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So my old eBay logo was looking a little outdated, so I decided to take a new stab at it for my Etsy store.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!

Vampire Eras, Finished

Here are our vampire dresses, finished! Mine was made using the "Shakespeare in Love" style Elizabethan pattern by Simplicity, now out of print. My sister's is the Josephine-style Regency pattern by Butterick. I took the train off and raised the neckline on hers, and skipped the skirt's cartridge pleating on mine, but other than that I followed the patterns pretty closely. The black crushed velvet is fantastic stuff we bought online from Sy Fabrics, the colored organza fabrics were clearance table finds at JoAnn's (blue--leftover from the Beauxbatons collars) and Hancock's (purple). Probably my favorite fabric was my underskirt and sleeves, which was a black crushed organza that I found on the Walmart $1 table. Bottom line cost on both gowns was probably $25 each. Not too bad!

Vampire Eras, Step One!

So this year's crazy Halloween theme centers around vampires. (Basically, my friends and I just wanted an excuse to make cool, gothic-inspired dresses.) We originally planned to be a bit more matchy-matchy, but it's evolved into kind of a neat idea--each one of us will be wearing a style from a different era. So perhaps were got stuck with the fashion sense of the time we originally lived in pre-vampire? Anyway, my friend (and fellow Beauxbaton) is doing Tudor with a twist, my sister is going Regency (possibly with a miniskirt!), and I'm going Elizabethan. Mainly so I can recycle my costume to be Titania for our school's Shakespeare carnival too. =)

Anyway, here's today's progress--the embroidery for my bodice. Not much to show for hours of watching my Bernina struggle with metallic thread and rethreading every three minutes or so. (Thread's fault, not the machine's, I think.) But I'm quite happy with the finished product. All three dresses will have black crushed velvet bodices, with organza skirts in a jewel tone layered over black lining.

Fleur Costuming 101

Since I've had a few requests for more specifics on this costume, here's some help, pattern and fabric-wise, for those who may want to make their own.

Fabric:
The blue silk-like material for the dresses is called silkessence, and I've only found it at JoAnn's. It's fabulous stuff--washes and wears like a dream, doesn't require much ironing, and it's CHEAP! (We got ours on sale for like $1.50 per yard--always use a coupon!) A great alternative to cheap costume satin, which I despise using. =)

The collars and cuffs are out of organza--I got it at JoAnn's too, and the color was called old blue, I believe? It was on clearance for $1 per yard.

Patterns:
For the dress, we used this pattern, believe it or not--McCall's costume pattern 4889. We changed the neckline to a simple round one for the peter pan collar, and combined the upper and lower sleeve into one pattern piece. Oh, and made it knee length. I spent a lot of time making the collar "just right" by looking at screen caps from the film, but honestly, nobody is going to see it with your cape on! So save yourself some trouble. As long as your pattern is empire waisted with a flared skirt and long sleeves, you'll have the right look.

For the cape, we used a pattern for a capelet (McCall's 5006), but it had shoulder seams I had to draft out. Honestly, you're better off just cutting out a circle (well, it's more oval-ish). Ours are almost a full circle and that's something I'd change--I'd cut away the front edges (so it's a more 3/4 circle) rather than trying to have them meet. We were constantly flipping them back so you could see the collars of our dresses underneath.

I'll put the underdress on my dressform and take some photos soon so you can see that without the cape. Right now I'm in the middle of making two vampire dresses--yes, Twilight fever has caught us all, hasn't it? =)

Harry Potter Mania!

Well, even though I'm not a big Harry Potter fan I wanted to say that I'd been to at least one launch party. And why not go to the last one and go big? So my friend and I went as two of the lovely ladies of Beauxbatons. She made our fantastic hats (which you can't fully appreciate from this angle!) and I did our capes. Ironically, we got the most compliments on our shoes! (Which were cool, but the easiest part of our costumes--a fantastic find at Famous Footwear on clearance!) I'm the Fleur on the right--this is the great life-size Hagrid backdrop they had at the BYU Bookstore party.

So we spent the evening party hopping, and getting our pictures taken with a bunch of people. We were even finalists at the Barnes and Noble costume contest in Orem (if you any of you in the final group read this and took a picture, email us--ours didn't turn out!) It was a blast and now I have a Harry Potter costume to add to my overstuffed costume closet! If you are attempting your own Fleur Delacour costume and have questions on what we did pattern-wise, please post and I'll be happy to help you out.

Veils, veils, veils!

I've been tie-dying a bit lately, and am selling my first batch of veils for the year on eBay (follow the link to the right to see what I have up for sale right now). I've just been doing some basics right now, but am excited to get into mixing more of my own colors. I think it's good therapy for those of us who are perfectionists, since you can never tell how one is going to turn out--so you just have to let it go and hope for the best!

Dance Costume Marathon

Well, here I go again! Here is a pic of the latest sew-a-thon--new handkerchief skirts for our dance troupe. The tie-dye tops and scarves we did last fall, but wanted something to dress them up a bit. Since we all did different colors, the trick was finding a fabric to "match" everyone. I found this great fabric at JoAnn's on clearance--you can't tell in this photo, but it is a really nice heavy chiffon, with this great galaxy motif embroidered in variegated metallic thread and tiny multi-colored sequins sewn into it. The skirt is just your basic circle skirt, only cut in a 58" square. The waist opening is a 7" radius circle, and I cut a 3" casing of the material to accomodate a 3/4" elastic. Roll-serge the hem and you're done! I love these skirts because they're easy to make and they work for a variety of sizes--the only alterations I had to do were lengthening or shortening the length, since I cut the waistline a little large so it gathers in a bit.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Gold Dress Finished

After someone just asked me about the sleeves on my gold Elizabeth dress, it occured to me that I never posted a completed photo! Unfortunately, the night I wore it we were in quite a hurry getting ready, so it's not the best--but at least you can see how it came together. I really need to finish the panniers to wear underneath it, and hem it properly--as you can see it's dragging a bit here. Next time I have my colonial corset on, I'll take some proper photos!

Phoenix/Jean Grey finished! (Well, kinda. . .)

I'm not very good at this "dress diary" thing, I think because I'm impatient! When I sew, I do a marathon--and stopping to take pictures just isn't on the agenda! So here's the semi-finished version of my Phoenix/Jean Grey costume. I say semi-finished because I didn't get a chance to do my shirt to wear underneath (ran out of time) and the boning is causing a bit of a problem in the front where it buckles a bit. So it still needs a bit of work, but overall I was quite happy with it! The jacket pattern, believe it or not, is a Regency era spencer/pelisse--I used Jennie Chancey's Sense & Sensibility pattern and extended the turned-back collar and made the skirt paneled (pleated in the front, gathered across the back). The corset is from a Butterick pattern, with some modifications to the front seams, fake "hip pieces" sewn into the top layer, cutting off the top and adding two inches to the bottom. So here's a pic from the party I went to last night--ran into a Wolverine and couldn't resist taking a pic!