newest design and with fingers crossed decided to enter.

If you haven't seen her shoes here is a link to her page http://americanduchess.blogspot.ca/2013/02/gibson-edwardian-shoes-giveaway.html
I definitely recommend browsing through her blog and shop, for you are sure to find many interesting things.

Victorian Corset ^_^

This is going to be a very quick post with a bunch of photos :)

Class started up again on monday and since then I have made one corset and started on a pattern for another.  Because I am going to school for costume design it is only fitting that I learn to make the actually garments (and undergarments) that create the lovely silhouette for each period.

The first corset has 3 layers of fabric(coutil, coutil, fashion fabric)

All 32 pieces of coutil cut out and waiting for the last layer of fashion fabric to be cut out. 

Once the pieces were cut out, I flatted the fashion fabric to one layer of coutil to strength it.

Then I started sewing the pieces together :)

Pieces sewn into ¼ bodies

Some pattern matching ^_^

After that I started preping for the instalment of the busk :)

Lining it up and marking the opposite side for the placement of the knobs.

I didn't take as many progress pictures for this one, but I will have more for my second one.

All the bones waiting to be filed and placed.

 So many grommets and 5 meters of lacing.

 Before my mini photo shoot :)

 And the finished shot :)

I will hopefully have some more pictures going up soon for detail shots but for now I will leave you with these :)

Update 07/17/14

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

Happy Belated Halloween

Hello

It has been far to long since I posted anything, but alas life and been busy and time has been short.

Here is a picture of the finished Sleeping Beauty dress for my niece and the Cinderella dress on my other niece

Lovely <3

I am starting a ½ scale reproduction in about 2 weeks so I will try to post pictures as I sew along.

The gown I am reproducing is an 1868 French Court dress worn by a Wealthy American Lady upon her introduction to Napoleon the 3rd's Court.

Here is a picture 

Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum

Isn't it Pretty ^_^

LOTR Violin Medley

I am posting this partly because of the costume, but mostly because it is lovely to listen to.  

I just discovered Lindsey Stirling today and I love her already :)

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 :)