2018 Review

My main goal with sewing this year was to work through my fabric stash and backlog of plans rather than add new projects. To that end, I made several items for which I've had designs or fabric lurking around for years.

Real clothes
I did have one final 'proper shop' in Cabramatta's fabric district at the start of the year but it didn't do too much damage to the stash as I turned out two maxi dresses the next weekend. Turns out not buying fabric is a great way to save money that I can then spend on... fabric. I have always loved paisley but even though it is 'in' now, it never seems to be in my colours. I decided to search etsy on a whim one day and came away with busy purple paisley for a maxidress. I’ve got eight of these dresses now, which is probably enough.

In a moment of ‘I need to sew something’ I turned, as I have done before, to the 1940s. A modified Simplicity 1587 resulted in two dresses, one of fabric bought (last year) for the purpose and another from the stash. And then I made a hat to match, because I could.

Turning to my other favourite 20th century decade, the 70s (I hadn’t realised that was a category for ‘favourites’ until someone asked me what mine were, and turns out it is), I made a halter gown with attached cape from Style 1353.

I added a peacock tag to my blog because five garments make a Thing. This year in peacock fashions, I used the bleaching technique I developed for the Assassin's Creed Revelations costume to add a peacock design to a bought tank top.

I finally found fabrics (including a peacock feather print) that would work for a shirt design I drew ages ago. I like how it turned out but haven’t worn it yet as I don’t know what wear it with.

Speaking of styles of clothes I don’t wear, I gave myself a shock at the start of the year by buying, and regularly wearing, ripped black skinny jeans (that actually fit me). I also wanted what would be, I guess, the skirt equivalent but there the shops were less helpful so I made my own heavily-eyeletted black skirt.

Costumes
Also in the interest of Finishing Things, I had leatherworking classes at Birdsall Leather in preparation for finally completing my Assassin's Creed costumes. When I got back from the trip I promptly didn’t do any work on them as the Jane Austen festival was looming.

Mum bought and set up a lovely little leather workstation for me for my birthday. I made a start but had to let the Gamma.Con deadline slip as my health required that I slow down a bit.

My blogging and sewing reduced a bit in the second half of the year, partly for health reasons and partly because I've been putting more of my 'hobby' time into music. I started with a new singing teacher at the beginning of last year and the process of switching from classical to contemporary style has been a (fun and exciting) challenge requiring more practice than I used to do. And then I decided to learn bass guitar because, you know, not enough stuff to do.

For Jafa I made a pink ballgown based on an 1815 fashion plate and a silk 1830s ballgown. Turns out:
a) silk is great,
b) free silk is better (I won a voucher), and
c) not enough silk can, in fact, be a good thing. This design was very much an exercise in limitations causing creativity and the dress is better for it.

Besides the ballgowns, I also made a chemisette, two chemises and a pair of gloves. (The gloves were finished after Jafa and are incredibly dodgy.)

Other people
I was commissioned to make a onesie based on the Amygdala character from the book Hey Warrior. This isn’t the first commission I’ve done but it kind of felt like it was, as I am a bit more socially distant from the commissionee and I had to write an invoice like a Professional Adult.

A lot of the clothes I make I wear to work and one of my colleagues asked if I could give her lessons to make Butterick 6018. I was keen to do this as, while I have done some sewing with people before, since then I have had lessons myself and can show people proper techniques instead of ‘this is what I made up’.

Events
My most significant event this year was Jafa, where I had a great time. I gave Gamma.Con a miss but did make it to Ironfest wearing Eowyn’s riding outfit. As events go, I have done Ironfest now and don’t need to go again.

I finally got to History Alive this year after many years of missing it due to uni exams, starting work and being overseas. I had great fun riding a 'ye olde' bike and doing more regency dancing. My cousin made an 18th century dress in the week leading up to the event, which is super impressive. I wore my 1830s gown and my dad dressed to match in his regency suit.

The saddest event was the closing down of Cardif Collective's haberdashery storefront. It will be missed (although, thanks to the closing down sale, I now have a bolt of ludicrously cheap silk taffeta I can cry into).

I entered the Canberra Show again this year and my 1830s day dress, entered in the miscellaneous category, won champion of the sewing section. Please bring back the historical and costume categories! I got a first with a 1940s dress and second with my 1830s bonnet – my first time competing in millinery.

Speaking of miscellaneous
I made swimming togs last year and actually wore them this year, so I can report that this was a successful venture.

Despite all appearances to the contrary I have not forgotten my Bayeux tapestry dress. I spend 20-30 minutes on it a week (a sermon’s-worth) and have got another two scenes finished.

Plans
I was pretty happy with knocking planned and prepared projects off my to-do list so I think I’ll keep trying to do that next year. I have two significant projects in that category: finishing the Assassins and a ground-up 18th century outfit to be ready for Jafa 2020. I have already started the stays.

I want to make a distinctively 1920s gown as well but I don't have a design as yet. If anyone has advice about how to do a historically accurate flapper look when you have hips please send it my way – I'm struggling.


Now... bring me that horizon!

In a suburb far, far away...

A couple of weekends ago I had a trip to Sydney. I went to a musical, an opera, three museums, did some leatherworking classes (more on that in future post) and went fabric shopping in Cabramatta. It was a very busy five days but lots of fun.

I had been hearing about Cabramatta ever since I started sewing lessons. It’s a Sydney suburb that has in its shopping precinct a loop with half a dozen or so fabric shops. The shops are packed with so much fabric it can be hard to move. The prices are good and the quality is too.

In the first couple of shops I didn’t find anything to buy. My shopping list was mostly costume/historical-geared so the very contemporary fabrics weren’t quite what I was looking for. However in the fourth shop, I found a beautiful gold chiffon. I’ve had a 1930s gold lamé evening gown design kicking around for years which this would be perfect for. And only $4 a metre; I bought 10.

The next shop turned up some glorious knits, perfect for the maxi-dresses I like for day wear. One light grey with a border print is beautiful and the other looks like it is covered in lightsaber blades; I couldn’t pass that up. Usually I have to look in the ~$20m section for these dresses and even that stuff often feels cheap. But here the quality was better and only $6 per metre. Except for the mottled black which they said was better quality, so $8m. I think it dyed my hands a bit when I was folding it up so I'm a bit scared of using it yet. Not sure if it will be a dress or skirt. Hopefully both.

Lastly I found a shop that had an eggshell blue brocade. I’ve been looking out for such a fabric for years to make Eowyn’s victory gown. I was a bit concerned to find it was $17m as I needed a fair bit – and then I found out that it was 3 metres wide. Hurray!

There isn't a good picture of this in existence, sorry.

Now, I am ostensibly trying to clear out projects rather than accumulate new ones so when the next weekend came I got straight into sewing the two maxi-dresses.

Because the grey fabric has straight border print and my pattern has a curved hem I needed to make some changes. I traced a new pattern and decided to keep it as the master because not full of adjustments and layers of paper and sticky tape. Then I cut my old pattern to have gores. Though still curved, these pieces were a lot easier to line up with the edge of the print.

The border print also meant cutting the dress down the width of the fabric rather than the length so most of the stretch is going down rather than around me. This means the sleeves are a bit tight to get on. I can’t figure out if there is anything you would make with the stretch going the right way and the border being vertical. Any ideas?

I have made 5 of these maxi-dresses exactly the same now so I decided to do something a bit different with the lightsaber fabric. This time, I used mesh (bought for something else) for contrast sleeves and a double layer neckline. For trim I used double rows of foldover elastic. Also while in Sydney I happened upon a gorgeous pair of shoes by Kitten D’Amour. They match the dress perfectly.

Usually on these dresses I sew the lining and outside together all at once but to get the double layer neckline I had to start each layer separately. I sewed the shoulder seams and the very top of the back seam and put the elastic around each neckline (the red one is cut 3cm lower).

I didn’t want the whole lining to be mesh so just attached a yoke.

I topstitched the shoulder seam at the neck side to hold the necklines in place and included both layers in the back seam until nearly the top.

For the cuffs, the edge band of elastic is folded around the end of the sleeve and the other row is folded on itself and was sewn on top of the sleeve before I sewed up the seam.

I am very pleased with how these dresses turned out. For two and a half days’ work it's a great start to the sewing year.

2017 Review

This year, it was like I decided to SEW ALL THE THINGS.

Costumes
In 2016 I did very little costuming but I got back to it in 2017. Firstly, I finished off Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite. The skirt and shirt were mostly done last year but this year I finished them off and added the choker, scarf, chemise, hair bow and handbag-disguised-as-a-book.

I actually made 3 chemises this year, but only one that was worth photographing.

The eternal Assassin's Creed project continues. This year I made the belt for my costume and cast all the resin pieces for AC II and Brotherhood. This included a second version of my AC II buckle because I wasn't happy with the paint job on the first. I also took my Dad's doublet apart and remade it because it didn't fit properly and neither of us were happy with it.

I've got leatherworking classes booked for early next year and I bought a Dremel last week to encourage me to stop putting off sanding the resin. I'm partly excited and partly ready for it to be over.

I made an 1830s dress, that I adore, for the Jane Austen festival. To go with it I made a corded petticoat and a bonnet. It was very nice to get back to some historical sewing after having spent 18 months or so focusing on videogame outfits and everyday wear.

In the week before Jafa I made a regency ballgown and evening spencer for a friend.

First photo by Steven Shaw

I also made a couple of regency petticoats and new stays – I will get the regency silhouette right eventually. (I mean, I won't; I'm not built that way, but I will get it as right as I can.)

I made a new Victorian corset as part of a workshop. I was very happy to finally get a corset that fits properly and I very much liked sewing with silk and hope to use it more (the muffled whimpering you can hear is my bank account).

Real Clothes
My Bioshock-induced 1940s habit is still going strong. I bought a couple of antique 1940s patterns not long ago; I haven't made them up yet, but I did use the collar and sleeve of one for the light purple dress. The write-up for the dark dress is here.

I had a foray into the fifties with the lovely Butterick 6018. I also made a slip, based on an original I own.

The slip turned out so well I made a summer dress from the same pattern. Also in summer wear, I made a dress and swimming togs with the au courant halter neckline.

I've worn this black knit skirt, McCalls 6608, so much it feels like I've had it forever, not just a year. I also made another maxi-dress. The fabric was beautiful but a bit cheap and nasty; I'm almost surprised it's survived being worn nearly every week since I made it.

Learning
I made a shirt and pants as part of some sewing classes I took this year. Learning how to adjust patterns properly has made a huge difference to how comfortable my clothes can be. With the 1830s dress and the 1950s dresses particularly, I noticed that I was able to fix fitting issues I would normally have just put up with.

This year I've started to focus more on my sewing-adjacent skills, like make-up and photography. I had my first studio photoshoot (not counting the family portrait when I was 3). Since attending a photography workshop at Gamma.Con, Mum and I are putting a bit more thought into the photos we take for the blog and are leaving the house to find different settings – you can expect a vicarious tour through Canberra over the next year.

Events
I had an excellent year of going to costuming events. Having friends to go with makes them so much better. First was the Jane Austen Festival, then Gamma.Con. We've got plans for more outings next year, and the preparatory sewing bees are already underway.

At Jafa: I made all the dresses and hats in this picture.

At Gamma.Con I won the sewing section of the Cosplay competition with my Elizabeth outfit. Elizabeth also got a first place in the Canberra Show and my Assassin won non-professional champion. My 2018 entry form is already on its way but I was saddened to see that there were no historical or costume categories. I had to enter in 'Other'.

Last year I thought I would aim to do a bit more sewing in 2017. I definitely managed it! In 2018 I might do a bit less. Although I've been enjoying it so much I don't want to stop.