Selene... my nemesis... completed!

Halloween came a little early to our house this year and yes, I got the Mermaid costume finished, I was (finally) Selene for an evening.  

Reading back to my first thoughts on this year's project, all buzzing with inspiration and optimism, I honestly don't know whether to laugh or cry; I had such great plans and hopes and have found it, instead, to be deeply frustrating.  Giving up and starting again was exactly the right thing to have done, the wonderful Mrs B is a wise woman indeed!  It was a therapeutic and very satisfying experience and one that I found that I didn't want to blog about.  The majority of the dress is handstitched, curled up on the sofa with the boyf and the dogs, remembering, as I went along, little details about how I made the first dress and reminiscing about those first early days of falling in love with the Jedi.  It became a private process that I felt no desire to document.

That said, now that it's all done, I'm more happy to share the results and finish off Selene, once and for all! Starting off with my favourite picture of the evening, taken by Mrs S.  Blurry I know, but I love it.  It's us.

So, to start, my lovely little Starfish and Seashell tiara.  This was the second attempt as the mutts ate the first and I mean ate... demolished, destroyed.  It was touch and go as to whether I took them to the vets; happily, starfish, it seems, are not poisonous to dogs, nor bits of shell and silver plated wire... Even more happily, I had spares of everything and time in which to quickly wire them all back onto the headband.  It was a huge improvement on the bouncing silver stars I sported in 2006!

And then the dress itself.  A boned, empire line bodice attached to a gathered skirt, in the dark grey/blue sateen.  The bodice was of my own design (I may post the pattern later) and the skirt was based on the fantail skirt from the Victoria costume.  I shortened it to the point at the back of the knees where it is gathered and cut the front into a slightly deeper "V" that dropped from knee 3-4 inches.  Each panel of sateen was matched with a 1/2 as big again panel of a very soft net tulle which was gathered, stitched on and then treated as one piece.  In this way I was able to create the deep drapes and ruches without losing too much structure.  The bodice was attached to the skirt and the netting handstitched to it, first along the neckline and then gathered, vertically, along each seam of the bodice and stitched in place.  A zip was then handstitched in at the back.  The bodice is a far improved version of the original and inspired by a 50's prom dress that I have.  The front panel naturally fell into an attractive drape and so I left it as was.  The bottom, fishtail, of the skirt was a double layer of a pale blue chiffon under a iridescent, stiffer, dress net.  This was just over twice the width of the skirt hem, gathered and stitched in place.  The back half of the skirt was gathered at the back as per the fantail skirt pattern.

Green ceramic beads and silver and orange seed beads were stitched across the top of the bodice and at various points on the dress, with individual shells added in places and a rosette at the knee of sari fabric ribbon and a shell "corsage".  Again, a huge improvement on silver stars!

So that's it, before and after.  An although I have replaced my Jedi for a Vampire...

...it all worked out in the end ;o)

Fabric for the Space Mermaid costume

I found Aladdin's Cave yesterday; a shop in a little village about 30 minutes away from me that stocks the best selection of sewing and crafting goods that I have seen in years... it will be dangerous, it's already dangerous, I don't have enough hours in the day for the ideas that it's given me!

As it was, I found a great selection of fabrics for the skirt of my mermaid costume, plus embroidery flosses, beads, pre-drilled decorative shells and the most amazing recycled, ribboned sari, that I just couldn't resist.  I've matched the skirt to the wig colour (far left).

The replacement foot for my sewing still has not arrived but I am working on the patterns for the pannier hips and skirt.  I feel like I'm finally over the hump on this project and actually have an idea of where it is going!

The Corset... done!

It's been a funny old week, lots of stuff going on and nothing worth talking about... mainly just a blur of a poorly Finn, sleepless nights, general chaos and very confusing (just this unit please) homework.  In and amongst it all I found a little peace in finishing the corset - a task made all the more interesting by the fact that the foot pedal of my sewing machine has broken and stopping and starting it now needs to be done by unplugging the pedal and putting it back in again.  Very disconcerting, it made sewing a straight line almost impossible; a new pedal may be nearly £50 but it will be money well spent!

But enough, none of it is the point.  The point is the corset is complete, finally.  Complete. I'm going to savour the moment, it's been far too long a time in coming.

Yes, I need different coloured laces and further decoration is still to be sorted out, but I have a corset.  Phew.

Four days in stitches...

It started Friday...

God only knows where I'm going with this... that and the ever growing library of "oh I like that" pictures.  I have that many now, I could start a Pinterest board ;o)

Saturday:

Bottom edge binding and spiral bone sewn in.

Toying with more ideas...

Sunday:

It was definitely the right choice to get new eyelets.

and Monday:

It's been a very busy few days.  The 12yo was swimming in her Club Champs at various times from Friday night through to Sunday, there was a huge pile of logs to get stored away (more of that here), the usual housework to be caught up on and... and, we had to make the most of the sunshine and get a BBQ and some volunteer dog-walking (otherwise known as "auditioning for no.3!") in between :o)  There was time for sewing of an evening, but no photos and blogging.  The original, in hindsight rather ambitious, plan was to have the whole corset done; as it was, I was lucky to have got just the one side finished.  The hip shape is now exactly what I had hoped for and the inside looks far better than I thought it might! Now for the other side and then I can actually try this thing on... and I'm counting on that giving me a few more clues as to where to go next.

Embroidering the 1873 Corset

In between other bits and pieces, and whilst I wait on my delivery of bones, bias and eyelets (the ones I had were too dark and so I have ordered silver ones to match the spoon buck), I decided to try some embroidery on the corset.  I chose the fan and cross designs, varying them to include a leaf stitch.  I have a number of embroidery threads in shades of grey, green and blue and and splitting them to make mixed colourways that match the various shades of the fabric.  

I've concentrated on the gussets and smaller bones in the front panels to start with.  The photos are taken with a flash to better show off the stitching.

In the meantime, I am doing some serious research on the bottom half of this outfit; it has become the thing I think about last thing at night and first thing in the morning.  I need to have a plan.

It's been a while....

I was reading an article the other week about women bloggers.  A surprisingly mean-spirited article written, not so surprisingly, sadly, by a female columnist.  The article focused on former working women, now mothers and with no need to work thanks to their husbands salaries, who litter the interweb with their musings and, even worse it would seem, earn money from their ramblings.  The given examples were all successful, witty, interesting, beautiful blogs with hundreds (even thousands) of readers which had also, in some cases, spawned successful businesses.  

I would be delighted if my musings could one day grow into something as successful as some of those sites, but more so the article made me think about how much I have missed lately having the time to sit and write.  More important to me, than anything else with this blog, is that it is my potted history of my life today, my journal.

I have been tinkering with a couple of posts the last few days, a scrapbook of photos and words; we've had such a lovely time of late. A weekend away with friends, an afternoon of cupcakes and Aussie Masterchef (we are addicted) with the 11yr old and the lovely Mr S, an evening spent causing chaos with a plastic moustache!, lunch with my family and gorgeous goddaughter, veg shopping at our local garden centre (beautiful veg and half the price of the supermarket) and last, but not least, our first ever real Christmas tree.  

It should have been so easy but I have struggled, there is just too much going on to focus on what I want to write.  The only time that I truly have to myself at the moment is when I walk the dogs in the evening:  sadly, sliding round a field in the dark and mud is not the best time to email, catch up on FB or blog!  It does, however, give me plenty of time to think and watch the stars; both of which put me in good stead with the Selena project.  

I love looking at the night sky thanks to my beloved Great Uncle who taught me two "very important" things; the Whyte Notation and to recognise the constellations.  Neither I remember perfectly, but as I looked up tonight and spotted the Pleiades (our sky is seldom bright enough to see them) I felt a frisson of excitement and wonder at what sits in the heavens above us.  The night sky is truly beautiful and if I can translate any of that beauty into stitches on canvas I will be very pleased with myself and my project.

In the meantime, as I write this, there are presents to wrap (though the buying is all done); cards to finish making and writing; the little man is in need of a stocking to match the ones that I made for myself, Megs and Rascal last year; I have my imapiece to make, though I'm saving that as a Christmas to New Year project; and then there's the day job and the four Christmas cards that I was asked to design today, which then need to be printed and ready for posting by next week... I tried not to look too spooked, or repeat "but it's the 10th December" any more than a half dozen times.  That would just have been gibbering... :o)

I'm itching to get sewing again...

and it's all the boyfs fault, it was his great idea after all!  I have a self imposed rule, one big project a year from January to October and then two months off.  It is a chance to take a few deep breaths, enjoy Christmas (and eating dinner at the dining table without having to find it under a mound of sewing stuff first!) and think about what I will do next year.  Normally I enjoy tossing around a few ideas but I am seriously missing working on the Tudor dress and, now that I have the kernels of a fabulous idea already in place, I am just itching to get started.

Can I really start on next Halloween's costume less than a fortnight after I finished the last? Short answer?  No.  It breaks my rules which I made for good reason (and I have some jigsaw pieces to make), I haven't got it all figured out anyways and I've already hit my first big stumbling block.  It doesn't stop me plotting, planning and talking about it though ;o)

So, the inspiration:  

It's not very promising is it... remember, feel free to blame the lovely boyf, it is entirely his idea!  This was the night that we met.  He was a hired Jedi and I had thrown a random bunch of fabrics together, pretty much the night before, into an outfit that I optimistically thought of as an interpretation of Space - I was, and will always be known, in certain circles, as the Space Mermaid.  I blame it on the hair.  As to why it would be inspirational... at Halloween the lovely Mesdames B & S and I thought that the theme for next year could be your fantasy fancy dress.  "If you could be whatever you wanted to be, what would it be" kinda thing.  I mentioned it to the boyf and his near instant response was to say that we should recreate the above.  I laughed, I scoffed, I poo-pooed... I went to bed, closed my eyes and, damnit!, was suddenly plotting and planning and getting excited.  

Why?  Because, if you step back from the shoddy workmanship, the garish fabrics and the heinous wig, you have a long dress with a corseted bodice, designed to resemble the glories of the night sky.  What's not to get excited by?  My mind has been swimming with corset patterns, garment canvas (my big stumbling block as Kreinek no longer make it), alternatives to garment canvas (I'm thinking silk?), Van Gogh, variegated and metallic threads.  Ever since I saw the Dolce & Gabbana Autumn/Winter collections with their stunning tapestry pieces, I have wanted to do something similar and I think that this could be my opportunity; once I figure out how!  I'm starting to pull ideas and a mood board together; I'll post it when it's ready.

In the meantime, back to the boyf briefly, and there is a pattern by Simplicity that would do the job.  Out of stock, rare and hard to get, but who doesn't love a challenge!  I'm watching one on ebay now.  If that fails, I am certain I will find some good sites with diy instructions....