The next project for 12 costumes in 12 months

Looks like I will be attempting to create this dress:



I haven't decided on a color yet. Of course, I want to do it in burgundy and ivory, but a deep green would be wonderful, and I do have the sick urge to find the most eye-peeling shade of hot pink in existence. We'll see. I've ordered a bodice pattern from Truly Victorian for starters. There will be several muslin mockups, I'm sure.

A Regency gown, and a Christmas tree

This weekend, I departed greatly from my favorite genres and made myself my first ever Regency gown. The husband just acquired a gentleman's suit from this era, so I needed something to match his splendor. Regency is one of my favorite eras for men's clothing, and one of my least favorite for women's. Men get gorgeous cutaway jackets and tight pants and women get empire waistlines. Trying on this gown, my thought was that my top portion looked like an overstuffed sausage, and the bottom half looked like I was trying to disguise the fact that I was ~6 months pregnant. (I'm not, by the way, but that's what any Empire waistline dress ends up looking like on a body, no matter that body's shape.)

They're very simple dresses to assemble. The only part that was a chore was tacking down the Venice lace I used:



You need to sew down both edges, and that meant somewhere between an hour and an hour and half of sew one inch, turn the needle, sew another inch, turn the needle, ... oh just shoot me now!

I haven't finished the fastener on the robe yet, but here's the 99.5% completed dress:



After I got the gown finished, we put up our Christmas tree. My color preferences have prevailed over the years, and there is an abundance of burgundy and silver on our tree:



There's a few surprises hidden away though.

Here's Drexel, an ornament the then boyfriend/now husband and I acquired for our very first Christmas together, 15 years ago:


Drexel by *dbvictoria on deviantART

And also hidden away is a favorite toon:



Keeping the lights going by the power of the Dark Side of the Force, Emperor Palpatine hovers in the tree:


Emperor Palpatine's Christmas by *dbvictoria on deviantART

All three of them are wishing you a happy holiday season, as am I!

Costuming progress report

I got in some good sewing hours today, working on my current project.



The bloomers still need a waistband, but I had to put down the thread and step away from the sewing machine after I realized I'd rolled one leg's hem outwards instead of inwards and sewed the ruffled trim to the outside of the let. Will do the seam ripping tomorrow and get them finished.

There will also be two skirts to go with this outfit, a full-circle knee-length, lolita-esque one and an a-line floor-length piece, so I can go Steampunk flirty or traditional Victorian.

Costuming update

I've been bad! Almost two weeks and no posting. I've been busy, getting ready for Halloween and Steamcon, though.

Here's three new parasols I've finished in the last week:





And I have turned my daughter into a pirate:



I've also started a new outfit for myself, began the cutting tonight. Sneak preview of the fabrics:

More costuming

Steamcon will be here before I can blink, and I am working on several outfits, plus the Halloween costume for the munchkin.

Aside from building holsters, I have one outfit complete. This cincher is a part of it!



Hubby modded two nerf guns for me:



And I am in the process of making a junior pirate outfit, with Simplicity 3644. I've got the pieces all cut out for the trousers, shirt, and vest. Now I just need quality sewing machine time!

Saving a corset

Hey, there. I said I was going to do 12 costumes in 12 months, didn't I? Time to start working on that then, as the first month is already pretty much shot. At least I didn't say it was going to be one costume a month, so I can play catch up and still stay on track.

A couple of years at a clothing swap***, I acquired a red satin underbust corset. It's not a particularly well-made one, I have to say, as there doesn't seem to be much of a strength layer, and the quality of the satin is not high, but hey, it's free! The maker didn't reinforce the boning channels with anything, and the tips of the bones had worn through the fabric. But, hey, I can sew and I can fix it, right? Yeah, right. It sat around for a couple of years, and I almost put it in the "go away" boxes a couple of weeks ago, but then I decided I was finally going to get off my lazy dignity and do something about it.

I am ashamed of how long it sat around, because it only took me a couple hours each over the course of two Mondays to finish it. I of course didn't take pictures beforehand, but here's what it looked like after I picked off the binding last Monday:



As mentioned previously, the bones were sticking through the fabric in four places:



I wasn't even going to try to match the red. What goes good with red, though? Why, black of course! I found a 3/4 yard piece of black satin in the remnant bin and reinforced it with heavy iron-on interfacing, then cut it into strips, giving myself a 3/8" seam allowance on either side.



Yes, one of the strips is slightly wider than all the rest, proving again how entirely straight-line challenged I am. I am Special! Yeah, that's it.

No in progress pictures past this point, as I got too far into the groove, but here's the finished piece, sans the final ironing I should have done once I finished with the biding.





I acquired the skirt shown here at the same time, and will be adding a drapey black layer to it, to help mask that they aren't quite the same shade of red under certain lights.

***Hey, some of you may be wondering "What on Earth is a clothing swap?" It's a pretty fun way to recycle your wardrobe. You and a bunch of friends go through your closets and dressers and pull out the stuff you haven't worn in ages, that is now either too small or too big, that you now wonder "Oh, ye gods, what was I thinking when I bought that?!?" and anything else you just don't want anymore, and converge on one person's house, preferably a house with at least one good full-length mirror.

You all dump your bags of clothing out in the middle of the floor and all go rummaging through it looking for stuff that will fit you that you will wear. Bring munchies and a bottle of something and it turns into a fun party. Anything left unclaimed at the end gets bagged up and taken to a thrift store.

On to the next project!

So what does a body do when they finish up a year-long blogging project? Why start up another one, of course!

I've been costuming for over 20 years, and up until about 7-8 years ago, it was all with thrift store finds that I hand altered. But then a friend of mine gave me my first sewing lessons, and a monster was born. I bought a machine and started making my outfits from scratch.


The Ivory Maiden Gown by *dbvictoria on deviantART



So I decided my next project will be 12 costumes in 12 months.

First priority will be outfits for this year's Steamcon, followed by Norwescon, and I WILL enter the masquerade this year. (Plus, Patricia McKillip is the author guest of honor! Squeeeee! Which books to get autographed....?) And then to wind up the year, maybe a new outfit or two for the Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire. I may even break down and attempt something Elizabethan, although I've never liked the period. But you learn a lot working outside your comfort zone, and it would be a challenge for me.