Diary of a Costumer

This month is apparently my costume event month, since every weekend has/will involve costumes. (CoCo, then the Ren Faire, then the NW Colonial Festival, plus next week is Snoqualmie Railroad Days, followed by a costume contest at Disney Trivia). 

So anyway, on Saturday I went to the NW Colonial Festival. Despite the pouring rain that started right after we arrived, it was wonderful! (and the rain did mostly clear up). It's such a gorgeous location, on the grounds of an inn designed to look like Mount Vernon, with views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca on one side, and the Olympic mountains on the other. I haven't done 18th c in ages, so I was actually glad for the colder, wetter weather, because it meant I could wear my riding habit again. I wore it over my quilted petticoat, and I did not regret that decision. I did get warm when the sun peaked out, but it kept me so nice and dry when it was raining - none of the rain got through to me at all! Because of the rain, I decided not to wear the velvet 1780s-style hat I made to go with it originally, and instead, decided to wire the brim of a black wool hat I had in the stash, and make a tricorn. It would have looked much better with feathers, but not in the rain, so I decorated it with a simple ribbon cockade. It's the least favorite part of my outfit, but I think it looked okay. 

At the event, there was a decent sized encampment (way bigger than when I was there in 2015!), presentations and some items for sale from the DAR (I bought a nice cap for $15), some other presentations from reenactors, a tea on the sun porch of the inn, and a battle on the reproduction Lexington and Concord bridge. 

Anyway, here's what you want - pictures! I'll have the rest of the pictures up on Facebook within the next few days. Naturally, I took a ton. 

Friday dawned bright and early, since I had a class at 9am. My first class was 18th c Criminal Couture, taught by Emma Cross, which was very fascinating! I wore my red wool riding habit, and met up (at various times) with bauhausfrau, girliegirl32786, jenthompson, and the_aristocat, who were all also decked out in riding habits and redingotes.





                                              Red!                                                                                           Blue!



After our first meetup, I attended harmanhay's "Starting a Small Costuming Business" class, had lunch with theladysarah and zoccolaro, checked out the costume exhibition, and eventually attended Loren and Bunny's "We Like Big Hats" class. And then I got ready for the Ice Cream Social! I wore my Robe a la Turque, which was nice, since it meant I hardly had to change at all from the afternoon. Unfortunately, for some reason pretty much all of my pictures from the Ice Cream Social came out really fuzzy, but I loved seeing all the different costumes! Some of my favorites were the Disney Villains, Kendra and Merja's Maja dresses, vanessa_lynne's amazing pink 18th c frothyness, Emma's 18th c tinkerbell, and Jen's Ikat open robe.

After the Ice Cream Social (and a brief and fairly disappointing turn round the Marketplace), it was time for the Pink Princess Party! I had more fun there this year than in year's past. It's a great time to get to actually slow down and chat with people I often don't otherwise see. I wore my fairytale toile dress, and felt like a 5-yr old going to a birthday party. Can't you tell?


I'll be back with the rest of the recaps soon!

Granted, it might have been 1.5 weeks late, but I did finish my UFO project for the Historical Sew Fortnightly. My riding habit!

The waistcoat is a false front, which I pinned to my stays, but I think it works really well. And there's still a little tacking I'd like to do to the lining on the collar and cuffs. I'm also still debating about adding the fur trim to the hem of the jacket, like in the inspiration portrait. But other than that, it's done!

And here's some visual proof:

The original portrait inspiration, and my "long pose" (three 20-min sessions of this pose)

( More Pictures and Challenge Details under the cut )

I'm kind of loving the pannier-along. If everything I made was in the -along style, maybe I'd actually keep up with my work. I sewed all my boning channels, and bound the slit for the pocket. (Though a six inch pocket slit seems teeny to me - do I just have huge hands?) That said, I haven't done a stitch of work on my riding habit since I last posted, except to buy more velvet for the cuffs. I've decided to go with the poly velvet for all the outer layers - not only does that mean it will match the color, but the poly doesn't crush like the cotton velveteen I had does. And I kind of love that!

On the other hand, I can't find fur anywhere. The original portrait I'm basing it on has about 4" wide fur trim all along the skirting of the jacket. The only wide enough fur I found was terrible fake stuff at Joanns that wound up fuzzing sooo much by the time I even got it to the cutting counter, that I'm now going to have to lint-roll my entire jacket. Needless to say, I didn't buy it. If anyone knows of a resource for either a nice fake fur or a real fur that doesn't break the bank, which is (or can be cut to) 4" by about 84" long, in black, that won't absolutely break the bank (trying to stay around $25 for it), please please please let me know! All my usual sources (ebay/etsy/fabric stores/google) have failed me.

I'm hoping maybe I'll get a chance to try it on and take pictures tomorrow. If not, it will for sure happen Saturday evening, since I'll be putting my stays on anyway to go out to dinner after the SITU event is over. The event was waaayy too pricy for me, so I'm looking forward to a late dinner in costume with friends instead. I didn't wind up going in costume to the Austen-based improv show that I saw tonight, which was good, I think. The show itself was fantastically hilarious, though - the actors did a terrific job!

Since I've now completed the customary year in review, that means it's time to post the goals for 2013!

1. Finish the riding habit. It's at least about half-way done at this point. The skirts of the bodice need to be attached, I need to figure out how to do the huge collar, the sleeves, and all the trimming.

2. The Robe a la Turque. The petticoat is done. I'm currently working on the gown - the bodice and skirt are cut out.

3. 18th c red cloak. I already have the fabric.

4. 17th c gown. Based on this portrait. I'm in the process of buying fabric - I'm actually springing for silk taffeta!

5. Regency corset. I wanted to take the class at CosCol last year but was waitlisted. Maybe I'll get in this year?

6. Regency day dress. I bought swiss dot last year. I'm just waiting to make the corset first.

7. Regency overgown. Again, I already have the fabric.

8. Edwardian jacket for my mom. The mockup is done - I just need to actually make the jacket now.

9. Victorian waistcoat for my dad for Dickens next year.

10. 1950s cotton-printed dress to wear to Disneyland before CosCol.

11. Victorian button boots. I will probably make two pairs. I'm going to try making it from canvas first, and if that works out, then I'll spring for leather.

12. Possibly a pet en lair or caraco.

I think that's enough to be getting on with.

My silk habotai came yesterday for the riding habit lining, so I went back to working on it. Yesterday, I cut out the pieces for the habit skirts and mock-pleated them on to the bodice, to figure out if I wanted it more habit-like or caraco-like. Habit won out. :) And then today, I cut out the silk for the all the linings (minus the sleeves), and attached most of the lining to the skirts (that silk is slippery!). I just have to hand-sew the lining down to the sides of the skirts, and then that can be pleated back up and attached to the bodice. I'm part-way through serging the bodice lining now, and then that will be sewn together and put in the bodice. I really appreciate the nice red color - it's almost like another Christmas decoration! (We finished that up this weekend, too.)

While I was procrastinating on some actual sewing today, too, I also painted my new American Duchess shoes. I'm saving one pair for later, but I knew I wanted one pair to be red, so I pre-treated the leather, and painted on about 2.5 coats of Angelus leather paint - first, just plain red, and then I mixed the red with a touch of black acrylic paint, since the first color was coming out way too bright. I like the way they look now, so when I next have a little time, I can do the finisher, and they'll be done!

I also pre-washed the wool for the waistcoat, so I can get started on that next. Or sleeves. I haven't decided which yet. And I cut out the pieces for my mom's Edwardian jacket. She thankfully agreed to a mock-up for Christmas, instead of the full thing, so it shouldn't be too big of a deal to redraft the Butterick pattern to her measurements and specifications. I have to do it soon, though, since I leave for home a week from Thursday, and I work every single day till then.

I decided to flat-line the bodice. Though after pressing all the seams open, I'm seriously debating about lining it as well. I think the next step will be tackling the sleevil, which I'm sure will occur with this project because of those long fitted 1780's sleeves. Or I might just put those off for now, and do the waistcoat instead.

No pictures yet, but I have the stays and bodice back on my pillow form. I wish they would fit on Antoinette!

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

I love when things fit. I made the mock-up for the zone-front riding habit bodice, and it fits! I based the front piece off of the floral robe a l'anglaise from last year, modified to a zone front and to a neckline that will cover my stays straps, and taken in about 1.5" since that one is too big now. I made the back like a quarter back (I think that's the term, right?) with four pieces, roughly equaling the pieces from the old bodice. My mock-up was almost perfect - all I had to do was take in about 3/4" around the shoulder-blades in the center back seam. I am going to wind up tweaking the front neckline a tiny bit, since it's looking more bodice-y than habit-y.


( Pictures under the cut )

I've been trying to decide whether to have the skirts of the habit bodice cut in one with the bodice pieces, or to make separate skirts. At this point, I'm leaning towards the latter, but I'm having real problems finding evidence that leads more to one way or the other in portraits/extant, etc. Just as a reminder, this is the portrait I'm basing my habit off of: http://www.nationalmuseum.se/Global/Pressbilder/Stolthet_och_fordom/HR/SF_421_02.jpg. It looks like her skirts are cut in one, but I also kind of doubt that hers is a zone front. I wish I could see the front!


Does anyone have any suggestions one way or the other for which type of skirts would make more sense with a 1780s zone-front riding habit?

I'm finally starting on the riding habit! I cut out the fabric for the skirt tonight, but I realised that the wool I have is really very drapey, and doesn't have that nice crisp hand that I'm used to with most 18th c fabrics. Should I be flat-lining it? That's what I plan to do with the bodice, but I've never flat-lined a skirt before.

I did find one example of a riding habit with what looks like a pretty drapey skirt: http://pinterest.com/pin/234539093065197027/, as well as one extant skirt that looks like it was a fairly drapey fabric that may have been flatlined (or something weird has been done to them hem, which I don't like): http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O74100/riding-habit-unknown/ But the rest of all the habits I've seen have had the typical fuller skirt, which is what I was going for.