Retrophile

I dont know why but I seem to get the most sewing done between the hours of midnight and three am. Last night I stayed up and finished my wrap dress while my boy was drowning himself in video games. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I didn't really make any alterations other than making it shorted. It is a pretty straight forward pattern. I will post more details later when i'm on my home computer. Happy Sewing! Nikki Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.8

I have been on the hunt for a while for cute oven mitts and pot holders.  When all of a sudden walking through the fabric store it hit me... Duh! I should just make my own.  I'm not really sure why the fact hadn't hit me before, but it did just at the right time.  So browsing through the bolts I found the cutest apples and pears fabric.  Now normally I go for cherries (since that is what my kitchen theme evolved in to) however these just had the perfect colors and were sooo cute. I didn't really have a patter in my stash so I hunted the net.  I must say, there is not  shortage of patterns out there for oven mitts and pot holders!  However I found one that was particular cute at www.craftandfabriclinks.com . Here is the direct link to the pattern, http://www.craftandfabriclinks.com/oven_mitt/oven_mitt_pattern.html however feel free to check out their other free patterns.  There are some really cute ones in there. The reason I chose this o...

Hello All, I couldn't wait till a decent hour to post my latest almost finished object (FO). Tonight my time has been consumed by my 1947 dress I started last week. I had cut out the pieces and but had been procrastinating on actually starting the sewing. I am glad I did because it only took me one night to sew! I have to say this was one of the easier dresses I have made in a while and it fits PERFECTLY. Below are some pictures of it on my dress form. I still need to hem the bottom, but you can see what it looks like still. The pattern I used was Butterick's Retro 1947 dress pattern B5209 It is a great pattern. It is wonderful for both those of us with more chest than necessary, and those who wish they had a bit more. The whole pattern consists of about 10 or 11 pieces total! The construction is pretty self explanatory. Just pay attention to the order you sew them together. I have a habit of getting ahead of myself and messing up steps. On this dre...

The key to steampunk is the accessories. The more you have on your costume the better it looks. This is the best part of the genre for me. I love coming up with new gadges and things that I think airship pirates would use. So I thought I would go over a few of the accessories I have for my costume. First off the way me and my friends consider our self a crew. Our ship, The Brass Boiler. We each picked a role on the ship before we started costuming. The role we picked guided how we ended up making our costume and the accessories that we chose. My boy is the Captain. My sis, the gunner, my friend Kelly is the mechanic, Jon is the hired gun/ mercenary ect. I am the navigator. I am in charge of making sure our ship gets to where it need to go. So here are some of my tools of the trade. Here we have my map tube. This was made by using a wrapping paper role and covering it with different fabrics. I will post a tutorial at a later date. Next is the oxygen mask. This was...

Ok so here is the Ren Dress I made for last years faire season. I wore it to, two different faires last year. This was also my first real sewing project. I have to say I am pretty happy with is and looking forward to making this years dress (which is going to be a recreation of queen elizabeth's red dress!). Anyway, here are some pictures . You can also see bigger more detailed pictures in my Ren dress album The bodice and skirt are hand beaded at all the line intersections with three small pears. Needless to say, this took a WHILE. My mom and I spent 4 hours on just half the skirt. I also made all the undergarments including: Shift (slip) Corset Farthingale Petticoat Partlett Accessories I made were: Neck Ruff Girdle (waist necklace for lack of better description) Sleeves (Detailed with satin ribbon and more pearls!)

Hello All, So if you recall in my earlier post, i made the new years resolution to make one non costume piece a month. well I am staying true to that. Here is my first piece for the month of January. I decided to start off with something simple since i was finishing up a lot of project for class. I made an a-line skirt out of a magenta gray yellow and green plaid. It is also lined with pink fabric I had left over from a previous project. I tried to avoid the whole school girl thing. Mostly I was inspired by Tracy Turnblad from Hairspray. The patten was drawn up by me with the help of "Sew What" a book on how to make just about any kind of skirt you could imagine. You draw up the skirt pattern based on your actual measurements. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I put a zipper and button on the back and managed to keep the fabric from catching even! Another funny little thing happened. Along the side seams of the skirt the lines matched up perfectl...

So here is my finished Victorian Carriage Dress. I got my inspiration for the dress from a vintage fashion plate. When I saw this I loved it and and knew that this was what I was going to model my own dress after To start off when all my undergarments for this costume were made from the McCall's Costume Pattern 3609. For the most part this was a really easy pattern to sew. The camisole is a no brainer if you are used t o following sewing instructions. The only modification I had to make was taking in the shoulder straps a bit. It is a good shape and plenty long so it fits completely under the corset. The corset was a great find. From looking at the pattern cover I wasn't sure how much support it would actually give. However, I was pleasantly surprised. It gave the perfect shape for my dress. There are a few things to note about this pattern however, if you want a corset that will really sinch you in this is not the pattern. It is more useful for molding you in...