Tag Archives: costume

Costume College 2015 Sunday

Posted on August 20, 2015 by freshfrippery

Sunday was the last day at Costume College (and the last post in this series). Soon we can get back to the regular business of sewing!

Sunday morning was the Breakfast with the Bennets event. I brought a Regency dress and originally planned to attend, but I decided to eat breakfast in my room and then line up early at the bargain basement. (On the last day of CoCo, there is a huge garage sale of donated items that benefits the CoCo scholarship fund. There is always a ton of fabric and trims, and various other things like clothes, accessories, and books).

I didn’t have time to make a new dress, so I wore an old one that’s been retrimmed once before. I really should make a new Regency dress. I’ve sold/given away the other ones, and this is my only one at the moment! My matching bonnet also had an unfortunate mishap in the week leading up to the event, so I am bareheaded.

I didn’t take a lot of photos on Sunday, because I was in class for the bulk of the time. In the morning I was in Mela Hoyt-Hayden’s wonderful millinery flowers class. (Afterwards so many of us wanted to get together to make silk velvet flowers!) I also took Kendra’s amusing class on 18th century hats.

The ladies from Colonial Williamsburg had a great class on 18th century mantua-makers, and draped a mantua right in front of us! I was impressed that the cutting was eyeballed, instead of measured.

I had a few favorite outfits on Sunday. First, there was this wonderful Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell group.

Look at these cute regency outfits by Abby and Nicole (and check out the dagging on the spencer!) I love outfits that are simple, but well-done and accurate, and Natalie did a wonderful job of recreating Liotard’s Chocolate Girl painting.

It was an exciting CoCo, and I am looking forward to next year! I already have some outfits planned . . .

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Costume College 2015 Saturday

Posted on August 15, 2015 by freshfrippery

Saturday at Costume College was another great day for seeing lovely costumes! I spent a lot of time chatting, taking photos, and browsing the marketplace. I would have taken more classes, but never underestimate how long it takes to make several costume changes, and feed yourself in between!

I had been thinking of taking the “Haslam System” classes, but slept in, and took my time getting dressed and socializing. Saturday morning I wore my Game of Thrones Kings Landing dress.

In the middle of the day I attended my limited class “Mysterious Illusions: Creating Seamless Lace Garments,” taught by Rory Cunningham. I also wandered around and ran into many lovely garments, such as these bustle dresses by Merja, Elizabeth, and Jen.

There were mermaids by the pool, and Kim helped one back into the water.I was very excited to see Jenny Rose’s black chemise gown, since I have been planning to make one of my own. I loved making my white chemise so much I want more in other colors!

Before changing into my gala dress for the evening I had one last outfit change: getting into my AAGPBL Kenosha Comets baseball uniform with my teammate Monica!

There were many stunning gowns at the Gala and in the line on the way in. Natalie’s gold and black teens dress is just like a fashion plate!

This Queen of Hearts costume was really awesome in person.

Lauren and Kaila looked so pretty in their 18th century gowns.

Kendra’s court gown was just faaabulous.And the other court gowns in attendance were quite lovely, too!

At the Gala dinner there were these kooky flower costumes.

I really liked the use of beetle wings on this gown.The green and black looked great together, and the silhouette is just perfect!For the Gala dinner I wore my silk chemise a la reine. I forgot to bring along my blue book, to appear more like the portrait the dress is based on, so I used the purse I had for my Friday Night Social outfit. My wig got a little smashed on the trip down, but I like how the whole ensemble turned out. I am looking forward to making more chemise dresses in various colors of cotton voile!

More photos from Saturday can be seen on Flickr.

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Costume College 2015 Friday

Posted on August 10, 2015 by freshfrippery

Friday was the first day of classes at Costume College! For the morning several of us dressed in our Downton Abbey maid costumes, and attended our very first class, a panel hosted by Lauren Stowell of American Duchess, Abby Cox of Colonial Williamsburg, Cathy Hay of Your Wardrobe Unlock’d, and Mela Hoyt-Hayden, milliner and costumer.

I previously posted more pictures and details about my outfit here.I was very excited to see Jen Thompson’s Grey Lady of Ravenclaw costume!

And Loren’s Rita Skeeter costume, complete with a moving Quick Quotes Quill, was another great Harry Potter costume!

I only wore my maid outfit for a few hours, because I changed into casual clothes for my Pomatum, Powder, Cushions, and Caps! class, taught by Abigail Cox, Janea Whitacre, and Nicole Rudolph. It was a great class, and we all left with a cushion for an 18th century hairstyle of our choosing, and powder and pomatum supplies. Plus, we had hair ready for the Friday Night Social!

The lighting washed out the details on my dress, but it is a silk dress inspired by 18th century fashion, but in a shortened version. It has faux pearl beading, lace, and silk and ribbon flowers, with a sack back super hero cape! I wore it with brand new, super pretty Dunmores from American Duchess. Abby helped me a lot with my hair.

Here is a slightly better photo, taken at home. I made this dress a while back, but this was the first time I wore it with panniers instead of round petticoats.

There were so many gorgeous outfits worn that Friday night! Here are Rebecca, Breanna, and Lauren, spanning several time periods.

Gretchen’s bustle dress was so sporty.

Amanda, Natalie, and Kaila always look lovely.

Abby’s large hat was full of awesome.Aimee and Loren wore beautiful Game of Thrones dresses.It was great to see Nicole’s jacket in person!Katherine’s entire ensemble was quite pretty.More of my photos can be seen at my Flickr account.

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Posted in Costume College 2015 and tagged costume, Costume College 2015, Downton Abbey. Bookmark the permalink.

Midsummer Night’s Ball and Tulle Fairy Tale Skirt

Posted on July 19, 2015 by freshfrippery

Last night I went to the Midsummer Night’s Ball, hosted by Sam and Monica of Overattired. I made myself a tulle skirt filled with flower petals that I am calling the fairy tale skirt. I originally intended the skirt to be worn with a mint green petticoat and top, so it was made with a green waistband matching sash. However, since I am busy sewing for Costume College I did not have time to make a mint green top so for the ball I decided to go with a cream coordinate, and wear the skirt over a H&M chiffon dress I already had in my closet. This is what the skirt looked like at home.The tulle and chiffon are from Fabric Wholesale Direct, and I wrote a step-by-step tutorial with pictures for their website. Tulle skirts are easy and fast!

My antlers are from Sweet Mildred, and are lovely both from the front and back. The shoes are an eBay find from a few years ago. I’ve also worn them with a 20s tea outfit.

The belt is also from eBay, and the acorn necklace is from LOTV Designs.A silly pose!

At the ball I delivered a dress I made to Jean, editor of San Francisco/Science Fiction Magazine. I made this for myself years ago, prior to this blog, so I don’t have any construction photos to post. I am glad the dress has found a new home! It is a damask dress based on Italian Renaissance design, and trimmed with gold and white twist with gold beads. I also made the puffed-sleeve blouse worn underneath.

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Posted in Fantasy, Other Clothes and tagged costume, fairy, fairy tale, fantasy. Bookmark the permalink.

18th Century at the Pelican Inn

Posted on July 15, 2015 by freshfrippery

Last weekend a group of friends decided to gather at the Pelican Inn in Muir Beach to have dinner and take photos. The Inn is a very charming building, and we thought it would be nice to go there wearing 18th century outfits, and also visit the beach just down the road. I also finished my hedgehog wig, and so it was the perfect opportunity to take daylight pictures of my sheer striped silk organza chemise a la reine!

I also wore my red hooded mantle when it got cooler in the evening on the beach. It matched perfectly with my red American Duchess Kensingtons!

I made the wig the day before, so it was a little rushed and not perfect, but I think a little more careful trimming will make it into something quite nice. I used the instructions in Kendra’s 18th Century Hair book, and I highly recommend it. There are wonderful step-by-step instructions and lots of color photographs. The overall steps were:

Comb out a portion in the back that will remain straight.
Put the rest of the hair in curlers.
Boil the wig to set the curls.
Tease the curls, except for 2 large side curls.
Trim off the extra length.

We had a delightful time at the Inn, and it is a nice place for a small gathering.

Although you must be on the lookout for highwaymen!

But fear not, you may be rescued!

Or maybe not.

For more fun photos see my Flickr album.

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Posted in 18th Century, Girls in White Sashes with Blue Satin Sashes and tagged 18th century, chemise a la reine, costume, sewing. Bookmark the permalink.

Downton Abbey Edwardian Maid Dress (Part 3) Finished!

Posted on July 7, 2015 by freshfrippery

My Downton Abbey Edwardian maid outfit is finished! It was actually completed last week, but I didn’t have time to take and post photos.

Here are the front, side, and back views with the apron on:

Here are close-ups of the top and bottom of the apron, featuring the same antique lace:

The lace on the collar and cuffs are the same, and also antique lace purchased in the same lot as the apron lace.

Here is the dress by itself. Although I originally thought of using wool, I ended up using black Kaufman Kona cotton, which I found to be decently thick, and a good value. I made the fabric-covered buttons using a button cover kit.

I used Butterick B6229 pattern for the dress (but not the apron), which I recommend. I found the pattern to be true to size, and the pieces fit together nicely. I used the pattern mostly as-is, with a few small changes:

I made the cuffs smaller. I found them to be disproportionately large compared to my small hands.
I shortened the height of the collar. If I followed the pattern the collar would be rather tall, and cover most of my neck. Although you can find old photos of Edwardian maids with similarly high collars, I wanted the shorter collars featured on the show.
I lengthened the belt an inch or two; I found it a little short.

I normally don’t pay full price for a Big 3 pattern, but it was so new it was not in my local Joann’s or being sold for cheap on eBay, so I had to order it online. However, given how easy it was to work with I think it was worth it!

For the headpiece I sewed two pieces of antique lace together and gathered the center.

I sewed wig clips to the back to hold them in my hair. Project total costs:

Antique lace: $16.95 + $2.50 shipping (from Etsy)
Butterick pattern: $12.50 + $5.58 shipping and tax (from butterick.com)
5 yards black Kaufman Kona cotton: $24.82 including tax (It’s normally $5.98/yard from Fabric.com but I had a coupon, free shipping bundled with other items, and a bonus half yard for free)
3 yards white cotton broadcloth: $8.24 including tax (normally $2.98/yard at Fabric.com)
Button cover kit: $5.75 + $2.25 shipping (from Etsy; I still have buttons left over)

Total cost: $78.59. (I still have 2 yards white cotton, and a lot of lace and buttons left over for another project).

See parts 1 and 2 for more details.

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Posted in Costume College 2015, Downton Abbey and tagged costume, Costume College 2015, Downton Abbey, sewing. Bookmark the permalink.

Downton Abbey Edwardian Maid Dress (Part 2)

Posted on June 12, 2015 by freshfrippery

The apron for my Downton Abbey maid dress is finished! I made the bulk of it over the weekend, but decided to change the straps a little last night.

Although I am planning to use Butterick B6229 for the dress, I did not use a pattern for the apron. The Butterick pattern relies on ruffles and pintucks to add visual interest to the apron, but I wanted to use antique lace accents. You can see in the picture below that there is quite a lot of variation between the aprons on the show. There are different hem lengths, and different ways to arrange the lace on the upper part.

I sewed 3 strips of insertion lace into a V shape, then placed another strip of lace across the top, to make the center of the apron top. I then used 2 long pieces of wide lace to finish off the sides.

The bottom of the apron is about 44 inches wide. (I used the width of the fabric I had, which happened to be the same width as the lace left over from the top part of the apron). I added lace on the hem because it’s pretty, and to save me a few rows of pintucks! Pintucks aren’t difficult to do; I just avoid them because I’m a little OCD and it bugs me when they’re not perfectly straight and even.

Most of the aprons on Downton Abbey have plain, pintucked hems, but some have lace, like Ethel’s on the far right.

Instead of having two sets of ties (at the waist and upper back) I used one very long pair of ties. (They are about 2 inches wide, and 60 inches long, and probably too long). They come out of the shoulder lace, criss-cross on the back, go into loops sewn into the waistband, then tie at the waist. This way I only have one set of ties to worry about, and the straps across the back will hopefully stay more neatly arranged.

I wasn’t fond of the way the back looked in its first iteration . . .. . . so I pleated the lace where the straps meet, and I think it looks much better.

See Part 1 here.

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Posted in Costume College 2015, Downton Abbey and tagged costume, Downton Abbey, maids, sewing. Bookmark the permalink.

Downton Abbey Edwardian Maid Dress (Part 1)

Posted on May 31, 2015 by freshfrippery

My next project is an Edwardian maid dress, inspired by Downton Abbey. I plan to use a recently released pattern (Butterick B6229).

I couldn’t find a lightweight wool I liked so I ordered some black Kaufman Kona cotton from Fabric.com. My order came with this cute sticker on it!

I ended up with an extra half yard for free! I also bough white cotton broadcloth for the apron. It was a very bright white, so I ended up tea-dyeing it, then washing it in Oxiclean to get rid of the excess color. It still appears white, but no longer looks so stark next to the antique laces I am using. The fabric on the right is my broacloth, next to some pure white fabric voile for comparison. I purchased a group of 20s and 30s lace trims from Etsy, that I will be using on the apron bodice, the maid’s cap, and the collar and cuffs of the dress. If there is enough I might use it on the hem of the apron, since I really dislike doing pintucks. I hope this will be a very comfortable day time outfit for Costume College!

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Posted in Costume College 2015, Downton Abbey and tagged costume, Costume College 2015, Downton Abbey, maids. Bookmark the permalink.

GBACG A League of Their Own Picnic

Posted on May 9, 2015 by freshfrippery

Last Saturday the AAGPBL Kenosha Comets (and players from a few other teams) had a “reunion” picnic in Cordonices Park in Berkeley, CA.

Most of us had the costumes we made for Costume College 2014, but we had a few new recruits. We also played a few innings of T-ball with everyone at the picnic, including the kids and people dressed in 50s dresses and heels!

Emily can do the splits!Kim is like an advertisement for Coke!

Since the last wearing I hemmed my dress and shorts a few inches shorter to match the other girls, and got a new belt. I also picked up a lot of dust on my shoes from playing ball! We also had a bake-off contest, with lots of delicious treats.

Here are the winners celebrating.

We also had lots of other non-dessert food, including this delicious sandwich loaf!

I hope this picnic becomes a yearly event!

(Partial team photo by Lynne Taylor)

You can see the rest of my album here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/vivien_misc/sets/72157652398946625/

DIY Oberyn Martell-inspired Costume

Posted on March 14, 2015 by freshfrippery

I had a number of months notice for the recent Game of Thrones wine-tasting event, so I was able to sew my dress from scratch. I had a little less notice for my husband’s outfit, since he never goes with me to costumed events, but he was swayed by the wine and cheese. Given the time crunch, I had to get creative about upcycling some items into a costume inspired by Oberyn Martell.

I chose the Prince because essentially he wears a very fancy bathrobe. That is easier to fit than some of the more tailored things worn by the other characters, and definitely a lot easier to make than armor.

I needed 3 main pieces: a yellow robe, orange shirt, and snakeskin belt. I decided to buy mundane clothing as a base and modify them. Given that my husband probably intended to only wear the outfit once, I did not want to put a huge amount of time and money into it.

I did not have time to go hunting in brick-and-mortar thrift stores, so I went to the world’s largest garage sale – eBay. Although most of the gold bathrobes were very thin polyester “silk” robes, or heavy terrycloth toweling robes, I got lucky and found something in between. I purchased a gold patterned satin robe that was lined with fleece (perfect for the cold wine cellars). Here it is before I started cutting into it.

It was a little shinier than I wanted, but the Prince does wear some shiny things.

I also purchased a men’s orange dress shirt with a standing collar, and a snakeskin-print leather belt.

(Update 10/12/15: Amazon sells the same shirt I used. Affiliate link: Ed Garments men’s banded collar shirt in “rust” color).

The changes I made:

I removed the collar and belt of the robe, and cut the neckline down to expose more chest!
I put wide gold contrast bands around the opening of the robe and the cuffs using leftover taffeta from my gown.
I cut off some of the orange shirt’s collar, and also widened the neckline into a V.
I put skinny gold contrast bands around the opening of the shirt. Since the sleeves and bottom of the shirt were not going to show, I left all the modern plastic buttons on.
I purchased iron-on embroidered patches reminiscent of the sun patches on Oberyn’s robe, and placed 10 of them down the front and on the sleeves of the robe.
I sewed gold buttons onto each of the patches.

I originally planned on removing the cuffs and making the sleeves more fitted, in order to more closely resemble Oberyn’s robe, but my husband said he wanted to keep the cuffs and baggy sleeves. He also asked for the buttons to be on each patch, while the TV version has the metal stud embellishments on some of the embroidery only. If this was a more serious costume, I think leggings and boots would have been more appropriate, but again, it didn’t make sense to buy boots for a one-time use. Besides, my husband likes to dress casually, and having him wear his own shoes and pants with a fancy robe seemed like a good compromise.

My costs went up because I had to pay shipping for everything, but if you have the time to go thrift-shop hunting you may be able to get a better deal. Nearly everything is from eBay.

Heavy gold robe: $19.99 + $9.50 shipping
10 embroidered patches: $15.70 + $2.75 shipping
Orange button-down shirt: $6.00 + $3.00 shipping
Real leather (but faux snakeskin) belt: $5.95 + $0 shipping
Buttons: from the stash

Total: $62.89

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Posted in Game of Thrones and tagged costume, Game of Thrones, Oberyn Martell, sewing. Bookmark the permalink.

Fresh Frippery

Tag Archives: costume

Costume College 2015 Sunday

Costume College 2015 Saturday

Costume College 2015 Friday

Midsummer Night’s Ball and Tulle Fairy Tale Skirt

18th Century at the Pelican Inn

Downton Abbey Edwardian Maid Dress (Part 3) Finished!

Downton Abbey Edwardian Maid Dress (Part 2)

Downton Abbey Edwardian Maid Dress (Part 1)

GBACG A League of Their Own Picnic

DIY Oberyn Martell-inspired Costume

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