Halloween!

Oh Halloween, the time of year when I could be making just about anything.....
I was commissioned to deconstruct an 80's prom dress and turn it into a reasonable facsimile of the dress Molly Ringwold wears in Pretty in Pink. Not exactly spot on, but a fairly faithful reproduction, in spirit anyhow. This one is quite a bit shorter but I hated the length of the actual dress in the movie. It's an updated homage to the dress.....






*update*
Here she is wearing the dress....

Wedding dress

I will update with photos from the bride when I get them......
This is a sheath dress of dupioni and antique
lace.











Its a really sweet story, the grooms grandmother wore a beautiful lace dress when she got married. The dress looks like it is from the thirties, it had a very long gored skirt and really great chevron shaped waistband piecing with long sleeves and at one time had self covered buttons all the way down the back.




















His bride didn't quite fit into it so it was remade into the back panel on the dress including covered buttons and a shrug to go over it in case it gets chilly at night.

mutations 4 and 5

The vintage dress pattern from previous posts has mutated again twice.
The fourth mutation manifested as as a tank dress with bust darts and gathered side panels and a bustle at the back. The lining has an attached row of pleated taffeta, and it will eventually have a taffeta underskirt.
































The fifth is an asymmetrical button-front dress with gathered side panels,
pockets and a square neck.

New Collar

More fun from the Victorian pattern drafting book....
This is a collar for an opera cloak. Great volume and height thanks to the canvas interlining. This is just a test, more on this later.

Edwardian Ringmaster costume

Costume for Mr. Gherkin, director of the Picklewater Free Circus. Jacket is based on an Edwardian style tailcoat with exaggerated split tails. Breeches are based on jodhpurs with velvet ribbon trim down the outseams.

cool weather jacket

Not a heavy jacket by any means but one warm enough for most the weather in this neck of the woods.
We have been working on this for a few months. Truly a collaborative project. He designed it and I think it turned out well and looks like nothing else out there.

muslin habit mockup

I was completely inspired by Dior's recent fall collection full of beautifully done riding habits. The colors and fabrics lent themselves to the inspiration so well and those top hats!!! Every so often I like to challenge myself with something I have never done before just to shake myself up. I know it is not something which is super functional, and its not often I go to the closet thinking "why don't I have a riding habit? " but I guess desire has little to do with utility.

This is a mishmash of Victorian and modern pattern making techniques. the first attempt at the skirt was out of an awesome Victorian dressmaking book. It looked like Greek to me for the longest time, then suddenly a few weeks ago it all clicked. The lines and numbers all made sense.

Until I sewed it together.

It went together beautifully, the asterisks
(*old fashioned notches* - how charming!) and darts matched. The difference between the volume of the skirt in the illustration and the volume of the skirt in reality was too much to ignore, I know people were smaller back then but this was ridiculous! Even a slip of a woman would be hard pressed to walk in it without getting her legs tangled in it and falling on her face.
So I drafted an 8 gore trumpet skirt with plenty of volume between the knee and ankle and *Voila* passable riding skirt, even enough volume for a tab and button to hold the back of the skirt up, so I don't get caught on my side saddle.
The jacket has two piece shaped sleeves and shoulder seams that have been pushed back and are on the bias. I love how that looks once the sleeve has been set, and even more I love the way it fits. Its a little tight on the center front but an extension is easy enough to fix, and next time, bigger buttons and less of them for sure!
Eventually this will be made in some sort of darker colored fabric - not sure what color yet, or where I will wear it, but worse comes to worse, I will wear it to work. I don't think anyone would be surprised.