Friday, July 16, 2010

Being sluggish...

Summer heat...kids home all the time...being a certain age...

I don't know what it is exactly, but something took my enthusiasm and attitude into a nosedive and I haven't been in the studio for several days.  I had the time, I just didn't have the mood.

Could be back on track tomorrow...we'll see.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Fixing a leftover problem from last year...

Figured I'd better deal with this now and not at the last minute.  The white gown does not work over the stays.  Both are from the Sense & Sensibility pattern as printed and published by Simplicity, though I did use the S&S directions from the original version of the pattern.  These stays work fine with my green gown, which has a higher, gathered neckline.  However, with this gown, the stays create a ridge all across the front of the bodice, right at the mid-way from the neckline to the high waistline. 

I took a picture, but it's not quite as obvious here as it would be if the gown were actually buttoned.  Unfortunately, I cannot button this one myself, but I think you can get the idea anyway. 


I'm thinking of making up a second set of stays, using the gore pieces for one cup-size smaller.  This would pull the top edge of the stays in towards the body, making it so that the edge would push less against the front of the bodice.  Do I need the smaller cup-size?  I'm not sure, but the experiment can't hurt anything.

I've also considered pulling the pattern for the bodiced petticoat, from the La Mode Bagatelle pattern for this period.  I haven't done so yet, so don't know if it can be worn INSTEAD of stays, or needs to be worn with them.  If it could replace stays, I think from looking at the sketches that it would fix this problem.

Any thoughts on this would be most welcome!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Turbans...

Ok, so not really turbans, more mock-turbans, but these things are fun. Here's what I've played with today.

I started with the crown. As you can see, at one time it was hot pink - a lovely strong pink with a wide brim, but time had not been kind to it. A lot of the pink is very faded and some of the straw is rather fragile. To stabilize the fragile areas, and to create a layer that could take stitches, I covered the crown with fusible, light-weight, weft-insertion interfacing. I liked the feel of it and thought that it might even help to smooth the ridges of the straw braid.



A very light touch of the iron was enough to secure the interfacing to the outside of the crown. After the excess was trimmed to an even width all around, I tucked it inside and again applied the tip of the iron very lightly to secure the interfacing to the inside of the straw. Where the interfacing had formed large tucks, I clipped out some of the excess, as I was afraid that the hat might become to small with so much bulk inside the crown.



The next step was to line the crown. The lining is just loosely pinned, then slip-stitched from the outside, through the allowance which was trimmed evenly after the stitching was finished.



The outside of the crown is covered in the same fabric as the lining.



Here comes the fun. Once the crown was covered, it was time to experiment with the 'turban'. First I did a really fast wrap with the twisted fabrics still intact - a full yard of each piece - not great, but I was trying to get a feel for how these would work.



Following some ideas from some hat-making books, I cut bias strips of the two fabrics, each the circumference of the crown plus about 5-6 inches (32 inches) by a little more than twice the height of the crown - around 8 inches. These were stitched into long tubes, but with a twist of sorts. By folding them in half lengthwise, but then offsetting the raw edges along the length, I stitched in a ripple that will keep them from flattening out. These tubes were turned right-side out, then twisted together and wrapped around the crown.



My first thought was that, feathers or no, this seemed rather skimpy.

Next was to stuff the tubes with some 1" thick upholstery 'cord' - very thick, but very soft.



All of these have been very roughly wrapped and pinned, but still, this one didn't work for me either - maybe too much? Or maybe too perfectly defined by the cord.

Finally, I went back to the millinery books for a look at how they wrapped their turban-looks. I tried one more time and got this.



Then I added a scrap of the stripe to the back, simulating the long ties that some of the Regency turban styles had.



So now I'm getting somewhere, but somehow, none of these seem quite right.

Next try - cover the green crown with a piece of the stripe, then re-apply the twisted tubes.

These are starting to look more interesting to me! I'm not sure about the feathers. I definitely like the crown covered in the strip to match one of the twists. I'm going to let it sit over-night. In the morning, I think I'll look at a few more Regency turban-type headdresses on-line before taking another look at what I've got going here.

Oh, side note - these pictures make it look as though my studio must be horribly dark. In reality, it's not. I have so many lights in that room. For the last couple of pictures, I put a muslin covered board behind the wig head, hoping that the reduced background clutter would be helpful. However, I am not much of a photographer and do not know why the photos come out so dark and yellow-ish. I'll keep working on it.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Fun

Ok, so all this fuss to get ready to go to CoCo is maybe really about something else, like giving me reasons to turn myself loose and just play.

I haven't even taken scissors to the fabric yet. It's so much fun just twisting and wrapping and pinning the whole chunks of fabric on to the re-cycled crown.

That's what I've done so far, twice. When I don't drape for a while, I forget how much I enjoy it. Here's playtime:


These first three images were actually my second play attempt. I actually pinned the crown to the wig head, and twisted the cream and stripe fairly carefully. I opted to tuck in only 3 of the feather clusters.











Tomorrow I'll get the scissors involved, drape and cut and baste and stitch.

Moving right along...or sideways!

Progress happens, mostly in bits and pieces. Then, along come more ideas, more goals to meet before CoCo.

Today things got very interesting. Even as I've been realizing that I have a lot more to do to get these gowns accessorized in time for CoCo, several other costumers have been making suggestions for getting my shoes ready, finishing the trim on the white gown, and maybe making a turban or two.

Below is the hem of the dress, hanging on the ironing board getting the rest of its trim pinned in place for hand-stitching.



This afternoon, at the suggestion of a couple other people, I spent time looking at Regency turbans. My hair does not lend itself to the curly do's of the Regency. Tracy has offered to help me with that, but I think having another option would be really nice.

I started by pulling some straw hats to disassemble for their crowns, which can be used as bases on which to build some longer-lasting head-dresses. The pink crown has had its edge bound to prevent fraying. I don't know what I'll do with the brims, but that's for after CoCo.



Once I had the crowns ready, I had to figure out fabrics. Funny, for all of the fabric that I have in my studio, there is really nothing appropriate in color, weight, fiber, or pattern for a Regency turban. I did find some feathers that could work, a couple of ostrich in a turquoise blue and a cluster of the skinny feather pieces from a peacock feather.



That still didn't solve the fabric question. The only thing that seemed sort of usable were the poly brocades from JoAnn's. They're just too heavy and stiff.

JoAnn's did have some actual silks, surprise, surpise - a bit expensive but available less than 2 miles from home. The green and the cream are dupioni from the apparel section, and the stripe is from home dec, also silk. Also below is the surprise I found in the floral section - a feather candle wreath. I don't know if it can be part of a turban, but my wire snips and I are going to find out.



I also found a couple of other colors of silk, a salmony shade and a blue, along with some cotton velveteen.



So what am I doing with all of this? I'm still figuring out Regency and all of it's variations. I'm thinking that the green, cream and striped silk, along with the feather wreath could be something to go with the green gown.

http://costumeraz.blogspot.com/2010/06/well-this-may-be-record.html

I'm looking at the cotton velveteen and a striped silk from Renaissance Fabrics - http://www.renaissancefabrics.net/cgi-bin/showAll.cgi?id=472&category=Silk%20Fabric&fabric=54

The green gown would be worn as a daytime gown, and so would need a simpler turban. The white gown would be evening, and I plan on wearing it for the Gala. That turban could be fancier. I'm looking for gloves too, and thinking about jewelry.

Sheesh . . . there's so much to do, so much to consider! If you think that I'm thinking my way in the wrong direction on any of this, please YELL!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Learning new things!

Learned that Blogger blogs can have pages apart from the actual blog posts. Decided that might be a good place to put some old stuff from my old web site. Need to get rid of that old web site, but didn't want to lose the pages. Spent a lot of time building them.

So, across the top of this blog, or close to the top, are clickable links to the pages that I've added. I need to do a little more editing as the pages haven't turned out perfect. The links contained on these pages are old and some may not function correctly.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Progress in bits and pieces....

... but I'll take it!

I'm off to shop for Modpodge, silicone sealant, leather dye and various other goodies to use in my efforts to make modern footwear suitable for period, and to make hand-made, period footwear durable and esthetically pleasing. Isn't it amazing, the things that one gets one's self into as an aside to the main goal? I just want to wear my gowns!