Sewing Kit App

Just found this app, "Sewing Kit" and love it! It's listed at the Apple online store. The cost of 4.99 is a steal for all it does! You enter a pattern company, the pattern number, including the letter, and it will pull up the image and back of the pattern envelope from your Internet connection. Old patterns aren't always there, but you can use the phone on the devise to add your own. There are sections for Patterns, Fabrics, People and Projects. Each one can be edited to delete or add things you'd like to include. The Fabric section even asks if the fabric has been washed and where it's located!

It will take awhile to enter all the patterns and I might just wait to enter some until there's a project for it, but already I've found duplicate patterns I bought not knowing I had them. I'm sure to save money on fabric too, over estimating yardage is gone forever!

This is the smoking jacket I made for Phil Johnson's one man play based on "The Hound of the Baskervilles". There was no readily available brown, quilted satin or gold satin piping so I made my own.

The vest underneath was also a custom creation, as were the pants.

It was a great production, hopefully to take to the road one day soon.

11 AM and I haven't done a bit of sewing!

Tonight is the close of "Our Town" for CCA. It has been such a busy previous 2 weeks I've been catching up on other things, though there was a few alterations made on Wednesday. We'll wrap up tonight. The outfit from the comforter didn't go as well as planned. We decided to have all the girls wear white blouses so I never made the gold blouse. The skirt was okay after extra material was added to the bottom third but the pleating had a tendency to curve inward at the bottom. Inserting tulle helped but it was even better when I slit the circle of tulle and let it move freely in 4 sections.

Much happening in the garden, picked the first blueberries from our little bush and have had a couple of strawberries. There will be peaches and a couple of apples but no plums. The tangerine tree is actually doing much better but we loose a lot of the bud fruit from it and the Valencia orange. They were fed last weekend. The grapes are looking good too, but the raspberry will need a season to recover from a close call with death.

Great link for sewing questions

This is a great site for sewing questions, it lead me to a site that showed me how to make a man's Edwardian collar.
Sewing Academy

Video of dresses and their undergarments

Thanks to Val from the SD Costume Guild for posting this link, fabulous! Especially the pregnancy gowns.
http://vimeo. com/38996498

I'll post photos later today of the sewing projects, tons of skirts! Many made from sheets...

Good grief....

I just deleted my last post because it was suppose to be under the title "Projects", since it was posted to the main title page it looked like I wasn't going to post any more! Not true, I just can't keep track of the small projects to post what I've finished.

The 1904 dress is coming along, but I have a detour re-styling pirate jacket cuffs. The upper skirt on the 1904 is sewn and the pleats are attached. The blouse has also been pleated from the shoulders to just above the breast. I'll post photos soon.

Cutting the pattern

1904 Delineator Oct

               This is the shirtwaist inspiration, the actual blouse will be a combination of the tucked front and the pleated sleeve. The shirtwaist is cut out of the vertical two tone stripes on the right. I haven't decided if I'll tuck at each stripe or make the tucks narrower which is more in keeping with the era.  In the lower right is the collar, it's been extended and I left extra room on the sides since I'm not sure how it will fit on the neck.

1904 Delineator Oct

The skirt is on the left side of the photo. This is a good photo of the pleating. The pleats which are 14 inches deep, will be at the lower edge of the skirt and possibly used at the shoulders. The upper part of the skirt is made from the crisscross fabric. Cutting the piped crisscrosses was tough on the hands.  The skirt fits through the hips and then starts to flare. This picture give the general idea. Mine will have vertical seaming instead of horizontal. To make it easiest I did not angle the "yoke" either.
A medium sweep is necessary because this is a stage production with teenagers. We'll actually make them shorter than they were so there's no tripping hazard. 

The cheap dress

There might be a ruffle, not sure yet.

For a production of "Our Town" at Canyon Crest Academy I am making a 1904 style gown. They have almost zero budget for 15 actors so I'm doing this dress on the cheap. I found modern patterns at a thrift store and will adapt them, they were 25 cents each. At the same thrift store I found a queen size comforter and bed skirt, each were $4.99. They've been separated and the batting discarded. Here's photos of the items.


The shirtwaist will be bloused like a pigeon front. but until I figure out how much of the pleated material is needed for the skirt I'll wait to decide.  When I'm a bit more sure of the look I'll post an original 1904 fashion plate as the closest look I'm going for. I've read they used stays in the fronts, does anyone know the placement and type?
Stay tuned!

This is all the material laid out on the deck.

This shows each side and the trim.

I don't have a photo of the
pleated bed skirt, but it's one of the best parts. All the material is a soft, low luster tan. The side with the triangles has some damage on the raised edges but for the stage it's okay.

Costume on a Dime

Okay, maybe more than a dime, but really cheap. In the next few weeks I'm going to make a 1904 costume for less than you can imagine. I'll start posting soon, but the teaser is I'm not buying fabric or a 1904 dress pattern. It will be for a high school production of  "Our Town". I'm excited to take you on the journey. I've even thought of putting in on video, well maybe not....lol.