New Castle sewing: started!

[mandie_rw]

Blog/pumpkin tea post soon, when photobucket stops being a dickwad and lets me renew my subscription. I AM TRYING TO GIVE YOU MONEY WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM.

Today I cleaned up (!) and washed things that needed to be washed from this weekend (!!). Apparently in the drinking of most of a bottle of red wine, some ended up on me. MUCH SURPRISE. Heh.

I also puzzled out and cut my 1840 mantle for New Castle, mainly for a lack of anything else I could do in a short amount of time. I did realize while doing so that I could actually wear the enormous fur tent instead of having to make a new mantle...but I bought bonnet silk to coodinate with the new mantle in mind, and the fur tent is, well, enormous. Good if it's actual, sincere cold, but I'm not really anticipating that! (I will be absolutely shocked if it's below freezing that weekend.) A torso-covering mantle should be more than sufficient.

Very exact and precise in drafting...that's me. Look at all those chalk lines, heh heh heh. I even managed to cut the pieces with the grain going the way I wanted. Impressive.

The fabric is a dull spruce green velvet I found in the red tag table at work. Definitely all synthetic (melty and especially horrible-smelling when burned), but it's soft and looks nice, I think. The pile's already a little crushed in places but it give it character? Maybe? Heh. Interlined and lined with the proper fabrics it'll be warm enough! Going to trim it with something fun (not box pleats...), though haven't quite decded what. I have limited stash options, so I might be naughty and order some rust-colored marabou. Originally thought white or cream, but the rust is a little more fun and unexpected, without being too costumey looking I think! We'll see.

Comments

[nattalie-m.livejournal.com]

Hey Mandie, I want start sewing some costumes. Do you have any web where I can find patterns?
Thx :)

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Depends on what time period and how authentic you want to be! The Big 3 pattern companies (Simplicity/Butterick/McCall) have some historic costume patterns that might be a good place to start, or Truly Victorian is a great pattern company if you're looking for that time period and something a little more challenging. I don't often use commercial patterns, but the Great Pattern Review has some reviews of a lot of the historical patterns out there: http://www.gbacg.org/great-pattern-review/

(Don't get Reconstructing History; they're rubbish.)

[nattalie-m.livejournal.com]

I will try to start with those 3 you say, I don't know so much about sewing just the basic to use my sewing machine. I need practise :) Ty for your help!