Pants party

As you know if you read this post I recently Costumed 1776 the musical. 

And that means I sewed pants.

Colonial era pants.   

I forgot about these more or less until I brought them up to my Insta buddy Kate.

She was intrigued, as she should be.

So I held a fashion shoot and brought sexy back to the colonial era!


via GIPHY


Honestly I feel like the world would be a better place if there were more fun pants!

I drafted the pattern myself, it's just two seams and three channels with elastic strung though.

Oh and look at that Jabot~

 And this one will have a matching hat eventually. 

There's a bit of a side project in the works.

*cough cough* You- Tube mini series *cough cough*

The man that wore thes in 1776 managed to rip them three times... 

But whats a musical without some ripped seams and frayed nerves!

and My lovely assistant Annette helped me though all of the rough patches.

She also sewed three pairs of pants! 

I have some odd things lurking in my closet 

What strange things do you have hiding in your closet?

A late costume

In my recent absence I actually got a bit of sewing done, I just haven't been taking good pictures. 

Sorry. 

So obviously for Halloween I made my own costume. 

How could I resist?

Sorry for the low camera quality.

But doesn't it read a bit star-wars? 

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The fabric is a polyester tablecloth from goodwill and some "no pill" brown fleece from Walmart. The brown trim around the edges is "satin blanket binding" also from Walmart. 

AND THE BUTTONS 

 I got these beauties at a going-out-of-business sale. 

oh! and even though i was crazy busy I managed to take a picture while I was in the progress of making the cloak! 

I evened out that uneven length when I hemmed it, don't worry!

Everything else was just clothing that I already had in my closet. Along with a pretty stellar paint job ;) 

sadly I only have two pictures from the night I wore it. And both of them are from snap-chat. 

When will I learn!

Christmas with the kiddos, Lee-Lee

My little nephew is the absolute cutest thing in the world! I would provide evidence but my sister is rather privite so Ill restrain myself.

He's an older toddler, about three.

So he's getting a whale. 

Yup. You heard right.

🐋A whale 🐋

I found the free PDF pattern on Pinterest (here's the link) 

I made mine out of old here's that but the dust a loooong time ago. But they are nice and soft from being worn to death. (There's a hole in the -cough cough- bum/crotch) 

And I thought this quarter yard of grey scrap fabric would make a good belly.  

I forgot to take process pictures. But here's some pictures of the final product. 

I added a little snap for his lips

He's just so lovable~

Christmas with the kiddos, Cher-Bear

My sister is about eight years older than me, and on top of that she got married rather young, so I get three fun playmates and she gets a messy house.

I think that I get the better end of this deal ;)

The oldest one who I call Cher-bear is a five year old girl, and we share many passions. Such as doll dressing and furnishing. So she's getting a brown fuzzy love seat and a wardrobe.

The love seat is made from a Kleenex box and some old minky scraps I was never going to use. 

Now on to the doll clothes! 

for a good month I didn't have any non-ballpoint needles. So I looked through my closet, pulled out some ratty shirts and cut them up into cute little doll clothes.

There lots of fun combinations here. I only used four shirts and some project scraps, so it's pretty monochromatic.

But I'm sure she won't complain!

The little cardboard models that I made were a stroke of genius I must admit. They are cut from old cereal boxes and It really makes the whole set look more professional.

Never doubt the power of packaging 😊

Some Simple Stationary

I planned this post way back in July and never posted it. 

Better late than never right!

For Brigadoon I decided that I would do cast letters,
for the whole entire cast.

All thirty five of them.

And since my cards were very plain I decided that but each one would have a custom water-colored background.

what was I thinking~ 

Well I trudged on! And I also remembered to take pictures! 

So here goes my first documented project!

 ~ I used ~

~ plain white "thank you" cards

 (the boring elegant ones that come in packages of ten)

~watercolor pencils

~And a nice wide paintbrush 

I started with some nice scribbles and lines.

For the one in the center I used a ruler, but mostly I scribbled.

then I added water. 

There's something about this picture that I adore~

just me?

alright...

they ended up looking like this in the end

They didn't change that dramatically. 

In fact doing it this way I think they become more subtle, 

But it works out well because they don't overshadow the words.

Which is what really matters, right?

Sadly I forgot to take pictures of these three with lettering.

But I did a few others that are real showstoppers~

who wouldn't love getting some love bird cats in the rain?

Harry Beaton that's who

SPACE the final frontier~ 

when I found a fellow Trekkie I couldn't resist this surprisingly easy Galaxy theme.

This was the easiest one that I did, but it's still somehow my favorite. 

Not to brag~

But that's a hand carved stamp that you see on the side there.

(tutorial to come?) 

Any-who~

Happy Holiday Crafting!

Something Relevant This way Comes

I have just barely started to wet my feet in the big wide world of blogging, and it feels a bit like I have failed any public that I might have.

My lack of posting has been rather unseemly, not to mention neglectful. 

And I really ought to fix that background....

But fear not! I do have content coming your way!

No really I do!

In my absence I have been sewing, all sorts of odd things. odd things that you, my hopefully adoring reader will get the pleasure of perusing at leisure! 

But first I do owe the blogging world an explanation.  

As you know, if you read my last post, I recently costumed Brigadoon the musicale. 

and since it was community theater I managed to snag a part

A silent part.  

I was Maggie Anderson and I got to be the victim of an abusive relationship and then dance on the grave of my tormentor; the infamous Harry Beaton!

We had a bit of a dance special, and during the last show my Harry pushed me to the ground.

Good God did we get a laugh! There was only one problem.

I broke my butt. 

Split the muscle right in two. 

 Needless to say I didn't feel like doing much of anything.

That accounts for a portion of my absence, the rest was eaten by the next musicale. 

1776, it ended about a week ago. 

I wasn't a huge fan I have to admit, but the costumes were hard to find!

 Ate up all my spare time...

Well most of it... 

I did get some personal sewing done but. that's a story for another day.

until then 

Dress Distress Deflected

As mentioned in my introduction to you all I'm costuming Brigadoon~

and its going fabulously~

well it is now at least...

 When we started into the show the costuming department had nothing.

(like always)

we started collecting all sorts of odds and ends, but we had no were near enough clothes to dress a whole cast!!

but then, on what was the most glorious Tuesday to date, I received a call.

The Director had found three bins worth of Scottish garb!

It turns out a director buddy of his had done the show a few years back and saved most of the stuff!

I COULD HAVE DIED!

Some of the pieces need some work, and the sizes don't line up with our cast perfectly,

 but I'm not complaining. 

 We are allowed to make minor changes to the costumes, such as in fixing holes and making items fit our cast better.

Our first specimen is the dress I will be wearing in the play.

There is nothing wrong with it....
aside from the lack of coverage up top....

what better way to fix that than with lace!!

Two whole layers of it too!

the thin layer seen on top was layered over the larger one, for more coverage.

I debated tea dying it so it wouldn't be so stark white, but the lacing on the dress was the same shade.

oh well

I chose to hand stitch the lace in because I'm possibly going to need to return it in the same condition we found it.

(even though its much better this way)

I stitched it so that it would pull tight and not flop downwards while I'm dancing.

I would be far from comfortable that way 😅

As you can see below i pulled the upper part of the lace toward the edge and just did one quick stitch and a knot.

And now it's much better, i know its only an inch but when your dancing under those lights (and eyes) an inch feels more like a mile.

Plus I think it adds a bit of refinement.

What do you think?

Do you like it with lacey's or laceless?

Or do you have an idea of your own that would have looked much better?

(Oh dear I hope not)

let me know in the comments below!