Anyway ... here are my photos.
Please note, these are not complete instructions.
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Yesterday I showed photos of the samples I made for the Tudor gown and underpinnings. Today I will show you all the photos I took while making this hood. I got most of these hat making techniques from the book "From the Neck Up" by Denise Dreher, one of the books I think any serious costume maker should have. Anyway ... here are my photos. Please note, these are not complete instructions.
The hair is worn inside the hood, pulling it through the opening and, if the hair is long, allowing it to hang down inside the veil.
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Last week when I made my pretty blue tie dye dress, I also blogged about the first, unattractive, ugly colored tie dye dress that was my first attempt. (blog post July 13) I was going to give it to my local thrift store or use it to wear around the house, but then my friend, Jonatha, gave me some suggestions on how I might fix it. So, I what can I loose ... Plus I am having fun tie dying. My family better watch out come Christmas ... there might be a lot of tie dye gifts under the tree. Anyway, she suggested I over dye the dress with red, which will make the grey parts turn burgundy and the beigy-pink parts turn red.
There are so many cool products at the fabric store. All kinds of fabric markers and dyes you can squirt on. But, I have so much stuff in my studio. These two bottles of paint are left over from the production of Antigone I designed a while back (I blogged about this on July 5th). This is fabric paint that dries soft. And this is what I used.
So, thank you Jonatha for inspiring me to not give up on this dress!
I saw some really nice tie dye dresses in a store recently. I liked one of them so much, I nearly bought it. But it was $170, which seemed high. Plus, now I can try to make one myself and share the results with you. The interesting thing about these dresses is that the bodice is a knit and the skirt is a woven fabric. It was quite difficult to tell that two different fabrics had been used until I looked very closely. To speed along this project, I thought I would sew a woven skirt onto a purchased knit top. It is VERY important the fiber content be exactly the same for both fabrics so the dye color comes out the same. The safest choice is 100% cotton, no trace of polyester or any spandex at all. And I had to look pretty hard to find a top like that. I did at Target ... for $8! I wanted 3/4 sleeves but had to settle for short sleeves. ****************************************************************** This is my first attempt. Here are the things I don't like about it. 1. The color ... I tried for taupe and black, but it's hard to get dark colors with dyes made for home use AND (very important!) the two colors chosen need to be able to bleed together and not turn into an unattractive color, because they will bleed! 2. The shapes are bad and the tying is too tight and close together. Otherwise the basic construction is good. For my second, blue, dress I found a 3/4 sleeve (which is what I wanted anyway) 100% cotton top at Macy's for $11 and I used heavier cotton for the skirt, but I used my 50% off coupon! This tutorial is mostly about this first dress ... all comments about the second dress will be in red. *********************************************************************************************** So, back to the tutorial .... I looked through my stash at home to see if I had a large enough piece of white 100% cotton. I went shopping. The 100% quilting cottons are pretty expensive when they are not on sale ... between 5 and 8 dollars a yard, but I want white and I didn't want it too heavy so I went over to the muslin section and got 3 yd. of 36" white muslin for $1.99 a yd! For the second dress I got 3 1/2 yd. quilting cotton for $3 a yard with 50% off coupon. So that the dye will take well and to pre-shrink the fabric, I throw the top and fabric into the washing machine with detergent to get any sizing out ... making sure to zig-zag or serge the edges of the fabric first to keep it from becoming too stringy in the wash. The skirts on these dresses were very full and seemed to have a lot of gussets, but I want to make things simple so my dress will have a circle skirt. I added about 2" to my hip measurement for wearing ease for the waist (really hip) circumference. So to make a circle skirt, cut 2 half circles. Fold the fabric on the cross grain and draw a big circle by pushing a thumb tack through a tape measure and putting your pencil into the hole at the end to draw the circle. The waist for each quadrant of the skirt should be 1/4 of your finished hip measurement then add a seam allowance. If you don't have a table you can poke a hole into like I do, have a second person help. They can push the thumb tack into a small piece of wood or cardboard and hold it steady while you draw the circle OR use a circle skirt pattern and just adjust the waist and length to fit. Probably the easiest choice! Now to start the dying. I want this to be taupe and black, so I plan to dye to entire dress taupe first. This was my biggest mistake ... for the second dress I chose aquamarine and royal blue. Two colors that will look OK when the colors run into each other.To do this, I need a very large pot (an enamel lobster pot I use only for dying), a box of dye, a cup of salt, rubber gloves and a wooden spoon. It is very important to follow the instructions for what ever kind of dye you are using.
But ... I am disappointed with the finish dress. The photos below will show you how I did the second dress differently. HAPPY DYING ... AND GOOD LUCK!
In the last RenFaire blog post I showed you how to turn some old clothes from the thrift store into a lovely wench outfit for a lady to wear to the Renaissance Faire. (blog June 14) Today I will show you how to dress the lucky guy who will accompany this wench. For the guy's outfit I started with a slightly over sized shirt ($3.50). I found an off white one with loosely woven fabric so it doesn't look too modern, a slightly over sized pair of brown pants ( $3) and a tan cotton unlined sport's coat ($5.25). Earth tones are a safe choice for most Renaissance costumes. I, also, picked up a woman's knit striped top ($3), a woman's floppy black hat ($1.50) and how could I pass up the black scarf with the the scull and cross bones on it ($2.25). Cost $18.50 ... purchased on the 25% off day, of course. And as with the lady's clothing ... into the washer these things go, because thrift store stuff smells funny. But, before washing I carefully pick off the chest pocket on the shirt. I am so sorry I forgot to take a photo before I went at the cotton sports coat with my scissors, but trust me, it was a standard men's sport's coat with a lapeled collar. There really is no way to turn in into a pirate coat, but a vest ... yes.
This is where things stand. I made jagged cuts on the sleeve caps which make them curl up ... RATS. And he just looks too tidy ... I need to dirty him up.
Next the pants ....
A pirate needs some kind of a hat ...
The shirt should be tucked into the pants. Pirates or other men in the 18th Century and earlier didn't wear under pants like we do. The shirts were long and kind of served the job of underwear. They were, at least, easier to wash than the pants would have been. And, you know ... this craze to be a pirate has been around a long time. Take a look at this photo from a 1920's masquerade party!
This photo was taken at my sister's wedding. I was the maid of honor (in the back next to my mother) and my 2 younger sisters were junior bride's maids. The reason I'm sharing this photo with you, is because we all have the next flower I'm going to show you on our heads. I was 19 years old at the time and my grandmother taught me how to make this flower (view A). She and I made all the head pieces. It's called the Diablo Rose because it was created by one of the teachers who taught in the Apparel Design Program at Diablo Valley College that my mother attended. So, I have shown you how I made all the flowers in this new pattern. Over the summer there will be a couple guest bloggers who will show what they've done with this pattern. Next week back to my assorted projects and a thrift store pirate! Today I am going to show you some tips on make the flowers from this pattern, view H and L. These two are each made differently than any of the other flowers.
Rose buds can be made in the same fashion using a couple short pieces of rick rack.
Tomorrow I will show you views G and E ... flowers with flat gathered petals.
This flower project had my worktable in a more chaotic state than usual. I tried out so many different kinds of flowers in many different fabrics. All this week I am going to show you photos I took while making these samples. I hope my photos along with the pattern and instructions will help you create these fun and easy flowers. Today I am going to give you some tips that should help in making the two felt flower, views B and I.
More tomorrow ...
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From AndreaI am a commercial pattern maker who is now "sewing over 50"! Archives
August 2019
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