Tag: sewing

Making Progress

Costume-sewing Day

This is what a costume-sewing day at Progress Theatre looks like. On the floor is Louise, making a start on Door’s costume. Standing at the back is Laura (Door), working on the Angel’s costume. Pam is running up monks’ robes on the overlocker, and Liz (Old Bailey) is painstakingly hand-sewing feathers onto her own costume.

The costumes are for Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, which runs from the 19th to the 28th of January. Last Friday evening we interrupted rehearsals for WriteFest and The 39 Steps to take over the stage for a photo shoot. The publicity shots are being sorted and edited, and I can’t wait to show them to you as soon as they’re released. A lot of the costume pieces we used for the shoot are only temporary, but the overall atmosphere of the photos is absolutely brilliant.

I’ll be posting more little bits and pieces on here, but I won’t be showing you full pictures of the costumes – we’d rather you came to the theatre to see them! For sneaky peeks, your best bet is to follow @RdgNeverwhere on Twitter.

Tickets are on sale now, but you might have to be quick – a tweet from Neil Gaiman toppled the theatre’s website and generated an awful lot of extra interest! I’ll be involved in costume fittings throughout the rehearsal process, but I’m really looking forward to going along as a member of the audience and seeing the whole show for myself.

A little holiday

I’ve been so excruciatingly busy during these past few weeks that I haven’t had time to blog, tweet or do anything that wasn’t work. That state of affairs is ongoing, but we did manage to grab a couple of days in Brighton for our wedding anniversary.

I’m hoping that things will calm down enough for me to find the time to show you what I’ve been up to. It involves a glorious silk steampunk outfit, several bridesmaids’ dresses, hallowe’en costumes for my tiny niece, and a whole pile of theatre costumes.

You can have a sneaky peek at some of it over on Flickr, but I haven’t even managed to upload all my photos yet!

It’s nice to be busy, especially as it’s all interesting and creative work, but I do think I might have overdone it a bit, this time.

Simplicity 2172

Simplicity 2172

I know you’ve seen this one before, but I just wanted to show you Simplicity 2172 in its completed state.

After the Wild Boy’s Ball I removed the feather collar, and added the sleeves. I decided to leave off the shoulder flanges and the ruffly bits because they’re not to my taste and I wanted to keep the style very simple.

I’m hoping it will be a nice versatile evening coat. For all the glamorous events I get invited to in my imagination, obviously. It’s probably a bit over the top for wearing to choir practice.

What’s with all the underwear?

I was chatting to a friend who reads my blog posts when they pop up on Facebook, and he wanted to know why I’d been making such a lot of underwear recently.

There are two reasons, really. When my latest work contract came to an end, I thought that making simple little knickers would be a good way of using up some of the smaller pieces in my fabric stash. This has turned out to be far more complicated than I’d thought (don’t things always?) because of my apparent inability to draft a knicker pattern that I actually like. Once I’ve got that part sorted out I’ll be good to go, but there’s going to be a lot of trial and error along the way.

This ties neatly into the other reason I wanted to make my own underwear – I can’t find anything that fits. In my goth clubbing days I used to wear corsets, but because I’m so short-waisted they didn’t fit properly. So I decided to make my own. The same goes for bras – despite being allegedly an “industry standard” size, it’s painfully apparent that there’s no such thing. I don’t think I’ve ever worn a bra that’s actually fitted me well and been comfortable.

But, despite my overwhelming desire to be comfortable, I don’t want to head into my forties in boring old underwear! And when I went window-shopping online to see what else was out there, I discovered that most people’s idea of glamorous underwear is either horrid thongs and scratchy lace, or vintage-inspired pieces based on shapewear. And to be honest, I’m not really interested in being squished into someone else’s idea of a mythical “ideal” shape – I’d much rather wear something that fits the shape I actually happen to be.

So, I’m trying to design some underwear that fills a few important criteria:

  • MUST be comfortable!
  • Preferably made from a natural fibre
  • Pretty and luxurious without being scratchy or squashy
  • Can be worn everyday, rather than saved for “best”

I’m nowhere near there yet, but that’s what I’m working on, and why!

Regency Summer

Today I would like to both praise and curse my friend Rhona, for being an extremely bad influence.

At the beginning of July I’m going to London for a three-day weekend with friends. Being London, and being July, I expect it to be excruciatingly hot and stuffy. (It’ll probably rain now.) In order to try and stay as comfortable as possible in the heat, I’d bought two patterns for sundresses – a 50s-ish halter neck, and a gathered maxi dress. I have absolutely miles of cotton shirting (mostly vertical stripes in various shades of pink and purple), plus all the organic cottons, so I figured these would be ideal. Long and floaty, nice and cool, and I could make little bolero jackets to go over the top to avoid sunburn.

And then Rhona started talking about making a very lightweight Regency-style dress to wear on her summer holiday. And then there were links to patterns, and fabric. And now there’s a fabric-shopping trip planned, and I want a Regency-style dress too!

So I’m looking at Simplicity 4055, mostly because I have a card from my local fabric shop for a free Simplicity pattern. (Hoorah for free!) And then I started wondering about Regency underwear (as you do), and discovered that there used to be a matching underwear pattern, but it’s out of print. And then I discovered that both patterns are actually by Sense and Sensibility, and I can buy the matching underwear pattern after all.

And then I started thinking about layers, and asymmetric hems, and combining lovely organic fabrics with stuff that’s been languishing in my stash, and about the visual ridiculousness of wearing a Regency-style dress with a half-shaved head and Doc Martens… and that’s something I really want to do! So, when I start wandering about looking like a somewhat punk Jane Austen, you only have Rhona to blame.

Cupcake Knickers

Cupcake shorts

I thought these might be an improvement on the teeny-tiny strawberry shorts, but they’re not.

They’re bunchy between the legs, the satin bias tape is stiff and horrible, and the elastic’s all rolled up inside the casing. Very disappointing. I was hoping that these would work in the organic cottons, which are a similar weight to quilting cotton, but now I’m not sure.

However, I remain hopeful that if I actually decide to be brave enough to try these out in a lighter fabric, I should get a better impression of what they’re actually going to be like. Next time I might add a seam down the front and back, so I can cut them on the bias. I think that would look pretty in a nice washed silk dupion.

I definitely want to make these from woven fabrics, and I really want them to be floaty and pretty, not stiff like cotton boxer shorts. What I really want is to make them out of silk, but because silk is expensive I have a mental block about using it to make prototype garments, many of which are going to be unwearable.

Thankfully a friend of a friend gave us the name of a shop in London that sells silks from £2.50 a metre – if you don’t mind buying ten metres at a time. So even after you add in the cost of getting to London, that’s still most definitely a bargain!

I think it might be time to splash out on some more appropriate fabric, so that I can make as many prototypes as I need to without worrying about the cost.

New Knickers

Silk knickers

Remember the black silk knickers I made back in January? Well, they were gratefully received, but unfortunately they turned out not to fit terribly well. So, despite the best efforts of both my sewing machine and my overlocker (which I think are both overdue for a service), I made another pair.

I made some changes to the pattern to make them slightly deeper at the sides, and also to allow more room at the front. As you can probably tell from the mannequin, yes, they’re for a man. Hopefully this pair will actually fit!

Summer Shorts

McCalls 6328

The Easter weekend was very hot, so I thought it would be a good idea to sew a little pair of floaty shorts for the summer. (SInce then it’s been too cold to wear them. Typical.)

They’re McCalls 6328, view D, and this is a link to a line drawing because you can’t really see the details on the photo. Basically they have an enormous great ruffle at each side which makes them look like a little skirt.

I followed the measurements given on the pattern pieces, and annoyingly I could have made one size smaller. But I can wear these as a lower-waisted style, and cut one of the others in the next size down. They’re meant to come up to your bellybutton, which I like, and most of the views are on separate pattern pieces so that you don’t destroy the others by cutting out one. Except for the waistband, which I can copy and re-size easily enough.

My next mission is to adapt the pattern and see if these will work in a lightweight silk as a pair of very fancy french knickers. I just need to decide whether to move the centre back zip to the side, or whether to re-draft the waist and finish them with elastic instead.

Summer Skirt

Mum's Skirt

Right back at the end of last year, my Mum gave me a length of fabric for a new summer skirt. It’s made using my basic gathered skirt instructions, with modifications to the waistband. Instead of being elasticated all the way round, the waistband is flat at the front with the skirt gathered into it. The back of the waistband has elastic running through it as normal.

I also made two round tablecloths, which I simply hemmed using the overlocker. They were cut from a single size bedsheet, simply because it was the only fabric we could find in the right colour.

(You can also see that I made this before I had my great big clear-out in the Shed. Excuse the mess!)

Handmade Fabric Shoes

Flowery Shoes

Today I have been mostly making my own shoes. They’re not quite finished yet – they’re waiting for the welts to be trimmed (I need good light and a sharp knife) and a rubber layer to be glued onto the cork soles. But as soon as that’s done, I’ll have a pair of wearable outdoor shoes!

What I need to do now is make shoes for a small number of people who’d be willing to test them out for me – to wear them over the summer, and let me know how they fare. I’d have to charge towards the cost of the materials, which would be £20 per pair. (Shoe soling is expensive.) I’d want about five or six people, ideally.

The prototype shoes would be in the same style as the ones in the photo. They have eyelets going around the back of the shoe for the ribbons (this means that the ribbons are interchangeable), and a removable insole which is lightly padded. I can make them in any size.

In the meantime I’ll be making soft-soled versions for indoor wear, until I get your feedback on the outdoor-soled prototypes.

Is anybody willing to help me test out these experimental shoes for £20 a pair?
If so, leave me a comment or send me an email and I’ll be in touch!

UPDATE: I now have all the shoe testers I need, thank you very much!