Snow White Gown – Part 2

Finally cut out all the fabric! Ok, I still need to cut out the bow and the gauntlet facing, but otherwise it’s all cut. Here are a few pattern cutting pics: front underskirt (1 piece), side & back underskirt (4 pieces), sidefront & back bodice (2 pieces each of lining), and sidefront and sideback bodice (2 each of interfacing).

Altogether it came to about 40 pieces, including 4 for pockets from a pattern piece I stole out of Butterick 5757 (peasant skirt). I strongly prefer not carrying a purse when I wear costumes so I try to build in pockets whenever possible.

After hacking at 2 of the pieces, I gave up on all 4 pairs of crappy scissors around the house and made a quick trip to JoAnn’s for some real cutting shears:

Not the fanciest by far, but vastly superior in that I could use any portion of the blades to cut and not just whatever inch or so hadn’t yet gone dull.

Next I ironed the bodice interfacing to the facing. Only after I did this did I read the instructions and discover I should have ironed the interfacing to the lining. Oh well, gotta be a badass, right? Also, the contrast between the light and dark blue is really gorgeous!

Sewing the bodice wasn’t too difficult: clip between the notches along the breast (you can see them on the right side of the piece pictured immediately above), and sew with notches matched up. Same for the lining, except I also had to add 9 pieces of 1/4 inch plastic boning, pictured below:

I did this by first removing the bone and trimming it so there was about half a centimeter of extra casing on both top and bottom, then sewing across the bottom of the casing. I then sewed one side of the casing to the lining, inserted the bone, and then sewed both the bottom and top of the casing to the fabric. I also made sure to dull the edges of the bones so they were less likely to poke through in the future.  Note: chewing on the bone ends helps dull the edges while also taking the edge off your hunger, preventing you from wasting precious time on a snack break!

Here’s a closeup of me sewing the boning casing to the lining:

You may be wondering why the lining looks purple here instead of the royal blue in the cutting pic near the top of this post. This is because I do most of my sewing at my parents’ house, and most of my cutting at my house, and I forgot to transport the lining pieces with me when I made the trip from point A to point B. Luckily I had the bodice pattern pieces on me and some leftover purple lining from the Ever After inspired gown lying around, so I just cut them out again.

I then sewed the lining to the facing/interfacing along the neck line with right sides together, flipped it over so right sides were facing out, and pressed the neckline. And finally, I basted the lining to the facing/interfacing along the sides and bottom. Result below:

You can see a hint of purple along the neckline but that’s ok because the neck will be trimmed with white lace.

The astute reader will also notice that I chose to sew some pretty lace to the center bodice piece instead of doing the smocking found on the original movie costume. This is because I spent several hours Saturday night discovering the hard way that smocking by hand is not for noobs like me.

Well that’s it for this week. I’m pretty proud that I sewed the bodice in about 5 hours, including the half hour it took me to cut out the replacement lining pieces. Next weekend I will hem the bodice and baste the armholes, then start on the sleeves.

Before I sign off, I want to share that I found someone else who sewed this dress a few months ago, and she was nice enough to post close up pics of the detailing she did on the orange gauntlets, for which she used matching sheer orange ribbon. I think I’ll be copying this pattern:

Ok, goodnight everyone!

Snow White Gown – Part 1

My latest project is Snow White’s wedding gown from the film Mirror Mirror. Here are several screen shots from the movie:

Here’s my favorite pic, from a publicity shoot. It’s high resolution so you can zoom in and really see the detailing up close:

And here are some pictures of the costume on display. I was especially happy to find one of the petticoat and the shoes:

Luckily, Simplicity makes a pattern for this dress! Unluckily, it’s not a true pattern: it omits the overskirt (a HUGE oversight IMHO), uses lace on the front of the bodice instead of honeycomb smocking, and has puff sleeves instead of knife pleats.

I’ve decided to restore the overskirt and the pleated sleeves—it’ll be fun figuring out these!—but I’m not keen on hand smocking that honeycomb pattern, so lace it is for the bodice front.

Here are the fabrics I’m using:

Duchesse satin for the bodice and overskirt, with crocheted lace (for the hem). I didn’t even bother trying to replicate the original hem, opting instead for something that struck me as appropriate and approximately the right color.

Costume satin for the bodice lining

Satin taffeta for the sleeves & underskirt (taffeta is good for giving structure to the full skirt)

Lace for the bodice front

Costume satin for the gauntlets & bow. I would have preferred a heavier satin, but this was the only orange shade I liked. I can always line it with interfacing for stiffness.

Here are all the fabrics together:

I still haven’t decided on the lace for the collar and sleeves. The original costume has very white & pointy lace, and I might be taking a trip into LA’s garment district to see if I can find something similar.  The points on the lace are rather crucial to the impact this dress made on me when I first saw it, so I’d like to get as close to that as possible.

I will also be making the bow as large as the original dress, which will require a ton of interfacing and possibly some wire.

More next weekend when I start cutting out pattern pieces.

Ever After Gown – Part 4

Sewing the lining for the underskirt. As you can see I did a stellar job cutting out these pattern pieces on the line.

 

And sewing the overskirt. This took FOREVER, and I unfortunately forgot an entire piece, and then I also forgot to leave a seam open in the back for the zipper!  ARGH!

 

Then a miracle occurred…

No, kidding. I just forgot to take pictures because I was too stressed out. The last steps were (1) sewing the overskirt to the underskirt, (2) sewing the skirt to the bodice, and (3) sewing the zipper. Since the zipper traveses the green skirt and the gold bodice, I had to use green thread on the bottom half of the zipper and then gold thread on the top half. Very glad I remembered this before I started sewing the zipper!

Here’s the finished gown from front, side and back:

And here’s a side-by-side comparison of my gown with the Ever After gown that inspired it:

Ever After Gown – Part 3

Finally finished the sleeves! Yay!

I screwed something up cutting up out these pieces because the sleeves barely fit.  See how tight they are, especially around the elbow? Ah well, time to seam rip and widen.

I ended up adding a thin strip of gold fabric down the entire length. I debated covering that strip with the same green velvet and red trim but decided I liked it better plain. Here’s how it looked:

I had to widen the armhole too. Since I didn’t want to widen the entire side of the bodice, I added a triangular piece of gold fabric:

Here’s me wearing the finished bodice with sleeves. Cute, right?

Next up is the underskirt and underskirt lining. This is just a giant 6-piece circle skirt, so I won’t bore you with the details. But just for kicks, here’s a pic of me sewing the shiny gold dupioni:

 

And here’s me wearing the skirt and bodice unattached. The skirt is pinned in the back right now because a zipper needs to go there, and I can’t add the zipper until I finish the underskirt with lining and then sew the overskirt to the underskirt. Fun times ahead, yo.

Ever After Gown – Part 2

Ok, I finally got started on this gown!  Here’s a pic of the pattern when it arrived about a month ago:

I started by cutting out about 50 pattern pieces, which took me two weeks on & off.  The bodice alone has 9 pattern pieces, and since I need to cut facing, interfacing and lining, that was 27 right there!  Here’s a pic of me getting started on the cutting.  I decided to go with a green velvet instead of purple, because it looked better against the gold.

I had to be careful ironing the interfacing to the bodice pieces, because the silk dupioni tends to crinkle under high heat and steam.  There are still wrinkles there that I haven’t figured out how to get rid of. Here’s the beginning of the bodice, with some red trim I found that looked absolutely divine against the gold and green fabrics:

And here, many many hours later, is the finished bodice, front and back:

I’m not sure what went wrong when I cut out the pattern pieces, but as you can see from the back view, the pieces were uneven even though I matched the notches perfectly. Oh well, There’s a reason why I cut them out a bit bigger than the pattern.

the thing that really bugged me was that the green collar was uneven. See how the right side is narrower and ends a bit higher than the left side.  Well, after a bit of puzzling, I decided to hand sew the left side to be just as narrow and high as the right side.  Here are a few pics:

And the finished bodice, with even collars:

Next up – the sleeves!  These are of gold dupioni with green velvet accents and red trim.  Now, the green velvet was supposed to be puffy, but the velvet fabric was so thick and the dupioni so thin, I didn’t see a good way to affix the velvet puffs to the sleeve in a manner that wouldn’t rip the thread or eventually tear the sleeve.

Here’s what the puffs would have looked like. I definitely needed stronger thread, because what I used ripped twice while I was trying to gather the velvet. That’s when I gave up.

More to come later!

Red Renaissance Outfit – Part 2

Finished the matching full skirt yesterday, using Butterick 5757 again and taking a whole bunch of shortcuts.  No pockets, no lining (which seems to have been a mistake because this fabric unravels like crazy), and did a simple elastic waist by folding over the fabric and sewing the elastic into it.

I first sewed the end of the elastic to the fabric, then pinned and sewed the waist fabric over it all around, leaving a one inch gap for the elastic to stick out through.  I then gathered the fabric around the elastic until I reached an acceptable waist circumference, then cut and sewed the elastic to itself through the fabric, and then closed the one inch gap.

This really only works when the fabric print is so busy you don’t notice the extra stiches, or when the waistband will never show, as will be the case with my costume because the corset and the overskirt will cover it up.

Here’s the finished skirt:

 

Next up is the black overskirt. I’ve cut this already and started sewing pockets already. I’ll be putting some gathering in it, a bit like this brown skirt:

Now it’s bedtime. Had a long stressful week at work, and I just got back from a long afternoon and evening at Disneyland so I’m beyond pooped.

Ever After Gown – Part 1

After scouring the web for a pattern similar to the green & gold Ever After gown worn by Anjelica Huston at the royal ball near the end of the film, I finally ran across McCall’s 3053.  This is strangely marketed as a bridal gown, but pattern option C looks almost identical to the gown, with the exception of a full train in back instead of the two separate draped pieces hanging down the back off each shoulder.  I don’t have enough purple velvet to make the train, so I’ll either omit it entirely or figure out a way to make the separate drapes.

Ever After gown:

 

McCall’s 3053:

 

I originally wanted the purple velvet to go with the blue dupioni, but it turns out this pattern takes about 6 yards of dupioni and I only have 3 in the blue.  The only dupioni I have enough of is the gold, so it will be a purple and gold gown instead, which is a more traditional color pairing anyways.

Purple velvet & gold dupioni:

Ok, off to buy the pattern!  But first, here’s a fuzzy screenshot of Anjelica Huston wearing the gown:

Fabric Windfall

A few weeks ago I joined a costume party meetup group online, and a few days ago someone posted to the group that she had dozens of yards of free fabric for anyone who wanted to take it off her hands.  I jumped on the chance, especially since I’ve spent well over $200 on fabric in the past few weeks alone.  At the very least, I figured, I would end up with some stuff I could use to practice my bodice making skills.

I showed up at her house tonight to discover yards and yards of silk dupioni in so many gorgeous colors!.  I ended up taking home about 30 yards worth, plus some yards of purple patterned velvet, medium-weight light gold & blue brocade and some lightweight off-white brocade.

I also got some awesome silk thread:

Now I get to go off and brainstorm color combinations.  I’m thinking an Italian renaissance gown with the purple velvet and blue dupioni (with silver trim?)

In the style of this beautiful masterpiece

Scottish Stuff – Part 1

I just landed a minor part in a local production of The Scottish Play Opera, which got me thinking about my Scottish roots.  I’m a Lindsay, which is not one of the more well known patterns (unlike Stewart or Blackwatch) but which still comes in several different variations:

There’s Lindsay Ancient:

Lindsay Hunting Ancient:

Lindsay Weathered:

Lindsay Old Colors:

Lindsay Modern:

Lindsay New Modern:

Lindsay Red Dress:

and Lindsay Blue Dress:

 

Clearly, my Lindsay ancestors were a color-savvy bunch.

I want to make a circle skirt & sash similar to the image below out of one of these colors, probably either Modern, New Modern, Red Dress or Blue Dress.

 

Tartan fabric is crazy expensive though, even for lightweight poly-viscose.  So far the cheapest I’ve seen is around $20/yard, so I may have to save up a bit first.  Ebay and Etsy aren’t helping, because they don’t seem to carry Lindsay tartans.  If anyone knows someplace I can get Lindsay tartans for under $10/yard please speak feel free to leave a comment below!

Red Renaissance Outfit – Part 1

I bought this gorgeous corset from Mad Girl Clothing last year at the LA Renaissance Fair.  Aren’t the clasps nifty? This year at the fair, I spotted a silver and black version that came with a matching skirt, so I asked the saleslady if the skirt came in the same color as the brocade fabric on my corset, and she said yes.  When I asked how much, she said $110.  Yikes.

When I went home that evening, I looked up the skirt online and found that the fabric was called Burgundy and Hunter Brocade.  On a whim, I decided to google that phrase, and it turns out that Joann’s has it on sale for $6/yard.

I promptly snatched up 3 yards with a plan to make a nice overskirt and a simple black cotton underskirt.   Here I am with the fabric wrapped around my waist to give you an idea of what I’m thinking.

I’d also like to make a pair of detachable shoulder straps out of the same fabric that simply snap into the corset, and then purchase a black cotton chemise to wear underneath.  The finished outfit will essentially be the color inverse of this outfit below: