2012: A Summary

Clothing/Fashion:

Spent some time learning to make kanzashi flowers, and learning how to take macro photos.

Learnt to make bags and brush rolls. I'm trying to make enough of these to sell on etsy. I also started to appreciate topstitching and ironing everything.

T-shirt recons! I think this one was inspired by a Threadbanger tutorial. I hope I'll be able to do more of these in 2013. 

Lolita style Alice apron. This one is still for sale.

Victorian-esque chokers. I love how elegant these turned out. I sold one at Comic Con, and gave the others away as gifts.

Oh God, this tulle monster. Now I understand why petticoats are made from bottom to top, and not the other way round. Even though I made construction mistakes, this petticoat still gives a lot of volume to dresses and skirts.

I think this might be the best piece of clothing I made in 2012. I really made an effort with this: all the seams are finished with a zigzag stitch, and it looks quite professional. This was one of the pieces that I managed to sell in my etsy shop.

I made a lot of pillowcase skirts. These were more successful than I thought they would be. 

Another apron, made from an old dress.

Costumes:

This is the leotard I made to wear under Sweet Pea's costume. I think she's actually wearing a bikini, but I prefer to be more covered up.

Arwen: This dress was quite simple to make, because I already had a base dress. However, I didn't realise that non stretch fabric and stretch fabric should not be sewn together like this, because it stops the stretchy material from stretching. Oops! Still, it looks pretty.

Alice: Silk Maiden: This was an attempt to use up some of the material I own. As a result, it was not very accurate. Having said that, I learnt a lot making this dress: how to alter patterns, how to draft out darts, and how to make an obi style bow. This dress has been sold.

This is one of the prettiest costumes I made: what a shame I didn't get a chance to wear it (I sold it to make money for university). This is the second time I've made a corset-like garment, and the bodice of this costume is a lot better than my previous attempts. I also tried my hand at fabric painting.

I remade the apron from American McGee's Alice. This mostly involved altering the previous apron's shape, adding blood and pockets, and attaching a bow. 

Bizenghast Dress: This was a very inexpensive costume (15 Euro or less!). The dress isn't quite accurate, but the apron looks pretty good.

This costume was finished in 2011, but this is the first time I've been able get some photos of it, with the wig. Simple costume, made of scraps that I owned.

SyFy's Alice: This is the first time I've really messed up the sizing of a dress. This costume is at least a size too big. I also had trouble creating the back pleats.

Costumes for other people! First time I've been 'commissioned' to create costumes. These were done for my friends in Pilot, who needed Medieval style gowns.

This dress was the hardest one to make, because of the fur trim. Very tricky to work with.

Ling! This was a labour of love. So much armour!

The latest costume: Alice's Late but Lucky dress. This will be the first time that I need to sew a jacket.

Props:

Babydoll's gun. I also made a holster for it. This gun was quite simple: a normal toy gun, with polymer clay charms on gold chord.

Sweet Pea's bullet bandolier. Just a strip of material, a bucket, card, and coloured tape.

More bookbinding adventures. I'm trying to use up this marbled paper.

Owls! These two have gone to good homes.

Sally's wig. This was a labour of love. I had to make a wig cap, then create wefts from wool, then sew them on by hand. Phew!