Thrift Shop Thursday

This may become a regular column. I prefer to gather most of my costuming supplies at thrift shops. Not just because it is cheaper, but because it really flexes my creative muscles. There is something about a fabric store that (although I love them) brings out a little bit of anxiety in me. I have ADHD and sometimes there are just too many places to look. Shopping in thrift stores narrows my focus. It gives me parameters. Since I have decided to use only natural fabrics when possible, I have to really concentrate on what I can make with what I can find. I also see things differently. I don't see things for what they ARE, but for what they COULD be (something I also used to do with men. bad idea) Here are a few things from my latest haul.

This is what was hanging on the rack:

Huge baby blue 25% linen %75 Cotton tablecloth $4

This is what I see:

The link took me to Elegant Vintage but this item wasn't listed

Then I found a bag of several (not sure how many) yards of this unused fabric:

smells like smoke, but it can be washed. 100% cotton.

Thinking about this:

Right? So cute.

And then there was this hideous beaded tank:

polyester. Ugh.

But when I look at the sequins closer:

They are ridged and metalic, not plastic looking

And I think, "I will remove those cool sequins from that ugly tank and use them to make".......

Flapper!
This concludes your tour of the inside of my brain for this blogpost.

I won! Costume College Scholarship.

I just found out yesterday that I am the lucky recipient of a Costume College Scholarship. There is a good chance that, if you are reading this blog. (helloooo, Bueller? Bueller?) then you already know what that is. Just in case you don't, Costume College is an amazing four days of classes and events all put on by costumers for costumers and a chance to stay immersed in that environment at a hotel the whole time. These are my people. For more information, check out their website

http://www.costumecollege.net/

Beside classes, which haven't been released yet, there are several events. Although wearing large overwhelming costumes to the actual classes is not encouraged, the events are another story. There is a Pool Party, An Ice Cream Social, An Ascot Tea and the Time Travelers Gala. All I know for  sure, is that I'll be rocking some kind of 'My Fair Lady' type outfit for the tea. Maybe a Poiret inspired dress with an enormous hat.

Not this one, but something like it

I'm also pretty sure I'm going to go 18th Century, probably 1760's for the Gala. Since Ken is going to accompany me, I need to make something for me

Just a little something

and for Ken

Don't tell Ken, he'll never know unless he reads this blog. Mwaaahhaaaa

Okay, so probably not in those colors, but I'm awfully tempted.

Teasing pictures of Dickens outfit

First of all, since everyone seems to have pictures of their cat sitting on their fabric, I present my dog snuggling with mine. I apologise for the partial shots. My mirror is very narrow.

That's Amos. He is a good boy.

After about twenty minutes of struggling, I finally managed to get my corset on by myself. I took it in, but its still too big. Essentially, even with the back laces meeting completely,  it's still my same waist size.

On the upside, the steel spiral boning make it super comfortable. I wore it most of the day so I wouldn't have to struggle into it when I tried on my skirt.

I found a really poofy bridal underskirt that gives the right silhouette. So it's going to have to do for now until I can make my own ruffled petticoat.

I don't even want to KNOW what's it's made of

I did make a regular petticoat. It's just three one yard panels make from a sheet and cartridge pleated to the wastband.

And then the skirt. Also cartridge pleated.

It's poufier than it looks in the mirror.

I really love cartridgle pleats. They add zero bulk to the waist, so you can wear several layers and they look nice.

Not shown, the three times the pleats came out before I realized I was using my thin decorative cotton thread istead of my super sturdy buttonhole thread.

Using plaid fabric really helped with the spacing of the pleats.

Here's the corset

This is a picture of it on my mannequin instead of on me. I decided that 45 minutes of  struggling to get it on myself at one in the morning was quite enough torture for one day. I need a ladies maid. So it's in need of a press and I may add some crochet lace, but at this point I won't have anything to wear over it if I don't get started on the dress.

My mannequin doesn't quite have my hips or boobs, so I'm hoping some of this wrinkling with smooth out when it's actually on my body.

The back will be laced a little better too. The lacing will be a bit looser on my boobs and my hips and a bit tighter on the waist.

If you look closely, you can see I skipped a grommet. I did measure, but somehow I got off just enough that there is one more hole on the left than on the right. Oh well, another lesson learned for next time.

Dicken's Corset or OW! my thumbs are killing me

Spring Green Linen for the fashion fabric

I have been sewing my poor fingers to the bone all day on my corset for Dickens. I do enjoy hand sewing, but sewing through 2 layers of cotil and a layer of linen, is really tough on my thumb.This is my first corset, but I'm using Jennifer Rosbrugh's Historical Sewing Victorian Corset Sewing Workbook and following it step by step. It really helps take the mystery out of it.

It's a lot greener than this in person

I'm getting better at the little stitches, but its hard not to get a little wonky. The linen weave helps though.

bad flash photo

I'm proud of how well the busk came out, it wasn't as tricky as I thought it would be.

Dicken's Fair is calling

Okay, now that the prohibition pub crawl is done, it's time to start getting ready for Dicken's Fair. I need to make; a corset, a chemise and drawers, two petticoats, a skirt, a blouse and a jacket. All by hand. Luckily Dickens runs through December 22nd. So we will go, when I get the outfit ready. I've decided I need to be really organized if I'm going to pull this off, so I started by putting my pattern in order. I also have one leg of the drawers finished. I'm off and running.

Keep patterns in order by using a binder with page protectors.

The pages of directions are put int the binder so they can be read like a book.

All the pieces for each part of pattern are kept together in a page protector.

Since this is a muslin mockup, I marked each piece in the seam allowance.

Prohibition Pub Crawl 2013

What an amazing night! I can't even begin to describe the feeling of walking onto the cable car and being surrounded by beautifully dressed people right out of the 20's. Ive been to events before, like Dickens Fair where there are people dressed up and some people don't don't. But Ive never been to anything so immersive. It was magical.

I was terrible at getting everyone's names, but we all had so much fun

The pub crawl was put on by Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild . We started off at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and then drove around on the trolley to various speakeasy type bars. We made quite the entrance, I'll tell you that. There was some elevator hooch swigging and spontaneous Charleston doing. All in all, a marvelous time.

The photos are a little blurry because they were taken on a moving trolley

My ever game boyfriend, Ken, who puts himself together by the way. He's the best accessory a girl could have.

I'll try to get some better close up shots soon. I also made the hat

Fringe Tutorial

I wanted to use fringe on my flapper dress, but I didn't have any hanging around the house and I can't spend money on anything right now. What I do have is yards and yards of cotton string that I got at the thrift store. I also couldn't find a tutorial for handmade fringe, so I made my own.

figure out how long you want your fringe to be, then wrap your string, yarn, floss or whatever have you around a book that is roughly twice that long.

Cut the string at the top and bottom of the book

You'll end up with a pile of string

Double each length of string and loop it over a cord

Pull the loose ends through the loop and tighten

do this a million times

Squish them together

I don't know if they will be swingy enough, since it's cotton. Any pig in a poke I say. We'll see what happens when I have a long length of it.

Actually pretty great. On the dress, it almost looks like marabou feathers

Flapper Dress in Process

I have lots more bling to throw at this thing. I'm also going to add a low waistband (hip band?) to kind of pooch the top and I'll probably toss the green fringy stuff on the bottom.

More gold! More movement!

I also need to make the hem shorter and move uneven. It's midnight time to call it. What me worry? I have one more night.

Time and Tide

I've come to the conclusion that I simply don't have time to do all the ribbonwork detail that I wanted to do on my Robe de Style.

Not by Saturday!

I may just go full on flapper after all. Like this.

Not pictured. Me fitting my size 14 body in this size 2 dress.

I do have lots of shiny things around the house. I grab beaded mother of the bride tops and dresses whenever I find them at the thrift store. So I'm going to throw every shiny thing I have at my mannequin ands what sticks.

oops

Vintage Snuggy

Well, the Cocoon coat is done, except for the closure. I'm just going to go ahead and say it. It looks like I'm wearing a bedspread.

On the upside, it also feels like I'm wearing a bedspread

I only have my iphone camera at the moment, and it's not very good at capturing color, but here's a closeup of the collar.

Gah, I hate doing piping

I think a fabric with more drape would help, but the back is still kind of a cool shape.

For a bedspread

Here's the dress I'm going to convert to a Robe de Style.

I've decided that the fact that I have hips will have to be pannier enough.

Its 100% Rayon. I tried my panniers on under it and they look way too big.

Make it Work Moment

Well, I had my first Make it Work moment. I have a feeling these will be a regular feature. One of the problems with using linens as fabric is that I don't always, well rarely, okay never, actually measure them. I just grab them  if they are good fabric. The Folkwear Cocoon Coat pattern is great because it only has three pieces, but the main piece is HUGE. So this happened...

On the upside it's so wide I don't have to sew a back seam

All is not lost. The design is fairly subtle, so I just cut the bottom of the piece separately on the adjustment line and I will piece it together. The actual garment gathers at that approximate point, so I'm hoping the piecing will be sort of hidden in the folds.

My cute little pattern weights that I made out of washers wrapped in string

Luckily the duvet cover I'm using as lining fabric was so big, I was able to cut out the full pattern piece and place it on the fold. So no back seam on that either. This is great because I am sewing the whole thing by hand and the event is in 6 days. I may or may not be slightly nuts.