theladyrebecca | Entries tagged with ravenclaw bustle

Hi all! Just a quick post about the Ice Cream Social at CosCol.

I wore what has become my trusty Ravenclaw Bustle Gown. Originally, we had planned to have four of us wearing the four different houses. That didn't happen. But we did at least wind up representing Ravenclaw and Slytherin colors! (Photos by Kendra Van Cleave and Vivien Lee)

It was also great seeing the other bustle gown ladies! (Photo by Amanda Shattuck)

Here are some of my other favorites from the Ice Cream Social:

Monika's gorgeous Edwardian and

nuranar's adorable Regency Fairy

the_aristocat's amazing bustle gown, and Natalie's incredible Game of Thrones inspired embroidery

Hopefully next year, our themed costuming will be a little more cohesive. For whoever wants to join, there is a group of us planning on using the literary theme and making Professors of Hogwarts bustle gowns. Let me know if you want to join!

More recap to come.

I have been sewing a tiny bit. I recut the bodice front pieces, cut out the sleeves and cuffs and their linings, and serged/sewed them all together. The bodice fronts still need to be handsewn in the cf, and gathered along the bottom, and the sleeves need to be set in the armseyes. I also need to figure out what kind of buttons I'm using and sew them on. And of course attach the bodice to the skirts. I think I may still need to hem the skirts, too. But it's getting close, and I still have faith that it's completely doable before CosCol (even though I'm spending 7 out of the next 9 days temping at Zulily). And when Kendra's book gets here, I need to style the wig, too. But that's it! (I hope)

I had an amazing time at the Victorian Festival in Port Townsend this weekend! My boyfriend and I stayed in a Victorian hotel right on the main street in the town. We took the ferry over on Friday morning, stopped to see Port Gamble on the way up, and arrived in Port Townsend about 2pm. We got all dressed up, and then explored a little through the town. The official stuff started with the sing-a-long and pub crawl that evening. The pub crawl was especially fun - the main place we went to was this tiny basement level bar that had a packed dance floor and an awesome swing music band. Fun to dance to in a bustle!

On Saturday morning, I attempted to watch the parade (except apparently it happened 15 minutes early!), then looked at a couple exhibits and bought a late 1890s bodice at an antique store (for only $18!). Then we headed up the giant staircase to uptown, and went to the Rothschild House museum, which was built in 1868. After, we headed out to Fort Worden to take a quick tour of the Commanding Officer's Quarters, which I believe was built in 1905. We checked out a couple of the workshops, and then Sean headed to watch a gun demonstration, while I made my way to the Fashion show. It was a bit disappointing - though there were a few very nice repros and several antique gowns, there was also a fair amount of poly satin... Yikes. Afterwards, we dressed for the ball, and headed out to dinner and dancing. The ball was so much fun! We missed the first hour because our dinner service was sooo slow, but still caught a few waltzes, and the contra dancing was way more fun anyway. Unfortunately, we didn't stop to take any pictures in our evening attire, so I still have no pics of my new cloak, But here are the rest of the pics, including the new hat and bonnet. The whole set can be found on flickr.

This morning, we caught the ferry back, and I went back to work. But overall, it was a fantastic weekend, my BF had a wonderful time at his first costuming event, and it was a great way to spend both our birthdays. :)

I took my Ravenclaw bustle gown out for another outing on Halloween. I wore it for most of the day just because (it made my trip to the bank, to pay my rent check, and to post my ballot more interesting), and then at night I hosted a Halloween game night for our board game group, and we wandered around Ballard afterwards. Luckily, one of our regular attendees is a photographer, and he was kind enough to snap some pictures for me. All photos in this post are by Richard Tran.

As those of you who have been reading this blog lately have noticed, a fair bit of work went into this gown. This was my first foray into Victorian bustle gowns (unless you count my Jane costume, which I don't). I attempted pleated trim (tedious, but pretty!), worked with rabbit fur for the first time (pretty sure I inhaled a fair bit of it), and learned that bustling a skirt is not as hard as it seems.

( Pictures under the cut )

I'm really happy with this outfit, and I can't wait to wear it again at Costume College!

Steamcon was the weekend before last, and despite my work schedule, I was able to attend Friday and Saturday evening. Unfortunately, either all the panels took place Saturday morning or Sunday, or there just weren't any panels this year, because I wasn't able to attend any! I did, however, attend plenty of dancing, got a better understanding of how to play Whist, and danced some more.

On Friday, I went to the Welcome talk, then learned some Ballroom basics (which wound up being the exact same class I took last year), and bought a new felt hat blank. For dinner, I walked through the mall and the Disney store in costume (that always gets some fun looks), and after, went to a class on the cross-step waltz. That was nice, since that's one of the ones that has always thrown me off - for some reason, in the past, I've found it more difficult than normal waltzing. Most of the rest of the things going on that night involved loud and obnoxious music, so after waltzing, I settled down to a couple hours of Whist. I've only played once before, but now I really think I'm getting the hang of it. It's a fun game! For Friday, I wore my new Ravenclaw bustle - some pictures from the day are below, but I will have a proper write-up about it, with much better pictures.
( Pictures from Friday )

( Pictures of Saturday )

Overall, despite the dancing, it was definitely not worth the cost of the con. I think I just don't have enough interest in Steampunk (or enough time off on the weekend to spend at a con), so I probably wouldn't buy a weekend pass again. Then again, I vaguely remember saying that after last year, too...

I'm so excited for Steamcon this weekend!

I have pretty much everything done. My patch did not come today (grumble), so assuming it comes tomorrow (which it better!), I need to stitch that on my bodice. Otherwise, everything on the Ravenclaw bustle is done! I even stitched my velvet wand pouch on to the bottom of the bodice to act like a wand pocket. And I'm going to be wearing it with my Ravenclaw prefect button and my time turner, because the gold coordinates so well. I nixed the collar/tie idea - it was just going to be too suffocating up at the neck. However, everything fits great! The tail pleats are definitely heavy, so I'll probably unhook it for dancing, lest I topple over, but I do love the way it all looks together. Now I just have to figure out how to fit in the car in my bustle gown...

And I put together a look for Saturday, too, so I don't have to commit the faux pas of wearing the same thing twice. I'm pairing my 18th c riding habit jacket with a lacy Victorian looking blouse (which I actually made into a fitted bodice today), and I'm bustling up the red riding habit skirt over my ruffly bustle petticoat. Hopefully the cream blouse won't clash with the white petticoat. All I have left to do on it is figuring out how to bustle the skirt so that it will be removable without any sign that I'd done anything to it, and add two more small h&e to my lacy blouse (I ran out). And I might go to Value Village and pick up one of their little topper hats, since I'm already quite fantastical looking in this outfit.

I also put together an Ikea dresser today. No more shoving clothes into jammed full plastic drawers!

All the trim is on the sleeves, and I started the binding on the neckline. I really want to finish all the binding tomorrow, and figure out how to bustle up the overskirt. Then on Wed, I can try everything on, mark for hooks and eyes and sew them, figure out the shirt collar thing, and sew the patch on (since it's due to arrive Wed). I can do this!

At least, it feels like this project is neverending. I swear, I've been working on it forever! The cascading/waterfall pleat section is all done, and I've rigged it with hooks and eyes to the overskirt waistband. But that thing is soooo heavy. It appears to work on Antoinette, but I'm really worried that when it comes right down to it, it's going to push everything forward when wearing it. Though it was an interesting test for my sewing machine. It's six layers of each fabric in the pleats at the top, plus the fabric in the seams, and the fabric of the piece that extends to the waistband. That means my sewing machine made it through (with a little coaxing) app 26 layers of fabric. (Before I added the extension piece, I measured it, and it was about .5" thick.)

I've also pleated up the wool for the sleeve hems, and attached a partial lining of the leftover pillow velvet to where it might show in the tail of the bodice. Now I need to stitch the pleats in place, attach the pleats, fur trim (and probably gold braid) to the sleeves, bind the bodice edges (I burned myself with the steam from my iron trying to make the binding tonight), figure out the stupid shirt collar I want, tie a tie (I'm terrible at it), attach the Ravenclaw patch I ordered on ebay due to laziness once it gets here, and sew on the hooks and eyes for the skirt and overskirt closure. Oh, and try everything on, and hope to God it fits! Have I mentioned that I'm wearing this Friday?!?!?!

On the other hand, while working on much of this project, over Thurs-Sat, I watched all eight Harry Potter films. Just in case you weren't aware, that's 19 2/3 hours of Harry Potter. I think I'm going crazy!!!

Here are some pictures for you!

The first is the blurry in progress bustle gown picture I promised you yesterday:

And this one is this year's pumpkin - it's a Mickey pumpkin!

And today, I made a Halloween-inspired craft -- fall critters out of egg cartons!

I've been sewing a ton over the last two days, which means at this point, thus is all I have left to do:
-figure out how to get a fake collared shirt look at the neck of my bodice
-bind the bodice edges
-hook and eye on skirt and overskirt waistbands
-figure out how exactly to bustle up overskirt
-make the waterfall pleat section. The fabrics have been cut for it, and I figured out how to lay out my pillowcase pieces of velvet so it will show in the appropriate places. Now I just have to sew it all together, and hope that it looks the same in reality as it does in my mind.

Here's a blurry in progress pic from my camera, if it actually works this time:

Despite work and trivia night tonight, I did get a little work done on my Ravenclaw bustle. I sewed on all my buttons to the bodice, and I cut out the fashion fabric pieces for the skirt (there's going to be additional pieces where the fashion fabric attaches up to the waistband, since the fabric wasn't wide enough). I'd love to get sleeves done tomorrow, but I'm going to a bingo and karaoke night, so I don't know that that will happen.

In other news, I also did confetti applique embroidery on a kitchen towel at work today, as a sample for a new embroidery class I'm co-teaching at the end of the month. It came out really nicely, so I'll try to post a pic later.

Why am I such a slow sewer? After work yesterday, I sewed together all my bodice pieces, then somehow turned my darts into a princess seam (not sure how I got that to work, and not sure if it's H/A that way, but it fit way better). I also drafted the skirts, and cut out the pieces for the overskirt. Today after work, I swung by Joanns (and bought way too much holiday stuff, considering I went in for 1.25yds of fusible interfacing), did the facing on my bodice, made all my buttonholes, and antiqued my too-shiny buttons. But that's it! And I've been going to bed way late because of it.

And working at a place that sells sewing machines always makes me hate on mine so much more. I am so not happy with my Emerald's buttonholes. I could have done them in less than half the time, and way neater on a Brother. I'm also not happy with my Brother serger's rolled hem, but there's no way I'm ever splurging for a Babylock.

Yesterday, I drafted out the mockup for my Ravenclaw bustle bodice, based on my old Jane bodice. After struggling with how to take a pattern from a bodice with darts, I wound up winging it and just hoping it would work. And it almost did! So this evening, I cut out all the interlining and outer pieces for the bodice, and flatlined them. Of course, my original goal for today was to basically finish the bodice, but clearly that didn't happen. In fact, I wound up not getting home till 5 pm.

This morning, I had another portrait sitting session, wearing my Regency gown, and then I decided to explore into all the little antique and boutique shops where the art studio is. It was cute, and I almost bought a parasol. Then on the way home, I also hit a garage sale (almost bought a $25 fur cost, but I'm trying to be good), and a thrift store (where I bought a gloriously tacky Halloween sweater). Then I finally made it home and got to work.

I'm starting to get worried, though. I need this gown done by the 25th, and so far I have pretty much nothing!

I draped up the skirts of the bustle gown yesterday, mostly so I could see what it might look like, and figure out the trims. The primary fabric is a cotton homespun in navy and gold plaid. The hem of both the skirt and bustle gown are trimmed with pleated navy wool (6" on the skirt, and 3" on the bustle drape), gold/black ombre rabbit fur, and metallic gold braid. There is also a navy wool v. gold waterfall pleated section that's going to run down the back, to look like it's coming off the bodice. The bodice will be of the navy wool, most likely with plaid sleeves (though I haven't entirely decided on the sleeves), with a large loopy vintage lace at the sleeve hems. I'm going to base the pattern for the bodice off my Jane bodice, so hopefully my pattern won't need too much reworking. Now I just have to hope that I can finish all this in 2.5 weeks!

Oh, and Disney was lots of fun! And I'll try to post pics of the petticoat bustle and my mom's Edwardian jacket (both finished) soon.

The bustle petticoat is almost done! All it needs is a waistband and a hem. The rolled hem on the bottom two ruffles came out so nicely that I'm tempted to do it on the rest of the hem, too. (If I have another chance to do it at work, that is, since the Babylock Imagine does a way better rolled hem than my Brother serger.)

I love the look of the petticoat - it's so fluffy! I'll try to post pics as soon as possible, but I'm headed down to Disneyland on Wed-Fri, so it may not happen for a little while.

I think I've gotten out of my sewing slump. My mom's jacket is just about done - all it needs is the binding hand-sewn down around the edges. And I've been working on the petticoat for my Ravenclaw bustle gown. Soooo many ruffles! I finished cutting out the pieces to be ruffled tonight, and it's over 10 yds. Tomorrow I hope to gather everything up and attach (I've already marked everything out, so maybe it will even go smoothly?) I just need to figure out if I want to do an actual hem on my bottom two ruffles (I ran out of selvage), or take the easy way out and just roll hem with the serger. Any opinions? - I'm leaning towards the latter, since just those two ruffles are over 4.5 yds.

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Rebecca Maiten

Lady Rebecca Fashions

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Costume College Part 2 - Ice Cream Social
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Victorian Weekend Photos
Ravenclaw Bustle Gown Pictures
Steamcon
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The Neverending Project
Pictures!
Getting closer!
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Grumble
Bodice Progress
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Petticoat Progress
Sewing again!

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Diary of a Costumer

Entries tagged with ravenclaw bustle

Costume College Part 2 - Ice Cream Social

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Victorian Weekend Photos

Ravenclaw Bustle Gown Pictures

Steamcon

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The Neverending Project

Pictures!

Getting closer!

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Grumble

Bodice Progress

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Petticoat Progress

Sewing again!

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April 2019

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