Monday Progress Update: Apr 9

I've been making lots of videos!  I've got a few other irons in the fire too, though:

Thing 1's competition dress for the F/SF is coming together.  I put in the most beautiful invisible zipper yesterday!  I think the key is putting it in before you sew the back pieces together.  Hope I can get something half as pretty on her fairy dress.

The flower dress is coming together nicely too.  I'm edging each of the petals in fabric paint, which is the longest part of doing this.  The first row of petals was a little hard to sew on, but I figured out to use my teflon foot to go over the fabric paint and now they sew like a dream.  Only 4 more rows to go!  Thank goodness there are fewer and fewer petals on each row :P

I cut the skirt of the Cinderella Historical . . .

and I made the bodice mock-up.  I've got to figure out how to fit it on myself, since it's back-closing :(  I'm using these two patterns:

The skirt is TV247:  1865 Elliptical Skirt and the bodice is TV442: 1860s Ballgown Bodice.  I'm going to wing it on the puffs of the skirt.  I tried dying the stripey over fabric and failed miserably (it's as plastic as plastic can get, but, unfortunately, it's the only thing I could find in a narrow enough stripe).  I guess it's just gonna stay white and hope the under taffeta shades it enough for pictures because I don't have the money, time or energy to airbrush paint the entire 10 yards blue.


Finally, since it was Easter yesterday here's a picture of Thing 1, Thing 2, and Monkey in their Easter outfits:

Monday Progress Update: Apr 2

I took all these pics yesterday and then forgot to post them!  Silly me!

This is Thing 2's sailor outfit.  All it needs is buttons and a hem on the shirt.

Thing 1's F/SF dress for CC30 got cut out.  I love how the lace just barely shows through the chiffon.  Making this dress up is hopefully going to be all done this week.

I also drafted up the massive sleeves for the dress.  Seriously, they're as big as my head!

I finished the sleeves on the green fairy dress, too.  Trying to figure out the trim situation.  Just on top, like this?

Or down the bodice seams, like this?  Or both, like this one?


Finally, I over-dyed the petals for the flower lolita dress:

They were almost saturated so they're barely darker than the second ones, but it's just enough that it'll be noticeable in all but pictures I think.  We'll see, in this shot they look awful similar.  I may overdye them again and try to get a bit darker.

Monday Progress Update: Mar 26

Got some more finishing work done this week, and got a good dent in another costume for Costume Con:

This is Thing 1's Lolita Flower Dress for the Future Fashion Folio show at Costume Con.  The bodice is finished, and the skirt is pinned together.  I finally got four good purples I liked in a gradient, but I really wish there were five.  I hate how the bottom of the skirt is two rows of white petals.  I'm debating between making a row of green leaves for the first row and moving all the rows down, trying to dye the extra petals from the third row something in between the third and fourth, or replacing the bottom row of petals with a lace trim.  I'm also trying to decide if I want to hem the petals.  I'm afraid a hem will take away the floatiness of the habotai, but I also don't want them to ravel too much.  I guess, for a one-wear dress it's really not going to be that bad.  They absolutely need ironing before I sew them down though!

Thing 1's finished Easter dress.  Now I only have Thing 2's suit to go, and one week to finish it!

My finished 1912 corset.  I really need to train it a little so it laces nicer on top, and I hate how it gaps in the front so I may put in an underbusk that will extend down further on the bottom to close the gapping.

And my finished stripey underbust.  I really like the black busk, it looks really nice with the black bone casings.

Monday Progress Update: Mar 19

I had the flu last week so I didn't get a lot done.  Here's what I did do, though:

I finished the binding on my stripey underbust.  Now all it needs is grommets.

I sewed a lot on the green dress I cut out for Thing 1 for Costume Con.  It needs the armholes finished, a zipper put in, trim, and a hem now.

Also got a lot of work done on Thing 1's Easter dress.  I'm trying to convince myself right now that I don't really need to edge-stitch all those pleats in the skirt.  Dang it.  Also needs the bias sewn on the neck and bias put on the arm holes.  Plus I need to get to Thing 2's suit :(

Got a bit of work done on the skirts for next week's One Week One Pattern challenge.  Really have to get on that.  I almost finished this skirt, and I serged a lot of other skirt pieces so they're ready to sew.

Monday Progress Update: Mar 12

I've done a lot of shopping and cutting this week.  Hopefully I can get some stitching done next week, since everything is ready now!

I wanted to try Tilly's One Week One Pattern Challenge:

 But, when I started planning I realized that all my skirts from my favorite pattern are too large. Yay and boo! So I spent the week cutting seven new skirts from the pattern. I need more skirts anyway, lots of stuff is getting too large. So this is all the cut skirts laid out. I'm using Simplicity 2152 and making variations of the two shortest skirts (the longest is too long on my 5' tall person).

In  continuing from last week, I attached my garters and grommeted my 1912 corset with white grommets.  I realized after posting that I really didn't like the dark, so I went with white and lavender.  I haven't finished the flossing yet, hopefully tomorrow!

I also finished the binding on the bottom of my stripey underbust and boned it.  I need to finish the bottom binding and grommet it in black and it will be done!

More cutting: I am making Easter outfits for my niece and nephews, so I cut Thing 1's dress so I could pattern the collar and skirt.  I'll try to put this together this week.

And the final cutting, one of Thing 1's costumes for Costume Con, cut and ready to sew.  I had to stop because I didn't have any thread the right color, but a weekend shopping trip fixed it and I'll get started this week!

So I put that away and I started on this gathered green bodice for another of Thing 1's dresses.  This one didn't have any green fabric gathered I liked, so I spent a day sewing 2" lines on this one so I could gather it to fit.  Yikes!  It's a bit small right now, but I'm going to baste it to the pattern pieces and then ease up a bit on the threads to make it fit right.  The rest of the bodice is cut, so I should get this sewn together soon, too!  And I ordered more purple dye for the horrid purple dye experiment, that should be in by the end of the week so I can try again for the skirt of this dress.