FO: Medieval Garb For A Madrigal Feast, Part 3

Sub title for this post: The Dress The Thrift Store Built. Sub-Sub title for this post: The Most Hand Sewing I Have Ever Done, lol.

This is the final post of a 3 part series on how I made this costume. If you haven't seen the previous ones, they can be viewed following these links:
Part 1: Top and Skirt here
Part 2: The Hat here

So, here is my finished costume :) Just slightly more medieval looking than my first post, eh?

So, after my first post about the base top and skirt, I did a little embellishing :) In a very fortuitous thrift store run, I found this brown floral printed poly organza material. It was completely random - I had already made the top and skirt, and I knew I wanted long, drapey sleeves, but I still was trying to figure out what fabric to use. Then I found this stuff. Fate! Finding this fabric also solved my other problem of what type of trim to use. I had a 10 yard bundle of the brown twisted upholstery piping that I had bought from The Sewing Studio during one of their sales intending to use it on a bench. Happily I still have enough left over for that if I want to make it someday :) But because the floral organza was brown, I went with the brown piping. Yay for everything coordinating!

Since I was adding the piping after the top was complete, I hand sewed the piping to the neckline and hem. The insides aren't as perfectly lovely as they were, but no one will see them but me. I had to do two lines of stitching to try and get the piping to lay flat at the neck, and it's still a bit wavy, but not enough to bug me. I kept telling myself, "It's a costume."

The sleeves were self drafted ... after I looked in the pattern booklet of a McCall's pattern with a drapey sleeve I liked, lol. Once I saw what the piece was shaped like, I just freehand cut my own. I made sure the top was the same width as my sleeves so they would line up, then did a circular curve down to the bottom hem. Since this is totally sheer, I french seamed the curved seam. Since the silk sleeve was already finished, I went ahead and finished this sleeve too before attaching them. I double turned the hem and top stitched at the top and bottom. I decided to add piping where the sleeves connect as well, which was ridiculously complicated, lol, mainly because everything was finished and there was no place to hide the end of my piping. Luckily there is so much going on right at my elbow that you don't notice the back of the piping through the sheer fabric at all. I deliberately made the sleeves to cover my hands, then I rolled them back at my wrist for added drama. The sleeves were fun until I needed to reach across the table while eating, lol.

I lucked out in the jewelry department. I knew I wanted a statement necklace that was long to add interest on my fairly plain front, so I dug through my costume jewelry I've collected over the years and came across this amazing brown and clear rhinestone set. The necklace was designed to be worn much, much higher on the neck, so I found a gold filled chain and added gold filled rings at the clasp pieces to connect them, giving me the perfect length of necklace :) I was worried it would look a little janky where the clasps connect, but happily they hit right at my neckline and the piping masks it. I also had matching clip on earrings that didn't hurt my ears (!), lol that never happens (I hate clip ons). The only other piece I had to hunt for was some other type of necklace that coordinated to wear at the base of my neck (every medieval portrait I saw had their necklaces double wrapped like this). I found a gold plated necklace with a few pearls periodically and called it good. I also borrowed a gold filled jade bracelet and a brown rhinestone bangle bracelet from work  - one of the big perks to working in the jewelry industry is that you generally always have access to the right jewelry for an occasion like this :)

I also broke out some shoes I've irrationally held onto for years yet never wear, lol. They are a more grass green color, but they are brocade and have little jewels at the top :) They worked great. Not that anyone saw them in my floor length skirt, but you can see a little peak in this photo.

Now for the big picture dump, lol. Our event was hosted at the First Presbyterian Church in Titusville, with madrigal music provided by Broadstreet, Soliloquy, and Cross Pointe (all local singing groups), as well as a fantastic guitar and mandolin player who played while we ate dinner. The event was catered and we had to eat with our hands (yes, really). All the performances were woven together with a (slightly cheesy) little play, all masterfully done by our jester, Walter. This was a big combined effort, and I think everyone looked great. Here is our whole group:

Everyone's costumes looked so good! And happily I didn't feel like I stuck out as the girl with a box on her head, lol.

Our whole group sat on the stage as the "Royal Court of King Mario", while the "peasants" sat at tables on the main floor. When we came in, we mingled as we walked forward, then we had toasts and sang a bit, then we had dinner. Dinner was followed by our singing performances.

The top picture was Soliloquy while performing (usually we have 2 more ladies, but they couldn't make it this time). Soliloquy sang The Lark in the Morn and Nightengale, The Organ of Delight (which is the best title ever, lol). The bottom picture is Broadstreet, and we sang April Is In My Mistress' Face and Fire, Fire In My Heart.

This was before we went out and started. Walter definitely had a lot of energy. lol.

Ok, so I have to pause and give amazing cred to Mario for his mad sewing skills. Not only did he make several dresses and tunics for others, he also made his whole costume. Look at that jacket! Isn't is fantastic?! 

Me and Walter with a little creepy Peggy photobomb, lol. Walter and I went to high school together, so it's really funny to do things together now. Oh how life ends up, right?

Chillin' with my honey on the side lines after we sang :) This is our first performance he's been able to attend, so it was nice having him there.

And he was kind enough to carry my hat out for me when we left :)

So that was my first experience with a madrigal feast :) In spite of the hectic sewing and planning I've done over the last month on this project, it was really nice to see everything come together. In spite of my initial reservations on my hat, I really enjoyed having it with my costume and I felt it tied everything in. I felt very put together, and I got a lot of compliments. We had some fun comments too - like since we were singing songs about birds I made a bird house for my head, lol. All in good fun. I'm pretty proud of this whole costume, and now I am ready if I ever want to go to a renaissance fair or something, lol.

Summary:
Fabric: Skirt: 2.5 yards of green raw silk - $3.75 (thrifted), embroidered quatre foil scrap piece - $0.10 (thrifted), Top: 2 yards cream raw silk - $7.50  (thrifted), 1 yard brown floral printed poly organza - $0.50 (thrifted), 1/2 yard (148" wide) white bridal muslin - $3 (remnant) Hat: 2/3 yards brown floral printed poly organza, scrap pieces of green and white silk, scraps of white bridal muslin, scraps of embroidered decorator fabric
Pattern: Kwik Sew 3381 - $0.50 (thrifted), Gabled Hood Tutorial by Hathaways of Hayworth - free
Notions: Skirt: interfacing - $1.00, zipper $0.10 (thrifted), green thread - $2.00, snap fastener - $0.10, 2 2/3 yards horsehair braid - $2.00, 1 yard brown twisted piping - $0.75 Top: zipper - $0.10 (thrifted), cream thread - $2.00, 3.5 yards brown twist trim - $2.25, brown thread - $1.00 Hat: cardboard box, packing tape, 1.5 yards of twisted brown piping - $1, 2 clear plastic hair combs - $2.00, thread (green, white, and brown)
Time: At least 40 hours spread over 1 month
Total Cost: $29.65

Woo hoo! I had no idea what my final total was until posting this, and I'm pretty proud that I was able to make something like this for less than $30 :) Yay for being cheap and thrifting! This was a fun project, but I'm hoping I don't have to make any other costumes for a while, lol.

FO: Medieval Gabled Hood (Medieval Garb For A Madrigal Feast Part 2)

I know - I said I would make this project 2 posts, but now it's turned into 3, lol. If you're not interested in construction of medieval hats, you may want to skip this one. But if you want to see me with a box on my head, read on...

Here's a little teaser shot of my costume - you'll see many more soon of the whole thing, but I wanted to give a proper post to my hat, because dang it if that thing wasn't a ton of work! My best estimate is that I spent about 10 hours just on the hat. Yeah. *sigh* Anyway, I've always loved this type of hat in movies. It's called a gabled hood (apparently - I didn't know until I wanted to make one, lol), and this hat was popular from 1500 to 1599. Granted, that's the end of the middle ages, but some of the other people in my group have aspects of the Tudor period in their costumes as well, so I just went for it.

I started out just searching for medieval hat tutorials and inspiration photos, which lead me to find the Hathaways of Hayworth website. Man, if you need to make a Tudor era costume, I highly recommend looking around her site. She has some pretty amazing costumes that she's made, and she shows the easiest way to produce them. I'll admit I was a little skeptical when I first read through the Easy Gabled Hood tutorial, but her hat did look awesome, so I went for it (and my emotions on the subject went very up and down, lol).

First, you construct a box out of corrugated cardboard, which lead to many Instragram photo ops. I used an obliging Amazon box that seemed big enough and started cutting. At first it stuck way off my head at that back, so I had to re-score and trim a few times before I liked the look from the side. It could still go a little closer to my head in the back, but I was really over cutting it and redoing it all at that point so I just kept it like this. You hold it all together with packing tape, and she advises you cover the entire thing in the tape (which I didn't exactly do, but I came close). The tape is what makes things more pliable, but I had a hell of a time trying to bend this closer to my face on the sides. The gabled hoods I always like angle toward the chin, but about this time is when I realized that I needed to be careful not to cover my ears completely since I needed to be able to hear to sing and not be off key - oops. So I tried to curve the sides a bit and then curve back out, which didn't really work and it mostly just looked like a regular box, lol. Ah well.

Next she tells you to "tack down lining material" on the inside. To do this I used hot glue to attach a large scrap of white bridal muslin to the upper front edge (with the fabric going down the back like a veil), then I flipped the fabric into the hat, covering the cardboard edge with the fabric. I had to pleat the fabric so it laid nicely at the corners (which was not fully necessary since this area was completely covered, but it made sewing the trim on easier). I kept the fabric taut in the back of the hat so my head didn't completely sink in, then I pleated the excess in the back so it looked nice, folded the bottom edge under and hot glued around the edge. I tried to keep this neat because you might be able to see it in the back (again, not necessary because my silk and veil covered everything, but still, lol). Next I took a large scrap of my green silk, folded the selvage under all the way down, and draped it over the hat. I pleated the silk so it laid nicely on the box frame, then sewed large darts with my sewing machine to keep the back nice and smooth. Then I hand sewed the green silk to the white lining all the way around. I wound up wrapping the excess silk around the bottom edge on the sides since you wouldn't be able to see this when worn and it made sewing it together much easier. I used a ladder stitch so the stitches are not visible at all. While all that was going on, I had to decide what trim would cover the front area framing my face. I wanted it to be interesting but also to match the rest of my outfit, so I decided to use the skinny scrap piece of embroidered quatre foil fabric that I used for my sash and put the same brown upholstery piping on either side. This was a challenge to figure out the final width, but I got there in the end. I machine sewed the piping to the fabric strip on both sides, then I had to make darts at all of the points so it would lay flat and each of these darts had to be sewn by hand since there was too much bulk to get under my machine foot.

My scraps of silk I used to cover the box were not quite long enough in the back. At this point I had not decided to add a veil and I wanted to make sure the back was nicely covered, so I used more scrap pieces and made a triangular piece of fabric to cover the area and still look nice on the back. I ladder stitched this in place as well, taking care to line up the point with the center seam for effect. This covered the last of the cardboard and kept everything completely sealed, which was nice :) I took a picture just to document how nice it looked since no one will see it like this now, lol. But I knew it looked nice!

Next came hand sewing all the way around the front to attach the trim piece. This was an interesting challenge. I used a ladder stitch to keep things invisible, and had to make sure everything stayed positioned correctly to line up at the corners. I also tried to curve the piping a bit on the lower sides to give more of the illusion of the whole piece curving. It worked a little.

Next I took the entire remaining piece of my brown floral poly organza I used for my sleeves (which you will see soon, lol), and made a veil. I kept the bottom straight and rounded the top to give the right shape. I did a narrow rolled hem all the way around this piece because I didn't want it to unravel and this stuff frayed like the Dickens. I gathered most of the top to give a good poof on the back, then hand sewed the veil in place. You can also see my sash here (which is what the trim fabric from the hat was originally used for). For the sash I used as much of my little fabric scrap as possible, angling to be slightly narrower at the top, and cutting beveled corners on the bottom to make it look fancier. This thing was super fiddly. I tried to be very careful with the print to make sure it was centered and even all the way down. Next I sewed my brown upholstery piping around the edges, then I sandwiched the whole thing with another scrap of the white bridal muslin to enclose everything on the back. It was really annoying to make (especially because I thought it would be such a quick thing to whip up), but I'm really happy with how it turned out and I think it really gave my outfit a more completed look. Since I want to be able to wear the skirt in a non-costume context, I just attached the sash with safety pins inside the edge of my waistband, so it's removable :)

The final design step on my hat was to add little white silk flaps. At this point I was really worried about looking like a medieval robot with a box on my head, lol, and I felt the flaps might give it more depth or something - a lot of the portraits I looked at had these white edges of the coif (a white cap that held their hair in place) sticking out from the sides, so I felt it might make it look more realistic. I was reaching for anything at that point, to be honest. I was extremely unsure about this thing I had just created. Anyway, these were extremely easy. I used scraps of the white silk from my top and cut squares, folded them in half and sewed the sides, flipped them right-side out and pressed, then folded the open side inward and top stitched it closed. Then I just had to position them and hand stitch them to the hat lining. After this the only remaining step was to sew in two clear hair combs at the front of the lining to keep the hat secure on my head as I moved around (which worked great).

Phew! You've lasted through my first ever millinery experience :) I'll be totally honest - I was still hesitant about my creation when I pulled up to the event. It's one of those bold statement pieces that you either feel super confident in or not, and I was definitely questioning my choices. Happily it looked great with everyone else's costumes. I was so worried I would stick out, being the only one with a box on my head, but it looked fine mixed with the other outfits and I felt much more confident about it. Anyone else ever have that happen? My husband even wore it after I finished, lol.

So that's the down low on my hat :) Next post will be all about the finished outfit and the event itself!

FO: A Joy-full Halloween Costume

Every year around Halloween, I start thinking about what my costume will be. In the past few years, I've managed to pull something together, often with some kind of quick handmade item, but it never fails that I just don't have enough time in the month of October to make up a proper costume of the caliber that I want. So this year, I started planning and acquiring for this costume in mid August to make sure I made my plan a reality. I'm happy to say it came out just like I'd hoped!

I decided as soon as I watched Inside Out that I would go as Joy for Halloween this year. She wears a simple dress that I could certainly recreate myself, then all I had to do was find a blue wig and a few accessories. Originally, that was as far as my plan extended. Then I was poking around Ravelry one day and came across a free pattern for a crocheted Bing Bong and I knew I had to include that as well. I've written a separate post on Bing Bong, so you'll see him again soon :)

So, my costume. Joy's dress is just lime green with a full drapey skirt and freehand looking splotchy flowers on it. I decided to use my already fitted pattern of the year - Simplicity 1419.I've made this dress 3 other times already this year, so I figured it would be quick to make (hint - it wasn't and I will explain lower in this post). I added sleeves to my dress just because I always have sleeves and no one mentioned anything about lack of authenticity, lol.

I made the dress with some lime green broadcloth I bought at Joann's on sale. There was much deliberation with my husband in the fabric store to decide which lime green was the "joy" color and this one won out. I used matching thread and sewed the whole dress before adding the flower things.

The flower splotches were something I had to think on for a while. At first I thought I would block print them, but when it came time to it I realized the flowers were all different sizes which blew that idea out of the running. Then I bought acrylic paint thinking that would be better, but I didn't like the idea of it flaking off as I moved around. I finally came across the display of multi colored permanent markers that you can buy individually and brought in a scrap of fabric to try it out. It looked pretty good! Basically it was like dying the fabric with a stick - too easy. I ended up draining 2 markers in making all these flowers, but that ensured they were nice an saturated. The flowers are a little stiffer than the rest of the dress, but nothing that affected its comfort.

I staggered the flowers, making different sizes diagonal from each other. I started by sketching out the flowers with a friction pen, then coloring them in, and ironing the flowers to remove the friction ink. Seriously, if you haven't tried out friction pens in your sewing, look into it! My sister brought back a variety of colors for me from Japan when she lived there (this was before they were for sale in the states) and I use them constantly for pattern drafting as well as marking on cotton fabrics since the ink disappears when you touch it with an iron. Magic! I'm no artist, so if I hadn't had the friction pen option these flowers would have looked much more homemade and awful.

Now onto the hiccup in this sewing experience. I'm sure you may have noticed I am wearing a wide belt in these photos. Joy doesn't have a belt. It became a necessity for me. Apparently I made a mistake when cutting out my fabric because my dress that I muslined and tinkered with the fit and have made 4 times ... came out too small. Of course I didn't realize this until I had already cut down the seam allowances because having made this so many times before I decided I did not need to check the fit. How wrong I was! I was so depressed. My dress that I thought would be a quick sew ended up sitting on my dress form for weeks while I mustered the courage to fix it. I didn't want to cut new pieces because that would have meant disassembling the entire dress at that point, so first I let it out at the zipper opening - not enough. Then I let it out at the sides the tiny bit that was possible - not enough. It sat for a while longer before I just decided to be completely experimental and I sewed a knit fabric gusset at the side waist seam. The fabric I had was green, but didn't match so even though it fit at that point, I wouldn't have wanted to wear it in public and have to explain to curious onlookers that I was too fat for my dress and had to add a stretchy piece. Ugh, isn't that just the worst ever? I waited a while longer to address the awful look of the knit piece, and one night I thought about a stretchy belt I have. I put it on with the dress and it covered the knit section almost completely, but the belt was black and looked awful - it would completely throw off my authenticity. I did have a small amount of fabric left though, and I had some incredibly heavy fusible interfacing on hand, so I decided to make a belt the same width as my stretchy belt. 

I just cut two 4" wide strips across the width of the remaining fabric, fused a 3" wide piece of the heavy fusible (meaning the heaviest fusible I've ever found) inside the middle of the belt front piece (so not in the seam allowance), did some straight seams and topstitching and had a long belt. I put on the belt with the dress, overlapped the ends where it fit me, and added 3 hooks and eyes to make it stay straight and secure. It was actually incredibly easy to do, and it really made the difference in not only how my costume looked but also how confident I felt in it. No one wants to walk around feeling too fat for their clothes.

After adding the gusset, I just kind of stopped caring if everything was perfect on this dress. Originally I hoped that I could maybe wear this just as a normal dress, but I lost that desire pretty quickly - lime green isn't really my color anyway without my blue hair. I promise the wrinkles you see on the dress and belt are not fitting issues - I didn't get to take these photos until I had already worn the dress once to a party. I added pockets (because why not?) and I used a blue invisible zipper from my stash. I also made my own bias tape to finish the neckline. I'm really proud of how well the flowers turned out especially where they span across a seam or a dart. The permanent marker worked perfectly and people were amazed that I drew them on myself and it didn't come printed that way.

I finished the dress on October 23rd so I could wear it to our church Trunk or Treat party on the 24th. The night of the party, I started off with my makeup. I dusted my face all over with a yellow eye shadow, dusted with a little bit of MAC highlight powder (for a light shimmer), then re-dusted the yellow again. I used a bright blue eye shadow for my eye liner, put on a little mascara, then sprayed it all with Urban Decay All Nighter spray (this stuff is great - it's like hair spray for your face!). Nest I had to help my husband cover himself in red cream makeup (I sponged his face just so it was more even), then I sprayed his hair red. Next I had to wig cap my hair and put on my wig. My tights and shoes were completely random - I've had them for years but never worn them (in fact I rescued the shoes from my donate pile for this costume, lol). Then I just had to don my dress, grab Bing Bong, put a towel under my husband to save the car, and drive to the party :)

(I know I have total bucket face in these photos, and I could have gone whole hog like my husband, but I didn't have enough powder to cover my whiteness plus I didn't want to get it all over my car)

We were in such a hurry that I did not manage to take nice pictures of the two of us. All I have is this kind of awful photo a friend took. We were Joy and Anger! I was making balloon animals for the kids (one of my other hidden talents) at the party, then we decorated our trunk for trunk or treating:

Again, I forgot to take a photo at the party, so this is the aftermath. I swear that bowl was full of candy. We gave away candy and glow bracelets. My trunk was lit up balloons in the colors of Riley's memories from the movie. And of course Bing Bong hung out there too :) Yay for a full theme! I promise it looked much better in real life and the light was much more faint. 

Here we were at the end of the night. The kids really loved our costume and we won the adult costume contest :) Ho yeah! lol

Also I had to include this photo because it was just so crazy. This is what our shower looked like when my husband washed off all that red makeup. It's like a murder scene in there, lol.

I did my whole costume again a week later on Halloween and we gave out candy at my parents house (not a lot of trick or treaters at our house). I went as Joy but my husband did his usual scarecrow routine to scare the living daylights out of kids. We rate how fun our evening was based on how many kids scream and run away without collecting their piece of candy, ha ha. It's great.

So there you have it - my Joy-full Halloween :) It was a lot of fun, and I was really proud of how well my costume turned out. On a slightly more serious note, I love the symbolism of the fact that I chose to be Joy. I was talking to my husband after Halloween, and it really does sum up my outlook I've been trying for this year. I think in any situation you can choose to be sadness or anger or any other easier emotion, but life is so much better when you choose Joy :) I hope you all had as much fun this Halloween as I did!

Summary:
Fabric: 3.5 yards lime green broadcloth from Joann's - $12.50
Pattern: Simplicity 1419 and 2444
Notions: thread - $2, invisible zipper - $1.50, 2 turquoise Sharpie permanent markers - $4, knit fabric scraps - free, fusible interfacing - free (stash), hooks and eyes - $0.50

Hours: Who knows, lol. Maybe around 10 with all the futzing
Total Cost: $20.50 (plus the wig)
Fun had: Immeasurable!