Tag: Sewing
Arya Cat of the Canals – Part 2 Skirts and Accessories
Part 2 Read Part 1 Skirts To start with I wanted pleated cotton skirts, since the original is clearly pleated. I found pleated chiffon skirts and pleated satin skirts in abundance, however, cotton, or even an opaque non-shiny pleated skirt, was nowhere to be found. …
Arya Cat of the Canals – Part 1 Blouse and Bolero – Butterick B5008, Simplicity 8462
Read Part 2 You may remember that a few years ago my department at work did Game of Thrones for Halloween. I did Margaery Tyrell. Well. The new employees since the move to Colorado found those photos, and wanted to do it again. So we …
Vintage 1950s Reversible Halloween/Christmas Dress – Simplicity 8085
I don’t often do holiday dresses because I don’t like that you can only wear them once or twice per year. However, since this dress is reversible, I get double the wear! I used Simplicity 8085 and novelty print cotton. The Christmas side is a …
Fourteenth Century Hood – Self-Drafted with Handmade Buttons and Buttonholes
For a first attempt at a fourteenth century hood, this went together remarkably well. I used my Viking hood for the basic dimensions and then drafted the front opening turn-back and liripipe around that. It took a few tries to get the side gore the …
The Making of Bumbersnoot – From Gail Carriger’s Finishing School Series
For Bumbersnoot himself, I was poking about on the internet looking for ideas when I discovered wine cork holders. Why one would want such a thing is beyond me, however, they are metal, come in animal shapes and the dachshund one makes a perfect base …
1855 Ball Gown, Part 3 – Finishing – Simplicity 1728
Read part 1 and part 2. Once I had made the bodice and skirt, I tried them both on together and discovered a problem. As soon as I started to move, the bodice popped out of the skirt. I puzzled over how to fix this …
1855 Ball Gown, Part 2 – Skirt – Simplicity 1728
Read part 1 and part 3. The blue underskirt is the basic skirt from Simplicity 1728, gathered all around instead of pleating the front. The aubergine overskirt is 6.5 yards of chiffon with three deep tucks in the bottom third. I calculated the tucks so …
1855 Ball Gown, Part 1 – Bodice – Simplicity 1728
For my 1855 ball gown I chose a royal blue cotton percale with an aubergine chiffon for the overlay, which turned out to have the most wonderful iridescent, colour-shifting effect. I used the same base pattern as my 1860s ball gown: Simplicity 1728. I shortened …
Modern Petticoats – Self-drafted with elastic waist and button detail
Since I had some white lining fabric left over from my second Victorian petticoat, I decided to make some modern ones as well. I used my ancient store-bought petticoat as a pattern, making one the same length, one three inches shorter and one three inches …