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Since my Curiosities collection is based on the 1880s, I have most of my undergarments for them from my Frankenstein dress. The only things that I have had to make to go under these dresses were a bustle cage and petticoat. I could have used the bum pad that I made for my Frankenstein dress, but I wanted a more dramatic silhouette, and I have always wanted to make one. I talked about making the bustle cage in the last post, and once that was done I draped a petticoat over it. It is just muslin pleated onto a waistband with a lace bottom. So far I have made two of the skirts, both of them are very simple. They are draped in the same way as the petticoat, I just draped them over the bustle and sewed them to a waistband. I have been filming the progress of each of the pieces so far, so I don't have many pictures. I will put out the video once I have pictures of the final products.
~K
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I finally started on my newest project- a collection of bustle dresses! I was inspired by many things for this little collection of (hopefully) four dresses, the largest inspiration being photos from the circus throughout the ages, especially the 1880s. I also have been inspired by my tarot cards (by the artist Nicoletta Ceccoli), as well as the show Ripper Street, and some of the strange vintage photos found online. I have talked about this collection before, in my Plans and Fabric Haul video, and have finally decided on a name for the collection- Curiosities. The first thing that I needed to make to before I started the dresses was a bustle cage. I made a bum pad for the last bustle dress that I did, but I really wanted to make an actual bustle cage, so I decided to use the American Duchess pattern for panniers, but I just made one instead of two. I also made the pattern about 4 inches smaller since my panniers are quite large. Next up- the dresses! I've decided to start with one that is based off of Alice in Wonderland.
~K I finally finished my 1950's styled bee skirt. I printed the bees onto a striped fabric for this project quite a few months ago, however I did not get around to making it until Christmas time. This was made with the same McCalls pattern as my scissors skirt (photos here) and a cotton fabric. This is a very simple pattern, but I love how it looks, and it is easy to figure out fit. ~K
This year was a really huge one for me, especially when it comes to my sewing. I started this blog just a little over a year ago with my Special Project in school, and it has grown very quickly with all of the projects that I have been working on. I also started a makeup and skincare part of the blog (and an instagram here) after I started working at a beauty counter to share about some of the things I have learned through training sessions. When it comes to my sewing, I have grown quite a bit in the past year! I started the year with finishing my Special Project, which took me a semester to make. Not long after that, I started working with MakeFashion. I started out just helping, and ended up making a dress with the help of an engineer! It was hectic and crazy and I loved every minute of it. I also got to go to Mexico with my family this year, celebrated a one year anniversary with my boyfriend, graduated from high school, got accepted into Olds College Fashion Program, got a job, made a dress for a televison pilot, and finished 16 projects (some of which I haven't blogged about yet). I would say that was a pretty successful year! Here is my year in photos: And a quick sneak peak of a project that I haven't posted about yet: Heres to another great and productive year! I can't wait to see whats in store for me
~K I finally finished editing my video on the In the Mood for Love Dress. I filmed pretty much the whole process of me making it, from cutting it out (using a pattern from Patterns by Gertie) to the fnished product. The music is La Valse d'Amelie by Yann Tiersen and Chris Snelling. If you want to see more of my youtube videos, my channel is here Thanks for watching! I will put up more photos of the finished dress in a post next week
~K I have been filming the current project that I am working on, which is a cotton dress inspired by the movie In the Mood for Love (I talked about this movie in my Movie Recommendations post). The pattern that I am using for it is one from Patterns by Gertie. Because I am filming the process, I do not have tons of pictures of the dress as I make it, but I do have a few behind the scenes pictures while I film myself cutting the pieces out. I will post my video up here once I'm done, and as always, I will have the pictures up here as well. I can't wait to show you the finished dress!
~K I finally got around to using my beautiful Simplicity pattern by American Duchess. The pattern was based off of the red dress in season two of Outlander. I didn't want mine to look too similar to the Outlander dress other than the shape, so I chose a mint green silk with patterns on it. I also used lace in the slit in the top of the bodice to make it feel a little more historical. I ended up having quite a few days off of work in a row, and we (my mom and I) decided to make a trip up to Banff to get photos. We live pretty close, so it was easy to drive down for the night. I got two photo shoots done- one for the Green Dress, and one for my In the Mood for Love inspired dress (I will have the photos for that one up next week, as well as a video). When we decided to go to Banff, I still hadn't even started the dress yet. It ended up taking me 3 days from cutting out the fabric to finishing it- pretty fast compared to some of my projects! During those 3 days I also had to finish the other dress that we were going to take photos of, so it was pretty hectic at the beginning of the week! I cut the pattern out in a size 6, and that worked pretty well, although it is a bit big in the bust (as you can see with the lacing). That could have been fixed easily if I had made a mockup, but I didn't... But I think it turned out well anyway! The skirt is cartridge pleated through the back, and pleated in the front. I wore it over my shift, bum pad, panniers (what makes the shape so dramatic at the hips), and a petticoat. I will do a post on the panniers in a few weeks or so. The panniers were also from the American Duchess pattern, and they came together very easily and quickly! I am very pleased with how they turned out. These photos were taken at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, which was opened in 1888. The hotel is beautiful, and even though it isn't the same era as the dress, I thought it was a beautiful backdrop. ~K
I just finished making my 1940's trousers from a vintage Simplicity pattern, and I love them! The pattern came with pieces for a pair of trousers, overalls, as well as a blouse/jacket. I decided to make the trousers, since they are something that I can wear in my everyday life. I also wanted a pair of trousers to bring with me to Germany, so this worked out perfectly! The pants are made of a light-weight mens suiting wool in grey check. This is one of the fabrics that I got the last time I went to Bhatia, and the sheen to it is beautiful! It also drapes very nicely, so I thought it would be nice for these. They close with 5 vintage buttons that I had in my stash. I am so pleased with how these turned out! They are super comfortable, and I can see myself wearing them a ton through fall and winter. The pattern was nice and easy to follow, and it only took me a few days of actually working on them to finish the trousers. These pictures were taken in front of a World War Two era tank that we have in front of our little museum where I live. Thanks for reading! My next project that I have been working on should be up in the next couple of weeks, although we are going somewhere pretty specific to take pictures, so stay tuned!
~K I recently made my way to Bhatia Cloth House with some projects in mind, and I am so excited with what I came out with! Let me know how you like this type of video!
~K As I said in my last post, I wanted to talk about how they got dressed in the 1880's, which is the era that my last project was from. Many people ask me what is on under my costumes to give them their shape, so I thought it would be good to show you all of the layers as they are worn. The first layer is called combinations. They are a top and bloomers sewn together, with a slit in the bloomers so you can use the washroom (with all of the layers worn at the time, this feature is pretty necessary). Mine are made of muslin and vintage buttons and lace. The garment was mostly hand drafted, and very loosely based on a Simplicity pattern to get an idea of the shape for the bloomers. After the combinations, you would normally want to put on stockings (I just wore wool socks for warmth) and shoes, since it is a little difficult to put on shoes with a corset on, but I forgot to put on my shoes before the corset. The corset is next- mine is a silk taffeta in a green/mustard colour with vintage lace. The busk (the front closing) is from Farthingales, a Canadian company. After the corset, there is more shaping- the bustle and the petticoat. Bustles came in many shapes and forms, and for this project I just made a bum pad out of two layers, to give it a 'perky' shape. The petticoat is made of muslin and ruffled lace, and is made to smooth the lines from the bustle. After making this dress, I will be making a boned bustle cage for some more projects in this era. Finally we get to the outer dress! My dress is in three parts- bodice, skirt, and apron. The apron is the draped fabric that goes over top of the skirt. First I put on the skirt, then the apron, and the bodice last. The finishing touches to the ensemble is the jacket (which was not made by me. I just did the heart embroidery on the shoulder), the hat, and the shoes since I forgot to put them on earlier. A proper woman in the 1880's would also wear gloves to leave the house, but since I was going a little steampunk with this dress, I thought it was okay to be glove-less. I hope this was informative and answered any of your questions about layers in the era and how to get the pretty extreme silhouette! Keep your eyes out for more steampunk styled outfits coming up! And also for a real bustle cage! ~K
I have finished editing the making of video for my bustle dress! I am thinking of doing more videos like this, so let me know if you like it!
~K I finished my bustle dress a few weeks ago, but we were not able to make it into Calgary for photos until today. It ended up being freezing! I was completely frozen by the time we got all of the photos, but I think they turned out really well! I know that I have posted a ton about this dress, but I am going to make two posts for the finishing of this- the one today will be of the actual finished outfit in Calgary (we took the photos in Kensington since it is one of the oldest places in Calgary- unfortunately Calgary isn't a very old city, so it was a bit difficult to find something that I thought fit with the dress). The second post that I will make will be about getting dressed in the 1880s, and what all of the layers look like together (including the finishing touches- a jacket and a hat). My biggest inspiration for this dress was from Ripper Street, a BBC show that was set not long after the Jack the Ripper murders. It focuses on the police station in Whitechapel that investigated at the time. I love the costumes from the show, especially Long Susan's, so that is where I got this idea from. The show is a little bit steampunk, and the dresses are more historically inspired rather than historically accurate, which I love. I enjoyed the freedom of the outfit not having to be perfectly historical, and I already have ideas for more steampunk-styled 1880's circus/showgirl ensembles (so keep your eyes out for jewel tone fabrics and bustles!). Because my inspiration was so dark, as was the dress itself when I finished it, I wanted a sort of grungy looking place to get photos. Calgary is a very lovely, clean place, which made it difficult to find something that looked anything like Whitechapel in the 1880s. We ended up just walking around Kensington to find the older brick buildings and any neat parts of the neighborhood. There are tons of gorgeous old houses in the area, but most of them look very high-class, which wasn't the goal for this outfit, so I guess I will have to make something more proper and go back for pictures! Once we were properly frozen, we made our way to Higher Ground Cafe to warm up and for me to change into something a little more appropriate for the weather. We had a lovely morning in Kensington, stopping by the Naked Leaf (who has the best earl grey vanilla tea), Crave Cupcakes, and Paiges Bookstore where I picked up a cloth bound Sherlock Holmes story. It was a perfect day, even though it was so cold! I will put up my next post soon where I will talk more about the history and how they got dressed in the 1880s (and also how long it took me to get ready in the morning). I hope you enjoyed my post, and how the dress turned out! If you want to see more of my making of posts for this dress, the links to all of them are in my portfolio, here ~K
I had the most incredible opportunity recently to make a costume for a film made by an Albertan director. I worked with Mitchell George from Crooked Cinema to make one costume for their new film Highway Patrolman. I was so thrilled to be able to be a part of this, especially since my goal is to be a movie costumer! You can check out their website here. I made a 1950's styled diner dress for the film, which was great to do since I love the 1950's and have had a bit of an obsession recently with the era. I used the same Burda pattern as I did for my 1950's Blue Dress with a few alterations to it. I made the dress in about 3 and a half days, while working on the side a bit. It was a bit of a tight schedule, but luckily enough this was an easy style to make, and I was able to find the right colour of fabric very quickly. The collar, cuffs, and apron were self drafted, and the dress was based on the Burda pattern. The dress was done mostly on the machine to save time, and finished by hand (button holes, cuffs, and collar were all done by hand). I got quite of few progress pictures of this dress, so this will be a very photo heavy post! I am so thrilled with how this turned out, and with the fact that I got this opportunity! Be sure to keep an eye out on Crooked Cinema, and for when Highway Patrolman comes out!
~K I just had a very exciting opportunity, and I will tell you all about it as soon as I can! But for now, here are a few photos of me working on my bustle dress- this was just when I was hemming it a few days ago. All that is left now are button holes, although that project has been put to the side for a few days. I will get back to it very soon, and I do have a location for photos now, which is very exciting! Also, if you haven't noticed already, I added another page to my website! I added a Self Care section, which is another blog page. Since I have been doing so much training about cosmetics and skin care with my job, I thought that I would share another one of my passions with you, and some of the information that you may not be hearing from others. I also have an instagram for the self care side of my interests, and you can see that here if you are interested. I also have some more exciting news that I found out a week or so ago- I got accepted into Olds College for Costume Cutting and Construction, starting next fall.
I can't wait for all of these new opportunities, and I am very excited for when I am able to show you what I have been working on this week! ~K Since I spend quite a lot of my time hand sewing, I normally do that while watching a movie or a tv show. There are so many great period dramas to watch, and they are not only very well done but also great inspiration to keep sewing! I get a ton of ideas from costumes, so here are some of my favourite costume movies. In the Mood for Love This is a translated movie, so if you are not fond of 'reading' your movies, I would not recommend this one. I love translated movies, and this is one of my favourites! I only watched this one for the first time this summer, and I am in love with the story line as well as with the costumes. Set in Shanghai in the 1960s, the story follows to young couples that are living in the same apartment building. It is beautifully filmed, has a great soundtrack, and the makeup, hairstyles, and costumes are all spot on. Some other gorgeously done translated films are Amelie and Generation War. The Fall This is another one that I just saw this summer, and it is more of a fantasy than a historical movie. It is set in a hospital in the 1930s, and it is about a story that a man is telling this young girl. This movie truly is eye candy! The costuming is done by Eiko Ishioka, who made some of the most gorgeous film costumes throughout the years. Some other movies that she costumed are Mirror Mirror (2012) and Dracula (1992). Bright Star This has been one of my favourite Jane Austen era movies for a long time, and I don't see myself finding a movie I love more than this one any time soon. Based on the true love story of John Keats and Fanny Brawne, this movie has everything going for it. It has a stunning soundtrack and costumes (Fanny is a seamstress, which makes it even better!), as well as beautiful cinematography. Testament of Youth This is another movie with beautiful cinematography, and it is surprisingly not very well known! Be warned though, this movie will make you sob. It is also based on a true story, set during WW1. My Boy Jack, Anzac Girls, and The Crimson Field are all amazing movies and shows set during WW1. And for those who are wondering, I am almost done my bustle dress! I am just at the hand finishing stage which is taking longer than I would like it to, but I am so close! So stay tuned for photos of that once its all done.
~K |
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