Sunday 30 June 2013

Costume modification

Back in October I made Disney's designer Aurora for an awesome full group of princesses. In two weeks time I'm running race for life with a friend and we decided to do it add Disney princesses (again! 2011 we dressed as Cinderella - ball gown and Ariel - pink dress), this year as Aurora - pink dress and Ariel - mermaid.
I decided the easiest thing to do would just be to modify the designer version, while it's not 100% accurate and also not perfect (well the update did only take about an hour and a half...) I'm still pretty pleased.
I will do a proper post about the original dress soon I promise!

Saturday 29 June 2013

New patterns for work

Recently I've been looking to make some clothes for work. Being 5'10 makes it difficult to find nice work clothes that for properly. For example a dress I wore the other day is meant to have a natural waist line, I wore it pretty much as an empire.
So I order two new patterns, the first is a collection of vintagey styles, fairly reminiscent of the 40s can't decide which one to make first! I'll decide probably after I've been fabric shopping. (Though I do need some pattern paper to extend these properly.


The second is a nice twist on the simple bodycon, with diagonal tucks on the front and back.
This one I'll be making from my lovely raspberry knit jersey that I have a massive stash of

Thursday 20 June 2013

Long time no see!

OK wow, I haven't updated this blog in so very long!

If I'm honest I just didn't really have the drive to do it, and didn't feel like there was much to say. but looking back over the things that I've created since my last entry, then, well I'll be the first to admit I'm wrong! Additionally I've been busy getting married and having an awesome honeymoon in New Zealand with the Mr, so have been pre-occupied!!

SO what have I made since 15th Nov 2010?

  • A tonne of costumes (as some of you may recall I'm what's known as a cosplayer - I make replica costumes from existing sources, e.g. Anime, sci-fi, comics etc).
    •  Princess Aurora - Disney's Sleeping Beauty
    • Cinderella (ripped dress) - Disney's Cinderella
    • The Beautiful Enchantress - Disney's Beauty and the Beast
    • Effie Trinket - The Hunger Games film
    • Seven of Nine - Star Trek Voyager 
    • The Evil Queen (Regina) - ABC's Once Upon A Time
    • Twisted Fate - League of Legends (a very quick costume for my brother) 
  • Dresses
    • My 3 bridesmaid dresses
    • A kimono sleeved slinky dress
    • A 50s style halter neck, with a full circle skirt
    • A simple black dress with 3/4 sleeves and an A-line skirt (for work)
  • Skirts
    • A cherry print half circle skirt with side seam pockets
    • A fully lined pencil skirt (for work)
And to be honest probably loads of other things that I just can't remember right now! I will try and start back-filling the blog with photo's and some how-to's on some of the things that I have made. At the very least some 'lessons learnt' from a couple of projects!

Looking to the future projects, I have recently bought three patterns from Gertie's collection . For those that don't know Gertie, she is a (mainly vintage) sewing blogger I have been following for years, and last year released a book and 4 additional patterns. I highly recommend following her! www.blogforbettersewing.com

First up, I'll be making this lovely little number from some fab muted raspberry jersey-type fabric I pick up a while ago.




Then this gorgeous number for some good friend's wedding in September. I have yet to buy fabric - I just can't decide!


Then I'll move onto something completely new for me - A coat! Again I don't know what fabric yet, I'll see what the shops start to stock in wool blends, but I'm currently thinking a light pattern, possibly in the blue or green shades.



So yeah that's the jist of the last two and a half years. Next post will be on my most recent dress, the slinky kimono!