Friday was the start of classes. My first class was learning how to make ribbon roses and leaves. I was kinda bummed by this class because it was 2 hours long and I thought they'd be teaching us more complicated stuff, but instead it was just a simple gathered ribbon rose out of wired poly ribbon. Oh well, it's pretty.

Of course, the best part was hanging out with friends and socializing. Much more of that was done during the day. I wore my 1960s pink confetti print sundress with a cardigan, so not really dressed up, thus no pics. (Definitely my "fuck you, I made this dress" moment.) I tried to get a bit of a bouffant hairdo, but not much luck. Later I braided my hair so it would be ready for the evening social.

People petting girliegirl32786's gorgeous silk spencer:

I thought I took more pictures of the weekend than I actually did. What I realized is that it's because I was taking pictures for other people using their cameras. Oh well. I really enjoyed playing photographer for people, even though I'm not that good at it. :) I went to nuranar's "Put Your Fabric to Work" class and got all sorts of inspired by plaids and stripes. I need more bias in my life! I also took jennylafleur's class on curling hair and learned a TON. It was so interesting and informative. I loved it! It also made me want to buy all sorts of things to get good curls. :p

The evening was the Social. There were many of us Game of Thrones folk, which was super fun. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a mishap. I totally jinxed myself by telling starlightmasque that because my bodice had hooks and bars as well as snaps that I wouldn't have any wardrobe malfunctions. Then, while we were getting ready, the thread on my top hook busted, so I had to sew that back on quickly. AND THEN, at the social, the top bar busted. So I had to run off holding my bodice closed down the long hallway and back to the room to sew it back on. Yeesh! Seems like nobody really noticed though. Being too busty isn't a problem that I'd ever thought I'd have. ;p

ashamanja_babu's hand-sewn Anglaise and her hair were amazing!

More gorgeous ladies:

llyrafantasyfae looking sexy and mysterious as Red Riding Hood:


After the social was the Pink Princess Party. OMG you guys, it's exactly what it looks like in people's pictures, but so much more! (Somehow I don't have many pics of this, but others have some really great ones that capture the event much better.) That was when I finally felt like I was REALLY at Costume College, like I'd entered into the pictures that I'd been enviously staring at every year. It was also when I realized that I was with my people, people who were not only incredibly welcoming, warm, friendly, kind, generous, and beautiful, but people who made me feel like a pretty princess too and whom I could be comfortable and relaxed around. *warm fuzzies* :D

I totally wanted to steal girliegirl32786's gorgeous banyan. Silk banyans: the ultimate loungewear.


I was good and only had one pink drink. I also headed to bed at a decent hour because I knew the next morning would be strenuous with ashamanja_babu's Irish Ceili dance class.

Things I made in 2014 (some still need a bit of finishing, but are mostly done), with comments:
1. Smooth Sailing grey wool trousers: need hemming, nice wardrobe staple, will be good for when I have to look professional or something like a grown-up ;p

2. 1790s plum silk stays: technically need tape over the seams, but wearable as is, SO GLAD to finally have these done!

3. 1790s cotton-linen shift: practical and useful
( More behind the cut! )
I did a terrible job on my 2014 goals, but don't care at all. I ended up wanting to sew different things. It happens. :p

On average I managed to sew one thing per month. Not bad for me. I also tried out a lot of new techniques and made a wide variety of garments. 2015 will mostly be CoCo sewing: lots of 1880s stuff and possibly a couple of other eras thrown in, plus many more accessories! :)

I went to a Halloween house party last night. Turns out 5 of us decided to be Game of Thrones characters. So, of course, we got a group picture. :)

We have a Jaime, Margaery, Littlefinger, Danaerys, and Arya.

Me and the boyfriend. (I'll have better detail pics later.) People were very impressed. I even had a girl I didn't know ask me where I bought my dress. :)

Season 1 Arya made her own cape. She also made Littlefinger's costume out of shower curtains from a charity shop! No extra pics of the Danaerys costume, but it was a $10 dress that my friend cut up a bit to modify and had another friend take in because it was way too big.

Fun times! But now I'm so tired from staying up late. ;p Hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween!

Yay! I just finished the boyfriend's Jaime jacket and I think it looks pretty good. The hems are laughably messy, but everything else is fairly nice. As for my costume, it's just the shoulder pieces and I've got the fabric now and I have the pattern. I'm going to cut them out tonight and interface the lining. Maybe I'll even sew them together. Then all I'll have to do tomorrow is handsewing and not much of it. I hope I remember to get some pictures tomorrow of the two of us all dressed up.

I got the jacket all together with the collar and everything. I think I made the collar a bit too stiff, but it's ok. All that's left is hemming the sleeves and adding the closures. Tomorrow I am going to get back to my Tyrell costume so I can finish that off. I need to make the shoulder pieces. For this I need to:

1. make the pattern


2. dye the fabric


3. cut out the pieces: lining and velveteen


4. interface the lining


5. sew pieces together


6. sew to bodice

Not too bad and I'm pretty sure I can get it done by Friday. *fingers crossed*

My next project is going to be some Victorian/bustle stuff. I should really finish my Regency stays, but I'm feeling meh about them at the moment and I just bought a bunch of buttons for Victorian bodices (see here and here). Best case scenario, I can make all the underpinnings before the end of the year. This includes: corset, chemise, ruffled petticoat, and plain petticoat. I conveniently already have a bustle pad, so that's good. And getting back to corset making should be fun. I think I'm going to try using all spiral boning, a la the_aristocat. I find that the flat steels at CB are usually uncomfortable and twist a bit, probably because I have a swayback. Thoughts?

I finally sewed the hem on the GoT Tyrell skirt. It's probably about 3/4" too short, but I didn't want it to be too long and have to worry about stepping on it. It's a good length for that now.

I've been doing well on keeping up with my new routine. Having it all written out really helps. I have everything done today already except for working on my thesis. I'm going out for a little while this afternoon (fabric shopping with the boyfriend!) and I didn't want to get into the writing zone and then have to stop. This way I can spend the whole evening on it without having to work on any of my other tasks (except maybe cooking supper).

I finally whipstitched the skirt waistband to the bodice yesterday. Today I'm going to get the snaps on the waistband (2 sets). Progress is slow because my head and face feel all sinus-y which makes me feel like doing absolutely nothing. The most productive thing I've been doing is reading (for school stuff), cooking suppers for the family, and I left the house today to do some errands. That wasn't fun. The weather is much cooler now than a couple weeks ago and it was windy today. So moving between that and really warm buildings gave me some not very nice sniffles. :p

After being picky about my skirt yesterday, nuranar had the great idea of weighing down the hem to make it less poofy. I was speculating as to what would make good hem weights that would be hanging around my house. quincy134 had the cool suggestion of using coins. However, since I was already out today running an errand, I figured I'd stop by the local dollar store and (when that was unsuccessful) the hardware store which is right by it. Bingo! The hardware store had bulk washers that were perfect. I got 18 at $0.15 each (one for each gore and each seam) which came out to $3.05 altogether. They're flat, not too big (about 5/8" in diameter), and have convenient holes in the middle to sew them on.

This got me thinking about what else such weights can be used for in sewing. Here's what I came up with: I remember reading about Ginger Rogers' dance costumes being weighted in the hems to help them swirl out. (Especially effective with big circle/bias skirts.) I believe there is an 18th century jacket in Costume in Detail by Nancy Bradford that has weights in the sleeve cuffs. I think that weights would be good for trains. They'd prevent corners and such from flipping up.

Do you use weights in your sewing? Any great ideas for making use of them?

Off to cut out a waistband and attach it to the skirt then the skirt to the bodice. Then I'm thinking a picture.

I'm feeling tired out from partying all weekend, so I'm too lazy to sew the skirt today. The idea of finishing all the edges before sewing the pieces just sounded like too much work (even with a serger). I also realized that I forgot about pockets! I love having pockets in things and, because this skirt is going to be fairly voluminous, I can totally add pockets without worrying that they'll show too much. So I cut out some pieces to make inseam pockets out of some bridesmaid dress scraps. I wanted something that would be lightweight and that I had on-hand and wouldn't want to use for something else.

The other thing I forgot was the accessories I'm planning for my Snow Queen gown. After all, what's an outfit without accessories? I want a sparkly tiara and this one fits the bill:

So snowflake-y and sparkly! Speaking of sparkly, I think I'll need some other pretty jewelry. So a necklace too if I can find one that doesn't break the bank and some earrings. I really want these ones by quincy134 and will probably get them the next time I get paid:

They look like little snowflakes with bonus pearl drops. Super pretty!

Other than jewelry, I want to make a white faux fur muff and maybe also a little cape in order to be appropriately wintery. I was inspired by all the fur these illustrations:

(The first is by Milo Winter and the second is by Debra McFarlane.)
And also by jenthompson's super cute 1883 cape and muff. I think the muff would be a really fun accessory, but the cape might make things a little too warm in the middle of summer, so I'd be ok with not getting that done. It would be fun for photos though!

As I said before, it looks like I will be able to go to Costume College next year (barring any wrenches in the works, like not being able to get a membership). This is influencing my sewing plans for the coming year. The theme for next year's CoCo is literary characters and I have several ideas for things I'd like to make or will be making. So here they are:

1. Game of Thrones costume. While I'd love to jump on the wonderful bandwagon that is King's Landing style dresses, unless I'm able to find the right fabric at the right price, such a project will have to remain a pipe dream for the foreseeable future. However, my Margaery Tyrell gown also fits the bill and it will be fun to get even more wear out of it, especially considering the amount of time I've invested in it.

2. Jane Austen themed outfit. Once I finish my stays (which I plan to get done this month) I'll be free to make up a Regency gown. At the moment I am leaning toward a striped pelisse/morning gown c.1815 like these examples from the Kyoto Costume Institute and the Met. I have some sateen with white and yellow stripes that I think would work well for this.


3. Little House on the Prairie dress, c.1883. This is something I would need to pretty much start from the foundations up. I'll need a corset, chemise, a couple of petticoats, and a dress. Conveniently, I already made a suitable bustle pad this year. I have the supplies to make the corset, but I think I want to dye my coutil salmon having seen this corset on Pinterest:

I still need a bunch of plain white cotton for the chemise and petticoats, but my recent excursion to the fabric store resulted in some narrow beading lace to use on the chemise. I also have several metres of a floral cotton print, it's an orange and olive print on ivory. I'm not entirely sure on what the dress will look like, but maybe a 3-piece outfit with plain bodice, underskirt (with a flounce or several), and a bustled overskirt.

4. 1882 Snow Queen dress. This one would be for the Gala. I'm following jenthompson's lead with the historical fairy tale theme. I want something like this Worth gown in the Met and this other picture I found online.

For this I have the pale silk I bought in London that I want to dye a pale ice blue. I also want to get a ton of white silk gauze to drape over it. (Looking at the Met website, there actually seem to have been a lot of dresses in the white and aqua combo.) Instead of just flowers, I'll do snowflakes and icicles and maybe some white flowers and frosty looking ribbon bows, depending on what I'm able to find.

5. An Edwardian something, c.1909. No real thoughts on the literariness of this one, but I already have the corset and a chemise. I'd just need a petticoat. I want to make a cotton net blouse and then use my green silk-cotton to make a sort of jumper dress that would go over it. That way I could use the blouse for multiple gowns. Something like this, with pintucked sleeves and the slightly raised waist of the transitional styles of 1908-1910, which I love.

This outfit may also demand a ridiculously large hat. Maybe I can throw some flowers on the hat and call it a Secret Garden outfit?

Other thoughts include a 1790s riding habit (for which I have all the fabrics, but none of the notions, which could be expensive to acquire), an 1877 pink and white striped polonaise, and a 1950s playsuit. None of these are really literary themed either, but things that I want. Any other sewing I do will probably be more every day clothing, like pants and jackets and dresses.

What do you think? What are your dream sewing plans for the coming year?