my bodgy version of the Sleepy Hollow windmill dress

I thought I'd got a photo of me early in the evening but nope I hadn't, and neither did any of my friends who I thought had taken one. So I've found a less flattering photo from a little later in the evening when I'm not so carefully posed (where is the nice one dagnabbit!).

The skirt is creased cos I didn't get a chance to press it after taking it out of my weekend bag.


With the retrospectascope these are things I wish I'd done differently:
- not bothered with the hip pads with this costume - they're too much for it.
- not raised the neckline so much. Some, but not as much as I had.
- put a modesty panel behind the hook/eye opening as per the screen version.
- cut the skirt longer & wider. I cut it 3" longer than my archery skirt, but it's still too short.*

* the blessing of buying a 9.5metre length of vintage rayon faille curtain fabric from ebay is that I can completely remake it with minimal cost ie time+thread

What I'm happy with overall it's ok for an impression of the costume, not a screen accurate one.

The skirt pattern from NSCT worked really really well. I'm more than happy to pleat the front & gather the back again. So easy to tie 1 set instead of 2. I used grosgrain ribbon cos it was cheap enough and robust enough to use. I'm loving grosgrain ribbon instead of poor quality cotton tape.

And here I am being silly ... again.


Because I raised the neckline too much, the drawstring at the neckline (attached to lining) is obviously gathered. If the topline was lower, there'd be less gather required.

back in the zone ...

Yes that is a very bad pun or dad joke, because the jacket in the costume is what we in teh 21st century call a zone front

Underpinnings are first under the needle. From op shop cotton guest towel, to 18th century pockets.

The pocket was made on Saturday (the other can be done if  I have enough time) and tonight I finished the hip pads. I used the pattern in the wingeo set ... at least I think it is. It's the set that I made my bum-pad from.  This time I used poplin ($1/metre that I still have about 5metres of) with pretty stars on it. Anyone sees the stars that means I'm prancing in my underwear, they shouldn't show through a petticoat and skirt.

Naturally I couldn't just make the pattern up as they are. I read the recent Foundations Revealed article on an extant working class (or not upper) stays with attached hip pads. So I noted that the loop tapes would make the wingeo pads not at waist level but @ 3" below. And the construction in that FR had the padding a coupleish inches below the waist.  Yes these would be larger/longer, but I'm a solid lump, unline the woman who wore those stays.

So I pencilled a line at 7cm from the top edge and stuffed them so that only the outer half would be padded.  Pinned along the pencil line, trying to keep the top section even & flat.


and then I stitched with edge of the foot next to the pins.  (what, you didn't expect hand stitching from me did you? foolishness!)

and then stitched another 5mm close to the waist, just in case any stitches pop, and turning in the seam left open for inserting the padding . After taking out the pins I have 2 pads for my hips that will get basted directly to the stays a smidge below my waist.


I also got the skirt a quarter done. I'm only using 2 widths of my 120cm (47") wide fabric, simply so that I don't have to cut slits for pockets. it's less than the original ... and she wasn't tiny.  I did the maths and her waist is about 33".  I got the lengths cut, overlocked the top edge so it doesn't fray. Stitched the side seams, and basted down the openings. I'm going to use the design structure of the NSCT 1793 outfit - not open at the side waist, cos the back half is gathered on tapes.  It's kosher, period and just a little bit different. The front edge is bound after the pleats are done which is usual, not so much the back section. But then again it's usually high class clothing that has survived in museums. This method isn't as pleat-pretty but perfectly functional with only 1 set of ties to be done when you dress. quicker!

oops, I forgot to post about Sunday at Supanova

eek, I completely forgot to post about the Sunday at Syd'nova.

My long planned hobbit costume finally got to see the light of day.  I was even told how cute I was, and got a random hug from someone who was genuinely excited that someone did a background character ... so many want centre stage costumes. Not that I don't sometimes, but usually I pick something I want whether or not anyone else would recognise it.

PoisonedKitty wore Vanellope Von Schweetz (Wreck it Ralph)  a great costume, and comfy on a cold wet weekend


We weren't alone in our costuming choices, there was one other female hobbit and 3 other Vanellopes (2 in the same costume as PoisonedKitty and one in her dress).


a couple of my friends also in LOTR costumes :D


a couple of other friends in Doctor Who costumes - luv2costume made a brilliant Cat Nun/Nurse (Dr Who) and her husband is as the 4th Doc.  craftee is one of the brides of Venice


Now we're onto people I don't know but loved their work.

And during the day we met some sybilline sisters


There was so much diversity, and although I've never seen a single Jay or Silent Bob before, this time there were 2!


Sportacus!  I squeed & ran after him, and I think he was shocked to be fangirled by a woman old enough to be his mum. LOL   And this Edward was great, tho how endured the day I'm not sure.


Of course there was Disney


And this guy's friend appeared disappointed that it was the Green Arrow photo I wanted (the mate had his shirt off & was painted green).  and family costuming! Matrix


And the leashed zombie Poison Ivy + the Joker stayed in character all day! Amazing from my perspective


And cos I have to share a pic of me with as many of my peeps as I could, I've saved it for last

an japanese movie costume for August

Some long term planning here, well August this year.  I'm going to SMASH, and I need to upgrade my Ma Dola (from the movie Laputa).  It's now hugely big for me, which is a good place to be unless you want to wear it.  I'm going to make her skirt version as I overheated in the britches.

Though I'm not sure if overheating was cos I used a stretch woven as that was the stashed fabric in the right colour. Which isn't that of these screencaps. The standing one is darker as it's night-time, and the one below is just wrong. 

I need to watch the film again to check her skirt length. I may make a corded petticoat if it's a shorter skirt.

ticking off the apron, the easy components are ready.

A teeny tiny amount of hand stitching on the back of the waistband and it's done. 


One thing I didn't mention in my skirts update is that on the underskirt the fullness is even around the skirt. On the upper plaid, as the fabric is bulkier and there's more of it I ptu 40% in the front and 60% in the back half of the waistband.

Just realised I'd better check the weather forecast as I need to preshrink the blouse/chemise fabric. I might have done it last year but simply can't remember. If in doubt, preshrink.

I was going to go the medieval fair a Blacktown today, but I woke up with swollen glands. Playing safe and stayed in my PJs all day.  Too many lurgies going through my work colleagues this week.

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.

Simplicity had a female hobbit costume pattern?

How did I miss this??

That's easy to answer cos I haven't really looked at the pattern books for a few years, when previously I was onto them like fresh crack as soon as each seasons was in the fabric shops.

Now it's a good-enough basic pattern, though a dress rather than a shift, skirt & bodice.  I'm not going to use it, but if I did want it it's reasonably priced on eBay even with postage from the states.



Rewatching the Hobbit movie last week, I did spot at least one woman in the village, though she seemed to be wearing a different fitted sleeveless bodice. More like this pattern (I keep wanting to call them jumps even though they're not?)

a Hobbit screening, with R Armitage

wheeee, Popcorn Taxi bring me more excitement in 2013, with their next event, a 2D screening of The Hobbit with Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield) in person.

One of my friends has bought tickets for us to go & see ... mine's a gift as I've reached a half century (today),  I'd love to be in denial as to my chronology, but it's an infinitely better alternative to not surviving this far.

I sorta, kinda felt old for all of this year, but that actually was my evol gallbladder doing it's nasty best to bring me down. but hah, I got it back good.

Plus I'm tempted to see if I can make my costume to see this.  The skirts are cut out, the chemise will be easy peasy,, and as El Presidente of the costumers guild is staying with me for a couple of days this time next week, she could help me fit the bodice.  I've lost weight and I know the pattern I planned to use, no longer fits me as it did 20kg (around 3 stone) ago.

dissimilar thread eases that concern

It seems I don't need to worry about matchy matchy ... I couldn't find a thread colour that worked with both fabric.  So that settles my mind a little.

I didn't get any sewing done as I slept 4 hours in the afternoon (or just under that) and was in bed by 7.30, and asleep only half an hour or so after that.


I'm going to head out earlyish in the hopes of getting a spot for the ACG picnic - open genre at Parramatta Park western domain.

first step ticked - cutting out the hobbit skirts

I went to bed early cos I was so very tired, and I was suprised to I wake up far, far to early today.  But I was all twitchetty to cut out my hobbit skirts ... tube skirts are so easy!  That way I can take the left over pieces (for waistbands) to the shops to get thread instead of taking all the dyed yardage. I'm hoping one spool will blend with both fabrics, but hey whatevs. It's a blurry shot, but it's all you're getting at the moment :p


I'm going to see Hotel Transylvania this morning, meeting a friend and if I get to the shops early I'll get thread first, and if not after the movie.  It's due to be a stinky hot day, so I'll probably come home & practice napping in the arvo. Maybe sew a couple of seams :)   I also found some pale pink canvas in the stash that I can use as the boned base of my hobbit bodice. Must double check how many grommets to hand I have for the back, and maybe get some more cable ties

fabrics for the hobbit - pre & post dye

I tried very hard to use stash fabrics for my hobbit costume, if only because I have so much to use. This is the first from the stash that said, hey I can be hobbit-worthy.

I looked through the spreadsheet for suitable candidates and decided that these could be made to work with some dye. The pale pink no longer really suits me, and there's enough for an underskirt. After overlocking the cut ends & prewashing them I added 2x fire red and 1x silver grey Jacquard iDue to the washing machine.

I was feeling all paranoid that the dye had made them too matchy-matchy but I've told myself to just deal with it!  I need to use the fabric I has instead of buying ever more in search of elusive perfection. I also allowed myself to buy some check lawn for the blouse. It made me infinitely happier than a plain offwhite.


On the top: left fabric is the linen underskirt, and the top right silk/linen for the bodice centre front.
On the bottom row: plaid lawn for the blouse, floral print for the side & back oof bodice, and plaidy fabric is the over skirt. I'd like to dye some green linen darker for the apron, or I've got some coarse weave linen I could also use.

I'd better get started cutting the blouse & skirts ... the easy peasy items

baby-stepping to a hobbit costume

I know I could draft the hobbit blouse myself - using the Elizabeth Stewart Clark chemise directions but to be honest I know that would just lead to even more procrastination. So I squizzed peasant blouse patterns & thought Simplicity 1915 would be easy enough but wasn't prepared to pay the $18 price tag in Australia. Not even prepared to buy it 50% off at Lincrap.

But while I was there I thought I'd look at pattern books, something I haven't done for years. I was flipping through Burda and spotted in their Historical a set comprising chemise, 2 piece drawers and a corset. Which amused me cos the drawers are a different era to the corset and the chemise isn't a proper period pattern but it is exactly what I wanted. I got the pattern even though it was $16 and not on sale cos I want the corset pattern as well as the chemise.

There's some fuzzied up logic in there somewhere. 18x50% saved me time only & still needed tinkering. $16 saved me time with way less tinkering and got me the entertainment value of the pattern set AND the corset pattern.

new fabric for current & soonish fabrics

One of the many highlights of my weekend with friends in Brisbane was a shopping trip to several fabric shops. I got 3 fabrics in each of the first and last shops. One in the middle gave me ticker shock even though I was warned it was luxe, and very luxe at that.

Here's the haul.
Top left is going to become a vintage style summer dress, and top right the petticoat skirt for Idris. Not perfect I know but it was affordable in a tight budget year to be.
Middle left is to be a summer lawn blouse, and the brown/red tiny check is going to be my hobbit blouse, and a 1800s fichu.

Bottom left I almost squeed, regency dress fashion plate below (posted on LJ by lamodeillustree), and bottom right is going to be a regency open robe. wooot.  ow that sheer isn't a dead ringer, but it's the best I'm ever going to find so I just couldn't resist.

easy peasy costume - pyjamas :)

I'm going to a Rocky Horror themed party tomorrow night and decided that I'd go for the comfort costume option - Columbia's PJs+mouse ears. She wears it in a song, which one I can't remember but it doesn't really matter.

I've taken almost no progress pics ... they're not exactly fascinating.

PJ pants all done, elastic on the waist -


then 5 automatic button holes & I can sew the buttons on by machine if I set it up right. Other wise I can sew them on the train out to the party.  Must double check my make up bag for

and the top is 50% done. body assembled, sleeve assembled, collar assembled.  Tonight I'm going to pin the collar and facing ready to blast in 1 steady seam ... then I'm stitching the facing down.  hem is overlocked ready to eyeball tomorrow morning, and I'll pin the sleeves in ready to blat around & then overlock.

Dolores was smooth sewing - easy-peasy

Sunday morning I had to sew all of the collar, edge the strips for fabric bows and pop in some small shoulder pads.   My shoes weren't left long enough, that is I should have had them done several days before and not 24 hours in winter. ie cooler.  So a couple of spots the new colour has been damaged (they wanted to stick together if I'd left them).  I'll probably touch them up fairly soon.




Thinks I'm not happy with, the fabric 'relaxed' as I wore it so that it ended up wider than I would like.  A clue should have been that it ended up about 2-3" longer than it was drafted.  I'd realy aimed to have it proportionally the same length as Imelda Staunton's ensembles.

The group I made the costume for, met to have a photo shoot at Sydney's oldest university - lots of sandstone buildings. One of the rooms was open so we took the opportunity for a group shot.

two Lamias at Sydney Supanova

I'm hoping to be able to find & afford to replace the bemsilk for real silk suffolk puffs on the bodice. It was the best option at the time, to simply get Lamia to a wearable stage. Given that I only bought the lining fabrics on Thursday evening and spent quite a bit of Saturday at Supanova sitting at the back of guest panels making the puffs, it could be far worse.  I had another 20 that I could have sewn onto it, but I'd reached midnight, which was my self imposed deadline.

After dying all the other fabrics, drafting the bodice twice, well I had so many silly things go wrong that I was starting to think it was jinxed.  In a couple of months I'm visiting a silk shop (interstate) that has big range of real silk linings.

I also need to get a better wig ... this was the 2nd one I bought and I'm still not happy.  The first was too brassy so I looked jaundiced nor do I look all pink in the face, plus wig #1 turned out to be a small skull size and mine is broad scale.  Wig #2 is too pale and not wavy enough but at least I'm not jaundiced.



Another photo that better hides the lack of suffolk puffs on the bodice.

Ma Dola, from the movie Laputa

It was great to make a costume from the movie Laputa ... there aren't many characters in anime that are suited to a woman no longer in the bloom of youth. Thankfully I really like Ma Dola - she's cranky, bossy but with a kind heart (at least some of the time). One of the lines that most amuses me in the movie is when her sons wonder if all women grow up to be like their mother. This horrifies them!

Nacho Libre at 2010 Sydney Supanova