A Vampire’s Day at the Beach
Photos taken at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden.
Sushi Victorian Bustle Gown
I’ve lived in the South Bay most of my life, yet somehow I’d never visited Hakone Gardens. It’s been nestled in the Saratoga foothills since 1918 & open to the public for nearly 40 years. What a treasure this place is! Delicate & structured yet wild & natural, all at the same time. Gentle waterfalls,
Su- Su- Sushio!
Finally! The gown itself is done! Finished the last rows of the blasted ruffles and hemmed and trimmed the skirt. I love the ruffled skirt now — when I put it on, I realized how perfect the ruffles go with the polonaise. Ruffles give extra fullness, as a petticoat would, but better. The pouf of
!$~&#()@!?! ruffles
Note to self: Never, ever sew anything with more than one ruffle ever again. The ruffled skirt is killing me. Hemming and trimming the ruffles was a piece o’ frickin’ cake compared to actually gathering and attaching the ruffles. All nine goddamned rows of ruffles. I used to think it’d be neat to someday make
Mo’ Sushi Madness
I hemmed and trimmed all the jillion miles of ruffles for the skirt. Hemming would have been enough of a pain (though let us all take a moment to praise the high and mighty rolled-hem foot!). But I had to go and edge each layer of ruffles with narrow black lace. Yes, I am officially
Finished sewing the suit
I’m done! This pattern does not have the best instructions — not very clear in places, left details out until the end. Nothing that you can’t figure out if you read everything three times before starting and three more times as you go along. But it’s a real bother. Anyway, it’s complete, and now I
Sewing up the bathers
I’ve attached the bloomers to the blouse and done all the #@%&*! fiddly facing and belt bits. Very unnecessarily fussy, though I suppose it’s historical. Just didn’t seem practical to me to waste all that time on all the finishing bits when half of it will be covered by the skirt. Ugh. And there’s still
It’s Always Better With Accessories (and Lace)
Finished the base of the skirt, including the cartridge pleating at the center back. And I took the GBACG’s parasol re-covering workshop, where I covered a reproduction Victorian parasol frame with the sushi fabric and red contrast. I bought some black venice lace from Cheeptrims to edge the parasol & the polonaise & for the
Sushi Sewing
Finished the muslin for the polonaise tunic and started sewing the polonaise itself. The pattern was a decent fit, but needed some tweaks. Modifying the fit was made more difficult by the three long, lengthwise darts in the front of the bodice. I had to reshape and expand them a bit. Also had to take
Early vampire beachy thoughts
This costume had been in my head since 1993. That was when I first saw Folkwear’s Victorian bathers pattern. I wanted to make it, but in a gothy fashion. That Halloween, I found a black and white skull-print cotton and promptly bought five yards. Some plain black cotton and a smidge of black PVC would
Start the Sushi
While I’d planned to buy the fabric from Repro Depo, I ended up buying the five yards of bright red cotton printed with rows of sushi and sashimi from an eBay seller. I’d had Past Patterns’ 1880s Polonaise With Walking Skirt pattern for years but never made it up. It seemed a good choice for
Arwen Rivendell Outfit
Photos of me taken at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden. Screencaps from the Lord of the Rings movies added for costume comparison.
Embroidery complete
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
Basic bits done-ish
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
Fiddly stuffy
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