Catelyn got finished and worn to Sydney Supanova

What can I say ... I'd have liked to get the chemise done for a smidge more character recognition. Though it may not have done as nobody seems to expect to see the mother. It's the hot young things that most people want to cosplay.  I've alway's gone for characters or costumes that interest me, rather than what may be popular.  It was great to be with the zeitgeist however ... so many other Game of Thrones costumes that we saw and a few more we heard were there.

2nd mock ups and sewing the final iteration

Today I went to the sewing guild and took along a few essentials. My 2nd toile of the bodice for catelyn's dress and the 2nd toile of the hobbit bodice.  Usually I take more things than I can possibly hope for, but today it was only what had to be done.  Oh, forgot the 3 bra-laundry-bags that needed the zips replaced. That was a quick win to spur me on.

If the hobbit worked I was going to use it as a strength layer, but it didn't. I need to rotate the dart from the armhole, and I forgot to move the shoulder seam back. Lastly I need to insert a hulking hip gusset on the middle of the back panels and take the same amount from the hip side seam. Volume in the wrong place is still the wrong volume. Seeing as this gusset is going to be below the waist and thus under the skirts, it's not a biggie. I put the zip in the CB seam, or I'd pop it on & take a photo to show what I'm blethering on about.  I don't want the bodice to finish at waist line, cos that can be uncomfy with the boning, an there's a risk of gaping if the skirts drop at the back. It was making my quick & dirty oktoberfest costume a couple or 3 years ago that brings this to mind (it happens with that bodice & skirt).

Foolishly I didn't get pix of myself in any of the toiles.  The first dress mockup indicated that it needed to be taken in 3cm at the centre back seam, same at centre front seam, and a FBA done to compensate for the loss of frontage + a little extra. Also my standard 1.5cm sway back alteration.

And that half the FBA needed to be done on each of the two front bodice pieces. Oh Joy. NOT.   So I did that and cut out a 2nd toile & packed it into my sewing tote for today's group.


The 2nd toile needed 1 alteration, it gaped on the neckline so I had to fold that out of the pattern (18mm on the neckline!) I can tinker with the shoulder seam a little when the body is completely assembled & before I insert the sleeves. Then my brain melted a little when I remembered that I'd have to cut each panel into 2, as Catelyn as a 16 panel dress. I was winging the hem volume as I did went. I had to fit the pattern to the cloth as I only had just over 6 metres of fabric. It shrank in length & width in the dyepot.  No pix of the cutting & chalking proccess. I'd like to have much more width in the hem, but it is what it is. 6.4m of 140cm is a crazy amount to need more of. I may have cut longer than needed, but I knew that I was better off having to cut of an inch or so than need that inch.

I got half the seams sewn before it was time to pack up, and most of the rest once I got home. I flip flopped and dithered and felt obliged have the back seam lace closed, but I just wouldn't be able to dress myself if I do that. So after much angsting and consulting a couple of valued friends I decided that an invisible zip will be just the thing. I'm not aiming for screen accurate, just close enough to be recognisable.

So I've got 12 of the 16 body panels together and the other 4 in pairs. I'll insert the invis zip on the CB seam and then join the back 4 pieces to the rest. Stitch the shoulder seams and see if there's any tweaking to be done.  This looks like the fit is rubbish, cos it's being held up at the wrong level.


I was feeling so stressed this morning - over both work and costume deadlines and a day of sewing helped me decompress.

getting things ticked of the to-do list

So yes I got an extra-long zip from the stash TICK, and sewed together Catelyn's mockup bodice TICK and have an idea how it needs to be altered TICK.  On the way to the tub-o-white fabric, I looked in teh costume fabric cupboard and LO, BEHOLD there was the unbleached voile TICK.

Not even on my ticky-list was preshrinking the unbleached voile BONUS-TICK, and selecting a stash fabric to flatline the bodice of Catelyn's dress BONUS-TICK.  That's preshrunk too! BONUS-TICK I want to flatline it as linen/cotton may stretch out and this will hopefully reduce that. Though it may be totally counterproductive to do that, so I'll ponder that a little longer while I get the mockup fitted.

I also did two loads of laundry (sheets and towels) BONUS-TICK

Sadly not ticked off was altering the hobbit bodice pattern MINUS-TICK.  Partly cos I'm flat & tired after today's "may not have a job in October" news.

There aren't any photos of the mockup to share, dagnabbit, as I have 'misplaced' the memory card for my camera.  And I need the photos myself so that I can evaluate how the back fits.  Though so I don't have to wait forever, I may take it to work and ask a colleague to do some pinning. I'm so grateful that I have someone who sews sitting near me now.

Time to put fresh sheets on the bed, and then get the chemise pattern/fabric/pins together and go to bed. Have a follow up with my endocrinologist tomorrow morning first thing so I have to be up and at 'em..

Syd'nova and Winterfest costume checklists

Just to make sure I don't forget something essential over the next 3.5 weeks.  Strike through = done

Hobbit
wig - must get a wig comb & tidy it up
chemise - need to cut, stitch
bodice - need to 2nd toile, cut, sew. (ooh, must order grommets)
bag
skirt 1
skirt 2
apron
shoes

Catelyn
wig - have 2 being commissioned into 1. dye or spray my hair dark auburn
chemise (or chemisette) - find voile in the stash. check whites tub
dress - stitch 1st toile, alter pattern, stitch dress - possibly dye darker
bag - maybe embroider a fish on it?
shoes - decide on which to use
possible scarf - perhaps a length of silk chiffon?

working class 1806
cap & hat
stays
chemisette - linen (can hand hem neckfrill at lunchtime {shudder}
bodiced skirt - the pale blue linen has already been dyed
short gown - in stripe wool. short version of Past Patterns
basket with wine jug
shoes

 edited to add: cloak
seating

So tonight I'll sew together Catelyn's mockup (must get extralong zip from stash), and see how it needs to be altered.  Plus pattern up the 2nd hobbit bodice toile. And look in the tub-o-white to see if I put the unbleached voile in there, and I may make it a chemisette to make my life easier.

Tomorrow at lunchtime I can cut out the hobbit chemise, and at night I can sew the 2nd hobbit bodice toile and start the chemise (all those long straight seams for the win!)

lets not forget about shoes and underpinnings

Eep, I just realised that I've made zero thought as to what shoes Catelyn Stark wears.  Or maybe she wears boots.  I'm looking at my shoe collection and wonder what I can wear that's comfortable and closely appropriate - given that I have freakishly wide feet and can't just go out and buy shoes.

Part of me says that if I can't even see the hem of her skirt as it's covered by her coat, then surely I can chose whatever works best for me.  I've got some black hush puppies that I can wear all day, and I've pair of navy shoes I got for a costume that I could wear. Must see how comfy they are.

I also need to get some cotton organdy to make a corded petticoat. I need to start sewing this sooner rather than later, as I need it for the end of July. As I'm at Steamfest the weekend before SMASH, I can't leave it until I get home.

Plus I need a new corset to wear under my steampunk (in August) , and Ma Dola (ditto), and Clara ( at end November).  I could make an 1860s and a natural form, but I can wear the natural form corset under the 1860s.  So inspired by Before the Automobile I'm going to mock up both the 1880 in Waugh's Corsets & Crinolines and Salen's 1885 to see which is more suitable for my very different physique. Salen's because I've already scaled up the pattern and graded it to my approx size.  Even in my younger, slimmer years I was short-waisted and stocky.  Sadly I'm going to be not so elegant in appearance, and that's not even taking into account my hatred of hand sewing vis a vis flossing. But either one of these will have to do, as there is no perfect pattern.

eeee, I have Ageless #1288, a 1890 corset for a stout lady (though not as stout as me!).  I can't do this one too!

dyepot dramas

Hmm, it looked like it would be a lot darker, but after washing this is the result. It's darker than the season 1 & 2 dress, but nowhere near as dark as her new dress. What I think I'll do is sew the dress with a darker thread, (but don't yet hem) and then just dye the dress and see what happens.

photo catchup - have them at last

ugh, the interwebs just ate my post as I went to post. Lets see what I can remember ...

Here's the blue fabric I'm going to make into a short gown for my 1806 female working class persona.  It's lightweight and the warp stripes are (by thread numbers): *2 white, 2 light blue, 1 dark blue, 2 light blue* repeat at about 8 per inch/2.5cm.  It's a greyer blue than this photo would suggest.


The hobbit bodice - it fitted reasonably well in the back, apart from the shoulder straps being 3.5-4cm too long (overall not just in the back shoulder strap). My torso is short between underarm and shoulder so I'm not all surprised by this. I was thinking of moving the shoulder seam towards the back as in historical clothing so marked a line on the toile, but decided against it as the screencaps of women's clothing don't have that.


With the front, the central panel seamline is drawn on the reverse so you can't see it in the mockup.  I'm going to see if taking half the underbust dart from that seamline and the other half from the side seam sits ok, but first I'm going to rotate the underarm dart to the underbust.



As I anticipate wearing this to the next couple of movies as well as this June's Supanova I want to do a reasonably good job of it.  I'll do a 2nd mockup to see if my changes work effectively, and I'll cut the back & side front pieces on the bias just to see how that works.

Oh and I nearly forgot that I got the dye for Catelyn tonight.  I guestimate that I'd need 2 bottles or 4 packets of RIT.  I'd checked my dye-stash on Sunday night and amongst them is a dark green and a grey but there wasn't a teal which I thought was in there.  So once I discovered the bottles would cost $38 for 2, well I balked at that.  So instead I got 1 bottle and a packet of dark blue - on the theory that dark blue+dark green+teal+grey would hopefully get me a dark teal

Catelyn gets a darker dress in Season 3

At the Popcorn taxi evening, Michelle Fairley said how happy she was to get a new dress for Season 3 ... she had the least amount of costume changes compared to the other women.

So if yesterday you hear a how in the wind, it was me seeing that her new dress is a dark teal or blue ... a colour that really suits me but is unlike my fabric.  And it looks to be the same style, thankfully. Hmm this one looks almost black & s probably the funeral/mourning clothes.  But I'm sure I saw her in dark teal, so that's what I'm going for.



Upshot is I aim to dye my minty green not a blue-green close to the photo I've previously posted, but a dark teal if I can figure it. I'm thinking 2x teal and 1x grey or black for the dyepot.  Seeing as it's 6.5m x 140cm I'll need more than one packet of dye to get a darker teal.

So yayyyy that the new dress colour suits me so much better, but not so yay that it'll be a challenge

dyeable linen/cotton for Catelyn

Phew it was an easy find at my fave Marrickville fabric shop. It's a linen/cotton blend, 140cm (56") wide and only $4.50m.  So I snagged 6m and will wash/preshrink it tonight, and get some dye for it. I may even use dylon as iDye is harder to find.

It's more of a minty green than my photo (flash bleaching it out) but as i'm dyeing it, that hardly matters. That it's a more textured weave is a bonus, given her dress isn't in a smooth tabby weave.

Edited to add: Did a burn test before I washed it, and yes it's a linen-cotton blend. Not a paper ash residue but a minimal ash residue

great progress with my hobbit costume

Today I went to my other sewing guild group, and I got so much done. Thanks to Alison, who brought a spare sewing machine for me to use.  I found out from shifting boxes of fabric that I still can't lift that much weight around yet. (Silly gallbladder, you no longer exist so why did you hurt so much).  I knew it would be worth going simply cos I couldn't simply quit once I got fed up with a tedious task.  And I knew there were tedious tasks to come!   Seeing as Supanova is in Sydney in 5 weeks, well I just need to keep working on this and Catelyn once I have the fabric.

I'd stitched each skirt into a giant tube, but I needed to hem, gather & attach their waistbands.  I decided to not have both on 1 waistband, which maybe now I wonder if it'd be a good idea to reduce bulk. Though this way I can wear one on it's own if it's too hot.  The lighter weight underskirt has 2.7m of fabric around, and the plaid is about 3.1m.  I haven't done the snaps for the waist, and I think they're to bulky to buttonhole.  Here they are hanging on my shower rail.



I also got the apron 90% done, I've just got the press the tie belts, and hand stitch the waistband fully closed.  No pics yet, cos to be honest it would be tediously dull as it is.


Oh and the green linen I'm using for this apron, I won't be getting more of the same to overdye for Catelyn. It's fraytastic and has a woven rib in it, which won't be great on all those panel seams.

I also got some green trim to apply to the bodice, which is just what I was after.  For only $1 a metre, and it's cotton.  I'll preshrink it tonight so that when I need it it's ready.

Next up I'll mock up the bodice so that I can get help fitting it next Saturday at my usual sewing group.

pics of the problematic fabrics

So the 2 blue linens look like this, and if I can't use them for this costume I'm thinking of giving them away. Unless I have another costume I can use them in soonish.

It's not the colour that bothers me so much as how the feel & look & their density.  Ooh, maybe dye the pale one and use it for a bodiced skirt for my working class regency.   Yeah! that works for me.

The hobbit apron fabric is textured and appears differently on each side.

So I could over dye it with pale blue for the duckeggy colours Catelyn wears. Though it's only 112cm wide so I'd need more than if it were a wider fabric.  From memory it was only $10m which is pretty good here. So possibly 6m would sort this for me.

Started sewing the hobbit skirts today, and these are the fabrics I'm using. the checky one will be the sides & back of the bodice, with the floral as the centre front. I want to find a green trim as the decoration.

problems with my Catelyn fabrics

I dived into the cupboard last night for the 2 blue linens for my Catelyn Stark dress, only to discover that the weave is different enough that I wouldn't be happy to use them together. One's paler & finer than the other, which just isn't going to work as a cohesive garment.

Ugh.

I'm not supposed to buy any more fabric but use my huge stash, but as I've already got the wig/s and I'll be wearing it in 5 weeks, well I might just get some inexpensive linen if I can get it.  My fave shop in Marrickville had reasonably priced when i was there a couple of weeks ago. I only got a piece for my hobbit apron that day (yay for restraint) but I may return for Catelyn.

I was a bit frustrated last night when I opened my hobbit pack, as the fabric & pictures where in there but no thread. And I'd already filled the bobbins.  Hence my detour to the grotto to do something else.  Late in the evening I did find the thread/bobbins in an obvious sewing spot, but they weren't where I was convinced I'd put them (in with the fabric).  Tonight I'll start stitching, and change the thread on my new overlocker from the white it came pre-threaded with.

a better pattern option for Catelyn

I went into the grotto and wasn't expecting to find some more patterns I hadn't returned to the proper drawers. Actually the room's a mess cos of a whole variety of those actions. or lack of actions.

Did I mention my discontent with the Betzina pattern being drafted for a stretch, and I'm not using a stretch fabric.  So imagine my delight at finding this pattern today.  It's a half size, so shorter & short-waisted and narrower shoulders. IE the likes of meeeee

Thanks to a brilliant friend I have an image not of Catelyn's dress but one of Sansa's that has a similar seamlines on the front.

On the improving side of the grotto, I managed to score an Aneboda set of drawers from ebay. With a seller who'd deliver, which most can't. I literally hit the "buy now" button 5 minutes before the hospital phoned me with "Surprise!!!! surgery tomorrow".  The seller was kind enough to deliver it on Monday, and did all the carrying as I'd explained about my surgery.  So I can't yet put it under the cutting table, as I need to move stuff of the table, chock it up higher and install it.  Plus I may take the legs off if I can, it's a teency bit too high.   Another advantage of ebay buying is that it's already assembled, so I'm saved the aggravation & time that takes. I'm looking for another set, to go back to back under the cutting table. As this set was white, I'd prefer to get another white set, not a beech set. That will slow down finding one, but I've remembered gumtree too. I really need to get the other fabric cupboard together, but that's a job for in another month.

plotting for my next Syd'nova costume (in June)

I'm starting to plan for my Game of Thrones costume for Syd'nova, and I've decided to go with Catelyn Stark and her blue-green dress.   I've already ordered a dark auburn wig, and will be getting a slightly longer also dark auburn wig to combine.

Although my dress will be linen not silk, the close up pic I found isn't a full body shot. I have 2 pieces of powder blue linen that I'll dye.

So the front has at least 8 panels, and probably the back too, though I'm going to have to watch Season 1 again & hope for some peeks at her back. Cos I may have to guestimate the opening/closure too. I have some unbleached lawn I can use to make the high-necked chemise. I think the sleeves are longer than the dress sleeves. 

I've got 2 dress patterns with a shoulder princess line I can use as a starting point.  V9220 I've used before, and I'd have to change the neckline and sleeve length as well as the other changes. 7472 I've not used, but the v-neck is very close to what I need, and is closer in length. I'll need to add a smallish amount of hem volume, but that doesn't worry me.