Anna's Sleeping Beauty outfit, and Katherine in her new cloak and Bonnet

More of Anna and Katherine - took these two months ago, but only just now have finished editing! :D This is before I took in the waist for Anna's wool skirt, and you can see the white waistband under the green waist. Not so great, but I fixed that when we went to Wolcott Mills.

Katherine, I'm not too happy with her gown. I sized down Anna's old dress and put a sizeable tuck in the skirts so Katherine could wear it, but I made a mistake in the back, and didn't really have the time or inclination to fix it. I had her wear an old white waist I'd made Anna to begin with, so she would keep warm, and it's also too long in the arms for her.

I am happy with the cloak. I had a remnant from Grandma of some wool, as well as a Vintage (hehe) rabbit fur collar. I cut a half circle of the wool, bound the edges in black cotton, basted on the collar and voila! I wanted to do a pattern around the edges of the cloak, in black satin ribbon (very narrow) but again, didn't have time. Add it to my project list!

Enjoy.

A ballgown for Kristy!

Well people, I had intended to post this back in February, but I was hanging out for pictures of this with Kristy actually in it! My poor dress form just doesn't do this gown justice, and I don't have too many good pictures of it. However, Kristy and I just haven't been able to get together to take some pictures, and so I'm posting what I've got.

This is not strictly period. We bought the brocade from JoAnns, and it's not a natural fiber, but the pattern bears enough of a resemblance to period fabrics (to me!) that I didn't think it screamed "I'm a modern garment!" at the top of it's lungs. :D

It's actually closer to an 1850s style, with a longer bodice and double piping to finish off the hem of the bodice. Made in two pieces and whipped together, with hook and eye closure, which I've since discovered I did wrong! Glad to learn it, because it just wasn't working out. I did a modern hook and eye closure in the back, meaning that the fabric didn't overlap, it joins almost like an invisible zipper, only it seems that not matter how closely together I sewed them, there was a gap! I ended up putting in a modesty panel.












Enjoy!

A Daisy Dress...and Coat

My little cousin Daisy is four years old. Aunt Gina asked me to make her some things, and sent me the fabric, and I have to say that she has really excellent taste! A lot of fabric I wouldn't think of, and it really works. This is two things - a little dress with bubble sleeves, made out of a lurex fabric. Three vintage buttons that used to belong to my great-grandmother (and Daisy's!) and some little bubble trim. The lurex fabric is the hardest stuff I've had to work with to date! It wasn't the having to hold it so as not to stretch as I was sewing, it was the fact that the needle tended to bounce off the fabric, and not go through it so much as stretch through it, leaving a weird bumpy seam. I got ballpoint needles to sew with, which helped a lot, but in hind-sight I wonder if I would have been even better off using some type of paper between the seams, and pulling it out when I was done. I finished the neckline with bias tape, and had no trouble with bumpy seams. The tucks in the front of the dress are not straight....Not my best work, and I'm not too happy with it.

The coat is cotton twill, cotton corduroy for collar and cuffs, and pink silk-like lining. The more pieces to something, the more trouble I have keeping it together. I was pretty particular about keeping seam allowances the same, which is my recurring downfall, but even so I still had trouble in a few places.

All in all, I'm happy with it. My machine started acting up, and wouldn't do the buttonholes, so I let it cool down, started it up again and the buttonholer worked! I was happy not to hand-do buttonholes....I'm not very good at them.

At last! Wolcott Mills, October 10th, 2010

I haven't sewn very much this summer, being busy with a lot of other things like three weddings, two houses and a few showers into the bargain. :D

But I have been sewing more regularly the past couple of weeks, and I made, for Anna, a swiss waist, a waist, and a wool skirt - extremely high fashion, and just what I've been wanting to make. I bought the wool for the skirt in a sale from Fabric.com last year - 9 yards for $17.50!!! It is a wool blend - wool, silk and cotton. Pretty nice to work with - feels very smooth for wool, probably because of the silk - and has a really nice drape and hand.

The silk for the swiss body is from a ballgown I made last year for our cousin. It's dupioni, which I don't like to use for period stuff, but I'd never made a swiss waist before, and wanted to use scraps. I did a self fabric trim - pleats of a self=fabric strip, with fringed edges.

The white waist is swiss dot, with a half-high lining of muslin. I've put hook-and-eyes on the closure, but I want to put buttons. It gaps at the top because I didn't put enough hook-and-eyes on...didn't have enough time to fix it because I was doing the hook-and-eyes last minute, of course.

I refitted Anna's gown for Katherine. I just but a large tuck in the skirt, and shortened the yoke, but I'd like to make a dress for her for next year that's a little nicer than a calico dress.

I'll be posting more pictures soon!