Back from Vacation and back to work

Well I got back home from visiting my family on Tuesday night and the first thing I did on Wednesday was do some test dying. I had to test the fabric I picked for the Sansa Stark order, I wanted to make sure the fabric could take a dye and hold the color. Thankfully it does, but I made a tiny mess in my kitchen. I got purple dye on my floor, I'm not sure how it got on the floor. Anyway I'm going to get one of those big plastic tubs to dye all of the fabric. I have 14 yards for fabric I have  to dye and my little pot isn't going to work.
I start pattern work for the Sansa dress on Thursday, I still have a bit more tweaking to do on it before I can start on my muslin. I'm happy with the pace I'm going at with the dress.

In other news..... I have a few more projects I want to work on this year for a con I'm planning on attending next February. these will be great for my portfolio but they will have to wait until I've finished the Sansa dress.

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I've been a busy bee

For the last few weeks I have been working on a few projects. Most of the projects are for my vacation and a birthday costume for my nephew. I going to Atlanta tomorrow to visit my mom and my sisters for two birthdays, a graduation, and just fun family time.
Last month my mom called me and told me her plans for her birthday, she want to go to the Renaissance Festival.  I love a Renaissance Festival so I was excited, then she asked if I could make something for her to wear. Now she didn't want a whole costume so that was good. I also made two new dresses to wear, one that will be great for my nephew's birthday party theme. Pictures of the two dress when I wear them.

  anyway I'm glad I'll have this week plus + break cause I got my first costume commission. Yay!


I have to pack and get some sleep. I have to prep for the long trip.

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New member of the family

MY SEWING FAMILY THAT IS!

I finally bought a new sewing machine. My first  brand new sewing machine since I got my little blue soldier(a Kenmore) for a Christmas present 10 years ago. so now that will make me a mother of three now, and I am just beaming with joy. Joining my two Kenmores is a beautiful  Brother CS6000i, yes I did a brand change.

I wasn't looking for anything fancy right now just a machine that did the basics and if it had some cool feature, cherry on top. I was also on a very tight budget since buying a machine wasn't apart of the plan for another couple of months. But sadly my two Kenmores aren't working like they used too and I just don't have time to go get them fix and wait for them to get better.
After doing some research on sewing machines, this is the first one I ever bought on my own, I settled on the Brother CS6000i. This machine had great reviews and seem to be on top of every best sewing machine list i came across. BUt beside all the postive I read about the machine the price really is want won me over. I was not only within my budget it was 57 dollars less then my budget.

So far I have been working on a few projects with my new baby. I completed the Oz skirt, the Barbie dress, a under skirt and my nephew's birthday costumes. Pretty easy projects to break her in before my next costume project.

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Drum Roll...........Finally the dress

After months of hard work I present to you my first historical costume an Eggplant and Champagne Robe a L'anglaise / a la polonaise. My little cousin was kind of enough to snap a few pictures of the dress yesterday. We took a few outside and some inside. The fabric looks different in natural light, it's not as shiny as it looks in the pictures taken inside. ANYWAY ON TO THE DRESS.


After planing and making all my undergarments it was time to start on my dress. I chose the colors Eggplant and Champagne  because my bedding colors are similar, the eggplant color is a darker purple but the champagne is the same. I love my bed so I went for those colors. This dress was a pain in the butt to make. I was crawling the floor, on top of tables, and standing on chairs to get things done. But in the end it was worth it. Of course it's not prefect, there are thing that need to be fixed, changed and adjusted. A lot of those problem might be fabric related because I didn't have them when I did my muslin. I have some gaps at my closure I think I might need to add more hook & eyes or maybe adjust my breast and stays for less pull. I also had  problem with the sleeves but I rather not revisited that nightmare.I'm happy with how well the dress look even with some minor issues. It's my first 18th century dress and I have made all the notes about pattern changes and adjustments.  Whatever stresses and roadblocks came my way I worked through them and kept going.
 I wasn't shooting for the greatest dress ever made I was just hoping for my best and that's what I did.

 robe a la polonaise version. my loops are a little uneven cause I could seen behind myself. And no matter how long I ironed the wrinkles just keep coming back.(I need to get a steamer) 

Decided to wear the bum pad instead of the hoops. Going to save the hoops for the next dress.

robe a l'anglaise version. I love having the train.

My dress looks so shiny and  I look  like i have so much powder on  under this lighting.

peek of my clocked stockings and shoes

For my hair I decided just to do a simple pouf, nothing special and it's all my hair. I really didn't feel like working with the wig at the moment. And with Belle coming out in a day and seeing Gugu Mbatha-Raw's natural hair 18th century pouf I decided to wear my own natural hair. I've had some hair growth in the past months so I was amazed with how high my pouf got with no teasing.

BELLE out May 2nd

I'm excited to see this movie for a lot of reasons. Maybe I'll wear my dress. do you think I can wear stays while I eat nachos.

  

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18th century shoes and more

I finished my Robe a l'anglaise/polonaise last week. A joyous day indeed was the day I completed the longest project I ever took on. I could have done flips but I was so tired I went to bed and took a nap. I'm ready to take pictures of the dress but I have to work on the my hair and of course my shoes.

When I frist decided to start this project I ordered shoes from American Duchess. I ordered  the 18th century based Kensington leather shoes in ivory. I wrote a little post about them when I ordered them HERE. I got them the first week in April after my last layaway payment. Company plus for me was the layaway plan, it's a lot easier on the wallet when you are on  budget.
Anyway my shoes came and I opened them up and they were so beautiful. I already love getting new shoes but I was so happy to finally hold them. I guess the wait and knowing they were coming increased my need for them.

What's inside the shoe box. The shoes, Dauphine shoe buckle, replacement heel caps, and a free sucker(yum!) and pin.

Dauphine shoe buckle

I have to attach the buckle to the shoe. At first this seems like a daunting task but after reading and watching the instructions video on the buckle sale page I was able to get them on the shoes. pictures will come later with the dress.

I was still working on the dress when the shoes came so they stayed in the box until I finished the dress. I had the dress and I had the shoes, I now needed stockings.

I searched for stockings everywhere, I even gave making my own a go. It didn't work out. So I just went on and ordered a pair of 18th century stockings from American Duchess. I ordered the a pair of white Clocked Silk Stockings. They arrived yesterday. I was a little hestaited to order them because I have big legs and even after measuring I barely made the size cut off.

Stocking package plus another free sucker( they are good) and pin.

I tried the stocking on and they can make it over my knee to my thigh. The only problem is they didn't stay there so I just pulled them up to my knee and folded the cuff. The stocking cover my knee and that fine, I'm short and I don't have much leg to cover.

Everything is coming together. Now to work on the hair.

ALSO HERE'S A SNEAK PEEK OF THE DRESS

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Sunday Roses

Sunday was Easter and that means pretty dresses and hats.

I knew I had to make something pretty to wear. I needed something bright and fun. It had to say SPRING IS HERE. I want it to have a retro feel and be comfortable cause I was going to be doing some cooking. I was very Stepford Spring picnic.

It's been a long time since I had a new Easter dress. I think the last time I had a new dress for Easter I was about 10 years old. That a long time for a girl not to have a pretty dress for Easter. So this year I decide that this year I would make a new dress for Easter. I used my go to  circle skirt pattern and  I used the top of a dress pattern I had. I made a few adjustment to the bodice before I started  sewing.

first I made the skirt

Second Day: was bodice work. my facing flipped out. I also made a test button, my first button.

Button making on the third day

After tacking down all my facing my dress was ready to wear. Slipped on a petticoat, I wore my royal blue one. I love the way the blue looks with the yellow. 

Thanks to my cousin Anissa of TE STUDIOS for the pictures. We tried out her big fancy camera instead of my little camera with a mini makeshift photo shoot.

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Dress Update!

I'm almost done except for a few little adjustments that need to be made before I add the trim. For a few days I didn't work on the dress for a couple of reasons. I worked on and finished my Easter dress and I was having some sinus problems. Hand sewing with a sinus headache was never going to happen. I have finished everything except the trim, which will be simple.
It's taken longer to finish this dress then expected.

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