It's now complete

We had a lovely weekend here and since sunny weekends seem to equal me wanting to sew I managed to turn a remnant into an apron for Miss S's costume so maybe people will stop telling her she's very "fancy".
shrug I know, I don't understand how a fairly plain dress with about $2 worth of trim can be fancy...but there you have it.

So this is (hopefully) the final costume for Miss S.
It dang well better be the final costume....the play is in 2 days!

Here's a quick snapshot of the gusset I did for the dancing.

Basically I opened up the arm hole seam up until ...the notches probably? Then I had Miss S put the dress on and raise her arms. I measured the gap that opened and made sure it was going to be enough and not put any strain on the arm hole. From there I just made this football shaped thing (cut on the bias for maximum stretch) that was the length of the portion of the seam I let out by the width of the gap created.
Pin, sew and done! FYI I sewed the gusset in by hand as I felt I'd have more control. I was right. If I was to do this again I would sew one side of the gusset down and then sew the sleeve in going across the gusset rather than the armhole. But of course I was doing this after so....hand sewing was easier.

Ta!

It's done

No pictures of todays work as it's a dull rainy day here today but I'm happy to announce.....it's done!
The gussets are in and they worked out well; the Villager can stretch for her dance. I'm very happy with it and hopefully the teacher will be too.
Here's a bonus pic of the Villager dancing.....

Villager Costume progress

So today sees the villager costume virtually complete!
In fact it would be complete if it wasn't for the fact that said villager is dancing during the play and apparently needs to raise her arms above her head.
So today I've been researching gussets. I've done gussets before in T-tunics so I'm starting from scratch (thank goodness). As of right now I'm tending towards the thought of a football shaped gusset rather than a square; just seems easier. I've taken the seam apart and asked Miss S to raise her arm and a 1 1/2" gusset is looking like what I'll need.
For now it's time to let the brain work on it while I do something else like watch Amazing Race. Yes, my Sunday night guilty pleasure.
Here's a picture of all the trim done though I think it makes a real difference. Enjoy!

Saturday Progress

Wow! It's been just over a day since I posted on the dress and I can't believe how much I've gotten done.
I'm not a fast sewer so this has been a real journey for me. I think the difference here is that I've made this dress before which isn't something I do very often. It has really helped.

So, what have I gotten done?
Yesterday the main parts of the body got sewn together and then I took the back and inserted the zipper. I figured it would be easier to do that while the back wasn't attached to the rest of the dress - less material to cart around. After pinning I decided to pick stitch the zipper in. Call me a perfectionist but the thought of having an obvious zipper in a "medieval" dress just irked me. I knew though that I don't have time to do lacing so....a fairly innocuous zipper seemed the solution. Plus I like hand sewing.
The sleeves got their cuffs on and then I hand stitched the ribbon on while they were still flat. To me it seemed only logical and easier to do that before the sleeve seam went in. The ribbon looks really nice and stitching on the flat allows the ends to be hidden in the seam.

Today;
Today I started with sewing the back to the front and doing the first official dress try on. It looks pretty good but it did need to be let out a bit. I was actually expecting that so it didn't bother me since I'd already planned it out in my head.
The reason I was expecting it is that the first dress was made out of a knit that we found on the clearance rack so it's fit was a bit looser and more forgiving. It was so forgiving that the first dress actually has no zipper at all!
I got that done and approved by Miss S and then moved on to the sleeves. The sleeves and facing are all attached now but I need to play with the sleeves a bit. They're a very close fit and hence don't have a lot of reach to them. When you're dancing you need 'reach' so I'm going to add an underarm gusset in a bit. My brain is currently thinking on that.
While my brain simmers I got the facing sewed on and pressed and understitched and pressed again. I don't know that I've ever understitched before but I have to say I will certainly do it again! It made the facing look so nice.

Right now it's time to walk the dog again and then I'll work on hand sewing the ribbon around the neck line. I want to do that before I tack the facing down so the facing can hide all the stitches. We have a bunch of movies for the long weekend that I borrowed from the library plus HP and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 that I bought so I'll have lots to pick from when I do the handsewing.
That's it for today although I'll try and add a picture later today too.

Ta!

Presenting .....one picture!

If I was really going to give in to my perfectionism I'd be worried about the bodice wrinkles but frankly I haven't got the time. Probably a good thing, don't you think? lol

Villager Costume Friday

Allrighty! here's todays update on the villager costume for Miss S.
First a picture to show the colours;

The green isn't really showing up well, hopefully when the dress is done I can get a better picture but the ribbon is pretty darn close (at least on my monitor!).
I got 4 m of ribbon and right now I'm not sure where it's going to go. The pattern has it at the neckline and the join of the sleeve/cuff. I'm not sure if I like the sleeve/cuff thing. I'll probably make it all up and then decide. Especially as the ribbon is something that may get done after the first deadline.
Mrs B wants the costume by Tuesday but the play isn't until the 4/5 of May so.....what she sees on Tuesday may not be the final version LOL

So far I've gotten the pattern redraft done (the neckline needed to go up a touch and I had CRAZILY thrown out or lost the bits of the bottom the straightens the hemline!)

All the cutting out is done and all the serging is done as well.

I always serge the bottoms of facings so I don't have to finish them another way and I also serged the bottom hem (in case it's not hemmed for Tuesday) and the bottom of the sleeve (ditto).

Not bad for not even noon here.

Time for a break now and the dog needs a walk.

Ta!

Bi-polar Seamstress?

A little while ago the Sew Weekly question of the day (to win one of the wonderful pin cushions!) was three words that would describe your approach to sewing this year. I said "little bits, regularly". I then explained that I need to try that out because I seem to go in fits and starts with sewing; sewing like a crazy woman for a period of time and then not touching sewing for an age because I's burned out. A bit bi-polar in the sewing am I. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground and I know that's something I need to work on because I know I'll be happier that way.

Sadly it doesn't look like it going to happen right away.

In Miss S's school they do a musical every year. This year is The Princess and the Pea and Miss S is a villager. Villagers are to wear a floor length, long sleeved "medieval" dress. Really the teacher isn't  all that picky except for sleeves and skirt length but um.....I'm a bit of a perfectionist and a bit of a costume snob so I couldn't exact take Miss S's 1909 skirt and add a ruffle or something >shudder<
Nope, just couldn't do it!

Instead I decided to use a pattern from Miss C's 2008 Hallowe'en costume.
Here it is made up as a pink and black witch;

I know, doesn't seem particularly medieval but if you look at the pattern envelope;

 You can see how medieval could be used to describe it. I'll be doing the long version but without the yoke and collar and decidedly no angel sleeves this time around! The material is a sage-y sort of green and we found some lovely plum (?) velvet ribbon to oomph it up. I'll do pics tomorrow if the sunshine holds.

So now that we have the teachers okay, that's what I will be spending my holiday weekend doing.....sewing like a maniac...again! Costumes are due Tuesday. >sigh<

Ta!