Catching Up

Wow. It's been a while. Like, 4 months a while.

In my defense, it's been a bit of a crazy fall, with very little time for sewing. Normally fall is my quiet season, but this year I was swamped with college apps (finally done!) and the very first production of the brand new QVHS drama club: Macbeth.

My official title on the production team was dramaturg, but I did everything from prepping the script to leading warm ups to whipping up batches of fake blood:

My fake blood station backstage.

It was a wild time, but I couldn't be happier with the outcome. Oh, and did I mention it was set in the 1950s?

The costumes (and set) for this show were so much fun - lots and lots of vintage (real and repro and frankensteined by us). Even more fun was working - for the first time pretty much ever - on a show with an actual budget. We didn't have much, but it was enough that we could spring for a few really fun pieces, and not everything had to be made out of bed sheets! Crazy, right?

I'm in love with Lady Macbeth's kitchen.

Long story short, it was a very busy fall, and I really didn't sew much at all unless you count costume alterations. Moving into the new year, I have a little more time on my hands, so my needle and thread - and this blog - will certainly be getting a lot more love!

I did have one fun project for Halloween that I never got around to blogging about - my little sister's Little Red Riding Hood costume:

With the hood up.

She wanted it to be based on the costume from the Into the Woods film, so I made a simple circular cloak and we pulled together a dress and stockings from her closet. 

The film costume.
Source

The shoes are definitely my favorite part - we found them on Modcloth. Aren't they just the cutest?

(I'd link to them but I don't think they're available anymore 😩)

Continuing the Broadway theme, I was hoping to go as Galinda from Wicked. The pink fluffy "Popular" dress is one of my all-time favorite costumes. 

Source

But, after a frantic day of sewing all I had finished was the corset part of the bodice, so that was a no-go. I ended up just wearing a vintage dress that I had on hand and adding a little vampire makeup - vaguely 1930s vampire anyone?

The vampire makeup was a later addition.

Regarding the Galinda dress, I'm actually really pleased with how the corset part looks, and I'd love to go back and finish the whole dress some day -

I'll need to get some more of my lining fabric to use as a base for the skirt, and I think I need to revisit the whole top part of the bodice, but that's a project for another day.

At the moment, my time is consumed with re-organizing the closet - and believe me, it's a task:

My parents were wonderful and gave me a serger for Christmas, which I'm super excited to learn how to use, but it made me realize how generally inadequate my current set-up is. So, playing with the shiny new toys has been put on hold while I clear out proper space and re-evaluate my storage. It's not exactly fun, but it has been kind of nice to just turn on a background marathon of Gilmore Girls and reorganize everything. I've gotten rid of a lot of old crap that had been taking up space and rediscovered supplies that I'd totally forgotten about, which has made me even more excited to get back into the swing of regular sewing and crafting!

The other very exciting acquisition of winter break was an early birthday present that my mom and I stumbled upon in the mall:

File this under Things I Never
Expected to Wheel Through Macy's 

Some little clothing store was going out of business, and not only was there a clearance on their clothes - they were selling all their display fixtures too! Dress racks, shelves, full mannequins and everything in between - including this awesome dress form.

I was super excited, because it's actually pretty quality and was a fraction of the price. It's a nice, solid form with a metal stand (that's on wheels! displays suddenly got so much easier!).

Another rather interesting feature is that the post can be in the middle or on the side, so maybe I'll be trying my hand at some simple pants sometime ... ?

It's a little smaller than me in the waist and hips, which I plan to fix as soon as I get my hands on some cotton batting. I'm hoping that this extra bit of give will also help with more realistic fittings, especially with period undergarments! It also fits me much better in the shoulder than my other form, which should be a huge help when it comes to sleeves. I'm hoping that I can fix this one up just to my measurements and leave the other one adjustable for when I'm sewing for others.

For comparison - you can see the huge difference in the arms
(and neck). The waist of the new one is longer but I normally
have the waist on the old one adjusted to be longer too.

Looking forward, I've got lots of projects that I hope to accomplish in the new year. I rediscovered some pretty striped sheets that I thrifted with the hopes of making something 18th century, which of course reminded me how much I'd like a new set of stays ... maybe half-boned this time?

I also want to find a way to rework this fabulous thrifted skirt into something actually wearable:

The picture color is bad but the green
and black stripes are fabulous.

and of course I'm already scheming for this year's prom dress ...

Still not sure what I'm doing ... this is only one of many
sketches from the margins of my Chem notes.

For now, though, it's still organizing and more organizing, and then probably lots of practice with the serger. Since I don't want to let this blog lapse again, I was thinking of doing some more analytical posts looking at some of my favorite dresses and periods, and maybe some retrospective looks at my earlier costuming attempts. Maybe I'll even talk a bit about the awesome 50s clothing we found for Macbeth?

In the meantime, Happy New Year! Here's to a great 2017!

~ Emma