Edith Cushing (Crimson Peak)

Gothic horror. Late Victorian costumes. Billowing nightgowns. How is a girl to resist?

Source.

When I planned this year's Halloween costume in February, I was going as the Woman in Black, but after watching the trailer (and suffering a sleepless night because aaaaaugh!) I remembered I had eleven meters white fabric just lying around.

The nightgown is sewn in two layers. The overlayer is a see-through polyester something with slubs, over a modesty layer of plain ol' boring cotton. I made the pattern from a sloper, for practice,. I started in July, so I had plenty of time to torment myself over every tiny bit of the costume, from pattern to what kind of interfacing would be best to use.

I made far too many sleeve toiles, and even took the time to baste everything by hand. Usually I just pin and sew very carefully. The insides are neatly finished (as usual), the yoke is lined, and weirdly, overall I am pleased with it. When I finish anything, I usually have a list over things I would have done differently.

I live in the middle of nowhere, so in my experience, what I can get of sewing notions and such is rather limited. And yet, sometimes I go to the shop with the lowest expectations and find small treasures, like these pearl buttons.

The buttons are just for show. I dreaded sewing button holes since my machine would rather eat fabric than do as I want, so I evaded the whole thing and sewed some pushbuttons in underneath instead. The lower sleeves have functionable buttons at the wrist.

While lining the yoke I put the dress onto a mannequin. It made lining very much easier, but every time I left the room and came back in, I'd almost give myself a heart attack. Toughest viking in town.

Plant dyeing (and more)

Heather turned into a fantastic golden yellow on white yarn, and took on a greenish hue on undyed grey yarn. I was thrilled. My camera refuses to capture the colours in all their magnificence, but you get the gist. 

Dyed and undyed yarn for a side by side comparison.

Even though I'd ended up with a colour that wasn't yellow, I still felt like experimenting, and remembered I had some useless food colouring lying around. I used vinegar as a fixative.

The colours are a bit bolder in person.

And then over to plant dyes again - powdered paprica. The colour turned out a nice orange, but not as deep as I'd expected. 

And here's a picture of all the colours I've made so far. I love how the golden heather yarn pops forth here (left, under the blue).

Stuff I've made and forgotten to post about

Between the larger projects at school, I did some smaller scale stuff for myself that I haven't gotten around to blog about. 

I planned to sell the peredhil gown, so I fixed it up a little before changing my mind. It's been on many an adventure and ended up looking a bit too shabby for me to send it off with a clear conscience. But there's lots of fabric in it, so it's waiting to be cut up and made into something else.

This cotton poplin was bought in Finland a few years ago. It laid around waiting for the perfect project, and I love how the skirt turned out. Lightweight, easy to sew and the skirt is perfect for spinning around in. Closes with a zip in the back.

I had an old leather suitcase that fell apart, so I made it into iron age shoes and three corset belts as pictured.

Most of the things I've made have been historically inspired, so I haven't worked a lot with more modern inventions such as fusible interlinings and batting. I tried out a few different interlinings with collars made from this pattern.

This underbust vest was a late Yule present for a friend. I made it in January, at school and my energetic go getter teacher was really impressed that I'd started making this year's presents a few weeks into the new year. I didn't have the heart to tell her.

Elsker gullsnirklene.

This vest is old, but it's one of the things I haven't posted about because the fabric is impossible to photograph.

The rag quilt I started on last December is finished, just in time, because autumn rolled around a few days ago and it got cold really quick.

My first smokkr was sewn with side gores, a cut that doesn't fit my body type, so it's off to a new owner in Denmark.