A Bathrobe

A friend gave me an online gift certificate to Joann's.  Since I could only use it on fabric (patterns, notions, and things like that are only available for store pickup), I decided to treat myself to something I'd been putting off:  a new bathrobe.  I hadn't had a new one in years, and I had longed for a new one that matched my bedroom, hehe (yes, I'm just that kind of dork).  I bought some hunter green double knit cotton, and did this.  

I know, I know, it's just a bathrobe.  But it was needed, and I had fun whipping this fast little project together.  It's warm, flowy, comfortable, and washable.  

I used the Japanese kosode pattern that I used for my silk robe in 2014.  It's easy, comfy, and sews up in less than two hours.  

So, thanks, Friend!  This was a great birthday present.  :)  

My Birthday Suit

Or Birthday Dress, rather.  Ever since I made the "Eura dress" in September I've been dying to make the leftover fabric into something non-SCA-related for myself.  My birthday's tomorrow; so last night I pulled out that gray-blue linen and made myself a dress:

There's no pattern for this...well, technically, there is now:  I have a brown knit dress that I bought years ago that I copied in order to make this one, adjusting the pattern here and there to compensate for the fact that the linen doesn't stretch the way jersey knit does (e.g. a bit of extra room in the sleeves and side seams so it wouldn't end up too tight around, a slight curve in the neckline/bustline to account for the fact that the linen wouldn't hug curves the same way the jersey knit does, etc.).

Including making the pattern, this dress took me about two hours in total.  After the detail and time involved in SCA clothing, mundane clothing is SO EASY.  I love it.

The dress opens up completely.  A long tie on one side passes through an opening in the side seam, wraps around the back of the body, and then meets a short tie attached to the other side - you can see the tie in the back of the dress in the next photo. 

The sleeves are made in two pieces, with a seam on the top of the sleeve.  I'd have preferred not to have that seam there; but I had a limited amount of fabric and had to make do with what I had. 

The color is "Blue Bayou" from fabric-store.com.  It's basically my favorite color in the entire world, and I really need a cotehardie out of it next.  :)


So what IS next, anyway?
BAM is coming up in four weeks.  Last weekend I made some alterations to some of my cotehardies to adjust for recent weight loss (yay!); I've got campsite preparations to make for myself and for Caerleon; I have a new landesknect commission I've just started (omg wait til you see it, it's going to be EPIC); and I have a pair of new cotehardies I'm hoping to have done before the event - I'm in the middle of re-drafting my basic cotehardie pattern (again!) at the moment.


Out in Mundania I'm still working two jobs; but everything's going according to my plan (*knocks on wood*), so I'm hoping I can quit the extra job by this time next month and live like a person again, with free time and ACTUAL SLEEP from time to time! :D  That's going to be wonderful.




See you guys soon, with updates.

.

Post-War Projects

I kind of mentally swore to myself that I wouldn't touch an SCA project for one month after I got back from war.  I'll be back, don't worry, but I have lots of other things to get done around here, and I needed a break.  Here's what I'm working on right now:

Gardening! 

A friend and I spent the afternoon yesterday at one of my favorite garden nurseries in town, It's About Thyme.  For a few hours before that, and several afterward, I worked my butt off in the backyard:  mowing, pruning, digging, planting, mulching, filling the compost pile, moving rocks and cobblestones, and generally just rebooting my garden from - if you'll pardon the pun - from the ground up.  There's more here at my garden blog.

Bathrobing! 

No kidding, I've had this purple jersey knit fabric sitting in a bag for _over a year_ waiting for me to "just be done with this one project" before I'd start it.  Meanwhile, the knit bathrobe I made for myself in 2008 was literally full of holes (puppy) and falling apart at the seams.  So I made this one to replace it.  The pattern is the same as the Japanese clothing I've made in the past for Sir Takuan, and also the one I used for my short, silk robe/cover-up last year.

Vacationing! (Some More)

www.kingwaterpark.com 

Some friends of mine and I are spending next weekend at King Spa & Waterpark in Dallas.  WHEEE!!!  I can't wait.


More soon.  :)

Busy Busy

I have TWO new costumes to show you, as soon as they're finished (both are at about 90% right now), as well as a whole BUNCH of stuff I've made for other people in recent weeks, as soon as I get the photos together.

Meanwhile, here's a simple mundane dress I banged out last night in about an hour, based on the Roman patterns that I've done recently, in some lovely hand-painted batik cotton fabric that a friend gave to me not long ago.

(I lost 10lb in September, hooray!) 

So that's cool. :)

Back soon with lots of pics!

.

Two Hours to Paisley Paradise

Time out for a mundane project!  (Yes, the corset proceeds apace).  This, like the pincushion, was a quick project I'd been meaning to get around to for ages.  It started with this:

A paisley silk sarong I bought from Victoria's Secret about twelve years ago.  It's been to the Bahamas and back, Florida, and New Mexico, and has served as a skirt, beach cover-up, and tablecloth for like three different tables.  It's got wax stains on it, and teeny tiny burn holes, and the little plastic beads that once graced the corners had long since peeled and fallen off.  I still loved it, but it had been relegated to sitting in a drawer for the past year or more.  

And then I saw this on Pinterest: 

And this:  

And after about a year of procrastination (sensing a theme here), and then a 2-hour flurry of work last night, this is what happened: 

The edge trim, belt, and belt loops are all made from a dark blue polyester charmeuse curtain panel I picked up at a thrift store a million years ago for like a dollar, hehe.  

In fact...I may make another little robe like this out of the rest of the blue curtain panel.  

I didn't use a pattern for this;  I made it the same way I make Sir Takuan's kosode and kataginu: 

A rectangle of fabric, folded in half (or two, sewn at
the shoulders), slit up the center front and bound
with a straight double-fold [bias] strip.  The kosode
is sewn at the sides (red dotted line) and knee or ankle
length;  the kataginu is open at the sides and usually
only hip length.  My robe is made kosode-style, with
added belt loops in the side seams. 

P.S. - yes, I patched the teeny tiny burn holes. 

.

Navy Dress Finished (December 2013 Sewing Challenge Project)

front/back

It.  Is. Gorgeous.  It came out exactly as I planned, and for the most part, went off without a hitch (aside from some unexpected cleanup around the V in the front where the seam line was bulkier than I thought it would be).




So, you know that thing where you try on a really gorgeous outfit in a store, but then discover that while it's awesome, it's just about the least flattering thing you could possibly do to your poor body?  Disappointing, yes.  But all you have to do is put it back on the rack and move on, though.

front detail; elastic inverted-V empire waist

Now imagine that you made that outfit yourself.  You used pretty fabric you'd been saving for something special. You spent weeks planning, researching patterns, and drafting the final pattern to use.  You spend weeks putting the dress together, expending ridiculous amounts of effort to make sure every last stitch is perfect and professional-looking, and end up making the emergency-last-minute fabric store trip three times to get the exact right parts.

And only now do you realize, after all of that - and the night before you need to wear the thing - that while the dress is perfect, it looks horrible on you.  It fits like it should, but the style accentuates all the worst parts of your figure and exposes every single flaw.  And now you have a beautiful dress that you can't wear, and can't just put back on the rack.  Nor do you have anything to wear the following night for your shindig.

fake (decorative) buttons made from beads)

Still, though, it came out beautifully, and I'm really proud of it.  I'll probably never be able to wear it, though.  I could lose all the weight in the world and I think I'd still be the wrong shape for this, but you never know.

actual button (bead), and hand-made button loop

When I was a kid, my mother had a similar sewing fail - a dress she made for herself that came out great, but looked awful.  She ended up using it as the default "clothing" for her dressmaker's form, when she wasn't actually using it.

I think I'll do the same thing, if I ever get around to getting a dressmaker's form, hehe.






.


.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Well...sort of.  First of all, this is my December entry for the Monthly Sewing Challenge.  And while it's a mundane sewing project, it IS a sewing project - it didn't seem right next to furniture makeovers and decoupaged weirdness going on over at Pushing Furniture.  When this project is finished, I'll likely link back over there, though.

Maybe I'll photograph myself in it sitting in my backyard, and then we can get all three blogs into the act.

ANYWAY.

So, you may remember the navy blue, rayon, paisley, challis/satin that I ordered back in May.  This stuff:

I got it [because it was on clearance] thinking that it would make pretty court garb, but the pattern is far too modern to look even remotely right in a period style.  So it went in a box.

However, I've accepted an invitation to something really, really cool:  a friends' holiday dinner at a very fancy restaurant, at which we're all to dress in at least semi-formal attire.  WOOHOO!!!  I haven't gotten to dress *UP* in Mundania in SO LONG!!  So long, actually, that I didn't own anything to wear to a fancy-dress dinner party.

So I had to come up with something fast, and cheap.  I had an idea of what I wanted, actually, because I've been commenting on half the formal wear pins on my Pinterest boards that, "This is what I want, if I ever get to wear formal wear again."

This was the picture I ended up choosing for my main inspiration.  The pin doesn't go anywhere, sadly;  it's captioned as a 1930s evening gown, but with no other information.

After spending hours perusing patterns online, and narrowing it down to four or five that I thought could be made to work, I called a friend of mine, who OWNS ALL THE PATTERNS.   I picked out two patterns from her stock that I thought would work for what I wanted.

This was the first:  Simplciity 3503.  There's a high back and a halter back option for view A (the long beige one) that I could make look like the inspiration picture.

Sadly, since the pattern was too small, and I was going to have to do SO much work not just upsizing the pattern itself, but also adjusting for a MUCH larger bustline (DD) than the pattern allows for, that it basically makes it not worth my time to use this pattern . Which was my favorite.

The second option was Butterick B5710, which is very modern in shaping, so, in addition to re-sizing the pattern, and adjusting the bust, and removing the drape in the front....and adding a midriff piece...and a completely different back....wait...plus a shaped, flat front skirt piece?  On these hips?  Nope.

So, oh, crap...now I didn't have a pattern to work with. Again.  Mind you, this is after two hours of studying the pattern instructions for both of these gowns, pulling out and measuring and sketching and re-drafting some of the pieces, until I finally gave up on each one.

There was a pattern I'd had in mind in the beginning that I'd discarded, mentally, because I couldn't find it online or in Lorrie's stash.  If only I had that one.

BUT LO!!  When did I buy this?!  This was the one I had been thinking of, all this time, but I don't remember purchasing it!  Hallelujah!

The shaping on this one, on the finished piece, is similar to the Simplicity pattern above, but the inverted-V-shaped waistline is elasticized instead of being an actual midriff panel (which, to be honest, is fine with me).  Since this pattern was, miraculously, already the right size and shape for me (how the...?!), the pieces themselves took VERY little alteration, only stylistically.
















The structural and stylistic changes I've made/am making to the pattern as printed are:

• View:  sleeveless, deep-V option
• Not using the triangular modesty insert in the bustline at the V-neck. Cleavage or GTFO. 
• Length extended to evening length, so that the front hemline hits the vamp of my shoe (top of foot, opposite the arch) 
• Split the back into two pieces (it was a single piece on a fold), flared he back opening and extended the center low point a bit so that when finished, the back opening would drape open like the top picture, just a little bit.  
• Scrapped the pattern's neckline and front opening facings and created my own, both to face the new back opening, and to support the fabric at the front and back openings, since it's lightweight and drape-y (flutter in the back, lay-flat in the front). 
• Using a ruffle-edged decorative elastic band on the outside at the waistline, instead of an elastic casing on the inside of that seam.  Is for pretty. 
• Also for pretty: faced the inside of the neckline and back with a lightweight decorative gimp in the same color as the fabric, for a pretty, lacy edge.  

Finished pics soon!   :D



.

Time Out for a Mundane Dress. No, really!

Here's something I never do on this blog, but I had to share.   I can't help it:  I LOVE T-SHIRT HACKS.   I saw this one on Pinterest:

blog entry + how-to from the Pin  HERE 

And had to have it.   But that's not all I had to have.  I had to have a cute, sassy little black dress; but what I actually had was this:

pose and dress re-do also inspired in part by
The Refashionista! 

Now, before I go any further, let me note that my boyfriend took these pictures, and he's a giant.  I'm five-nine, people, and in these pictures I look like a stumpy little log with hardly any legs.  He's six-two, and taking these shots basically from his face-level.  I look silly. Heehee.

Anyway - how boring is this dress?  It makes my tits look saggy, and while it's comfy, it's just not remotely interesting.  There's no cleavage!  There's no shape! At least I took the short sleeves off of it years ago so it doesn't look out-and-out grandma-y.  But still.  It needed something.  It needed a lot of something.


First it needed to be either longer or shorter, and since I can't add length out of thin air:

I cut off about 7-9" and curved up the side to form a sort-of mans'-shirt slit on both sides at the knee.  Ish. 

And from the piece I cut off, I removed the original hemline, to use as a thin tie belt on the finished dress.

It's kinda awesome!  And my head is all weird!  Tall boyfriend!

The overall shape is much better now, the neckline is waaaay lower, which I love, the length is comfy, I love the tie belt, and...

 There's that cute little slit/curve in the side.  Yay!

"But Laura,"  you ask, "What about that braided neckline?"   

I did the braided neckline.  I cannot get a single picture of it to turn out.  Black fabric - whaddaya want, yanno?   But it looks COOL AS HELL.  You'll, um, just have to trust me.

I will note, mostly for myself, for next time, that the way that I cut the slits  in the fabric around the neckline for the "braid" (see the original tutorial here) made it very difficult to accomplish said braid.  I meant to try it on like a sock or something first to get a feel for it, but I got all gung-ho and just went for it.   I did two things, not "wrong", but that I'll change next time:

1.   The slits I cut were smallish (they look to be about 2.5" in the tutorial, and mine were at most an inch and a half), and too far apart in proportion to their length, which meant that the loops resulting from the slits had to stretch really far, which made them thin and tight and hard to work with, and also really small.

2.   I also graduated the size of the cuts  - smaller in the back and shoulders, gradually widening towards the front of the neckline, for a braid that gets bigger around the front and then tapers off again.  But since the slits were so small and the loops so tight, what I got was a braid about 3/4" in the front and barely as wide as a pencil in the back!

Also, with such a tight, small braid, even though it looks really awesome, it drew the fabric of the dress up a LOT.  You can see it above in the pic from the Pin/tutorial - how the braiding pulls and gathers the fabric?  It's a really lovely effect.  Except that it pulled the straps on my dress up so much that they're quite a bit narrower than they started out, and that's the only thing I'm not happy about.  But I can live with it.

(And yes, I tried un-braiding, thinking I'd just adjust the slits.  No dice: the fabric stretched so far and pulled so tight the first time that undoing it and doing it over would have just broken it in places.  I'll just make the slits bigger next time).

And oh yes, there will be a next time.  And if I can manage a decent pic of that braid, I'll post it.

Ta!


.