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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
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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 have been hard at work on my bustle dress lately, I promise! Instead of taking more photos of each stage of the process, I have been filming it so I haven't had much progress to post online. I am hoping to finish this gown in September, however I do have a pretty busy schedule at the moment, and it has been difficult to balance work, drivers ed, and my sewing. However, I still have made quite a bit of progress, so there is a slim chance that I will finish it this month! Fingers crossed... I also have a talk at a school next week about Cosplay. I am not a cosplayer, as my costumes are my own designs, but since they are inspired often by movies and such, it is a good fit! I am very excited to share some tips for making more unusual garments and for starting sewing. For my bustle gown, I so far am very close to finishing the bodice, and I have draped the skirt and apron. The apron is just the draped part at the front and back of the dress that is the trademark of the 1880s. All I have left to do for the bodice is put some boning in the lower half to keep the bodice as wrinkle free as possible, and to put on the sleeves. For the skirts I need to sew the sides and add the waistband. Other than that, I just have a few other things to do to finish of the ensemble! ~K
I finished the undergarments for my bustle era dress, so now I can start the main dress! Before that, I went out and took some photos of the undergarments, which include the combinations, corset, a bum-pad, and a petticoat. The bum-pad goes up more than out unfortunately, but I think it will look nicer once the dress weighs it down a bit. It is made of two stuffed crescent shapes, one smaller one stacked on top of a larger one. I made sure that it didn't go past my hips, since the style of the era is all volume in the back with none in the front and side. On top of the bum-pad is the petticoat. It is made of muslin (like all of the other parts, other than the corset) and eyelet lace. The lace is from an old dust ruffle that we had. I cut the lace off of the dust ruffle and tea-stained it to match the fabric as much as it could. The shoes that I am wearing with this are, as always, from DSign Step, a Canadian company. I also wore a pair of knee-high black stockings to finish off the ensemble. Here are a few photos of it on my dress form, when I was still working on the petticoat. I can't wait to get started on the dress now!
~K I am so thrilled because I have finished a second piece to the puzzle that is my bustle-era dress! I have been working on each section of the ensemble from closest to the skin to the outer layer- first were my combinations, now the corset, and I am currently working on the bustle and petticoat. The corset was made entirely of scrap fabric. I was gifted the fabric that I used as the outer layer, and I thought it was stunning! Unfortunately there wasn't very much of it, but there was the perfect amount for this corset. The lace that I used is the same vintage lace that I used at the neckline of my combinations. This is fully boned with heavy-duty cable ties, and I used grosgrain ribbon for the boning channels. I also used the same grosgrain ribbon as a waist stay, which is basically just a strip of tightly woven fabric that goes at the place with the most stress- the waist. It keeps the corset from stretching out too much. Although it is not historically accurate at all, I used grommets for the laces in the back of the corset instead of hand-sewn eyelets. This was partly for strength, and partly to save some time since I am very excited to get started on the actual dress. Even though they aren't accurate to the time, I think it looks quite nice. Since I had so little of the fabric left, I only bound the top of the corset. The bottom just has a narrow hem instead. The busk is from a Canadian company called Farthingales. They sell corset and historical undergarment making supplies, as well as other things. They were so easy to work with, and my busk came very quickly! I am so pleased with the colour that I chose as well. ~K
I have been hard at work on my newest project, and the first thing that I have had to make is the undergarments! I decided to make an 1880's bustle gown out of my anatomical heart printed fabric, so I have been working on the proper undergarments. The first thing that I have finished are a pair of combinations! I am quite thrilled with how these turned out! I used Simplicity pattern 1139 as a base pattern (just for the bloomer part of it), and changed it quite a bit to make a pair of combinations that were inspired by ones from the 1880's. I used some muslin to create the combinations, and trimmed them with some vintage lace that I was very generously gifted a while ago. The buttons on the front are all vintage as well. I thought that it looked cute with the unmatched buttons, so I didn't even try to find matching ones. On the bottom I have a different lace that I bought at Michaels and then tea-stained for it to match the fabric. I used a light blue ribbon, also from Michaels, to tie the bottom. These are split-drawers, meaning that the front seam is not sewn together. This was done through the 1800's so that the women could use the bathroom without having to take off their bloomers, and once combinations were created, this feature was especially important since the only other way to get the bloomers off would be to take off everything else on top of it! Since finishing this, I have been working on the other undergarments that will go under my bustle dress- a corset, a bustle, as well as a petticoat. I will blog about those as soon as I finish them! I am so pleased with how this came out, and I am so excited to keep working on the other pieces of this project! To see more pictures of this and other things that I have been working on, check out my instagram ~K
For my newest project, I have decided to print my own fabric!My mom (her blog is here) carved a stamp for me, and I printed it onto a grey cotton with fabric ink. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted, and I knew that it would be very unlikely that I would find a fabric like it so I decided to print it myself. I am thrilled with how it turned out! It took me between an hour and an hour and a half to print each chunk of fabric, which was 2 yards long. I printed 3 of those, and I am sure that it will be enough fabric for what I want to make with it. You can also see for the first time in these photos our combined studio space! I am still in my little storage closet, but this table is perfect for cutting out pattern pieces and such, so it's really great to have this second space. I have been busy over the past few weeks, so stay tuned to see all of the projects that I have been working on. I will also let you know what this fabric is for in my next post!
~K I just recently finished an embroidery project for Voice and Vision, which is a program through my local library. The idea is that there are an equal number of writers and visual artists, and they exchange their work. Each writer will then have a piece of visual art to inspire some writing, and each artist will have some writing to inspire a piece of art. Our deadline was the beginning of August. This is only the second time that I have done a piece of embroidery- the first time was for a school project. So this project was mostly experiments with different stitches and such. I am very pleased with how this turned out, especially since I haven't had much practice before making this. It took me about a month to do, mostly just working on it while I was watching tv (Indian Summers is amazing by the way, and a really great show to stitch to because the costumes are stunning). I have been busy with other things as well over the past few weeks- I have been planning and researching for new projects, getting my proposal ready for MakeFashion, and I just recently got a job as a cosmetician at a drugstore. I have also been sewing, and I am almost finished a section of my newest project. ~K
It only took me more than half a year, but I finally have everything to show you some of the behind scenes when it came to making the Dream Dress for MakeFashion! The reason that this post took so long to become reality is that I actually lost the photos of the dress in progress. Thankfully, I found them so I can give you a bit of an idea of what the inside of the dress looks like, since it actually has more detail on the inside than it does on the outside! The whole process of making this dress for MakeFashion was such a great experience, and I learned so many new techniques! I am very excited to hopefully be able to work with them again.
~K If you would like to see pictures of the final project, here is a link. I filmed the whole process of making my 1940s styled dress from yesterdays post. If you have any questions about the process, or if you want to see more videos like this, let me know! To see more photos of the finished dress, click here. The music is from bensound.com ~K
I have finally finished my wool suiting 1940s dress that I have been planning on for a while, and I am really pleased with how it turned out! The dress pattern that I used is the Vintage Vogue pattern V9082. The whole pattern fit very well, and the only adjustments that I had to make were to the darts. That was an easy fix to ensure that it fit me perfectly, and the rest of the dress went together quickly. The pattern called for a hidden zipper, but I prefer to set the zipper in normally because that makes it stronger, and I have had the issue of hidden zippers getting caught. One detail that I am very proud of is the matched front panels. This happened completely by accident, and I love how it looks. The sleeves have two pleats in them to create a 1940s silhouette without any padding. There are so many photos that I like from the photo shoot, so I will put a break and you can see more if you would like.
Also, stay tuned for a video about how I made this dress over the next few days! I finally took a few photos of my finished Regency stays! They are three layers of cotton with very minimal cording at the front. The entire garment is hand sewn. This was a bit of a stash-busting project, so everything except for the bias binding was from my stash. The stays were also drafted by me, based off of a few Pinterest photos of original stays from the 1810s. The middle and lining fabrics are a brown cotton that is from worn out sheets, so it is tough fabric. The front white fabric is a white cotton that I have had for ages. I decided to bind the stays in turquoise for fun, since binding is such a long and sometimes tedious job. Next up in my Regency wardrobe I need to make a petticoat. This will be another stash-busting project, since I have the perfect materials for it already. I would also like to make a summer spencer (basically a short coat) out of a light blue linen that I have, and I also would like to make a few changes to my dress that I posted about here. ~K
I have been intrigued with quilting for a while now, but so far I have never tried it. I decided to learn some new skills by making a small quilt as a present for a teacher. The fabric that I used is from a bundle that I received as a gift a while ago. I thought that the colours in the cotton fabrics went so well with the cotton sateen that I decided to use it as a backing for the quilt. The quilting that I did was very simple, since I have only ever tried it on some test pieces, but I like how it turned out. The entire front piece is hand sewn together, and the quilting was done by machine. It was finished off by hand as well. Since this project turned out well, I have some ideas brewing for a pair of 18th century quilted jumps. Jumps are basically a pair of stays without the boning, and they were often worn by working class women. ~K
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