Costume College 2015

Time for a brief Costume College recap.

I didn't make any new costumes for Costume College this year, and I didn't want to go without costumes, so I brought the three most recent things I've made or acquired.

At the Friday Night Social, I wore a 1950s-inspired cocktail dress. I made this for a special occasion in March, and will do a separate post on it later.

1950s-inspired silk cocktail dress, with my best attempt at a '60s bouffant.

For part of Saturday I wore the 1920s ensemble Lynn McMasters made for her new turban pattern. I'm really lucky that Lynn likes to use me as one of her models. I'm not super fond of having my photo taken, but frankly I'll do anything Lynn asks.

1920s party dress designed and constructed by Lynn McMasters. Photo courtesy of Val Labore. She blogs over at Time Traveling in Costume. Val is funny and creative, go check her out!

And finally, for the red carpet walk prior to the Gala, I wore the gown I made for the Bustle Tea last year. It has some updates, and deserves a full blog post (which I'll get to sometime soon).

Photo courtesy of Noelle Paduan. See more at her Flickr.

Other highlights from Costume College include: seeing the ladies from The Tudor Tailor again, for the first time since I attended a workshop with them back in 2007; the always fabulous Cathy Hay; seeing some of the Web's most beautiful and talented costumers in person; lectures with fantastic folks like Jennifer at Historical Sewing, Ithylwyn, Amanda Irwin, Rory Cunningham, Heath Hammond, who I think said he was affiliated with the English Warbow Society, and many others; the goodies I had not meant to buy but that came home with me anyway; and, of course, catching up with everyone in my costuming "family," I love you guys, your talent, and your endless creativity.

Jane Malcom-Davies of The Tudor Tailor with your author.

Jennifer of Festive Attyre (as the Grey Lady from Harry Potter) with Merja of Before the Automobile (which has got to be one of the best blog names ever).

Goodies from The Tudor Tailor! An autographed copy of "The Tudor Child," a copy of "The King's Servants," a pamphlet titled "'And her black satin gown must be new-bodied': The Twenty-First Century Body in Pursuit of the Holbein Look," and an updated edition of their "gable hood" pattern. All of these, except the pamphlet, can be had from their website.

More from The Tudor Tailor! My understanding is that this fan was used by the interpreters at Hampton Court Palace, and before that this was a prop in the movie "Shakespeare in Love." For real. Ray Fiennes may have touched it.

And yet more from The Tudor Tailor! I believe the necklace an earrings were used by the interpreters at Hampton Court. The necklace needed a minor repair, so I got it for a steal. The lace is just-to-die-for reproduction Reticella that can also be had from their website.

From Dawn Sklar, the trims and buttons vendor. I normally reject ribbon trims because they look too machine made and modern, but this one is pretty darn passable. Stay tuned, this may some day soon appear on an 18th century dress....

Antique rhinestone parure that I picked up in an antiques shop in Santa Barbara. I don't have a date for this set, and I'd wager a guess that it's no older than the 1950s, but it could pass for Edwardian. Besides, it's blue, it's pretty, and so it's MINE.

Turbans! Turbans! Turbans! (Photo Shoot)

I'm back for another quick, catch-up post. Back in April I spent a day hanging out with Lynn McMasters to model for her. She was (or still is) working on a pattern for turbans for various time periods. She has lots of friends who model for her millinery, including, on occasion, me.

If you follow Lynn on Facebook at her page, "Out of a Portrait" you've seen this photos before, as well as pics of her other fabulous models and hats. If you're a member of Facebook and don't follow Lynn, scoot on over there and follow here to get the scoop on her up-and-coming hat patterns.

Turban No. 1:

This one is based on a late 18th century headdress. I can't recall the name or artist of the portrait that Lynn used as a model. The outfit was provided by me.

Turban No. 2:

Jumping forward over a century, I don't recall what time period Lynn attaches to this turban, but given the hairstyle she probably means

Turban No. 3:

Still in the Jazz Age. This one features a fun sash and crazy feathers. Lynn made the dress.

Turban No. 4:

1920s or '30s. This one came in two pieces. The "dress" is one of my favorite sari's, creatively wrapped.

Lastly: this is not a turban, but Lynn needed photos of this really cool, lace-brim hat.

MakeFashion at Maker Faire

Hello! I'm here! Yes, I'm still alive. Just popping in for a quick post (hopefully the first of many).

Last weekend I went to Maker Faire for the first time, to model a dress made by my good friends at Amped Atelier (that's a link to their Twitter feed), Sahrye and Hal. This was for the MakeFashion fashion show. MakeFashion is one of the groups that regularly participate in things like Maker Faire.

Frankly, I was a little terrified. I'd never walked on a runway before. But the MakeFashion folks were very cool, organized, and prepared, the models and designers were fun, and in the end I just relaxed and had a good time. And besides, anything for a friend.

Photos and video should eventually be uploaded at the MakeFashion website. As of today, I believe you can see a video that includes the dress, worn by the lady who modeled it in Calgary.

You can find Sahrye and Hal on Twitter @ampedatelier, and also on Instagram.

Sahrye also blogs over at It Came from the Stash.

On the runway, during the closing.

The dress came in two pieces, the turquoise and black sheath dress underneath and the hoopskirt that went over. Multi-color LEDs lit up the deep vee neckline, and also went down the back. The hem of the hoopskirt featured a scrolling marquee.

Amazingly, the dress fit just about right, even with my odd dimensions.

I also want to point out the two ladies in the background of the photo above. The one in yellow had two prosthetic lower legs, and the one on the right had one. The prosthetic were  beautifully carved, and lit up from the inside. Not only was that just NEAT, these two women just worked the crowed like you wouldn't believe. They were AWESOME.

Outside, in daylight.

My makeup and hair were by Sahrye and our good buddy Mia. It featured a LOT of glue-on rhinestones, and glitter, yes glitter, painted on my lips. Looked great under the runway lights.

The dress was quite a hit. After the second show, two different people came up to me and asked where they could get one.

Wish I had more pics, but unfortunately I wasn't behind the camera this time. Hopefully soon we'll see some official pics from the MakeFashion folks.

New York Society Tea 2014

Yesterday the Greater Bay Area Costumer's Guild hosted its not-quite-annual New York Society Tea at The Palace Hotel, San Francisco. This event is often also called the Bustle Tea, since the time frame is late Victorian. No fewer than two of my sewing buddies have birthdays between Christmas and New Years, and both of them wanted to be costumed for their birthdays. So we decided to make this year's tea a bit of a birthday party.

An afternoon spent with my gal pals, in costume, is always a blast, even more so after going nuts for weeks on end getting a new frock ready. More on that later.

But who wants to read me talking? Just enjoy the photos!

The two birthday girls, Ms. G and Sahrye.

Noelle and Mia.

Ms. D and Ms. H.

Total attendance was something near 50.

Mr. Hal and your friendly neighborhood blogger.

Birthday girl, Sahrye.

You may recognize Sahrye's dress as Mina Harker's dress from Bram Stoker's Dracula. Sahrye did an awesome version of the dress. She blogs over at It Came From the Stash! Head over there to read more about this fantastic dress.

 

I love Mia's dress above for how absolutely period it looks. Small wonder, here's the dress she used as a model:

Dress, 1879, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ms. H provides our obligatory anachronistic moment.

Tea was followed by shenanigans in the bar.

Lastly, here's yours truly.

More chit-chat on this dress (and what is up with my hair) will come later. Right now I need to rescue my house from multiple weeks of frantic sewing.

Button Confessions

I confess: I love covered buttons.

Well, truthfully, I love all fussy, hand made buttons. But since I have an embroidery machine, covered buttons are the easiest for me to make quickly.

Here's a set I stitched up last weekend:

Embroidered covered buttons, ready to cut out. I made more than I think I need because there was space in the hoop. And it never hurts to have spare.

My plan was to make these up using the technique I learned from Nancy Nehring and her book, but I only had twelve period accurate bone button molds. In the above photo you can see that I planned for twenty buttons. So I got a bunch of who-cares-what-they-look-like, slightly domed plastic buttons and went to town. Best to save my bone molds for when the center hole matters.

Instead of more authentic bone molds, I used cheap plastic buttons to cover.

I've used the packaged covered button kits in the past, with both fantastic and disastrous results. The old-fashioned technique, though, has given me consistent results, so I stuck with that.

Clip, clip, stitch, stitch. These go together pretty quick, for me at least.

It took me less than a day (stitching around my full time job) to make all 26 buttons.

Seriously awesome, right? And really easy.

These buttons are going onto my current project, which is getting its first wearing at the GBACG New York Society Tea next weekend. A full post on the outfit will come. Stay tuned!

Early 20th Century Fat Bottom Purses

OK, I confess, I'm a lazy blogger.

I haven't posted in a while, not because I've been too busy to craft, but because I just haven't felt like it. I know, terrible. In fact, I've been ding quite a lot of crafting, mostly knitting and on and off mad sewing.

Here's something I finished since my last post: a pair of silk clasp purses that I've assigned to the early 20th century.

Silk purses with brass clasps and chains.

I got it into my head to make a clasp purse over -- *ahem* -- two and a half years ago. I need more period hand bags, and I hadn't made a purse on a frame before.

They're shaped with a fat bottom to accommodate plenty of stuff.

I was enamoured with a fat bottom shape, and made these large enough for my on-the-large-side phone.

It fits a sub-phablet phone in a bulky case.

Of course the clasp had to be big enough, too.

Yes, my phone is a Tardis. It's bigger on the inside.

So, I bought the materials and embroidered the sides, and (like many of my projects) put them aside.

Fast forward to last fall, and I'm trying to clear off my work table. I finally sat down and threw these together. Though after so long, and despite having the pattern I drew handy, I forgot that I had given them a 3/8" seam allowance. So, well, their shape is not exactly what I had intended.

Exterior is duchess silk. Interior is taffeta. Brass frame and chain, rayon embroidery, glass beads.

The outsides are duchess silk and the insides are taffeta. The clasp and chain are brass and the embroidery is rayon.

The one without the fringe is going to Lynn McMasters, who made the beaded fringe.

One unfinished project done, umpteen more to go!