In record time, I finished the Lady Pirate Jacket Mark 2.0. Probably started sometime after 3pm yesterday, worked on it till midnight, and started again today, about an hour and a half before the game. Finished the hem and tacked down the collar in between periods of the Sharks game. Looks pretty good, if I
And not just because I sewed the collar in upside down. Well, ok, mostly because of that. But also because of my asinine attempts to modify this men’s Colonial coat pattern into a more fitted, girlie pirate coat. The side darts are all fucked up — but I thought I cover the front with silver
Made a muslin of the jacket. Added big darts in the front, modified the shoulder and armscye all to heck. But it seems to fit in a more ladylike fashion, which is the point. Started sewing it up in the velvets. Looks… well, the front darts look weird. But trim should distract. Bonus, I found
I braved the ginormous mess that is The Stash and was duly rewarded. The 3 yards of purple velvet coordinates beautifully with the 6 yards purple and black flocked suiting! That velvet should be enough for the pirate jacket, which takes 3.3 yards, but the pattern I have (McCall’s 2258) is a man’s jacket, and
I should never have mentioned my vague Georgian riding outfit/lady pirate idea because now a friend wants me to join her in being all piratey on Sunday at BayCon. Heh, this is not really a problem, per se. Just a challenge! Can I whip up something from scratch in the five weekend days available to
Photos of me taken at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden. Screencaps from the Lord of the Rings movies added for costume comparison.
I’m done! I spent all weekend embroidering the sash, and, boy, was that a trial. I started Saturday, and I can’t remember the last day I said “f**k” quite so often. Machine embroidery is tough! And metallic thread doesn’t make it any easier — even winding the bobbin was a pain in the ass! The
I finished sewing the basic outfit. Need to hand-sew the hems of both the under- and overgowns. Need to sew the placket into the overdress and sew on the hooks and bars. Next weekend, I’ll start the sash. I am going to try to embroider the design — very ambitious for me! I’ve been practicing
I started with the underdress, which has long darts in the front and back to give it a fitted shape. It had been years since I’d made anything with darts (I’ve been loving princess seams for quite some time ;-). This was a bit of a challenge, and I mucked it up. Even transferring the
This is the purple brocade outfit that Arwen wears as the Fellowship bids farewell to Rivendell. This costume is seen on the extended DVD of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and in a flashback sequence during Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I got the amazing opportunity to make this costume
Photos taken at Oak Hill Cemetery in San Jose.
Finished the crown. I printed out tiny versions of the White Tree of Gondor and practiced painting over the print with dimensional gold paint. Had to trim a lot of branches from the tree so the details didn’t blur together with paint (what kind of sacrilege is that, to lop off parts of the White
Started the crown and veil. Got sidetracked by Valentine’s Day and my birthday, but I finally had a half a day free to work on these pieces. A while ago, I made a paper template of the crown and cut it out of buckram. Because I didn’t have a long enough piece of buckram in
I finished sewing the gown! This must be a record time for me, especially since I spent so long fiddling around with the trim. Today I spent six straight hours hand-sewing the hem and the final parts of the trim. Also this weekend, I bought the black chiffon for the veil. Went with the dirt-cheap
I gave up on the trim embroidery idea. Here’s the sordid, stupid story of this gown’s trim… Because I couldn’t find any trim that really looked like what’s on the costume, I tried to improvise. I bought two yards of unbleached, cotton, crocheted lace and used fabric medium and acrylic paint to turn it an