Mockups and Alterations

Remember the aristocrat black dress?

It did not fit very well, nor did it look very nice. So I thought I would separate the skirt and shirt and see if it looked better.

 Here's the shirt on its own. I serged the bottom (I got a secondhand overlock machine and am finding it very useful) and them turned up the hem and sewed it with a straight stitch. Look better to me. Then I cut open a section of the skirt, added a waistband, and sewed in a zip.

Much improved. Sadly it still doesn't suit me much. If I make it shorter it looks nicer, but then it's too short for me. This one will probably be up for sale in my etsy shop.

In other news, I'm making mockups for THIS

 Cos damn it, I want a sparkly super detailed princessy outfit too!

The mockup on the left is based on a Burdastyle regency pattern, the other is a Burdastyle pattern "Danielle", which I have used before. If not for the stripes, I might used the one of the left, but pattern matching the stripes with the princess seam will be difficult. I had to pattern match for my Striped Steampunk dress, and it was a hassle. I think, for my sanity (what's left of it :) ) I'll use the one of the right for the bodice, but incorporate the train of the pattern on the left. 

I'm planning my costumes for Sci Fi Con in July. Female Titan is confirmed, just need to get makeup and repaint the legs. I will probably wear Lady Loki too. 

I want to make Asuka Langley Soryuu, but I think the cotton lycra I order isn't stretch enough. I may need to replace it, and lycra is a bit expensive (maybe it will be cheaper during or after Carnival?). I'm also tempted to do Madoka (Madokami version), Princess Serenity, Queen Isabel (The Fountain, but making it would take AGES and it's JULY, so hot!), Big Sisters (Bioshock 2), or maybe Xena.

Wayward Victorian Carnival Costume

CARNIVAL is here! It's a big thing in Malta. Really big. The capital city is flooded with huge parade floats, street stalls and people in costume for 4 days. I went yesterday with some friends. The day before, I realised I didn't have a costume (though actually if I'd thought about it I could have worn the Amanda Young costume. Stupid stupid :( ), so I decided to put one together.

I love Emilie Autumn's style, and so I decided to put together a wayward Victorian inspired costume, partly inspired by this costume that Emilie Autumn wears:

I made a corset, though honestly this is more like a mockup than the real deal. This was made in a hurry for today, so I only spent around 12 hours working on it. This is not my best work. 

The corset is quite wrinkly. That’s because I used interfacing on the white material to stop it stretching, but the material is trying to peel away from the interfacing under stress. 

The plastic boning is also not working. This is a fashion corset and not meant for tight lacing, which is why I used plastic. I’ve had good results before, using plastic ties (you find them around furniture boxes or six packs of water). The kind I used this time is just too flimsy. It buckles under stress, which is another reason why the corset looks so rumpled.

I also had problems sewing the boning channels. I am terrible at sewing the channels neatly: they always seem to get wrinkled or misaligned, or they’re too narrow. The bias tape is also wonky, though it doesn’t show too much.

Since I used only materials that I already had at hand, I don’t feel too badly about this corset being unsuccessful. This is something I would definitely like to try remaking, ideally using more durable materials such as coutil or cotton twill. It’s difficult to buy metal corset bones in Malta, so thick cable ties will have to suffice. It might also be worth adding a waist tape and busk closure. 

 The rest of the costume is just clothes I already had, such as the jacket from Late but Lucky, a steampunk style skirt, lace gloves, a feather fascinator, boots, thigh highs and a random flower hair clip. 

  

Aristocratic Dress Part 2

And I'm baaaccck! 

Sewing the dress took longer than I thought it would, mainly because I had to add a princess seam to the front of the bodice. I made the pattern slightly too big for me, so had to take in the front by 5cm (!) to make it fit nicely. 

Once I had the bodice pieces cut out and sewn together, i added the plackets and ruffles.

Each ruffle is three times the length of the bodice. This creates an enormous ruffle. Both ruffles are actually sewn on to the left hand placket. I thought this would make them look more even when the dress is fastened. The ruffles are very fluffy, so I may go back and press them down gently.

On to the sleeves. I used a puff sleeve pattern, and altered it to make it wider at the bottom, and long enough for my arms. I didn't take any pictures of these steps, which is a pity, because I'm very proud of the sleeves. 

 

Each sleeve is finished with a French seam. The gathers at the wrists are actually created with elastic inside a casing. The casing is made by sewing a wide ribbon to the inside of the sleeves. I used turquoise velvet ribbon; you can't see it from the outside. I bought this ribbon when I made a Giselle cosplay and I finally had a chance to use it. 





The skirt part of the dress is actually three circle skirts sewn together to make an enormous black doughnut. I used French seams to hide any raw edges.

 

Based on tutorials and guides that I have read (I highly recommend Rufflebutt's tutorial) , to get this type of skirt to be very ruffled, horsehair braid is a must-have. I bought some from ebay; however, I bought very wide braid. This meant that after I sewed it on, I had to stitch it down at the top to prevent it from flopping forwards. I was able to do this on the machine (just as well, because I would go mad if I had to do this by hand). I sewed at least three metres of skirt hem. It could be neater, but I'm not going to redo it just yet. Must breathe!

Very wide horsehair braid

I gathered the huge skirt and sewed it on to the bodice. This took a lot of concentration, because the skirt kept bunching up as I sewed, and I had to move it out of the way to stop the wrong parts of it being sewn to the bodice.

The final step was adding buttons, button holes, and a collar. The collar is just a ruffled strip of cloth with a button hole. I sewed it on by hand. 

This is the finished dress. It took about three weeks to make, on and off. I'm rather pleased with the result. 

Aristocratic Dress Part 1

And the first item of clothing for 2014 will be . . .

 An aristocratic shirt dress, inspired by RTBU and Vlad from Eiyuu Senki. I haven't had much time to sew because of assignments: I had assignments on animal health and welfare, behaviour, nutrition, and biology, not to mention my long-term research project (it's not all bad. My project means that I have to visit a lot of sanctuaries, so I see many puppies and dogs) 

The first part of this project was figuring out the pattern. The dress from RTBU has a princess seam, but I thought darts would be easier, and I've seen similar projects that didn't use a princess seam, like this one

To save myself some time, I unpicked the seams of a shirt that I had lying around, and traced it to make my pattern.

That's what I got. I just placed tracing paper over the top and traced what I saw. The darts were a little tricky to see, but I managed all right. I think this type of diamond-shaped dart is called a French dart.

I got lucky with the sleeve pattern. The sleeve is a puff sleeve with some flare at the cuff. I am basing my design more on Vlad's sleeve than the RTBU sleeves. I already had a puff sleeve pattern, so I simple made it long enough for my arms.

 I haven't made the skirt yet, but it's just two or three circle skirt with horse hair braid on the hem, and gathered at the top. You end with with a very ruffled skirt, sort of like this one:

Such ruffles. Much horse hair braid. Many sewings. 

I'm going to use cotton poplin for this, mainly because it was inexpensive and has a matte appearance. I've washed it to prevent colours running (that happened the first time I washed my Sailor Mars skirt: everything went pink) and to stop the material from shrinking when I wash the dress.