Diary of a Costumer

Whoops! I fell asleep early last night and forgot to post the Anna pictures. So here they are! (In the last pic you can also see the Elsa skirt hanging in the top right. Still not pleased with the dye job, but at least you can see it did make a little difference.)

I used a decorative stitch for the front opening and sleeves of the blouse, satin at the collar base, and my trust satin with the overlock foot for around the top of the collar. I learned that trick with the regular Anna! The neck opening closes with three small hooks and eyes.



Yesterday, I digitized half of the skirt motif. They're so large that I unfortunately can't fit the sunflower in one hoop (about 13.75"), so I have to do sunflower heads, and then the stem/tulip area separately. And there's 16 of each!

And because I fell asleep so early (11:30, which is about 3.5 hrs early for me, and my prime work time!) I also didn't get any of my pleats done. So the goal for today is to finish digitizing Anna, cut and assemble the skirt, so I can let the circle hang, and get all my overskirt pleats done and attached. We're coming in to vacation crunch time, and I need to prep for handsewing! 

I shipped my etsy order, bought a giant pot for boil-dyeing at Walmart, bought fabric, zipper, and dye at Joanns for Anna and Elsa, went to the library, bank, and Walgreens, and finished the Anna bodice. I also redyed the skirt. I waited til it was fully dry before I rinsed it, and it seemed like not much dye ran off. It's drying now, so I won't know till the morning if it was actually a real success or not.

Once I finished the bodice, I also prepped my pleat strips for the Victorian child overskirt, and pleated up two of the seven tab sections. They're still pinned at this point, but I think I'm only going to be able to do one or two more sections before I'll have to sew them in place, so that I have enough pins to pleat the rest! Most of my silk pins are currently in the zigzags of the skirt - it's amazing how many pins this project requires.

Tomorrow I'm finishing the waistband on the Elsa skirt, and starting the Anna blouse. What's the chance it will go so smoothly that I could finish it tomorrow, too?

And some pictures, of course:

Hmm, just off the top of my head, I certainly haven't done much since CoCo. Maybe going through everything, I'll realize I was actually productive this year?

These were my goals:
1. 1831 Archery dress Done!
2. 1829 Orange ballgown Done!
3. Corded petticoat to go with both of the above dresses Done!
4. 1830s bathing suit Done!
5. Professor Trelawney artistic reform gown for the CosCol Ice Cream Social This got switched to the green and cream bustle gown
6. Daniel Deronda riding habit (already have the fabric) Still have the fabric. Maybe I'll actually make it this year?
7. Little Red costume from Into the Woods Done!
8. Striped silk bustle gown. (Or maybe a sack-back. I found silk at Hancocks today for $8/yd, and I'm determined to not let it sit in the stash.) Yeah... That silk is sitting in the stash...
9. Handsewn 1860s gown. At this point, I'm still determined to do this fully handsewn, so who knows when/if I'll ever finish it. If I let myself do it by machine, I'm sure I would have finished it months ago... Still on the list. I just haven't had the time/patience for that much hand-sewing.

( And this was what I accomplished. )

So overall, I guess that wasn't too bad. I definitely need to start sewing again soon if I'm going to be at all on track for CoCo though!

I worked all day on Elsa today. I put together most of the blouse last night, and bound the neckline this morning. I also drafted the skirt, cut it out, and completely finished it! I have to hem the sleeves on the blouse, then it's on to the corset and the cape. I would really love to finish this by the end of this weekend. And that may even be possible, since we're having shortened hours due to the Superbowl on Sunday. It's a little crazy in Seattle right now! When I'm done with Elsa, I also have more pictures of Princess Anna to share.

Also, Jerry Springer is over. It was a crazy show, but I'm sad it's done, because now I don't have any more theatre projects coming up.