Halloween Costume 2010 - March Hare

Hey hey All!
Figured I'd so a quick update and post my Halloween costume up on the blog. A nice break from the SCA garb.
We had a Alice In Wonderland/Victorian themed party this weekend which was a BLAST and the folks all showed up looking fabulous.

I went as the March Hare.

Its a costume made of out of my stash. Well sorta. The vest fabric (the most obnoxious plaid I could find!) was on the reminent table at Yardage Town. IT was only two bucks for a yard and a half so I couldn't resist. The rest is all stuff I happened to have laying around. I bought the socks at Target. I love them so. The tie is my husband's. The only thing I wish had time to do was the tea cup belt. I was going to make a chain felt and hang some small tea cups from it. alas, I ran out of time...like I ALWAYS do. I also ran out of time to paint the ears brown so I wouldn't blend in with the other white rabbits.
This was my last real pressing project. Not sure what is coming next. I have some fun period patterns to play with so hopefully I'll be dabbling there soon.
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And for the heck of it, here are all the bunnies from the party.

And with the Hatter.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Completed Viking Garb at Lief Erikson.

Here it is, all finished!

I'm going to have to go back and re-fit the apron dress a bit, it was a wee bit large in the bust. But then I was being really generous with my seam allowance.
Easy fix overall.
General thoughts are it was warm and comfy and perfect garb for cold weather events (like Estrella War). Its not necessarily my style since I prefer Persian and Italian Ren. on my body type but still, I'm glad I made it and I'll probably wear it again to a winter event.:)

Well, tomorrow is the Lief Erickson tourney so I figured now would be as good as anytime to try my hand (again) at some viking garb. I ended up winning a spiffy "Viking in a Basket" prize at a raffle a few tourneys ago so it was time to put it to good use.

Heehee...Shiny.

As you can see, the basket came with everything needed, including the festoons. I already have the brooches from my previous go ahead.

Here are some in progress pics I took. I'll actually be wearing it tomorrow so here's hoping I can get a few photos of the garment on me.
The basket came with various instructions of how to put your apron together. I chose the method you can find here.
Not the exact directions that I used but pretty darn close. This was a VERY simple method so I highly recommend it...because i"m lazy.

Here's the Apron dress with partial decorative stitching done. I stuck a comparison shot of my first apron I did mostly so you can see the difference in shape. The new apron is more of a tube shape. It fits pretty snug and with a belt it gives you more of your waist.

The New apron is the purple one. The Old Apron is the blue one. You can see a vast difference in the shape here on the dress form..umm..ignore how really wrinkled the purple is. Its been pressed out..honestly.

Upclose shot of the decorative stitching. I was more or less making it up as I went along.

The Under Tunic/Dress really isn't that exciting so I just took a photo of the neckline. I was pretty happy with you neat I got the trim to look.
Tomorrow I'll be wearing this sucker completed (Weather permitting. If its hot, forget it!) Overall, Viking garb aren't really my style, but I have to admit, they're a lot of fun to make.

I'm Back! LoJ 2010 Bellydancing costume and Steampunk Progress

Yeah...I have been completely neglecting my costume journal. Things have been a titch busy. But now I'm back and have enough projects lined up that should keep me busy for a while! So hopefully this means that my updates here will be FAR more frequent!

But for now, here are some pictures of my Labyrinth of Jareth costume I made this summer along with a progress shot of my steampunk costume.:)

I'm the green one. Click to enlarge

Originally I wanted to make a basic steampunk lady costume for LoJ since Friday night is the Goblin Clockwork Ball. Unfortunately time wasn't my friend (as usual) so I had to scrap the project. Luckily I didn't even start it so it worked out. Instead I decided to make some bellydancing garb and just accent it with some slight fantasy style details like the leaves and the sparky butterflies (Which unfortunately I never got good shots of) to just step it up a notch.

The Gwazee vest was made out of sari fabric my friend Michelle brought back for me from Srilanka. I have been hanging onto the fabric for years, not sure what to do with it. Not to mention I have a lot of yardage to it. I was deciding between a red and orange costume and a green costume. Green won out after I remembered I had this fabric. Click to enlarge, the details on the print are amazing!

Detail shots. On the left is a shot of the chemise sleeve. The sleeve drape is left over chiffon I had from some project that ended up getting scrapped. the chemise is left over garb material. You can't really see it in this shot, but I sewed in various ribbons and trim to give the sleeves more movement, finished it off with some leaves. The Coins on the bra are a bit chintzy looking but unfortunately I was working on a budget and time constraints so that's all I had available. Luckily the bright gold tied in with the gold/yellow in the vest fabric. The medallion was a raffle prize from my first SCA war. If you take a look at the buttons, they have a sun goddess face on them. Love them! I also made the hair clips which included the green sparkling butterflies on them. The fringe belt I'm wearing in the top picture was purchased. Unfortunately I ran out of both time and steam to really finish off the costume. I wore my basic black garb pants under it all. I wasn't too find of the silhouette with the pants and would have rather made either really voluminous green pants or a circle skirt to go under it all. Well, if I end up digging this one back out of the closet, I can always go the route. Overall, not a bad job for slamming it together in about 24 hours.

And here's a quick progress shot of my Regina Black costume as I continue the major overhaul.

Click to enlarge. As you can see, everything is pinned on right now while I decide on placement and such. I've removed to cog buttons. They were just too dang cheesy for me and replaced them with more period looking ones. Put them on both sides of the coat for a more double breasted look. I returned to the vest simply because I really love that vest fabric I found. But I removed the hastily made clasp covers and instead put more buttons there to act as mock clasps. Also added faux pockets to the vest and will be attaching that watch chain later on. The medal was a random find. Not sure yet if I want it there or somewhere else. I wanted to create this sudo military look to give a sense that Regina was once a part of British armed forces. Just need to make the Medal look more like a medal. After all the details are attached I'll be distressing the coat even more with paint, sandpaper and possibly a lighter. I'll be doing some distressing on the vest as well. I want her to look pretty darn gritty. she IS a zombie hunter/scientist after all.

So that's all she wrote for now! Next project will probably be my full viking garb I plan to make for the Leif Erikson tourney coming up in October. And hopefully I'll also have started a Halloween costume as well. This years theme for our Halloween Party is Alice in Wonderland. debating a March Hare costume. This should be fuuuuun!

Finished Viking!

Here's a pic of the finished Viking apron and the "smurf hat" I made for Calafian winter Arts!

Click to enlarge Not too bad for my first time at the viking rodeo I like to think.:) It was extremely comfortable and really warm. GOOD Estrella garb! I believe I will have to give this another whirl soon. And just cause I'm a show off, here's my sparse table from winter arts featuring my orange Italian Ren and my hubby's cassock coat.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday!

Been too Long...so I made more garb.

Wow, Its been FAR too long since I updated. My excuse is the hubby and I have been busy moving into a house for the last..oh...3 months it seems. We bought a nice fixer upper so a good chunk of my sewing time was taken up with painting and installing floors. But now things have finally settled and I managed to get myself back on the sewing train! The best part is now I have a studio space to work in instead of sewing in the bedroom!

So I've been wanting to work on a viking apron for a long time now. I was a bit reluctant at first mostly because I'm a big busted gal and I was afraid the whole thing would make me look pregnant. Then I realized that most women I know who wear this style ARE big busted gals and I was being stupid.
My LJ friend sabre0link sent me some excellent links on viking garb for both men and women (if you're interested in seeing them, let me know! I'll post them up here!). They were a HUGE help and I found any different ways to put an apron together.

Click to Enlarge these pics.

In the end, I went with the very simple two rectangles and two gores on the side look. Above is the finished product. I originally had the gores too high, where my bust line ended, and the apron looked really sloppy, not to mention it looked more like a MuMu than anything else. So I hacked it apart and lowered the gores. I think the result is much nicer. The wool came from a thrift store buy years and years ago. The brooches I bought...what can I say, I love the shiny. The festoons I made myself from some lamp beads and other finds I had in my stash. I think I'll have to strengthen my knots on the festoons though. I don't really trust my knot tying skills...hence why I married an ex sailor.
Overall, I'm really happy with it. I will be wearing my orange kirtle I bought a few wars back under the apron. Its not not pictured since I was being ADD and working on two garments at once on my dress form.

And yes, I am working on yet ANOTHER italian Ren!

Click to Enlarge.

Once again, I'm feeling the need to experiment. I ended up losing my pattern from my first Italian Ren during the move. So I've had to start from scratch. So far its not too bad. I've been wanting to make an Italian Ren out of washable material. Both the lining and the outter fabric is cotton. The pearls are only on there because I was futzing around. I'm not completely sold on them yet. I still need to buy buttons or something to use for the side closures. Then the skirt will go on. For this one I'm hoping to make some detachable sleeves that actually WORK. I'm considering a contrasting color but I'm not sure if I want to go blue. I've been going a little crazy in the orange and blue department.

ALSO, I went fabric shopping with some gal pals un in the LA fashion district recently and picked up some shinies!

Fabric Goodness!
Okay, that first red fabric was from a few trips back. That will be turning into a doublet for the hubby. The teal silk is for me. I want to make another Italian Ren out of it but something a bit more ornate than I usually do. Currently reseaching that. The black was bought for a good friend who has been working hard helping us get the house in order. So he'll be getting a doublet as well.

And now that I'm more or less unpacked I finally found my period hat making book. So hopefully I can make a few coifs and perhaps a french hood. I've been really eager to try my hand at a french hood.

I'm really happy to get back to sewing again, I missed it! Hopefully I'll have some more pictures of new experiments as they come.

SCA Tunics

Better Late than never, right?:)
Sorry I've been AWOL. My Husband and I are currently working on getting into our new home so things have been busy and my sewing has been on the non existent side since May. Hopefully this weekend I"ll post some detailed shots of a pair of steampunk wings I recently put together for Labyrinth Ball.
I made a punch of basic T-Tunics for some of our fellas (and one lady) in the household and I made a coat for my Hubby. Its not too much flash but they turned out pretty good. So I felt like sharing.:)

click the rest of these pics to enlarge.

All of the fabric is cotton and the colors were picked out by the gentlemen (and lady). The Red and blue tunic the gentleman in the third pic is wearing I did not make. But i did make the basic coat in the fourth picture. I was pretty happy with the turn out. I do plan to line that coat for him though since the fabric wasn't as warm as we suspected it would be.

And this is the coat I made for the hubby.

The photos unfortunately do not do the fabric justice. Its a beautiful silver and blue brocade. I used the same pattern as the fencing coat only removed the mods. So its the correct length and does not have the overflap for protection. I believe its an English style coat but I honestly can't remember. It definitely has signs of an early style cassock. We just call the style the fighting cassock since it works so well as fencing garb.
Unfortunately I ran out of time to put button holes in it so I had to quickly sew on the loops. These will be removed soon and I'll be putting in button holes instead. I will also be adding the collar back. Unfortunately time was a factor and I wanted him to have a coat for war.

The next item on my garb list will be another shot an Italian Ren for me. I'd like to make one that's more for war wear instead of court wear. Our household does a LOT of service and we get dirty frequently. ;)