Why yes, I do buckle all my own swashes!

Er, swash all my own buckles? Either way, I'm just happy to have finally made the fantastic pirate coat I've always wanted! 

I bought these red and gold damask curtains at a thrift store years ago and knew that I wanted to make them into some kind of fabulous floor length coat. I also knew that my skills then weren't quite up to the task, so I put them in my stash and waited. After making a shapeless coat that basically only had three pattern pieces in the Beginning Tailoring class at Cañada College last winter, I was ready to move onto something more complicated. I figured that this would be the perfect chance to have the guidance of an expert while making my dream coat. Unfortunately, coronavirus had other plans for the world, and it turned out that instead of working alongside classmates with an instructor at the giant cutting tables at the college, I was going to be googling a lot of things and essentially learning to tailor on my own. Thank goodness for YouTube (cue the Schuyler sisters singing "How lucky we are to be alive right now!"). 

I really appreciated that this class made us document every step of our work; usually I just sort of make things up as I go along and then attempt to recall how long it took and what I did. It's ironic that even though I'm a science teacher and meticulous details are supposed to be my thing, I tend to be more loosey-goosey in my sewing. Anyway, our professor required us to write up a list of steps, then document all the time we spent on each step. We also had to do a sketch (beforehand, so that we could check how well our final garment matched up...as opposed to my usual method, which is to make the garment first and then sketch what it looks like), write up a list of all materials and costs, and even record the sewing machine settings and thread type/color. 

The first step our professor required was a paper fitting, just to make sure there weren't any glaring issues with our patterns. Since mine was a frankenpattern of three different Big 4 patterns, I begrudgingly did this step (even though I thought it was silly in the previous tailoring class), then moved on quickly to the muslin. I know I'm very fortunate to be almost exactly the measurements of a Big 4 size 10 in the torso, so there wasn't much I needed to change. I made my typical pattern corrections: wider shoulders, longer sleeves, SBA, swayback adjustment, narrow back...but I wish I'd narrowed the waist and back a little more, since it's not as fitted as I would like, even though it is meant to be outerwear. 

We are required to make one hand-padstitched collar for this class. Normally we would get to see our professor demo this in class, but instead I watched Bernadette Banner's video tutorial featuring Royal Black Couture to learn how to do this. It took a little bit of doing to get used to the rhythm of all the diagonal stitches, and my stitches still aren't the neatest, but after steaming it I'm really pleased with how well it holds its shape. 

It's really incredible how much goes into making a structured coat or jacket. I used fusible Armo-Weft interfacing on all my fashion fabric pieces to add some body to the floppy curtain fabric, and this also helped prevent some of the fraying that this weave is prone to. In order to help the garment hang better and strengthen the back during movement, I added a back stay. And since this is a pirate coat, what better fabric to use than this (100% cotton, tightly woven and washed multiple times) map-print bed sheet? Secret treasure maps hidden in one's clothing for the win! In the front, I cut out a piece of horsehair canvas and basted on a couple layers of batting to make a chest piece. This fills in the hollow that can occur between the shoulder, arm, lapel, and bust area and helps the whole garment lie more smoothly. To help stabilize the edge of the lapel, I also hand-stitched 1/4" wide cotton twill tape butting up against the stitching line. In hindsight, I'm not sure that this was necessary since my lapel isn't cut on the bias (the way a typical blazer lapel would be), and the whole thing was topstitched anyway. 

I used to only set in sleeves with the two-rows-of-gathering-stitches method, but that never worked really well for me and I always got weird puckers. This time, I tried the method of gathering the sleeve cap with a piece of stretched-out fleece, and it worked beautifully! The thickness of the fleece keeps the fashion fabric from making actual puckers, and then once it's set in, you can just push the fleece into the sleeve cap to act as a sleeve head instead of having to sew one in by hand. SO NEAT. I love all-in-one steps. Gertie's video demonstrates the whole process here, but instead of using mohair or lambswool, I just used a strip of scrap polar fleece, which is obviously cheaper and easier to find. After setting in the sleeve, I also put in a handmade shoulder pad (just three layers of thin cotton batting basted together). I remember the first time our professor talked about shoulder pads, I was so skeptical; I just kept thinking of the massive 1980s shoulder pads. The nice thing about handmade ones, though, is you can use as many layers of batting as you want to make it thinner or thicker, and it really does help the whole garment hang more nicely. Consider me a shoulder pad convert!

For the skirt of the coat, I waffled a bit about whether I really wanted to make it floor-length. A floor-length half-circle skirted coat would definitely allow for the most dramatic flouncing and swanning about, but it would also be impractical and take forever to hem by hand. But then I realized that I had enough fabric to make it floor length, so in the interest of not leaving a bunch of unnecessary extra fabric in the stash, I decided to just go for the floor length version. To visually break up the expanse of red and gold fabric, I put some welt pockets with flaps in. The last time I made a pirate coat, my pocket flaps were fake, and I regret not having functional pockets. Not making the same mistake this time! Since I had a waist seam, I decided to go for another trick I learned from Bernadette Banner: I added a twill tape stay from the top of the pocket bag to the waist seam. This will help support the pocket and keep it from sagging when I put things in. 

The rest of the construction was pretty straightforward, if tedious. Lots of topstitching to help hold the velveteen facing, upper collar, cuffs, and pocket flaps in place, since I didn't want to press it too much, then all the hand sewing: I catch-stitched the hem of the skirt and sleeves, then slipstitched the lining to create a jump hem. 

 

I had originally entertained ideas of having the front lapel be "reversible," so that it could flip closed to be a double breasted coat, or stay buttoned back to show the velveteen facing. I even took a hand-sewn buttonhole class with that in mind, but in the end my samples were still too messy and the idea of doing twelve of them was just...no. Besides, I like the contrast of the red velveteen; without that showing, the front of the coat is just too much damask and the collar and cuffs look a little out of place. So rather than make ugly buttonholes, I just permanently sewed on the buttons. To close the coat, I just used a giant hook and eye. Joann's only carried white ones, so I used a combination of red Sharpie and brown fabric marker to color it dark red to (somewhat) match the fabric. 

Summary:

Pattern: I used the collar from Simplicity 2333, the cuffed sleeve from Butterick 6602, and the skirt from McCalls 6819, then frankenpatterned the last two together to make a shoulder-princess-seam bodice, that I then extended past the center front so that it could flip back to make the lapel. The slant welt pocket with a flap was modeled after the one in this very helpful Waffle Patterns tutorial, but just rotated to be more horizontal than vertical. 

Fabric: The main fashion fabric was curtains that I thrifted at least four years ago, a surprisingly nice 60/40 poly-cotton red and gold damask. Once I picked apart the seams, I ended up with three 40"x88" panels. The red cotton velveteen (I used about 1/3 yard) was from the college's free shelf, a place where students can pick up other people's destashed fabrics. The lining was two different secondhand sheets; the torso was a microfiber with a faint swirl pattern, and the skirt was a cotton sateen. 

Notions: Armo-Weft fusible interfacing from The Sewing Place, then the cotton twill tape, horsehair canvas, and metal buttons were all already in my stash. 

Total cost: $20 for the curtains + $4 for the sheet + $18 for the interfacing (but with lots leftover) + $6 for the patterns + $5 for the bulk bag of buttons ages ago + $3 for thread = $53 total. Of course, once you factor in the 57 hours, even if I paid myself a measly only-slightly-more-than-CA-minimum-wage $15/hr, this coat is worth almost $1000. And this is why bespoke clothing made at a living wage is so expensive. Good thing sewing is my superpower?

Would you make this again? No, because I don't need two pirate coats. TBH, I'm not sure I needed *one* pirate coat, but hey, it's 2020, treat yo'self. 

First worn: Just to take pictures, because we aren't going anywhere, since, you know, global pandemic. 

Final thoughts: When I think back to when I first started sewing, I was pretty much allergic to anything involving hand-sewing and would avoid it at all costs. Thankfully, I got over that, and now I actually enjoy the process of slowly and methodically catching mere threads at a time as I invisibly stitch hems. That, and the whole fussy tailoring process, was actually really fun and you can't argue with the results. I can see how people get addicted to tailoring and/or jacket-making. Unfortunately, I don't see myself indulging in this process too often, as I have too many demands on my time and projects on my bucket list to allow for such slow sewing. Still, I'm really glad to have finally checked off one of those projects on the list, as well as moved some fabrics out of the stash!

When I had Mr. Cation take pictures for me, I of course had to wear my over-the-top tricorn with the coat, since it's all trimmed in red and gold. Then, to my chagrin, he said that the hat+coat combo made me look just like Captain Morgan. I had no idea that he was even a thing, but once I got over the fact that I accidentally cosplayed a cheap rum mascot, I of course had to do a pose with my foot up on one of our barrel planters. 

A Very Star Wars Halloween

Raising Small Human Beings is oftentimes an exercise in simultaneous frustration and amusement, and the selection of Halloween costumes is a prime example. When SHB#1 was three, he was obsessed with zebras, so he wanted to be a zebra for Halloween. That was fairly easy to make, and the fleece zebra suit I made for him got plenty of wear afterwards for pretend play. The next year, he was into construction vehicles and dinosaurs, so he alternated between wanting to be a pteranodon, a stegosaurus, or a "construction stegosaurus." I managed to convince him that a stegosaurus would have a hard time fitting a construction vest over the plates on its back, and together we settled on his being a "construction zebra" since the zebra suit still fit. I had to laugh when I saw his class picture: so many store-bought superheroes and princesses, and a lone zebra wearing a neon vest.

Here's a picture of the zebra costume, with a red cape so that he could be Superhero Zebra (4yos are nothing if not literal) for his third comic con. His stuffed zebra is also wearing a tiny red cape so that they can match! I was dressed as Dark!Rey. 

This past year, he was into the Octonauts for a good deal of it, so he went back and forth between wanting to be Tunip or Kwazii. I was despairing about finding teal or orange pants at the thrift store when he suddenly, in the last month before Halloween, got super into Star Wars, and decided he actually wanted to be Darth Vader. SHB#2 wants to do everything big brother does, so she immediately declared that she, too, would be Darth Vader (despite my best efforts to convince her that she would make an adorable Ewok). SHB#1 then decreed that we should be a Star Wars family, so I had to be Rey and Mr. Cation had to be Luke Skywalker. I can't lie; since Star Wars was one of my first fandoms I was super proud of the kids' geeky decision and secretly thrilled to have an excuse to make all these cool costumes!

Both kids already had black pants, and finding black turtlenecks at the thrift store was easy, so then it was just a matter of figuring out how to make Darth Vader's iconic chest plate, belt and cape. I thought about trying to applique all the pieces onto the turtlenecks, but that sounded like waaaaay too much work, plus I wanted them to be able wear the tops for regular, non-costume things. In the end, I decided to cut all the little buttons and "lights" out of tape and put them on black felt that I had leftover from a school costuming project. Gray duct tape worked for most of the details, and for the red and green bits I just used Sharpie to color over masking tape. After I showed the completed chest box to SHB#2, though, she immediately tried to take off all the "stickers," and I realized I would need to find a way to make them more durable to survive kid handling. I bought some iron-on vinyl and put that over the chest box and belt pieces and it worked perfectly; the tape seemed to really meld into the felt and it was easy to stitch it onto some scraps of black fabric and ribbon in order to allow it to all be tied on. The capes were just half circles cut from stash black jersey knit and sewn on with some elastic to gather the top and allow for easy slipping on over the kids' large heads.

Finished costume, a little worse for wear after being stuffed into a backpack, but still holding up fine! 

On Halloween, with their matching lightsabers. SHB#2 absolutely refused to wear a DV mask. 

Since SHB#1 hadn't specified which version of Luke he wanted Mr. Cation to be, I went with the easiest to put together, the ANH Tatooine Luke. I borrowed a gi top from a friend, and then it was just a matter of wearing his own khaki-colored linen pants and a dark brown leather belt with the buckle turned to the back. I also wrapped some strips of brown linen around his calves to mimic Luke's puttees.

Rey was the last costume to come together, even though I've been working on her the longest. I was originally planning on making her Resistance outfit to Rebel Legion standards, but stalled when I realized how difficult it was going to be to thrift the right fabrics. I'm committed to making my costuming greener where I can, and if that means not being screen accurate, then so be it. Costumes already get so few wears, I'd rather not add to their environmental burden by buying new fabrics for each one. Anyway, a year ago I thrifted some long brown pants; I cut off the bottoms and used those to make the kneepads. The shirt is made from a tea-dyed large white polo shirt, and the belt and wrist cuff were purchased from a seller in the Rey FB group. I found a very 80s grey wool herringbone coat at the thrift store for $10 that I initially thought might work for Rebel Legion approval, but upon closer examination, I realized that it was actually black and white herringbone, which together looked gray from far away. At this point I was too disappointed to continue work on Rey, so I stuffed everything into a garbage bag for a year.

From (a galaxy) far far away, it reads as gray, but up close it's pretty obviously black and white ;__;

A year in a naughty bag gave me time to get over the sting of disappointment, and when I pulled the coat back out, I felt okay about making the vest to complete our family costume. Thankfully, I still had the pattern pieces that I'd drafted and the mockup vest, so after what felt like miles of seam ripping to take apart the coat, I managed to get the pattern pieces to mostly fit.

From my Instastory. See the welt pocket I had to work around on those top pieces?

I ended up using a bunch of the scraps to practice the closed blanket stitch that's used on the edges of Rey's vest.
Why I chose to put in the time for that tedious that detail for a non-RL-approvable vest is beyond me. 

I did have to fudge a little by sewing some buttonholes closed, but it worked out in the end. I lined the inside of the vest with gray cotton flannel, which, with the interfacing that was already fused to the wool, made the vest stiff and heavy enough. I did reinforce the center front edges of the collar with some ironed and stretched horsehair braid, a technique I learned from my evening gown class with Lynda Maynard. After that, it was just a matter of adding the hand-sewn closed blanket stitch to all the edges. That took forever, and I only finished it just before we had to leave for trick or treating!

See that buttonhole I had to sew up right next to the side seam? Also I probably should've done something about the bulk at the shoulder from all the layers of wool+flannel+batting+turned seam allowances, but at that point I no longer cared. 

Look at all that time I spent carefully doing all that ladder-stitching by hand!

Gray flannel lining and wool held together by closed blanket stitches, and also all the whipstitched edges on the shirt.
So. Much. Hand. Sewing.

And here we all are! 

During trick or treating, it was so fun to hear people react to SHB#1's costume -- "Aww, a tiny Darth Vader!" -- and then to hear the even more excited reaction when they saw SHB#2 come up to the doorway right afterward -- "OMG AN EVEN TINIER DARTH VADER!!!" -- because obviously the smaller something is, the cuter, right? Only a couple people realized I was Rey, and not just somebody with somewhat odd clothing choices, but Halloween is really about the kid costumes. I would like to finish making my knock-off Po-Zu Rey boots at some point in the future, but in the meantime I'm just glad I finished this vest so that I could remove at least one UFO from my costume list and make my son happy at the same time.

Then again, maybe his happy face is due to the fact that he just ate a piece of his trick or treating loot. 

The Year of Magical Doings

[I feel slightly bad about hijacking my blog post title from Didion's Year of Magical Thinking book, considering that I didn't read it (and in fact ranked it fairly low in our book club's book-of-the-month vote) and don't actually know much about it...but it seemed like an appropriate title for what I want this 2013 to be. I know, I know, it's almost February and I'm just now talking about my plans for the year.]

See, Mr. Cation and I keep talking about the possibility of thinking about maybe trying to produce a small human being (note the many levels of uncertainty) once he starts his new job and we get health insurance. While we're still decidedly ambivalent about the idea, what we are sure of is that this is the year to do all the things we've always wanted to do, before any SHBs come along and tie us down with their nap schedules. For me, this means going to the TORN Oscar party in February, as well as finally doing all the things I've wanted to do. Since I'm a huge nerd with an aversion to the outdoors, that doesn't mean classically exciting activities like bungee jumping or skydiving, it means making the Regency dresses I've always wanted and attending a high tea and a ball. It's only appropriate, since this year marks the bicentennial of the publishing of Pride and Prejudice, one of my favorite books ever! I'll do more detailed posts about my costumes once I take better pictures, but in the meantime, here are some teaser photos:

These are really horrible iPhone photos in a dimly lit place, but I was just so excited to show off my ball gown!  Oh an hey, there's a Carson lookalike coming up the stairs behind me!

The back of my gown. Bonus points if you know what
extant gown mine is based on/inspired by!

Saturday was a major milestone for me, and not just because it was my first experience making and wearing historical costumes. As I've said before, I'm not good with new people and big social events, and the Jane Austen Evening was a heaping helping of both. Since Mr. Cation showed no interest in getting all Beau Brummell-ified, I went on my own. I'll be honest, I was pretty anxious on Saturday morning, and when our garbage disposal decided to go kaput, I was tempted to take that as an excuse to not go. Thankfully, the 50+ hours I'd already spent making the costumes (and the ticket money) were burning a hole into my mental pocket, so I decided to suck it up and drive out to Pasadena. It was pretty awkward at first, since I didn't know anyone and the tea portion of the evening was open seating. I ended up plonking myself down by the door and eating my cottage pie by myself and watching everyone else socialize. It was very reminiscent of middle school lunches spent with only a book for company; I couldn't help but think of Mr. Darcy saying "I am ill qualified to recommend myself to strangers...I certainly have not the talent which some people possess, of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done."

If you're a P&P fan, you'll know that Lizzy then calls out Darcy on not practicing his socializing skills. I suppose I could have gone up to random people and introduced myself, but I decided to just take it as a victory that I had even gone on my own in the first place. I've already spent a good number of years looking at historically themed, costumed events and wishing that I knew somebody who would go with me. This year is the year that I just go ahead and go to them, even if nobody else will go with me. And if I haven't yet worked up to going by myself and talking to strangers, well, at least I'm not bothered by being the odd duck wandering around the event on my own. I've had lots of practice being a loner, after all, and I don't feel the need to perform to strangers.

There's nothing like dancing to a live band!

And lest you think gosh, what's wrong with you, you just spent all evening in the corner by yourself?! Well, after the awkwardness of the tea portion, things got much better. I ran into people I remembered from the practice class, and then danced with and met more people, and all in all got a lot more social as the evening went on. In the end, I was really glad that I stopped waiting for people in my life to suddenly develop a love for historical costuming; going on my own was scary, but well worth it for an opportunity to dress up!

I was channeling Miss Caroline Bingley's fabulous turbans...

Speaking of dressing up, I got a bonus costume opportunity last night when Mr. Cation and I got invited to The Magic Castle! I hadn't actually heard of it before, but all I had to hear was "NPH is the president" and "you can dress up and people wear all sorts of kooky things" and I was all for it. Mr. Cation loved the magic aspect, and while I enjoyed that part, the highlight for me was really that I got to wear all my thrifted costume-y pieces and wander around a castle.

Getting ready to go: I had my cape and muff and fascinator, and Mr. Cation looked sharp in his new gray suit.
One day,  I'll talk him into wearing ruffled poet shirt. 

The mesh top was from one of Shayna's clothing exchanges, the cheap black corset and and fishtail lace skirt were thrifted.  I always secretly wanted to dress like this in high school, but never had the guts (or budget, or parental permission) to. It only took a decade for me to finally step out in a vaguely gothy outfit! 

All in all, this weekend was quite magical and I'm excited to carpe the annum. I know the typical blogger thing to do is to come up with a 30 before 30 list, but I think I'll just settle for saying that this is the year I do things that I always wanted to do, even if it involves being a little uncomfortable or having people look at me funny. Here's to more costumed events!

Thrift Store Dress to Elven Gown

As refashions go, I'm pretty sure this is my favorite. Who knew an 80s-tastic, frumpy granny dress would make such a lovely elvish gown?

Before and after! 

Apparently, this year is the year where all my Tolkien-related dreams come true: first my birthday party, then the line party for The Hobbit, and now, it looks like Elaine and I are actually going to go to The One Expected Party on Oscar night in February! When TORn held its Oscar party for ROTK, I was still a college student on limited funds and my dad said we were not the kind of people who dropped that kind of money for celebrity parties, so Elaine went by herself and came back raving about what a great time it was. Well, now I am an independent woman, and gosh darn it, if I can't do this kind of thing now, when will I? Especially since after this year we are moving away from TCOCC and thinking about making small human beings and all. So even though it was still a significant splurge, I figure it's worth it for this once in a lifetime experience. 

Of course, this kind of thing practically requires a fancy costume. Elaine found this dark green velvet dress at a thrift store and thought that it would make a good elven gown, with some changes, of course. Since the front had buttons, I decided to have the final gown go backwards. While this made the lower armscye fit a little funny, Elaine said that it wasn't significant enough to warrant redoing the sleeves. I cut off the sleeves at the elbow and took out about two inches of ease at the underarm seam, then added bell-shaped chiffon lower sleeves from Simplicity 4940. The chiffon is slightly iridescent, which makes for a nice effect in person, if not in pictures. I also cut the neckline down significantly to get the wide, almost-falling-off-the-shoulder look that Arwen has going on in a lot of her gowns. I added a bunch of gold trim, roll-hemmed the sleeves in gold and tada! Instant elven princess!

Showing off her new sleeves.

Just because she's a princess doesn't mean she's not capable of giggling madly or stealing Gandalf's staff. 

Buttons and trim really do a lot for changing the look of the whole gown!

Enormous sleeves = enormous fun. 

Summary: 

Fabric: 2 yards of iridescent green poly-chiffon, but I have about half left because the funny shape of the sleeves required quite a bit of yardage, but left large scraps.

Notions: 2/3 yard of wide gold trim for the sleeves, 1 yard of narrow gold trim for the neckline, 4 new buttons to replace the hideous clear plastic buttons that came with the dress.

Hours: Two! Even my rolled hems didn't cause me grief, which was frankly quite shocking.

Will you make this again? I'll be perfectly honest, I'm tempted to raid all the local thrift stores for long velvet gowns that might make even remotely decent elven gowns. For such a quick project, this was remarkably satisfying. 

Total cost: About $25. The gown was $5, the trims were another $5, the buttons were $4, and I used about $10 worth of chiffon.  

Final thoughts: Both Elaine and I were extremely excited when I finished this gown, and we had entirely too much fun taking pictures of her swooshing her sleeves around. I love that such a simple refashion can have such grand results! 

I can't wait to get working on my own gown for the party...the trick is, I need to pull an epic gown out of thrifted bed sheets! Tempted as I may be to run out and buy a used velvet gown, I really want to make a Rohirric shieldmaiden gown, which eats up yardage like no other. I've managed to find three matching queen-size sheets, so here's hoping that that's enough!

Another Birthday, Another Mathom Giveaway

After all my wibbling about throwing a birthday party, I'm sorry to say this is another birthday post, but I hope you'll excuse me as today is my actual birthday! This year's birthday proceedings feel very different from last year's -- instead of swanning about the house in a dress that will never make it out into public, I'm planning a Tolkien-themed birthday party for this coming Saturday night -- who would ever have thought? It's funny, when you're in high school you think that all the important psychological growth should be over by the time you're in your late twenties, but given how much my state of mind has changed (in positive ways!) since a year ago...well, it just goes to show, what do teenagers really know?

While I was in San Francisco for work last week, I dropped by the San Leandro Thrift Town, which has never disappointed me when it comes to sheets. I came away with this amazing, like new, seashell print, king-sized, 100% cotton duvet cover. It reminds me of those scientific drawings that hipsters frame, regardless of whether they feel any connection to the sciences or seashells. Well, I'll see your hipster print and raise you a whole hipster dress. I'm thinking that with this amount of fabric, I might actually attempt a bustle dress. Because, you know, all those Victorian dinosaur hunters and their scientific drawings. Or something. Look, I never said my thought process made any sense. I suppose I could use this duvet cover for its actual purpose and cover our king-size duvet (do you have any idea how difficult it is to find such a large, high-quality duvet cover for cheap?), but that would be too sensible. 

Even better though (at least where you all are concerned), I came across this Care Bears flat twin sheet! Children of the eighties, where you at?? Much as I think this would make an awesome sheet dress, I have to be honest...although I loved watching the Care Bears when I was growing up, this sheet is a little too pastel and sweet for my taste, so I'm giving it away to one lucky reader (who will hopefully make it into an awesome dress)! Just so you know, a twin flat sheet measures 66″x96″, so that would give you about two and two-thirds yards of 66″ wide fabric. This is plenty of material for my usual sheet dresses with a fitted bodice and full gathered skirt. Alternately, you could save it for actually sleeping with.

"Snuggle up with sweet dreams!" This is 1/4 of the sheet, to give you an idea of the scale.  Although there's no tag, I'm guessing the fiber content is probably 50% polyester, 50% cotton, like most of my thrifted sheets from this era. 

Here are the rules for entering the giveaway:

1. Leave a comment, telling me who your favorite Care Bear is/was. Mine was Cheer Bear, because my secret girly-girl loved that she was pink and her tummy badge was a rainbow! Yuck, sometimes I gross myself out.  Alternately, tell me what your dream bed sheet find would be. I would just about die if I found Sailor Moon, Batman Beyond, or Rainbow Brite sheets. 
2. This giveaway is open to all geographic locations. 
3. Same as previous giveaways: it goes without saying, but you really should be a follower of my blog. I'll assume that you're a follower if you leave a comment. 
4. Also goes without saying, but I hope you really intend to use your winning! Please don't win just so you can turn around and sell the sheet, shred it for hamster bedding, or use it to decoupage a Regretsy-esque wooden plaque. Also, I know some people have businesses making dresses to sell from vintage sheets; while I think that is a perfectly legitimate and totally awesome way to make a living, I would really like this sheet to be acquired for personal use.
5. I'll close the giveaway at the end of the week, on Sunday, December 9, 2012, at 11:59 PM PST, and announce the winner on Monday morning. Again, thanks for reading Cation Designs and leaving all of your awesome comments that encourage me! 

Also, you know last year's dress? I managed to finally finish off the neckline with gold bias tape, find a full-length cream-colored slip, and thrift a gold chain belt! All that I really need to do to make it complete (at least in my mind) is get some white chiffon to redo the sleeves. I'm thinking something more like the bell-shaped, long, flowy sleeves that elves have, impractical as that may be. 

Friday Doings

I've been having a busy time this week, what with preparing for next year's job, rediscovering old thrifting grounds, and sewing up a storm in preparation for Promaballoona. I did finish my Leonora shorts, and many thanks to all of you for your lovely, kind, encouraging comments. I feel so much better about them now! Pictures to come tomorrow. In the meantime, a couple of random iPhone snaps to tide you over:

I didn't bring this one home with me from Thrift Town, but I just had to take a picture -- this apparently belonged to a very disgruntled lady, judging by the comments written on the pattern envelope. "Neck opening way too large; armholes too deep; sides too wide, etc. etc. etc." And above the "large" designation, one more "VERY" in all caps. I love seeing these glimpses of the personalities/lives of the former owners of vintage patterns! This lady also apparently had a husband with a 42" chest, as there were at least ten men's shirt patterns from the 70s bundled with this one.

I used to go to Thrift Town all the time when I was teaching in San Leandro; whether I needed to spice up my teacher wardrobe or find costumes for the school's theater production, it never failed me. Well, that was before I started sewing, and now that I've discovered the wonders of vintage patterns, it's still good to me.

Butterick 5927 shirtdress, Simplicity 8098 mod skort-dress, Simplicity 4483 activewear set, Vogue 5462 skirt suit, Advance 8502 coatdress (my very first Advance pattern ever!), Simplicity 6149 girls' jumper and blouse (not my size, but just too cute not to get), and a turquoise-green stretch bottomweight fabric of mysterious fiber content, obviously perfect for the pants in Simplicity 4483!

And because this was just too ridiculous not to share, and on the chance that there might be some former Sanrio-addicts out there, have a not-very-indicative shot of my muslin of my prom dress!

Not very indicative of the actual dress because, you know, Pochacco sheets.
My actual dress is obviously going to be made out of curtains.

It's actually the Simplicity 4257 that Jane sent me for our swap, and it is turning out beautifully! My actual prom dress won't have sleeves, but I thought I should test out the sleeves while I was at it. I ended up taking out all the ease because I couldn't figure out how to insert it otherwise, and honestly, it's no better or worse than with the 2" of ease drafted into the sleeve cap...could it be that sleeve cap ease really is bogus?

Prom, the Reprise

How many people get the chance to go to prom with their spouse? Unless you're high school sweethearts, probably not that many. And if you were an ultra-nerd like I was in high school, you didn't even go to prom with a date. That's not to say I didn't have tons of fun at prom, though, as I went with my best girlfriends and had a blast being goofy and ridiculous. But I was still a little too excited when my husband mentioned that there was a prom at the end of the year in business school, of all things. 

Prom wouldn't be complete without photos, and of course we availed ourselves of them.

I had grand plans for making a formal dress for the prom, but in the end decided that if my memories of the dance floor at prom were anywhere near accurate, I didn't want to make something lovely and precious, only to get all sweaty in it while dancing, have people spill drinks nearby, and potentially step on the hem. So I "settled" for wearing one of my favorite thrift store finds ever: a long, slinky, sexy-but-not-too-uncomfortably-revealing-for-my-taste, swishy, bias-cut gown which just happened to fit me perfectly. It was in practically new condition and had only been in the store for half a day, so it didn't even have the questionable thrift store odor, and it was only $15! Gosh, I love thrifting.

My husband went old school with a white-tie-on-black-shirt, which was all the rage when we were in high school. Also, these are actual awkward prom photos, not the fake ones we usually take when we are at weddings!

Back when Charlie's Angels poses were still cool. This scan of a
wallet-sized picture doesn't dojustice to the blinding nature of my dress.
Also, I am wearing clear plastic heels. *facepalm*

This is the dress I wish I had worn to my actual senior prom in high school. Although I really liked my prom dress at the time, that aqua, be-sequined dress (seriously, up close I looked like a mermaid, or possibly a medieval knight, if they wore bright blue chain mail) was a last minute find and really not my style at all. I distinctly remember seeing a girl from my class show up for prom in a long, flowing, backless, cream-colored gown reminiscent of 1930s starlets. She and I both looked totally unlike anyone else at prom (which I'm pretty sure is the goal of prom dress shopping), but hers was classic and gorgeous and mine was a disco ball come to life. That is the first time I remember falling in love with vintage fashion, and here I am more than a decade later, making my own vintage-inspired frocks. I never would have guessed, then, that this is where/who I would be now.

I think I was unconsciously trying to emulate my old classmate's retro glamour as I did my make-up and hair, and even afterward as I PicMonkey-ed the heck out of our pictures. The lighting was pretty atrocious, so we didn't get too many viable shots of the inside of the historic Millenium Biltmore Hotel, which, appropriately, used to host the earliest Academy Awards. Hah! I say that as if the hotel arranged its history to accommodate my look, instead of the other way around.

There was an absolutely beautiful staircase, perfect for descending in a manner not unlike Belle's grand entrance in Beauty and the Beast. When I walked in and saw it, I turned to my husband and announced that it had always been my dream to descend a staircase like it. He graciously snapped a photo as I posed at the top, in front of the resplendent Spanish Revival door.

I think I had too much fun playing around with the filters on PicMonkey, trying to make my photos look appropriately vintage.
Unfortunately, the effect is spoiled by my green no-drinks-included-in-your-ticket bracelet.

I am in love with the back of the gown, as well as the bias cut drape. It swished and flowed beautifully when I walked.

I know this had nothing to do with sewing or making, but I just wanted to enthuse about getting to redo prom the way I would have wanted to, if only I'd had the confidence (to wear somebody else's old gown? High school me would have been grossed out by the idea) and knowledge (regarding classic style, how to thrift, and that the slip I was wearing on that night is still in use in my wardrobe today) that I do now. I would also tell high school me that while going to prom with a date is definitely fun, don't worry, you'll marry a very nice man one day whom you'll get to go to prom with anyway, so just enjoy spending time with your girlfriends.