Project Runway Final Product

Here is what I've been working on for the past month. Other than pants hiccups (the second being how it barely pulls up over her hips,) construction came smoothly. This is Heather in her action girl glory.

What the under robe looks like.

Detail of the headpiece.

Glamor shot.

Playing With Pintucks

The summer after my junior year, I picked up a Japanese dolly magazine that had some really fascinating patterns in the back. The ones that really caught my eye were finely pintucked garments. The patterns needed to be enlarged, and I did that by hand, with mixed results. The fit is weird, but dang it, I have pretties.

Heather is wearing the suit from Friends2Bmade. Pictures here are from a photostory I did years ago.

Old Timey Wear

I blame this on St. Trinian's After reading and rereading my edition of the comics, I had it in me to replicate the uniform. I still haven't gotten around to it. I did see one 1907 pattern for a "school apron" that looked a bit like those English school uniform of yore. I looked at it, deduced the components as a pleated A-line dress with embroidered belt and unusual collar, and got started.

As a side note, the collar was not as intimidating as some others who made the dress believed it to be. It's a square with a rectangle cut out in the center front and back.

The dress was made from a fat quarter. After the main body was marked, there wasn't enough left to make the sleeve stripes run down the arm, but plenty of space if they went crosswise. It makes my geeky heart glad as it emulates what Rococo dresses liked to do with stripes.

The collar and belt are made from scraps  of a torn set of pants. I embroidered them with a Pekingese stitch which has the delight of being dead easy but rather complicated looking.

Pants of DOOM!

I'm nearly done with the pants for the project Runway challenge. All I have to do is figure out the waistband treatment so it isn't oppresingly bulky. The instructions said that for making the 14th version, use 45 inches for each leg, which would translate to 10.25 inches for a 1:4 scale doll. The 15th/16th century version said to use 150% of the thigh measurement for each leg. I think at this point it is safe to say I miscalculated and did 300%, since I used the 18cm measurement I figured for each leg half, since that was that the pattern images showed. I think it's safe to say that I'll have to cut them down a bit.

On the bright side, I have the chance to take picture like this:

Project Runway, Woot

I decided to participate in Den of Angel's 12th Project Runway competition. I wasn't giving it much thought until Dollusional brought it up, and I thought it would be a good thing to be able to know someone also doing this, and have mutual kvetching sessions. Furthermore, it's running the full month of June, when I'll be between clothing swaps and might not know what to do with myself if i don't have a deadline project.

The theme of this Runway did trip me up a little. It needs to be inspired by Arabian nights, and I only have a causal familiarity with the Scheherazade tales, which are not detailed when it comes to clothing. I'm not in the mood to use Disney's Aladdin for inspiration, and the only outfit that caught my eye from the Thief and the Cobbler is Tack's clothes, which I don't want to replicate. What should I do?

Historical accuracy to the rescue! In other words, I hunted some Renaissance sites to see what they had regarding Near Eastern clothing and pulled up some articles and patterns that looked helpful. The cut of the clothes will be semi-accurate in regards to 15th and 16th century Persian clothes.

The theme of the outfit will be "rebellious princess." Tomboyish Heather seems best suited to model this sort of gear, so stuff will be loosely designed to fit her. The clothes will be made with rich looking fabrics to reflect her royal standing, and be designed to provide ample range of motion needed for any action girl.

One of the beauties of patterns from this place and time is that it's all triangles, trapezoids and rectangles. Very little cloth goes to waste, which helps as the stash fabric I chose is limited. Drafting has also been simple, though I realized rather too late that I cut the coat gores too wide. Sigh.

Finding a decent hat patter has been a bit of a pain. Pictures are too drapey to give me a good gauge for their construction, and I don't want someone from this time period running around with a naked head. It took several days and lots of annoyance, but I found a hat pattern that's straightforward, and does not get in the way during a hard hour's ride or brutal fight.

Links!
The hat
Everything else