Just a few pics...

In all the last minute fitting and finishing, I managed to forget my camera!  Thankfully Anne took some photos on her phone!  I'm hoping we can get a proper photo shoot fairly soon.....

Melia and I planning a raid on the punch!
(Ignore my Silence-esque profile, courtesy of the picture frame I am standing in front of!)

Melia's Victorian 'Steampunk' Gown - Update

As of last night, Melia's gown only needs a waistband, sleeves, buttons, and the last bits of trim, and it is done!  We busted out a bodice in short order - for which I'm grateful...that gives me hope that if mine goes as quickly, I have a bit of hope that I can get my bodice done in time!

Since we had her all trussed up in a corset for the bodice fitting, I wanted to throw on the skirts and get a sense of what it's going to look like on a 'real' body....

The black overskirt is only pinned in place, and is a bit saggy in the back due to a collapsed bustle piece (will be fixed before the day!), and everything needs to be hit with an iron, but all in all, I'm really happy about how everything turned out!

I'm really kind of enamored of the scallops on the over skirt - they were kind of a pain, but completely worth it in the end.

Steampunk Masked Ball - some small progress made

I seem to be continuously misplacing my mojo - and I think my sewing machines are in on it.  (Hang in there little buddies...I'll take you in for a service as soon as this project is over!!)

It took all evening yesterday to finish up the last little bits of the skirts - I honestly thought I only had an hour - maybe two, tops to get the skirts completely done, but oh how wrong I was! 

I spent the vast majority of the evening finishing up what Melia calls her 'saddlebags' - an extra bit of flouncy stuff on top of her black overskirt.  Here's Melias skirts without the 'saddlebags' - I'll post an update after Bertha has changed back into Melia's clothes!

My skirts are finally, finally truly to the point where all I need to do is a smidgeon of handsewing at the waistband, and I can call it good:  (I opted to put the ruffle on the waterfall skirt - a large portion of what took so dang long!  The first attempt was ripped off, and the second batch of ruffles didn't turn out like the first set, so needed a lot of fiddling to get them looking similar.  Many thanks to Melia for persevering through all that unpicking, on something that's not even her gown!!

I've more or less settled on coat sleeves (not too tight, but not loose like bishop or pagoda), probably either a wrist length with turned back cuff, or a 3/4 sleeve with a small bell or turnback.  Still kind of TBD.

I'm pretty set on doing a lower square neckline (which I suppose I could fill in if occasion demands, or heck, even make a new bodice) - but what I am completely stumped as to how I ought to do the bottom of the bodice.  Of the extant gowns I've been using for inspiration, it seems to be pretty split right down the middle as to whether the bodice is straight across the front, or various types of pointy*.  The exception to is this one, that has a nifty flared gore thing going on.  I know how to handle a pointy-type bodice (the skirts just go under the bodice, right?!), but what about the flat-across-the-front kind?  Same deal?  What about gap-page at the waist??

*Gah!  One of the gowns I'm using for reference is no longer online!!

Long time, no post!

Life, blah blah blah, sorry I have not posted, blah.

Part of me feeling better has been doing things again.  Namely, sewing!  If anyone is still reading, it is quite obvious that I have not been sewing pretty much at all for about a year.

Well, the dry spell has snapped!  I'm sewing!  And it feels........good.  I've really missed it.


My sister and I are going to a Steampunk-themed Masked Ball, and as is par for the course for me RE: costuming, even though we've talked about it for what seems like ages, we've kind of started a bit late!

While I'm not a stickler for Victorian-era accuracy (I honestly don't know enough to be a stickler!), especially in a Steampunk setting, I do like to do things at least a little bit right, which means proper underthings!

I am pretty excited about her gown - it is going to be pretty awesome, if I do say so myself! Melia has been such a trooper, bearing the brunt of the 'grunt' work - pre-washing, ironing, cutting out, etc.




Thankfully, I have a victorian-esque corset in the stash that fits Melia well enough that we do not have to start from scratch!  (Even though we should make one specifically for her one of these days....)


I also have quite a selection of bustles to choose from in my costume closet, so that is taken care of too!  I made this bustle a few years back for my red and gold stripey victorian, and if I remember correctly, I used  a modified Truly Victorian TV101.

(Bertha (my dress dummy) has no junk in her trunk, and the bustle is not as boufty as it is on a real human form!)    

The 'real' sewing started with the petticoat.  We used TV201, with a few modifications.  I found that I like the way the back hangs over the bustle if I turn the pattern piece for the back upside-down, and put the curve at the waist, and the straight edge along the bottom.  Totally personal preference, and probably doesn't make that much difference in the long run.

We also made the ruffle quite a bit deeper than the pattern; but there you go.  I can never follow directions.  (Pretty sure I'm allergic to people telling me what to do!)

Melia found some amazing 109" wide white muslin on an incredible sale, and we'll be using it for both of our underthings!









And here is where the REAL fun starts!  Quite a bit of the bits of both of our gowns is coming straight from the stash - all that is purchased in this picture is the muslin and skirt lining (ok, not in this picture) and the wide gold trim!

Stay tuned for more sneak peeks into both of our costumes!