Finished Project - Tumblr Posts

I have finished my black and plaid 1890s winter dress! While it’s based on an extant piece from the 1890s, I used different materials, as I was trying to make the entire thing with fabrics I already had on hand. I’m very proud to say that I bought NOTHING new to make this dress! Everything, from the plaid wool and the black velvet, to the red silk and the buckram, came out of my fabric stash.

The dress is made from 5 yards of black and grey wool, three yards of black cotton velvet, and about two yards of black taffeta, mainly for linings, which I had to finagle from scraps leftover from other projects. The hat is a buckram and wire frame hat covered in red silk. I was going to embellish it with grey feathers, but I didn’t have any in my collection, so that will have to wait until I have some spare cash on hand.

You can read all about how I made the dress, and see more pictures, on my main dress blog. http://mistress-of-disguise.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-black-plaid-1890s-winter-dress.html

Whipped up a quick mantelet to keep me warm at yesterday’s Georgian Picnic. The outer fabric is a champagne colored taffeta, and it has a warm fleece lining. I edged the entire thing with marabou to simulate fur. It was nice and warm in our cool fall weather!

I started this project quite some time ago (almost 2 years!) and I’ve finally gotten around to finishing it. I actually finished the embroidery last year, but I didn’t end up finishing the rest of the stomacher until this week. It’s based on an extant example from the V&A dated 1730-40. I copied the embroidery pattern exactly, but I changed the shape of the bottom of the stomacher since I don’t usually costume that early (I usually do ca. 1760.) More photos and making-of are on my most recent blog post : http://mistress-of-disguise.blogspot.com/search/label/18thC%20embroidered%20stomacher

My latest finished project, based off a couple of extant bodices and a fashion plate which all had this snazzy cross-over front feature.

I actually made the skirt a long time ago as a historybounding, everyday thing to wear. It has alternating panels of striped and solid black cotton, and has a scalloped hem. I love it and wear it often, and decided that I was going to make a matching bodice so I could wear it to costume events, too.

I draped the pattern myself, based off of a couple of extants. Each seam is boned with artificial whalebone and the seam allowances were tacked down by hand with a herringbone stitch. The peplum is lined with black cotton, but the rest is just lined with cheap plain white muslin to save on cost. The bodice closes up the center front with hooks and eyes, and then the wrap panels are folded over and closed at the side seams.

Brain gremlins about my weight are under the cut for those that don't want to read it.

I finished this outfit a while back, but I've been struggling with whether or not I wanted to post it. It's not the outfit, I think that it turned out fabulously. But I've been really unhappy about my weight, and it's been a fight to remind myself that my weight is not my worth. I keep hearing the negative things my mother would say whenever I would gain a pound or two or the "positive" things she'd say when I lost them (things like "oh, you have a chin again!" or "I can actually see your waist now.")

So I'm trying to ignore all that and remind myself how awesome this dress turned out, how hard I worked on it, and how proud I am of the construction of it.

A New Crinoline and 1850s Petticoats

Finally getting around to posting about my new 1850s undies! I finished them last winter, but Life happened, so here I am, a year and a half later.

Anyway, I finished a new crinoline and basic cotton petticoat first. The crinoline was made by first making the lower section out of cotton muslin, and attaching twill tape at even intervals. I then made each bone individually, the casing made from twill tape, then the boning threaded through, and then the bone stitched closed at the needed circumference. I played around with the size of each bone before I stitched it to the tapes to get the overall shape that I wanted.

To go over it, I made my standard cotton petticoat with a single flounce.

Then I actually got around to reading period descriptions and suggestions for petticoats in fashion magazines of the time, and found that they frequently recommended petticoats made of grosgrain fabric, with three flounces from the knee to the hem. So, I searched the internet and finally found some grosgrain fabric, which I had to order from Greece. (Spoiler alert - grosgrain and faille are pretty much indistinguishable, which I wish I'd known before because faille is way easier to find.)

Anyway, the construction of the petticoat was not difficult, but the grosgrain fabric was a nightmare. It frayed at the slightest touch, exploding into a thousand tiny shards. My serger was garbage and not working, so I used a side cutter presser foot instead, which sort of acts as a serger. It definitely helped, but by the time I discovered said presser foot, I was already so over this project that I threw it in the naughty corner for months because I couldn't stand to work on it anymore. I finally dug it out a few months later and finished it up.

I have to say, it does give an enormous amount of floof, but I would never, ever recommend making one to anyone else. It was a nightmare from start to finish.

There's a more detailed writeup with more of my petticoat research and in-progress photos on my main blog, so please do check it out!

IT'S DONE!!

Four months later.... it really shouldn't have taken this long, but I'm glad I got it done :P

This isn't the greatest picture, I'll try to get another one tomorrow maybe? I really wanted to post it right when I finished

commentary under cut !

sooo the watercolor is just normal cardstock with blue and purple! I did wet on wet and actually (accidentally) left it there for a bit after finishing, which is where that bottom bit came from- the water around it soaked back in, which gave it a really cool look. I did cut off the sides where that happened though.

The little guy I drew on an ipad and then cut out with my cricut machine ^-^ ain't trusting myself to do that with scissors

Same with the umbrella! And, oh yeah, these two are actually technically vinyl stickers. So it was really easy to stick them on a piece of normal printer paper and then cut that out for the white background thing :D

The clouds I just cut out of a different watercolored paper. That wasn't the original plan but I went "screw it" and had a lot of fun arranging them. Er, I mean, that was definitely the plan from the start and it's symbolic of how our problems are more complicated than they look...

Again, definitely should not have taken this long, but thanks for sticking with me! I definitely don't think I'm going to keep trying to go in order, but I'll try to keep the blog updated with what I'm working on. Have a nice day!

The Storm!

Nice n simple but I like it :]

sorry it took *checks notes* over a month for me to post this i uhh. I was debating whether to redo it slightly bc I used a random stock photo for one part but decided to just go with it

envy green should be in progress soon!! the number of steps is scaring me even though it would literally take like. an hour to finish lol. fun fact I was diagnosed with adhd a few weeks ago

Finally finished another thing that I was procrastinating on!

Voila!

This is a gift I've been working on for one of my teachers since the start of the year, when I found out I wasn't going to have any more classes with her.

I really like her and we were sort of friends! So I wanted to make her a little something ^^

pov: you open a box and he's in there

(took me 3 months on and off ;-;)

Everyone I know keeps telling me to sell cuddlywomps. Also, I miss there being a bigger portion of ninjago legos :(((

Nigathesis - Smokin Anyways, I managed to finish this during school, so I'm posting during school, which is a pain in the butt. Also, this was the first time trying to draw smoke, so I think I did a good job. Alright, I'll leave this here and I'll be on my way. I bid everyone a good day. Nigathesis belongs to me. My art.