TV108 Grand Bustle

For my 1869 dress I needed a new bustle because it's an earlier time period than my imperial tournure. The TV108 Grand Bustle says suitable for 1869 to 1875, and it has the shape I want for the gown.

I made it from white kona cotton and used my trusty roll of twill tape for the bone casings. It took a very long time to press, hem, gather, and pin all the ruffles, but it's so floofy and worth it!

I still need to tack down the waistband and finish closing the casings now that the bones are inserted, plus put on a closure. The only problem I had with it is that my bottom ruffle extended into the lower bone casing. I think it's because I didn't hem the upper edges of my ruffles since they're not visible, so each ruffle was a bit longer than it should have been. I ended up cutting that bottom ruffle at the side seam and hemming it so that I could sew on the final casing. I bought the pre-made pack of boning from TV which was awesome because there's a lot of boning there and they were already cut to length and tipped.

Leia is now FINISHED!

I finished my - don't know what to call them - boot toppers? Leg warmers? I am happy with how they came out, although I would have liked a deeper point at the top, so I might adjust that. I couldn't find boots or stockings with pointed tops, so bought some spandex and figured I can at least have the illusion of the pointed tops. Surprisingly the hardest part was doing those little chains under the rivets - hard to work with nails.

I also submitted my cosplay to the costume contest, and am waiting to hear if I was accepted to compete or not.

Time for another EvaDress challenge!

I hit upon EvaDress when I was looking for ideas for the Edwardian Ball I attended 2 years ago. She had this amazing Victorian bat costume that I recreated. She gets vintage patterns and makes reprints for sale, covering 1800s through 1950s. She does an online sewing challenge via a FB group a few times per year. The current challenge is to pick ANY pattern on the site regardless of decade. I had a hard time choosing as there are so many great ones, but I had my eye on this 1869 gown for a while and decided to go with it, even though I think it will be really challenging. Here's the gown:

The original is done is brown wool crepe with black silk taffeta scalloped trim, and there are 110 (!) buttons sewn into all the scallops. I'm still having trouble finding bulk buttons that (a) don't look cheap and (b) aren't crazy expensive since I need so many. I decided to go with this fabric, which is a wool/rayon blend.

I have a ton of black taffeta leftover from the aforementioned bat dress, so will use that for the trim. I am going to do the revers on the front and sleeves in the black also. 

I will be using TV108 for the bustle, as my lobster-tail bustle is more 1880s than 1860s. I got some plain white cotton and ordered the hoop wire kit for it. I can use the corset from my butterfly gown, so this is the only new foundation garment needed.

Leia is finished! (OK, nearly)

I am pretty much done with Leia. I bought some white spandex to try and make stocking tops to mimic the pointy stockings she is wearing, but if that doesn't work out then I am going with white thigh-highs and gogo boots.

I was thinking of hook and eye tape and fake buttons on the blouse, but because I wanted a lapped front the hook and eye tape wasn't working well, so I ended up making 18 (!) buttonholes. I have had a lot of trouble with my machine messing up automatic buttonholes, but figured out what was going wrong. I did 15 before having an issue, then figured out the little lever arm that stops the buttonhole was slipping into the wrong position. Phew, now I will have smooth sailing with buttonholes.

I tried looking for a belt with no luck, so ended up making one from some belt strapping I bought on Amazon, plus a buckle and D-ring I got on Etsy. I think it came out great! The pouches were done with a Harlots and Angels pattern and I bought a rebel alliance pin to put on one of them. The brooch is a rebel alliance necklace I found on Etsy. I took off the chain and glued a pin hook to the back, then attached an earring I also got on Etsy to make up the rest of it. I also added some of the lace from my corset onto the sleeve puffs.

The gun went through two iterations, as I wasn't happy with the first one. It's a cheap plastic Leia pistol I got on Amazon. For the first try I glued on some gears/wire before painting, and it looked bad and I lost all the detail. Since it was cheap I got another one, painted it first, then flued on gears/wire. I finished it up with some clear coat. I'm much happier with this version.

More Leia Progress

I finished up Leia's corset this weekend. I was really scared doing the zipper because I couldn't baste on leather, but read a tip to use double-sided quilting tape to stick it in place and that was awesome. I stupidly didn't get a separating zipper, but I can shimmy it over my head. I also messed up and let the zipper pull slide off the top when I was shortening the zipper and it took a good while to get it back on. Oops. I am really happy with how it turned out.

I also made pouches for the belt. I just need some additional hardware for the closures which is coming today - thank you Amazon. The rebel pin will go on the flap to the larger pouch. I found a belt on eBay that might work, and if not I will try to make something. 

More Leia progress

I got a bunch done on my Leia outfit over the weekend. I spent Friday on the blouse. I didn't feel like a mock-up so went with the TV sizing, and it was too narrow across the front, even though instructions said the smallest size front should have been too big! I decided to add a strip down the front for buttonholes, and I think it looks pretty good. The lace I got for the front is perfect. I do wish I'd put some netting in the sleeve puffs but it's okay. I love the Stormtrooper helmet in the background!

It still needs buttons (I HATE buttonholes), which I ordered on eBay. I also need to do some gold trim and ruffles where the sleeve puff meets the sleeve. 

I also added some picot elastic onto my bloomers to tighten them up and they look much better. I don't have any photos of me wearing them yet.

I tried ironing/pinning pleats in the overskirt, which look awful, so I still need to mess around with that. I decided to make some little side poofs on a separate waistband. I cut some semi-circle shapes, put netting in the top, and pleated it them onto a waistband. I also tacked them up to 'bustle' them up a bit. This isn't a great picture but they look pretty good - I do think they need to be poofier though.

I also worked on the corset yesterday. I did a test run of fusing the leather to the coutil and it was perfect. I bought a piece of leather hide on eBay, and the listing said "4 square feet" so I figured it would be about a yard of fabric - WRONG. It's oddly shaped and I couldn't fit all my corset pieces on it, so I decided to do the front in leather and the back in the same fabric as the skirt. This also has the advantage of not putting grommets in through leather, which was a bitch when I did my Padme costume. I bought some gold pleather to do the boning channels. I was hoping to use that for binding but it's really heavy weight (didn't pay attention when I ordered it), and I had enough left of the white leather to make binding from that. I ordered a brown zipper for the center front. I think since it's leather and doesn't ravel that I am just going to cut the edges where I want the zipper to go and put it in. I read a great tip to use quilter's tape to secure the zipper before sewing it. I SUCK at zippers so am scared - and can't baste on leather. I may hand sew it. I was nervous with the boning channels too but they came out better than I expected.

NoFlutter Steampunk Leia

I've decided to do LA Comic Con (formerly Comikaze) this year. I am going to recreate NoFlutter's Steampunk Princess Leia costume. I am so in love with her work.

I'm using Truly Victorian 303 for the skirt, and TV 493 for the blouse. I got Simplicity 2777 for the bloomers. For the corset I'll use one of my existing patterns with a longer point in the front. So far I have made the bloomers and the skirt. The bloomers are longer than I wanted and very loose in the legs, so I am going to sew some elastic into the leg bands to tighten them up and hike them up. The skirt came out pretty close to how I wanted it, although it doesn't have the hip bustles like in the drawing. I'm trying to decide if I want to do another little skirt to go over it or if I'm okay with it the way it is. I might just put some padding under the side drapes to puff it up a bit more, but am leaning towards adding some side poofs.