Halloween: So far

Robe a la anglaise a la polonaise, center front.

This Halloween I'm planning to go as a vampire, once again inspired from my favourite musical. Two years ago I dressed as a German Ewigkeitsvampire, this year I'm taking inspiration from the Finnish designs, where all the vampires are dressed in black with gold and silver accents.

With roughly two months till Halloween, and seeing as my costume is starting to look like a piece of clothing, I allow myself to not stress about it. Stomacher is embroidered, the jacket is soon finished (only need to sew on the engageantes), and yesterday I cut out the pattern for the giantunormous underskirt. The sewing bit is relatively uncomplicated but trimming this monstrosity will take forever. I have hoarded up large quantitites of lace.

I wanted a center front, but after three tries at modifying the pattern, I gave up. I don't know why I bother drawing out a design at all. I always end up changing my mind halfway, and the end result looks completely different.

It's hard to see from the front, but the jacket is made up by three different cotton fabrics (lined with linen, by the way). I really didn't think gold and silver would look remotely good together, but so far it looks fine. I wanted some bling on the back, so I sewed a decorative band over the seams.

Hairstuff is also finished. I have this tiara I made from a bracelet, and a comb with blackened flowers that I spray painted. Notice the green stuff. Those are jewel beetle wings. I am completely in love with them despite their creepy crawly origin.

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.