Everything’s shiny, Cap’n!

I love my captain!

And my new Kaylee inspired dress!

Both The Patchwork Pirate and Dianne from Dianne’s Costumes and Research have wonderful recreations of Kaylee’s Prairie Harpy dress.

Dianne had found this fabric from Fabric Tales that matches the original very nearly.

But I don’t have that fabric, or the money to obtain it at the steep price.

I do, however, have this fabric! Not perfect, but I think Kaylee would have definitely worn this fabric if she had the chance. It’s playful and colorful enough. Or maybe that’s just me.

And I have a lot of it. It being the same fabric I used for my culottes. And I have some left over still.

It also wrinkles all over the place. It’ll crease just by lightly folding, even without ironing or pressing it.

I draped the bodice on a borrowed dress form, though it seems I’m a bit chestier than then form is.

At that point I didn’t care much about the direction of the grain of the fabric, since I was using scraps for all of it.

Aren’t scraps lovely?

So then I let it sit around awhile as I was thinking on a skirt plan. Or rather, while I was doing that homework and classes thing…

I lined it in the meantime, which brought about it’s own challenges, but worked out well in the end.

And then I got to work on the skirt. I knew it needed to be at least a little bit full, and I knew that my dress needed to be lined.

In the end I cut out a few rectangles and sewed it all up.

And then it was too tight. Pencil skirt tight.

So I unpicked all of that and added another identically sized rectangle, which brought the fullness I had wanted.

Sewed the waistband to the bodice, and tried it on.

At this point I realized that the bodice was big around my actual waist, in order to get it over my head.

Looking at the inspiration photos of Jewel Staite as Kaylee, I saw that she had an attached belt. So I set about making some belt-like strips. I didn’t want to make one that would actually tie around me, as I often find them uncomfortable, so I had them attach with hooks and eyes.

And finally success!

It matches really well with the jacket I made for my Halloween costume, since the blue is mirrored in the dress fabric.

So all in all, a happy Halloween!

Ever sail in a Firefly

So I’ve been hard at work on my Halloween costume.

I’ve told you that I was planning on making a version of Kaylee’s dress from Out of Gas, one of my favorite episodes in Firefly. It also shows up in the The Message.

And I have! I promise! However, I haven’t exactly taken pictures in it yet. The post is upcoming, I promise!

I had decided while I was working on the dress that I should be Kaylee for Halloween!

Halloween where I live, though, is quite cold, so I always build in temperature ready ideas into my costume.

So I decided that my next project was going to be Kaylee’s blue oriental jacket.

Because I could.

I ordered my brocade from ebay, and it turned out to be exactly what I was hoping for. (I’ve had mixed results with finding fabric on ebay).

I made a muslin, which I had to hack up and maneuver to get it to fit. I had started with my bodice block, since I knew it was rather fitting, but I took out a bunch of the shaping on the bottom. The jacket in the show is oversized and shapeless, so I didn’t feel bad about taking some liberties.

I cut out the fabric, and had just enough to do so. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pattern match as much as I wanted, but I at least had everything set up in the right direction.

Starting out, I wanted to have a double breasted front for warmth. In the end it didn’t work out. The front closes about evenly matched with each other, and I can’t button the top button, because I have a thing about close fitting necks.

Looking back at past projects, I’ve never quite drafted sleeves correctly. One of these days I’ll figure it out, but that day wasn’t my cutting day. I ended up easing the remaining sleeve head fabric into pleats in the back, which gave a very cute tailored look.

The back is a bit tight, which at least  keeps me in better posture, having to stand up straight instead of my usual slumping. I don’t have the best movement range because of this and the kinda tight sleeve caps.

But I love my new jacket! And I’m going to wear it forever and ever.

I will leave you with a picture of my subtle cosplay for the day. Kaylee’s hairbuns and jacket!

I eat cake for the frosting.

I don’t really enjoy cake.

The food kind or the sewing kind.

Don’t get me wrong, the perfect kind of cake can be magical and exactly what I need after a super long week.

But my sewing has been quite frosting oriented.

AKA costumes.

Then I realized I had forgotten my only pair of leggings at home.

I’m not one to wear leggings without a dress or a skirt. For me, I just don’t find them a proper substitute for pants.

But they are so much better for wearing under dresses and stuff than tights, if simply because they don’t pool around my ankles over time.

So I decided to buy Cake’s pdf version of the Espresso leggings.

I got some of the cheapest knit fabric from Walmart, and grabbed my scissors, tape, and elastic to get started.

Then I procrastinated. And continued to procrastinate.

But yesterday I finally made up the pattern. From cutting to sewing it took me no longer than an hour, and the leggings fit me like a glove!

I will cut the strings, though. Oops! But look at the adorable ricrac tag!

I’m very excited, and I’m never planning on buying leggings again!

Cause I know I can just make some wonderful ones!

Thanks Cake!

Spoilers!

I got the River Song journal on the brain.

Altoids have been a favorite for me, even before I had uses for the tins. I think I’ve had this one for years.

And now I have a reason to use it!

Isn’t the swimming pool cute?

I’ve also been working on the leather outer.

Here it is just cut from the hide, before I “squared” it off.

It got less square after tooling.

I skived off some of the back of the leather, and shaved some beveling into the edges.

Then I got to work dyeing it.

I’ll let you know how it went next time!

Pouf

I told you that I was going to make a petticoat, and that will happen eventually.

However I was confused on terminology.
I knew what fabric I was going to use, and I knew generally how to make the garment.

But apparently I had forgotten the name.
I used a bright yellow nylon netting and a light gold lining fabric, which might have been to lightweight for the project, but ended up working well.

It’s not the biggest petticoat in the end, but it will certainly be what I need.

For instance:

Without the crinoline…

And with the crinoline.

This is my heaviest knit dress, the one that gave me the idea for the Belle dress.

It’s a bit heavier of a skirt than what I’m hoping to use for my dress, but it’s good to know that the crinoline still gives some oomph!

Eyedrive

So… I had a moment of weakness.

I went to a friend’s Masquerade themed birthday party, but that wasn’t the weakness.

I knew I didn’t have a mask, and I forgot that my contacts hadn’t quite made it up to college with me… so a mask for this party was out.

But my fingers were still itching to wetform leather.

And… I made an eyedrive from Doctor Who

First I designed and drew the eyedrive on the leather, and cut it out.

I tooled it slightly, in the “eyeball” region to give it a nice texture, then got it wet and began to wetform it to my eye.

Imagine a roommate coming into the apartment and seeing me blow-drying my eye.

Then I realized that I had made the eyedrive fit the wrong eye. Oops!

But I didn’t want to give up. So I started painting.

First came the base layer of black.

Then I mixed in some gold and gave it a few more coats!

And voila!

I’ve attached it to my eye with tape loops, since I couldn’t figure out another way that didn’t involve it looking like a pirate’s eyepatch. I certainly wouldn’t recommend this method for anything but short term engagements. I was able to see out of it a bit though. Out the bottom and the sides, which felt weird.