Category: Costume

Costumes I Want to Remake- Spring 2018

Published on by essieofwho

Hi everyone! I’m slowly finishing all the sewing projects I want to write posts about, so as a sewing post filler, I decided to talk about which costumes I made in the past and want to remake in the future.

Even though I want to remake every costume on this list, I will not work on them for at least the next two or more months. There is a lot of changes going on in my life right now which makes it harder for me to sew as much as I’d like to. (This is also the reason why I don’t talk about sewing as much as I want to. I don’t have the time to finishing anything.) So, this is a list of costumes I’d like to remake one day once my life settles down a bit. Continue reading “Costumes I Want to Remake- Spring 2018” →

Clara’s Cold War Dress- Second Version Part 1

Published on by essieofwho

A few years ago, I made my own version of Clara Oswald’s dress in the Doctor Who episode, Cold War. While I made it, I hated how it was turning out and, after completing it, I hated the way it looked even more. I always wanted to remake it, but it wasn’t until 2016 I was able to do it. Because I made and finished the dress in 2016, I don’t remember a lot about the dress itself or how I constructed it, but I wanted to talk about it before it becomes a costume that gets lost in my closet and is forgotten before I can talk about it on my blog.

While doing research into the dress, I found Mariah’s Cosplay Site has a page dedicated to the costume and even has an idea what kind of dress was used in the episode, the Vivienne Westwood Metallic Pannier Dress. After reading it, I decided to make my dress have a similar neckline to the Vivienne Westwood dress, but modify it to accommodate my recent and future weight loss. 🙂 Continue reading “Clara’s Cold War Dress- Second Version Part 1” →

Elizabethan Whovian Hat

Published on by essieofwho

It’s been a year since I started working on my Elizabethan Whovian costume. During that time I’ve worked on it on and off, but progress on it has been slow partly because I ran into more problems with the bodice of the dress, and partly because my day job has kept me very busy. Despite this, I was able to work on and off on the hat for the costume. I recently finished most of the hat, so here is how I made it!

Continue reading “Elizabethan Whovian Hat” →

Adventures in Dying Fabric- Trying Ombre Dying

Published on by essieofwho

In 2014, I made a post documenting my first attempt to dye a jacket. Even though that attempt turned out well and I mentioned that I wanted to write more posts about fabric dying, I never did because I didn’t have a reason to dye fabric. Recently, I decided to make a costume that was on my to-make list for years. I never perused making this costume because I felt it was too advanced for my skill level for me to make at that time and I believed I wouldn’t look good in it. After some encouragement from a friend of mine, I decided to make it anyway.

Even though my sewing skills are advanced enough to make the costume (I almost make the base of the costume in one weekend) and I lost enough weight that I felt comfortable wearing it, there was a problem with the costume’s construction that has bothered me since I wanted to make it for the first time: I would need to dye the fabric. And it’s not just dying the fabric like I did in my 2014 blog post. It’s ombre dye with more than two colors.

I was nervous about ombre dying because I believed it was hard to do. After doing a lot of research about ombre fabric dying online, I became even more nervous about attempting ombre dye because all the tutorials I found online talked about dying with one color, not with multiple colors. After many months of on and off thinking, I believed I thought of a way to ombre dye fabric with multiple colors and is easy for me to do.

I’m not sure if this is the way I want to dye the fabric for the costume I plan on making, but it is a start. If I change anything, I plan on making a formal tutorial later so others will have another option to ombre dye fabric as well.

Continue reading “Adventures in Dying Fabric- Trying Ombre Dying” →

Simplicity’s Print on Demand Review

Published on by essieofwho

It’s been a while since I made a post about patterns I bought. Ok, it’s been over a year. And a half. *sigh* I thought about making a favorite patterns for 2016 in December, but I decided not to because life was so crazy for me that I didn’t keep track about what patterns came out last year. I don’t think I’ll be doing a favorite pattern post this year either, but I wanted to talk about Simplicity’s print on demand service.

I had my eye on several patterns available on Simplicity’s print on demand service for many months, but earlier this year bought one. This pattern eventually became available in stores a few months later. Since I had the print on demand pattern, I bought the store version and wanted to do a review of the print on demand pattern and the differences between the print on demand pattern and store pattern.

Disclaimer: I did not receive any compensation for this review nor was I sponsored in any way. I just really wanted these patterns so I purchased them with my own money. I also know there are other blog posts reviewing the print on demand service, but wanted to write a review myself because I wanted to talk about the patterns I ordered. If all goes as planned, I’ll be making a costume using at least one of the patterns I ordered.

The information in this post is current as of August 2017. Continue reading “Simplicity’s Print on Demand Review” →

Elizabethan Whovian- The Underskirt

Published on by essieofwho

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

Published on by essieofwho

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.

Continue reading “Making an 18th Century Bum Pad” →

Elizabethan Whovian- The Sleeves

Published on by essieofwho

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.

Continue reading “Elizabethan Whovian- The Sleeves” →

The Chiffon Undershirt

Published on by essieofwho

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.

Continue reading “The Chiffon Undershirt” →

Elizabethan Whovian- Dress Design and Fabric

Published on by essieofwho

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 “Elizabethan Whovian- Dress Design and Fabric” →