A Brief Update

I am currently working on the mock-up for the Pirate King's coat. So far so good, I believe, but I really won't know until the kid tries it on.

In other news, made it out to P-Mall for no particular reason today. And while I was there I found a pair of knee-high brown lace-up boots. You'd be surprised how often those show up in anime character designs. They were $70 marked down to $29, so that's really an irrestible price. They're going to require a smidge of work, but it will be worth the work, given the price. Picked them up with my Maylene cosplay in mind, but there are a few more things on my to-do list that they would work for. Hoping to do Maylene for FanExpo 2010 in August, unless by some miracle I can get it together for May. Haha, very wishful thinking.

So far my future cosplay plans go thusly:
Anime North: Ciel Phantomhive (Little Robin) and Young Franziska Von Karma from the new Ace Attorney game.
Fan Expo: Maylene, Maka Albarn and possibly Nagato if I can manage.

Pirate...er... power?

Three meetings later and work on the Pirates of Penzance costumes is on its way! Overall, I think I understand the vision for the show, and I think what I can also picture for the show is in line with that. I have a few reservations about the amount of work we've seemed to have taken on, but I'm just going to have to set my own priorities and worry about the lesser things later on.

At this point I'm more or less in charge of the main male characters in the show: the Pirate King, the Major General and Frederick. This is fine. I picked up a perfect coat for the Major-General from Kensington Market, an old band uniform as it would happen. I added on some bullion fringe as epaulets to the shoulders and it is even more perfect! It's a little snug on the actor's underarms/upper arms, but I'll think of something. Probably some underarm gores. Hopefully nothing so intense as making new sleeves. Oi. Anyway, I've picked up the fabric and now I'm going to start to work immediately on the Pirate King's costume, which I'm quite looking forward to actually! Frederick will follow eventually. I still haven't even seen the actor yet... y'know, kids are really hard to nail down.

Over the weekend I worked on the nightcaps for the daughters' second act costumes... So all 22 of the nightcaps are sewn, however, I still need to add ribbon to gather some of them. The pattern was mostly my own, but it was inspired by the muslin cap pattern in Jane Austen's Sewing Box by Jennifer Forest. I also made a little bonnet for Isabelle (the youngest daughter). It's made out of white cotton, with eyelet ruffles, ribbons and small white flowers sewn under the brim. The pattern I used for that was based on the instructions in Elegantly Frugal Costumes by Shirley Dearing. So... 23 hats down, about a million other jobs still to go!

Nevertheless, no matter how much complaining might follow this entry, I'm so happy to be working on this project! Yay fun!

Falling a little behind... Eep

So, I'm a little behind on the updates. I finished the corset on the 22nd, I believe. It is lined in white cotton and the edges were bound with black bias tape. The corset is actually a little big... it fully closes in the back leaving no gap, and it could still affored to be pulled a little bit tighter. Siiigh. There's always some problem or another. Heh. Pictures will come later on. I also sent out my school application on the 23rd. So all of that is taken care of for now.

As for new things, I am volunteering as a costume mistress for a local school production of Pirates of Penzance Junior. I'm pretty excited about that. This afternoon I'll be going over to the school for a meeting about costumes and things, and I already have quite a lot to bring along that I've found and/or sourced out. Hope all goes well!

Eyelets and Tapes

Last Thursday I continued work on the corset, but apparently forgot to make an entry in the blog. I went to the mall on Wednesday night as expected, but the only store with a sewing section decided to remove majority of the stock and replace it all with knitting yarn. Annoying. So I was not able to get any twill tape or eyelets. When I got home, however, I found an unopen package of eyelets in a drawer in my room (very unexpected). I therefore I had 16 eyelets, and needed 20. Oh well.

On Thursday, I cut the bones (out of the duct ties) down to size and numbered them all. I marked out all the holes for the eyelets and put in the 16 that I had - I will still need to press them in properly though, hopefully tonight. I also managed to put in two boning channels with the twill tape I had still available. The sewing is pretty spectacularly wonky... so, eep. Hopefully it will all improve as I continute to sew them. Or maybe I just need some more pins. Well, more pins will be used anyway.

On Saturday, I managed to make it over to Fabricland (first time since October, but feels like even longer) and picked up the eyelets and twill tape I need.

My school application is almost complete and I would like to send it out by Friday! It's all getting pretty exciting!

Button, Button, Buttonholes

Day three of work on the corset. Last night I felt at I was at a standstill. I had no idea where to go from the point I was at. I made facing pieces to use to insert the busk, but was very unsatisfied with my efforts.

Today, I revaluated everything I decided to use buttonholes to insert the busk. I'd never made a buttonhole by machine before, so I spent some time reading the manual, looking at online tutorials and practicing on some scrap fabric. I felt ready. I went to put in my corset piece and make the first buttonhole. It completely screwed up. No idea why. I went back to my practice and everything was fine. I was very pissed and confused. But why I tried again on the corset it worked fine. So... not sure what that little blip was all about, but it worked out apparently.

The busk is now completely in, and it looks quite nice (except for some scratches made by my machine on the silk, but I have some ideas for covering that up).

I kept my facing pieces for the back side, and I will probably work on preping in the lacing part later on tonight. I still do not have (or have not yet found) any eyelets... however, I may be able to get some from the mall later on tonight, and if I'm really lucky, maybe some twill tape as well. All I need is some twill tape and eyelets and I'm good to go. As for the question of steel vs. duct tie boning, I've decided the duct ties should be fine, because it is very stiff from the canvas, etc.

I'm feeling much better about all this! Yay!

Stocks are Running Low

Continued work on the corset today.

Recut all the pieces in the black silk fabric and pinned them to the canvas pieces. Then pinned and sewed all the pieces together. So far so good, it would seem.

I do have a busk for the corset which is the correct size, however, I my selection of boning is quite limited. I have six bones all of varying sizes (but mostly they're all too small anyway). The pattern calls for 18 bones - 9 on each half. So that's tricky. I have duct ties, but they're rather wide, perhaps too wide. I have some twill tape for boning channels, but probably not enough. I also have no grommets... or at least, I can't find them at present.

I very much hope I won't have to end this project prematurely.

Hiatus Over, Hopefully

The long sewing hiatus that set in following Halloween was completely out of my control. Honestly. Figuring I should spend a little extra time working on assignments for the last two months of my B.A., I reluctantly too a break from everything (and let my mother tidy up the sewing mess I'd made of the dining room).

But my B.A. is done now, and so too must this hiatus end!

To ease myself back into the sewing fun, I've decided to work on the 1870s corset I started sometime during the summer. I believe I started it during a costuming sleepover, but had little opportunity to work on it since with all the craziness of Sailors, Gowns and ... well, all that.

So, basically I had all the pieces sewn together of the middle, canvas layer. Anyway, I took all that apart to rethink my plan. I'm going to attach a black silk outer layer to the canvas pieces and then sew them back together as if they were a single layer. After that I will try to sew in some boning on the inside (possibly with ribbon or twill tape), add my busk and sew the inner layer out of a nice white cotton fabric I've been saving for something like this. And then bind it altogether with some more ribbon.

Wish me luck. I'll need it.