Tip o' the 'at to ya, guvnor!

I love hats. Love hats. Back in the SCA, I would make entire outfits just so I could make and wear the hat. I don't necessarily look all that good in hats (at least, I know plenty of people who look much better), but I love making them. I think it's the fact that they are finicky and nit-picky. Anyway, I love 'em! So in designing the Enchantress costume for our Steampunk Avengers group project, of course there had to be a hat. :) I decided on a Victorian-era hat in the same green satin as the costume. There will probably be netting and a gem-type centerpiece. We'll see when I get there!

So, to gather the pieces:

The hat will have a wired buckram base, and those pieces are already cut out and lying on the folder there. They need to be pressed or backrolled to get out the curl. I've had the buckram a while (I buy it in rolls), so I'm not sure but I think it's double-weight buckram.  The dark circle is the top of the hat, already wired (forgot to take a photo before I started!).

You also need:
- wire (I'm using 19 gauge wire I get from Home Depot)
- wire snips
- needlenose pliers (WAY too handy!)
- needles (I have milliners', but any sturdy needles will do)

- buttonhole twist thread (again, you want sturdy)

- scissors

OK, so essentially you then set about wiring the edges of your pieces and anywhere else you think might need some support. For example, the crown has support wires running from the top of the hat to the brim to make it a little less "smashable". Sewing wire to buckram can be extraordinarily frustrating - the wire wants to curl, the thread wants to twist, and nothing wants to play nice. You also need a fair amount of hand strength. Patience is most definitely required, but stick with it. It doesn't last forever! :)

Here's the wired brim and top. It's not pretty, but it doesn't really have to be - no one will see the frame once the hat is done (yay!!). You'll note that the center of the brim isn't cut out yet (it doesn't look like a doughnut). I'm using a Truly Victorian pattern (TV550) for this since it's the right era. The designer also puts her hats together differently than I've done in the past, and I'm always interested in trying new methods. :)

Here's the wired crown. For some reason, the wire hated me for this piece, so it was much more frustrating than I'd planned. But it looks pretty good, so I'm happy with that. :) Note the vertical support wires I talked about earlier. Next step will be closing the open seam at the back there and sewing the top piece to the top of the crown. Then ... fabric! :)

At this point, I've put about 4 hours into this hat. :)

More later! I'm off to enjoy a nice glass of wine to negate all the sewing needle pricks and wire scratches. :)

A Wine Post!

It occurred to me that I'd not posted anything in a while, and I did, way back at the beginning, promise wine comments from time to time. So, while I'm getting the photos and everything ready for the next costume post, here's a wine review. We'll call it

What I'm Drinking Now

And there are two wines for today, courtesy of a little grill-out my husband and I threw a couple weeks back. The first wine is a Pinot Noir blanc (that is, a rosé) by a Californian winery called Belle Glos. It's their Oeil de Perdrix ("Eye of the Partridge"). Rosés are a great summer wine, especially for folks who like reds but want something a little lighter for the hotter months. They also rock with grilled foods. :) I'm a big fan of rosés, and I feel they're often underrated. So, there's wine #1.

Wine #2 I discovered at our local wine shop. It's an absolutely brilliant place with very knowledgeable staff and a tasting bar where you can sample three or four new wines every day. (Speaking of the folks there, that's how I found wine #1 - just asked one of the guys there who knows me (ie, that I appreciate good wine and I'm cheap!) and he said, "try that one." So, thanks Ben!) Anyway, one day I was at the tasting bar and there was this wine that I'd never heard of. Let me clarify, while there are many wineries I've never heard of, it's very rare that there's a varietal I've never heard of (for folks new to wine, a varietal is the type of grape a wine is made from - like chardonnay or merlot). But here was one. It was a white grape called Falanghina which is primarily grown around the Naples / Vesuvius area in southern Italy. Alright, I was curious. So I tried it.

Now here's where my taste in wine and that of a lot of my friends (and my husband) diverge. I love dry whites. My all-time favourite white wine is Sancerre, which comes from the Loire valley in France and is grown on the limestone there. It is flinty, suck-the-moisture-out-of-your-mouth dry, and I love that. This Falanghina is kinda like that. Not quite as dry, but pretty crisp with some citrusy flavours. All in all, pretty good for sitting out on the front porch on a summer's evening. :) The one I had was the Vesevo Falanghina Beneventano 2011, if you're interested. (And if you like sweeter wines, try the Rosa di Bianca sparkling wine. :)

Happy sipping! :)

Project the Third: Avengers, Gather for Tea!

I think I mentioned that our friends sometimes get us into trouble with their ideas for group costumes, like the Steampunk Airship. Well, this time it was ...? Steampunk Avengers. Now before y'all think we're just jumping on the movie bandwagon, I should mention that this idea was the brainchild of our acknowledged "comic book geek" friend. He's the equivalent of my "Star Wars geek" husband (and believe me, that's kinda scary).

Anyway, it quickly became apparent that we would not be able to stick to the movie Avengers - too many women, only one Black Widow, for example. So, we branched out, or rather I should say, our friend branched out and gave us choices (because I, at least, am fairly comic book-challenged!). So our friend became The Vision, his wife (obviously?) Scarlet Witch, my husband (being the tall blond amongst us) Thor, and I got The Enchantress, who was described to me as "Thor's Catwoman". So yep, I get to be the one and only baddie. I think I can do that! :) (Other folks have other costumes, but since I've been sewing over at Scarlet Witch's house, she gets the shout-out! :)

Since my husband was opting for a bartender-esque character concept for Thor, I decided on a saloon girl for Enchantress. So the plan is to modify the Simplicity saloon girl costume pattern to incorporate some of the character's defining motifs (the gloves, the leggings, the fringe skirt, the headpiece). First up, make up the interlining (cotton poplin) to check fit:

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of us checking the fit on the underlining when it was all together (sorry!), but that pile of green stuff on the bag there are the pieces once fitted and taken apart (and it's also a good idea of the piles of supplies dragged around for this project!). Should also mention that this was the first time I'd ever experienced fabric that had been twisted on the loom. It wasn't fun. You know how they always tell you to check the fabric before you buy it to make sure it hasn't done that, but you never do because you think it won't happen to you? Well, children, it does happen. Learn from my mistake! Anyway...

Next up, the lining. It needed to be green, and we'd found this cute green roses pattern that I'd decided would make me feel "pretty on the inside". When we laid it out to cut, it became apparent to me that green roses look an awful lot like cabbages.


Hmmm.






And finally the outer shell in satin. Yep, satin. I really am that much of a glutton for punishment.

Assuming I manage to get it all sewn together without committing ritual suicide, I'm theorizing that wearing it will generate enough water loss through sweat that I can lose at least a couple of dress sizes. :) Gotta be a silver lining somewhere, yes?





So there it is, the start of the third (of four) projects. I have a feeling that number four will be a LONG time in coming! :)

Oh! And the wine suggestion. This one is easy. Rosa di Bianca. It's a nice little sparkling wine that tastes kinda of oranges and has a low alcohol content. Perfect for hot days (and it was very hot the day we were doing all of this), and the low alcohol means you can still see the scissors. :)

Happy sewing!

The Airship Project: Mrs V

A couple years ago at Dragon*Con after the Steampunk Ball and, apparently, much alcohol, some friends of ours decided that we needed to have our own Steampunk Airship. For those of you new to steampunk, I'll sum it up by saying that it's a world where today's technology has all been reimagined to run off of steam, and it has a very Victorian aesthetic (although some folks are starting to move into other areas as well). It's pretty cool, and there are some crazily creative folks out there doing it! But back to me...

So these friends of ours, with the help of much alcohol (I think I mentioned that), set about assigning parts. My husband, bless him, can't find his way out of a paper bag without a GPS, so of course he was given the position of ship's navigator (Rex McNally). How did Rex get this coveted position given his innate handicap? Well, because he's the boytoy of my assigned character: Mrs. "V", also known as "the money". In exchange for giving Rex a chance to live out his dream, "V" fronts the money for the whole shebang (it also gives her something to talk about at those dreadful tea parties).

So, here's my husband in his Rex McNally get up:

No, I didn't sew that. He invoked his astonishing powers of "Captain Off-the-Rack" to put that together. Not too long after this whole thing kicked off, if I recall correctly.








As for me? Well, I have this horrible habit of wanting to do everything "correctly". So if I was going to do "V" as a well-to-do society lady, then I was going to do it right! Right, in this case, means "start from the inside and work your way out", so now, two years later, I have reached this stage:

Yep, that's right, two years later and I have ....


... underwear.



I'm such a quick sewer.




There's also a corset that I bought, but I wanted to show my friends I'd actually accomplished something, so it's not in this photo. :)

For the terminally curious, that's the 'Chemise and Drawers' pattern from Truly Victorian. It works up pretty easily once you figure out the fabric origami in the leg ruffles. :) I imagine all that will be quicker now that I have a ruffler and a gathering foot for my sewing machine! If I had a time machine, I think I'd go back to the Victorian era and punch the first guy who made all those ruffles fashionable. Yes, they're pretty, but Oh! such a pain! :)

This weekend involves massive sewing: the petticoat for "V" here, work on my Imperial Officer I talked about earlier, and another costume that is the brainchild of some other friends of ours (our friends get us into so much trouble, I swear .... ). More on that one later! :)

Episode I: A New Hope ... oops, that's Episode IV

To sum up the history in a nutshell, I'm not a costumer. Well, not really. I was in the SCA for about 20 years, so I did stuff like this:
  

(my dress, not his stuff. BTW, the veil over the shoulder?
Ladies, white can be see-through. An important lesson.)

 


... but I wouldn't consider that real costuming. Not really. Hence, my assertion I'm new to this whole cosplay / costuming thing. :)  









Now my husband (that's him in the picture up there) is a HUGE Star Wars fan. As in "amaze you with random trivia about characters that only appeared once in a comic book in 1978" huge. So when we left the SCA and he rediscovered the 501st Legion, I had the brilliant idea of making him one of these:



(screen capture from, I think, Empire Strikes Back.
Most definitely property of Mr. Lucas.)




... because it's all cloth, right? And those other costumes, like stormtroopers and stuff, they have plastic! So this has got to be easier, yes?

Sometimes I laugh at how naive I was. But mostly I cry.

See, while I'd done dresses that were fitted, I'd never done anything that was tailored. And to do that uniform correctly, tailoring is involved. Talk about a steep, steep learning curve.


About a year after the project got underway (and 7 months past my original "get-it-done-by" date), I attended a panel at Dragon*Con where the 501st folks were discussing the different costumes. Someone in the audience said how easy the Imperial Officers looked, and the panelists just smiled and one made the comment that you shouldn't be deceived by the fact that it's all cloth. I wanted to shout, "Hallelujah!" from the back row. You see, it was finally done, and my husband was wearing it at that very panel. And here he is:



(Dragon*Con 2010)





I can't even tell you how many things I want to change on this costume. And how much I really, really wish I'd straightened him up before we took this picture. Ah well! He likes it, it got him into the 501st, and he is loving it there! :)



BTW, the hat, while finicky and time-consuming, is my favourite part of this costume.







So there you are. My initial foray into the world of costuming / cosplay. I've been asked when I'll make mine, and my usual response has been "when I get over the trauma of making his." That time is now, and mine is underway (with so many lessons learned!). But that, and the other current projects, are topics for other posts.

Until then, I recommend a nice light Pinot Grigio for the spring evenings. And white wine is so much easier to get out of fabric when you spill it. :) Always practice safe sewing!