Slipping away

Many years ago, when I was still 'playing dressup' rather than 'costuming' I used to frequent the retro rack of the local second hand shops. One of the things I picked up was a 1950ish slip. It hung around the dressup box for a while until I made a light coloured 40s dress and the slip became part of my everyday wardrobe.

I love wearing my vintage dresses but often find in the air-conditioning at work that I am uncomfortably cold. The slip seemed a good answer for this problem. I didn't want to wear the same slip day in, day out, and perfectly fitted 70-year old clothes seemed a bit much to expect second hand shops to stock on command. So I decided to make my own. The slip I have fits me beautifully so I decided to take a pattern from it.

I wanted a dark colour, because I like dark colours, but no fabric shops had black tricot. Instead I picked up a lovely chocolate brown and a goldflecked lace to go with it.

My pattern worked pretty well straight off. Only the bodice top needed a slight change to the angles. The centre front panel came out a bit weird but I think that had more to do with my confused construction than the pattern itself.

The slip went together in a day (yay!) and fits very well. In fact, I like the fit so much I also made a summer dress from the same pattern. This one took a bit longer as I had to decide how to decorate it and I wanted the decorations to make it look less like a slip and more like a dress. I ended up deciding on a self-ruffle at the hem, trimmed straps and lace appliqués.

To edge the ruffle I brought my overlocker out for the first time in ages and managed to remember how to work it. The wide straps I trimmed with ribbon and beads. The lace appliqués are cut from the leftovers from my Ava Gardner dress and sewn on by hand. I really like the purple and taupe together.

Mum and I had a lot fun doing a photoshoot at the National Botanic Gardens. We were aiming for a fairy kind of look.

Fifties' flounces and feathers

Once I finished fitting the pattern for Butterick 6018, it was time to make it up. I picked up a couple of sateen prints from Spotlight for the purpose. They have a very slight stretch but I don't think it will be enough to be detrimental to the finished product. First to go is the peacock feather print.

Following on from the challenge of fitting, the construction is not especially newsworthy. The pattern went together well. I actually looked at the instructions which turned out to be useful. So, if you want a review, I guess it would be: "5 stars, am currently making two more".

After I started the dress I decided I would like to wear it to a wedding at the end of the week. Because who doesn't love deadlines? I got it all done bar the hems on Thursday which left Friday for the finishing. I started out doing a tiny neat hemming stitch but it soon became clear that if I wanted to sleep at all that night I would need to do something faster. So I tacked it down instead. This worked for the day but I will now hem it properly, at a more relaxed pace.

The dress can be worn with or without a petticoat but I thought it really wanted one so I bought a Hell Bunny long petticoat from Atomic Cherry. It arrived in two days which was impressive. The dress does look rather better with it.

Having an occasion to wear the dress also raised the problem of shoes. I had ordered tan Gibsons from American Duchess some time before that I thought would be perfect but they had only just been shipped and weren't expected to arrive in time. There was much rejoicing when the parcel turned up on the Friday. The shoes fit just right (phew) and I wore them all day Saturday. They were comfortable and even wearing them all day (including lots of standing and walking - without any 'wearing in') caused no ill effects. Review: 10/10, will expect postage miracles again!

With the dress I wore some vintage jewellery that I inherited from my great aunt.

I was really, really pleased with the dress. There's nothing I look at and think 'it'll do but I should to change it for next time' and it didn't take me any time to warm up to liking it.

(This seems to be a post full of reviews. I have received no benefits from Butterick, Hell Bunny, Atomic Cherry or American Duchess. But, like, if you want to send something now, go ahead!)

It's only fitting

One aspect of the sewing lessons I have been taking is figure analysis. Turns out I have a peculiar figure, with a long, thin torso but more significant hips and shoulders. It's a figure that looks nice but it makes it difficult for me to find trousers I can wear and I often find clothes tight in the shoulders. According to my sewing teacher, it's the perfect figure for late Victorian (coincidently, the 1870s is my favourite era for clothes) and she recommended that I try 1950s’ style.

I had made a couple of 50s dresses already but the walkaway dress has its problems and my Ava Gardner dress is too fancy for every day. So I picked up Butterick 6018 and, armed with my new patternmaking skills, set out to make it Fit Properly.

The skirt fit as is but my arms and shoulders were very uncomfortable. The armscye was cutting into my underarm at the front which is a problem I often have (and the reason I can hardly ever bring myself to wear this dress 🙁). I consulted my figure analysis textbooks which basically said that it was impossible for an armscye to not fit properly. Ok... that sounds fake, but ok. I did what the book said and looked for the tell-tale wrinkles indicating other problems that could make it feel like the armscye was wrong. There were none. The bodice looked like it fit perfectly.

After spending an evening in directionless confusion I decided to do a 1cm square shoulder adjustment anyway because I usually need those. The new mock-up hurt less although it made no difference to the cutting into me. It was time for drastic measures. Google offered no advice so I invented an adjustment myself. I lengthened the armscye (front and back) by 2cm just above where it was starting to irritate me.

This might be a real adjustment, it might not be, it might be a good idea, it might be a terrible idea. Copy at your own risk. But it worked for me.

This solved the armscye problem and removed a lot of the puff from the sleeves (I mean, I know ease is a thing, but there has to be a line somewhere). But after this adjustment the top of the sleeve was really tight. Now, arm movement might be a luxury not a necessity, but I thought I could do better than that. So I then did a half centimetre broad shoulder adjustment, which helped, but the sleeve was still tight. My final adjustment was a large upper arm adjustment, done higher up the sleeve than usual. Again, this is probably not the right thing to do to a sleeve after lengthening the armscye, but I didn't want to risk increasing the ease. Now I have a comfortable, custom-fitted 50s’ pattern and I can't wait to sew it up for real.

As far as my patternmaking goes, I want to say that it's great now that I know what I'm doing. I can diagnose a problem, work out the solution and fix it but, given what I've written above, it seems I am still doing a lot of guessing and making things up. But I am more confident with my guessing and it is working out successfully. The patterns resulting from these techniques are ones I have no reservations about and don't continuously think "well, it sort of worked, but I should change this or that next time". I don't know; maybe I just needed to know the rules so I could break them properly.

Photoshoot

A few months ago I did my first studio photoshoot. It was with photographer Paul Furness, a student at CIT, who was doing a fashion shoot for an assignment. He had a particular interested in featuring steampunk style and contacted my sewing teacher looking for potential models or people with steampunk costumes.

I don't do steampunk proper but I have made enough clothes that have a vaguely gothy/Victoriana style to make do. He selected some outfits from my blog (yay for online portfolios) to use for the shoot.

Here are some of the finished shots.
Photography by Paul Furness
Make-up by Simone Turnbull
Outfits and modelling by Tia-Rayel

The images turned out very nicely. It was really cool working in a studio with fancy technology. Paul knew the kind of images he wanted to take so directed me on how to stand and look. I found this very helpful as knowing how to pose is something I struggle with. Also working on the shoot was makeup artist Simone Turnbull, who did a beautiful job. In the last few years I've put a lot of effort into improving my sewing technique - now it's time to focus on some of the costuming-adjacent skills like makeup and posing.

This photo taken by my mum.

Gamma.Con 2017

I attended Gamma.Con again this year, this time with my friend, Lady B. The event was several weeks earlier than last year – well and truly in winter. Saturday began with a half hour wait outside queuing for admission, during which it briefly snowed. I wore my Misery costume again and so had layers, long sleeves and gloves, but poor Lady B's Belle costume didn't provide much protection from the weather. The best protection from the weather is, of course, wearing something you want to be wearing so it wasn't as cold as it could have been.

Inside the temperature was much more agreeable. Belle was very popular, with young children especially, so we were often stopped for photos and occasionally hugs. I even managed to find someone who remembered Ruby Gloom and was excited to see Misery and that was quite nice.

On the second day Lady B went as MCU Scarlet Witch and I dressed as Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite. I dyed my hair to go with the costume. While the hairstyle looks simple, it took a few practices and an extra pair of hands to get the hair to have body in the right places.

I made the bow the night before, of course.

Because I was entering the cosplay competition I wanted to do character makeup to go with the costume. I don't normally wear makeup irl so I contacted Simone Turnbull, a makeup artist I met at a photoshoot a few months ago, and asked if she would give me a lesson. Her training and product advice proved very useful and after a few night’s practicing I managed to get an outcome that I was very happy with. I think it adds a lot to the overall look (even if it means being paranoid about touching my face all day).

The costume is worn over my Edwardian corset which, I realised in the car on the way there, I had never actually worn for any length of time before – only for photo sessions and fittings. Turns out it’s very comfortable. I also made a new chemise which was an opportunity to do lace insertion again (yay!) and more tucks (less yay).

From Laughing Moon pattern #100.

Also very comfortable were the shoes (Ellie Shoes: Amelia) which I bought, from eBay, for the occasion, although I will never quite forgive them for having zips. I mean they lace up anyway!

I won the sewing category of the cosplay competition. The prize was a voucher for a sewing machine. That's two sewing machines I've won in two years – not a particularly useful habit to get into. However, the sponsoring store, Cardif Collective, has said they are willing to be flexible about the prize.

I struggled for a bit to work out what kind of handbag to wear with this outfit since Elizabeth doesn't have one. Then I remembered that she's a bookish character that we first meet in a library. So, a few days before Gamma.Con I went looking for a book that I could cut out and modify to serve as a handbag. Or a fake-book container that could be adapted. The first shop I went into had something more perfect than I imagined I could find. Not only did they have light-weight magnetic closing book-shaped boxes, they had one that was a scrapbook about Paris – the place Elizabeth dreams of going. All I had to do was glue a zipped pouch inside.

With the book I never had to put my purse down for photos and it gave me something to pose with. I appreciated this a lot as I often feel awkward posing for photos and don't know what to do with my limbs.

Photo by Tony & Dave Cosplay Photographers.

The event itself was small but good. There were more cosplay-focused panels than last year and I found the leather working one (given by A. K. Wirru) particularly useful. I will definitely be embossing leather on my costume for next year.

Waterwear

The performance wear (leotard) sewing class I did last year was very valuable. The dress pattern I developed as a result of it is one of my favourites. But the (nicely fitted) swimming togs I actually made during the course are not quite my thing. So with a beach holiday on the horizon I took out the pattern again to make some togs that were a bit more me.

I am loving the halter neckline that is around at the moment. So I used the pattern off a dress in my wardrobe for the neckline and combined it with the leotard body pattern from the performance class. I also put a tear-drop shaped cutout in the back – because who puts a back in swimming togs? (The shape ended up being more round once it was stretched out for wearing but it still looks fine.)

I find one piece leotards to be uncomfortable and inconvenient so I made it as a two-piece with what the internet tells me is called a 'tankini'.

The big learning exercise for this project was putting in a built-in bra – method courtesy of google and guesswork. The lining fabric (this can be the same as the main fabric but I didn't have enough left) is cut using the same pattern as the outside then shaped marginally thinner towards the bottom edge that will sit just under the bust. This is sewn to an elastic band. I sewed the whole thing up at this point and worked out the cup placement while wearing it. Sewing the cups in afterwards was awkward, so I suspect there is a better way, but I wasn't sure how to do the placement without being able to reproduce the stretch that would be in the fabric when the garment is worn.

The cups are chlorine resistant but I couldn't find any proper swimsuit lining so I just used stretch lining. Given that I've been swimming once in the last ten years I'm not really expecting these to suffer from over-wear. The main fabric is chlorine-proof, left over from the performance-wear course. I looked for some woven chlorine-resistant fabric to make board shorts but I couldn't find a shop that stocked it. Some shops didn't even know what it was.

I was happy with how the swimsuit turned out. As with the dress I made with the same neckline, the neck band itself is not quite right but not wrong enough to be a problem. Unfortunately the weekend at the coast turned out to be overcast and not enticing for swimming. I'll have to hope that another swimming opportunity arises in the next decade so I can try them out.

Halt! Who goes wear?

There's a particular kind of halter neckline that is 'in' at the moment that I really like. (Someone tell me if there's a more specific name for it – 'sleeveless raglan' just confuses people.) It's popularity, however, does not appear to have crossed into the commercial patternmaking world (leastways, not since the 70s. Again, if you know something please tell me.)

I've bought a few dresses and tops in this style but not as many as I would like. Then I found some lovely red and black paisley chiffon that I thought would work well for one. I gave up looking for a pattern and pulled a dress out of my wardrobe and took a pattern from it.

Side note: I bought this dress in New Zealand in the couple of hours we had to kill before catching the plane home. New Zealand had a completely different set of dress shops from what we have in Australia which took me by surprise. This puts me in the position of having my most favourite clothing chain closed down and my second most favourite is in another country.

Really, most of the pattern is pretty straight forward. The only difficulty comes from the neck band. I don't think I was able to get the shape quite right by tracing an already made up dress but it will do. The finished product does feel a little tight at the front while sitting a little too loose at the back, but I'm not sure how to change that.

Before jumping in with my nice (and expensive) chiffon I decided to make a mock-up from something cheap but with the intention of being able to wear it too. I found the perfect fabric on the Spotlight sale table. It's awful! So synthetic it feels like plastic and it has a camouflage print with gold specks so it's all shiny. I was very pleased with it – and only $3 a metre.

The dress was cut and sewed quite quickly. I think something went wrong when I was making the skirt patterns as I ended up with one front, two side fronts, two side backs and two backs but the front and sides were enough to get around me. I wondered if I had just traced a side panel twice but the original dress definitely has all those panels. Still, after leaving out the back panels I've got a dress that fits and that's what matters.