Project - 55G

This is what Sister has been calling it. 55G - Steam-Stilt Girl. She was going to wear it with a pair of stilts.

The bloomers. She's actually wearing the stilts in this one.

The back of the "corset" and the bustle. I had a lot of fun
with the bustle!

The front of the whole thing.

"This isn't a real corset! I can still move in this! Thanks, Anny!"

The word fabric is some sort of canvas from Hobby Lobby, the bloomers and blouse are from muslin, and the skirt is black broadcloth. No process pictures here, since I wasn't really set up for that sort of thing. My sewing machine was in the dark office at the time.

And I think that's all I've got in the project buffer for now... Though maybe by this point (my posts are scheduled) I'll have some other projects done and ready to post.

Project - Gandalf!

My super-awesome cousin decided he wanted to be Gandalf for the Renaissance festival this year. Backing up some, last year we were taking care of Isaac and his brothers while my grandmother was in the hospital. We took them to the festival with us, and they all loved it. Isaac wanted to go again this year, and he asked me on the way home LAST year if I could make him a Gandalf costume this year. I was all over that, and he loved it.

As usual, Jayne was helping.

The robe on its own.

Robe, hat, and scarf. There's a grey wig stitched into the back of the hat
for the long hair.

Look! A picture of someone wearing something I made!
This was before we went in. The band around the beard was
because the hair was falling out like crazy and getting everywhere.

Isaac had Quala thrown in jail this year for a whole list of reasons.
He had to sing some Rush to get out.

Gloating.

The robe was made of some really cheap grey fabric from Wal-Mart. The hat was out of felt with some wire run through the brim. The "staff" was a prop from my fairy costume a few years back, as was the leather belt. The scarf was some bargain-bin shiny silver stuff from Hancock's that I wish I had more of. None of the pictures show it, but there's also a small chainmaille bag on the belt that he's got his money in.

As an added treat, have a picture of my sister and I in costume.

My patchwork corset, ridiculously long skirt, and too-many belts,
and Sister's Halloween costume from last year. We're still not sure what she was.

My corset is actually pieced together from upholstery sample books, and the skirt used to be a curtain. Sister's get-up was all fabric she purchased. Look for a post on that one next week.

Project - Underbust Corset

For the festival, my sister's friend commissioned me for a corset. She came up and we spent a couple hours picking out fabric and going over the general construction, taking measurements, and communicating ideas. I put off the finish until very early on the day I had to deliver, so I didn't actually get a picture of the finished product. I'm not even sure she got to go to the festival, so I'm not sure it's been debuted yet. I've got to get better at photographing my things.

Jayne, my trusty overseer. Please pardon the massive mess.
I was drafting this and about 4 other things at the same time.

Side view, since this gets the most fabrics in one shot. This is pretty much
just the shell and the lining. No bones, no biding, no grommets, and no laces.

And this is at about 4:00 the next morning. Various size knitting needles to
insert the grommets, and hammer and tools for setting them. This is right up
there with ruffles on the list of things that I hate.

 Made with all cotton/poly-cotton fabrics. I (obviously) didn't hand-bind this one since I was so pressed for time. It was still a lot of fun, and I hope that I get to see Sabrina wear it one day. Maybe I'll bother her about it some more...

Project - Saki Morimi of Eden of the East

Greetings, one and all! I promised some pictures of projects, and here's one I finished today. My sister is going to Tokyo in Tulsa this year and has asked for a Saki Morimi dress from Eden of the East: The King of Eden. Of course, I had to go and watch the entire show and both movies, but it was well worth it. Excellent series, I highly recommend it.

And here it is! Well, 3-ish photos. I didn't take any of the drafting process...

This was about 1 "day" of work. I watched some TV, ate some watermelon...
Generally just a lot of goofing off.

Jayne has decided that this dress is his, not Sister's.

Fully assembled, necklace included.

Fabric covered buttons, bias tape, band, gathering...

Ruffle detail. I. Hate. Ruffles.

Overall, from start to finish, I'd say this project took about 8 hours. The fabric is just some cheap broadcloth from Hobby Lobby: 2.5 yards of pink, .5 yards of white. I'll make sure she gets some pictures in this one for me so I can show off the product while she's wearing all of it.

Christmas Dress, Circle Skirt, and Cape

So, no picnic dress yet. I still have to finish that, and in order to finish that I have to finish Christmas presents. But... I have my most recent 4 projects in photo form! And without any further ado, here they are:

This is a full circle skirt I made out of some old polyester double-knit that my mom's friend gave to me. It started as a way to add some color to my Sunday wardrobe since said wardrobe is full of black, white, and brown.

The next image is another attempt to add some color to my wardrobe. It also came about as practice for another dress I want to make. Made of homespun cotton, this plaid dress was probably more of a challenge than the lace dress. The Christmas Dress was my first foray into the world of plaids. Of course, I couldn't help modifying it. The black band is a strip of bias tape that I added for an accent.

So we're moving from brown, black, and white
to brown, black, white, and red...

It's SUPER-PLAID! Flowing from red to red plaid to purple plaid, we have my new source of warmth for the spring and fall seasons. This whole project just sort of cobbled itself together. I was originally going to make it out of the red plaid above, but while at Hobby Lobby one day... Well, it was on sale! How could I resist? Three dollars a yard for the soft, warm purply-ness... The lining is some sort of satin stuff that I found at a church sale. It's amazing, too. And, as with the plaid dress, I had to modify. The original pattern called for thicker fabric, a ton of bias tape, and no lining. I nixed the tape, added a lining, and made the whole thing a little more light.

And that's all in the way of clothing. I still have to finish a vest for a friend, my nightgown (that lacks only embroidery and ties in the back), and the ever-incomplete picnic dress. But wait! Don't run away just yet. I still have to show you my grandmother's Christmas present!

It's still a work in progress, though I have four more rows woven and pinned and ready to sew than what you see here. I found this wonderful tutorial over at The Moda Bake Shop, and since I had the jelly roll, I couldn't resist. I know Gumby will love it. How do I know this? I know this because I love it and I don't want to give it up!

That's all for today. Soon I shall have ornaments to show off and a completed rug and maybe even some recipes up. For now, I need to clean my kitchen and figure out something for dinner and get up enough courage to mess with my glue so I can make my sister's Christmas present.

Until next time!

Phwoosh

P.S. I now have a Pinterest account. When I get more pins, I'll throw up a link and you can come check it out.

Oh, the thing's I've found...

I've got enough material to blog for a few days at least. Today there will be some pictures, though. I finally pulled the picture of Karen's bag off my camera, and got a picture of the wonderful Sauteed Summer Vegetables. And it's been raining like crazy here for the first time in months, so I have some pictures of the sky to share, too. Also coming today, costume talk. It is supposed to be dress-up day, after all.

First off, The Karen Bag. It's made of denim because she walks everywhere and it needed to be sturdy. She works two jobs, so it needed to be big enough to carry her uniforms. It's blue because that's her favorite color. I now present The Karen Bag.

I made it using a bag I made from a pattern my mom had a couple years ago. It's big enough to use as a school bag with a laptop, charger, and textbooks, and small enough to use as a large purse. The only problem is that it's really deep and it has a large opening, which would make it all too easy for pickpockets. I wouldn't carry it at a festival.

Time for something mouth-watering. The vegetable dish.

Oh, how I love this thing. Pardon my messy stove. Admire my collection of cast-iron. And drool at the glory that is nothing but fresh vegetables. For the recipe, click this link.

Rain! Glorious rain! It hasn't really rained here in about a month and a half. The last good rain we had was on my birthday, June 28. A couple days ago, a couple friends in Stillwater contacted me to let me know what was heading this way. Wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. Loss of power, downed trees, and a little fear. I stood on the porch and watched in true Okie style. The photos that follow are in order of occurrence.

One friend sent a picture to me titled Aftermath. It was a picture of all the trees around his place that had lost limbs. I sent him the last one, also titled Aftermath.The sky was absolutely beautiful all through the storm, and when it had blown over, this is what it left behind in the sunset. We've been having weather like this for the last few days now.

And now for the actual Friday report: I'm getting a lightsaber! More specifically, I'm getting this saber. Sorry. It won't let me post an image of it. I'll get you one when it gets here, which might be today or tomorrow. Anyway... It's my birthday present, precious. I need a costume for it. There's nowhere to wear it 'cept conventions and Halloween, really, but that works for me. And it gives me practice modding patterns. See, I'm not going with the pattern-book costume Jedi mess for me. I want to still look like a female. I don't want the long skirt business, either. After a long-ish search, I found this:

Character design by commander-13

Very close to what I want! The top's a bit too racy for me, and I'll be wearing it mostly in colder weather (Halloween will be it's debut), so I figured I'd add another layer. A long sleeved shirt underneath should do well. Off to the pattern stash! For the under-layer, I found McCall's 7899, printed in 1995. I then looked at it again and discovered that for the tunic, the same pattern would work! I just use some different pieces and lengthen it, leave the sides open for the ties I want, and ta-da!

Tops A and F for the top half of the Jedi costume.

Instead of a narrow belt, as is shown in both the Jedi picture and the pattern example, I'm going with an Obi style belt. I like the width of it and the corset-y influence it has on one's shape.  While thinking about it this morning, I figured out a way to modify this, too. Instead of overlapping ends I'm going to make it just long enough so that the points meet and have them tie together there. I'll put a narrow belt over that in the middle to hide the tie and to put my various pouches on when I get them.

And for the pants, I'm using Simplicity 8186 printed in 1998. They've got pockets and they are tight enough to show I'm a woman, and loose enough to move around in. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to make anything with a hood or not. An asymmetrical mini-cape would be fun, I think.

Now I think I'm done for the day. There's still a lot I want to blog about, though. My experiences with Molten Front dailies, the tiered skirt measurement generator I found yesterday, my pick-nick dress, and the pictures of my new house dress that I haven't taken... Those things will have to wait, though. Now it is time for caffeine and an egg.

-Anny

Arts and Crafts

The Muskogee festival is almost upon me! Aside from working on my sister's graduation present, I've got to polish my fairy costume up a bit. Having made it last year in about a day for the Norman festival, it needs some work. I constructed a whole new shirt for it, lengthened the bodice, and modified the skirt. So yeah. Everything but the wings changed. And I made some more accessories.

 Here's the modified fairy costume (minus the wings, belts, and tail). The shirt is a bunch of squares with some elastic. Three rows of shirring on the top, a channel for elastic in both sleeves. The bodice was made using a Simplicity pattern. Rather than using grommets in the front, I used watch bands cut from flea-market finds. At the shoulders are two rings that are tied together to give it length and make it fit me better. The skirt was found at a garage sale. It has recently been chopped up, filled in, and gathered to add character.

This is a lovely little wallet I discovered at Insatiable Need. I love Stumble! This is just big enough to hold an ID and a couple bills, but small and slim enough to be tucked inside a corset. If I could have found the first one I made, there would be a picture of it up here, too. Below is a picture of the inside.

And finally, these beautiful little flowers come from Momfetti. I've already linked this site once, but it bears repeating since I've now made three of these cute little things. The mostly brown flower is a ring that I plan on giving away. See below for a story. The mostly green one is on a clip to go in my hair. Of all the modifications and accessories I made yesterday, these were the most painful. I stabbed myself in the cuticle and burned myself with some hot glue.

And now it's story time! Last year at the festival I hadn't been there ten minutes when I heard a little girl behind me say "Grandpa, it's a FAIRY!" He played along and told her he couldn't see me. This went on for a minute or so and I finally turned around and started talking to the little girl. She asked me why her grandpa couldn't see me. "It's because grown-ups don't believe in magic," I told her. We talked for a minute or so and then she started to loose interest. As she and her grandpa turned away, her grandpa mouthed "Thank you" at me. If that happens again this year, I'll be giving the brown one to the girl.

Sarah's graduation present will be posted after she gets it, since I don't want her finding out about it.

I don't know how updates are going to look next week. There should be a recipe for meat pies up sometime. No promises as to when, though.

-Anny

Rag Curled Hair

"Anita, what happen you hair?" I don't know how many times I heard this question today. Most of my co-workers are used to my hair being in a straight ponytail or wadded up at the nape of my neck. The super-curly ponytail today threw them all off.

First off, my hair does not hold a curl well at all. If I want it to really curl, I've got to get help, and three cans of hairspray. It doesn't even scrunch well. The last time it was curled was 10 years ago, and that stayed in for a few days because of the amount of hairspray we used. I've recently been wanting curly hair again. Not permanently curly, mind you. I don't like perms. They make me look like a poodle. I just wanted something bouncy and textured and cute. Then I stumbled onto rag curling.

 And it worked! I twisted my hair up last night, slept on it, untied it when I woke up, and took this picture. Note the bags under the eyes and the not-typical horrible composition of the photo.

Obviously my technique needs refining, since the top didn't get curly, but the rest of it did and it lasted through 8.5 hours of work (wearing a hat, I might add) with no problem. This tutorial is super-easy to understand and is the only reason I had the courage to try it. I'm going to do this again next weekend for the Muskogee Renaissance Festival. It looks like good fairy hair.

And that's your Friday update! I have finished a shirt and I'm almost done with a dress, but I don't have pictures of them, and I've still got to finish my sister's bloomers and work on my skirt for the aforementioned festival. I don't know if there's going to be an update tomorrow, but I don't have to work so there might be.

-Anny

The Sarah Dress

Hello, new followers! It made my day to see your names on my Following list. It really did.

On to the post! This is for my sister, Sarah. I changed some numbers in the Princess Seam Bodice Generator and then didn't make a new pattern to fit myself... So the dress won't fit me. Rawr.

It's made out of an old skirt I bought while out with my mom five or six years ago. We were looking for something I could cut up and make into a fairy outfit. This wasn't used. I just cut the bottom of the skirt off at about the length I wanted it to be and used the cut-off part to make the bodice. I'll make straps and ties for it out of that, too.

It's fully lined and will have a zipper in the back.

Here's a detail of the waist, where I attached the made-by-me bodice and the ready-made skirt:

To do this, all I did was line up the bodice seams with the pleats in the skirt, put the blue right sides together, the lining right sides together (to make a big fabric sandwich), and sew it all around.

I'm waiting for light blue thread to finish it, since I can't very well do anything without it at this point. My husband and I are mostly out of the hole now, though, so I should be able to get that, no problem!

I'll post the completed dress when I can get it on Sarah and make sure it fits. Then there will be action shots of her in her new dress with her awesome hair.

There might be a late update tomorrow since I got to go see Megamind and Deathly Hallows again the other night. If not... Well... I'll see you Monday!

Princess Seam Bodice Generator

Look what I did! And I'm letting anyone who wants to use it do so. This works for me, and I'd love to see how it works for you. This is taking the place of the dressing up/tutorial today, in case you couldn't tell.

To make it work, all you have to do is take your measurements and put them in the appropriate purple squares. Then follow the directions to draft your pattern! There are some notes at the bottom, so make sure you read those before you start.

This is not the final product! This is only the beginning of this "program."

It is password protected, and if you manage to crack the password and steal my work, well... Ok. I hope you feel really bad for it. I can't keep you from stealing things.

Just click on the link below to download the file. If you have any questions or suggestions or comments, leave them here as a comment or send me an email at princezanna3@yahoo.com.

Download Anny's Princess Seamed Bodice Generator.

Bleach Dying Fabric

I had a blast the other day with a length of purple silky fabric, a dish of bleach, and an empty paper towel tube. My result turned into a dress that I can't wait to have an excuse to wear. And the best part: The bleaching and the sewing all happened in one day! And half of that while I was on the phone, to boot. So, do you want to learn what I learned? Ok, then!

You will need:
- Fabric suitable for dying. This means not silk.
- Old clothes that you don't care about. I didn't do this because I was to excited, but you should.
- Somewhere outside. DON'T DO THIS INSIDE! I still smell bleach and it's giving me a headache.
- Something to apply the bleach to the fabric. Paper towel tube, paint brush, eye dropper thingy, spray bottle...
- A bucket of water.
- A dish of bleach. Normal Clorox will be fine.

Here's the bleach and the object I used to put the bleach on the fabric with. I didn't need that much bleach at all, since I was putting so little on my fabric.

A scrap of the fabric I used. I'm not sure what kind it is, but it bleached just fine. I read that natural fibers work best, but that bleach weakens silk fibers. So, stay away from polyester and silk and you should be fine.

The picture is tilted, but it gets the point across. Dip your applicator in the bleach and let it soak up a good deal of the stuff.

This one's tilted too, bit again, it gets the point across. Apply your bleach.

Make sure your bleach really gets into the fabric. Apply as much as you think you need to. Then wait. The time will vary depending on your fabric and how much you put on, etc. I waited between three and five minutes.

Rinse it out really well.

Hang it up to dry. See the spot where the circles aren't very dark? If that happens to you, wait until it's dry to go back and re-bleach it. Yeah, you'll have to wait for it to dry again, but that's better than the bleach spreading due to the water and making blurry marks... Which is what happened to me.

When it's dry, turn it into something awesome. I cheated on this dress in a couple of ways. The bottom isn't hemmed... That's the selvage. It doesn't look much like selvage, so I figured it would be fine. And it was. I also put the bottom elastic too far down, and rather than just take off the tape and re-sew it, I folded the inside and stitched really close to the tape, trimmed the extra off the fold, and zig-zag stitched the raw edges. You can't even tell!



Links I used:
Dying With Bleach - This is the site I primarily used for the bleach dying. There were some other sites that I googled, but I can't find them now.
Ruched Empire Dress - This is the site that gave me the idea for the dress. Check it out. There's some awesome stuff here.

It's looking like I'm not blogging tomorrow. Haven't finished reading The Two Towers, and haven't seen any new movies.

-Anny

Links - Free Patterns!

I am always drawn in by the promise of free patterns. Always. I've also found a couple awesome pages for my two favorite periods of costume: Renaissance and Victorian Era.

The first link I'll give you is for DawnPages. I found this site a long time ago, and then lost it again. It recently popped back up in a list of free pattern sites that I found, and now I'm going to share it with whoever's reading. These are primarily Renaissance styles that could be found all over Europe at one point or another, so says the webmistress and I'll believe her. They're easy to follow, and they look good too.
DawnPages
Not only does she give free "patterns," but also her thoughts on good and bad costuming. It's a pretty awesome read. If you're a quilter, go check out her blog.

DawnPages seems to be down right now. Maybe she's putting up the pictures of the Lord of the Rings costumes she got to see and touch and take pictures of...

Another site I'm sharing today is for Victorian and Edwardian clothing. They're the original pieces and instructions put on the webz. I find it a rather frustrating site because I like being told how to do things... or given an easy enough pattern that I don't need instructions. This site doesn't do that. The patterns were made for ladies who had grown up sewing and needed no instruction on how to follow the patterns.
The Ladies Treasury of Costume and Fashion
One day I will figure out one of these and I will show the world!

Today you get three links! This last one is to a pretty good site called Burda Style. What? You've never heard of it? Ok. There are free patterns there and not free patterns there. Most of the not free ones are found in Burda Style Magazine, and you have to pay for them. The favored price now is $5.40. The link I'm giving you will show all the free patterns, since that's what this blog is about.
Burda Style
Yes, it requires an account. It takes less than five minutes to set up and it's 100% free, and then you get wonderful, awesome patterns right out of your printer. I made a dress from this site and I love it! There are also a hundred other things I want to make but don't have the time or fabric for.

That concludes the Sharing of the Links for today. Tomorrow you get a double feature... A tutorial and a showing off! I can't wait!!

-Anny