A sneak peek - The Top Hat

I thought I would show a sneak peek of Ed's top hat. Since we're running behind on everything costume wise I doubt I will get a picture of us both before Halloween, all dressed up. So, I'll show one of the coolest items other than the cane that is in Ed's costume:

And here is a close up of the cool little doo-hickey on the side:

Ed chose both the fabric and helped me put together the accessory for the hat. The fabric is a spiderweb design that was on sale at JoAnns the other day. We had decided on a plain black satin but he fell in love with this fabric some time ago. Since it was on sale he splurged a bit and bought a yard for the hat.

So last night I had him sit down and I measured his head using a piece of black posterboard and marked where it stopped. It took 3 pieces of posterboard and fabric; one for the top of the hat, one for the middle/sides and one for the brim. All I did was eyeball everything, and it went ok except that I screwed up on the middle part and didn't cut enough fabric. At least, I did originally but I measured the middle and it bent inward a bit when I measured, so there is a small patch on the other side, which I won't show you, that covers my boo boo. But it's hardly noticable since the fabric is pretty busy and the accessory is on the opposite side which draws the eye there.

Just for reference the "top hat" part, that starts at the top part of the brim, is 5 inches high. It seemed like a reasonable height, since neither of us had ever seen a real top hat before. There was no sewing involved though because I hot glued everything on the hat.

Halloween Costume Update

I've been pretty quiet the past few days, but it's only because I've been busy! I have completed my own costume that consists of a Victorian walking skirt that I found here, a 70's Simplicity vest and the pleated shirt from Simplicity 3990 that the model is wearing.

The Simplicity shirt was pretty easy to make and I didn't have to do a bust alteration since this is one of the patterns that come in B, C, and D sizes. I love that feature and actually wrote the company to say so. Hopefully they will continue to make them. The only fitting issue I have is that the upper arms, in the cap of the sleeve is a little tight, but that's from my own large upper arms. If I make the shirt again I'll have to figure out how to alter that. I always seem to have issues with sleeves since my arms seem to gain most of my weight! But that shirt is very pretty. I did it in some kind of bridal satin that was in the red tag section of JoAnns, but it works for the costume. It's now awaiting a wash to get the marks out.

Right now I'm working on Ed's fancy Vogue 7488 (view B) double-breasted vest. I'm using a home dec weight velvet or velour (I have no idea which is which) since I found it in a thrift store for cheap. The back of the vest is done in crepe backed satin and it's lined in some kind of poly. The pattern is probably an intermediate level and since it has things like welt pockets and interesting lapels, facings and collar it's a little complicated. I'm "getting it" as I go along but I do have to read the directions closely and heaven forbid I work on it while I'm tired. I already screwed up a pocket from doing that. Thankfully I saved it, but it could have been worse.

Once everything is finished I will show pics of us both. I may even do my hair the way I plan to for Halloween; I need to do a test run anyways. I have waist length hair, so figuring out a way to contain it all in a fancy 'do has been a little hard, without having to go to a salon to get a good look. I think I'm going to go with a fancy chignon of sorts; similar to this YouTube video from Johnny Lavoy.

Oh What a Haul!

I haven't been sewing a lot lately because I've been recovering from a medical procedure. It's had me pretty sore and not wanting to move about much. But, to lift my spirits, Ed and I went to a thrift store that isn't that close to our place, one we don't get to go to a lot but one that usually yields something cool, even if it's only a book. This time I went in search of these bags of mens ties they sometimes have for a few bucks. Instead Ed once again spotted a sewing machine!

This time it was a Babylock BL6600, all fancy and electronic sans manual of course. It has the same amount of stitches as my other babylock, but this one is much newer and in better shape. The price tag was a little steep for our budget, which is pretty non-exsistent right now, but how could we pass up a $$$ sewing machine for under $40? Yes, under $40. To top that they were having a deal where if you spent $50 or over you got a coupon for $5 off your next purchase. So I had to go find something else to round out the total. There were no ties to be found that weren't priced singly, but I found yet another bag of fabric that looked like it had a few neat and colorful items in it for $3. And of course we had to get some books. Always books.

Once home, I opened up the bag and whoa what a haul! All of the fabric in the photo was crammed into a bag about the size of a brown shopping bag. Yards and yards of gorgeous fabric (and a few scary ones too)! Usually there are a few good choices in these grab bags, and a lot of "eh" scraps and such. This one had only one print of scraps. The rest was between one yard and 6! 6 yards of a lining fabric was the big yardage but most averaged about 2 yards per piece.

In with the bag were a couple, obviously, vintage pieces. The white, orange and green piece in the lower right is one, along with the burgandy/brown and white elephant home dec weight fabric. There is also a curious white, blue and gold toile-like fabric of Japanese scenes with little Mickey and Minnie dotted throughout. Ed actually spotted that one when I showed it to him; I completely missed it! I'd love to find out where it originates from, or when it was made but alas, there is nothing similar online that I can find or perhaps I'm not searching right.

The green fabric in the upper right is an adorable border print with little people holding umbrellas, or newspapers over their heads and walking around. There is 4 yards of this fabric.

Boy, talk about a good haul! This just goes to show that you can find some remarkable sewing items in thrift stores for not a lot of money. The one's I frequent aren't the smokey, antiquey type either but modern places like Goodwill and Savers, with the occassional independent thrown in there when I can find them.

Sure, you have to "make do" with what you have (and supplement it with new/on sale fabric) sometimes, but once you build up your thirft store fabric stash, usually you have a nice little selection to work from.

A Tiny Serger, New Fabric

A while ago (more like months) I came across a Singer Tiny Serger and snatched it up. I found it in Savers, a local thrift store for $10. It was a little splurge, but I had been wanting to try using a serger to see if I wanted to save the money to buy one. This little thing was the perfect solution! Really, it only does the overlock stitching and not the cutting. You have to trim the fabric back yourself. Now, I'm addicted to the machine and have decided that when this one stops working, because how long will a Mini Serger last when I give it the workout of a lifetime each week, I will invest in a real serger! I suppose I should start saving now...

I also hit upon Goodwill's 50% off Saturday this past weekend and got a bag of fabric for the princely sum of $4. In it is 4 yards of some lightweight black twill, which could be something like chino but I am so ignorant in fabric types I'm not sure. Also a few yards of black crepe backed satin that I may use for Ed's Halloween vest if there is enough, some scraps of some purple polyester junk and some cotton print that is pretty, but totally not my style. Those will probably get made into jammie pants since I'll never leave the house with them anyways. There may be about 2-3 yards of that.

So, overall a nice haul!

I've also been working on my Victorian skirt and have finished the vest. I want to take a picture of them both together, because otherwise the vest would ride way too high on me with normal clothes on, so patience my dear readers. The skirt is heavy to begin with since it requires so many yards, but I'm also lining it so I don't have to have my body touch the icky polyester feel, which just adds onto the weight. I can't imagine what the ladies of long ago had to endure when they got dressed. I mean, I'm only going to be wearing this thing for a few hours; they had to wear it all the time! With all the layers, it's like you are wearing armor.