Top 5 of 2013 Hits

 Hello my dear faithful-even-when-I-don't-post-for-a-month followers!

I don't know about you, but this past month was so busy

 that blog posts were the last thing I was worried about. 

I'll admit, I did worry about it a wee bit, but hey, the reality is I have a life, you have a life, 

and that life won't end if I don't post anything on my little blog.

Aside from being busy completing a large order of my mermaid crochet dolls, 

making some (though sadly not all) of these DIY Christmas gifts,

 I also dealt with an illness immediately following Thanksgiving 

that could have landed me in the hospital. 

I still have a few issues that I need to deal with, 

but I was able to get my body back up to relative health.

Anyway...
As things have settled down a bit,
I have been doing some catching up on my blog reading, another thing that didn't happen over the holidays, and I have been seeing the Top 5 of 2013 posts at several blogs I frequent.
It sounds like a fun idea, so I thought I would hop on the last passing wagon!

Here is my list for...

 Top 5 of 2013: Hits

 

5. Minty Teal Shirt Refashion



This was a pretty easy refashion, more of a fitting job, really, than an overhaul.
But with a few little fitting tweaks and by taking off the collar,
I completely changed the fit and style of this shirt.
It quickly became one of my favorite wardrobe pieces!

4. Bubble Hem Denim Maxi Skirt Refashion



Again,
this was a pretty simple refashion.
By combining a too-small pair of jeans and a hardly-worn skirt,
I created a fun maxi skirt that I absolutely fell in love with.
All of the extra width of the skirt was gathered at the front by using a box pleat,
and this created a flowing, draped effect at the front of the skirt.
This was in strong rotation during the warmer months of summer,
and I can't wait to pull it out next season!


3. Peplum Jacket Refashion



Those of you who followed me
during the Refashion Runway challenges will remember this jacket.
 I am super proud of how it turned out, and I love all of the little details...
lightly puffed sleeves, pin tucked seams in front and back, extra buttons
and lovely metallic and burgundy thread stitching detail.
Plus, as a budding seamstress, this held many firsts, including drafting
my own peplum pattern.

2. Medieval Costume



My first real refashion challenge this past year
came when one my younger brothers needed a medieval costume
as part of his camp counselor outfit for their weekly medieval banquet.
After a thrifting trip, we came up with just the right pieces
and I was able to make a shirt, vest, cape, hat, leg wraps,
 and even the cape clasp from thrifted items!
His outfit was a hit and I was more than thrilled with the final results.

And now, for my most favorite refashion and sewing project from this year...
I give you ...

1. The Jane Costume 



Also another project from the Refashion Runway Season 2,
this is for certain my crowning achievement of 2013!
In the midst of this project, I was under pressure and a bit stressed,
but looking back, I had lots of fun putting together the details and seeing things take shape.
The best part of course was seeing the finished costume and dressing up for a fun photo shoot.


And there you have it,
my top five hits from this past year!

When I take into account that I haven't yet been sewing for a complete year,
I am so excited and pleased to look back and track my progress.
I can't wait to see what this coming year has in store!

I would like to thank Gillian over at Crafting a Rainbow
for coming up this great year end review idea!

Disney's Jane Costume, a Refashion

(If you are coming over from The Renegade Seamstress, keep scrolling down,

or click here to read my full post on the Halloween Challenge.)

 

G'day to you!

Recently I was given the challenge of refashioning an entire costume

for the competition Refashion Runway hosted by The Renegade Seamstress.

I had so much fun taking pictures of the finished product

that I decided it needed another post with more of the role play based pictures.

 

To see how I made this costume and what it was before, visit this post,

and don't forget to go vote for your favorite refashioned costume,

by clicking on this link!

 

 

 

You guys, seriously.

Look at my hair!

I was so proud that I was actually able to do something with it, and it turned out so good!

 



 

Tea?

 



 

Sketching...

 



 

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, OHHH dear."

 



 

Being dramatic...

 

 

 "It's very nice."

"Oh, thank you, I can't do a thing with it in this humidity though..."

 

  

 

"And daddy...they took my boot!"

 

"Things couldn't possibly get any worse..."
A disheveled Jane.
 

 

 And for fun,
here are some edited ones.

 

 

 

And my three favorite edits...

 

 

  

Refashion Runway 2: Halloween Costume Jane

I have a confession to make.

 

No, I lied.

I have two.

 

Confession number 1) I don't celebrate Halloween.

I know, I know, that may seem a little strange,

but only as strange as celebrating death and fear seems to me.

This means that I've never had a Halloween costume before.

 

Which leads to Confession number 2) I love Disney. Seriously, I do.

Now, how this love was able to co-exist without the usual expression

of the yearly Halloween dress up, is a feet to be marveled at.

So it should come as no surprise that my Halloween project for Refashion Runway

was a costume inspired by Jane's dress in Disney's 'Tarzan'.

 I give you exhibit A.
I love Jane.
She is bundle of bumbling brilliance and understated beauty.
I feel just like her most of the time.

 

 

I had my work cut out for me if I was going to pull this off! 

I started out with a fake layered two piece yellow dress suit,

a white button up shirt, and an old yellow sheet and lace trimmed circular blue tablecloth.

In the 'before' picture, you will also notice a yellow button up shirt-

I actually didn't end up using this, as I had plenty to work with otherwise.

 

 

 

 

To start things off, I separated the top from the skirt of my dress suit...

 

 

 

 

...and removed the shoulder pads, lace and sleeves.

I wanted to take off all of those little pearl buttons,

but they were punched through and very well secured,

there was no removing them without leaving holes!
And thus they stayed.

 

 

I shortened the zipper in the back of my top and hand sewed a new stop.

I also tacked the lining back down by hand.

 

 

 

 

To add some extra flair in the back to accommodate for the bustle,

I added a couple of small pin tuck/darts on the seams at either side of the zipper.

 

 

 

 

In order to create the Juliet sleeves (as I learned they are called) on Jane's dress,

I drafted a pattern using this tutorial/method.

 

 

 

 

First I traced the original sleeves...

 

 

 

 

 

Then cut it into 1 inch strips, and spread them 1 inch apart

on top of a new piece of tissue paper.

 

 

 

 

After adding an extra inch on the top and bottom, I had my puffed sleeve pattern.

I made two, just in case one met an unintentional demise, which would be terrible after all that work.
It was a simple enough process, but pretty time consuming.

 

 

 

I laid my new pattern out on the yellow sheet...

 

 

 

...and cut.

 

After sewing the sleeve together, I gathered the top and bottom.

Next, I took some measurements for the bottom straight part of the sleeve.

I started with a simple rectangle, which I eventually tapered towards the elbow.

 

 

 

Pin it to the puffed sleeve...

 



 

 

...and sew.

 

 

 

 

For the cuff, I cut off the existing cuff from the old sleeve, with worked perfectly!

Another reason for doing this was for a uniform look.

The yellow hue of the sheet from which I cut the sleeves

was slightly different than that of the yellow shirt.

So by making the cuff out of the old yellow shirt sleeves,

I feel it tied the colors together nicely.

 

 

 

 

I sewed it over the raw edge of the sleeve just like you would sew on bias tape.

 

 

 

 

Now I could attach the sleeves to my shirt.

 

After that, I moved onto making my new skirt.

 

 

 

 

Taking the blue circular tablecloth, I folded it half, then half again.

 

 

 

 

 I used this chart to determine the radius I needed to cut to create the hole for my waist.

After marking it down, I cut it out then added a zipper.

Now I had a flowing circle skirt!

 

 

 

 

Returning to the skirt portion of the yellow dress,

I ripped out the back seam so I had one long rectangle.

 

 

 

 I first hemmed up all of the raw edges, except for the top which would be attached

to the skirt and covered with a waist band.

 

After doing plenty of research, I based my method for creating the back bustle off of
this video tutorial and a couple of other pictures I found.

 

 

 

 

I sewed lengths of grosgrain ribbon to the top (waist) of my material,

then pinched and pinned up sections of the fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what is looked like on the other (right) side.

 

 

 

 

Once I was finally pleased with how it looked,

I sewed the pinched gathers to the ribbon by hand.

That took a while!

 

 



 

I also measured out, pinned and sewed upward facing pleats on either end,
to accomplish a rounded look.
 

 

 

 

Once that was all sewn in place,

I basted my front swoop to my blue under skirt.

 

 

 

At this point, I needed to take care of some extra girth in my skirt...it was literally falling down!

I hadn't wanted to cut out a big chunk of fabric when I installed the zipper,

so I came up with a different way to take care of it.

 I measured how much needed to be taken in on either side of the zipper
and marked those points with pins.
 

 

 

 

Then I folded those points over towards the zipper, creating a sort of pleat,

and sewed them down. 

 

 

 

This was a great fix for this sort of project because it created

lots of extra fullness in the back, which is just what this style called for.
 

 

Moving right along, though I wasn't home free yet.

To create the back bustle,

I once again returned to my old sheet and cut a very long rectangle,

based on some loose measurements.

 

  

 

 

After hemming up the raw edges,

I followed the same process as above to create the bustle,

with a few little improvements and minus the pleats running up the sides.

I started with a large box pleat at the top center of what would be the waist line,

and this created a beautiful end result, perfect for a full back bustle.

 

 

 

 

The top folded portion of the sheet was ideal for making the waist band of my skirt

and bustle. I cut right along the bottom of the ribbon trim and got a nice band of double thickness.

 

 

 

 

This I folded and ironed in half, pressing in the ends to hide the raw edges.

 

 

The main skirt...pinned...

 

 

 

 

..and finished.

Including an inside button for the overlapping band in the back.

 

 

 



 

Repeat for the bustle.

 

 

 

Now in order to attach the back bustle to the main skirt,

I needed to add buttons to the inside of the bustle waist band,

and cut button holes into the waist band of the main skirt.

 

 

 

 

 Look at those beautiful button holes!!

I have to admit, I was pretty scared to do these...I have only ever sewn one...yes, one

little button hole with my machine.

After getting this deep into my project, I was terrified of ruining it.

But after about 30 practice runs, I was ready to do the real deal,

and I was so excited at how beautiful they turned out!

*Contented sigh*

 

Ok, moving on.
 

 

 

Here I have the crisp white, button up shirt.

 

 

 

 

That white collar was perfect for the Victorian look I was going for,

so I cut a dickey out from around the collar.

 

 Then trimmed and hemmed it up all nice and neat.

 

Earlier, when I had cut out the waist opening in my tablecloth,

I was left with a perfect circle.

 

 

 

 

 

  

After satin stitching around the edges twice, I folded it into fourths,

and hand stitched the top point to keep it closed.

This became a neckerchief.

 

 

 There was one final little item I needed to sew that would make a 'big' impact on my outfit.

 In keeping with Victorian Era fashion, I made... for lack of a better term, a butt pillow!

Seriously, it is a pillow that rests on your rump with ribbon ties

attached at either side so you can tie it around your waist under your skirt.

This gives the back of the skirt that dramatic pouf!

I took some guesstimated measurements and whipped up this little guy using

material cut from the sheet and more grosgrain ribbon.

 

 

I included my hand in the picture for scale.

 

 

After all that, I was finally finished!!

I had a smashing costume...some assembly required.

Oh, and a little life hack.
I totally sprayed my puffed sleeves and bustle with heavy starch...and then blow dried them.
It worked!!

 

 

And oh my goodness! Did I ever have fun wearing this outfit and taking pictures!!

See for yourself.

Here I demonstrate how the bustle attaches with buttons.

Look at that bustle!
Ahh! Love it.

And, of course, my signature pose. :)

There are tons more pictures, most a little more role playing,
so I am going to make another post with those,
so check back later!

Now head on over to The Renegade Seamstress to see what the other
extremely talented ladies made for their costumes!
Remember to vote for your favorite!

Ta ta!