FESA and FPC Sewing Plan

So, I have had a general idea of what I wanted to sew and knit for fall but with both the FESA and FPC in full swing, it's probably past time for me to actually peg down my plans.

1. Sailor Playsuit Pants

I've already completed one pair of these lovelies drafted from Wearing History's 1940s Sailor Girl Playsuit shorts and am planning another in the leftover monk fabric.

Colors: #1 grey #2 brown

2. Librarian Circle Skirt

I'm planning a librarian themed circle skirt for Casey's Circle Skirt Sew Along.

Colors: brown

3. Candice Sweater

This will be my first sweater! :)

Colors: Purple (though quite a bit darker than the one in my palette)

4. 1950s style Jumper a la Audrey Hepburn

Inspired by this photo:

I've tracked down some suitable fabric and a 1950s retro pattern to create this little lovely.

Colors: grey

5. Fingerless gloves and Neck warmer

I've already finished knitting one of the cabled fingerless gloves! Should be great for those chilly walks to school

Colors: sea green

6. 1940s skirt suit

I'm whipping up the skirt and jacket from this pattern:

in the same microhoundstooth as my completed pants.

Colors: grey

Bonus projects:

These are only if I have time projects.

7. Mary's blouse

I'm planning on reproducing the blouse Lady Mary is wearing in this photo:

using this pattern:

Colors: ivory and mauve

8. Suit blouse

The suit pattern above comes with a blouse pattern that I may try.

Colors: sea green or purple or mauve

9. Hats

If I'm really inspired, I'll take another crack at millinery.

SSS and School

Day 7: Snazy Pants

You've seen these already but here they are again. I worked so pants were a must. Hopefully I'll get another pair done before the end of September.

Day 8: My Comfy Outfit

I love this ensemble. My Pendrell blouse is so comfortable. I wore this for a full 16 hours in the car one road trip and it was awesome! So, when I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and it was my longest day of the week, this is what I pulled.

Day 9: 40's Fab

Today I wore my Wearing History Sailor Playsuit skirt with a 40s style peasant blouse. I just love the shape of this skirt. It's very flattering and comfortable, plus it's not so huge like a circle skirt where I feel like I can't do any work in it.

Triple Play

So here's my SSS day 7, and my first project for FESA and FPC:

Pants! Woot! My first really successful pair!

Fabric: 2 yds of microhoundstooth in some kind of cotton ($7/yd)
Pattern: Wearing History Sailor Playsuit shorts drafted into pants
Year: 1940s
Notions: zipper ($2), bias tape (from stash)
Time to complete: 3 hours
First worn: September 2011
Wear again? Yups! These pants are so comfy! I've dubbed them my retro sweat pants because they are warm and comfy like sweat pants but oh so much more stylish. I am going to add belt loops since they look so awesome with a belt.

Total cost: $16

The best thing about these pants-facing finished with bright pink bias tape! I used this color partly because it's awesome but also partly because that's what I had on hand.

After I bought this fabric, I realized that almost all of my neutral shoes are brown. So I just had to have a grey pair. ;)

I love this blouse because it closes with a zipper! I really want to try a zipper closure on a blouse. I never have to worry about gaping with this blouse.

And because I know you all were just dying to see my butt, here it is. And these pants make it look pretty good if I say so myself.

SSS: Playing Dress Up

Day 4: Pasta and Preaching


I wore my thrifted sheet Crepe dress to church and then out to dinner with some friends at Olive Garden. My family doesn't live super close so I love having holiday time with friends. I also did fingerwaves again. They are still a bit wavier than I'd like but I'm really trying to get them semi-reliable so I can do a tutorial.

Day 5: Historical Costuming

Hey, this counts as self-stitched too!

Day 6: Working the outerwear

It was a lovely fall day today so I broke out my chocolate coat today. I love this piece! It's such a statement piece and I can throw on jeans, any old shirt and a cute pair of shoes and be good to go.

Youtube: Vintage and Short Hair

Enjoy my thoughts on having a vintage style with short hair!

Renaissance Dress FO

Today, my husband and I went to the Ohio Renaissance Festival! It was quite chilly (~60F) which means it was perfect for my new dress!

Please excuse the terrible photo quality. We only brought the little point and shoot this time and had really forgotten how crappy the pictures were. Never fear, there will be more (better) pictures of another Ren Fest outing.

Fabric: ~9 yds of red and gold, ~2 yds green, ~2 yds gold underskirt, ~1 yd felt, 2 yds canvas, >6 yds cotton broad cloth, ~1 yd jaquard, ~1 yd for veil
Pattern: Simplicity 2589 + Simplicity 2621 (supporting garments) + self drafted draw string bag
Year: contemporary/Tudor-esque
Notions: boning (12 yds), bias binding, grommets, ribbon, 3/4" flexible pvc piping, and a vast array of trimmings
Time to complete: practically the entire month of August and several weeks in July too
First worn: September 2011
Wear again? Of course! This was a major investment in time and treasure so this will get many years of use. I'm sure it will become more embellished over the years plus I'm already envisioning a cloak for those chilly days like today!

Total cost: you don't want to know

It's still a bit awkward in the chest area but I am a bit bustier than the average Elizabethan lady plus I didn't want to show off cleavage to all the world. Other than that, I really loved it. It was surprisingly comfortable even with the corset. Sitting was a bit awkward with the hoops. I took up a lot of space horizontally.

I also whipped my husband up a monk costume this weekend. After months of saying he didn't want a costume, he decided to tell me Friday that he wanted a monk costume. I was going to Jo-Ann's Saturday anyways so I said why not.

Fabric: 6 yds linen ($5.50 /yd)
Pattern: A McCall's nativity pattern and a McCall's cap pattern (heavily modified) because that was what was on sale for $.99 and no one had a monk pattern
Year: contemporary
Notions: thread, hook and eye
Time to complete: ~3 hours
First worn: September 2011
Wear again? He says yes. I say you better!

Total cost: ~$40

Best part of this project: We picked up 9 yds of this linen since I wanted 7 yds and they only had a 6 yd and a 3 yd piece so we got both. There was really nothing else even remotely appropriately. It was $9 /yd but I had a 40% off coupon. I only ended up using 6 yds so now I have 3 yds for the stash. I think perhaps a pair of pants are in order.

We did quite a bit of shopping and "costume accessorizing".

In addition to the staff and belt my husband has in his picture, he got these two cross throwing daggers with sheath. He really wanted to buy what I affectionately call sharp objects last year and didn't. So I kind of bullied him into getting something. He passed these lovelies up the first go around but couldn't part with them when we went back later in the day.

This is my haul minus the green bag which I made Saturday after realizing that I didn't have anywhere to carry my phone etc.

I picked up this lovely book locket at a corset store of all places. A lot of the jewelry there is more fantasy but this was one of the few pieces that could pass for at least semi-historically accurate looking.

I never thought that my husband would convince me to buy a sharp object (I'm more of the shiney things type gal) but when I found out that this "dagger" was actually a pair of scissors, I had to have them!

I got the choker on the right last year and went back to the same shop to get a matching piece and I ended up with this lovely bracelet. It's made by a company called Stillwater Chainmaille. Their pieces are lovely and the man who runs it is very nice and obviously passionate about his pieces. I'll definitely be back to buy matching pieces in future years. They're very good about doing custom color combos. The owner made this one from scratch for me today!

It was really lovely and we're planning on going back at least twice more this year. It was very busy and we didn't make it to hardly any shows or even all of the shops! Plus we're just nerds like that.

Hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend! See older Renaissance dress posts here.

SSS and Shopping!

Here's a round up of the start of Self Stitched September.

Day 1: A Chic Work Ensemble

I teach general chemistry laboratory and have to be in appropriate lab apparel three days a week. I stuck with simple straight legged rtw jeans and my Sorbetto top.

Day 2: Feeling Hot Hot Hot

It was 90F this day and I was all about comfort after being in pants all day the day before. Pendrell blouse with rtw shorts. Alas, I wore a hole in the seat of these shorts and they have to be retired. :(

Day 3: Sewing and Shopping

It was hot again today and I was going to be sewing so no big poofy skirts for me. I wore a rtw top and bolero with my Wearing History Sailor shorts. Tres comfy for all of the hand sewing I had to do to finis up my Ren. dress. It is done though! Woot! Which means I can wear it when I go on Monday!

I also stopped by Jo-Ann's for yarn, some last minute Ren. dress supplies and fabric and patterns for my husband's costume. Last night he decided that he wanted to be a monk. So I'm whipping up a monk costume for him. He's not coming on Monday so I do have a few weeks to finish it. Of course, none of the big three had a monk costume pattern so I'm kind of throwing a few together and drafting some bits myself.

Yarn! I choose a bamboo wool blend in a lovely purple color called Twilight. It's not exactly the same shade as in my color palette but I loved it so I bought it.

Vogue patterns were on sale so I snatched up these two vintage hat patterns that I've been eyeing for a while. One's 40s and the other's 50s. Should be loads of fun!

The weather is supposed to cool off by Monday, which means I will be in a much better mood for knitting and fall sewing. Yay!