Tiger Lily's Threads

Two weeks ago, my husband and I were cleaning out our storage unit when I came across this really neat pink polished cotton fabric just laying in my old computer bags; funnily enough, I recalled having this fabric in my possession since I was in middle school in 1999! The fact that it was still in perfect condition was astounding! Immediately it reminded me of one of those gowns from the 18th century fashion plates and deep down, I've always wanted to replicate one of them to a tea. I started looking at all of the pink zone front gowns I could find on Pinterest. To my surprise, I noticed there were a lot of the same zone front gown styles in the same color.  If only I had 2 extra yards I would have made a matching petticoat, but eh... White's just as pretty. Using my favorite and only gown pattern (J.P.Ryan), I got the basic shell of the gown constructed and instead of using muslin, I used some leftover pink linen to line the inside of the gown. I al...

To double up on keeping me warm for the upcoming winter weekend event in January, I figured that just the wool cape and mitts wouldn't really be enough; being slender, I end up getting very cold easily at 70 degrees. I really had to look into my clothing inventory to see what I had for the extreme cold. In the past, I would wear layers in order to keep warm, however it's always been hit and miss (either the gown wasn't warm enough, or I didn't have a heavy enough wool cloak-it was always something). This year, I decided to remedy that and make a wool jacket out of 100% flannel wool by Renaissance Fabrics.   While I waited for my 2 yards of wool fabric to come in through the mail, I immediately set off to work on cutting out the lining for my Jacket (vers. B). B happens to be my favorite because I really love the peplum in the back as well as the stomacher. I also considered adding some thick interlining to the top of the sleeves to ensure that I would have ex...

It's gotten a little colder these past few days, and from reports from the Poor Richard's Almanac, we're just getting started.  With the goal of keeping warm this winter for upcoming events, I looked to working with wool. I ordered wool flannel fabric from Renaissance Fabrics to make a 1777 jacket (will do a write up about that later), and then worked on a pair of long woolen mitts as a small project.  Using references from Linda Baumgarten's Costume Close Up (1750-1790) , I cut out the fabric pieces (well, franken-stitched them before sewing the actual pattern pieces together). Once I had the arms done, I added the thumb gussets by tracing the pattern on my computer screen with tracing paper and zoomed it into scale (thank you technology!). All in all, these were a fun little project to do. The only thing I wish I had done a little differently was used black thread along the bottom hem of the mitts rather than green. But at the same time, ...

Halloween has officially come and gone! Luckily I was able to grab some photos in memorandum.  Before class, I went to participate in the Halloween Party at the student commons. I really had a great time and was surprised with all of the activities they had there for the college students: photo booth, picking out your own pumpkin and painting it, a murder mystery, face painting, a fondue fountain with other snacks, and of course free candy by the coulduron! By the time class let out at 1:45, I headed on over to the local mall and visited my mom at her store and volunteered an hour to help around and get stuff ready for the holidays.  For my daytime costume, I was torn between what to wear. I had specifically made a Victorian gown  but at the same time, I wanted to wear my new 1790's pelisse jacket that I've made earlier this year, but have never written about OR worn. In the end, I decided on both, because why not? No rules apply to how many costumes you can wear...

There's 2 weeks until Halloween and I have nothing to wear!                                 Well, that's not entirely true. Sure I have a lot of cosplays and a whole wardrobe full of 18th and early 19th century dresses at arm's length (get the pun?), however that's my dilemma: I have so many outfits, I just can't decide what to wear!  ...So... Ultimately, I've decided to just go with my new outfit I'm working on. This is mostly because I've already got 5 yards of fabric that was in the queue to be another victorian gown, and given that I live and work in an old Civil War/ Victorian town anyway, why not wear it for Halloween? CONSTRUCTION Choice of Fabric: Olive/Purple Tartan Plaid shirt fabric; purple quilting cotton fabric (lining for the jacket) Pattern: Simplicity 1558 and Truly Victorian Year: 1885 Notions: hooks & eyes; purple cotton thread, snaps...

When I last left off on this project, I had shared the history of the mourning gown in the United States and western Europe as well as the concept idea of why I was making this gown. Here is the finished result, and for the record I am really loving the Autumn sunlight cause it really makes the dress bolder in the photos (especially with an old SD450 digital camera.)  Construction To make the gown, I used the 1809 dress pattern from Period Impressions. This is a really neat and easy to follow pattern (even better with the detachable sleeves offered). But because I misplaced the long sleeves I omitted using the puffy sleeves and went for a different style (my 18th century JPR sleeve pattern). It gave the outfit a different look altogether, which I favored.   In addition to making some alterations, I also decided to simplify the decorations with just some braided trim. This would allow me to pair the dress up with other jackets or dusters with e...

Wow, what a weekend! Where do I begin? This year, Otakon 17 has been moved from Baltimore, to Washington DC. This means bigger space and more things to see and do. However when my husband and I arrived at the Washington Convention Center, we were awestruck with what we saw. The convention center was so large compared to the BCC in Baltimore, that it was like stepping inside the Tardis from Doctor Who (bigger on the inside); in addition to the WCC, Otakon also had events running in the Marriott next door! As a result, Otakon surprisingly not crowded at all this whole weekend!  The second thing about the convention that was new, were the bag inspections at the door. Given the recent incident at a convention in Phoenix ComiCon this past May, a lot of conventions have now taken security measures by conducting weapons and bag checks; as a result of how smooth the line moved from outside to the check in counters, things went by very fast. Speaking of lines going by very fa...