Tag Archives: costume

Mad Men florals

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Sometimes I decide to do crazy things like make a dress in one day. Sometimes it’s fine because the reason for rushing has more to do with the excitement of working on it than a deadline. Other times it’s because I have a Mad Men party to go to the next day and had completely forgotten to make something to wear to it.

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This was one of the latter.

I thought I was planning ahead, I had a Betty Draper dress all picked out to replicate (and by replicate, I mean loosely. I’m not a huge fan of the pointy boob thing and I really can’t wear a skirt that long), and I even ordered a lovely vintage 1960s dress pattern on Etsy. I did everything but remember to buy fabric and, you know, start sewing it.

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It was a bit of a stressful day, but luckily the pattern was pretty basic (despite missing the instructions!) and I managed to cobble together this lovely thing.

I even had time leftover to make this poofy monstrosity to go under it! See how un-poofy it is without it? A miracle, I tell you. 14 yards worth of miracle.

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I used this tutorial.

And now I want to make that pretty blue dress Jane wears. The one with the gorgeous tie collar.

Uh oh. This is a dangerous path.

What’s your favorite Mad Men dress?

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Katniss

It’s been a loong time since I’ve posted anything costume-related, hasn’t it?

Well, here you are then: a costume replica! Katniss Reaping dress

I read Hunger Games a few months ago and pretty much fell in love. I knew the film version wasn’t going to be as good as the books so I made Boyfriend read the book before we went to go see it. I still think the book was tons better but I have to admit they did a pretty decent job with the movie version!

That said, I wasn’t a huge fan of a lot of the costumes, especially the ones of the other tributes during the parade. A lot of them seemed too much like elementary school play costumes.

Katniss Reaping dress

Anyways, the point is, I absolutely adore the dress Katniss wears to the Reaping. I thought it was very true to the way it was described in the book and even as I sat in the theatre I had a sinking feeling that I was going to be on a rabid hunt for light blue linen.

And then one day I was wandering around the fabric store looking for floral cotton when I happened to walk by the linen section where they had the exact shade of blue I needed in a linen/rayon blend, which is exactly what I’d wanted to use!

I had a vague idea of how I wanted to make it but I wasn’t entirely sure it would work. For the bodice I used the Darling Ranges bodice (haha, totally shocking right?) but made widened the shoulder parts to about 8.5″ for the gathering. I also raised the neckline on the back bodice piece a bit and widened the shoulder a bit.

The skirt was drafted by tracing the skirt of an existing dress, nothing fascinating. And since there are no buttons on the skirt, I added a side zip.

Katniss Reaping dress

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out! Boyfriend even recognized where it was from so that’s a good sign.

(Although to be fair his first guess was “that one movie with the famous kiss scene.”)

(On the other hand, he is a boy and that dress is also blue.)

(I’m talking about The Notebook in case anyone is lost.)

26 Comments costumes - - -

Happy Halloween

I did manage to scrape together a last minute costume yesterday. Boyfriend and I had plans to go to a party hosted by his school at a club downtown, but neither of us had had time to discuss or put together a costume until the day of.

Still, I think we did pretty well!

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Dwight K. Schrute and a Schrute Farms beet. 

He bought his entire outfit at a thrift/costume shop and I picked out a purple dress at Forever21 and plucked some leaves and tied them to a headband. The sticker on my side is a Schrute Farms logo like those stickers that come on veggies. 🙂

Sidenote: IT’S SNOWING!! I’ve never lived anywhere where it snowed!! There are literally bits of ice falling out of the sky!! Thisissocool.

Guys, I’m freaking out a little.

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How to replicate a dress with zero reference images.

Hermione's red dress beads

This picture is from a few days ago, but the red dress is (almost) finished! I want to redo the flower thing in the middle to make it look less flat, and it’s lacking beads but other than that it’s done! I wore it the other night when Boyfriend and I went on a pre-Valentine’s Day date. It’s swirly and lovely and I completely forgot to take pictures. -headdesk-

I’ll get on that.

I think I have an unhealthy obsession with Hermione. In the past month, I have made two of her sweaters, one dress, a hat.

On top of that, I started a scarf the other day..

Hogwarts PoA Scarf

..and I’m in the beginning stages of a second dress.

Hermione's pink dress fabric

This dress is absolutely gorgeous but it’s driving me insane. It was handmade by Jenny Packham for Hermione to wear to Slughorn’s Christmas party, and since the entire scene lasts all of a minute and a half and happens in the dark, there aren’t a lot of reference images. In fact the only ones I could find online were about fifty pixels wide. So I’ve been watching that scene and saving screen captures in the attempt to find one that actually shows me how the seams are done on the bodice. I thought I had it figured out, but after two hours of attempting to recreate a pattern of it, I deemed it impossible and have added a stomach panel under the crinkled bust bit.

Like this, basically:

Hermione's pink dress pattern making

And I may have ordered more yarn to redo the Deathly Hallows Fair Isle cardigan in the proper colors.

I need about eight more sets of hands.

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Ruffles.

Hermione red dress progress 5

I’m getting the most odd collection of blisters on my hands. What’s even more sad is I can clearly distinguish which have resulted from knitting and which are due to sewing.

In other news, this dress is coming along quite faster than I had thought it would. The actual dress itself was pretty simple to put together, it’s all of the ruffles that have been a strange sort of therapeutic nightmare.

Next up: fixing/finishing the ruffles, and then beads!

As you can probably tell, some of the ruffles are crooked. I also don’t quite like the way they lie currently so I’m going to stretch them out to the edge of the skirt and then trim them inwards so they’re fatter at the waist and taper downward to the edge.

As for beads, I can’t decide what kind to use. In the reference photos I’ve been using, they either look like very small sequins or seed beads. I’m going with seed beads, but I can’t decide if I should get red opaque ones or the clear ones with red in the center.

Hermione red dress progress 3 Hermione red dress progress 4

Last night as I was getting ready to take a shower, I happened to glance at my reflection and noticed something red on my belly button. After a sudden panicking flash of “OH NOES I’M BLEEDING” ran through my mind, I looked down and realized that a tangle of red thread had taken up residence in my navel.

I feel like this indicates some underlying issues.

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