All Things Vintage Rouge

Costume Academy 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:37:00 +0000

I'll be back this year teaching! The full skinny will be posted to the GBACG website soon, when registration opens. I'll also be there with my millinery supplies in the vendor hall. Costume Academy is a great, one-day event where you can take three 90 minute classes a day on different sewing and costume topics, do a little shopping, and talk shop and ideas with fellow costumers. I always leave inspired.

Here are my classes and some of the event information:

Millinery 101: Create a Buckram Base
Most fascinators begin with a wired buckram base. Learn how to create a round or teardrop shaped buckram base that can then be covered with yourfashion fabric and all of your fabulous trimmings. In the first part of class we'll talk about supplies and techniques. The second half of class will be hands-on: we will take a pre-blocked piece of buckram, cut it to shape, apply milliners wire and bias tape to get it ready for your fashion fabric. Lots of samples will be shown. This is also an exellent beginner
class for those who want to learn how to work with buckram.
Kit fee: $6

Kit includes handouts, pre-blocked buckram, millinery wire, wire joiner, bias tape.

Students should bring: Scissors for cutting buckram (not your best fabric scissors) a soft pencil or chalk marking tools, hand sewing needles, polyester or poly/cotton blend all-purpose thread in neutral colors, thimble, and wire cutters if they have them (there will be a couple of pairs available in class to use).

You can see what a teardrop base looks like in the photo above.

Creating Ribbon Flowers

Ribbon flowers can be used to decorate many, many costume pieces from hats to shoes to purses. Learn how to make basic three dimensional ribbon flowers and add a little floral punch to your costume collection. We will start with a demo and a discussion of materials. The rest of class will be spent creating 2 different types of ribbon flowers and one set of leaves.
Kit fee: $5

Kit includes handouts, ribbon for leaves and flowers, stamens, use of finishing supplies.

Students should bring a basic hand sewing kit with them to class and wire cutters if they have them (there will be a couple of pairs available in class to use).

Costume Academy will be held on March 4, 2012 at the ASUC MLK Student Union on the UC Berkeley campus. I'm not sure what the registration fees will be this year, so please keep your eye on the GBACG website. (and p.s., classes sell out quickly!)

Singing Fa La La La La, the holidays are coming!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:59:00 +0000

The Very Cupcake Dress is coming along, more on that in my next post! I spent last weekend at the Dickens site for workshops and dress rehearsal and it was just wonderful being back again after a two year hiatus. For those of you who aren't familiar with Dickens Fair, it's a big tradition out here in San Francisco where a big warehousey building at the Cow Palace gets transformed into Dickensian London and every night is Christmas Eve. If you go this year, say hi to me at the Adventurers Club where I will be playing feminist and activist Josephine Butler.

In other holiday news, Chris and I will be only be doing ONE show this year for the holidays: The San Francisco Arts Market in United Nations Plaza (near Civic Center) the first three Thursdays in December (12/1, 12/8, 12/15). Chris has done a bunch of new Glowees t-shirt and hoodie designs this fall but this one is my absolute favorite, a little bit of Alice in Wonderland. Glow in the dark, natch:

I've already got one in my size. I was first in line for that one!

I'll be bringing out my market bags and hair accessories. Unless the weather is really nasty, I'll have my hats on hand too. The photo above is of the two of us goofing off at a holiday sale last year at one of the Livermore wineries. Stay tuned for more dress diary fun--yes, there has been a whole lot of costuming going on...

The Very Cupcake Dickens Dress: Fitting

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:49:00 +0000

The dress is well underway! I've had to go about it in stages, doing things a bit backward like doing the sleeves and cutting out the skirt first, so that I could deal with whatever fitting was necessary when I had the time (and the corset on) to do it properly. I'm hoping that this way, it will all be a matter of fitting all of the pieces together and wham-o, I have a dress!

So onto the fitting...

This is my forth Martha McCain Simplicity Civil War-era gown so I'm very familiar with what fitting issues I needed to keep an eye out for. For me, it was mainly adding to the waist measurement (heck, I have to pretty much do that for EVERY pattern) and making sure everything fits well over my corset. I did have to drop the back neckline down a bit, it was very high and snug, not attractive. Here's what my mock-up ended up looking like:

I didn't want to cut away anything on the paper pattern so I snipped in to my new markings and folded the paper down to my new neckline before placing it on the fabric.

And check out these sleeves!

I wish I had enough of the plaid fabric to do a flounced skirt with cupcake ruffles around the hemline of the skirt but alas, I will just have a plain pleated skirt with green ribbon trim instead. Next: bodice construction...

Whooosh goes the blogger...

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:48:00 +0000

Hello! It's been a while, it's true--I've been busy moving into my new house among other Life Stuff and had to take a short hiatus. I'll be back soon with my latest project: The Very Cupcake Dickens Dress. It's well underway and the clock is ticking!

In the meantime, I found this wonderful link to the hat collection at the Met. Thanks to a member of the Milliners on Etsy team! I haven't even had time to look at them all, there are that many!

Buckram, buckram, who has the buckram?

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:57:00 +0000

Well, I do, actually! Just got in a whole roll of 30" wide white buckram AND a whole roll of 60" wide BLACK buckram! I just blocked a bit of the black for a fascinator base and now my mind is swirling in all sorts of fun directions.

Both will be up on the Lulu Deux Millinery websites shortly but I will have both at the GBACG Costumers Bazaar this Sunday. The black buckram is $10.99 a yard, the white buckram is $5.75 a yard.

Getting Rid of Gaposis

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:32:00 +0000

I was flipping through the August edition of Marie Claire magazine and came across a column called "Big Girl in a Skinny World" that talked about plus-size fitting issues with store bought dress shirts. I hoped the article would give some actual fit advice, but it was mostly touting various brands rather than actual fit issues. I thought this puzzling, especially since certain fit issues can pretty much apply to everyone, not just a plus-size woman. And really, a plus-size is not a body type, it's just a size category. Everyone has their own, special body type that can be made even lovelier in any garment THAT FITS WELL. Harumph. So, I thought I'd write and share my own experience and tips for making button-down blouses so that those of us who sew won't have to settle for gaposis any more. I mean, we can't just buy knit tops forever, right?

I'm not a plus-size, but I've had issues with button-down blouses for most of my adult life. I can rarely, if ever, just buy one off the rack and have it look good so it's usually something I have to make (goshdarnit). Why? Well, let's see, I'm taller than the wee 5'5" clothing average, and although I'm of an average bust size I tend to be a bit fuller around the rib cage and waist than the standard measurements. (One magazine called my body type the "chili pepper" and I think that sums it up nicely!) The result? 99% of blouses that I try on have horrid gaposis, are often too short, and are, therefore, unwearable. Now, you could say, why not buy a bigger size? I could, but often the shoulder area is too big and that lovely tailored blouse turns way frumpy on me. So I have to make them, and here's the plan I follow:

First of all, you have to know your figure and what fit issues always come up with commercial patterns. For me, I usually just automatically let out the side seams a bit (especially if the seams are curved in at the waist) and, if there are darts, either make them smaller or remove them altogether. I always have to do this for anything slightly fitted. It's just automatic. You want enough ease around the rib cage, bust, and waist area that you don't see any pulling. I also will often add an inch or so to the length because I also don't want to be tugging at the darn blouse all day.

But the secret, once I've got the torso modified, is in the button placement. You must make sure that there is a button right at the apex (yup, that's the nipple line) and then refigure the placement of the rest of the buttons. I use that handy little tool there for this. Take a look at the picture of our lovely 1950's lady above to get an idea of what I mean, see where the apex button placement is? Do this, and the blouse will fit much, much, much better! I will also often add a button or two if I think they are spaced too far apart, especially on anything that hugs the body or that I've added length to.

Now that's just me and how I work out my own fit issues but the button placement is universal. The next time you go blouse shopping, take a look at where the apex button is when you try on the blouse. And please, don't wear a sports bra when shopping for blouses, wear the bra you'll wear with it because that changes the apex placement too. :)

For fitting commerical patterns, I really recommend Sandra Betzina's book Fast Fit. There was also a recent article on BurdaStyle about fitting clothing that can be found here. It includes lots of links and book reviews of other books on fitting patterns.

Absurdly droolworthy flickr pool: House of Worth

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:31:00 +0000

1887 evening gown front view, originally uploaded by charleybrown77.

You know you are a costumer when a friend shares a flickr pool like this on Facebook and you spend the next 30 minutes looking through it when you ahem, should be working on business-related web stuff. (But there are 165 photos!!!)

I love this dress because it is my favorite color, chartreuse. That, and I love the way the style details make the wearer look like she has a teeny tiny waist: The pleated sheer fabric that drapes along the shoulder and outside bustline, the center panel, the slight hip padding...(Note to self, copy this!)

The 1900-ish gowns are also lovely, lovely, lovely. Oh I do love that period.

GBACG Costumers Bazaar

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:28:00 +0000

The Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild Costumers Bazaar is coming up in August! I'll be there with my millinery wire, ribbon, Lulu Deux and Lulu's Room merchandise and assorted other costume and vintage bits. This is a great place to pick up new and gently used costume pieces from talented GBACG members.

Location: Albany Veterans' Memorial Building
1325 Portland Ave., Albany, CA 94706 - Map and Driving Directions
Parking is available on the street
Sunday, August 28th, 2011 -- 1:00pm – 5:00pm
For more information:
http://gbacg.org/current/costumers-bazaar-11.html

Resource for costumers, milliners, reenactors...heck, any student of history!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:00:00 +0000

From: Art in costume design: practical suggestions for those interested in art, sewing, history and literature(1920)

Recently I stumbled across a site containing scans of lots and lots of old dressmaking and millinery books from the early part of the last century and older. Wow. They also have antique and vintage magazines and cookbooks scanned and saved to the site. Double Wow. Grab a cup of tea, wine, or (insert your beverage of choice here), and enjoy cruising through the site for a while, it's well worth it!

Check out all of these little gems here by The Human Ecology Collection at the University of Wisconsin. Thank you, University of Wisconsin, for bringing all of these wonderful historical resources to interwebs. :)

I love reading vintage books on how to dress, and there are a few on this site. The one I'm currently flipping through is called Clothes That Count and How To Make Them (1923). How could you not love advice like, "Clothes properly managed will transform a plain nonentity into a character to be reckoned with"? Those poor, plain nonentities were obviously in need of this book....

And speaking of wigs...

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:39:00 +0000

My friend Kendra is now offering her FABULOUS 18th century wig-making skills to the public. Not only does she create her own wigs to wear to events, she's taught workshops on building the pouf. Her blog page with all of the info can be found here

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Pirates' Ball and the Big Hair Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:43:00 +0000

Last Saturday night was the Pirates' Ball in Benicia. Chris and I were vending there so we had to try and figure out what to wear that would be comfortable for 8 hours but still allow us to look "piratey." I did my hair at home, figuring that I could just add the tricorne when were done setting up. This is my new wig!

This was my first attempt at really working a wig into my hairline instead of using hair pieces or plopping my blond wig down way over my (very red) hairline. I bought the Lacey "Wavy Showgirl" wig and hacked away at a lot of the side curls so that I had more of that hedgehog look of the 1780s. I was going for a look similar to this portrait of Mrs. Siddons, painted by Gainsborough circa 1783-1785:

Here's another photo of me at the Ball. I wish I had a photo of the long back curls because they looked really, really cute!

Note that I'm just wearing my stays and a "poet" blouse. The polka dot thingie is my vendor apron. What you don't see are my jeans and a pair of lace up boots that I knew would be comfy enough to load our gear in, stand in, and tear down in.

So, how did I do my hair?

First, I gave the wig a haircut (but saved all of the bits for future projects) and teased the top and sides out a bit so that it looked fluffy.
On the day of the event, I used a big crimping iron on my bangs and the front and sides of my hair to give lots of wavy volume.
My big challenge was that I needed to anchor that wig to my hair so that the hat could anchor to my wig and everything would be hunky dory and not slip around for 8+ hours. I took the top half of my uncurled hair, gave myself little pigtails, and wound the hair elastic around so that I had flat little knobs of hair that I could jam a bobby pin into and not have it slip out. Then I did the same with the rest of my hair down the back, pinned it high up on my head into a little pigtail knob. This would also help to give the top and upper back of the wig a little volume.
Next, I put the wig on and bobby pinned it to my scalp along the front, in the middle where those knobs of hair were, and along the base of my neck. My curled front hair and bangs were left sticking out.
Here's the part where you need lots of hairspray! I'm a child of the 80's so when you need to make your big hair stay in place, you break out the AquaNet Extra Super Hold. Take your hair, work it up along the wig line with a bit of the wig hair, and spray the snot out of it. Seriously. My hair only touches my shoulders now but I had to pin the longer side pieces into the sides of the wig in a way that you couldn't really see the ends. I suppose in the future I could try to curl my hair into ringlets if I don't want the length.
The tricorne stayed on wonderfully over the well-anchored wig all night. It has an elastic band you bury into the hairline along with a comb in the back to anchor it to the hair.

I had dyed my hair a little too dark two days before the event but in the mood lighting you couldn't really tell. Since people kept asking me how I got my hair to do that I think everything must have worked pretty well for my first real attempt at playing with a wig!

Here's one of my favorite photos from the evening, taken under Chris' blacklights. It has nothing to do with costuming whatsoever but we were having fun using the "night" setting on the camera to see if we could make his glowees glow on the camera. Apparently it works for poet blouses and 18th century stays too. :)

For more great 18th century wig and hair tutorials, check out this post at American Duchess or Kendra's wig tutorial on demodecouture.com.

Yarrrr! It's Pirate Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:42:00 +0000

I'll be vending at the Pirates' Ball on Saturday night (Pirate Festival is also this weekend!) and have been busy building up my stock. It feels GREAT to be spending so much time in the studio again. Here's the rundown on a few of the things I finished this week that will be available for sale this weekend:

New tricorne, back view

New tricorne, front view. The synthetic patent leather was a good challenge for me because, since you can't steam through it when you do the buckram shaping I had to rethink just how I was going to construct the hat and get the results I was looking for. I wound up doing the brim shaping first and in the process figured out a few new techniques that I can apply to future hats. Double bonus!

Organdy flower madness. Next I'm making one in RED

A bouquet of flowers, Lulu style

I didn't get my personal sewing done in time (hello life stuff) but it's not a big deal, I've got a fun little outfit planned that I'm looking forward to wearing and (gasp!) it's not even period. Well, okay, the stays are but that'll be about it! Hopefully I'll have some photos to post next week.

The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:35:00 +0000

Recently I was on a business trip that required a LOT of driving--about 300 miles each way from the airport to the destination and back again. How do I keep from dying of boredom since I can't sew, read, or work on my laptop like I would if I were flying? I run to the library (I'm a big library groupie) and grab a book on CD. For me, novels can be a little hard to follow while driving on unfamiliar roads so I prefer something non-fiction. For my last trip, I picked up: The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street

What a fun book!

The book is full of all of the characters who made up Shakespeare's circle during his time living on Silver Street in London. I LOVE social history so the descriptions of people, their occupations, and daily lives meshing with the theater and writers of the day made for some pretty fun listening. For example, one of the main figures of the book, Christopher Mountjoy is a "tyre maker," a maker of ladies headpieces, so there is a lot of fascinating description of that industry and the status (or appearance of status) of having such "tyre." Yay for unexpected costuming information!

There is also quite a bit about prostitutes at all levels of society and how they lived and worked which always makes for colorful reading. According to Nicholl, prostitutes were such regular figures at the various theaters that they could be seen mouthing the words of the play while looking for customers. If that hasn't been made into a scene in a movie about Shakespearean theater, someone totally needs to jump on that.

I admit that since I wasn't "reading" and sometimes had to turn my attention away from listening that there are some things that I missed. This certainly isn't the most analytical of reviews, but if you are looking for a little Shakespearean London for a long-car-trip or summer reading, it's definitely worth a listen. I might grab it again for my next trip!

Maker Faire is this weekend!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:19:00 +0000

I love Maker Faire and this year I'll be working in the BurdaStyle booth helping people sew drawstring bags! I'll be there until 2 p.m. on Saturday. After that I hope to catch some friends playing music on one of the stages and generally just hanging out and marveling at all of the cool stuff that people have created.
The project is this cute, quick, drawstring bag. I made one up following the instructions and have already found a good use for it. :)

Can't you just see whipping up a bunch of these and keeping them on hand? Yay for reusable gift bags! In my family, we pass around gift bags until they start looking shabby so I think I'll make up a few in holiday prints this winter and get them circulating. (There is never a shortage of wine bags in this family!) What a great way to use up some of the smaller pieces you have left over from other projects. You can get the full instructions here
And information on BurdaStyle at Maker Faire can be found Here
Hope to see you there!

Trying to decide...

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:11:00 +0000

Taken at "The Brunswick" workshop hosted by Burnley & Trowbridge

Next week I'm going to start my 18th century redingote. The clock is ticking! I need to get it done before the end of the month. I will probably need to drape the pattern and draping a pattern on yourself is a big PITA, so I've been trying to decide exactly what to do about it. I think I've come to a solution: throw my 18th century stays onto the crappy dressform, pad if necessary, attempt a first draping. Is this ideal? Naw, but until I can actually go for some kind of customized form this just might have to do. I figure there's enough hardware in the stays to at least give me a good start. Then I'm sure there will be lots of reshuffling, repinning, refitting after that....

Week 6: The Wedding Fascinator

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:48:00 +0000

In honor of the upcoming Royal Wedding, I thought I'd give this week's 2011 Challenge item a wedding theme and talk about the fascinator I made for my own wedding in January. I do look a bit like the absinthe fairy, don't you think?

Now, that wasn't actually my intention (really!), I just like that color green and since we were having a "courthouse wedding" I saw no reason to dress up in any sort of big white dress. All I made was my fascinator. I'm saving my sewing energy for all of those other projects this year!

But back to the fascinator...It's a simple teardrop base, wired buckram. I started making it after I found the dress so the colors pretty much chose themselves.

The flowers and leaves are made out of organza. The netting I pulled off of a sad little vintage hat that was unusable otherwise. The poor netting (something old!) wasn't in the greatest of shape so it wound up being a wee bit shorter than I would have liked but it still worked. Here's the back view, I love putting little ribbon details on like this:

The elastic gets buried in your hair. I love using elastic for these, they really stay on.

So, do you think Ms. Middleton will be wearing hot pink and green? Probably not, but I can't wait to see what she and all of the other guests are wearing!

Booty!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 20:51:00 +0000

This morning Bun and I schlepped on over to the Berkeley Rep warehouse sale and scored! Big time! I'm not usually a fan of that kind of frenzy but we were there as it opened and managed to drag our happy selves out the door right as it started to get really busy, booty in hand.

Picked up a couple of pairs of shoes and a waistcoat for Chris, two vintage hats for me:

I see some serious Carmen Miranda fun with this one. And geez, it was only a dollar. (!)

But the best, best, BEST find was this pair of panniers. I even got to meet the costumer who made them and found out that the actress who wore them came through a narrow doorway on stage and let them snap down in a big woosh for a big entrance. Considering that they are 4 feet wide that must have made quite an impression! (And they are really akward to try and photograph by yourself, let me tell you.)

Check out the hardware on these puppies! The frame is aluminum, they don't weigh much at all.

Oh yes, there will be dresses...

We topped off our triumphant shopping excursion with lunch and gelato, definitely not a bad start to the weekend. I think all Fridays should begin this way. Mondays too.

The Berkeley Rep warehouse sale continues tomorrow. More details here

Week 5: A new hat and updates

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 23:23:00 +0000

Hello World! Lots of behind the scenes stuff going on that's been keeping me busy like getting ready for some upcoming shows and working on some other projects and non-sewing stuff. Whew!

But lookie, I made a hat! There will be more to come for the biz but this is the one where I worked everything out pattern-wise and figured a few things out for myself before I "mass" produce it. Not to mention how many 18th century and piratey events I am going to this year that will require a new snazzy little hat like this one. :)

The front:

The back:

The innards are all buckram and millinery wire. It has been steamed into shape (I heart buckram) and decorated with as many pink frilly bits as I had in my stash. The feather spray I bought a couple of years ago in London when I was studying millinery. I guess it just had to wait for the right hat! Now I need to get the rest of the outfit done. I have bookmarks all over my Kyoto costume book for inspiration, including a petticoat that is currently a work in progress. That book is total eyecandy.

Oh, and I have a website now! Check out www.luludeuxmillinery.com It's still a work in progress (aren't they always?) but it is up and running and will be my main site for any business stuff going forward as I want to keep this blog mainly for my own projects. I have been sewing, actually, but have been a slacker about getting the photos done so although it looks like I'm way, way behind in my 2011 challenge I think I'm not as far behind as it looks. Perhaps I shouldn't have made it a WEEKLY goal but well, it's my personal contest so I guess I can blow off my own rules now and then, right?

Week 4: Made Do and Mend, Jeans

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:20:00 +0000

This past project was so simple, I don't know why it took me so gosh darn long to actually get to it! Well, yes I do: I needed to mend the inside leg of my favorite comfy jeans but couldn't find my little set of iron-on patches. As luck would have it, I just found them by accident two days ago while looking for something else. I know from experience that putting an iron-on patch on an inside leg seam wouldn't last a second but those cute little fake denim blue patches have enough stability that you can trim them to size and iron them in place just long enough to do a satin stitch all the way around. I think you get the idea, I didn't think a photo of my sad little jeans was necessary in this case. :)

Instead, I bring you the cover of the WWII edition of Make Do and Mend, a book that helped thousands of women darn socks and fix worn out collars when there just wasn't much around to use or buy due to war rationing. A great article on the history of this book is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8224494.stm.

Sewing with creative materials - Threads

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:17:00 +0000

This just hit my inbox. What do you think? I don't think it's something I could ever pull off but I just LOVE the way he's basically making new fabric out of materials not usually used in this way. Go Kenneth! (And now I have to go and find the "hair district" in New York next time I'm there!) Sewing with creative materials - Threads

I'm teaching locally again! Sewing 101 in Berkeley

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:46:00 +0000

Sewing 101: Apron or PJ pants
Dates: Sats, March 12, 19, 26, April 9, 10:30am to 12:30pm (4 classes, 8 hours)
Location: Knit One One Studio, Berkeley
Cost: $96

Students can choose to make either a pair of PJ pants or an apron. The apron is a basic chef's style apron with a patch pocket (photo above) but I just had to add a ruffle--I couldn't help myself!--so any students who would like to add a ruffle to their aprons will get Ruffle Instruction in class.

Lots more information about this class and all of their other fabulous classes here but if you are thinking of signing up, please don't wait too long as the class is filling up fast! If you haven't been to Knit One One in Berkeley, it's a great creative space to work in. They even have craft sales on a regular basis showcasing local artisans. Hope to see you there!

So that's why cotton prices are going up...

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:03:00 +0000

The price of cotton keeps going up! I've been hearing about this for quite a while in the sewing industry but aside from vague references to bad crops in other countries I really wasn't sure exactly what was going on. Thank you, The Economist, for explaining it! According to the article, there were floods in Pakistan, India halted much of the cotton it exports, and China was having production problems. So now the US is stepping up production. Interesting that US crop prices are the highest since just after the US Civil War. Read the full article here. I'm guessing that the higher prices are already hitting the retail level at this point. Has anyone noticed any changes in any of the places you shop?

Week 3: Bustle Hoops

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:54:00 +0000

Yes, it's been a while since my last post! Lots of life stuff has kept me busy but things are slowly returning to normal. I actually finished the hoops AND took the photos quite a while ago but it's taken this long to get everything posted! So here we go, Week 3: Bustle Hoops

I started this project a couple of years ago, and I really didn't have much to do to finish everything so it was the perfect project to tackle. The pattern used is Laughing Moon's #112: Hoops and Bustles which is a great pattern for Victorian hoops of all stripes. In fact, I made my Dickens hoops using the same pattern--perfect because they are a more natural, everyday hoop size rather than the grand ball hoops.

The fabric is a woven cotton stripe I had in the stash. The two odd seams in the side front panels were the result of me not paying attention while I was lengthening the pattern and having to backtrack and add a bit to those panels! Ooops. But it worked out just fine and the rest was a breeze, just straight sewing and careful marking for the bias tape channels.

One thing I've done that's slightly different than the pattern is instead of using a buckle at the waist tape I lengthened the ties so that it could be tied in a bow instead. I used a buckle on my other hoops but it seems to slip a bit so I think the ties work better. Wouldn't want to suddenly lose my hoops while out and about. :)

The last step was to insert the steel boning into the channels. I left about a 2.5" opening in the middle of each boning channel so that the boning can be easily slipped in. You could sew the channels closed but since the bones don't move and I personally would find it a pain in the you-know-what to seam rip channels to remove the boning before washing the hoops I'm leaving the openings where they are. (And here's a tip: when you do remove the boning, number each bone with blue painter's tape so that you can quickly get those bones back into the right channels without having to re-measure all of them.)

Originally I thought I'd round the boning edges with our sanding tool thingie and then dip the edges into tool dip but when I picked up the project and checked on the tool dip I found it had dried out, drat. I had two choices: buy more tool dip and get used to power tools or make a Lacis run for boning tips and round the edges using tin snips. I chose option number two because I wanted to get this puppy done and didn't want to wait for the tool dip to dry. (Note: ALWAYS wear safety goggles for this type of stuff. I had bits of metal flying everywhere but it was necessary to curve the edges so that they would fit into the tips.)

Here's a photo of the inside. I have tons of the pink cording so it's being put to quick use here. Notice how the inside panels pull the back of the bustle into that lovely round shape. What engineering! There is one tied panel up around your backside and a second one (pictured) around the bottom edge.

Now I can't wait to make the dress!

Week 2: Because Everyone Needs a Hat with Ears

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:52:00 +0000

When you vend outside it can get coolllld. Not Detroit cold, but cold nonetheless because you are standing on a cold street or on cold squishy grass at the mercy of the wind and the cold. Cold. Did I mention cold?

So, during one of my regular sewing nights with L. I said, "I need a hat....With ears!" and off I went to draft up a pattern using some leftover fleece with crazy cartoon animals. I know my noggin measurement (doesn't everyone?) so I just went for it and drafted up a pattern, cut out the fabric, sewed it up and voila! Warm hat! With ears!

It was such a great success that after tweaking the pattern a little bit I ended up selling quite a few over the holiday season. I guess I'm not the only person who needed a hat with ears!

If you want to make a hat like this it's really easy:

Measure around your head across your forehead and above your ears. Don't hold the tape too tight, leave a little ease. Write down your measurement
Next, grab a piece of paper and draw a line perpindicular to the long edge that equals 1/4 your noggin measurement plus 1/2". The cut paper edge will be the fabric fold line.
Now, decide how tall you want your hat to be and what shape--do you want a round hat? A pointy one? Pencil in your shape, keeping in mind that your head will fit into most of it so keep a gentle curve for about 2/3 of it before you curve into any fabulous shapes.
Decide on a hem and add that to your hat
Cut out two hats, one front, one back
Pin it together and check the fit. I used 1/4" seams and a stretch stitch.
If you want ears, play with different shapes and decide where you want them on your hat. Pin into the seamlines. Polar fleece is super easy because you don't have to finish ANY edges. My ears are just one piece of unhemmed fleece. It doesn't get any easier than that!
Sew the side seams with your ears. Flip up the hem and topstitch. Turn right side out. Done!

Millinery Tutorial on BurdaStyle

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:42:00 +0000

A few months ago I wrote a series on millinery as a guest blogger for BurdaStyle. Here are all of the links in one place!
http://www.burdastyle.com/blog/katie-vardijan-on-millinery-101-introduction-to-millinery
http://www.burdastyle.com/blog/katie-vardijan-on-millinery-101-tools-of-the-milliner
http://www.burdastyle.com/blog/katie-vardijan-on-millinery-101-making-a-top-hat-part-1
http://www.burdastyle.com/blog/katie-vardijan-on-millinery-101-making-a-top-hat-part-2

For those of you just getting started in millinery, From the Neck Up: An Illustrated Guide to Hatmaking is one of those books that every milliner should have on their shelf. It's geared toward theatrical production but it covers basic construction methods for many types of hatmaking. I've had my copy for probably 20 years. I guess I shouldn't be surprised it's still in print!

From the Neck Up: An Illustrated Guide to Hatmaking