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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Community Colleges Contain Creepers.

I'm just sayin'.
And they took out the Chick-Fil-A that was here! :(
And by the way, ladies (or gentlemen to whom this applies), LEGGINGS ARE NOT PANTS! Ugh.
School started this week for me, so that means I'm off to Virginia Western on Tuesdays and Thursdays and work the rest of the time. My next big, BIG project will involve outfitting the cast of "It's a Wonderful Life" for a high school near my house. I've never made any 1930's clothes, so it should be interesting, and definitely a new experience!


For now, I thought I'd show yall some of the first dresses I ever made. EVER EVER EVER. Like the first three dresses I ever put together.






This is a much, much younger me in the second dress I ever made. Looking back, it was pretty horrible, but I learned so much when I was making it!




The green 1860s dress my friend Abigail is wearing here was made about the same time as my blue dress. It was pretty accurate, historically, looking back on it, and had a dog-leg closure and the skirt was cartridge-pleated. We both worked on it together, and laughed our faces off when we couldn't figure out why on earth the sleeves looked so funky and wouldn't fit! Thankfully, we discovered we'd stitched them on backwards, and quickly repaired the mistake.



And here, in this picture, the seventh from the right, is the first dress I ever made! I made it just before I started high school. It's a muslin regency dress taken from the Simplicity version of the Sense and Sensibility pattern. It has been altered, and my friend Hilary is wearing it here for a recent production of Pride and Prejudice, in which she played Kitty. The purple open robe (as well as most of the other costumes in this picture) she's wearing over it was made by the fabulous Emily Marsh, whose site you can visit here. (It's really worth taking a look at!)

That's all I've got for now, but I do have three 18th century hats, a 1790 jacket and a new early regency dress I made that I haven't shown you yet, so expect to see it in the next posting! Hope all yall have a good rest of the week and enjoy the weekend!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Courtney's Dress!

Courtney's dress is finally done, except for the hemming! Construction-wise, it's accurate, however, the gown material is 100% cotton, but the petticoat and the bows on the stomacher are synthetic. Her stays, which I'll get pics of later, are hand sewn with hand sewn eyelets and are made out of thick cotton. Her shift is muslin and is machine sewn and hand-finished. On her pocket, which I'll also get pics of later, I hand embroidered then finished up with the machine; the ties on it are grosgrain ribbon. Her petticoat is synthetic taffeta, and is totally hand sewn as well. The gown itself was hand finished, and I put the lining in by hand. The stomacher is totally handsewn and pins to the stays and gown... we might add hooks and eyes later. Overall, I'm really happy with how everything turned out!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Free Corset Patterns!

I dug this up the other day on Clare's blog and I thought I'd share it on here too! There are some very nice corset patterns here, including two patterns for 18th c. stays!

Meanwhile, I've finished Courtney's stays, shift, and the embrioidery for a pocket, and yesterday I spent working on her gown! Pics will soon follow, I promise!