New Silk Bellydance Veils Posted to Etsy

I just posted a new batch of silk veils to my Etsy shop. You can see a few of them on the right hand side of my blog in my Etsy mini. I may do one more batch this week for the holiday season, so if you have a color request please convo me through the Etsy site or just post a comment here and I'll see if I can fit it in. (I'm running low on purples and blues!)

There are a few more zill bags for sale now too--I was taking photos and couldn't resist doing a little group shot rainbow style! There are a couple of these that I haven't posted yet, so if you don't see the one you want in my shop just let me know and I'll list it for you. These would be great if you need to do a little gift for your fellow dancers!

ePatterns Now Available from Sense & Sensibility, and a New Toy for My Sewing Room!

Here's some exciting news for those of you who love historical costuming! You've read about how much of a fan I am of Sense & Sensibility patterns. Well, she is now offering epatterns! This is a great way of ordering her pattern collection in PDF format--you can get them instantly, there are no pattern pieces to store, and you can print them out to any scale (great for those of us who do doll costuming!) So far they include her Regency, Romantic, Edwardian, early 1900s, and Swing era patterns. Click here to visit Sense and Sensibility Patterns.

The reason I'm so excited about these? Well, besides the fact that I just love the look of historic dresses, I just inherited a great new toy for my sewing room--an HP DraftPro DXL pen plotter! So now I can plot out my patterns to any size that I want! I have so many historical costume pattern books that include scaled patterns--everything from Janet Arnold's books to Patterns for Theatrical Costume. I've tried blowing them up with the grid method, using copiers, even using an overhead opaque projector--and all of them are a serious pain! So I'm in the experimenting phase right now--I'll post my tips and tricks for getting those patterns into a program like AutoCAD and then plotting them out.

One tip for those of you lucky enough to track down one of these old plotters--the serial cable is NOT a standard cable. Many people find one of these plotters and assume they don't work because they can't set up a connection to it. The cable is what's called a reverse modem cable--you can use a standard serial cable, but you have to use what's called a null modem adapter with it. More details can be found here. See if you can find one of these gems on eBay--but only if you can find a local one. They're heavy and huge, but a great piece of equipment!

Halloween Update 2: Wicked

I'm not quite sure when I started the tradition of doing more than one costume per year for Halloween, but here was the second! My sister recently saw Wicked in Chicago, so the Saturday before Halloween she got the fabulous idea of us dressing as Glinda and Elphaba for an upcoming party. One week is not much time to pull off fabulousness, but we gave it a shot!

The Elphaba dress was from a Burdastyle pattern. If you haven't discovered www.burdastyle.com yet, you must check it out! It's an open source pattern network--meaning people can come up with fantastic stuff and then post it for anyone to download. Since we didn't have the time or resources to tackle something more authentic, I found a pattern for a Leg O Mutton top, and added a skirt to it. Luckily I had some black crushed panne velvet in my stash. It was super simple to make after I scaled the pattern up a bit, took out the inset, and made it gathered all the way across the front where it attached to the skirt. It's a great pattern and I can't wait to make myself a top from it. Her broom was $1 at Shopko, and I think she found her hat at a discount Halloween store. (Her makeup, by the way, is Ben Nye--PLEASE, if you're painting your face, buy the good stuff--it's really not that much more expensive and looks so much better!)

My costume is more of a mish-mash. My sister (again) did a fantastic job of restyling an absolutely horrid wig I bought for $7 at Shopko. I thought it was a total loss, but she put it up on perm rods, boiled it, and it came out in perfect ringlets! The skirt and corset are actually from a Bo Peep costume I made years ago--I made a new white shirt to wear underneath, then made a petal skirt to wear over the top. (The party we were going to was in a barn--a real one--so I wasn't about to wear full-length foof!) I ran around the petal edges with a serged rolled-hem in metallic thread, and my sister then glued rhinestones to the edges to mimic the look of Glinda's dress. My crown she made from a crystal beaded garland found in the wedding section of Michael's, and my staff is a spray-painted dowel with a Christmas tree ornament attached to the top.

Halloween Update 1: Alice in Wonderland

At long last, here are the results of my Halloween madness this year. Being a school librarian, I thought it would be appropriate for me to dress as something literary. So, having just read Beddor's Looking Glass Wars (fabulous, by the way!) I decided to be Alice in Wonderland. I originally planned to do something based on the original illustrations for Through the Looking Glass (hence the striped tights) but due to time constraints I ended up doing the Disney style apron instead. My sister gave my blonde wig a trim, added some bangs, and voila! The dress is made out of a fleece back satin, of all things (that I had in my stash), and I made a very simple net petticoat to wear underneath (aren't ruffling feet fabulous inventions?).

To keep up the literary theme, I talked my assistant into tackling a Regency-style dress, from Jennie Chancey's fabulous pattern (the Simplicity version), so she could be Jane Austen. She even did a corset--I was so proud!

Upcoming projects

While it appears I have not been doing much by way of design, I really just haven't been doing much by way of blogging. =) Here are a few things I've been working on lately, photos to follow soon:

• Two medieval T-tunic style dresses similar to the blue linen one I made. I'm putting some metallic embroidery around the neckline and cuffs, and lacing up the back. The fabric is from my stash--a home dec weight with a subtle watermark that reminds me of grosgrain ribbon. One is a raspberry color, the other a teal green. NOT authentically medieval, but very pretty so far. They'll be posted in my Etsy store for the Halloween season as soon as they're completed.


• Danielle's blue dress she wears on her outing to the monastery with Henry in the film Ever After. Again, this is one for my Etsy store, hopefully in time for Halloween. I've even made her gold circlet, which I'll be including.


• Tribal bellydance belts! I love the look of tribal costuming (I'm not very good at the style, however, I've quickly discovered as I've blundered through my practice DVDs.) I'm experimenting with some embroidered waistbands and funky fringe and am really liking the results so far.

The next few weeks should be very productive!

Rainbow Bellydance Veil

Here it is! The color wheel rainbow veil--I'm quite pleased with it. I think it's the perfect solution to the problem I always had, which was matching my veil to my outfit. Just buy a veil with every color in it already, I say!

I must confess, I cheated a bit on this one. I squirted on the yellow, then realized that it was supposed to be the orange section, so I then layered on the orange. So I don't know that the orange color is truly what it was supposed to be, but I really like it anyway!

This will be posted in my Etsy store for sale, along with all of my other color wheel experiments, seen below.

Fuschia color wheel; see this veil's listing in my Etsy store

Yellow/green color wheel; see this veil's listing in my Etsy store

Turquoise color wheel; see this veil's listing in my Etsy store

Color Wheel Silk Veils

I have no patience for quilting, but when it comes to using quilter's tips for dyeing fabric, I'm a fan! I love the look of color wheel dyeing--mixing your primaries in different proportions to create a rainbow of fabric. I was going to try it out on some scraps to see how it would "turn out," then thought, why not just make a few silk belly dance veils out of the little experiment?


So here are my three primaries--Procion fuschia and turquoise, and a yellow I had on hand (the kind you find in tie-dye kits at the craft store). I then used the proportions listed on this site to mix my colors. Here are all of my little bottles--12 in all!



I then got to work! I decided to do one veil that would include all 12 colors, going fron left to right lengthwise. Then I did three that were sections of the color wheel: fuchsia to orange, yellow to blue-green, and turquoise to red-violet.

I had a bit of leftover dye so I had some fun doing a fire-style yellow and red veil and a bunch of zill bags. Keep your fingers crossed that they work out!

New Etsy Item--Zill Bags!

I love these little zippered bags--they're perfect for stashing little things in style! In my shop I have them labeled as a zill bag, but I use them for everything from a wallet to a camera case. I dyed a batch to match the veils I was doing, so click here for the cobalt blue one, here for this one in lipstick pink, and here for its matching pink veil that I just posted.

New Batch of Veils

I've been tie dying again! My Etsy store inventory was running low, so I did a very simple batch of silk bellydance veils--in the microwave! I've always wanted to try the microwave method instead of letting them sit overnight. I had an explosion on this one because I didn't let the steam bubble settle down enough before starting it up again, but luckily the microwave insides cleaned up well. This one is now posted for sale--it's a beautiful cobalt blue color.

And I did finally see Chivalry. It was worth the wait. =)

Er....make that I THOUGHT I saw Chivalry. . .

Okay, lame update to my gushy post about finally seeing Chivalry in person. I stopped by today to pay it a visit, and there's now a sign by it stating that the painting is on loan to a museum in Moscow until June.

So. . .I saw a print.

Granted, it's a beautiful print. A print I'd love to have hanging in my house. I mean c'mon MOA, what are you gonna do with it when you get the real one back? Stick it in some closet? I'd give it a good home, promise. . . =)

Anyway, there's the sad truth. But I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing the real one when it arrives back in June. The kind folks at the reception desk that I pestered about it assure me that it's fantastic, and enormous, and will be well worth the wait. Sigh!

Etsy Packaging

Etsy shop owners have an entirely different approach to selling things online in a lot of ways. Take packaging--I've bought some things off of eBay that came in some pretty interesting slapped-together boxes! With Etsy, it seems as though the packaging is as important as the product. People are buying handmade items, so they expect that same care to go into the product's presentation.

So here's an idea I've been toying with for some time--bags for dancers to store their silk veils in. I have to admit that I am terrible about just throwing mine in my dance bag when I'm done with it--and there it snags on all of the jingly things that dancers like to carry! So I'm experimenting with including a little drawstring bag with each veil I sell. A little something extra to protect their investment! Here's my prototype, with an embroidered label with my store web address on it. I'll see how they go over with my customers!

Chivalry by Frank Dicksee--I saw it today!

My sister and I stopped by the Brigham Young University Museum of Art today--she wanted to see the Warhol Marilyn Monroe prints they have on display, and I wanted to take a sneak peek at the Victorian exhibit because I had seen a Waterhouse painting on the promotional materials. I literally gasped when I walked in, because there was one of my favorite paintings on display, Chivalry by Sir Frank Dicksee!



Flashback to a few years ago--I'm making a list of my favorite Pre-Raphaelite artwork I want to try see while in London. The Lady of Shalott by Waterhouse at the Tate, Dicksee's End of the Quest at the Leighton House. . .but in my quest to find where Chivalry was, I found out it was in a private collection. I resigned myself to just enjoying the print I have of it that's hanging in my bathroom--as you can see, my walls are painted to match the damsel-in-distress's gown. =)

How could I guess that the original is currently on display, not ten minutes from my house! The exhibit is called Masterworks of Victorian Art from the Collection of John H. Schaeffer and has some beautiful pieces in it.

Chivalry is absolutely stunning--the colors are vibrant, the condition wonderful (unlike the horrible print I have, which made it look as if the original was falling apart!) and it's displayed perfectly so you can really soak in every detail. I'm sure I'll be visiting it several more times before the exhibit ends in August--if you are a fan of Pre-Raphaelite art, it will be well worth your time to check it out.

New Etsy Banner

So my old eBay logo was looking a little outdated, so I decided to take a new stab at it for my Etsy store. I love those Dover electronic clip art CDs! This motif was from the Designs and Motifs from India set.

Announcing. . .my Etsy store!

I'm trying something new--posting some of my silk bellydance veils to an Etsy store. I've had success selling them on eBay, but I hate having to post them a few at a time, and worry about the best time to post them, and worry if anyone is going to see them in the one week they're up! So I'm giving Etsy a try--that way I can post my entire current inventory for several months, and people have a wider selection. Follow the link on the right to view the veils I currently have up for sale.

An Easter dress...sorta

Does a dress still count as an Easter dress if it's black, and if you started it in December? =) It's amazing the unfinished projects you uncover as you're reorganizing! This one just needed a zipper and a facing, so I finished it up last night. The dress pattern is Simplicity 4531, and the bolero shrug is Simplicity 4224. No real modifications, besides making the ribbon belt wider, and tied in the front. The embroidered fabric is yet another JoAnn's $2 clearance table find. I think the ribbon and zipper cost more than the fabric did. =)

Cubby boxes, done!

What a project this has been! Here is the final product. The ribbon is from Stampin' Up, the little frames on the front are just metal scrapbooking frames from Making Memories (I painted them white, then distressed them with my Dremel tool. How I love that tool!) The cute purse, dress form, and Eiffel Tower are from Tai Pan Trading--I just need to whack off the top half inch of the tower so it will fit on top of the cubbies. The table for my machine will eventually be replaced with something that matches the Expedit. Four boxes are full of my pattern stash, one for my dolls and doll patterns, one for custom patterns I've done, and then four for embroidery supplies and blanks.



When covering the boxes, I just made a "tube" of fabric that was wide enough to slip around the box. I then folded the bottom fabric like a present and glued it down, and tacked the top excess fabric down inside the box. I also glued a rectangle of flannel on the bottom of each one. This covers up where the fabric is folded down, and also provides a soft surface so the boxes don't scratch the Expedit as I slide them in and out. A bit of spray adhesive helps to get the fabric for the lid centered and flannel attached, then I just used a glue gun for the edges. I bought some matching scrapbooking paper for the little frames, so I can have each box labeled.

A diversion from sewing. . .isn't he handsome? =)

So everyone needs a night off from their hobbies once in awhile. =) I got to see Collective Soul, one of my favorite bands, in concert last night at Novell's Brainshare (ah, the perks of having a techie for a brother!) What a fantastic show! It's so great to watch a band that just obviously loves performing. (For anyone who was there, one word--thunderstruck! lol) I snapped this picture from the jumbotron--no, I wasn't that close to the stage, sadly!

A last-minute medieval dress

Ah, the joys of a last-minute idea. =) In my day job as a school librarian, I've gotten quite a reputation for my outlandish costumes. (Last week I was a different Dr. Seuss character every day!) This week was a special school fair, where we were highlighting our curriculum. So I thought, libraries. . .bookmaking. . .illuminated manuscripts! So I quickly ordered some medieval and celtic design rubber stamps so the kids could make their very own manuscript pages and color them in (a big plug here for Estelle's fantastic stamps at http://www.stampsmith.net/--she is fabulous to deal with and got them here in a big hurry). But how could I host a medieval activity without dressing appropriately?

So here is my quick attempt at something somewhat historical for our special event. I eBayed my last semi-historical medieval dress (the Simplicity pattern that uses 10 yards of fabric--good grief) and wanted to do this one on a budget--and a time limit! The underdress is quilter's cotton, the overdress is a linen blend from JoAnn's. The pattern was amazingly simple! It's based on the instructions from "T-tunic: the period way" by Lady Muireann ingen Eoghain ua Maoil Mheaghna. I was skeptical at first--how are all of these rectangles and triangles going to come together in anything remotely wearable? And only using 3.5 yards of fabric? But I tried it out, and am very pleased with the results! The underdress uses her Anglo-Saxon pattern layout, and for the overdress I eliminated the underarm gussets and used a sleeve design from Patterns for Theatrical Costumes. Hand embroidery was out due to time constraints, so I fired up the Aurora and chose a simple motif and mirrored it for the sleeve and neckline borders. It still needs a bit of work--I need to fit it a little better around my waist, the front gore is missing (everyone thought how clever it was that I left the skirt front open so you could see the white peeking through--ha ha) and I haven't hemmed the sleeve facings or the bottom yet.

After wearing corsets for other events, wearing early medieval is a dream! The pattern is comfy, the skirt is fabulously swishy but not overwhelming, and it really does make the most of your fabric. (Oh, and the belt I found in my sister's closet--she bought it at Walmart!) The kids loved it, and it made my night when one of them poked their head in the library and said, "I don't want to do the activity, I just wanted to come by to see what you were wearing!" =)

A cubby box, and some perfectionist therapy

Okay, so the boxes are turning out to be quite the project. But don't my costume books look nice?

I purchased a ten pack of plain ol' cardboard file boxes from OfficeMax--turns out they are the perfect size for the cubbies. So I reinforced them with tape, and after days of debate (cover them with paper? cover them with fabric?) finally decided on what to do. I wanted to match the Disney posters seen in the "before" pictures--blues, sage green, dusty pink--and give some contrast to the Kassett style white boxes for CDs and such I'd bought at Ikea.

Good news? All ten will be covered with fabric I already had in my stash! Bad news? Covering them takes forever! Here are the mint green ones--I have little white metal scrapbooking frames that will go on the front so I can list what's in them, and some cute ribbon to tie in the colors (thanks to a friend and her stash of scrapbooking stuff). It's a perfect fit for two rows of patterns, if you're looking for a way to tame your collection. =)

But I just couldn't face another night of cubby boxes, so last night I took a break and did some perfectionist therapy, aka tie dye. Check my eBay listings for some new veils in the next few days--unpredictable fun, as always!

Expedit it!

Ah, Ikea. What a fabulous place--it makes you want to just redo your entire house while eating fresh cinnamon rolls. But I digress.

Last weekend I'm pretty sure my dad and brother set a world record for assembling a 5x5 Expedit bookcase! After reading several horror stories on the web about how impossible it was to put together, I warned them it could be quite a project. "Five hours to 40 minutes, that's what people say," I cautioned. Well, not to be outdone by anyone on the web, they set out to beat that. Thirty minutes flat, from unpackaging to finished product. And they claim it would have been faster but their materials delivery person was a bottleneck (ahem, that would be me, lugging the pieces upstairs.) Here they are being busy little worker bees--you can also see my newly painted blue wall behind them.

Next post--cubby boxes. Tons and tons of cubby boxes.

Sewing den remodel before picture

Okay, for the few people who actually read my rather sporadic blog posts (thank you, by the way!) here's what's been keeping me from finishing a few projects I've mentioned on here.

Ugh. You can say it--ugh. This is what my den "embroidery corner" was looking like a few weeks ago. I took a picture (which I hate to share, but you'll appreciate the after pictures so much more) just to show how bad it was. Piles of unfinished projects, embroidery supplies, fabric--just general atrophy everywhere.

Next post, what a little paint and a trip to Ikea can do. . .

Dance Fabric Yard Sale

Sadly, the time has come to start reducing the size of my fabric stash! I had quite a collection of middle eastern-looking dance fabric built up, but I want to start focusing more on historic costume (and am running out of space!) so I've decided to start eBaying some. Right now I have two veils posted, my collection of stretch burnout velvet, and a bunch of sari-like fabric like the photo to the right. Click here to see what I have currently up for sale.

Historic fashion patterns for dolls!

An eBay auction caught my eye recently (shocking, I know!) that inspired me to do a little research. Somebody was auctioning historic patterns for Barbie-sized fashions--with a separate set for each era (Regency, colonial, etc.). The auction listing showed a sample page which was obviously out of an older book. (The listing did have a disclaimer that they had the permission of the author to be reselling the patterns, thank goodness.) Well, of course I wouldn't be content with just a few photocopies--I wanted all of the patterns! So I set about to find the entire book.

Turns out this little gem of a book is called The Doll Book and it's by Estelle Ansley Worrell (ISBN 0442295553). The patterns are actually designed to fit soft-bodied dolls (patterns for the dolls included too!) but they are similar in size to a standard 11 1/2" fashion doll, and scaling instructions are included for other doll heights. The book is still readily available through used booksellers--I found mine for less than $6 and that included postage. So doll costumers, get yourself a copy--it will keep you happily busy for years with everything from Cavalier-era gowns to Victorian bustle dresses! (There are even instructions for creating period-correct hairstyles on your dolls.) I've been collecting the Simplicity historic Barbie-sized series patterns but this book has it all!

So I'm going to try to scale a few for both Barbie-size dolls and my new Tyler Wentworth 16" fashion doll. (Okay, make that two eBay auctions that caught my eye this week. . .) Keep posted for pictures of my progress!