Eva Dress Pattern Contest!

So I finished my dress for the Eva Dress pattern contest!  Please go here to vote for me!  I posted a brief version of my story so as not to bother people, but if you're interested, here's the whole thing.

In my junior year of high school, while researching costumes for a play, I purchased “Everyday Fashions of the Thirties As Pictured in Sears Catalogs.”  A particularly beautiful dress with dramatic sleeves caught my eye, but it wasn’t right for the show.  Over two years later, my theatre design teacher in college gave us an assignment it was perfect for.  I used the dress for a costume design, but only a design; the dress wasn’t actually made for anything.  In the years since then, I have tried to find a pattern to make that dress.  I always thought of it as the quintessential 30’s dress, and I didn’t want to bother with any other 30’s dresses until I found it.
In 2010, I bought fabric for a costume contest that ended up being canceled.  I thought the fabric would make a great 30’s gown, and I went looking for patterns again.  THE DRESS was on the front page of the Eva Dress store.  I had a bit of a shrieking, flailing, omg moment.  So obviously, I bought the pattern.  And then I lost my job.  And then it was the holidays.  And then I started working on a show.  So it had to wait.  But when the contest was announced, I decided, come hell or high water, I WOULD FINISH THIS DRESS.  Because I have been waiting for this dress for…12 years.  I will definitely be wearing this, I don't care how fancy it is.  I plan to wear it to DragonCon this year for sure.

I made a couple of changes, taking the seams out of the front of the skirt, and adding a little godet fishtail in the back. I also opened up the back neckline, because my muslin mock-up fell open while I was trying it on and I liked the look.

The picture from the Sears catalogue

The design I did in college.

 And THE DRESS

First Official Commission

I have been reluctant in the past of taking on paid sewing jobs because I have never been comfortable enough with my own sewing skills.  Last year I agreed to help a friend with a Ren Faire costume and ended up doing a large majority of the work myself (with some help from the fabulous Kami).  I was so absurdly proud of this dress when it was done I was acting like a proud mama and pulling out the picture at every opportunity (the maroon court gown about two posts back).  So when another friend asked if she could pay me to make her a dress as well, for the very first time, I said yes.  She is playing Catherine Willoughby, a lady in waiting to Queen Katherine Parr.  The plan for the dress is as follows:

Bodice and underskirt:

Sleeves:

Skirt:

Resulting in something that hopefully looks like this:

Wish me luck; I have 3 weeks!

Stripey Inspiration

So my Mum picked up some lovely black and white striped fabric for me recently from the amazing Sewing Studio Superstore, the best independent fabric store in Florida.  I had visions of a striped Victorian gown, something very Tim Burton:

Okay, so it's not really Victorian, but it's the Tim Burton stripey dress, so who cares?  Then I was surfing through some sewing blogs and happened upon the latest Tea with the Vintage Baroness posts.  They contained some lovely fashion inspiration from the 1930's:

DAMMIT.  Now I don't know what to do...guess I'll decide when I get the fabric in hand.

It's Been Awhile...

Hi there, Regina here.  I'm the one who's supposed to be actually writing on this thing.

So due to excessive amounts of life happening, the blog has been neglected for almost a year.  I hope to keep at it more in 2012.  All of my favorite sewing blogs are doing retrospectives on what they did in 2011, so it seems like a good way to get back into the swing of things. 

It rather hard to reference baking projects after the fact, without any pictures, so let's get right to the sewing stuff.  One of my New Year's Resolutions needs to be remembering to take better pictures of my work.

First thing was a new Hazel costume for the Bay Area Renaissance festival in February.

In July, I participated in a Trashion Fashion Show, and created a bathing suit from a beach umbrella, and a hat from placemats.

I also made a formal winter themed gown.  The bodice was made out of an air matress, with handmade paper snowflakes glued over it.  The skirt is an old tarp, with coffee filter ruffles.  The fascinator is paper snowflakes that have been laminated, heated and curled.

I created a Doctor Who pinup costume that was intended for a photoshoot, but when that fell through, it became my first completed costume for Dragoncon 2011.

I did two different "group" costumes, the first being the Seven Deadly Sins, where I played Gluttony.

The second was based on the Monster High dolls, where I took the part of Lagoona.

And finally, post-Dragoncon, I created a new noble gown for a friend in the Lady of the Lakes Renaissance festival. Most of the patterning and sewing was done by me, but Kami pleated the skirt, as only she can make it quite so neat, added the ruffle to the partlet, and sewed on most of the black trim.

I also did not make the dog.

There was also a new costume created for John LeVique Pirate Days, but I have no pictures of it at this time. 

I am expecting to do a lot more sewing this year, and hopefully will keep up with blogging about it.