Did you miss me?

Well, November has officially arrived.  What a ride these last couple of months have been.  I've been sidetracked from sewing by working for our local Village of Terror which ran five weekends in October.  I was hired on as the costume coordinator and it was an experience...and we'll leave it at that.

I whipped up 13 hoods, a vampire coat and some demon pants for this gig.  Nothing like doing a scramble two weeks before the show opened.  As anyone knows, I don't like having to do shoddy work in a limited amount of time.  But they turned out ok.  The vamp coat, well, THAT was a treat to do.  And if I say so myself, it turned out wonderfully and looked great on our vampire king.  Here's a couple of pictures...

This was a two day project and it was a chenille type of upholstery fabric that had a wonderful flow.  I'm impressed by the way it turned out and the way it made our Vamp King look like a king, not like Prince (long story).

So, my summer was full of baseball with my youngest son, but I was able to make it out to MRF a couple of times, andf also made it to Bristol once.  Got a great picture out of me when we were at MRF.  It really shows the full gown and makes me look great.

Now that the prior season is over and Village of Terror is done, it's time to get back to the sewing I love....renaissance sewing.  We here in west central Wisconsin have 6 months until the next fair season.  In that time, I will be creating new gowns, not just for myself, but for the newest court members.  In all, it will be a total of six new gowns.  Now, for those of you have been following my blog, you've read that I like to make the gowns from the pattern up.  I'm going to cheat on these.  I've splurged and purchased Margo Anderson's Elizabethan Court Gown pattern.  I'm waiting for it to arrive so I can get started.  I feel like a kid in a candy store.  But I still have to create new corsets for these new girls, but that won't take too long.  And on the plus side, with three of these gowns, I'll have extra help getting them sewn together.  Three of these girls can sew, so they'll be doing the easy tedious sewing while I do the more difficult seams and contouring.  All in all, it's going to be great.

Keep watching, as I'll have more news and more tutorials coming!

The Finished Gown

As promised, I have pictures of the finished gown....along with a few others!

I'd love to see you all out at the Chippewa Valley Renaissance Faire!

The hat is called and attifet and is historically correct for the time period.  I'll try to get more posted on how it's made.  These pictures were taken at the Memorial Day parade 2011. 

Elf Shoes!

Our jetster needs shoes!  He really want's the swirly toed ones and I've made a different pair for him before, so I got out the pattern and went to work on new ones that are made of the yellow velvet to match his hat.

Start with the pattern.  You can get the pattern here...
http://sewing.about.com/od/hallowee1/ss/elfshoes.htm
I enlarged it as his tennis shoes will be inside.  I had to enlarge the sole and the uppers.  But being talented like I am, that wasn't too much of a challenge.

For the soles, I used two pieces of velvet to make sure they wore good.  Worse case scenerio, if the soles wear through, he will have to go back to his others. 
I stitched the two sole pieces together and then the uppers following the instructions on the link I gave you.

I highly recommend using a walking foot on your machine for anything that has a deep nap like velvet and furs.  Speaking of fur...keep an eye out for one of my next posts....

Once the uppers and soles were stitched, it was time to pin them together and stitch them up.  This is the tricky part, as you need to make sure that you match the center of the back of the sole to the back seam of the upper, or it won't fit right.  You also have to make sure that you adjust the fabric when sewing so it continues to lay right and not get bunched up and leave you with wrinkles.



Once they are completely stitched together, you have to turn them.  Now, I've never had to trim these seams as they turn fine without.  If you make these and find that the soles don't lay the way you want, you may need to turn them again, trim your seams and see if that works.

The final step I did is to stitch down the edges around the top.  In the instructions on the link (which, if you've read ANY of my other posts, you will remember that I never follow instrutions to a tee) it states the tops lay open and hang down.  I don't want these to do that.  So I folded over the front and back sides and stitched them down, and then folded the top edges and stitched them down.  I'm going to either put buttons or snaps on them to close them up, but that will have to wait until the jester gets here and lets me know what he prefers.

Final product!

Pictures

I've finally gotten some pictures to show you of the work that I've been doing.  I told you that I would get some up.  Unfortunately, I have no pictures yet of my completed gown.
:( but I do have a few of the sleeves and will post them.

So, onto pictures!!

This is my friend Jane and the corset that I made for her.  This pic was taken at one of our rehearsals and the reason she has on hat and horns is she came from the anime convention that was in town.  Lookin' great Jane!

This is Aaron, our court jester.  The hat and jinglies were made a couple of years ago, but the shirt (which is hard to see right now) is new.  I'm finishing up the pants that match.







Jane in her complete outfit.  The underskirt is separate from the forepart and the overshirt is also separate from the bodice.  You can see that the sleeves lace on and are open to keep her cool on our hot days at faire.  She has a doublet that matches and that can be worn separate from the bodice.  Green looks very good on her.  What is hard to see is the green is a jacquard and a lighterweight upholstery fabric.  It's swirly.

This will give you an idea of the sleeves.  I'm hoping to get a full picture today of the complete gown on the form.  I'll let you know!

What a crazy month!!

I haven't forgotten my blog.  I'm just so swamped with getting ready for season that this is the last thing I update. 

I do have my gown done....well, for the most part.  Needless to say, if you've every undertaken a project like this, you know that it's never REALLY done.  I'm hoping to have pics uploaded this weekend after rehearsal so you all can see what it looks like on.  I still have to make a hat and I'm debating on whether or not I want to put on a wire whisk ruff.  It would be real cool and would really set me off as 'the main dame'!  LOL!  Well, after the queen that is....

Rehearsals have been going great.  I've gotten a lot of compliments on my gown and on the one I made for another gal ( I want to upload those pics too).  I love my role and the 'attitude' I have.  Kind of like me!  We have less than three weeks to opening day and I'm nervous and excited!  Nervous because I have so much to finish before then and excited because I really get to play!

On the lines of what needs to be finished...
One jester shirt and pants.  The shirt is almost complete and should be by tomorrow.  It's going to look great on him!  It's a bright yellow and orange and will go very well with the collar, wrist cuffs, ankle cuffs, waistband and hat that I've already made for him.  The pants are going to be a cinch to make.  Simple he said.  I can do simple.

One pair of faun pants.  These are going to be a dark brown fur that I've already cut out.  The trick will be putting in the butt cheeks (yes, they are NOT real) and figuring out a way to secure the legs.  The faun is going to be on digi-stilts so it's going to be tricky...

One bodice that is reversable.  This is almost complete as I'm mentoring the gal who is doing it and it is for her.  However, with time running out, I may just pick it up and get it finished.

One doublet.  This goes with the outfit for the gal who has the other gown.  It will compliment the gown and be an additional thing she can wear should she want the additional.

Hem up the cape.  Yes, I still haven't finished that. That won't take long...but it's still something that needs to be finished.

Hat...mine.  Not an easy undertaking, but should be able to have it finished by opening day.  This will be the last thing I do.  I always seem to put me off..oh well.  Here's a pic of what I really want to do hat wise.

If not that, then it will be this..

I'll try to get pictures uploaded after this weekend. 

Does this make my butt look big? Or How to make a Bum Roll....

I've been commissioned to make a few gowns for the upcoming Ren season.  We are starting from the base up and as I've already posted on how to do a corset (though this one has hook and eye closure in front....I may just post pics), I know you are all wondering about what else goes under these huge dresses. 

I won't bore you with all the details of what goes where, but will let you know that I've created a few bum rolls and this one is no different.  This project will take less than an hour to put together and an evening to stuff and stitch closed. 

Here's where you start to get a very in depth detailing of how to create a pattern:
http://www.reddawn.net/costume/bumroll.htm

I used the foil trick to get a true curve for the gal I'm making this for.  One trick that isn't listed on the site is you only have to go to just beyond the front hip bone.  You don't need to measure all the way around the hip line.  The ends don't meet in the middle.

From here, it was on to drawing out the pattern, using this as the inner curve.

These rolls can be anywhere from 4" wide to 6+" in back.  This one is a little over 5".  Don't worry if your back curve isn't exact, you can fold your paper and cut what you think is correct and it should be correct on both sides.

Find some type of fabric that is sturdy to use for your bum roll.  You don't want to use a stretch fabric and it doesn't have to be pretty.  This is one of those items that only you will see.  Since I had cotton duck here, that's what I used.  You'll need two pieces, so fold your fabric and cut it out.  Some sites will tell you that one has to go in one direction and another the other direction (grain and cross grain), but I've never had any problems just using it on the grain.  Once you have it cut, double check that the front curve is pretty close.  Be sure to put in a seam allowance or the curve is going to be too big and the roll will slip and slide.

You can see here that it's pretty darn close!  Now you need to find ties.  You can use ribbon (grosgrain, not satin)or even twill tape or you can do as I like to do, shoe laces.  These you can pick up real cheap and not waste your ribbon on something that's not going to be seen. 

You want to line up your ties with the end of the horns on both sides.  These are then going to be pinned down on ONE of the pieces and out of way of the seams.

Put on your next piece so the pins are inside of the roll.  TIP:  When pinning these down, pin TOWARDS the horn.  It will make it easier to take out the pins when you've finished sewing it up.

You're ready to sew this together.  Starting at the center back, you want to be sure to leave at least 5" or more open to turn the roll and to give plenty of room to stuff it.  You also want to be sure to stitch the ties at the very tip of the horns or it won't fit correctly.  If you miss it, rip the seam and do it again.  Trim your seam allowance close to the stitching.  Now, reach inside the roll and take out your pins and pull your ties through the hole.

Use them to help you turn the roll right side out.  If you need something to push the ends of the horn out, a dowel, wooden spoon or even a chop stick work well.  Press it flat and you're ready to stuff it and then stitch the hole shut.  Be sure to stuff it very firm, like you would a toy or doll.  Done!

Chilled? How about a new Cloak?

Would you look at that!  You've got TWO new posts in one day!  Told you I was busy!

A couple of days ago, I had a mild brain fart on how to do the sleeves.  I know what I want, but laying it out and designing them is proving a bit tougher than I anticipated.  I do believe I mentioned that everything I do is custom done, which means drawing out the pattern on my own, not using some boughten one.  So while I was getting worked up over these sleeves (I mean, do I really want sleeves?  Would a decent noble woman been seen without them??? I don't really CARE at this point!) I moved on to something that I knew I was going to need in our Wisconsin weather.  Since the faire here runs from mid May to mid June, and May is notorious for being unpredictable with the weather (last year it was WINTER coats at baseball) I needed a new cape/cloak.  I have one, but it's  not exactly what I would call warm, just more for show. 

I scoured the internet for a simple pattern that wouldn't take 8+ yards of fabric.  I have a pattern that is real nice and full, but didn't want to use that much fabric.  I know you can make them with as little as 3-3 1/2 yds and know I've seen it on line before, so I did some digging.  Sure enough, I found a pattern for a semi-circle cloak and it fit the need.

I have a nice heavy weight cotton (think denim/twill) that is black that I wanted to use.  Used alone, it wouldn't provide what I needed for the elements and I didn't have enough wool to line it with.  So I opted for comfort vs. historically correct.  I pulled out the polar fleece.  Yup, polar fleece.  I had 5 yds of blue that would fit the bill.  And frankly, looking at it now, it could plausibly pass for wool.  (yeah right, who am I kidding??) Here's a link to the site I found.
http://www.copdandsomuchmore.com/homesewingcape.html

Step one:  Wash and dry your fabric.  With this being a cotton blend and being black I wanted to make sure that if it was going to shrink it did and if the color was going to bleed it would BEFORE I found out in the rain.

Step two:  Vaccum the floor.  In case I never mentioned it, I have dogs and two of my dogs shed horribly.  It never fails.  I get ready to move onto another project, fabric hits the floor and it's covered in dog hair.  Yuk!

Step three:  Measure how long I want the cloak to be.  I want a true measurement from the shoulder area to the floor OVER the hoop.

Step four:  Follow the directions given on the site and measure out the first layer.  This requires getting out my cutting board and hefting the fabric up and over it.  Did I mention that it's a heavy cotton/twill fabric?  Did I mention it's over 8 yards of it?

Step five:  Cut fabric as directed on the site.  Now I should mention that you should NEVER follow what a website tells you to the tee.  Always double check what you're doing before hand.  I, on the other hand, forgot this...DUH!  It worked anyway.

Step six.  Unfold the length of fabric and fold it the opposite direction, giving one HUGE square.  Bigger than my cutting table.  On to the floor I go!

Step seven:  Cuss out the dogs and self for not vacuuming good enough

Step eight:  Find yarn and chalk for drawing on this fabric.
Now would be a good time to let you all know a little tip:  Always gather your gear before you start a project.  Read and re-read what your going to need.  It saves time.

Step nine:  Draw out the circles for the cape and the neck area. 

Step ten:  Cut said fabric on the drawn lines. 

This completes the cape.  Well, almost.  As I said, never follow what they tell you to do.  I then took the fleece and cut it to size and re-folded it over.  Using the cut piece of black, I cut out the lining.  On to the hood.

I couldn't quite understand what she was saying on the site, so I went to another and found a great hood pattern that made sense.  http://home.clara.net/arianrhod/Aldebaran/DoItYourself/Cloak03.html  about half way down is the hood pattern.  I made my hood deeper and taller as I wanted the BIG effect.  BTW, we who are short always want the BIG effect!
Here's a pic of the hood being cut out.

When both hoods were cut out, I stitched them up and attached them to the body of the cape, matching the back seam with the center back. 

I wanted to make this cape have class and be fitting for a noble woman, so I trimmed it in off white fur.  I then dug into my 'tail' collection (yes, real tails that have been tanned, a gift from a dear friend) and found two white tails and put them on near the neckline.  I then matched up both and sewed it together.  Now I had to think about how I wanted to close this.

I know most close with some form of a clasp, and that's great, however, with the sleeves that I'm designing, I needed a bit more space.  So I made a chained clasp and used two buttons to sew it on.  One side is stationary and the other has a hook to go around the button.  The only thing left is to hem up the bottom, but with circle anythings it's best to let them hang for a few days before you hem to make sure that the weight is evenly distributed on the bottom.  This way, it saves from a wonky hem.  Is that even a word?  Anyway, here's the finished (almost) cloak.

What do you think?

The overskirt is done!

I'm a little behind in keeping you updated on my gown.  It's been very busy here with the new season almost upon us! 

I've auditioned for the local MRAG and was scared silly!  But it all went well and it was really only to see if anyone would be paid.  I'd love to get paid to dress up, but that's all I wanted to do...go play in dress up clothes!  So in the midst of all this, we are preparing for a new grandbaby too.  He's being very stubborn in meeting us and it should be any day now.  Like father like son, huh?

While I've been busy doing all this, I did manage to get a few other things completed for my gown, not to mention a corset pattern drawn and the fabric cut out for another client.  But since I've already done the corset blog, I'm just going to talk about the overskirt.

I've already discussed cutting out the skirt panels and how they were to be put together.  It took three panels and I have enough left to do the sleeves.  That's the exciting part...but I'll talk about those later.

So the skirt panels were cut out and ready to be sewn together.  Since the fabric I'm using is a silk weave it tends to fray.  I serged around all the edges of the panels making it easier to handle them without all the little threads coming out.  This works well with big items, just as your fray check works well for smaller items. Once they were sewn together, it gave me a long piece of fabric.  The seams are already finished, so that was the good thing and they were matched selvage to selvage. 

I then measured from the center front to where I wanted the pleating to start, which was just before side waist.  Now most overskirts are completely pleated into the waistband, but I'm doing this one a bit different.  I like a challenge and this has proven to be just that.

I measured the waist area over the underskirt to make sure that I had the right measurement.  Even if you have the measurement for the waist that you used for the uderskirt, always recheck it with that skirt on.  It's extra fabric and there's nothing like having both the same measurement to only have the overskirt be too tight and uncomfortable.  I added 4" to this measurement as I want the waistband to overlap, bringing the front panels closer together.  I cut interfacing to match the measurement of the waistband and folded and sewed the edges the same as for the underskirt.

I double knife pleated this skirt as I did the underskirt.  It takes more fabric up and lays nicer.  Each side goes towards the back.  Again, I left the front section of the overskirt unpleated.  When I got the right measurements, I stitched a seam across the top of the pleats and laid it on the waistband to start pinning it in.  Once it was sewn in, I pressed the seam allowance towards the band, making it easier to fold the band down.

Here is a good closeup of the skirt attached to the waistband.  If you look close enough, you'll see that I used two rows on the waistband.  This fabric is a bit heavier than the underskirt and I don't want any chances of it coming out of the waistband.

Once it was sewn on, I folded the band over and pressed it down.  Now on this band, I allowed for an extra 1/2" on the top folded part.  The extra allows for the back of the band to be over the front of the band. Why would I do this?  Well, I'm just too dang busy to hand stitch it into place, so I stitched it closed by stitching in the ditch on the front side.

I put the overskirt on Betty over the underskirt to make sure that the waistband and the front sections were right.  They were, which is good, because I probably would have left it if it wasn't.  Like I said, it's a time thing.  While it was on Betty, I pinned the hem line to where it needed to fall.  Remember me telling you that the underskirt was hemmed up a bit higher than ground level?  This skirt is ground level.  Once it was pinned, I ironed the crease and started with the padding on the hem.  I used a navy blue corduroy that I had laying around and it worked great!  This gives it the extra body at the bottom and makes sure that it hangs straight.

As you can see, there are two sets of pins.  The hem is sewn in two spots, the top and the bottom.  This keeps the padding from shifting and makes a good solid hem.

Voila!  The overskit is done!

Sleeves?

With the underskirt done, the remaining items need to be thought out and finished.  I lucked out and found a gal who does embroidery with the guild and was able to get my ideas for the forefront to her and she's going to be able to embroider it for me!  YAY!  One less step to do.  As I mentioned before, this is not the only gown I need to finish before season.  I also have two for a friend and another for me.  I'm not overwhelmed (yet) and know that I'll be able to finish them in plenty of time! 

The forepart is going to be embroidered in a blue thread to match the blue in the stripes and when it's finished, I'm going to add beading to it.  I have it cut out, along with the lining and am anxious to get it back to get it finished.  She told me about three weeks to get it back, which is perfect for me to finish the remaining portion of this gown.

I also have the overskirt almost finished and will post on it later.  The bodice is taking the most time, as I'm beading it by hand and should have the beading finished by the end of next week.  It's nice to have something to do with my hands as I sit in the evenings watching TV.  I need to get the bodice sewn together yet, but I also need to think about waist tabs.  So while I have some time to kill, I've been thinking about what type of sleeves I want with this gown.  My last gown has shoulder rolls and removable open hanging sleeves.

Unfortunately, the day that this pic was taken, the gal who helped me tie them on, tied them on on the wrong sides, so they hang wrong.  You'd never know unless I told you, which I just did.

So with this already one sleeve option that I have, I want something different.  I've been scouring the web looking at different sleeve types etc, and think I've settled on one.  Here's a few pics of the idea I have.

 I like this sleeve, minus the lower sleeve portion.  Too much tightness for me and will be unbelievably hot.



 This one is great, but again, the lower sleeve is not what I'm looking for.  Also the upper portion isn't full enough for me.

This upper sleeve has the 'poof' I'm looking for, but I'm not liking the lower portion of no sleeve.  With this being a court gown, I need something that has the lower sleeve portion, but is open enough to be cool and comfortable.  I also don't like the way this one ties on.  I think I'm going to sew the upper portion of the sleeve on and tie the lower portion on.  So here is a sketch of what I'm kind of looking to do.

The circles between the bands will be gold beads, probably two.  I want the upper sleeve to really 'poof' and the lower sleeve to be more form fitting, but not tight.  I like the openish of it.  It's reminiscent of the Italian gowns, but not really.  I'm also thinking that I'm going to add some shoulder tabs to the gown for an extra look, but am still not sure.  Th upper sleeve will have the blue stripe of the gown with the gold in between from the forepart.  The blue will also have a piping on it, though I'm not sure if I'm going to do a blue piping or pipe it with the pearl trim. I'm hoping to get the gold to 'poof' out of the stripe.  Kind of like having the chemise show, but with it being gold.  The lower sleeve will be just blue, again with piping, with the chemise showing through.  This should keep me cool enough and yet look 'noble' enough.  As I've just sketched it out, I have to do a mock up of it before cutting into the silk, as I have just enough to do the sleeves, waist tabs and maybe shoulder tabs.  What do you think?  Will the sleeves work?