Recycle and Reuse

2010 is starting off on the right foot.  The first crafty night was held at my house on Saturday and i had a blast!  Fun movies, fun friends, and an overhaul project that only took one evening to complete!

In sticking with my desire this year to only make what i want married with my focus last year to waster less and re-use more produced a super fantastic project that came to mind at the perfect time.  I have been wresteling with what i am going to wear to the Edwardian Ball in a few weeks.  I finally settled on the Blue polonaise outfit for Friday night (Worlds Faire) and a good old goth dress for Saturday night (The Ball).  I had make a quick reticule to go with the polonaise.  Nothing fancy, nothing special...just a plain sewn bag with a drawcord closure.  Pretty plain, and very un-worthy of the grand event of the Edwardian Ball!  I needed a better, prettier, shiny purse.

The crafting evening began at Lacis with some corset boning purchased (not me, but one is coming soon...) to re-bone a good corset that someone had the nerve to put nasty plastic boning into...evil!  While in Lacis i remembered the purse closures and thought about the first true purse i made to go with the Checked Wool Costume in Red Velveteen.  I could totally take what i had, remove the drawcord, re-shape it, add a metal frame/closure, and trim it up for a fantastic purse that would take no more than a frame and some digging through the trimming scraps box.  I found a super cute frame with flowers that remind me of Daisies.

After Lacis and a brief Stone Mountain run thought we stopped at my house and let the crafting begin.  Movies, a bit of wine, and a fun project is an awesome Saturday night.  I worked on my purse while friends worked on attaching new buttons to jackets and sewing new deeper darts into beautiful blue velvet dresses.  We all worked on things for the Ball, it felt so Victorian!

After a couple of hours i had finished the purse using some beaded trim and lace left overs from other projects.  The purse is now totally spruced up!  I love it and can't wait to take it to the Edwardian Ball!  What to work on next week?!??!?!?!

FIlling the need for somewhere to put my phone for dickens - AND - Making a VIctorian Purse

Dickens Faire!!!  Finally the time of year to dress up in your best walking costume and go stroll the fantastic streets of a time long ago.  Well it is super hard to look good while strolling if you're holding a camera and an iPhone.  So today as the costume was pulled out and accessories were gathered all together a gaping hole in my ensemble was discovered...i have no purse for the Checked Wool Costume!  It does have a couple of welt pockets on the front of the jacket, but not enough for all the goodies required for a day out.  The brain started thinking and decided that it would the perfect rainy day activity to whip up a Victorian Purse for all my strolling needs.

A dig through the fabric bin of things long since past produced more than enough of the Red Velveteen used on the Checked Wool Costume saving me the headache of having to try to match it.  Next a trip to Lacis to procoure a Metal Purse Frame and Chain.  I found a super cute Antique Nickle color frame with Rhinestones in the clasps that was adorable.

If you have ever sewn a reticule...this is even easier depending upon your Metal Frame type.  I went with a "Sew-on" type frame so i would not have to mess with trying to crimp down a frame.  There are also frames that will screw together to hold the fabric in place.  Another great method, but sewing was going to be the least intense for me and with trying to make this a couple hour project i was all about easy.  I found a fantastic website with simple instructions and pictures where appropriate for putting together the bag.  I opted against super cute trimmings and lace as the walking costume is on the clean side with very little trim.

i LOVE how it turned out and can't wait for Dickens tomorrow to show it off.  It was so quick i've already pulled out some bags to buy frames for and convert from drawstring and reticule type bags in the future.  I really enjoyed attaching the bag to the frame and prefer the clean and structured look of having the bag attached to a metal frame.

   

What to make next...

As Dickens approaches and I come to terms with the fact the I barely have time to make one dress much less two I am now faced with a choice. I have patterns and fabric for two dresses. Below are pictures of the sillouhette and fabric of each of the items I could work on next.

The first is a ditsy blue floral on a white background in a light weight cotton. The dress is a super cute and is a pleated dress that is the right years for Dickens.




The second is an adorable dress from the 1880's (more my time period and sillouhette) in a beautiful white and blue plaid that is a medium weight cotton.




Audience participation time! Which do you think I should work on? 1) time appropiate blue floral pleated dress - OR - 2) super re-wearable blue plaid???

Released from the Sewing Machine for one weekend of fun

Hi!  Yep, i'm actually *not* dead as many probably figured.  No no, what really happened was silly drama and a super evil costume deadline when i was totally not in the mood.  For the last two months i have been sewing non-stop day/night/twilight.  I managed to finish a large amount of the wish list prior to heading off with a costuming buddy to Steam-Con last weekend.  Luckily i finished enough and had other goodies in my closet that i was able to outfit for the weekend even with an evening costume change ; )  Unfortunately i spent all weekend posing for other peoples pictures of my fantastic outfits that i only ended up with a couple of pictures on my own camera (nothing really to be ashamed of).  Below are pictures of the daytime outfits and more "fill in the gaps" posts to follow now that the sewing machine has been tucked away for all of an hour.

    

Quick Highlights

Lace Cuffs
Nearly done knitting the second, should be able to finish and block before i leave for NY on Sunday.

Doll Dress
*Most* of the buttons are on...some how one singular button that is of a smaller size managed to jump into the mix with it's 29 brothers and sisters.  Runt button needs to be taken back to store and hopefully fully grown button available for swap.  Also still needs a hem, some pockets, and some additional "trimmings" to help the dress look more "i made this chick for my high school science fair project...in 1882".

1887 Checked Wool Costume
This is outfit #2 for SteamCon.  The plan is to build a beautiful outfit around the Camel hat purchased at the Pirate Faire.  So far i have looked at the pattern and come up with some very large amounts of fabric needed, amounts like 15 yards for lining...ouch!  I found the most perfect fabric!  And i found 4 yards of the required 12 yards.  Arg!  After lots of fist shaking i asked for some help in the fabric store and found there may be hope.  Another location *may* have 11 7/8 yards.  Tomorrow includes a very quick trip to Fremont in search of said fabric and potentially another trip to El Cerrito to procure the 4 yards just in case.

One Victorian Lace Cuff Down ... One To Go

The first cuff has been finished!  While the knitting is over, and it's going to hang out for it's other half to be knit and then blocked and sewn up together (so as not to get lonely).  I was thinking that i might want to do these double layered...  A lot of the cuffs from the 19th century i've seen have been single layer, but often in the fashion plates from the 19th century they are double layered or even more.  I'm guessing it adds to the flounce and opalescence of the beautiful lace accessories.  We'll start with one layer as we can always add more.

A couple of lace cuffs i've been admiring online...

Left - Victorian Irish Lace Cuffs (Lace and Lawn Fabric with 3 pintucks along the edge)
Right - Black Lace Cuffs (Tatting?)

   

A couple of different Cuff style bracelets that are inspiring

        

    

Black and White and Petticoat All Over

Hot off the presses I have finished my second petticoat!  My first was a pretty simple, yet still loving of the pintucks, Edwardian era petticoat.  The newly finished one will layer with my walking skirt (late 19th century), and other projects currently in work.  The Black and White fabric was a fantastic find at Longs off Broadway in Oakland.  The Solid Black is a light weight twill from Stone Mountain & Daughter.  I used the Truly Victorian Pattern - TV170 | Natural Form (View B).  I added self 1/2" wide taping strips on the solid black twill with a white edge-stitching along the princess seams and along the ruffle seam at the sweep to help break up the black and white print.  This was super easy to make and i really like the fullness it has added to my walking skirt.

      

Note:  Petticoat on my "new" Uniquely You Dress form... separate post to follow about the fantastic new "foam" me that i can stab with pins all night long.