2013 Costume Year in Review

I'm super late on this. (I DO WHAT I WANT!) I just have had no time. But I haven't really sewed anything for 2014 yet, so we'll count this as part of sewing year 2013.

Here's what I said I wanted to do this year.

1) Secret project will be first - I don't want to post til it's done, but I'm really excited about it!

Done!!

Using fabric from spoonflower, I made the strawberry gown from Marie Antoinette in time to wear at Dress U!

 

2) A redingote of some sort. I have red wool set aside for this

Nope!

3) I really want to do Elizabeth Monroe's pink gown, but I haven't found the right fabric yet.

Nope! Still haven't found the right fabric!

4) I have fabric for this costume from Mirror, Mirror, but I think I've been putting it off because the bodice is kind of corset-like and that is not my favorite thing to make.

Nope! And I ended up using the pink fabric I had for the corset for my francaise gown.

5) I have striped fabric that would be perfect for this 1790s, so I'd like to do something like these.

Nope!



6) I adore both of these, but I really want to do the cream and pink sacque. I have the cream silk taffeta for it. This was going to be for the Francaise dinner, but since I can't go now, I think it'll be for the Dress U Court Gown event.



Done! I did do this!



7) I really want to finish this Sleepy Hollow windmill costume.

Sigh. Nope! Dammit, this year!

More below the cut:

Holiday Tea 2013

A bunch of us met up for tea in Annapolis after Christmas and much fun was had by all. I wish I'd take more pictures of my outfit, but honestly I was so tired after the insanity that was December, that I just look exhausted. I didn't have the time/energy to put on makeup, which I should have done, but it was a cold rainy day so I'm lucky I got dressed! Also, though I put rollers in my hair, of course the curl didn't stay well, so it wasn't a great hair day for me. Oh well. Oh, and those it's hard to see, I wore one of Taylor's collet necklaces over the chemisette. (https://www.etsy.com/shop/damesalamode)

I wore my old embroidered Target curtain drawstring dress but added the chemisette made my Stephanie's mom, which was great to wear since it was cold. And I wore my new Spencer jacket. I also wore my cheap $10 flats from Amazon which I believe Taylor had pointed out. Since it was rainy and yucky I wasn't ruining anything expensive.

It was a really fun time and I'm glad we were able to squeeze it in.

Most of these shots are Gloria and Mike's.

Cherry Red Spencer Jacket

I was invited to a Christmas party not long after my Mom gave me this beautiful cherry red dotted velvet.  I don't know if it's cotton velvet or poly, but I don't really care what it is, it's really pretty!

Since time was short and I already knew it fit, I used the Past Patterns 1809 spencer jacket pattern.  The lining is navy blue thai silk that came from the stash. The buttons and buckle are vintage and also came from the stash.

The Christmas party was unfortunately postponed due to weather, but I'll wear the spencer tomorrow for a holiday tea in Annapolis.

The necklace is a collet necklace from Dames a la Mode: https://www.etsy.com/shop/damesalamode

Here are a few pics of the jacket on the form.

Regency Pumpkin Tea

I was so glad I was able to make it to Stephanie's regency pumpkin tea this year. It was much smaller this year than last for various reasons, but that was fine. Sometimes it's fun to have lots of people and sometimes it's fun to have a small group. We had a beautiful day for it and the food was great as usual. Here are a whole bunch of photos!

I surprised my Mom with a new drawstring dress and I had made one for my friend Amber also, so we all had new gowns, which was fun!


Gloria's photo:


Gloria's photo:

Blue Block Print Gown and new shawl

Jen Thompson posted this great tutorial on putting together a really long regency shawl - I gave it a try and I'm really happy with the results!  I wore it to the pumpkin tea with my new blue block print gown!

Here's a period example of the long shawl:

My new dress!

With new shawl (pic by Gloria):

Pic by Isabella

My mom, my friend Amber and I in the dresses I made us for the tea:

Another Regency gown

As a surprise, I managed to also make my Mom a new regency gown for the Pumpkin tea! The fabric is from the stash - I think I got it from Heritage Trading on ebay.

Blue regency drawstring gown

My friend Amber has been wanting a regency dress - we started to making one together, but then the Pumpkin tea popped up and we ran low on time, so to surprise her I finished it for her this week. The fabric came, I believe, from Loren's stash.  I think it turned out pretty!

New regency gown!

I've had this fabric (I'm pretty sure it's from the stash of Loren from which I have gotten many great things) for a while and it's been begging me to make it into a regency dress for a while. (Actually I waffled between 18th century and regency, but regency finally won.)

So I did this (along with marathoning Season 2 of Scandal), mostly yesterday.  It was my first time attempting fancy oversleeves and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Since today is Talk Like a Pirate Day, I thought it would be a good day to post about some pirate costume pieces!

First up is the Pirates of the Caribbean "rum island shift." I made mine almost 10 years ago and I was never super happy with it.  It ended up too low-cut and the fabric wasn't even close to accurate.  I had more accurate linen in the stash, but I never got around to redoing it. Mainly because of all the eyelets. The first time I made this, I had a machine that would do eyelets. My current one does not. 

So I did 90 something eyelets by hand in one weekend. Ouch!

I'm much happier with this version, though I used my old pattern and should really have shifted the shoulder seam to the front, in a more 18th century placement. Also, the first time out, I didn't put a center seam down the front (though I had one down the back).  This time I goofed and should have cut on the fold but I didn't.  It's really hard to see in the few pics of the real one whether there are seams. The front sits more nicely with a seam there. But my guess is there isn't one.  So an improvement over the last version, but not 100% accurate. Oh, and mine probably needs some aging and dirtying. :-)

http://costumersguide.com/pirates_plum.shtml

My friends and I are planning on pirate costumes for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party at Disney coming up in October. Last year we did Star Trek. Riding Space Mountain in a Trek costume? Achievement unlocked!  So this year, it will be riding Pirates of the Caribbean in a PotC costume.

But since the shift doesn't have pockets, I bought some accessories on Etsy that I'm really happy with.  But first, pictures of the shift.

 

So... accessories!

I need something to hold a wallet, phone, etc.  So I bought this bag on Etsy - how cute is this? Here's the seller: https://www.etsy.com/transaction/148757548?ref=fb2_tnx_title

Then I decided I needed something smaller to go inside the bag.  So then I bought this.  It's seriously adorable.  Here's the listing: https://www.etsy.com/transaction/149600793?ref=fb2_tnx_title

Both bags are really well-made and I love the pirate map theme.  Hope ye will all have a hearty Talk Like a Pirate Day, maties!