Halloween is the final answer to "I want to make that thing, but I don't have anywhere to wear it..."
I wanted to make a bustle skirt. I had nowhere to wear it.
Halloween to the rescue!
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I have too many half-completed sewing projects, and too much random stuff piled up in my stash of fabric / notions / whatever. I spent portions of week-before-last going through the box of garments that need repair, doing the hand-sewing while watching TV with Ken. Now I'm trying to finish off those partial projects. This morning I'm making two ( Read more... )

I've been making these flowers for girly hair thingys, and I made Red this ginormous bow. You have to register to get the bow tutorial and pattern, but it's free, and so far they haven't sent me any spam. I also added a layer of iron-on interfacing, so the bow would stand up more. I see a few more of them in Red's future - the first one is a cute ( Read more... )

Attempting to hit the "reset" button on the condition of my house - too many various projects have been started and not completed or not cleaned up after. There are Christmas storage boxes to put back into the attic, and sewing stuff that seems to have exploded everywhere, and laundry to deal with, and presents to wrap ( Read more... )

Yesterday and today I made a forest green bias-cut satin evening gown. The pattern is Vogue 2859. I tweaked it a little, but not much. It still has a few minor fit adjustments to make (a couple of things that couldn't be done on the dress dummy), and the side snaps and the hem to do, but it's mostly done. I'm pleased with the results. It went ( Read more... )

Well, ok, mostly finished. I ran out of time to hem it before we needed to leave for trick-or-treating, so the hem was rather sloppily pinned up with safety pins. Other than that, I'm pretty pleased with the results.
The original post

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My 5-year-old little girl (who we've nicknamed Red) has declared that she wants to be the Queen of Hearts from the new Alice in Wonderland movie for Halloween this year. The dress seems mostly Elizabethan-ish, with some rather Victorian-looking sleeves, so I've been shamelessly plagiarizing from the research that various SCA folks have so kindly ( Read more... )

On the recommendation of my teacher, I'm sewing myself a pair of hakama for aikido class. But I don't have a pattern. So she lent me a pair, and I measured them. I also found a pattern online for a pair in a completely different style, but with some construction similarities that I'll scavenge. The asymmetrical pleats were confusing me, so I did ( Read more... )

Red's costume is progressing nicely. I still need to bone the farthingale, and put eyelets to attach it to the corset, but other that that the underwear is done. I patterned out the bodice using the Elizabethan corset generator instructions, and fit the mockup yesterday. I've bought all the fabrics. I need to figure out how to do the sleeves, and a ( Read more... )

Red has just told me that she wants to be the Queen of Hearts, from the new Alice in Wonderland, for Halloween. 
I'm contemplating the needed layers, and compiling a list of items to include to get the look right. She's already sort of tube-shaped anyway, so corsetry to get an Elizabethan shape won't be an issue (though if she needs one just as a ( Read more... )