Rapunzel Progress

The bodice is taking shape. Most of it is basted in place, and just needs to be sewn down. Amazing what you can do during study breaks.

Lining and outer fabric have been sewn together. The outer fabric is cotton sateen: I found it in the furnishing fabric department of JB stores.

 Adding the piping. This is my first succesful attempt at piping. I used some polycotton lining fabric, cutting it into bias strips, then sewing three loosely plaited strands of wool into the strips of fabric. 

The piping is all basted in place. The modesty panel is there just to see what the finished bodice will look like.

 Here's the back. The darker lilac thing is a panel which I added to fake the look of the camisole she wears under her bodice. It's made of satin, interfacing and lining. I added a button just to see what they would look like. The buttons are all painted the right colour with acrylic paint.

Summer Sewing and Cosplay Workshops

THis summer I will be organizing a series of workshops on sewing aimed at cosplayers and costumers living in Malta. Here is a rough schedule (still don't have a definite start date) of the first 10 lessons

Format of lessons

Note: lessons will be flexible, so this is just a rough guide.

Lesson 1:

Basic stitches (running stitch, blanket stitch, back stitch), how to sew a button on, how to make a simple felt owl/cat (pincushion)

Discussion of member's projects

Lesson 2:

Gathering, ruffling, pleats, bias tape, ribbon, simple fabric flowers; using these to alter existing clothing

Make a simple choker from ribbon

Discussion of Members projects

Lesson 3:

Painting and dying: explaining types of paint and dye e.g. markers, paints, Dylon, stencils, natural dyes (tea, turmeric)

Discussion of Members projects

Lesson 4: Closet Cosplay

How to make your wardrobe steampunk

e.g. Adding ruffles to shirts and skirts, making bows for you outfit, stencilling steampunk patterns, adding corset lacing with ribbon.

Discussion of Members' projects

Lesson 5:

Simple skirts: Gathered skirt, circle skirt, pleated skirt

NB. To save time, we will make dolls sized skirts to help you learn the technique

Discussion of Members' projects

Lesson 6:

Gijinka, or how to make your hoodie look like Nyan cat

Discussion of members' projects

Lesson 7:

Alice: how to make an apron; how to give your clothes a wonderland look (applique))

Discussion of members' projects

Lesson 8:

Patterns: where to find them, how to use them, what to look for in a pattern, discussion of pattern drafting

Discussion of members' projects

Lesson 9:

Pattern drafting: How to draft an anime school girl blouse

Discussion of members' projects

Lesson 10:

T-shirt reconstruction: cutting, stencilling, applique, fringe, punk

Discussion of members' projects

Things that will probably happen at workshops

Simple

-Basic handsewing + how to make a pincushion

-Basic handsewing = simple bow

-Basic handsewing = simple choker

-How to steampunk your wardrobe

-Apron

-Gathered skirt (elastic waist)

-Circle/ half circle skirts (elastic waist)

-T-shirt reconstruction

-Simple tutu (elastic waist)

-Fabric painting and natural dyes

-Top hats and mini top hats

-Creating a closet cosplay

-Analysing your cosplay

Intermediate:

-Pleated skirt (with zip and waistband)

-Swiss Waist Corset/Cincher

-Anime Schoolgirl blouse

-Haruhi Suzumiya pleated skirt

-Sailor Collar

-Hoodie

-Paper mache masks

Structure of workshop: 90 minutes or so. First half will be explaining the technique, showing examples, and dmeonstrating, then everyone practises the technique. Last half hour will be discussing people's cosplays and giving suggestions/help.

Rapunzel Bodice

I am working on too many projects at the same time. as evidenced by this bodice.

The pink stripes are boning channels

This is the structure for Rapunzel's bodice (Tangled).http://www.squidoo.com/disneys-rapunzel-costume

Back

Front: the nice side of the lining. I didn't bother matching up the pattern, though if I had, it would have made a really cool reversible bodice.

Bodice: I used a Burda style pattern from their folk wear edition (March 2012 I think). http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/092011-bodice

 I altered the pattern a lot by raising the neckline, making the sleeves thinner, removing the lacing at the back, moving it to the front instead.

The bodice base is some kind of furnishing fabric that frays like crazy. I added boning channel from some random pink lining material, cut on the bias. The boning is this thick plastic strapping material (yay recycling).
I'm cheating slightly by adding a modesty panel to go underneath the front, rather than having a camisole underneath (too much work, and too hot for summer time).
The bodice material is lilac cotton sateen. The modesty panel and the panel at the back will be made from dark lilac satin which I dyed years and years ago (I must have been 16 or younger)

Sleeves: I'll be using Burda's Danielle pattern (best pattern for big puff sleeves) http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/danielle

The lower sleeves look simple enough: a tube of organza/chiffon with lace at the cuff)

Mock turtle soup

'Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?'

'No,' said Alice. 'I don't even know what a Mock Turtle is.'

'It's the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from' said the Queen

(Alice in Wonderland)

Apron from an old apron, which in turn was made from a skirt :)
I added an applique on the front: it features one of Tenniel's Alice in Wonderland illustrations. Here we have the Mock Turtle telling his sad history to the Griffin and Alice.

This piece began life as a white tiered skirt, similar to this one.

It then became this apron, which is made for a Rocky Horror cosplay skit one or two years ago. It was not a very good apron because the straps kept falling off my shoulders during the dance. It was also quite shoddily made: lots of raw edges, gaps in the stitching, and a hundred loose threads hanging down from it.Then it became this Lolita inspired apron. The arm straps became a giant ruffle for the hem of the apron; I sewed on a strip of cloth to tie the apron on, and added the Alice applique because the apron looked so plain without it. 

I will try and make a tutorial for this apron come summer time :)

Fringe T-shirt

Inspired by Corinne Leigh's videos on Youtube, I made this fringed t-shirt. The t-shirt was a long sleeved t-shirt. the sleeves became the fringe. I added the red-material at the bottom to make the shirt longer, and to neaten the hem. I wish I had a serger: it would make sewing knit material a bit simpler. 

 This t-shirt is for sale https://www.etsy.com/listing/100380910/grey-and-red-striped-punk-fringe-t-shirt. 

The video I based the t-shirt on is below.

Blogger,why must you constantly rotate my images? If anyone knows how to fix this, please let me know. Okay, when I upload images on a computer other than my laptop, there's no rotation. What is going on?

Silk Maiden

 Firstly, I've added two new items to my etsy: some grey and black striped arm warmers, made from an old t-shirt, and a pair of black fleece button-up leg warmers. Feel free to check them out.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/98617984/grey-black-striped-arm-warmers?ref=af_shop_favitem

 http://www.etsy.com/listing/98625135/steampunk-victorian-leg-warmers?ref=v1_other_1

Secondly I've finally got some pictures of the completed Silk Maiden dress.

 Gogo is my Cheshire cat for the day.

 I forgot to wear my bow and my gloves for this costume: oh well.

 Went to the Avengers premier dressed like this. The Joker and an Anbu ninja were there too.

How I made this dress:
The bodice of this dress was based on a kimono style top pattern. I had to lengthen that pattern and draft out the darts to get the right shape. The enormous puff sleeves came from Burda's Danielle pattern.
The skirt is a simple half circle skirt. The obi/apron belt is basically two trapezoids sewn together. It fastens with hooks and eyes (I love hook and eye tape). I drafted the apron myself. It tapers out so that it is larger at the bottom, the form a curve with a point in the centre. You can't really see the point in the pictures.


Materials: The aim behind this dress was to use up as much material in my collection of cloth as possible. The main fabric came from some old tablecloths (love things, wit a scalloped edge). It was thin, so I lined it, mostly with cotton, though one piece was so big that I had to use a large piece of chintz. The skirt was lined with the remnants of an old satin skirt.


I used pink satin for the obi and the ruffle on the bottom of the skirt. The hot pink fabric came from an old umbrella. The apron is white cotton, lined with an old sheet. The design on it was drawn on with fabric markers.The ribbons on the obi do not go all the way round: I miscalculated the amount of ribbon I needed.


I had to replace the invisible zip that I used, because it was 10cm too short, and made it really difficult to get in and out of the dress. the new 40cm zip makes it a lot easier to put the dress on.


Alice wear an omega necklace for all her costumes, so I made that too. I used polymer clay and painted it green, then strung it on a piece of black wool.

Medieval Mdina

Finally posted the pictures from Medieval Mdina (which was last Sunday).
First of all, my cosplay pictures:

 I love this costume. It is comfortable, apart from being tight on the arm scye. The handpainted paisley turned out beautifully, and I am in love with the long circular sleeves.

 Mdina used to be Malta's capital city. I think it was built by the Arabs. It used to be part of Rabat, a nearby town, but the Arabs separated it from Rabat to make it easier to defend. Most of the buildings standing are palazzos and townhouses, probably sixteenth century.

 The reenactors we met near the bastions were nice enough to let my friends and I play around with the weapons and armour on display, provided that we were careful not to touch the metal, because apparently they rust very easily. This is a hand and a half sword, and it is extremely heavy. I would need to do some serious weight lifting before I could handle it easily. I had better luck with the smaller swords: one of the reenactors taught me a neat little tricks where you rotate your wrist, and kind of spin the sword (hard to explain, but if you've ever seen Lord of the Rings special features, you see Orlando Bloom doing it a few times and might know what I'm talking about)

In this picture you can see the bastions behind me, and beyond them fields and Mtarfa. These bastions are very tall and thick, and damn imposing: no wonder the Turks didn't attack the city during the Great SIege in 1565. The bastions allowed the people who remained in Malta during the siege some protection from the Ottoman army, with the people in the Great Harbour taking the brunt of the attack.

And here are pictures of the actual event:

Reenactors in very cool leggings (I think the correct Medieval term is hose). I saw some gorgeous reenactment costumes. One of my favourites was a this one girl's gorgeous velvet doublet with principle boy style boots: black and gold trim, and so cool.

These reenactors were doing a flag display, along the lines of the flag display/flag tossing done in Sienna, usually just before the Palio (the Palio is a slightly mad horse race around the main piazza of Sienna. It lasts about 90 seconds on average.)

 Men at arms. FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC

 My friend and her gorgeous dress. I know satin isn't historically accurate, but whatever. I think she looks a bit like Princess Fiona in Shrek, before she went green.

 My other friend, gazing out over the Maltese countryside. She was extremely patient with our constant begging for her to take photos of us prancing around :)

Tell me that this does not make you think of Shrek and Fiona in Shrek 2. We found this adorable cat snoozing outside a house. He was a very willing model.

 We found a German bagpipe band playing near the main gate of Mdina, and had to get a photo with them. Here we are looking slightly shy.

The band in action.