Monday Progress Update: September 16

So much to tell you about!  This week I want to do a roundup of my Costume College costumes:

 A blue Felicite curtain dress!  I made a pollonaise over a matching petticoat and wore it on curtain Saturday!  Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the Curtain-Along group meetup, but I did get pics with Jen later on!

Saturday night at the Gala I wore my Lady of the Lake dress without all the blue body paint.  I think it still works like this :D

Sunday for the Seaside tea I wore my seaside Deronda dress.  Unfortunately this is the only picture I have of it, and it's fuzzy, but once I finish the hat I'll do a photoshoot so I can get nice in-focus pictures!


This last week I haven't worked on much sewing at all.  Usually this time of year is a regroup-and-plan time for me, and I've certainly been doing that in spades.  Hopefully you guys will like some of the ideas I'm coming up with!

Lady of the Lake Dress

I know people are waiting to see more pictures, so here's the gallery of pics I've found so far of my Lake Dress. It's the first gallery page I put up :D

http://www.dramaticthreads.com/p/lady-of-lake-dress-bizenghast.html 

And here's my favorite picture so far:

It's the first one I've seen that has the scarf in it!

Wolfe Bros. Makeup

For everyone who asked (or just wondered) my Lake Dress makeup was Wolfe Bros. FX makeup cake in light blue.  It was amazing, easy to put on without streaking, only came off on my pleather purse (and easily wiped off that) and lasted all night.  I was able to use powder over that for contouring highlights and shadows and eye makeup.  I highly recommend their product!

http://www.wolfefxmakeup.com

Chicon 7 Report

Chicon seemed to be a huge success! I had lots of people at my panels, ran some pretty fun parties, and entered the Masquerade in this:

And this is what happened:

I won the Chicagoland Costumers' Guild's MOB Award as well as Best in Show Presentation and Best in Show Workmanship!  I was totally overwhelmed for days afterward!

Now that I'm back I'll be posting some updates on the Lake Dress' making of that I didn't get around to before the convention as well as getting some updates done around here.  This morning I worked on getting the basics of my gallery up and running, and I hope to get the video tutorials updated from April as well as getting some pictures up in the gallery in the next week.

Monday Progress Update: August 6th

I got a TON done this week!


First off, the all-important wedding dress:

It's finished!  Well, as finished as I can get it without another fitting.  I leave on Thursday to go home, and we'll have a final fitting before I set the zipper, wait for the shipment of trim to come in for the plum sections and then another fitting to mark the hem.


The Lake Dress:

I sewed up the bodice and did some tacking of decoration on the front.  It still needs a lot more (what I lovingly called "sequin and rhinestone vomit") so I'll be getting to that.

I also made up the wisk!  I'm very excited it turned out as well as it did.  It's my first wisk!  I followed these instructions from Farthingales:  http://farthingalescorsetmakingsupplies.com/classes.php?article=10  It was so much easier than I thought, even if it was time consuming!

I started the decorations on the skirt too!  These are 2" strips I cut from a blue lace, then gathered on my sewing machine and pinned into place.  Then I used the machine to sew it down.  I realized last night that all the loops are going the same way, so I'm going to have to cut the ones on one side to make them symmetrical.  *sigh*  I know it's a little thing, but it's something that will bug me.  I'm dying a sequined trim to put in the middle of the ruffles.  It'll be tacked down by hand.

WorldCon Packing

In addition to what I still have to complete (look back at WorldCon Preview if you're interested) I also have to pack soon.  I am a forgetful person, so I always make detailed packing lists for a con.  Here's my packing list for WorldCon:

Thursday: Green Tea Dress

Pack:

Skirt

Shirt

Coat

Hose

Heels

Cloche

Makeup

Underwear

Bra

Thursday Night: Silver 20's Dress

Pack:

Dress

Purse

Heels

Hose

Makeup

Underwear

Bust Flattener

Friday: Stripey Steampunk

Pack:

Corset

Undershirt

Lacing

Skirt

Hose

Shoes

Bra

Underwear

Jewelry

Goggles

Makeup

Friday Night: Stripey Pirate

Pack:

Hat
Shirt
Corset
Skirt
Lacing
Hose
Shoes
Armwarmers
Jewelry
Makeup
Petticoat
Underwear
Bra

Saturday: Regency

Pack:

Corset
Chemise
Dress
Jewelry
Wrap
Shoes
Stockings
Makeup

Masquerade: Lake Dress

Pack:

Stockings
Shoes
Underwear
Bra
Hoop
Skirt
Bodice
Lacings
Wig
 Coronet
Wisk
Jewelry
Makeup
Shirt

Sunday: Sandry

Pack:

Shoes
Boot Covers
Bodice
Lacing
Pants
Gloves
Wig
Ribbons
Underwear
Bra

Sunday Night: Fancy 50's Dress

Pack:

Dress
Cincher
Bra
Hose
Shoes
Jewelry
Makeup
Petticoat

 
Later Sunday Night: 20's dress

Pack:

Dress
Stockings
Shoes
Flask
Bust Flattener
Jewelry
Makeup
Underwear

Monday: Circus Ringmaster

Pack:

Shoes
Stockings
Underwear
Bra
Skirt
Petticoat
Hat
Corset
Shirt
Bolero
Makeup

Monday Progress Update: July 30

I spent most of last week on vacation in Montreal (yay!) so I didn't get much done.  Here's what I did get done:

 I've done some dye painting on my Lake Dress fan.  It needs much more work.

Flower Girl dresses have skirts now.  The chiffon ones are sitting on my sewing table being hemmed.

I experimented with making blue glitter lipstick with blue and glitter eyeliner.  Not comfortable but it works.  Later this week I need to do a whole makeup trial for the Lake Dress as well as work out a good 20's look.


While in Montreal I got to visit the "Star Wars: Identities" exhibit.  It was not so good for costumes, and horrible for girls who love sci-fi (we can't use Padme/Leia as any example of choice and identity instead of Anakin/Luke?), but I did get a few pictures of the costumes.  They're up on my Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/30894859@N00/sets/72157630825759474/http://www.flickr.com/photos/30894859@N00/sets/72157630825759474/

WorldCon Preview

Mostly for my own reference, but here's what I've got in the plans for WorldCon:

Thursday: Green Tea Dress

To Do:

Mock

Cut

Sew Coat

Sew Skirt

Sew Shirt

Finish Coat

Finish Skirt

Finish Shirt

Thursday Night: Silver 20's Dress

To Do:

Style!

Friday: Stripey Steampunk

 To Do:

Bind Corset
Grommet Corset
Lace Corset
Mock Sleeves
Cut Sleeves
Sew Sleeves
Attach Sleeves
Ruffle Sleeves
Finish Top

Friday Night: Stripey Pirate

 To Do:

Make Hat

Make Cravat

Make Skirt

Saturday: Regency

To Do:

Make Short Corset

Masquerade: Lake Dress

To Do:

Make Bodice

Mock Sleeves

Make Sleeves

Attach Sleeves

Trim Bodice

Trim Skirt

Trim Sleeves

Make Ruff

Make Crown

Fan

Skirt Closures

Style Wig

Documentation

Sunday: Sandry

To Do:

Finish Bodice Piping

Finish Tab Binding

Make Modesty Panel

Make Spats

Style Wig

Sunday Night: Fancy 50's Dress

To Do:

Sew Peplum

Attach Lining
Bind Neckline
Cut Sleeves
Sew Sleeves
Attach Peplum
Attach Sleeves
Hem Peplum
Cut Skirt
Sew Skirt
Attach Skirt
Zipper
Hook and Eye
Hem Skirt

 
Later Sunday Night: 20's dress

 To Do:

Raise Waistline

Monday: Circus Ringmaster or Merida

To Do:

Nothing!

 To Do:
Color Snap Tape
Fix Arms
Attach Dress Shields
Make Belt
Make Quiver
Buy Bow
Paint Bow
Decorate Quiver
Style Wig

Monday Progress Update: July 2

I got a few more of those blasted piping seam allowances sewn:

Only four more of them to go, then I can finish the waist!  The only thing I have left on this costume is to either buy boots or make spats to look like boots.


I did a bit of work on the Lake Dress, cutting the lining and interlining, but I didn't take pictures because it's a quite boring stage of work.


So boring, in fact, that I quit partway through to make a new dress.  I got this lovely stripey silk taffeta from puresilks.us that's been dying to be a Robe a l'Anglaise.  Unfortunately I had to work around this huge pen mark on the fabric:

At least I caught it before I cut anything so I could work around it, and I ordered an extra 2 yards in hope of making an Anglaise and a jacket out of the same fabric, so I had some stuff to play with (although I don't know if I can do the jacket now :(  ).  I used the JP Ryan pattern and mocked it up in cotton, but for the actual dress I cut the interlining in linen and flatlined it to the silk before sewing the dress.

I'm really proud of my pattern matching with the stripes!  Looking at it now I think I sewed the skirt on wrong (it shouldn't meet in the center) so I need to go back and re-set it.  I also have to finish all the inside seams and then turn and sew the edges and it needs sleeve ruffles cut and attached, but I haven't decided if those should be linen or silk yet.  Of course the skirt looks a bit wonky over my Lake Dress instead of pocket hoops, but I really didn't want to change the dummy for the pictures  : P

Monday Progress Update: June 25

Got a few more rows done on the piped bodice of doom . . .

Started the final bodice of the Lake Dress . . .

And I did some decoration on the skirt.  I'm thinking of taking it up again, though, and putting some lace behind it.