Progress Report: Arisia costumes
Now that I'm back in the land of working laptops, I can do a progress report on costuming for Arisia.
I came home from christmas on the farm with the familial unit with all four Patterns of Fashion by Janet Arnold and that put me in the mood to do historical. So I got off my tuft and banged out that Regency-era gown I'd been wanting to do for a while now. Made out of some sort of flowy propably synthetic material I picked up at the discount fabric shop in Tempe while down there for Costume Con. Trim is a 3" wide beige lace border that I snipped into component parts and used to enhance the neck/hem lines, sleeves and front opening. Slight train. I wanted to get this made up to wear to the contra dances at Arisia. I tried dancing in the Victorian ballgown that I'd brought along last year and that was... ungraceful. Bonus points once I got the dress done and realized that I could wear it with just a bra and slip under it as well as the Regency underpinnings I'd made. The bra just gives me less of that shelfed up wonderboob as the short stays, but it's infinitely more comfortable. Something I'm sure I'll appreciate for dancing.
The other big project is an attempt at making Bilbo's dressing gown from the new Hobbit movie. Which I STILL haven't seen. *scolds self* I ended up ordering shor t pieces of something like a dozen different cotton velvets from Denver Discount Fabrics and went so far as to dye up another half-dozen colors for all those little patches. It is crazy-making, to be sure. But the mock up is done and disassembled to be laid out as a guide for piecing together the patchwork. Keeping all the little squares with the nap going the same direction is going to be a challenge. I think that mijan's next honey-do task is going to be identifying the nap and making a chalk arrow on the back of all of the individual pieces. I lover my perky assistant. <3
Other than that, I've assembled something simple for the 1920's themed KC World Con bid room party. Then I'm hopefully going to get the fur trim onto the sleeves of the sideless surcoat and bring along the 14th Century garb (a ren-era dance is on the schedule and I want to be appropriately dressed). No Victorian for this round, which will be a first in a long time. No hoops, bustles or petticoats? *GASP* I might be able to get away with only two pieces of luggage.
In other news, Ahn Con is this coming weekend, which is going to eat up two of the last three days off that I have before Arisia. But it's a slash con in Kansas City, I can't let this pass by without my patronage. Maybe I'll wear something Victorian there and get it out of my system. But for now, procrastination over. Back to adventures in quilting with velvet.
I came home from christmas on the farm with the familial unit with all four Patterns of Fashion by Janet Arnold and that put me in the mood to do historical. So I got off my tuft and banged out that Regency-era gown I'd been wanting to do for a while now. Made out of some sort of flowy propably synthetic material I picked up at the discount fabric shop in Tempe while down there for Costume Con. Trim is a 3" wide beige lace border that I snipped into component parts and used to enhance the neck/hem lines, sleeves and front opening. Slight train. I wanted to get this made up to wear to the contra dances at Arisia. I tried dancing in the Victorian ballgown that I'd brought along last year and that was... ungraceful. Bonus points once I got the dress done and realized that I could wear it with just a bra and slip under it as well as the Regency underpinnings I'd made. The bra just gives me less of that shelfed up wonderboob as the short stays, but it's infinitely more comfortable. Something I'm sure I'll appreciate for dancing.
The other big project is an attempt at making Bilbo's dressing gown from the new Hobbit movie. Which I STILL haven't seen. *scolds self* I ended up ordering shor t pieces of something like a dozen different cotton velvets from Denver Discount Fabrics and went so far as to dye up another half-dozen colors for all those little patches. It is crazy-making, to be sure. But the mock up is done and disassembled to be laid out as a guide for piecing together the patchwork. Keeping all the little squares with the nap going the same direction is going to be a challenge. I think that mijan's next honey-do task is going to be identifying the nap and making a chalk arrow on the back of all of the individual pieces. I lover my perky assistant. <3
Other than that, I've assembled something simple for the 1920's themed KC World Con bid room party. Then I'm hopefully going to get the fur trim onto the sleeves of the sideless surcoat and bring along the 14th Century garb (a ren-era dance is on the schedule and I want to be appropriately dressed). No Victorian for this round, which will be a first in a long time. No hoops, bustles or petticoats? *GASP* I might be able to get away with only two pieces of luggage.
In other news, Ahn Con is this coming weekend, which is going to eat up two of the last three days off that I have before Arisia. But it's a slash con in Kansas City, I can't let this pass by without my patronage. Maybe I'll wear something Victorian there and get it out of my system. But for now, procrastination over. Back to adventures in quilting with velvet.