Category Archives: Costume

Elizabethan Whovian- The Underskirt

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Hi everyone! I’m sorry I didn’t make a blog post last week. I had plans for the past weekend that took away from blog writing time. So, I decided not to make a blog post last week. Unfortunately, my planed ended up not working out so now I’m kicking myself for not posting anything at all. In order to get myself back into blogging, I’m going to talk about something simple: the underskirt for the Elizabethan Whovian costume.

Although the underskirt of the costume isn’t as interesting as the gown’s construction, I still had problems with it. I used the same pattern for the underskirt for the gown, Simplicity’s 3782. The fabric I used for the front of the skirt is The Doctor’s Favorite Things by Kdowning on Spoonflower printed on cotton poplin while the rest is made out of white broadcloth.

Here’s what the underskirt looks like on my dress form with a hoop skirt under it…

When I was cutting the front panel, I realized I had the fabric printed 42 inch wide fabric, and it wasn’t wide enough to cut the skirt front. Also, it wasn’t wide enough for me to cut the fabric so the design is not symmetrical. So, the skirt front doesn’t look the way I wanted to. I want to eventually get different fabric (non Doctor Who design) and make a new underskirt with a front panel the way I want it to look, but this one is functional and is in keeping with the Doctor Who theme, so I’m just going to use it as is.

I also changed the amount of white panels in the skirt. I ended up running out of fabric before I could make the eight panels the pattern called for, so I used seven. It looks good anyway and I think eight might be too full for my liking.

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

Making an 18th Century Bum Pad

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After weeks of working on the Elizabethan Whovian costume, I began to have a sewing idea block. In order to keep myself sewing, I began to work on something I knew I’d need and is easy to sew. Since I needed to make a bum pad for a future 18th century costume, I decided to make that my next sewing project.

The pattern I used to make the bum roll is Simplicity’s pattern number 8162.

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Elizabethan Whovian- The Sleeves

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It’s been a while since I talked about my Elizabethan Whovian so I thought I’d talk about part of the costume I finished, the sleeves!

I was waiting until I posted the photos I took on Time Traveler’s Weekend at the Renaissance festival to talk about the costume. My original plan was to make the costume and wear it to the festival. I was also planning on participating in the Time Traveler Costume Contest that Sunday. In order to keep myself on track, I created a schedule to help me work on the costume. (Finish the sleeves three weeks before the festival, work on the hat and draft the gown’s bodice pattern for three days, ect.) Unfortunately, the stomach flu I had in February threw my schedule off so badly I couldn’t get back on track. So, the costume was unfinished on Time Traveler’s Weekend.

Even though I was upset about not finishing the costume, I went to the festival anyway and was soon thankful I wasn’t wearing a whole entire Elizabethan costume. It was unseasonably hot that weekend and I’m sure I would not have made it more than a few hours fully dressed in my Elizabethan costume. (I was having a very bad time with my seasonal allergies so I was not feeling very great.)

Even though I didn’t finish the costume when I wanted to wear it, I still decided to finish it. The progress on it has slowed because I was also making clothes for normal wear. And when it comes to making normal clothes or a costume, normal clothes take top priority. Still, I wanted to work on the costume and the easier parts of the costume I wanted to work on was the sleeves.

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The Chiffon Undershirt

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When I decided to make my Elizabethan Whovian costume, I decided to make an undershirt instead of attach the sleeves to the gown. The reason is because I wanted the sides of the gown so it will still fit me as I loose weight.

You can see the lace up sides in my sketch of the drawing…

elizabethan-whovian-2

I don’t think it’s historically correct (For the 1570’s at least) to put lacing in the sides of the gown. Despite this, I’ve seen lacing in the sides of dresses in patterns for 10th through 14th century dresses and there is lacing in the sides of one of the dresses from season two of the Outlander. Since this costume is supposed to be worn during weight loss, I though being able to take in the sides by tightening laces as I loose weight is a very practical idea.

Although lacing in the sides solves my sizing problem, another problem popped up. The pattern I’m using for the costume, Simplicity 3782, calls for the sleeves to be attached to the gown. If I make the gown with the sleeves attached to it, tightening the laces on the sides will cause the sleeves to get distorted. There are ways around this, but all the solutions I though of are complex and I wanted to make the costume’s construction more simple. So, I decided to solve the problem by making an undershirt with the sleeves attached. That way the laces can be tightened on the gown without distorting the way the sleeves look.

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Elizabethan Whovian- Dress Design and Fabric

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It’s that time of the year when the Arizona Renaissance Festival reopens! Although I’m very excited about the fair, I had so much going on in my life these past few years that I was unable to go to the festival more than one day and I was unable to make or finish any costumes to wear to it. This year, I’m able to work on a costume, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go. Still, I’m going to try to make a new costume. Continue reading →

Rey’s Star Wars The Force Awakens Costume- Part 1

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I was unable to go to the 2016 Phoenix Comicon, making this second time in two years I couldn’t go, but that’s how life goes. Despite this, I thought about what costume I wanted to make for the convention. I already had costumes planed for the convention, but since I knew I wouldn’t be able to go, I didn’t finish them by the date of the convention.

The weekend of the 2016 Phoenix Comicon was the hottest on record (With temperatures around or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit) and, since I was stuck at home, I began to look at the costumes I wanted to wear to the convention. I realized that all the costumes I wanted to wear would be too hot to wear during those temperatures.

A few weeks before Comicon, I found out McCall’s has a costume pattern for Rey from Star Wars The Force Awakens. Since Hobby Lobby had a sale on McCall’s patterns, I bought the last one that was in the store. (I also bought the last Kylo Ren costume pattern, but that’s besides the point.) Since I had the pattern, and Rey’s costume would be perfect to wear to a convention that is held during a time when Arizona has such high temperatures, I decided to make Rey’s costume so I can have it ready to wear anytime I wanted to wear a costume to a convention, but it’s too hot to wear a ballgown or wear any Doctor Who costume I have. I also plan on using it as a back up Halloween costume in case this year’s my planned costume doesn’t end up working out or get finished in time.

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Elsa’s Frozen Fever Dress-Part 2

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After a writer’s block last week, I finally finished the last post about how I made Elsa’s Frozen Fever dress! Although this is the last post about the dress, the posts about the shirt and cape will not be posted for a while because I have yet to work on them. XD

In my last post, I talked about sewing the dress together and talking about how I sewed the shirring into the back of the dress. Today, I’ll talk about sewing sequins onto the dress and finishing the dress.

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Elsa’s Frozen Fever Dress-Part 1

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A few months ago, I planned on going to Phoenix Comicon 2016. I ended up not going because I wanted to take care of my ill family member, but when I was planning on going I decided to make and wear Elsa’s dress from Frozen Fever…

Elsa Frozen Fever

I recently just finished the main dress, so I thought I’d talk about how I made it and what it looks like done! Continue reading →

Anna’s Coronation Dress- Finishing the Skirt

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After what feels like forever, I can now finally make the last post about the skirt for Anna’s coronation dress! You can read my other posts about the skirt here and here.

I’m not going to lie, I’m very happy this skirt is done. I was getting very tired of working on it and seeing it around my house. Now that it’s done, I can work on long list of to-sew projects that keeps growing every week. (Most of them are repairs or adjustments to clothes so you won’t see them here on my blog. Especially since they are uninteresting and boring. ;) )

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Anna’s Coronation Dress- Skirt Panels and Pattern Fix

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Progress on the skirt for Anna’s coronation dress was fast, but then quickly slowed down due to life, a virus I caught, and other projects I’m working on. Now that I’m nearing completion of the skirt, I decided to finish writing my posts about the skirt.

In the last post I made about the skirt I talked about the fabric I found for the skirt and an instruction error in the pattern. Since that is the most important part of this post, I’ll talk about that first.

What exactly happened was while I was cutting out the fabric for the light green skirt panels (These are the panels that go on both sides of the olive green appliqued panel) I saw on the pattern piece that ten panels needed to be cut. I thought that was weird because there are ten olive green panels in the skirt. Since the light green panels are supposed to go on both sides of the olive green panels, I thought I needed to cut twice that number of panels.

For my own amusement, I decided to try to cut out ten panels and see what happens. Since the light green satin (The name of the satin color I used is celery) I was using for the light green panels was on clearance and I already knew based off my own attempts to drape the skirt myself, I knew I needed a lot of fabric so I bought all the fabric the store had. This ended up totaling the twice the amount of yards the Simplicity pattern called for. Because of this, I knew that if I followed the pattern’s instructions and cut ten light green panels, I could always cut more without worrying about where to buy more fabric. Continue reading →