It's Too Late for Jungle January

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Story of my life:

1. Read/hear about an awesome thing.
2. Get all excited about it. Can't stop thinking about it for the next three nights. 
3. OOOH LOOK OVER THERE! Distracted by a new idea.
4. A month later, realize that the deadline for the awesome thing passed a week ago. 
5. Get all disappointed, lament my lack of organization when it comes to creative things. Keep trying to tell myself that I'm a J on the Myers-Briggs personality test, really I am! 
6. Execute a half-assed version of my original idea. 
7. Swear to do better with planning next time. 

Trying out the angry/I hate you/constipated look that models always seem to have. 

That's what happened to me with Pretty Grievances' Jungle January. I had grand ideas for another qipao based on this one that I've had pinned for ages. It was going to be the perfect multi-tasking sewing project -- it would use up a piece of stash fabric from four years ago, work as my new outfit for Chinese New Year, and fit with the Jungle January theme. Alas, corset-making got the better of me, and here I am, over a week into February and it's a simple dress that's not at all qipao-ish and only very vaguely reminiscent of the original inspiration dress. To top it all off, Mr. Cation didn't even like it very much. Ah well, I can't always win.

[ETA: Mr. Cation insisted that I clarify -- he doesn't actually dislike the dress. He was merely surprised when he first saw it because the lighting was bad and it's not my usual kind of print. It looks much better in natural lighting, and while it's not his favorite thing I've ever made, he doesn't dislike it either. My apologies, husband, for unjustly exposing your sartorial judgement to internet censure.]

Still working on the angry look, apparently. The sun glare was making it difficult to smile and look normal.

Better, if a bit squinty. 

Even better: facing away from the setting sun. 

Twirling to show off the movement and flare of the skirt. 

Summary:
Pattern: A modified version of my free bias-cut top pattern, but with the lines extended down and out to make the flared skirt. I was hoping for a floor-length maxi dress, but bias-cut garments just eat up fabric like no other, so it ended up being tea-length. The best thing about reusing old patterns is you already know they fit, and if it's a self-drafted pattern, it's already all adjusted for swayback and fleshy underarms and everything!
Fabric: 3 yards of 54" wide purple leopard-ish print rayon, stashed since 2009, originally from SAS Fabrics in Tucson. I loved the watercolor look of the spots when I saw it, but at the time I knew that my skills weren't good enough to do it justice. I'm glad I waited to use it.
Notions: Just seam binding, no zippers or buttons or snaps! I knew I wanted to avoid putting any closures in this thin fabric, as a zipper would just be too stiff for the drape of the rayon. Thanks to the bias-cut, I can just slip this over my head. I really, really, really love not putting closures into dresses. When I'm putting zippers into dresses, it's really not that bad, but then I make a dress like this and it becomes blindingly obvious that no zippers is even better.

My insides look so pretty!

Techniques: Making bias tape from the fabric and using it to bind the neck and arm holes. My favorite method for nice finishes on rayon.
Hours used: Three. It was easy enough to sew, but trying to squeeze the pattern pieces onto my limited fabric required some serious Tetris skills. Even so, the grainline on one of the back pieces is more like 39 degrees, instead of the 45 degrees of a true bias-cut.
Will you make this again? Not as a tea-length dress. I feel like it's a really awkward length, and it reminds me too much of the 80s and its weird dress lengths. I may try it as a knee-length dress, but then I would lose the fantastic flare at the bottom, and a maxi dress would require five yards of fabric...yikes!
Total cost: $8, if that. Yay for discount fabrics! Besides, it's been in the stash so long, it feels free.
Final thoughts: Bias-cut garments eat fabric like hungry hungry hippos, but it's so worth it for the drape they provide and the fact that they can pass the Mena Test. Mr. Cation and I both agreed that the leopard print is actually kind of distracting and not really my style, and I'm afraid that the print+length brings the dress into the matronly/cougar-y category. Still, it twirls well and is comfortable, so it'll be fine for lounging around in and going English country dancing. And a wearable garment is always better than stash fabric just sitting around, taking up space.

Okay, they're right, it's pretty difficult trying to walk straight and not trip on my blog heels.  The concentrating face is totally necessary. 

I will say that I'm immensely proud of myself, though, for breaking free of my usual pattern for the Jane Austen Evening. I planned ahead for that event, executed both ideas for dresses fairly well, and was even done early enough that I wasn't frantically sewing on trim five minutes before getting dressed. Let's hope that my ideas for the Hobbit Oscar party follow that timeline and not this one. Things are looking pretty good, though, as the major parts of my shieldmaiden gown are done; it's just the closure, embellishments, and hemming left now!

Sew Grateful Week + Giveaway

Many thanks to Debi for hosting Sew Grateful week every year to remind us how much there is to be grateful for in the sewing blogiverse! I feel like I've written pretty extensively fairly recently about how glad I am to have discovered sewing, and what sewing and the online community have done for me, so I won't rehash that here. I still wanted to reiterate, though, that I am still so incredibly thankful to Mr. Cation and my friends for their support, Walnut for being cute, and all of you out there who are encouraging and informative through your own blogs and your comments on mine. This community is a pretty special place, isn't it?

Walnut gives his best coy look. Dawwww...

There are some pretty amazing giveaways going on, and while I can't compete with say, a book on  tailoring or a new Colette pattern, I can throw in an assortment of goodies for multiple winners!

#1: The Sophia Trench Coat pattern by Serendipity Studio, uncut, sizes XXS-XXL. It's a raglan-sleeve coat, so it should be easier than one with set-in sleeves. I originally bought it as part of a coat-making class at my local sewing shop, but I ended up not being able to make the class dates. I still have the pattern, though, so this would be a good beginner coat project for you if you're looking for one! Here's an example of a less loud version of it.

#2: McCall's 7385, a raglan-sleeve knit dress pattern in petite. It's from the eighties, which was not the best era for fashion, but I liked the stripe/chevron version they picture. And again, since it's a raglan-sleeve, it should be an easy first dress. Don't forget the personalized instructions by Palmer & Pletsch!

#3: McCall's 9071, a 1967 sheath dress pattern with some cool seaming, in size 16 (bust 38). I originally got this as part of a whole packet of patterns, but the bust is much too big for me.

#4: Butterick 4790, a reprint of the 1952 walkaway dress, uncut, sizes 8-14. I'll be honest, it requires so much fabric I'm unlikely to ever make it up, but it's definitely a cute retro dress!

#5: A 1965 Simplicity sewing book. I came across it in one of my thrifting adventures, and while it's not in pristine condition, the information in it is still good. There are sections covering pattern and fabric choice, alterations for fit, step-by-step illustrated instructions for how to put together common items like dresses, skirts, blouses, and men's shirts. There are also sections covering useful things like types of fastenings, embroidery stitches, seam finishes, basic tailoring, etc.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment saying which set you would like. I'll even go so far as to say you can enter for multiple items if they all strike your fancy! And just out of curiosity, tell me what's your least favorite fashion era -- mine is, in fact, the 80s, which might explain why I'm giving away the second pattern! I'll close the giveaway on Sunday night at 11:59 pm PST and announce the winners on Monday.   This giveaway is now closed! Thanks for entering!

One more gratuitous cat picture. Sometimes I look at Walnut and think it's just unreal that he's so fluffy.

February Stashbusting: the LOVE CHALLENGE

Well, we're one month into our year-long stashbusting sewalong, and it's been amazing seeing what you all can whip up from less than a yard of fabric! Emily has selected some of her favorite makes from both the Flickr group and the link party, so if you haven't already seen her post, go check it out! And now, since it's a new month, we prepare to dive into sewing for our loved ones. Since February is the month of Valentine's Day/Singles Awareness Day/Hearts and Hooves Day, it's only appropriate that we make a dear family member or friend the recipient of our time and efforts. To kick off the month, I used stash fabric to make an underbust corset for my little sister.

Isn't this fabric awesome?

This is the same lining as my pair of Elizabethan bodies. 

My sister, coincidentally also named Emily, has helped me with so many ridiculous projects over the years, and, being similarly science-minded, she really liked this skeleton print. Since I had less than a yard to work with, and its drape is inappropriate for tops, I knew I had to turn it into a corset. I used Jacci Jaye's free corset pattern on Burdastyle as a starting point, but graded it down to fit her much tinier torso. The finished corset is a size 21.5, meaning that if it were laced all the way shut, the waist would measure 21.5 inches. Of course, one wouldn't actually wear it laced all the way shut, so it's not quite as scary as it sounds. Since I'm going to have to wait until the President's Day weekend to deliver it to her, I went ahead and modeled it for you all. It's a little small for me, but you get the idea.

Front!

Side!

Back!

I'm pretty pleased with my pattern placement at the center! 

This is what it looks like laced down to 25 inches, two inches less than my normal waist size. It feels like a tight hug. 

Summary:
Fabric:  1/2 yard of 44" wide Alexander Henry's "Osteology" print on a high-quality quilting cotton, purchased at my local quilting store last year, underlined with cotton muslin and lined with home-dec canvas.
Notions: Hook and eye tape, grosgrain ribbon for the waist stay, black bias tape for the binding, 24 two-piece silver grommets, 7 yards of 1/2" black satin ribbon for lacing, heavy duty cable ties for boning
Techniques: Using my new walking foot! It really made sewing all the layers together so much easier; I don't know why I waited so long to get one! Since corset-sewing requires so much accuracy and lining up pieces and sewing them without shifting, the walking foot made my life easier, and this corset turned out much better than my first one.
Casualties: 3 sewing machine needles, 2 finger stabs that bled just a tiny bit, from when I was trying to pull the needle through the many layers.
Hours: Four hours to cut and sew the corset and boning channels, another hour to cut and file down the cable ties for boning, all of the Super Bowl to hand-sew the binding, and another hour to figure out grommet placement and set them...probably about eight hours total.
Will you make this again? I don't think I'm going to make another underbust corset, but then last time I made this pattern, I said I wouldn't and I did.
Total cost: The fabric cost $7, the hook and eye tape $3, the binding $2, the grommets were $4, the lacing $0.50, and the cable ties $4, so about $20 for the whole thing.

Final thoughts: I suppose I should reserve my final thoughts for when my sister gets to actually try this on, but for now, ummm, I really like this and I'm pleased with myself? It's been almost exactly a year since I made my previous iteration of this pattern, and it's cool to see how much I've grown as a seamstress. When I made my red corduroy one, I wasn't confident enough to grade it down, and the insides looked messy, not to mention the fact that it took almost 20 hours. This time, the sewing just felt easier, and even with all the fussy hand-sewing it took less than half the time. Does this mean that if I make this pattern again in a year or so, it will take four hours??

Playing around with old-timey filters, because corsets are old-timey. Totally makes sense. 

I can't wait to see what this looks like on my sister! And I know I promised after my Regency costumes that I would get back to real clothing, and corsets are not exactly everyday wear, so...next time, I promise.

Channeling Caroline and Charlotte

I'm finally getting around to blogging about the inspiration and details of my Jane Austen Evening ball gown! I actually intended to finish it for the first HSF challenge, but since it was a new pattern, I had only finished muslining the bodice by the time the deadline rolled around. Just as well, since I didn't really have any other historical costume UFOs that would've worked for this challenge.

A very nice gentleman obliged me by snapping these photos for me. One of the hugest downsides of going to event on your own is you don't have a photographer to take a bazillion pictures of your costume for you!

When I first started planning for this costume, I pictured a ball gown in that ubiquitous white muslin that everyone thinks of when they imagine Regency era dresses. Unfortunately, none of the fabric stores I visited had the right kind of white cotton for what I was willing to spend. Just as well, since the celadon-colored sheet that I ended up with was definitely more unique and cheaper to boot! Having decided on a color, I then had to figure out how to dress it up so that it would look appropriately fancy. After browsing the collections at the Met and the V&A, and combing other people's Pinterest boards, I finally settled on these three gowns as my main inspirations. Since I had quite a bit of gold trim, and Ackerman's Repository plates show a recurring motif of vertical trim for the 1810s, I eventually settled on "copying" Princess Charlotte of Wales' blue "Russian" gown as my main inspiration for trim.

This gown actually used to be a rich, dark blue, as shown in an 1817 painting by George Dawe. 

Since my hair is so short now, I knew I wouldn't be able to do the mass of curls that seems to be the norm for Regency hair. I settled for rag curling the longer pieces in the front, then hiding the rest underneath a turban. I've loved the turban+feather look ever since I first saw it on Miss Caroline Bingley in the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries, and I was really pleased with how the overall look turned out!

True story: this balloon jammed into a plastic trash can was my sorry excuse for a head mannikin. The whole time that I was tacking it together, I was scared to death that I was going to accidentally jab the balloon with my needle and have my turban fall apart before I'd secured all the perfectly-arranged folds.  

I used this very helpful page to construct my turban. I started with a big tube of fabric tied around the balloon with the ends tucked strategically into folds, then just started stitching random bits to other bits until it all stayed together when I picked it up to put on my head. It's crowned with a single ostrich feather, because that's all I could justify buying. In the end, it turned out to be a bit of a hazard while dancing; since I'm so tall, every time I turned under while dancing with a shorter partner, the feather would get knocked askew. 

To complete the whole outfit, I made a little reticule from my remaining fashion fabric, using this pattern, but with only two panels. I added a little gold tassel at the bottom, and in it I placed a handkerchief, my "calling cards" (which remained unused), and my phone and lip gloss. I was also fortunate enough to find a pair of long white gloves at a thrift store for two dollars for the dancing part of the evening.

I already talked about how the actual tea and ball went, but I just wanted to reiterate that even though it was scary to go on my own, it was really fun in the end and I met such nice people. The highlight of the evening was getting to "talk shop" with other people who had made their costumes. One lady totally made my night when she came up to ask if Princess Charlotte's gown was my inspiration -- I was so gratified that that came through in my execution and someone recognized it!

Just the facts, ma'am:

The Challenge: UFO...this was a UFO for only about a week; I put it aside after making a toile of the bodice so that I could make my Regency day dress.
Fabric: I wouldn't be me if I didn't make a ball gown from sheets! I didn't thrift it, but it was a very nice cotton sateen queen-size flat sheet. I loved that it was soft and drapey and had a faint sheen to it, but was still stable and easy to work with since it was cotton.

Not the best picture, but you can see that the fabric does have a faint sheen to it. Also, a slightly better look at the amount of material gathered into the small back and my asymmetrically placed belt loops...

Pattern: I used the 1798-1805 Salisbury Museum drop-front gown in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion. Fortunately, I'm about the same size as the original gown wearer; the only modifications I made were to get rid of the train and shorten and widen the sleeves, so as to make the whole dress more suitable for a ball and dancing. I also changed the bib front from the original wide rectangle to a trapezoid, which works better for my bust size.

Best cheap method for scaling up the Janet Arnold patterns: wrapping paper with a pre-printed 1" square grid on the back! Here you can see how much I shortened and widened the sleeve pattern to get the poofy look of a Regency ball gown. The top piece was the original sleeve pattern piece, which results in a sleeve like my day dress. Even though my modifications looked pretty extreme, I feel like I could've gone even poofier!

Here's what the insides looked like: the underpieces in front are pinned together, then the skirt front is tied on at the waist with ties that loop around the back, and the trapezoid-shaped stomacher front is buttoned on over all of it. I don't think metal snaps are period, but that's what I had on hand that worked. There's a drawstring at the top to bring in the neckline over the bust. The bright cyan seam binding is there to cover up a raw edge. Many thanks to Koshka and Tea in a Teacup for their detailed dress construction diaries. 

Year: Even though the gown pattern is from the turn of the century, my vertical trim inspiration was taken from the fashion plates and extant gowns of the 1810s.
Notions: Five yards of metallic gold trim, appropriately purchased in England at a blogger meet-up with Handmade Jane, and an additional three yards of gold tasseled rayon trim for the hem.

It was harder than I thought it would be to get the three vertical lines to match on the bodice and skirt. 

I would never have thought to add this trim at the bottom if it weren't for Princess Charlotte's gown inspiration, but it's really the perfect finishing touch on this dress. 

How historically accurate is it? I'd say that the pattern and overall look are very historically accurate, but the construction and materials was not. As always, I stitched most of the main seams by machine, saving the hand-stitching for finishing the waistband, lining, and sleeve bands. And while cotton isn't an anachronistic textile for the era, a ball gown would probably have been made from silk.
Hours to complete: I probably spent at least 30 hours on this gown, if not more. At a certain point, I just stopped keeping track.
First worn: Saturday, January 26, 2013, for the Jane Austen Evening.
Total cost: $25 for the fabric, $15 for the trims, $3 for thread, $4 for the ostrich feather, and miscellaneous bits of seam binding for the drawstrings and ties, plus muslin for the bodice lining...so about $50 for a complete fancy ball outfit!

Bad iPhone photo, but it's the closest I have to a full-length front view without obstructing staircases. 

Now that the ball is over, I'm happy to leave the Regency era alone for a while and get back to normal everyday clothing! Or at least, as normal as my clothes ever get, what with being made from sheets and all.

And now the question is, what do I do with my ball gown? 

I haven't the faintest idea how to clean it or pack it away!