Spring Floral Colonial Gown

My second colonial gown! I can't have enough of these. I don't have the right straw hat for it yet, but the hat I used gets the point across.

My sketches (I'm not much of an artist! One of them I colored in the lines on the computer and it looks much better, but it was a preliminary sketch so it doesn't match the finished dress.)

 The Dress:

Alice Roosevelt Gown

My sister was to participate in her school's "wax museum" (children pick a famous person from American history, research them and pretend to be wax figures of them on display in a museum). My sister decided to be Alice Roosevelt, and for her costume she gave me this picture of A. Roosevelt to copy:

Picture she gave me

My Rendition of it

(I added the tassels for fun)

The Green Midnight Renaissance Dress

This dress is my spin off of the Renaissance times:

Green Midnight 1

Green Midnight 2

Green Midnight 3

Green Midnight 4

Star Trek Uniforms

I originally thought Star Trek was a nerd's TV show from way back when, but after being forced to watch a few I aquired a taste for it. OK, I wasn't "forced", I was trying to be open-minded by giving it a chance. I guess that means I can be considered a nerd for liking it, now. Oh well. But this project was fun because it gave a theme that I could use for my entire family (I'm not done yet)!

Emerging From Space Ship:

Uhura/Yeomen Uniform 1

Scan the Area:

Uhura/Yeomen Uniform 2

Determined Stride:

Uhura/Yeomen Uniform 3

Exploring:

Uhura/Yeomen Uniform 4

"Greetings" in Vulcan:

Spock/First Officer Uniform 1

Calm Under Pressure:

Spock/First Officer Uniform 2

Loving a Time Travel to "Old Earth":

Scotty/First Engineer Uniform

Colonial Gown

    My dream come true! All my life I wanted an authentic, well-fitted, colonial gown just like in the movies Slipper and the Rose, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. Now I finally have it!

    When I found these fabrics on sale, my mother and sister insisted on buying it for me so I could make the gown I was envisioning. It took a long time, but my perseverance payed off. It fits me just how I wanted it to, and comes it three parts: the underskirt, the gown, and the pinner cap (which I made long before the dress but made it part of the set now).

What I Changed:
The stomacher (the middle section of the bodice) is decorated by a ribbon/bow tied onto a gift I once received. It matched so well that I had to use it. The pearl buttons I bought to spruce it up a bit. The dress itself I changed by putting all the seams inside the lining rather than sewing all layers together in one seam. It would make more sense if you looked at the pattern instructions. I also used a different method for constructing a waistband for the underskirt.

Medieval Chemise

  My medieval chemise or shift. The long, flowing, unstructured gown with a drawstring neckline makes the perfect under-gown for vests or a cote hardie. I didn't make the vest (though I have made similar things) but it matched really well with the dress.
  The dress, by the way, came about because I had an odd textured fabric in a salmon color that I had no idea what to do with. I needed a chemise and there was enough of this fabric to make it.

 This picture above is just to show a little of the chemise's fullness.

 Take note of the lacing on the sleeve!

Fifties Dress with Jacket

  Its about time I add one of my historical clothing posts. This is a dress from 1957, and since its one of the only historical time periods that goes now days (besides  the 80s and 90s which do not appeal to me), I tend to go retro a lot. This dress was my Christmas dress in 2010.

 Though the slip gives it the classic fullness of the fifties, its a bit too much for now days ): So in public I wear it without the slip. But really, I like it just about the same either way.

Elf Costume 2 with Cape

  This is the second elf costume I have. (I actually made it before the other costume, but I'm posting it later which is why its my second.) This one was really straight forward as I just followed the pattern exactly as I was supposed to...Well, I never follow a pattern exactly, but it was close. I took out a ruffle around the neck to make a casing for the elastic (instead of stitching it directly onto the fabric with a zig-zag stitch) and combined the top and bottom pattern pieces to avoid an empire waist seam and another elastic. The waist cinch pattern I found in another costume pattern I had and that one I did follow the pattern...mostly. I added some boning in front of the eyelets to make them more secure, but its an alteration hardly worth mentioning.
   Below is my dramatic posing in the green cape I made long before the costume, but went so well I decided it was a set. The cape is simple and made of cheap flannel trimmed with black fringe, but it worked out better than I thought it would! All it takes is a brisk walk and it will billow out behind you. How can you get more classy than that?

Elf Costume 1

  This is one of my elf costumes. It can double as a fairy costume as well, but I designed it with "elf" on my mind. I used a prom dress pattern with a few added "leaves", no boning as I didn't have any and didn't want to go buy some, and shortened it to near half the length of the original (which would have been far to long for me anyhow). The fabric was something I already had on hand (you've probably noticed by now that I wasn't in the mood for spending money) and helped dictate the length of the dress. The green fabric was mostly a scrap when I found it, but I still managed to make every inch count in getting what I wanted out of it.

   The caplet I'm wearing was made by sewing several triangle of cloth into a circle. I then cut a hole into the center of the circle big enough for my neck and finished the raw edge with bias tape made from the same cloth. Then I hemmed the opening in the front of the caplet and added hook n' eyes and the acorn buttons for decoration. I used pinking sheers to the finish off the raw edge at the bottom of the caplet for a more rough and leafy look.

~As a side note, I'd like to mention that I did mange to make the whole thing without one trip to the store. I always consider such projects as a triumph.