1930's Linen Ensemble/Disneybounding Tigger

With wedding prep and projects, the editing of photos taken LAST summer got pushed aside to a less busy time. I've finally gotten around to revisiting them, and I'm excited to finally share a few of my favorite outfits with you all!

This particular outfit was a last minute decision for a themed Ball... I've always loved Tigger rather a prodigious amount, and since the Ball was movie character themed, I decided I wanted to be Tigger and set to work designing a Tigger inspired, but historically accurate outfit for the event. Why am I crazy and try to plan an entire ensemble in a matter of weeks?

Tiger striped cat with a Tigger outfit... :D

I drafted every piece for this ensemble, which took extra time, but was worth it. :) The Jacket was the hardest and took the most time in mock-up phase. I still want to hone and perfect the draft for future projects, but I was pretty pleased with my first jacket project drafted from scratch.

 

The skirt was pretty easy to make with just a few adjustments to my original draft for my brown 1930's skirt.

I only ordered 2 yards of linen for both the skirt and jacket... it took a bit of finagling to fit it all on, but it just barely made it with a few small scraps left in corners.

The pockets were quite tricky, but I'm pleased with how they came out, and I think it was worth the agony I went through to perfect them. I even brought in my engineering minded brother to consult on the proper angle for these. 😉

The blouse went fairly smoothly, thanks to the absence of sleeves. 😉 Sleeve drafting is my current bane, which I will hopefully someday over-come and begin to feel comfortable whipping out whatever kind of sleeves I want.

I love the versatility of 1930's blouses. Unlike many other decades, they were often designed to be worn un-tucked as well as tucked.

For the ball I merely added a fabric headband with Tigger shaped ears, and used a permanent marker to add a few stripes, and colored more stripes on a pair of skin-tone stockings.

Unfortunately I managed to misplace my stockings and ears for the shoot, so I don't have a photo of the Tigger outfit. *facepalm*

A Once in a Lifetime Project- Tales of a Wedding Gown

 

 

Life has been crazy, and busy, and exciting recently... in case you didn't gather that from the nature of this post. 😉

 

Between planning a wedding, moving to another state, and settling into a new phase of life I haven't had much time lately to devote to blogging.

 

When I went about designing my wedding gown I knew I wanted a few things... I wanted it to be fairly simple in lines, but not boring, and I wanted it to include linen somewhere if possible, symbolic of the bride of Christ clothed in pure white linen. What better era to choose than the 1930's with their penchant for simple but detailed designs!

With the help of my Matron of Honor, Brigid, from Brijee Patterns, I came up with this 1930's design, featuring a little bit of a modern twist in the back. Brigid is fabulous at pattern drafting and helped with the design-side of the gown immensely!

 

Originally I thought my linen element would have to be only in the lining and/or slip, but the fabric for the dress is actually a silk/linen blend, perfectly fitting my wish of a 30's looking fabric AND linen.

Though it looks basic, the cowl neck probably gave the MOST trouble during design and mock-up phase, but it decided to cooperate before I threw out the plan and started over. 😜 

This back design was one of the elements I KNEW I wanted from the start, I had seen back v-necks with leaf decals, and both loving fall and having a fall wedding I wanted to find a way to incorporate that. I meticulously cut out each leaf, and stitched them on with silk thread forming the leaf veins one by one... it took an agonizingly long time, but I loved every second as I watched it take shape.

I really question my judgement in deciding on this closure design... 27 custom buttons with hand done thread loops... approximately a million hours later... ok, more like 12, it was ready to finish hems and wear. 😊

 

 

You'll have to forgive the bulky wool socks... October in the north can be a bit frigid.

I had a teeny, tiny, itty, bitty, 4 inch train and STILL in the first five minutes out the door for pictures I managed to trip... 😨 It was fine though... no one noticed.😏

 

The wedding was fall themed, so the bridesmaids, decorations, and flowers were an array of fall colors. Seeing all the colors together for the first time was so much fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos are by my talented friend Sarah Burns. She was amazing to work with and her photographs are stellar!

It's the Little Things

I've pretty well run out of outfits actually photographed. We just emerged from the wet, drippy, ugly phase of spring a few weeks ago. I'd been waiting to photograph my most recent finished projects and my new 1930's ensemble until the drabness finally transformed into luscious green, and now that it has, I've been waiting to find the time. 😏

So today's blog is all about the little things, the small projects I've completed this spring. There's just something so splendid about starting a project and finishing in a few short hours! Really quite refreshing amid the lengthy hand stitched projects that I've been plugging at lately.

First off my small projects list was a couple new stomachers.

I made a new cream colored stomacher, this time with a wider curve. (No more tongue emoticon vibes here! 😉)

I used nearly the last scraps from my brown linen jacket to make a matching stomacher, which will hopefully compliment my other jackets as well.

I cut the stomachers out in one evening and was able to put them both together the very next evening. Super fast and super satisfying! I really needed something that went lickety-split at this point... As an added bonus, I got to check that project off 3 separate lists. (I may or may not have a lists problem... sometimes I think I like making the lists better than the actual projects! 😉)

Next up was my long over-due 18th century sewing kit... known as the "Hussif" or "Housewife" in historical terminology. I used scraps of wool from my cloak, and linen pieces left from my apron to make one just to my fancy. Once I acquire some wooden thread winders and a linen tape measure, my historical sewing kit will be truly complete!

Having a proper historical sewing kit, an 18th century pin ball was the next logical project on the list. Let me tell you, this little bugger gave me quite the fight! From doing my first cross stitch letters in thick wool, to figuring out how best to attach the band I was met with a fabric battle. Now that I've worked out the kinks, making another should go MUCH more quickly. Perhaps I'll do a "how-to" post on that someday. 😊

Last, but not least is a project that never even made it on my "to do" list. 😲 I had a nice piece of cotton plaid left from a previous re-made project, and pulling it out while chatting with a friend I decided to cut it square and hem it up right then and there for a fun neck handkerchief option.

That's all the "little things" for now. Hopefully in a couple weeks I will have photos taken of my new 1930's pieces to share with you all!