Tanit-Isis Sews

May 27, 2016 · 10:34 pm

Fastest Stash in the West

This gorgeous thick, soft stretch lace came into my Fabricland maybe two weeks ago? And I petted it. Oh, the petting.

But then I realized yesterday there was hardly any left. What? How can that be! We never sell out that fast!

So the last paltry remnant came home with me, to see if I could possibly squeeze a Jalie 3246 maxi dress out of it. Because I need about a million more of those.

And I was so desperate to find out, that I got up early and cut it out at 6 am before work (I start the day job at 7)—with my back seam mod and letting it be a little shorter it JUST worked. (It helped that this is one of those laces with most of the stretch lengthwise. I sewed it up in the hour of downtime I have between day job and Fabricland, and snapped this pic in the bathroom mirror before I left. I probably spent as much time changing the thread in the serger and setting my grandmother’s Rocketeer up for twin needle as I did actually sewing.
I used a thin and annoying rayon knit for the binding, twin needled in place. There was no time for testing or mistakes, but I got damn lucky. Also that stuff makes decent binding—I hated that much less than any other time I’ve sewn with it.

And I am so happy with my new super-speedy dress. Though I do need to tidy up the hem a bit. 😉

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Tagged as finished projects, Jalie 3246

May 7, 2016 · 9:00 am

Rufflemania

“Did you see the November mailer?” my manager asked when I got to work one day last fall. Of course not—it had just arrived a day or two ago at the store, and usually only the managers see them much ahead of time. “There’s a project you need to do.”

McCall’s 6800 + Fabric

When a pattern is featured in a mailer, we get the option of doing extra projects for them to hang during that sale. YAY! And guess which pattern it was—McCall’s 7256, which I’ve been drooling over ever since it shocked the blogosphere last summer with its resemblance to the Lolita Patterns Spearmint coat. Which is somewhat fair—the collar is very similar. The other details are pretty darn different, though, and really there are only so many different designs any of us are willing to wear. The McCall’s pattern has some really different skirt options that I love. On the flip side, everyone raved about the instructions and the tailoring that went into a Lolita. McCall`s 7256? Not so much. I`ll get into that in a little bit.

Anyway, with the gauntlet thrown down, the angst set in. Project budgets are limited and coating fabric is expensive. I wandered the aisles of coating, wistfully petting the meltons and boiled wools while I calculated the price of 3.7m of the fabric and came up, again and again, on the sad fact that even the cheapest polyester-acrylic coating, with nary a hint of wool, was beyond my project budget. Suiting fabric it was.

I settled on some menswear suiting in a navy-bordering-on-black that went well with this random satin print I liked for the lining (again, once I accepted that the flannel-backed Kasha lining was out of budget as well. Oh, Kasha, how I shall mourn thee…) I looked for a lace for trim, but couldn’t really come up with anything without breaking the already straining budget.

2015-10-17 07.55.47 Once I had pattern and fabric at home, of course, I had to confront one very particular fact: this very fun coat pattern is, first and foremost, a McCall`s coat pattern. A McCall`s coat pattern is basically a dress pattern with extra ease. This didn`t bother me so much when I made M6800, as I was making a pared-down, jean-jacket version anyway. But for M7256, I really wanted something with a lot of menswear detailing, and that means tailoring. I am, I guess, a bit of a tailoring snob, which is odd because I`m pretty lazy and it`s not like I`m an expert at it. But on reading through the pattern as written—blerg. No facings, a one piece sleeve, lining (in the bodice only) to be cut from the same pieces as the shell. The only interfacing called for is to reinforce the buttonholes on the skirt. Not even some simple inseam pockets (not that those will be hard to add, but why skip them? And why would you not line a skirt with that crazy high-low hem? (It turns out there are very good reasons, by the way.)

2015-10-31 15.54.29 Fortunately, the power of the Internet was with me. Sherry`s RTW Tailoring Sewalong is back online (how lost and forlorn I felt without it), which goes over all the steps of making your own lining and interfacing pattern pieces, and all the other little bits that make a coat or jacket more than just a baggy dress. Obviously there are many, many ways to tailor, but I think Sherry`s sewalong is both supremely comprehensive on the pattern-tweaking side (invaluable!) and has methods that are a great balance of being effective without being crazy time-consuming. Which is not to say that I don`t love me some pad-stitching, but it`s not going to happen for a project that has to hang in less than two weeks.

Fitting changes:

Petite bodice c. 1″ (This turned out to be WAY too much. Should’ve just raised under the arm instead.)
Square shoulder
Swayback adjustment (on bodice only, front and back waist.
Lengthen sleeve. (I would’ve liked a two-piece sleeve much better.

2015-11-01 17.24.10-1 Changes to make to the pattern:

Draft facings for front and back neck.
Draft lining pieces for bodice and sleeves; add pleat at CB and extra length at underarm.
Draft undercollar pattern piece? (I the end I just trimmed the undercollar to make it smaller. However, since the undercollar is the part that shows at certain points in the ruffle, this partly backfired.
Add inseam pockets.

2015-10-31 23.13.48 Tailoring:

Blockfuse front (should’ve done entire bodice)
add back stay to back
Construct flat shoulder pads from ~~hair canvas~~ batting & knit interfacing.
sleeve heads
waist stay
interface sleeve hems

All of that tailoring and it was still pretty minimal. The jacket is soft and floppy. The sleeves are the worst, although rolled up and scrunchy they are ok.

2015-11-01 13.12.41-1 I did like how the shoulder pads turned out—I layered a bit of cotton batting with knit interfacing top and bottom, and fused them together, then shaped with steam and let cool.

I discovered why they didn’t suggest you line the skirt, by the way. That’s a hairsbreadth away from being a full double-circle skirt. I’ll let that sink in for a second. Now imagine how many places the bias is going to drop. Can you imagine it? Good, because I can’t. And it’s super-full so it’s pretty much impossible to figure out what part of the high-low skirt “matches” with what part of the high-low lining, not to mention how the two fabrics drop in dramatically different ways. It was ridiculous. I don’t exactly regret lining the skirt, because I love it, but there’s a reason there aren’t any closeups.

2015-11-01 13.14.21-1 I added sleeve heads, too.

The biggest issue, though, is that somehow in my modifications the front bodice wound up REALLY short. Like, empire-waist short. This is one of the reasons I’ve been more cautious about shortening McCall’s patterns since then (which has also caused issues in the other direction). Obviously a muslin would’ve been helpful, but that’s not really an option for shop projects. Combined with the general floppiness it doesn’t make me love the jacket.

On the other hand, it looks pretty damn cute in the pictures and I get lots of compliments when I do wear it, so I guess it’s not as bad as it feels—and I certainly don’t mind an empire waist jacket when that’s my plan.

It’s still an AWFUL lot of ruffles, though.

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Tagged as finished projects, McCall's 7256

May 1, 2016 · 11:34 am

Mansewing

Not much to say here.

I picked up this fabric a little after Christmas, when it first went half price. Good thing I did—it was gone within a few days of that. It’s the same fabric as my plaid skirt, just in a different colourway. I bought it for Tyo, since she’s been enjoying her red flannel so much, but as soon as I got it home my husband pounced on it.

Kwik Sew 2258 has been on the list of things to sew him for, oh, a couple of years now, and this seemed like a good time to try it out since I knew he wouldn’t want a fitted flannel and its “vintage” promised an appropriately relaxed fit. It’s actually a bit more shaped than I expected—I straightened the side seams to go with the plaid.

Unlike other shirt patterns I’ve sewed with, this KS one had only 1/4″ seam allowances. Throughout. Now, I’m a fan of narrow seam allowances generally, and I got excited for a bit because the 1/4″ SA would actually work with my flat fell foot! BUT, on a soft flannel it was really easy to miss the seam allowance if there was a miscut (and I am not the world’s best cutter) or for the seam to ravel on handling before I could get it finished. I’d like to try it again on a finer shirting. With felled seams. (They felt too firm for the soft flannel feeling I was going for.) I wound up having to darn part of the back yoke where I had missed the seam allowance. Bad seamstress.

I cut the M to go with his 40″ chest, and added a generous 4″ to the sleeve length (based on previous experience), though that might have been overkill. I graded up to a size L in the collar, as collars are always too small on him, but wound up needing to add about 2″ more.

I tried very hard to match my plaid meticulously, except for cutting the hard bits on the bias. (Collar, cuffs, yoke and plackets.) I succeeded horizontally except at one armpit, and failed miserably at matching vertically across the fronts. I keep thinking I know how to do that and failing at it, so I should really re-read all the tutorials. 😦 Sewaholic has a great one that makes perfect sense when I read it. 😦

I cut & sewed it when I had a few days off after Easter, then realized that none of the buttons I had enough of were suitable* and had to hold off for a little while, at which point I had lost all drive (plus he was already wearing it—it’s not like it’s destined for office wear.)

Eventually, though, I managed to get some plain black buttons and see them on, and it’s been in pretty common rotation since. And I even managed to cut another Burda 6849 out of the remainder for Tyo, assuming I can motivate myself to actually sew it up.

And that’s about it, really. Oh, the front knotted look is as per the husband’s style instructions, and the high-rise-ass-hanging-out-shorts were acquired by one of my children from a friend. My husband forbid them to wear the shorts out of the house, so I have stolen them. I haven’t worn anything with this high a rise since I figured out I could cut the waistband off my Levi’s 501s in about 1998. It feels profoundly weird.

*aka my husband didn’t like any of them.

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Tagged as finished projects, Kwik Sew 2258

April 18, 2016 · 6:35 pm

Making a bag

Is a thing that I have done now. Hmm.

This marks my first ever “craft” project for work (craft projects like quilts, home dec projects, etc. are a separate category from our regular monthly clothing projects.) I’d actually been thinking about making a bag since my long-suffering backpack crapped out before Christmas, but the impetus waned when I found a replacement backpack in the closet. I have this creeping feeling that I should accept the fact that I’m no longer a student and just ditch the backpack (if only because it doesn’t go at ALL with the rest of my style and on some level I’d like to be a person who can Accessorize, but, well, I like backpacks. And I hate purses. And I hate the ginormous sleeping-bag-sized purses everyone seems to be carrying these days with a special brand of venom. Anyway. Things crystallized when we got this heavy felt in in some colors that actually spoke to me: heathered greys. I am really into grey this year. How boring. 😛

I took the opportunity to try as many of the bag doodads Fabricland carries out as I could—D rings, swivel hooks, belting, leather base (which turned out to be faux leather, boo hiss.), decorative cord. I had the idea of a roll-top bag in my head (Thank you, Taylor Tailor) but it wasn’t going to work with my stiff felt. However, some very satisfying Pinteresting highlighted plenty of nice felt bags including several with a simple foldover top, and also lots of variations on the kind of strap I wanted—the sort that lets you swap a bag from a purse-style (so you can look like a grown-up) to a backpack style (which I still think is a far more practical and healthy style.)

Now, the pre-made bag bottom (faux leather cunningly crafted with a sueded contrast inside so it looks like leather in the package :P) is of a fixed size, so that was the dimensions I went with for my bag, with the height constrained by the width of my felt. The proportions looked reasonable, so then I just added the fold-over in the darker felt. (The darker is slightly thinner and softer for some reason.)

I had a lot of fun playing with sample stitches and practicing lapped seams, but I wound up using only very basic stitching, for that clean modern look. I still love the machine catch-stitch in the grey on grey, though…

Originally, I hadn’t been going to bother with any internal pockets, mostly for the sake of keeping things simple. However, a few internal pockets are really a necessity if I’m going to make full use of a bag, so I free wheeled an insert to attach at the side-seams. I actually love a lot of things about it, especially how my exposed zipper turned out in the felt. And while the additional layer made the eventual side seams just a little more hellish, (we’ll get there.) it all worked beautifully in that it hugs the back of the bag closely, without me needing to topstitch it down in a way that would show on the outside.

Now that I have the bag finished, though, I’m doubtful they will get any usage. Why? Because with the foldover top they are buried DEEP at the bottom of a dark well of felt, and I can barely see them, never mind reach them to use. The above photo was taken from within the well by using the flash, otherwise photography of any kind would be impossible. On the upside, I can’t see the ugly seams and stray threads like you can in the photo, either.

Did I mention it’s deep?

Fortunately I have monkey arms.

The construction with all those rectangles was lovely, and easy and even with a bajillion layers at the bottom corners my new Janome soldiered along quite well. (The only needle casualty happened when the needle came right out of the machine, which probably has more to do with me not bothering to use a screwdriver to tighten it in like you’re supposed to.) the fact that I was using an 18-gauge denim needle probably helped. I mean, it was not a happy Janome. I’m sure it’s wishing it had been purchased by a nice lady who just makes placemats and teeny wall quilts. But it did it, and deserves plenty of credit for that. Also, the feature where you can lift the presser foot higher than up is the best feature ever. Except for the auto thread cutting and the variable speed feature. Those are also the best features ever. But in this case, the presser foot height.

Turning the bag right side out was a production. Tyo had to help me. And the polyester felt is completely immune to pressing, at least at any temperature that won’t turn it into a little puddle of plastic, so the side-seams look terrible. If it were more flexible I would topstitch them down but no way I could maneuver the tube through the machine neatly.

In the end, my only real disappointment is that it’s quite a bit bigger than I thought it would be—full backpack sized, really, not just glorified lunch bag. Fine for wearing on the back, but too big to carry as a bag. Well, in my opinion. 😉 but I already told you my opinion of giant bags.

Now it has to go hang for like 3 months!!! (I know, right?… So I won’t even get to road test it until practically winter. Oh, well it’s a wintery bag anyway. And my backpack is doing fine…

(Also, DO YOU SEE HOW I AM OUTSIDE AND MY LEGS ARE BARE AND I HAVE NO SHOES!!!! Life is glorious.)

(Also it occurs to me that I probably shouldn’t fret too much about backpacks for grown-ups when I’m still running around in a polkadot mini dress.)

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Tagged as bagmaking, finished projects

April 11, 2016 · 10:19 pm

Sewing crack.

Late yesterday afternoon, having unexpectedly discovered that my printer was working*, I was in the mood for a quick project after the tedious process of sewing my green dress all over again. So I finally printed up the Rosalie Stockings pattern from the Dreamstress.

When the printer spat out only two pages, I double-checked the file, wondering where the rest was. Nope, the whole pattern is on only two pages! Nice!

The pattern is only one size, but socks are stretchy and at a guess Leimomi and I are in the same ballpark, so I wasn’t too worried about sewing it up as is. However, the remnant of this grey-striped knit I picked for my tester version wasn’t long enough for the pattern “as is”, so I opted to finish the top with wide cuffs. This worked ok, though they don’t stay up awesome. Honestly, I’m not expecting much in that department—I’ve never met over-the-knee stockings that stayed up. If I’m going to make a bunch of these, a garter belt will be in order. I should actually have the hardware, but a search only turned up one of the four straps I should have. Past Tanit fails at organization, as usual.

Pair two was even more restrained, but much taller, about an inch over the pattern plus the width of the stretch lace.

I think these would be a good height for attaching to a garter belt.

oops! My seams are not straight!

I actually own two other stocking/tights patterns, Jalie 3027 and the Rosehip Tights pattern. I haven’t made either, as yet. The Jalie pattern has a seam that runs down the back and under the foot, which doesn’t strike me as comfy. It’s a dance costume pattern, so long-term wearability probably isn’t the top priority.

The Rosehip tights also have a back seam, but the foot is a separate piece—which might actually be a great idea as you could theoretically replace a worn-out foot; worn out feet are one of my biggest peeves about knee high socks at the best of times. But for a quick evening project, two pattern pieces seemed like way too much work. Plus the instructions are dauntingly detailed.

I haven’t actually worn these out and about yet, so I can’t comment on how the seams will interact with shoes, but I do like how they’re placed low on the sides of the foot. And they’re comfy for an evening’s worth of wear at home.

So now I want to make All The Stockings, and I spent a good chunk of the evening digging up stretchy knit bits in every color and print. I am, however, hampered by being unwilling to change the thread in my serger. Soon, though. I can make a stretch mesh version in ivory without changing the thread…

*it’s elderly and wireless and while it still works fairly well, my husband had been messing with the wifi and reconfiguring it for a new network and passcode is always a bit arduous and nerve wracking.

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March 30, 2016 · 4:37 pm

Navy & Icing

No sooner do I declare that I like a bit of edge in my clothing, than I make a bunch of things that are super sweet.

Butterick 6321 – Lisette

Butterick 6321 is a bonus project—a pattern featured in Fabricland’s current mailer, so available as an extra project if someone wants to do it. And it is seriously cute. And, pockets. But, I had a hard time settling into this project. Sometimes I feel a bit like a stereotype of myself as the girl who makes the pretty dresses. In the end, I like it more than I thought I might a lot of the way through, though.

I had a hard time picking the fabric. We have a lot of gorgeous rayons and some nice summer cottons in store right now, but I liked how the detailing looked on the solid version on the cover. Eventually I settled on this pretty and very light-weight stretch denim, and lace for the detailing. I do love this lace, and have been looking for an excuse to use it in a project since it came in.

Instant fuzz collector.

After checking the final garment measurements, and knowing I was using a stretch fabric, I opted to sew a size 10 throughout, rather than grading to a 12 for waist and hips. I am glad I did the 10 in the bottom half, but I could maybe have gone down to an 8 in the bust and shoulders. (Typing that terrified me. I have never in my sewing life been an actual pattern size 8, though I’ve tried once or twice with disastrous results.)

You can’t see it, but my swayback alteration was successful. No back wrinkles.

I made most of my usual alterations—swayback, square shoulder, and petiting along the designated lengthen-shorten line. What I skipped was additional petiting through the armscye. I figured, because of the construction with the seam there, I could adjust at that point later if necessary, and I overdid the petiting on a few projects last fall so I’m a bit gunshy now. Come to think of it, those were both McCall’s patterns, though.

Lightened. Nope, you still can’t see it.

Then I went and did my construction in such a way that it would be nearly impossible to adjust anything by the time I could actually try stuff on properly. In hindsight I could’ve left off the bodice facings and the sleeves until everything else was finished, tried on, and then fixed the shoulder height. Hindsight is so perfect, isn’t it? What I actually did was finish every damn thing on the bodice, beautifully, with plenty of seam grading and trimming to make things work in my heavy fabric, before I even had the skirt started.

A couple of construction notes: the pattern calls for self-lined shoulder pieces and cap sleeves. I substituted a navy stretch poplin for these pieces (as well as the pocket lining) because of my heavier fabric. I also went a bit off road on the construction, as I wasn’t completely fond of the method described. I am pretty happy with what all I did, even the moment when I had the entire bodice rolled up inside the little front “placket” so I could machine finish it. Just not with the fit. /sigh.

This is another side-zip dress. *headdesk* it’s not so much the physical insertion of a side zip that I dislike, as the difficulty they add to fitting as you go, and then the awkwardness of wearing them after. In this case, we were wary of using an invisible zipper because of the heaviness of the denim… So rather than struggle with the bulk of a conventional zipper or a lapped side zip, I basically went for the nuclear option. Exposed, chunky metal zip.

2016-03-29 19.01.39 I’m not sure if this is the wisest style decision I’ve ever made, but I do like the flatness of it. It goes with the denim but seems a bit out of place with the lace. And the fancy pull is gigantic. Oh, well.

At my first try on, before the zip was in, I confess my heart sank. The shoulders were weirdly wide and the cap sleeves came too low under my arms, feeling extremely constricting. I had visions of ripping off the sleeves entirely for a sundress look. Or just throwing it all in a corner.

Too much room in the shoulders.

But, it’s a work project and so no UFOs allowed. Once I had the zip in, things looked a lot better. With the waist sitting where it should, the extra height above the bust is more apparent, but it also forces the bottom of the cap sleeve up to the right height under my arm, so the weird binding is down to manageable proportions. Meaning I won’t be turning cartwheels easily but I can comfortably put my hands on my hips and cross my arms. The shoulders are definitely a bit wide, but some of that might also be the extra height letting things slide around. I don’t have narrow shoulders, by the way.

Extra height makes folds at shoulders.

This pattern has a sweet, detailed upper bodice, and the skirt is fairly narrow with some interesting shirt-tail shaping at the hem (although it’s subtle, maybe a bit too subtle to be noticeable. On the other hand if it were more pronounced it would’ve been harder to get my wide lace to curve evenly to match the edge). I like them both—I’m just not convinced they go really well together. I’d love to pair the bodice with a fuller skirt (say, Sewaholic’s Hollyburn, which has the same kind of pockets) and/or the skirt with a little sundress bodice or even as a separate piece. In reality, though, I like the finished object more than I thought I might, and if I can bring myself to rework the shoulders I’ll probably be good with it as is.

It does look a bit like a Victorian bathing suit.

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Tagged as Butterick 6321, finished projects, Lisette

March 26, 2016 · 7:53 am

Sewing with offspring

Last Saturday I wound up unexpectedly home alone with my children all evening. Of course I was going to sew (I’m a single-minded obsessive after all) but, rather unexpectedly, they wanted to join in. First Tyo, then Syo, and they both wanted to make… Underwear!

Tyo, who just completed her first sewing unit in Practical & Applied Arts at Xmas, got her heart fixated on black lace boy shorts. I had some fabric I figured would be perfect—a hefty stretch lace with decent recovery, that I made a great pair of leggings from last year sometime (and didn’t blog, apparently). After a lot of googling I convinced her that not only did I know what boy shorts are, but that the Rosy Ladyshorts were, in fact, a boyshort pattern, and she agreed to make a slightly modified version—modified by adding to the bottom edge so that when she sewed on the stretch lace edging she could line its outer edge up with the fabric, and trim the excess away later. Considering she’s never sewn anything stretch before, never mind applied elastic by feel, I think she did awesome.

The crappy part is that since she has a pair of this fabric, I can’t make myself one, and it was a really great idea!!!!

Syo wanted an aqua pair to match two of her bras, and we managed to find a lace in stash that was almost exactly the right colour. And fabric, but that’s less astonishing. Unfortunately not a stretch lace, which took some explaining, but we used it for the side fronts of my hacked Watson pattern. Now for some reason I feel a wee bit weird about showing you photos of my preteen’s underwear so I’m just showing you the fabrics.

So imagine this pair but made of not-see-through aqua knit with the lace at the side rather than centre front. I wound up doing most of the construction as it was a bit more complex than was probably a good idea, but Syo cut it all out on her own.

The convenient part about all of this is both children pretty much wear my same size right now in horizontal measurements, so there was little to no adjusting of size. Although that may also be saddening. /sigh.

And me? Well, I made up this very smart pair of Ladyshorts in a camo mesh and got all excited…

And, for you camo haters out there, you have a win. This pair was a total fail. The lace was perfect but the mesh has way too much stretch in one direction, little recovery, and absolutely none in the other, and they were BAGGY! And no amount of taking them in would fix it. UGH. I feel like the Rosy Ladyshorts, more than any other underwear pattern I’ve made, really depend on the fabric having just the right amount of stretch and recovery. When I nail it, they’re amazing, but when they don’t work, the fail is epic. Ah, well. It’s not like I don’t have lots of other underwear in my drawer…

I really want a black lace pair like Tyo’s, dammit.

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Tagged as Cloth Habit, kids can sew, rosy ladyshorts, Watson bikini

March 26, 2016 · 7:17 am

Victorian Romp

_MG_0155 My ersatz Victorian dress is finished, or at least as finished as it is likely to get, which is to say there is trim of some kind on all three main elements. (Waist, aka bodice, skirt, and overskirt.) I’m actually reasonably comfortable that it falls within the range of Victorian “normal” and isn’t too weirdly stripped-down, which is actually the biggest thing that often seems off about costumes (at least to me). Well, the skirt is probably a little too plain. And the whole thing is on the plain end. Just, hopefully not too plain. (And my neckline is completely inappropriate for a day dress as far as I can tell, while my suiting fabric would not be a good choice for evening wear… but this was my “fun” project and I don’t personally like high necks, so I picked the neckline I liked.

While getting dressed, I lost a button. A significant amount of the editing involved photoshopping the button that popped off when I was getting dressed.

The bodice has a pleated ribbon trim; the overskirt has the same ribbon, but unpleated. For the skirt I took all the remaining bias tape from my main fabric and folded the edges under to make a trim I could stitch down. This was the least successful trim as the bias is somewhat rippled (even though I stitched both edges in the same direction). I wasn’t convinced the placement was any good, either, but actually looking at the photos I don’t mind it. I don’t feel inclined to rip it all off, in any case. If I had more of the red fabric I would add a pleated trim around the bottom of the skirt, but I don’t, and at least at present I don’t feel like buying more.

_MG_0132 Anyway, this completion happily coincided with a couple of things. With my most recent Victorian Sewing Circle afternoon. Also, my sister-in-law, who has always dabbled in photography (and even worked as a portraitist a few times) has decided she wants to really get into the game. Photographer with a Real Camera who just wants some serious practice? Sign me up! So I got her to meet me at the Marr Residence that morning for a fun (almost*) period photo shoot.

We started with boudoir shots.

It’s been a really long time since I did a real photo shoot with, like, an actual photographer. It was really fun.

with book light playing 2 We bounced around the house, playing with the light.

At the firexcf Every room was different.

With Tree

The Marr Residence has a great little double-lot park, and the day was warm enough that it wasn’t a huge sacrifice to run around in the snow—although the tail end of winter is not the most scenic time of year anywhere.

Angie was good enough to let me have at the electronic files. It’s also been a really long time since I took the time to seriously edit photos for anything. I am not on the Better Pictures Project. 😉 most of my blog photos are quick snaps with my iPhone, occasionally tripod shots on my point ‘n shoot, and the editing I do is only basic straightening, cropping, and a wee bit of contrast & exposure. Mostly via the built-in iPhone editor. It’s a hard reality that I have accepted—if I wait for good photos before I blog, there will be no blog.

26018139361_aecb868b5a_o

But it was sure nice to actually take some time with these, both the photo shoot and the editing. And I even had RAW to play in! (I am not a good enough photo editor to tell you if RAW actually makes a difference in the final photo, but it sure is FUN!) though most of these were done from the jpeg as it’s just faster for me. RAW is like a rabbit hole from which there is no return.

I can’t help it. I love me some cheesy filtering sometimes.

I did most of the editing in GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) which is photoshop’s slightly awkward but most importantly free little brother. It can do pretty much whatever photoshop can, and doesn’t cost a dime (and it took about three seconds of googling for me to find and download the add-ons for processing RAW format and batch-editing. I do find it difficult to bounce back and forth between the two programs, as you have to remember two different ways to do everything, but if you don’t want to shell out for Photoshop it’s a pretty awesome alternative.

Laughing on the path red I may have had a bit too much fun with the editing process, making sepia and low-colour versions. Oh, well. They’re my photos and I’ll cheese ’em up if I want too. I also lost the cover off one of my fabric-covered buttons while getting dressed, so that had to be photoshopped out of a bunch of pics. I will warn you, I also took the liberty of some SERIOUS Photoshopping once or twice—so if you catch yourself wondering “is her waist really that small?” The answer is probably “no, not even in a corset.” PICTURES LIE!!!!

Outside house tight red

PS, should you have the inclination, you can find my photographer at Angel Jems Photography—facebook page for now, hopefully a real website at some point. Also I’ve uploaded a few more photos on my Flickr page:

and:

What we didn’t get were any shots resembling an actual Victorian portrait, standing stiffly against a backdrop and not smiling. These pesky modern photographers and their action shots and candid snaps. Maybe next time.

Outside and pensive *you’ve seen my hair, right? Short of concocting a story about how I cut it off and sold it to buy a chain for my husband’s prize watch, which he sold to buy me a comb for my beautiful hair, we’re kinda stuck. I don’t have an appropriate wig, and I’m disinclined to go out and buy one at the moment. I also don’t have a period hat for the outdoor shots.

Tree hug contras

Ok, I’ll stop now.

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Filed under Sewing

Tagged as Angel Jems Photo, finished projects, too much talk, Victorian, Victorian clothing, Victorian Sewing, Victorian Sewing Bee

March 25, 2016 · 6:49 pm

So not cool.

So a crummy thing happened last Friday. Not a tragedy, exactly, but a bummer. And I’m not mentioning it to condemn humanity, or even as a plea for sympathy (though I’ll take it), but just because this is my record of things to do with my sewing and nothing like this has actually happened with any of my sewing before.

Remember this green dress, Burda 6686, made for a work project a couple of weeks ago? Well, like a good little employee I hung it up at Fabricland, nice and front and centre on one of the little plastic half-mannequins we have for such display, and boy did it look cute, if I do say so myself. (I think my Courtney Love reference was a bit lost, however—it just looked like a sweet little sundress.)

Well, during the busyness of last weekend’s half-price sale, somebody seized a moment when no one was looking, pulled the mannequin down, pulled the dress off it, and walked off with my dress. It was such a little thing it would have fit easily in a pocket…

So yeah. Kinda bummed. 😦 Which I already whined about thoroughly on Facebook, but anyway. One nice thing did happen since then—my management was approved to replace my materials, so I can make the dress again.

2016-03-23 22.09.10-1 Plus they threw in a little bonus of comp goods of my choice as a partial comp for my time—so I was able to pick up some trims for my next Victorian costume. Because, y’know, priorities. 🙂

So really I should just buckle down and make the damn dress again, because the last thing I want is the fabric sitting there in stash mocking me. I really, really, really should…

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Filed under Sewing

Tagged as Burda 6686, too much talk, whining

March 15, 2016 · 8:25 pm

Rinse, lather…

Repeat.

I made Burda 6686 again.

Not even a different version. Just longer. And with no edge to cut the sweetness. This one is sugar all the way.

The fabric is a scrumptious cotton gauze that came home with me as a splurge after Christmas. I wasn’t sure what it wanted to be, but I was in love. (That kinda happens a lot.)

It’s pale grey shot with blue, though I can’t seem to get the blue to photograph. While I was surprised how opaque my thin rayon was in the first version, this version is definitely sheer, and the straps on my long slip show around the wide neckline. Oh, well.

It was probably at its best in this mirror shot before I went and wore it all day…

I added lace at the neck again, and a bit more along the underbust seam. This version pulls up a bit during wearing, more than the green one seemed to. I’m thinking it’s that the gauze has a lot more give than the rayon. I tried loosening the elastic at the neckline so there was less pull up, but it just got floppy and gapey. I could add elastic at the underbust but I’m wary of gathering on the skirt portion.

I shall wear it anyway. 🙂

Swayback adjustment win: Perfect wrinkle-free back! Well, aside from the wrinkles from sitting in it all day.

I lengthened the skirt and added a bit more flare than as drafted. I was worried it was too long, but now that I hemmed it up 2″ (machine blind hem this time 😉 ) I actually think it might be a bit short. Certainly too short for the heels I’m wearing. I can always let it out if I need to.

Did I mention how much I love this fabric? Almost as much as I love that I managed to squidge across my soggy backyard to take outdoor pics in the snow-free part. Snow is back today, of course.