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Messages - elisep

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1
In the wardrobe / Re: Ways to wear work clothing out of the office
« on: February 27, 2023, 09:23:24 AM »
My work clothes often perform double duty!

I might wear a blouse with jeans, or a blazer over a white tshirt, jeans and white tennis shoes/sand shoes.
Trousers, depending on the style, might look nice paired with a tshirt and tennis shoes.

I am lucky that my work's dress policy is more office casual than corporate attire, so no suits here! I often wear casual dresses in summer and dress them up with the right shoes, jewellery and be being a bit more exciting with my hair  :laughing:

2
This is my first time venturing into the sewalong board this year… I haven’t been very active here for a long time.

Will my hand painted silk scarves qualify for this challenge? Some of them are pre-hemmed but some I’ll have to hem myself.
And full disclosure, I’m painting them with the intention to sell (though I might keep my favourites  0_0)

3
The Show Must Go On / Re: Cruella
« on: January 04, 2023, 05:57:01 AM »
Thanks for the advice, Missie! There will definitely be lots of dramatic gowns in my future so I’ll remember for next time!
I considered doing a lace up closure for the outside of the dress but decided against it. I hadn’t realised that only having the zipper would put so much strain on it!
In future for any similar dresses I think I’ll stick with a separate internal corselette instead of just a boned internal layer.

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The Show Must Go On / Re: Cruella
« on: January 02, 2023, 22:07:17 PM »
Thanks everyone  0_0

Harley had to make sure she got her credit for being sewing room supurrvisor!!

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The Show Must Go On / Re: Cruella
« on: January 02, 2023, 10:55:19 AM »
Whoops, I realised that I never came back in and shared photos of the finished dress! It's only been 8 months  :embarrassed:

I did indeed get it finished in time, and it looked fabulous! I was finished about 4 days early... which was just as well as at my final fitting, the zipper broke. I guess it was a touch too small! I was just grateful it happened then and not on the night. So I had time to replace the zipper (a pain in the butt with all the hand sewn draping, as you'll see) and I used a metal zipper and gave myself a couple of mm extra which turned out just perfect.

My strategy ended up being to drape the top fabric while the dress was on the dummy, then spray with water, iron/steam the pleats down, pin in place, then remove very carefully from my dummy, un pinning and repinning as I removed it, so that I could hand sew the pleats in place.

Working out how to install the lining/at which point to put it in occupied my brain for a few days, that's for sure! How to make sure all the layers and everything were hidden challenged the old noggin.



The draping begins!



More draping. The section that crossed over the zipper had 3/4 invisible snaps sewn in place, stabilised with a piece of selvedge, so that I could unbutton that section when I needed to get into and out of it. There was also a snap at the top to hide the less-than-perfect top of the zipper.


Pins poking out every which way did not deter madam Harley from trying to snuggle on my lap. There were many, many, many hours of hand stitching  :\


Finally, pinning the extra sections of silk + the chiffon sections to the skirt. I machine sewed the chiffon sections to the silk pieces before hand sewing them into place.
I'd run out of my silk lining so I used polyester satin to line the skirt. Well that was a big mistake because it made the lovely swishy skirt stick to my legs and made me super hot! (I normally avoid polyester as it makes me sweat terribly but didn't think it would be a problem way down at my ankles!) SO I ended up ripping it out and leaving it unlined.

Here's the finished product;


The three buttons you see at the back are there to bustle to skirt as it had a slight train. I never ended up using them on the night which was a mistake as some of the skirt got ripped by people standing on it! It will need minor repairs if I ever wear it again.

It was a huge hit at my party! Quite hot to wear but I think it's hard not to be as you get hot on the dance floor whatever you're wearing!





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The Show Must Go On / Re: Cruella
« on: April 21, 2022, 13:23:03 PM »
In for an update on my costume!

Firstly, my dalmatian coat is 99% finished. I just need to sew the buckles on and a waist stay in. I also forgot the first rule of sewing circle skirts/bias garments - hang them for several days before hemming. I hemmed straight away, my outer fabric and lining dropped in different spots (I may have cut the lining on the wrong grain to the outer) and now the lining is hanging lower than the outer fabric in spots  :facepalm:
I am not going to stress over it, I will only have it on for a few minutes at the start of the night, and really just wanted to make it as a backup in case the red dress doesn't work out. (And it does indeed look as if it will work out... does it indeed!)
I'm also super disappointed that my fabric paint chose that specific spot in the very front of the dress to drip, I had it sitting over a clothes horse to dry and didn't realise that the centre front was hanging over the edge. It couldn't have been the centre back?? I am sure nobody will notice.... but I know it's there  :laugh:



That half of the costume finished I set about The Red Dress.
I ended up buying a pattern off etsy that was basically exactly right for the foundation of the dress, minus the collar and piece covering the decolletage.
I mocked that up in cotton drill which is what I had on hand, but I realised that it's also the perfect weight for the foundation layer. So once I got the fit right, I cut 4 layers - white cotton drill for the foundation (to sewing the boning, bra cups and underwires into), red silk tafetta as my fashion fabric, cotton poplin to underline the silk for more body, and red silk habotai for the lining. Luckily I had all but the silk tafetta in my stash already.
After the disaster of the "silk" I got from ebay, I found a seller on etsy that had tafetta on sale. He told me it was 80% Silk, 20% polyester, so I took a chance on it and it arrived ahead of schedule, and is a beautiful fabric. Holds a lovely crease (I have to laugh when I say that... when would you ever want it to crease!) essential to get the folds looking good, I don't think poly would ever have worked.

The toile;


After putting together my foundation layer complete with all the boning, and putting together the red silk fashion layer, I tried the mockup on one more time and decided I wasn't happy with the fit of the bust at all. It rather flattened me out. So I ripped the bra cups out and tried using the cups from a merry widow pattern I had, which turned out to be a complete waste of 5 hours! When that looked terrible I ripped them out and sewed the originals back in place with a tweak to the seam, darted the top of the cups and decided it was the best I was going to get without completely starting from scratch which was just not an option. I ended up gathering the top of the bra cups in my red silk fabric to get them to look ok over the foundation, which doesn't look too bad but not really the look I was after. But most of it will be covered in the draped layer anyway so I'll probably just make sure both bra cups are covered.
I used the collar and bodice pieces from a different pattern to create a collar and mesh base to drape the silk onto to recreate the look from the movie. Also, the mesh helps to stop any -ahem- back-fat from spilling over the top of the dress  :lipsrsealed:

One of the last things I did on Easter Monday was to cut and sew the silk mermaid skirt. Trying to conserve fabric, and having narrow silk, I ended up piecing the circle skirt with a seam that most modern sewists would be horrified by - on the sides of the circle. However it's really common in historical gowns to just have random seams in the skirts where they are needed to be economical with their cutting, so I thought it was a genius solution to the problem of a limited amount of fabric (I only purchased 6 metres due to the cost). I cut the edge of the circle skirt using pinking sheers = no hem allowance needed and no sewing a ginormous circle skirt hem.
I then proceeded to sew the right side of the skirt to the wrong side of the dress. Sigh. Halfway through unpicking I decided to just rip (it works for cotton, right?) well I ripped a hole in the silk. Sigh. So when I re-sewed it, I had to bring it up a little and it's sitting higher in front. Hopefully I will be able to cover that with the draping over the top.







Thus I am now at the point of draping the top fabric, which will be tomorrow's job. I just have to figure out how I'm supposed to hand stitch all the folds and things, to the dress underneath, without inadvertently sewing it to my dummy  :thinking:
Also with all the cutting of the draped fabric that will have to happen, I'm not quite sure how to stop the raw edges fraying. I think I'll be figuring it out as I go!

7
A bit of a 'do' / Re: Mermaid gown
« on: April 21, 2022, 12:48:54 PM »
Thanks for the advice everyone.

I did a toile in cotton drill for the dress and cut all the layers of tulle out and basted them to the toile so I could reuse them for the final version. Unfortunately I forgot that in my first toile I had altered the bottom of the (pencil) skirt portion so my tulle ended up too big  :facepalm: so I had to gather it slightly which was probably a good thing anyway, to create more volume.
I ended up cutting 2 layers of stiff tulle (red below), and 3 of soft bridal tulle (the flesh coloured below). I think I would have preferred 4 layers of the soft stuff, however I miscalculated my fabric requirement and didn't buy enough  :S

The first photo below shows my toile without any horsehair braid in the hem, second photo with my fashion fabric over the top I have sewn the horsehair braid into the very bottom layer of stiff tulle - lining not in yet.
I'm happy with how pouffy the skirt is, and how it moves (i can't help it, every time I try it on I have to twirl around  :dance:) and the horsehair braid makes all the difference to walking in it!

My silk was too narrow - and I was going to waste so much fabric cutting the circle skirt. As I ordered on etsy from india, and the event being less than 2 weeks away now, there's no opportunity to get more, and I still need a lot to drape over the whole dress. So I took a leaf out of history's book and pieced together my fabric to cut the skirt out economically. I challenge anyone to work out where the seam is!

I still have to drape more tafetta over the top so hopefully the extra weight won't hold it down too much, if it does I still have the ability to add more layers of tulle if I need.
As it's got a small train I will need to bustle it up to dance, I'm worried people will step on it and rip the silk. I am also hoping I will have time to make a removable dust ruffle/balayeuse (I learned a new word!) as it will definitely get dirty from dragging on the ground. But my oh my, she is delightfully dramatic!





I'll be putting a full write up in my other post in the costume board, if anyone wants to read any more, however lets just say that I think that this dress will be able to stand up on its own once it's finished, with all the layers in there  :laughing:

oh, and bonus cat pic;

8
A bit of a 'do' / Re: Mermaid gown
« on: April 12, 2022, 11:52:06 AM »
Popping back in with another question.
I know which grain you cut a circle skirt on determines how it hangs. I’m wondering whether cutting :laugh: each layer of tulle differently will help poof it out a bit more, or whether that’s going to cause issues?
Or should I cut them all the same but off set the grain when sewing the layers together so they each sit slightly differently.
Or am I overthinking it and I should just get on and do it  :thinking:  :laugh:

9
A bit of a 'do' / Re: Mermaid gown
« on: April 11, 2022, 22:54:00 PM »
Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I was hoping the answer wasn’t going to be, play around and see! Ha ha.
Might just pop back to the store and buy enough net for a second layer, and enough soft tulle for 3-4 layers. I’m making my toile this weekend so will do it with full skirt with the plan to unpick the tulle and use it on the final dress.

No gathering as it’s a full circle skirt. But the top red layer I am planning to have a full circle cut in quarters, with some gathered chiffon in between the red taffeta to emulate what they’ve done on the original.

10
A bit of a 'do' / Mermaid gown
« on: April 11, 2022, 13:42:33 PM »
So you may have seen my post over in the Costume section, but I'm posting here for a little more visibility on some questions I have.
I'm making a version of the below dress;



I'm using a pattern for a mermaid gown that I bought off etsy.

My question pertains to the skirt. It's a full circle with a slight train. The pattern suggests you need 16 layers to get the correct shape. 16! But in her sew-a-long on youtube she uses "8 layers of tulle, 2 layers of fibreglass mesh (mosquito netting) in lieu of proper crinoline, a layer of lining and a layer of lace as the top fabric". The video wasn't clear on which order they should be put together, either.
I'm curious for those who have sewn something similar, looking at the red dress, how many layers would you use, and in what order?

I bought some stiff nylon tulle/net the other day which is quite stiff and the store also had "bridal tulle" which was very soft polyester tulle. It's all on sale there right now so I'm trying to work out how much of each to buy. I'm assuming my top layer (the red tafetta) will crush the soft tulle down somewhat should I have 2 layers of the stiff net with ? layers of soft tulle between them?

I'd like something dramatic but still able to move and dance in. I may need to omit the train?

Appreciate any thoughts!

11
The Show Must Go On / Re: Cruella
« on: March 16, 2022, 10:42:40 AM »
Right, here to show some progress on the coat;




The lining isn't in yet (except the hood lining). Progress has been slow, had a flat couple of weeks! Don't mind that she doesn't fit my dummy properly, I need to take her cover off and take off  some of her padding, because she doesn't match me anymore!

I need some opinions on the coat skirt - I haven't painted it's spots on yet. The original in the movie is somewhat sparser on the skirt than I have done my bodice above. Should I copy the movie, and also have mine also pretty sparse? Or go heavier? Looking again at my bodice compared to an actual dalmatian dog, I have been a little too uniform with my spots. Not that I think that matters too much, as I don't think anyone's going to compare me to a picture of a dog on the night!  :laughing:
What do you think, sparser with the spots more concentrated around the bottom of the skirt, or heavier all over but less uniform than the bodice?

Also, I received my "silk" taffeta today from Ebay. I did think there was a good chance that it wasn't going to be silk, and when I did a burn test if there's any silk in there it's a very small percentage  :headbang: I was prepared to accept it might be polyester, however the fabric itself is just awful, there's not much else to say about it. About as shiny as your average quilting cotton, feels awful and very stiff. Their ebay store says they accept returns, not sure whether I should just return it, put in a dispute for "item not as described" or try washing it to see if the hand improves or if there's any sizing in it that might wash out. Don't think anything is going to make it shinier though  :cry:

12
The Show Must Go On / Re: Cruella
« on: March 04, 2022, 09:12:21 AM »
That looks exciting @elisep.

I love an OTT costume myself but no opportunities to wear any now. In fact, I'm trying to decide what to do with the various costume items I have made over the years as I'd love them to have homes rather than be consigned to the bin.

It's hard, isn't it Flobear? I've got costumes from over the years that I can't bear to throw away, though I doubt I'll wear them again. I much prefer to make from scratch with each new costume party, although I'm sure they'd come in handy if I was invited anywhere on short notice!

13
The Show Must Go On / Cruella
« on: February 25, 2022, 11:03:35 AM »
Has anyone seen the recent Cruella film, with Emma Stone as Cruella de Vil?
I'm planning a Cruella costume, which will hopefully be a fairly faithful representation of this red dress;



In addition, and even though she doesn't wear it in the same scene, Cruella would not be complete without her "dalmatian" coat;



The event I need this for is 30th April, so lots of time, especially since I'm making a start this weekend! My spanner in the works is that I am currently on a weight loss journey (6kg down!  :dance: ) and expect to continue losing weight for the next 8 weeks! So I am starting with the dalmatian coat as it's less fitted, or rather, easier to take it in at the last minute, or just buckle it so that it overlaps in the center rather than just meeting in front.

Mood Fabrics has an extremely accurate copy of the pattern on their blog for free here. Emma's coat appears to be made out of leather and some kind of hide? which must have been so heavy! The pattern calls for a lot of fabric - 8-9 yards white, 4-5 yards black, plus full lining, so I'm definitely not using leather! I've already got a big roll of white cotton drill (came from my grandmother's stash, who knows why I thought I should add it to mine!). I've ordered black fabric paint to paint splodges on by hand. I found 5 metres of black cotton sateen at $5/metre and black poly satin for $1/metre for the lining.

My plan for the spectacular red dress is as follows. McCalls 6893, fitted to the knee as an under-dress.  Then draping red silk over the top to create the mermaid shape. I found a photo of the costume studio and it looks like this is the technique they used. Looking again at the movie dress i'll need to attach tulle at the bottom to create more volume.
The movie dress looks to be made from taffetta or dupion... I've ordered 10 metres of taffeta off ebay at a really good price (so cheap I'm sceptical it's pure silk), hoping 10 metres will be enough to drape what I need!
My plan is to use couture techniques where I can (and so long as I have time!), internal corselette etc. or at the very least boned etc.

I've been waiting for this party for 2 years (my colleague and I organise it, and had to postpone it for the last two years for obvious reasons) so I'm going ALL out on this one!

14
Thanks @Lowena! I should have mentioned the reason I went for those patterns in the sweaters, was that it’s simply impossible to find plaid/tartan fabrics in Australia during summer!
But I really think I would have struggled to create a colour scheme I liked if I had, anyway.

15
Not much stash busting so far for me I’m afraid, as I had to make a quilt for my friend whose baby arrived at the end of Feb.
But this week with some of my mojo feeling like it’s coming back, I decided to make a quick stash buster and make up 2 pair of flanelette pyjama pants.



Nothing ground breaking or award winning, just 2 comfy and warm pair of pj pants! I like to make a mock cuff around the bottom which allows me to squeeze them out of 2 metres of fabric, and also use both elastic and a draw string cord in the waist.

4 metres down!

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