Pompadours

I got my Pomps today!  Wohoo Shoes!  Makes me want to make a 17th century dress to go with them!

Monday Progress Update: September 10

Well, it's been a month since my last progress update, and yet this will be short.  I've put up pics of the Lake Dress, which took up about half my time.  I'm waiting on pictures from the wedding to post the wedding dress and flower girl dresses that took up the other half.  I do have some things to report, though:

I went fabric shopping in Chicago!  Yay Vogue Fabrics!  Here's what I liberated from commercial oppression:

From the left that's 3 yds of a wavy silk taffeta-ish stuff, 3/4 yard of white wool, 2 1/2 yards of blue jersey cotton, 3 yards green silk satin, 4 yards stretch sparkly black fabric, 5 yds gold stretch, 5 yds purple silk taffeta, and a teal, purple, and lime striped dupioni with a matching lime taffeta solid.  Yummy fabric!  What's it all for?  Well, here are a few projects I hope to get around to soon:

 Which is your favorite?

Monday Progress Update: June 11

Haul of the week:

I got some cheap silk taffeta ($6/yd!) online for a few different projects.  Also got some JP Ryan patterns to work with, and in the background is the white lace for future-sister-in-law's wedding dress.  Not shown: I also picked up some basics, muslins for patterning and petticoats, satin for flower girl dresses and muslining fsil's dress, and a silky for a dress for me.  I also have some Folkwear and Truly Victorian patterns on the way so I can do some projects.  Here's a list of stuff I have on my mind.  Hopefully I'll accomplish some of it sometime in the next few months:

Lake Dress
Regency Short Stays
Regency Chemise
Taffeta Half-Dress
Pocket Hoops
Pink Polonaise
Wedding Dress
2 Flower Girl Dresses
Civil War Work Dress
Civil War Round Hoop
Civil War Petticoat
2 Civil War Chemises
2 Plain Civil War Bloomers
20's Tea Dress
20's Linen Dress
20's Cocoon Coat
1940's Corset
Corded Petticoat
Flounced Petticoat

Monday Progress Update: June 4

Another Monday Progress Update post on a Tuesday.  This time it's due to Dress U.  I'll have a long review post up soon, but here's what I've been up to otherwise:

I finished putting all the buttons on my Regency gown!  I think I made the back quite too high because it needed 14 buttons.  I had to sew them on at Dress U because I had to go to two different stores to get them all.

I also finally got a picture of my 1920's party dress!

Here's what's on my dress form now: I'm going back to working on the Bizenghast Lake Dress for WorldCon!

I've been doing some watercolor trim painting samples for it, I'm still deciding if I'll do the trim in watercolor, paint, or some combination.

Also have been on quite a shopping spree lately, due to inspiration from all the lovely people I've been seeing at events the last few weeks!  I've got a lovely green check wool, a brown check, a cream wool suiting, a teal wool crepe, a blue/gold taffeta, a red/gold with red stripes, white organdy, blue and blue-green sequins, and a neat metal piece!

Costume Con Recap

I've been silent on here for the last two weeks, and Costume Con 30 is the reason.  It was a great con, and I had an awesome time!  Here's some pics:

Our georgian butterflies!  This entry was Maral's brainchild for the Historical.  It's been years in the making, and I'm so glad we finally got to perform it.  We ended up winning Best in Show Historical Interpretation, Best in Show Presentation, and Master Division: Best Documentation Interpretation.  I think we were all floored that we got something after working so long on it!  I know I was a n00b and didn't put my mask on right for the stage presentation, but ah well.  I'm hoping to figure out some way to put my documentation on here in .pdf so you can see it.

This was my super-secret last minute costume.  I ended up with too much time on my hands (I was "fixing" things on my other costumes, to the point where I was messing things up more than helping) so I made myself a folio costume for the ffshow.  I love how colorful it is, and it got many compliments!  Looking at the pictures now, though, I really need to do something about my hatband :-P

Thing 1's adorable flower dress!  I love this costume so much!  She refused to wear the gloves, though.

 

Historical Cinderella!  I was the most excited about this dress.  All that research into historical time periods really got my historical juices flowing.  I was a bit upset when Thing 1 decided she needed to 'style' my wig, leaving it a bit frizzy, but that was nothing compared to what the costume went through next:

Some moron decided that a nice ambiance at the Friday Social would be to put oil candles under the buffet.  There were 10-20 of them on the floor underneath the 4'-ish high buffet table.  I was chasing Thing 1 at the time, so I didn't notice when I turned around that my skirt was on top of said floor-candles.  I got two nice silver-dollar sized holes in the train of my skirt for my troubles.  I'm trying to figure out how to repair them right now.  It's just on the train, so I could just move the bottom ribbon up 6" and that would take care of it.  It would eat up my pretty train, though, so I'm hesitant to do that.  I have lots of the stripey over fabric left, so I think I'm going to recut the two center back panels (the ones where the holes are) and patch the underneath fabric with scraps of taffeta (I seriously have none of it left, probably just enough to patch the quarter-sized holes on each side).  That'll take a whole lot more time, I'll have to take the whole skirt apart, but it'll let me retain the train and probably make me happier in the long run.  Since I really should move the center front up about 2" so the hem hangs right this is probably the best choice anyway.  Hopefully I finish this and have time to do documentation so I can wear this in the masquerade at AnimeNorth this weekend.

 

Another random costume picture: me and Jennifer as Circei and Melisandre from Game of Thrones.  The courtyard at the hotel in Tempe was gorgeous, I wish I had put on makeup!  Can you tell this is a monday picture?


There were some other costumes over the weekend (my F/SF dress and Merida), but I haven't gotten pictures of those yet.

 Wednesday after the con I went to the Grand Canyon with my godparents and my mom.  It was so amazing, I had to show off this picture.


 Next, my fabric haul!  Went to SaS fabrics twice (there are apparently three different ones) plus a great bead store.  Ended up getting stuff for a few new projects:

A gorgeous rayon/cotton georgette in lilac, plus a cute braided purple trim and some lilac pearls.  I'm going to make a sheer 1860's dress from Truly Victorian 447, the 1863 Sheer Dress, that I got from AlterYears.

$5 a yard silk taffeta and red pearls.  I dunno what these are for, but I couldn't pass them up at the price!

Peach rayon moire, peach fringe, peach pearls, peach swarovski beads, and silver swarovski beads.  After going to the Phoenix Art Museum I was inspired to try and recreate a gorgeous green dress they had in their seaside display.  I didn't find green, but I did find this lovely peach that is just perfect.

Purple net lace.  This gorgeous net lace was just calling for me to get on the 1912 bandwagon, so I picked up enough for a dress.

Patterns!  From the top: TV 241 1854 Flounced Skirt, TV 244 1859 Double Skirt, TV 440 1859 Pagoda Bodice, TV 441 1861 Garibaldi Blouse, TV 443 1861 Dress Bodice, TV 444 1864 Spanish Jackets, TV 456 1856 Gathered Dress.  I am definitely on an 1850-60's kick.  Most of these were bought with the $4/yd wool purchase from fabric.com in mind (I'll show those off when I get them, hopefully tomorrow!)


So, other than my Cinderella dress fix, what's on my dress dummy right now?

Yay regency!  I was trying to finish this for CC but I didn't have time to do hand eyelets in the back.  Fortunately I came home and looked at Janet Arnold, where I saw an extant dress that buttoned in the center back (I got really excited and said "it can button!" so much my husband was saying it by the end of the night!).  I think I"m going to shorten the back, though.  In this pic it's shortened about an inch and a half, and it still seems very long waisted for empire fashion.  After that and buttons it just needs a hem.