Self-Stitched-September Item 2

So, a while back, I pinned this skirt from anthropologie on pinterest:

Source: anthropologie.com via fyrefairee on Pinterest

Cool, isn't it?


Then, I remembered I had downloaded this pattern from Neu4bauer, available here:

Source: neu4bauer.blogspot.com via fyrefairee on Pinterest

The vintage pattern was available for free download, and reminded me of the anthropologie skirt. Although, I was never into the yellow colour of the anthropologie skirt (yellow is a colour that isn't in my wardrobe anywhere. It just isn't my colour).


I made just the skirt from the pattern. I forgot that vintage patterns tend not to include seam allowances, so just sewed it up with my normal 1.5cm seam allowances. The original hip measurement was for 106cm. My hips are 100cm, so with the seam allowances, it ended up being a perfect fit. And not the perfect-around-the-hips-but-way-to-big-around-the-waist fit I'm used to with modern patterns, but a perfect fits-my-waist-and-hips-fit. I was shocked and pleased.


See, the entire reason I have no high waisted anything in my wardrobe, is because if it fits my waist, it doesn't fit my hips and  vice versa. So for this pattern to fit first go was so surprising, and nice, and well, I think I'm going-to-make-again worthy. It wasn't the easiest pattern to make, but totally worth it.


And here is the point this skirt became a UFO. I had made the skirt up to the point where I needed to make button holes and hem the skirt. I knew I wanted to make bound button holes, but somehow I didn't do it. I know I started this skirt in the first week of July, because I started it the weekend before my last week at my public service job. And, I finished up to the no-button-holes-or-hem point. Then I hung it on a hanger, put it on the hook behind my bedroom door... and sorta forgot about it. Well, more, I put clothing on top of it.  Then, I was tidying my room this week, and actually put the thinks hung on the back of my door into the wardrobe. And the skirt resurfaced. So, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to finish the skirt.


For my fashion course, I am making a jacket with bound pockets and button holes. So, I made samples to go in my folio for class, and then used the technique I'd just learnt to make 5 buttonholes in my skirt. I sewed the buttons on (with a fancy thread shank and everything!), and hemmed the skirt. And getting the pleat hem length even was hard.

And then, I had a finished, wearable skirt!

I wore this skirt on Wednesday, and was amazed just how comfortable it was. I kinda felt like I had stepped off the set of Mad-Men (not having ever watched that show, it was more the secretary-vibe I got from the outfit). I have even worn it again - to a job interview on Friday. Although the weather is warming up, so soon the skirt will just be too warm to wear, I have a feeling it's going to become a winter staple for me.


I am a using this skirt as the Sew Weekly UFO item, as well as being the second item I have sewn for Self-Stitched-September '11.

The Facts

Fabric: Thrifted Wool from Stash
Pattern: Downloaded vintage pattern from Neu4bauer, available here, free.
Year: 1950s, I think
Notions: Thrifted buttons, $2.00; thread
Time to complete: I honestly have no idea. Finishing the hem and button holes probably took about 4 hours.
First worn: September 2011
Wear again? I already have - to a job interview on Friday.

Total Cost: $2

Stomp Wedding Dress

Note: I have updated the links to the pictures, so hopefully they work this time.

I have just been going back through my old blog posts, trying to find a specific post, the post where I talk about the Stomp costume I made last October for the Halloween murder on the dance floor stomp. And while I can find blog posts about many of the things I did for the costume, I couldn’t find any posts specifically about the costume.

Although, as I think about it, the reason I didn’t put a post on my blog because I put a fairly detailed post on crafster.

Please note, this is a very long, very picture heavy post.

So, here is a copy of what I put up on craftster: Post 1 and Post 2.

For a upcoming dance event, I am creating a gibbous-inspired dress. The event is in just under two weeks now, so I really have to get my act together.

The theme for this event is 'Halloween: Murder on the Dance Floor'. I had originally planned to go as the Corpse Bride from Tim Burton's film, but while researching how other people had done it, I stumbled across Cassadee's leaf dress:

This made me totally rethink what I was doing. So, I decided to do my own gibbous inspired dress. And, yesterday, I figured that there was a sew-along, so I thought I would post my progress here.

Because the gibbous dress is not something that I originally set out to do, there is a decent amount of new stuff in my dress, but also stash items and thrifted things.

So, the materials I have used so far (or plan to use):

• New Curtain Lace
• New Lilac/Mauve Muslin
• Old curtain lace from stash
• fabric straps from stash
• lace from stash
• New invisible zip
• grommets from stash
• new and stash ribbon
• new lace
• lots of thrifted lace diolies
• beads and buttons from my mother's stash
• 2 thrifted baby dresses, wanted for their embelishments
• young girl's jeans, adorned with lace (removed to use)
• teen girl's lace skirt, taken apart to remove lace

So, armed with these items, and with the pictures I had printed as inspiration, I started my dress.

Firstly, I neurotically photographed ever lace doilie, and piece of lace I planned to use. A little OCD perhaps, but I wanted the record.

Some of my favourites:

I gave myself a few rules when I started this dress
1) NO BLACK
2) Must be able to dance in it
3) My bra and underwear must NOT be visible
4) It must have a butterfly somewhere (what a score the lace doilies with the butterflies were)

Going along with the bride theme, the first thing I did was to create a veil. I think I originally read the instructions for the veil on instructibles, but as I didn't write down, copy or book mark the link, I'm not totally sure.

The veil was really easy. I took a rectangle of my curtain lace (because it's for curtains, it had a 2 m drop or width), removed the scalloped hem and the curtain tape, and then folded in in half vertically in horizontally. I then cut a curve in the bottom, from the folded edge to the raw edge.

After unfolding, I bound the edge with silver bias binding. I sewed it in place using a wide, short zig zag stitch, and invisible thread.

Next, I folded it in half, with the under side longer than the top. I gathered along the fold line, and hot glue gunned it onto a slide comb.

And, ta dah! one veil.

I also blogged about parts of the dress here: flower fabric texture; veil; miniature poison vials and shrug.

Next, I started on the dress.

I started with a simple strapless dress pattern:

I wanted a bustle, so using two layers of stiff tulle, (or nylon net, depending on where you are), one layer of curtain lace, with the edges bound to match the veil, and one layer of muslin on top. The final bustle is three layers, each about 5cm longer than the last.

My bustle pattern is fairly easy. It is basically two curves, a straight line cut on the fold.

With each subsequent layer, I made the lower curve dip about 5cm further. The curved upper allows the bustle to poof up.

Because the base of my dress is muslin, I wasn't sure how strong it would be if I sewed the bustles directly onto the dress. So, I sewed on three strips of cotton tape to give a bit of strength. Each is 5cm lower than the next, and the top one is 5m lower than the waistline (I made the lowest bustle sit under my waist because the dance style often requires your partner to run his hand along your waist, and if there is too much detailing on the waist, it tends to get caught).

I am planning to put eyelets in the back, and have the dress lace up. Again, I am concerned about the strenght of the dress. So, I added cotton tape where the eyelets will sit, as well as along the under bust line, and the waistline (not shown) and the top of the dress (not shown). these bands of cotton tape that go around my body will have press studs attached to them to behind the zip, to allow the tension to be shared around the dress, and to reduce tension on the zip.

I edged each of the muslin bustle pieces with lace, or the lace borders from my doilies. I don't have a before photo, but it really made each bustle layer 'pop'.

Next I added detailing to the top layer of the bustle.

This puffyness is actually around a butterfly shape. I really wasn't happy with this detail, so I unpicked it, and am now experimenting with this bustle design.

It isn't sitting right yet, so I think I am going to cut another layer of muslin, construct it flat, and then add it on top of my current bustles.

I have just started the detailing on the main part of the dress. So far, I have stitched the detailing on the right hip side of dress.

The dress became almost entirely covered in texture, with a few exceptions where I left the curtain lace on display, because, lets face it, it’s pretty.

In the last post, I had sewed the detailing on the right hip, and was starting to redo the bustle detailing. I started with another piece of the bustle, laying it out flat, and pinning the detailing in place. Not only did this solve the problem I was having with symmetry, it also allowed me to add more butterflies.

And, as a side note, I went back to get more lace doilies, because I thought I was going to run out, and found the two big butterflies that are in the centre of the lowest row. They’re stitched by the same hand as the other butterflies on the dress. I (think) I probably gained all of this amazing woman’s work that was in the local op shop. It’s really precise and detailed, and made my dress look awesome

After this, I put the eyelets into the back lacing, and where the straps would go. It’s been a while since I last did anything with eyelets. Normally when I make corsets, I will use loops instead. They are just easier. And, doing this dress, I realised why it was that I avoided eyelets. I’m really, terribly bad at putting them in. I managed to put them in so that only one of the eyelets came out, but they were all smooshed and misshapen. Next time, I would definitely be using loops again.

I cut out the middle back section, so that the lacing was clearly visible, and edged the seam with ruffles from the little girls dresses.

Next, I started working on the detailing for the bodice of the dress. I had fallen in love with a ‘flower’ texture, and had made tons (like, 10L, which I know is a strange measurement for anything sewn, but I filled 2 x 4L and 1 x 2L containers) of fabric flowers out of circles.

I have posted a tutorial of how I did this texture on my blog http://sewingsoffyrefairee.blogspot.com/2010/10/fabric-flower-texture.html. It’s time consuming, but I was really, really pleased with the result.

The only thing I would do differently would be to have the gold at the top go further down the bodice – I just love the look of it!

As you can see in the first photo, the right side of the bodice is covered with the flower texture, but the left side is bare. I had originally planned to cover both sides with the flowers, but I ran out (or close enough), so wasn’t going to be able to. Leaving the left side blank was also not an option, because (a) it meant that my bra was visible, breaking one of the rule I had set for myself, and (b) it made the dress look unbalanced.

So, I added rows of lace. The top few rows are scalloped, following a scalloped line in the lace. As I got further down the bodice, the line straightened out. 

Next, I continued with the detailing. The front of the bodice was now fully covered, so it was just my knickers that I had to worry about covering. I spent, well, hours pinning detailing onto the dress, staring at it, unpinning it, until I was happy with the detailing.

For the detailing on the left hip, I used the embroidered design from one of my little girl’s dresses. The surrounding lace is from another doily, the rows of fabric are scraps from my stash that I folded in thirds and sewed down, and the purple leaves are from a fabric in my stash. The buttons are from my mother’s stash.

I placed each of the cut out embroidered details on a flower from the curtain lace pattern. And, I had to laugh, half of the little embroidered designs had butterflies on them. I think that this part of the detailing has become my favourite part of the dress.

The back left got covered in lace, again with a combination of hand sewing and machine sewing.

The back right hand side I again used fabric scraps from my stash, and following the shape of the space, sewed this detailing. The buttons are from my mother’s stash.

Next, I sewed some buttons onto some of the lace on the front, and a row of buttons along the lace detailing on the left hip.

Lastly, I attached my ‘poison’ bottles to the row of buttons. 

And with that, my dress was finished!

(Although, the next day, I did sew myself a little shrug to wear with it)

As I was going to the dance party as a murderous bride, I had both the poison bottles above, and a ‘dagger’ letter opener (because I didn’t want to cut myself), worn on my leg with garter elastic.

(Please excuse the face I’m pulling in this photo – I don’t have my glasses on, so I tend to squint a bit)

And you know what? I really enjoyed this technique, so I think I’m going to be making more things along this line in the future.

Miniature poison bottles

Again, this is part of my Stomp costume.

As I had decided to go as a murderess, I needed my methods. I found a dagger-like letter opener, which I wore under my dress, held in place with garter elastic.

But, as this was under my dress, it wasn't particularly obvious. So, I added the more obvious element of small vials of poison.

These were super easy to make. The hardest part was finding the vials to begin with. In the end I picked them up in my local bead shop for 10c each. A huge thanks to the kind lady at bead street who sold them to me - they turned out to be perfect.

The vials had price stickers on them, which were easily cleaned using Eucalyptus Oil.

Once clean, I took thin cord, the same as I used to lace up the dress and on one of the straps, and made the hangings.

To do this, I firstly made a loop about half the length of the vial.

Then, I turned the end back, towards the top of the vial.

Next, about half way along the loop, I started to wrap the cord around the vial.

I wrapped a total of 4 times for most of the vials, and then cut the end off about 2mm past the original loop.

Next, I took some super glue, and glued the loose end down. I used a pin to hold it in place while the glue became tacky enough to hold it on its own.

Once the glue was dry enough for me to handle, I added jelly crystals and salt - five different colours - and then superglued the lids on (mainly because I don't know what jelly crystals or salt do to the nice suede soles of dance shoes, and didn't want to test the theory that it was bad for them).

And, with that, I had five vials of 'poison' to complete my outfit.

Lastly, to affix them to my dress, I sewed a row of buttons onto the dress, at the right hip.

Each of the loops fitted nicely onto the buttons.

Perfect! Murderess outfit completed. And, a day before it needed to be worn.