Itty bitty fashion show

Last weekend three of my outfits were showed at a local fair. They sort of stuck out between the knitwear.

It was really fun. I wore my brown Victorian bustle dress, and had models for the mid-Victorian red skirt (now with a corselet top to go with it), plus an Edwardian ensemble I haven't written about on this blog yet because I don't have proper pictures of it.

My models were sweethearts and looked lovely. It was sort of strange seeing my creations on other people, though.

(c) sylvilel

The local newspaper has me listed as a designer for some reason. Not that I object.

Polkadot stays

I was going for a very proper pair of stays, but that idea was binned when I found red polkadot linen at the fabric store. At least the pattern is period. (I found it online, but I've lost the link.)

Trying on a half-boned WIP.

You're supposed to use whalebone in stays but I didn't want to wait for it to arrive (living in Norway, whoo!), so I used corset steel instead. Unfortunately I ran out halfway, and so I had to wait for a new coil of corset steel instead. (From Vena Cava, by the way.)

This pair of stays has a functional opening in front, with a loose stomacher, so that I can put it on without help. The other stays I've made have been closed in the back, and last time I used one, it was laced wrong by a friend. Wearing it for a whole day at a convention was not pleasant.

Halloween 2011: Huldra

Huldra is a creature from Scandinavian folklore. I guess she could be compared to some kind of vicious forest fairy. While she is usually described as a beautiful dairymaid with a cow's tail in Norwegian lore, I went for a trollish creature that lives in the woods and doesn't comb her hair.

The costume consists of a top, skirt, corset and a crown made from birch-branches. I also have a braided tail, but it sort of disappears in the tatters of the skirt and I don't have pics.
The skirt consists of scrap fabric left over from almost every project I've done the last two years.

For the top I used Danielle #9306 from Burda Style, the "corset" pattern was made from this tutorial. I sewed the corset entirely by hand because at the time I was sick and couldn't stand the noise from my beloved sewing machine. Finished it just in time.

Late-Victorian Ensemble

Kitteh's helping me.

I planned to wear only Victorian clothing for an entire month - which is no longer happening as I don't live in a place where a thing like that is accepted - but I started easy, with BurdaStyle 7880. Later I'm going to use either Laughing Moon or Truly Victorian patterns.

This jacket was only meant to be a mock-up before I cut into the expensive fabric. However, I grew to like it, and planned a whole ensemble to go with it. Fashion fabric is cotton, skirt is cotton satin. As much as I love the idea of a silk gown I use my costumes at conventions and that involves a lot of walking. Any long, sweeping skirt is covered in dirt at the end of the day.

A proper lady would need a hat, so I made one. It's just cardboard covered in fabric, feathers and paper flowers. I've promised my hot glue-burned fingertips I'm going to sew a hat out of buchram sometime.

Costume got its first proper outing at Banzaicon 2012. I didn't intend to, but I ended up looking rather steampunk. I also won the outfit competition.

Puss Sausageroll

With most of my former costumes posted, I take a break from costumes to post about something else a lot of costumers have in common: they're cat-owned.

I'm cat-sitting for someone in my family while they're away. Puss Sausageroll (never let kids name kitties) is super adorable, and unlike my vicious kitty, he loves pettings. He does this funny thing where he'll bump his head against your forehead (sometimes breaking your nose in the process).

Every time I come by he acts like he hasn't seen people in a week.

Blue Ensemble, Late-Rococo

Every Christmas my family starts insisting I put the sewing machine away. I usually swap my sewing for knitting, but this year I wanted to sew, and since I am a pseudo-historical costumer, I decided to try and see if I could make an entire outfit by hand.

Mau helped me cut out the jacket pattern.



I am somewhat OCD about stitches.

The jacket took approximate twenty hours to finish. It's cotton, with linen interlining and a cotton/linen for lining.

Skirt from this tutorial. Made in cotton. (Don't tell anyone it's actually a bedsheet...)

WIP

I made the stomacher two months afterwards, two weeks before a photo shoot, because I'd forgotten about it. In linen, embroidered with vintage woolen thread given to me by my grandmother. She used to embroider bunads (Norwegian national costumes), and has tried in vain to teach me anything about embroidery. I don't really know how to embroider, but the end result wasn't half bad.

Red Ensemble, Late-Rococo

I know there's  pink bow in my hair. Ignore it please.

This is an outfit I didn't plan on making. It just happened. I found a pretty fabric at the local second-hand store and wanted to make myself a Regency gown. But when I unwrapped the pattern there was a gazillion pieces and a mile-long list of instructions. I figured that, heck, I don't really like the empire waist anyway, and went a bit farther back in time to make an 18th. century skirt. Tutorial.

When I had the skirt (plus an underskirt I'd made because the overskirt was see-through), I had to make something to go with it and drafted a jacket based on Simplicity 3637. I delved into my stash for this project. I had to piece the red fabric, which made me utterly excited. (Yay, something period correct in my not-at-all period project!)

Reticule.

Used it six months later, at Banzaicon 2012. I'm wearing proper underpinnings, plus a bumroll. The flying satin band is from the sleeve of the chemise. I didn't notice it dangling.

Red Victorian Skirt

A mid-Victorian skirt fashioned after what the main female character in Tanz der Vampire wears to the midnight ball. For some reason costume designers love dressing up vampire victims/lunches/girlfriends in red.

I followed this tutorial.

In time there will be a whole ensemble, but I'm procrastinating on the bodice. It's been in my to-do-pile for nearly two years. My cat loves it though.

While it was in progress. Mau fell asleep on it.

Doctor Who Scarves

Despite only having watched Nu-Who, I can't help but drool over the Fourth Doctor's scarf. I've made three of these, one for myself, and two for similarily obsessed friends. Can't recall which season's pattern I followed (oh dear, I am a bad fan), but the patterns are found here.

My version is a bit different from the original. The colours aren't the same, and my version is in moss stitch.

It's about two metres long (when I started out on my first scarf I actually worried it would be too short, hah), and very warm, which helps when you live way north of the polar circle.