Vintage Wine Coloured Velvet

This little number was a lot of fun to make though I ought to have done a much better job of documenting its construction. 


I've had about 3.5 yards of vintage rayon velvet awaiting the correct project for about three years. It obviously wasn't nearly enough to construct the entire skirt from but I have enough fabric in reserve at any given time that it wasn't difficult to select something to complement the composition.


Essentially, I wanted to make something elegant and dark. I have a stretchy nylon mesh that is more than a little transparent that I used for the underlying structure on the bodice. The velvet only has a little bit of give to it and, laid over and sewn to that underlying stretch fabric, it does a good job of maintaining its form and covering my top lady bits. 

A lot of the bead work I'd done on the front of the gown in these pics was subsequently replaced  with bronzed metal medallions and pearls. I just wasn't digging the previous result, though I really liked how the back turned out.
To top it off I added a chain headdress of pearls and garnet coloured beads and a rather elaborate feather clip. 


The long train bustles up quite nicely as well. I'll hopefully have pics of the finished gown after Faerieworlds next weekend.

Dryad

Faerieworlds is coming up in another week and this year I've been rather prolific with my costuming. 


I had some stretch velvet remnants left after making a cloak and, after raking my brain about what I should do with them, I decided they worked well on the bias and set about constructing a rather abstract piece. 

Some flowers and leather cut oak leaves later and I had what I decided should be a dryad costume. 

Naturally, since this was the simplest/ easiest dress I've constructed in a long while, I want satisfied until I'd beaded the hell out of it. And instead of lining the inside of the open sleeve (which I did initially do and hated) I applied swirls of gold paint and kept the oak leaf motif going.

It just needed a suitable head piece.  


Suitable antlers are harder to locate than they have any reason to be, and it turns out that smaller is better.


Large antlers are not only hazardous to one's surroundings, but those suckers are heavy. I'd initially though these were on the small side but it turns out that they're about perfect. 

Also, when you attack antlers with a dremel they make your house smell like you set a wookie on fire.  


I've got some faun ears that should be arriving shortly to hopefully finish off the dryad/faun effect. 

TARDIS (Time And Relative Dress Is Sexy)

Yeah, that's what that stands for, right?


This one was a flash of inspiration that came to me out of the blue. I'd just heard that the lovely Mr. Gaiman and Ms. Palmer were going to be touring last fall and I decided that was a perfect reason to make myself that TARDIS outfit I'd been wanting for so long.

As usual I'd sketched out some rough ideas (enough so that I knew what sort of fabric I'd need) but I wasn't sure exactly where I was going with it until I started pinning up a pattern on the dress form. The pencil skirt was easy. 


The jacket design inspiration, however, I borrowed from a 40's vintage coat I had stashed in my closet. that smelled of ancient mothballs and cigarettes. 


Its reincarnation was a great improvement.


Action shots are always fun.
  

And then I found out that The Nerdist was coming to Portland and of course this was the correct outfit to wear.













I even had a sweet guy take my picture outside the Aladdin: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alloymatt/6271721122/


Those bright white window panels on the jacket lapels? The looked like they'd make a great location to collect fantastically nerdy autographs.

Thanks sweeties.


 Matt's face was priceless; I love those guys.


Shortly thereafter their signatures were accompanied by Neil Gaiman's and Amanda Palmer's.


And then most recently, Inspector Spacetime joined their illustrious company.

And if you all don't know Inspector Spacetime yet you should hurry up and catch up with your very important nerd culture.


TARDIS girl crosses over to hang with Mr. Travis Richey, the Inspector himself. FYI - his new outfit for the soon to be released web series is made from the same suiting as this.


"Look out! Blorgons!"