Potato Chip Hats!

This semester I had the opportunity to teach my first 4H class! Called Costuming for Beginners, we learned about everything from figure drawing to basic sewing. We did a brief overview of historical fashion from Egyptian to modern day, and did a bunch of fun projects. The kids were great, and it was an excellent experience for me too!

At our parent night, I had one of my colonial dresses on display. I had a request for some instructions for a colonial hat, from the sister of one of our students who needed something for a school project.

I like to call these potato chip hats, because they resemble a Pringle perched at a jaunty angle on your head. =) So, if you'd like some instructions on how to make one, here is a handout I put together with some basic instructions.

Stay tuned for another method for potato chip hat making--involving placemats and IKEA! Will it work? I'm not sure. In the meantime, happy snacking. . .um. . .millinery!

Turquoise and orange make. . .ooooo, pretty!

I did a custom order this week and got a fabulous surprise! The customer wanted a turquoise and orange scrunch pattern. This orange usually turns out to be a bright tangerine, almost like a vibrant orange creamsicle. Well, when combined with a turquoise in the rinse-out, it turned to a beautiful burnt orange--like a coppery sunset! I thought it was just stunning, and luckily she did too!

Want to create your own unique color combination? I take custom veil orders at my website, http://www.dintarmawen.com.

New website!

Wow, have I been absent lately! A lot of time (and a lot of costumes!) have passed--I will try to catch up slowly over the next few weeks.

I do have a bit of exciting news--I've set up a new website! Visit http://www.dintarmawen.com to check it out. You can view my costume portfolio and some of my favorite links. Most importantly, this will now be my main venue for selling my silk belly dance veils and costumes. I'll also be posting things for sale that I've found as I've stockpiled costume supplies, including fabric and accessories that I purchased for costumes that I'm no longer planning on making.

If you're interested in ordering a custom veil, it's now easier than ever! Just click on the "Veils & Skirts" section under the Salesroom link. You can choose your own custom colors, and within a week have your own unique veil shipped to you!

Costume Fabric Destash

This week I have come to a sad realization. . .my fabric collection has gotten seriously out of hand! I have a weakness for a bargain, and for something I can see potential in. So when I spot the perfect piece of fabric, and can think, "oh, that would be perfect for. . ." I snatch it up. Just in case I may need it some day. The truth is, if I started sewing tomorrow 24/7 it would take me years to get through it all. With Halloween approaching, I thought it would be the perfect time to post some of it for sale. Perhaps the fabric for your perfect costume is hiding at my house! If you are interested in any of the following, let me know and I'll be happy to take pictures of it and post it to my Etsy store for you to purchase. Most are going to be no more than $3 a yard--as I said, I have an eye for a bargain!

• Belle from Beauty and the Beast or Jane from Tarzan: a gorgeous soft yellow light upholstery weight watermark fabric. Crisp and beautiful! I would guess I have close to 10 yards of this.


• Arwen's chase dress from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: a deep gray microfiber suede. I must warn you, this is very static-y, but a little fabric softener may tame it. 60 inches wide, five yards.


• Obi-Wan or Anakin Skywalker Jedi robe from Star Wars: Rich brown crinkled cotton--yeah, the originals were wool, but what kid wants to run around in scratchy wool? I underestimated my brother's height when I bought this, but it would be perfect for a smaller Jedi. 6 yards, 45 inches wide.


• Aayla Secura from Star Wars: Am I really ever going to paint myself blue? Not likely. I have a few yards of brown snakeskin print cotton for her top, and some beautiful faux leather for the contrast and her accessories.


• Jane Austen fans wanting to be Elizabeth Bennett or Emma Woodhouse: I found some gorgeous windowpane check sheer fabric. I think it was supposed to be for drapes, but can you imagine how beautiful it would be as an overlay on a Regency gown? I have six yards each of white and creme.

That's it for now. . .let me know if anything catches your eye!

Twice as Nice

Here's one of my experiments in over dying. You can see what a difference using an acid dye vs. a pigment dye makes. A pigment dye washes out to a soft, stonewashed looking gray--the acid dye remains a vibrant black. I then over dyed this one with a fiber reactive dye. A little extra work, but a nice effect!

Matching Skirt and Veil Sets. . .and Finally, Red and Black!

I finally have a few more things to post! I've been experimenting with acid dyes, and have gotten some interesting results.



Here's one of my favorites, a black silk belly dance veil with fiery red borders. I've also made a handkerchief skirt to match this one. It's the same pattern I used to make our troupe skirts a few years back, so see my previous post for instructions. I've made up eight of these skirts in total--while a simple design, they take a lot of work so I'm not sure if I'll be offering them in my Etsy store very often. (In other words, they may go fast so if you'd like one dyed with a matching veil in a certain color, email me!)


Here's a much lighter version of the same red dye--it turned out more of a bright cherry red. Still not quite the stop sign red I was hoping for, but it's getting closer at least. click on the photo to see where this one has been posted in my Etsy store.

More belly dance goodies to be posted soon!

Two more!

Another silk bellydance veil or two for your Etsy shopping pleasure!

Silk Bellydance Veil Hand Dyed Fuschia Pink and Purple



Silk Bellydance Veil Hand Dyed Turquoise, Purple and Fuschia Pink

New Bellydance Veils Posted

I added a few more items added to my Etsy store tonight! Click on the links to go to each individual page:

Bellydance Veil Hand Dyed Silk Purple and Fuschia Pink


Bellydance Veil Hand Dyed Silk Turquoise Blue


Bellydance Veil Hand Dyed Silk Fuschia Pink Silver Gray


Bellydance Veil Hand Dyed Silk Purple and Turquoise Blue

Scrunched?

I was recently contacted by someone who was interested in a custom veil order. She noted that in the custom listing I have on my Etsy store, I mention that I usually "scrunch" dye my silks. She asked what that meant, and it got me to thinking--what does it mean? I thought maybe a demonstration of what I meant would be best! Here are two identical color combinations from the batch of veils I just finished.


The one on the right was done by scrunching the fabric very tightly before applying the dye, which keeps the colors from mixing. As a result, you get a lot of "white space" between the two colors, and for the most part they stay separated. This is a good technique to use if you are using two very dissimilar colors which may not blend well if they combine.


The one on the left, believe it or not, was made using the same exact colors--only this time, the fabric was very loosely scrunched and I worked the two colors of dye through the fabric--scrunching it as I applied the dye. Quite the difference! You still get some blotches of the individual colors, but I work hard to make sure there is no "white space" and that the colors blend more softly.

Although they are scrunched in different ways, I like both styles--which do you prefer?

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!