Winter is coming! Update!

As promised, here is a full-length shot of the Game of Thrones-inspired cloak. Not only am I pleased with the way it turned out, but I think that Dave carries it off. Not all men can wear fur without looking like a popinjay, but I think he looks masterful and rugged.

Winter is coming! Part 2

It's Dave's birthday, and I surprised him with a warm cloak in the style of Game of Thrones. As he was preparing to head to the gym and was wearing shorts, he would only let me take a pic from the waist up, but later on I'll add a full length shot and show some of the details.

I made the body of the cloak from a coat-weight, coarse-woven bit of wool. I'm not sure what kind of animal (sheep, goat, alpaca?) gave the fleece for the wool, but it smolders and goes out almost instantly when subjected to a burn test. It's wonderfully warm.

The fur around the shoulders is wolf. Yes, it's real. But it's also vintage, so if you feel bad about an animal dying to make this fur, then you can rest assured that it would long ago have died of natural causes by this time anyhow.

As you can see in this inspiration picture, the cloak is fastened by way of two leather straps which attach at the shoulders. I did a little research and believe (though I've not been shown any evidence from the GoT series or costumers) that the straps continue around the body and are fastened at the back with a buckle. I used two matching leather belts and they worked perfectly, though there weren't quite as wide.

It's a good thing I made my plan to construct this cloak way back in August, because it took me a long time to find all the pieces I needed -- especially the fur. That was a real steal at Goodwill for only $20.

Cleaning.

I cleaned out my sewing stash/corner. I took before and after pics, but I'm too embarrassed to post them -- no one can know I'm creatively messy! -- so you'll just have to imagine the piles of yardage and spools everywhere and pins, pins, pins.

Did you know I've drafted around a dozen patterns since this time last year? Dresses, pants, sleeves, shirts -- all sorts of things. If I hadn't been folding them into marked 9x12 manilla envelopes, I wouldn't have believed it myself.

I threw out that sottana I started. For one thing, I never really liked the fabric. For another, one of the small side gores was upside down because of the way I had to cut it to conserve fabric, so it looked odd. Just grabbed the whole mess and stuffed it into the trash. I didn't even stop to try to think of something else I could do with the fabric -- it had only cost $4 to begin with -- and it felt so good, you guys. Whew! One less half-done project dragging at my brain.

All my spools are on the rack that I got at Joann Fabrics -- all 60 of them. How can I have so many colors and shades, and yet not have anything to match the fabric I'm working on when I go look? Oh well, thread's pretty inexpensive too, for the most part.

I have yards and yards of pretty jacquard ribbon, in all kinds of colors. I love the pretty flowers and patterns, but somehow whenever I think I'll use some of it in a project, I end up deciding it looks fussy and wrong and I throw it back in the drawer. One of these days I'll put some on the cuffs of something, honest!

Imogene, my dress dummy, is wearing a purple coat, a tan hooded capelet, and a green velvet top hat. She has such a sense of style ... and humor.

Anyway, this post goes to show that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. The holiday season is going to be keeping my busy with projects and clients, but I'll do my best to scribble an update here whenever I can. Until next time, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Winter is coming!

It's cold outside and I have made ambitious plans for making holiday gifts for my friends and family. This is something I think of every year, but this year is different in that I actually made the plan while I actually had time to do the work. Yes! No more waiting til the week before Christmas to decide that handmade gifts would have been very nice.

Ooh, Wenny! I can hear you say, What are you making? I want to see!

HA! No such luck! For many of the recipients are probably reading this right now and that would spoil everything.

I like italics today.

Dave gave me a coupon he found for 50% off any item at Goodwill. I hope I can find something really awesome to get with it. And that's about it for now. Except that I will mention that if you receive something knitted from me, please believe me when I tell you that it was made with love. Because I hate knitting so very, very much, there must be a lot of esteem for you to make me pick up needles.

p.s. I hate knitting.

Hoody!

It's been hard for me to work up interest in any of my projects for the last week. I think the rain is getting to me. Anyway, today I decided that I would wear my new wool gown for Halloween tomorrow (and to show off, let's be honest) and that by itself, it just kinda looks like a blue dress. What could make it look more 14th century-ish? Why, a hood, of course!

I found a lightweight grey wool in my stash, but when I held it up to my face, it was kinda scratchy. I can usually tolerate wool, unless it's on my face or wrists. (Hooray for the chemise!) So this was going to have to be lined. A bright red cotton flannel is jaunty and attractive, if not absolutely period. It was only a matter of an hour or so to cut it out and stitch it together.

Now I have this. It's lightweight but warm. I was pleased with myself until I pulled it on and looked at myself in the mirror and thought... "it looks like I chopped up a grey sweatshirt."

In the future, perhaps some embroidery or a bit of gimp trimming to make it look less ...athletic. But for now, it's a project done and that's good enough!

Later...

*pafft!* It's the future! Woot! Last night after posting this entry, I got all het-up about my hood and embroidered a chainstitch border all the way around it in red. I think it's much improved, and intend to add another row of the same to fancy it up even more.

Wore it along with my blue gothic gown today for Halloween dog walks, and got a lot of comments and compliments.

Vacation!

..oh no, not mine. I have work to do! Dave's actually the one going away. He's off to a cigar con in Vegas with his buddy Jed, leaving me home alone for five whole days.

But it is rather a vacation for me, in that I don't have to think about things like clearing my latest project off the dining room table so we have a place to eat, or wondering if I've been hogging the tv for too long watching reruns of Frasier on Netflix. Also, whole bed to myself! *sprawls*

Glorious! Josie and I will have a wonderful time.

<-- This is Josie. She's my five year old Lab/Pointer mix, and the smartest dog in the world. She's wearing a party hat because that's how we roll here in Awesome Land.

I'm plan on working on my walking skirt while Dave's away. I've found a pattern online -- free!-- that's my starting point, and once I've drafted it out on wrapping paper, I'll make a muslin. Frankly, if I get that far, I'll be happy, but if I have time and it all goes faster than I think, maybe I can get the actual skirt made. It's gonna be the brown and pink stripe, folks, and then I'm making a polonaise to go with it. The polonaise is gonna be brown with a rose graphic outlined in pink embroidery from the the right front sweeping around to the back. Trust me, it's gonna be jaw-dropping. ...I hope. =)

Anyway, it's time for work, so I'm off. But stay tuned for more vacation adventure ahead!

Oh shoot! I forgot to link that free skirt pattern! http://www.costumegallery.com/pattern.html

Derailed!

And just that quick, Wenny changed centuries. Oh, not for good. Well, I don't think for good. Nah, probably not. But check this out:

I got about nine yards of this stuff at -- you guessed it -- Goodwill for five dollars.

It spoke to me from the hanger and was all like "Hey, how about you and me get together and make a Gibson Girl-style bustle dress?" and I was so taken by the stunning brown and pink combo that I didn't even feel the gilded-age hook sink into my lip.

(That's a nickel there, so you can gauge the width of the stripe.)

I've never done anything even remotely close to this before, of course, so this is full of new challenges. And in case you're wondering, I'll not be hand sewing this one. Thanks to timeline technology, I have entered the age where it is totally "period" to use a machine. Which is good, because oh my goodness there's a lot of stitchy business to these dresses.

Want to see some inspiration images? Charles Worth is your man. He was the designer for the gilded age, and if you were anybody trying to be somebody, you had his creations on your back. Just gorgeous stuff. Look:

And if you just do a search for Victorian striped dress, you get a lot of images on that too.

This one isn't C. Worth; it's actually a vintage costume, but those crazy angles on the stripes are totally period -- and insane. I don't think nine yards is enough to make a dress like this, with having to accomodate stripe direction and all. Too bad. I would love to give this one a try.

As it is, I'm taking a few ideas from here and there and cobbling together my own plan for a walking skirt and a polonaise, and if you wonder what that is, or looks like, then just google "Dolly Varden dress" and you'll see. I gotta go to work, or I'd link an example here. Later!