Men’s – Perpetual Wonderment

Costume Catch Up

I’m rearranging the steampunk sewing area, and adding a costume closet down there to free up space in the bedrooms they’ve previously been migrating between. There’s still a little extraneous stuff to find homes for (and I’m about to dump my fabric stash back in it for a while) but I think it’s coming along nicely. I won’t show you the double stacked clock and mirror though. Or especially all the chicken stuff. *sigh*

Since I’m writing anyway, I wanted to do a quick round up of the newer costumes (or just ones I haven’t shared photos of previously). As you can see, I already stuffed the dress form in a corner, so any shots I took specifically for the post are…a little limp.

Please note these are in no particular order. Well, I supposed by how they came out of the previous closet.

Princess Business – Pink pinstripe suit constructed in fall 2018. The pants ended up just slightly too small by the time I wore them to the symphony’s live Nightmare Before Christmas at Halloween. Lo and behold I was pregnant… My body is definitely a different shape now (no one mentions building out your shoulders and arms!) so I gave it away, but the highlights of the design were definitely the flowing peplum and lovely pearl buttons. The lining had a really nice feel to it, too.

Pelisse – Regency coat I made for myself in early 2019. Luckily I cut the pieces out a bit bigger the previous fall. I was so pleased that I was filling out the yellow dress I wore under it better but it turned out to be a very good thing I made the pelisse. I had to keep it on over the dress for the whole event when I popped a hook and eye! Even the very sedate dancing style (primarily walking) was fairly tiring at that stage too.

Regency waistcoats and tailcoat – Did you know that gentlemen often layered two waistcoats in the 1810s? Neither did I! But I found out when I finally broke down and ordered fancy patterns from a small seller online to make updated pieces for Jeff. For some reason they’re just not popular enough that big pattern companies sell them? Anyway, it meant I got to use two of my fanciest fabrics (augmented with broadcloth for the back). Very fun. We were running out of time for the same early 2019 event and intended to rent – but the local costume shop was out of stock due to a high school production of Les Mis. At least they had pants, so those are still on my to-do list. But I did bite the bullet and buy wool to make the tailcoat. Of course, the folks at the costume shop mentioned they let it drape for a couple months at some point early in the construction process, and that clearly wasn’t going to happen since I had about a week. Including my promised birthday gift to my sister of going to the symphony’s live Pirates of the Caribbean (you may be sensing a theme). After unsuccessful ticket trading shenanigans, I decided sleep was for the dead and did both. There’s still some fine tuning to do at the waist as well as adding the lining (I think?) but the wool was beautiful to work with and the coat looks much better than my previous attempts.

1950s (surprise maternity) coat – So before I got so excited about wool, I actually decided to try making myself a 1950s coat from some of our extra fleece blankets. This was another fall 2018 cut, spring 2019 construct. The wind tends to blow right through it, unfortunately, but there are enough panels that with my paranoid extra seam allowance there was actually plenty of girth for pregnant belly. Which is good, because by the tail end of spring it was the only thing that fit. I cheated on the buttons – they’re just for show and it actually closes with snaps. So it’ll be easy to give it a little adjustment for the fall.

Cinderella – I didn’t make this. I got it from a theatre group that got it from a dress shop that I can only assume was meant to be for a Quinceañera or something. I just barely squeezed into it for a Halloween party in 2018 (again, turns out I was pregnant). I’m so glad I had a chance to wear it before it moves to its next home.

Jaeger – Have you read Girl Genius? No? Check it out. Anyway, the jaegers are great. Their dialogue is written in dialect, they’re obsessed with hats, and they make for a great costume. I never figured out the makeup so never wore it fully assembled. I…when did I make this? I don’t know! Anyway, because the military jacket fastens with elastic straps that part still fits. I tried it on for a (literally) hot second in honor of watching Hamilton on Disney+.

Walkaway Dress – I don’t remember when I made this either, but it’s a project I’d been wanting to do for a while. I bought the pattern after finding a tutorial for it online. It’s just a gorgeous look, and I was looking forward to playing with contrasting colors of fabric and bias tape from my stash. Fairly quick and easy, though I prefer to wear it over another light colored dress. I really liked the button I picked…not that it shows.

Sideless Surcote – Fall 2018 again. I wanted something medieval, to use up the red from my stash, and finally put this awesome trim on something. So in my mass cut out of patterns, I cut this one too. I may even have finished it that fall, too, because it was about the easiest of the things I was prepping. Now I need a new kirtle to go underneath. Probably going to have to buy fabric for that though.

Cersei, complete (and Jaime too) – So I never actually wrapped up the story of Cersei and Jaime. Er…too soon? I ended up fairly pleased with the bodice and sleeve embroidery. The lions were, shall we say, an approximation. Jaime was interesting. I really just made the coat. Out of…vinyl? Pleather? It fed through the machine quite nicely, actually. The real trick here was buying lots of accessories, honestly. So once they were ready…

We took them out to the local Comic Con. Wandered the vendor area and the halls. Saw three versions of Daenerys. Attended a music panel. Followed a Daenerys into a restaurant across the street and made a silly post about it. Showed it to her before we left. She was amused.

And I think that’s that.

Mechanicsburg Vest, Part 2

I decided to line the Mechanicsburg vest in the same fabric as the shirt. Cue more rolling…not really. The fraying bits are all tucked into the middle of the fabric sandwich. Getting there was a process though. I used the vest itself as a pattern again and may have neglected that little thing called seam allowances. I was also using the pillowcase from the sheet set, and didn’t want to add more fabric. Well, once I got my armholes set in (one at a time, unlike when I was working on the kimono/vest), the front right and left were decidedly short on coverage! So I got some more strips from the top hem of the top sheet, and tacked them on, and got my top, bottom, and side seams set.

For decoration/fastening, we decided on some cute little blue buttons to go on both left and right, which we’d ultimately like to connect with some brass chain. So there’s a bit yet to go on this piece, but it’s pretty close to done.

Mechanicsburg Shirt

Unlike replicating the trousers, making another renaissance shirt (once again taking some of the bagginess out) was an experience with a smooth flow from step to step with a very hard to work with fabric. It was slippery and it wanted to shred. Constantly. I rolled every seam under and stitched them down to keep tiny magenta bits from floating around everywhere. Needless to say, there were still many tiny magenta bits floating just about everywhere.

Oh! I did have to go shopping for this fabric, to complement the vest-in-progress. We ended up selecting a set of sheets at Goodwill. So the collar and cuffs are from the top hem, meaning I had less fiddly sewing, holding and pinning to do to get them in place. Though I did somehow forget how I wanted to handle that part of the process, meaning the collar might sit a bit oddly. I still need to add a hook and eye at the collar, and buttons at the cuffs. NOT FUNCTIONAL BUTTONS. Not with this fabric’s propensity to shred. But I do have some pseudo-Roman coin buttons that will be perfect.

Regency Breeches

So this is me cheating again. Instead of finding a closer to period pattern, I planned to take some of the bagginess out of the renaissance trousers and just replicate the process I used before. Plus, you know, add the appropriate front closure and also some cuffs. Are they cuffs at the end of the leg? Anyway. I digress.

Yes, you’re probably saying to yourself, you digress quite a lot. Why am I making regency breeches? Let me tell you through dialogue:

Me: I have good news and bad news.
Jeff: What’s the good news?
Me: There’s a regency ball in Lansing on April 8.
Jeff: Ah, so the bad news is there’s a regency ball in Lansing on April 8? And you want to go?
Me: See, you’re getting better at this!

There you have it, folks, I need more than just a fun dress for me. I have to dress (er, let’s amend that to “put clothes on”) him too. Second pun notwithstanding. Sorry.

I got out a checked (houndstooth?) length of cotton from the stash, which was much easier to work with than the green stuff. The yoke only wobbled a little bit as I put it together. On the other hand, I learned some awkward lessons about precision cutting and piecing with patterned cloth. It looks fine from a distance, and probably even moderately close, but please don’t examine with a fine toothed comb! The other uncooperative aspect was my brain. Seriously, every piece that I could sew in the wrong direction – upside down, turned around – I did. So despite the easier sewing experience, I think it still took longer than the last version.

As for finishing touches, I actually fastened the waistband and front closure with snaps, with decorative buttons from my stash to merely give the illusion of usefulness. The other two buttons are functional, with buttonholes and everything. Still a bit baggier than I’d like, but since I haven’t mastered trousers yet, it’ll do.

Making Tunics, Part 2

I started by sewing Jeff’s under tunic, the soft beige cotton (sacrificing the probable underskirt for the Regency dress). I mentally compared it to the vest I’d recently fitted, and knew I had a problem. Jeff couldn’t get it on. I added a triangular gusset under each arm. It was still too tight, so I added another, this time with the point up. Finally it was close enough.

I left the sides of the heavy red over tunic open through the torso. There just wasn’t enough fabric left to add back circumference. I hacked off the sleeves, put in the seams on the skirt, and called it a day. The rough, unhemmed look seemed like the best choice for this simple outfit – I guess we’ll have to hope that we won’t use them enough to need to wash them!

I moved on to the soft brown linen I wanted to be my own under tunic. As I started on the side seams, I realized I’d cut and/or sewn it at the wrong placement and rotation – I’d used the torso for the sleeves, and ended up needing center front and center back seams in addition to side seams. I started piecing it together, and added what I’d intended to be a skirt panel to the center front to get enough girth. The next panel became triangular gores on either side to widen out the hips. I added skirt panels horizontally instead of vertically, extending the length more slowly in order to get all the way around. The front was still shorter than the back by the time I was through, but it ended on the selvage so I could once again skip the hem. It was much shorter than I wanted.

Then I went back to the rough beige almost burlap that was left. With the sleeves and side seams stitched, it was a tight fit. And a bit scratchy. I cut off the sleeves and added them to the ends of the brown tunic as a decoy longer sleeve. That eased up the fit a bit, too, I expect. Rather than fine tune any further, I got out the minuscule bit of fake leather I was saving for Jaime (where it wouldn’t have been enough) and made belt pouches. The best bit? The belts themselves are just lengths of black cotton rope…because Lily’s a chewer, and we’d already bought a 100′ coil of it to avoid the $10 charge every time she wears one out.

If I get ambitious between now and April, I might try to make us caps…

Making Tunics

(Sing the title to the tune of “Making Christmas” from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I dare ya.)

Remember the friends from out of town potentially going to an SCA event only a couple of hours away this spring? I thought we might want to have something to wear. Of our own. That isn’t completely anachronistic gauzy stuff like my renaissance lady.

So I started browsing tutorials. And found one that basically consisted of “fold material in half selvage to selvage. Fold material in half again the other way. Lay folded t-shirt on top (with neckline at double folded corner). Extend lines out from sleeve (straight) and bottom of shirt (diagonal). Cut. Sew seams. Hem.”

Friends, I ended up orienting three of my four cuts incorrectly. Also I had much less fabric than anticipated for most of them. I also grabbed a random t-shirt out of the costume closet which may or may not fit Jeff anymore, did not add seam allowances, and did not account for the t-shirt’s stretch. Even my own tunics were too small.

So do yourself a favor and when you read the early part of the directions about measuring yourself…do that, and adjust the t-shirt guide accordingly. For the rest of the adventure, tune in next time!

Mechanicsburg Vest

So I started on the vest for Jeff’s original character in the Girl Genius universe: a Mechanicsburg reporter. Spoiler: the pattern for this vest is the same as Sherlock’s, minus the flipped over collar. I’d kept out a couple of pattern pieces with the precut fabric (apparently to check on the darts? except they were already chalked) but not the directions, so I worked mostly from memory with a quick glance at Sherlock for reference on the pockets. It went pretty well! I think the top of the pocket liners weren’t attached quite right, but no one will be able to tell, and the outside looks very nice.

Much to his chagrin, I did have to put the vest on Jeff inside out to find out what else had to be done to snug up the fit. Luckily, I put it on inside out to begin with, so the pins were on the correct side. It ended up coming to an interesting point in the center back which almost makes it look like it’s made from a total of five pieces of fabric instead of three.

That’s a Wrap!

I finished up more little things, which means today has lots of pictures!

First I got out the Sherlock/Jaime shirt and whipped up some cuffs. They’re certainly not perfect, but they give the right appearance. The cuff links go right through the cuff to the shirt itself and back. They’ll need to be safety pinned on the opposite side to keep them from pivoting like they did in the picture, though. Of course, Tink wanted to help…

Then it was time to make up Sherlock’s prop bag. As with Irene’s, I took the two-sided fabric that wrapped the kimono (choosing the plaid side this time), sewed up the bottom and sides, added horizontal stitching for the bottom of each pocket, and cut open the pockets. There are spots for pipe, watch, belt, magnifying glass, hat, and scarf.

I quickly did a pair for the Doctors from the fabric cut off the bottom of the kimono, with much less detail this time. Just three big pockets for the iconic Converse tennies, K-9, and everything else (sonics and ties for both, of course, plus brainy specs and psychic paper for him and a khaki headband for me). The K-9s still take a lot of space.

One last set for the fantasy renaissance outfits, and this project is done for now. These were the kimono sleeves, so they’ve got side openings instead of front. Both hold shoes on the bottom, with hose on top for him, and outers sleeves on top for me. All of the prop bags got stitched directly to the hangers as well – so that’s a dedicated 3-4″.

2017 Sewing Goals

I’m using a time wibble again because I didn’t quite feel up to posting on the 12th; I’d made no progress to speak of on the mash up, wasn’t ready to share my embroidery progress on Cersei, and hadn’t cleared my next project (yes, I have three major WIPs now) with my sister. But I spent some time browsing sewing blogs last night, and aside from becoming more discouraged about the a-historical nature of the mash up, I think it would be worthwhile to lay out my sewing goals for the year (skipping links this post – if you’re new, browse the costume tag!):

Obviously, I need to finish up several of my current projects:

Finish historical mash up gown
Finish Cersei
Finish Jaime
Finish new repurposing project – more info on this soon!
And maybe finish one more item from my box of old WIPs?

Deadlines are really useful for me, and I just found out my local museum is hosting historical teas this spring, so I’d like to add:

Foundation garments for Irene
And maybe a new leg o’ mutton sleeve blouse?

And then Jeff and I are planning to at least hang out outside of Comic Con this year singing nerdy music, so we want some more costumes for that. We’ll take Cersei and Jaime one day, and we could easily use Sherlock and Irene again, so then I’ll only need to choose 1 or 2 of the following pairs:

Inara & Atherton Wing (from Firefly’s “Shindig” episode)
Rincewind or Vimes and Susan (from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series)
Mechanicsburg reporter and false female Jäger (inspired by webcomic Girl Genius)
Or (and this is my newest idea, and thus a late addition to the list) Giselle and Robert (from Enchanted, because my mom has a very appropriate set of floral curtains she’d like to replace)

Plus one stretch goal, I think, using a nice pale yellow from my stash:

Regency day dress

A New Shirt for Sherlock

So in reality it is now December. Jeff read through the archives this week and sheepishly came downstairs to tell me that he enjoyed it and he’d really like me to write more. He’s even set it up for RSS, apparently. Therefore, using the magic of publishing dates (break? what break?), I plan to flood his feed. *evil grin*

Fittingly enough, this first post is about him. Er, his clothes. That new shirt for Sherlock we were planning on (which will also be part of the base for Jaime) was ready in time for him to wear to the local ComicCon (marathon-made the night before, of course).

Honestly it’s been so long I’ve almost forgotten the exact details of how I made it…and it doesn’t seem to be in the costume closet, so I can’t check seams. Because I couldn’t possibly go upstairs right now. Nope.

So I started with a big piece of white fabric from my stash – the only one that we felt was really the right texture to translate to Jaime. I’d planned to use the renaissance shirt pattern again, but despite being a lot of fabric, it wasn’t enough fabric. So I draped it.

By which I mean I folded it over itself, cut a T for the neckline, and shoved it over Jeff’s head. (I did ask first!) I made him stick his arms out and pinned the bottom seam of the sleeve in place – with a few adjustments for desired elbow motion. Then we discovered it sat funny at the shoulders, so I ended up cutting the original arms out and shifting the rough outline of the torso lower so I could put in proper shoulder seams.

new-sherlock-shirt — The finished Sherlock look!

I think I did some pretty good 3-D thinking, building a lining into the neckline (which is rounded in back and has a straight line opening
down the center front). By which I mean none of it ended up attached to the “right” side of the fabric. Hooray!

I got to use a massive cheat on the cuffs – they were right on the selvage. And then we cut into them to add cufflinks… If I ever upgrade the piece at all, adding detachable cuffs so it looks more formal for Sherlock is item #1.