Howl Jacket Done!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Yes, it's done! I shipped it off on Thursday and Cindy received it on Saturday. She says she loves it!

I don't have too many progress photos but here is one where it's almost done:

And finally, the finished product!

Here are some pictures of my fabulous brother modeling for me:

What a cool kid. So it's in Atlanta now and I am waiting for a check.

In other news, I have been furiously working on my 18th century stays. I'm so sorry that there are no pictures of them yet! By the time I get around to it, they'll probably be done. Oh well.

I wanted to share this game:

Dress the Part

It's from Colonial Williamsburg. You have to figure out which clothes go on which social classes. It's quite informative and fun, although I did catch a mistake: someone with no maid would have had to put on her shoes before her stays! :D

-Madame Taylor

Diamonds are Howl's Best Friend

Sunday, August 14, 2011

I've been working on like 5 different projects. Of course the most impressive at the moment is the Howl jacket. I've gotten the diamonds I need sewn on, and now I need to get more grey fabric to finish the outside. Then I'll sew the two layers together including the diamonds. Here's what I've got now:

Also I'm working on a modern adaptation of an 18th century robe a l'anglaise, some 18th century stays and those miniatures still. I should've taken pictures of those things but whatever. Still pretending people actually read this blog...

-Madame Taylor

Howl Jacket, etc.

Monday, August 8, 2011

On Saturday a family friend and fellow Quaker called and told me she had a bunch of sewing stuff and fabric to get rid of and did I want it? OF COURSE I wanted it. So I went over there yesterday. There's some great stuff and some okay stuff and some weird stuff but I totally love it all.

Isn't that white floral on the top just wonderfully 18th century? I want to make a polonaise out of it. But we'll see, I have to make stays and all that first. The ugly orange blocky thing is heavy weight linen. PERFECT for the inner layer of some stays. Not useful for very much else. There is a lot of patterning paper and these cute 70's pattern drafting kits. I love it. Oh, and that Walmart bag of scraps.

And see that white box on the far left? That's filled with yards and yards of handwoven teal silk from Thailand or somewhere. SWOON.

MEANWHILE...

In the spring I got a comment on dA on the Howl's Moving Castle jacket I made last fall. This person wanted me to make her one. I told her that I was busy at the time but she didn't need it until late September. So we've been emailing back and forth and yesterday I started working on Cindy's Howl jacket!

I made the lining first. It's made of the same red poly satin that I used for the first one. I somehow miscalculated and ended up with twice as much as I needed, so I had plenty to make this one with.

Same for the pink front and sleeves, I had plenty left over. So all I have to buy is the grey for the back, and the yellow ribbon edging. Sweet!

Here are the other pieces I've cut out so far. The pink is the front (the sleeves are under), and then there are 12 diamonds and 2 half diamonds. Really I need 18 grey pieces total, but since 6 of them are half-diamonds, I think I might be okay on the diamond front. If not, I have to get more grey anyway so I'll cut out some more.

In other news, school starts on Thursday. I'm still working on the mini 18th century things. Did I mention miniature stays take just as long as their full-size counterparts? Well, I actually wouldn't know, since I haven't made those yet. But I did win a pattern on ebay.

Sorry for the bad pictures. They're from an iPhone.

-Madame Taylor