Friday, October 26, 2012

With apologies to Demode...

The outfit here was inspired my the skirt of this ensemble. As it so happens, the pattern for the skirt comes from a book in have, so I went to Patterns of Fashion and copied the elaborate gathered front, which I mounted to a plain back for stability. Instead of trying to create the elaborate folded trim in 1:4 scale, I went for box pleats.

The top was inspired by the pattern of this outfit. Largely, I wanted an overskirt that was huge and poofy enough to be its own bustle. This turned out to be just as well, as the skirt was too narrow for the bustle petticoat to fit. To match the skirt, the top also has a pleated trim.


Annoyingly, the skirt front isn't too visible when Anthea's standing, but as she sits most of the time, you get to see the details. 

More pictures below.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

A Long Awaiting Project

Way back when, I cut out a 1920s French idea of a kimono with some vague ideas as to how it will turn out. It eventually gained a complimenting pair of trousers, and a bit of trim to turn it into a slightly somber shalwar-kameez lolita outfit. The most time consuming part was cutting and stitching the lace together to make the dupatta scarf.

Here is what it looks like form the back, including a better view of the dupatta.

A detail of the lace under the tucks.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

In Lieu of New Content

Things are hectic this week due to an upcoming convention. Instead of learning about a different creation of mine, please enjoy this photo of sisterly devotion:


Friday, October 5, 2012

Anatomy of a Bustle Outfit

This is one of the first Victorian outfits I made for Anthea. For a long time, I wanted to put her in late bustle era clothes, but I could not figure out how to made the centaur type skirts that would entail. After a while, I decided that softer early bustle outfits would be easier, so that's where I went.

Courtesy of Festive Attyre's fashion plates, I chose this skirt pattern, and used it for both the outer skirt and petticoat. The trouble was that I was taking apart a dress of min to put the petticoat together, and I didn't have much of it. The bum ruffles were in danger of being too short. I rectified this by adding eyelet ruffles to the bottom hems, which helped things stick out quite a bit. The bottom is decorated with two pintucks and more eyelet.

The skirt itself is not that remarkable, as its' a plain gored skirt with a really big pleated ruffle at the bottom. Still, it fluffs out nicely, doesn't it?

The top was inspired by this pattern. It wasn't until much later that I realized that I didn't follow the pattern as closely as I wanted (I stitched up seams that were meant to be loose,) but I like how it turned out. I used beads to mimic buttons and highlight the side pleats.