My dress addiction

 Seww... I've hinted a few times on here, that I have a bit of a sewing craze. But it's only really be hinted and I've never said why I sew, probably because I didn't think I could explain it without confusing/boring you all. Well anyway here goes...

I love historical sewing. Why? I don't really know, I just want to create something fabulous, mending bores me and it's kinda hard to find the inspiration to make normal clothes -it just sounds too easy and plain. Victorian clothing is may favourite 'genre' of sewing and for some reason I just keep wanting to make a new dress.

How did this all start?
When I was younger and we had just started homeschooling I found out that a lot of Mum's friends had older daughters who would make amazing dresses. And these dresses were amazing, I was pretty sure one of them owned Cinderella's dress. Anyway these 'older daughters' would go down to Oamaru heritage week every year and go to balls and dress up in these beautiful gowns for a week. Me and my friend looked up to these girls and dreamed of having pretty gowns (we loved dress ups) and going around places in them. We couldn't wait till we were old enough to go Oamaru.
When we were about seven we started taking sewing lessons with one of the older daughters. My first project was a red tartan t-shirt and skirt, it was hardly princess material and I didn't wear it much but it was a start. After that I went on to make curtains, bags, skirt, a hoop skirt and other really basic stuff, but I just couldn't wait to start a 'real dress'. Naomi, my teacher was very patient and not hugely fussy which encouraged me to do better, and to take on bigger stuff, which eventually came.

My first Victorian dress, was a pale cream colour made out of old sheets and calico, and was made without a pattern. It was alright but not as good as I expected, the shoulders sat a bit funny but it was a start. I wore it to my first Oamaru back in 2010 (my friend and I had an amazing time) And I've worn it several times since, although I have adapted it a bit. It's not my favourite dress but I like it.

My second dress was a Regency dress (1800-1820) it was navy blue with a lace overlay, it was made for a friend's ball. Unfortunately I made the hem at the front too long (read tripping over half the time) and for some reason the dress didn't fit at the front. I've been meaning to fix it but it'll be a lot of work, maybe one day. But having said that I do like how it falls at the back.

The next year I made a blouse and skirt for Oamaru, the skirt being part of my third sewing expedition. This one was a lot more difficult than the last two, as I was undertaking it by myself without Naomi to guide me. It was two years in the making and I have posted a few pictures on here before, it is definitely my favourite, it still needs decorating, but I'm really happy with it (1870-1880)

And since then I've made lots of little sewing projects, and done a lot of research. Until these holidays when  I started on my next project, it is a late 1850s day dress in a dark burgundy colour, it might be a mourning dress, it might not. I'm hoping to get the bodice (top) done before the next semester.

And the most addicting thing about this is the piecing together, seeing the dress take shape not the sewing so much. Although I must admit I do geek-out a bit at the prettiness of the seams (yes, I know, I know my family doesn't understand me either) And the awkward thing is I just noticed that I make more often than I wear them, but I'm trying to change that.

In the meantime (lol) I also have a fifth dress in the making, it will be a mourning bustle dress (1870-1880) and it's inspired by this painting by Anders Zorn

pinterest

I know it's just a picture of a face, but that's just another start. It might be done in time for next years Oamaru -it might not. And for some reason I don't think this'll be my last dress cause yeah...dress addiction.

Sewing patternless

Yup I'm doing it! I'm trying my hand at designing a jacket for the winter. A little scary, but awesome  -I can make whatever I like, with in the constraints of the material of course.
The jacket isn't completely patternless, I did start off with a 'base', remember this?

Well I'm basing it off this, because I want it to have some flair, not like an ordinary jacket. Plus it's the only jacket pattern we have (last I checked) So after lots of researching to decide just exactly what style I wanted, and lots of astronaut looking sketches

 I decided just to start, so I cut out the pattern in a large size (to leave room for draping etc) joined some of the pattern pieces together, as I didn't want the white biby thing that is in the above picture. I sewed a mock up in calico and spent ages in the mirror trying to pin it to fit. Then I decided to cut it in half so that I could add more length, cause as you can just see it didn't come down over my hips. So last night I added a strip and sewed it in between, like this (excuse the phone pictures)

(The right side is the top half by the way)

from the outside it looks more like this:

As you can see it's only half of it, and the bottom picture has the top on the left side instead.

Now I am starting to unpick the vertical seam so that I can cut it out on in the material (hence the lifeless half pictures) 

The material

And that's as far as I've gotten, I'm hoping to have finished unpicking today and get onto the real thing, and eventually the decorating (really looking forward to that part :D )

But I still have to design the hood, collar, and sleeves yet so hopefully it all goes smoothly :)
It'll probably be dystopian/post apocalyptic in style, using lots of zippers and old buttons for character :) This blog is definitely turning into a sewing/writing one.

-Tiffany 

Oamaru Heritage week

The train (er van) arrived back at my house last night
sooo I'm back!!!!!

And was it fun! True I did absolutely no writing, but I don't really mind anymore, I might get 10k done this year but that doesn't matter. Although I had two radical ideas that will greatly change my book - oh well, I'm not sure if I'll use them, we'll see.  One of them is changing the setting to some place down south instead of Waipara North Canterbury, but that will include heaps of research.

I got my jacket done in plenty of time, I was sooo glad I wasn't sewing last minute. Although strictly speaking its not finished according to the pattern, but I didn't want to put lace on the cuffs as it looked fine without, so that's all good.

here's a couple of pictures from the trip

this is the tiny little house that we stayed in,  it was sooo cute the front part there is the lounge/kitchen, the house had a double bed, a loft with a single bed, a bathroom, and tiny laundry in the hall way. It's meant for three people at the most. We had 9 people there one time, for getting ready and for meals (which we had on the deck) and 6 sleeping over night -and I tell you it was a squish!

the view of Oamaru from the deck

my jacket all finished

eating ice cream in Oamaru, all dressed up in one of Mum's bridesmaid dresses (adapted of course)

I got badly sunburnt that day

So that is a little snippet of what happened, now I'm off to have lunch 

Write... Sew.... Sleep...

As I said in the last post this is pretty much my life this November..

Well not so much the writing, I've decided to make my goal to plan something rather than to write myself into a hole. I'm doing the same story that I did last year, and although I haven't done much,its quite fascinating seeing how much my characters have changed.

 I'm focusing more on my sewing as I've only got till Thursday to finish my jacket, but it isn't too bad as I've only got to pop on the buttons, ten to be exact, which I'll probably end up doing tomorrow - hopefully I'll have some pictures to show you later

And well sleep, lets just say not much -after all a writer needs to tank up by reading ;)

I'm looking forward to having the next two weeks almost free (Ikr almost) so hopefully I'll be able to stick my head into writing, and try a few sprints because hey I'll  still want to try to get to 30k, oh well, we'll see.

-Tiffany