Big, Big, Big Day!

Yeah, it's been a while.

I'm trying to move this blog more towards what it was intended to be, a costuming/history blog, and in that effort I decided not to post until I had something, well, costume-y to post about. So . . . Halloween:)

After my original plans sort of didn't prove feasible (and based on my belief, backed by science!, that no one wants to see a fat girl in spandex) I decided the frigging week before Halloween to change my entire costume. Because I like an insane challenge.

Every time I went into my workroom, the Effie fabric I bought so many months ago would mock me quietly. "Maybe you should make a pillow out of me!" it taunted. "I bet you could sell me on eBay, and somebody would make an Effie costume out of me!" it hissed, jeeringly. Yes, my fabric does this. Shut up.

Truthfully, I felt really guilty every time I saw the pile of Chinese brocade and the gold boots just sitting there, unused. So, I had a flash of brilliance (?) and decided, around Thursday the week before Halloween, that I would be Effie Trinket after all. No pressure or anything.

Saturday morning I got up at 7am and started laying out and cutting. I used a basic pencil skirt pattern; I don't even remember which one, and it doesn't matter. Any pencil skirt will do, as long as it's the correct length and it fits. Then, I used one of the darted bodice 1860's Martha McCain patterns from Simplicity for the jacket; I cut it like a Civil War bodice and fitted the lining, using a Sharpie to mark out the cuts for the armscyes and the opening in the front. It took a little while to get it right, but once I was happy I used the lining/mock-up to cut the outer fabric and once that was together, I made the shawl collar. Like a real kimono, this was not a curved piece; just one long, straight, folded over strip of fabric. I sewed the bodice together, leaving the armscyes and bottom edge open (for the pouf, which I was making Sunday). The belt was just a costume belt that I encased in the same fabric. Easy-peasy.

Sunday dawned around 7am as well, and after a sudden brown-out (don't you love LA?) had me panicked, the power came back and I got back to work. I measured out 4 yards for the pouf. I had a couple choices: I could make it just a tube of gathered fabric, or I could reduce the bulk slightly and make the underside smooth, gathering the bottom and top edges of the pouf to it. I decided not to worry about bulk; after all, this was supposed to be a big bubble peplum, and I went with the gathered tube of fabric. I hand-gathered (I HATE machine gathering!) and then sewed the peplum to the jacket, the opening in front, and stuffed the pouf with tulle. The sleeves were next; no pattern, just eyeballed it. Once they were done I hand-stitched the armscyes closed and did the rest of the finishing hand-work.

The under-blouse was just a dickey of cumin-colored silk taffeta; it took me around ten minutes to do that part:) The whole thing needs to be hit with the iron in this pic, but this was the first time I put it on the mannequin to look at it together.

And, voila! If I were to wear it again, I would find a method for getting the jacket to stay more closed in the front; my boobs are, after all, much larger than Elizabeth Banks';) Otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I did do the little doo-hickie on the back of the skirt; I glimpsed it in one photo and improvised, figuring it would mimic an obi bow.

The gold silk looks really green here; unfortunately the flourescent lights in my office turned all the gold green and really washed out the makeup. Oh well. I did win the costume contest at my office, though:)

My pics ended up posted on Elizabeth Banks' website, along with many others who dressed as Effie for Halloween; I was tickled to see them added. I hope everyone jad a lovely holiday, and I'll do my best not to be so antisocial in the future:)

Happy (Steampunk) Halloween!

Yep; the Steampunk ensemble is finally done;)

And, yes: I really did go to the office dressed this way!

The Money Dress skirts have certainly gotten a workout, and they saved me quite a bit of work this time around too!

I intend to gussy up the goggles some more, but this was all there was time for . . .

Ta-dah! And next weekend I get to wear this again, for Comikaze;)

This is Halloween . . .

I am a HUGE fan of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas; it's one of my favorite films, period. And, this is, well, awesome. It makes me want to drive out to Riverside, CA just to see this house in person.

Steampunk Progress . . .

My sister came to visit this weekend! Yay! I went to the Mission at San Juan Capistrano with her and my brother-in-law, and a lovely time was had by all. But, when I wasn't visiting with them, I was working on my Halloween costume.

I've had to scale back my Halloween plans this year due to budgetary comstraints; most of what I have has either been purchased very cheaply or is repurposed from things I already have. But, it's still going to be fabulous. The bodice above is the new steampunk bodice for the ensemble, draped for the most part, though it is loosely based on a Truly Victorian pattern. It's underbust, but I'm not a big fan of how I look in underbust corsets (hi, Dolly Parton!) so I designed this to be worn over a regular corset. The bodice is boned, but is not designed to draw you in at all. You can't quite see the collar due to the fabulousness of the blouse (can you believe I bought that a few years ago at Forever 21?), but the collar is actually pretty cool: dark green silk velvet, fanning out and standing up with sass. The front will close with hidden hooks and eyes, and those brown leather straps and buckles. There's no real reason to have the detachable straps with buckles, they just look cool;)

I'm going with a brown bowler; I feel like the top hat or tri-corn is done to death in this genre, and I wanted to do something a little different. The motorcycle goggles need to be spiffed up, but I probably won't get to that before next week. My favorite pats of the costume you can't see yet: I'm going to be wearing leather bracers covered in wires and gears and little doo-hickies, and I made a leather holster for the giant bronze flare gun I just happen to have in my possession. It already looks totally steampunk, but I will eventually trick this out too.

Add to all this the skirts from the Money Dress, and I'm ready to take over the nearest airship. I just hope I can get it all done by next Monday;)

Steam-powered Costume . . .

After far too long saying I'll do it, I'm finally making a Steampunk costume. I have nowhere to go and nothing to do on Halloween, but not having something new to wear just seems inconceivable to me. And since I've become the master of pulling stuff out of my ass for very little money this year, I'm making a new bodice to go with my Money Dress skirts, and cribbing most of the stuff from materials I already have. The bodice is adapted from a TV pattern, but I've changed almost everything about it, so I can't even really claim the pattern I started with! I'll try, somehow, to get pictures of the full ensemble, and post them here. If I'm allowed to dress up at work, I'll see if one of my coworkers will take some pics. Otherwise, the good, old timer function will at least get some passable shots, if not stylish;)

Halloween Plans . . .

The original is a tad more vibrant, but here is the colorized version of the Halloween costume plan. Let's hope I can pull it off;)

The Winner Is . . .

Here's a preview, as yet uncolored, of the winning Halloween design! Yay! I'll probabaly end up wearing a tank under it to cover up my midriff (especially if I wear this at work!), but I'm pretty excited to get started. I'll put the finished image up, once it's colored, and we can compare the costume with the sketch come October;)

Looking Forward . . .

So, I think I have to give up on San Diego Comic Con for this year. It would be silly of me to spend money on a costume I probably won't get to use, when by next year I might have an even better idea. It's time to look at Halloween.

So far, I have two radically different notions for a Halloween costume: an Ancient Egyptian ensemble, or a Victorian Fancy Dress Costume. Each presents interesting challenges:

The Egyptian Queen costume would require me to work with Wonderflex for the first time to craft a headpiece similar to the one in the picture above, of a bird wrapping over the head. I would also need to build a collar, and probably construct my own braided wig (the options out there are ghastly!)

The Victorian Butterfly costume (very loosely inspired by the idea in that drawing above) would entail building another corset, making a lot of blue morpho wings out of fabric, and creating a set of wings.

Both choices are pretty interesting. Naturally, the Victorian one is more familar, but I've been wanting to do Ancient Egypt for quite a long time. I'll probably make the final decision in the next few weeks and start getting materials, but I'd love to hear some opinions on which you'd rather see me do:

What do you think, dear readers? Should I go back to Victorian England, or Ancient Egypt?

A Grand Costume Indeed . . .

A friend of mine recently commissioned a Grand Admiral Thrawn costume, and I was happy to oblige with both the costume and the makeup! As I've posted before, thrawn is my favorite Expanded Universe character, so I was pretty excited to tackle this project. I was fairly happy with the results, despite a few setbacks with the costume!

I'll go more into depth with the construction in a later post, but using the McCall's 4745 pattern was the perfect starting point.

The sleeves ended up too short (i'll be cutting new sleeves later for it!) and the collar vexed me (it wouldn't lie perfectly!) but all in all, I think it was pretty successful. And, the makeup looked pretty cool; I used Mehron Liquicolor in blue as the base (over white), and lowlights in blue/black. You can't quite tell in these photos, but he was wearing red scleral lenses too!

Hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween! I know mine was busy and fun;)

Happy Halloween Weekend!

 

Hope everybody has a wonderful, costume-y, safe, fun Halloween weekend!  Unsurprisingly, I'll be pretty busy with parties and costumes and hanging out with friends. I hope all of you will be having lots of fun plans as well!

What plans do you have for Halloween, dear readers?

Recipe Fridays!

Jack o'Lantern Tarts

from Martha Stewart

I haven't made these in awhile, but I have not forgotten the deliciousness that are these little tarts. They are like mini pumpkin pies; I mean what could be better than a pumpkin pie you eat with your hands?

Ingredients

Makes 12

All-purpose flour, for dusting
1 1/2 recipes Pate Brisee (Pie Dough)
1 fifteen-ounce can solid-pack pumpkin puree
3 large eggs
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk

Directions

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one disk of dough to a 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out six 6-inch circles. Fit pastry in bottoms of six 3 3/4-inch fluted tart tins. Trim overhanging edges. Place tins on an ungreased baking sheet, and transfer sheet to refrigerator; chill shells until firm, about 30 minutes. Repeat with second disk of dough, lining six more tins.

Roll out third disk of dough to an 1/8-inch thickness, and cut out twelve 3-inch circles. Place circles on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and transfer to refrigerator. Chill until very firm, about 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, eggs, honey, sugar, 1 cup heavy cream, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. In a small bowl, lightly beat together egg yolk and remaining 2 tablespoons heavy cream. Remove the tart tins from refrigerator, and brush crusts with egg glaze. Divide filling among shells.

Transfer baking sheet to oven, and bake tarts until edges are golden brown and filling has set, about 30 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks to cool.

Remove chilled pastry circles from refrigerator. Using a clean utility knife or a sharp paring knife, cut a jack-o-lantern face into each circle. Chill faces in freezer 15 minutes. Brush faces with remaining egg glaze.

Transfer baking sheet to oven, and bake faces until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

When pies and faces have cooled, place one face on each tart.

Recipe Fridays!

Sweet Bones

from Martha Stewart

Meringue can be a pain in the ass to make, but nothing compares with that crunchy, light-as-air taste that literally melts in your mouth. And, these are so frigging cute!

Ingredients

Makes about 18

6 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Put egg whites and sugar in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of simmering water; whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and mixture feels warm to the touch, about 5 minutes.

Return bowl to mixer, and fit mixer with the whisk attachment.Beat on high speed until very stiff peaks form, about 8 minutes.

Transfer meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain round tip, such as a Wilton #1A. Pipe bone shapes, each 5 to 6 inches long, onto two baking sheets lined with parchment paper (as shown below). Bake until crisp throughout, about 1 hour. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Spectre of the Past . . .

So, I'm a huge geek.

My parents owned and operated a science-fiction store when I was born, and I slept in a crib in the back room surrounded by comics and toys from Star Trek and Dr. Who to X-Men and Star Wars. My parents actually met through a Star Trek fan club, and I have been raised on Kirk and Spock and Vader and Skywalker. So, I have a special place in my heart for doing Star Wars costumes. When a friend of mine from Faire approached me about doing a Grand Admiral Thrawn costume for him for Halloween, I jumped at the chance; not only is Thrawn one of my all-time favorite Expanded Universe characters, but I nearly did his costume for myself a few years ago.

If you are a fan of Star Wars but have somehow not heard of Thrawn (gasp!), go out immediately and buy Timothy Zahn's incredible Heir to the Empire trilogy, and the later sequels, Spectre of the Past, and Vision of the Future, in which Thrawn returns. He is a kind of evil Sherlock Holmes: cold, methodical and brilliant, he nearly single-handedly brings back the Empire, and does it all while talking about art and drinking tea. He's fascinating, and I couldn't wait to delve into the costume.

I started with the McCall's Civil War Uniform pattern for the jacket, M4745. It's a very good base for an Imperial uniform; it even includes a piece for the taberd in front. I had to heavily modify it, or course, but I'll be posting on that soon.

It's nearly done, and I can't wait to post pictures of him in the costume (I'm doing his makeup too!) Stay tuned for more to come!

Recipe Fridays!

Devils on Horseback

from Martha Stewart

I know, I know. This is way too simple to even have a recipe. But it's so friggin' delicious! Try it, I dare you. Just, don't eat too many; they are prunes, after all;)

Ingredients

Serves 8

8 slices bacon, cut into thirds
24 prunes, pitted

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil. Wrap bacon pieces around prunes and secure with toothpicks. Bake on sheet until bacon is browned, about 15 minutes, flipping halfway through. Serve warm.

Rocketeer Dress Diary- Part 1

So, The Rocketeer Dress is nearly done, and I still need to post about it! Sorry! I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to take oodles of pics and post step-by-steps about this one, but I promise I will soon. A few notes about making the dress:

The pattern I used is an out-of-print pattern from Vogue, a Badgley Mischka design that was the only current pattern I could find with the essential zig-zag bias-draped skirt I needed. The rest of the pattern was pretty close, but did need some alterations:

-The front had to get a center seam, and I eliminated the darts in order to add the two gathers for the "buttons". The gathers served the same function as the darts would have.

-The bustline was lowered from the pattern, and I curved it to give it a more sweetheart shape.

-I widened the straps.

-Zipper instead of the buttons up the side that the pattern shows.

It was unfortunate that the fabric I ordered, a 100" silk charmeuse, turned out to be a much lighter momee than I was expecting. It made the draping and sewing a lot harder, and the resulting dress does not have the body I was hoping for. It's also pretty sheer! I had to double the lining to make sure nothing could be seen that I didn't want seen! All in all, it's okay but not great, in my opinion. It still needs the side zipper and the hem and it makes me wish fervently that I could lose 20 pounds before the end of the month (shiny white silk! What was I thinking?!), but I'm glad to have the chance to finally make this dress.

I'll be posting a more detailed dress diary soon; stay tuned!

New Projects . . .

Well, my autumn is certainly starting to fill up with projects! Ant other time, and I'd probably pare back on sewing and millinery jobs, what with a 2000 mile move and a wedding in the next 4 months. But, I need the money desperately, so I'm taking any and every commission I possibly can before I leave. So, I'm going to be one busy bee!

First up, I'm meeting this week with a burlesque performer for one or more projects with her and her partner. I'm terribly excited; I love burlesque, and the thought of doing something dripping with rhinestones and feathers appeals to me;)

Next, a friend has asked for a Grand Admiral Thrawn costume for Halloween. Squee! He has always been my favorite Expanded Universe character; in fact, I almost made a costume for myself several years back. I'm looking forward to it.

Then of course there's the project that won't make me any money (but won't cost me any either!): my Rocketeer Dress. I'm excited to get started, and might actually start making it this week, to clear the schedule for actual paying clients;)

Whew! I'll keep y'all updated on the projects, and hope they help me get to Cali! I'm still pretty short on the funds I'll need, but I'm doing what I can, looking for a second job, just trying to make it work. Cross your fingers for me. . .