Another bustle, this time of the tie on variety, and some rambling about my steampunk successes in general

I made this a couple weeks ago and now finally have time to post about it! I was watching my niece Kayleigh again and didn't have time for much of anything while she was around. Now that she's gone I had time to play dress-up (one of my favourite pastimes) and do a bit of a photo-shoot. So without further ado....My bustle!

Right. Now that you've seen it and have had a moment to feast your eyes, I will tell you the story. It starts with a skirt. A well loved skirt that got a little...holey.

Exhibition A

Exhibition B

Please note, the holes in the rear of the skirt, and while your at it, notice the stains and the random red acrylic paint spots.

For a favourite skirt this was a sad occurrence indeed. I felt it was rather in appropriate to wear out-of-doors because of the holes, even though it had a decent lining. And so, for many months the skirt sat in the "fix-it-somehow" pile, though I had no solution for this particular problem. And then, one day, while browsing the internet and researching the style of Steampunk, it occurred to me that I would very much like to have a bustle. And while shuffling though my fix-it and other random fabric piles I saw the skirt and thought: How good a bustle would look on that! And it would solve all hole and stain problems!

Turns out, I had the perfect shade of olive green fabric already and just needed some tulle to give it some flounce and a bit of lace to trim and cover seams....All I needed was some serious motivation. Which I eventually, thankfully, found. I got ideas from all over the internet and sort of meshed them to suit my own needs.

3 layers of green cotton, lined up before tulle.

From white lace to grey lace.

                                             

I only had white lace, so I after a lot of research and brain-storming, I finally came up with idea to make a watered-down acrylic dye with black acrylic paint and some water. I smushed the lace all through it so it was evenly coated and then hung it to dry over my bathtub. You can see the before and after in that poorly lit photo there. I put a few layers of green and black tulle between each layer of the olive-green cotton fabric and carefully ruffled each layer before sewing it together.

While I was deliberating as to how I should sew it to the skirt, my genius husband suggested I simply sew ties onto it, so that I could wear it with said skirt, but then I'd also have the option of wearing it with other outfits as well. I had been talking of making a "tie-on" bustle next and really it was such a smashing idea I couldn't help but comply. I used more of the same dyed lace to complete it and act as a tie as well.

best picture I have of the tie

Looks good with the red purse I made recently

This picture doesn't show off the bustle very well, but I think it's pretty cool

And so there it is. I'm very pleased with it, and it has really motivated me to start collecting more steampunk-style things. As you can see in the last photo above, I've found some jewelry and random objects in my house that do a slick job of looking steampunk when pulled into the right outfit. The medallion/pendant thing on the necklace used to be the stand for the pen that came with our wedding guest-book. The pen had long since run out of ink and the stand had been lying around being useless until I pounced upon it and took it apart for my own conniving use! *cackle*  The "glove" is a bit of lace wrapped around my hand and secured with a safety pin and a plastic gold button that I rubbed with some black paint to make it look like a tarnished brass button..
The blouse is one that my mother made around 10 years ago for my sister who, about 4 years ago gave it to me, who put it into the "I don't know what to do with, but don't want to take apart and don't want to give away pile" and then, while searching for Victorian style blouses in all my clothes, found it again and thought "my goodness, it's perfect!"
And here is a close up of the hairclip I'm wearing:

I made it with some lacey trim (found in a free pile) I wound into a flower, a button I pulled off of an old green couch and then painted and some pheasant feathers (which I bought, *gasp*). Then I attached it to a bobby pin and now wear it on a regular basis.

Soooo....That's about it! I hope you liked it.
P.s I'll do an actual post on the purse I made out of a place mat next time!

A new pair of trousers

I love it when I get a good variety of crafting done in a short space of time. The past couple weeks I've done crocheting, earring making, fixed up my rocking chair and made myself a pair of summer trousers. And that's not all! I've also made some new extracts and whipped up my first herbal vinegar and finished some very good books. I'll do more detailed posts on some of these other things, but today the spotlight is on the pants....Or should I say "Pantaloons"?

No, I don't think pantaloons is the right word. They're not voluminous enough. Haha.  This is my second pair of pants that I've made in this fashion, the pattern is my own, though I can't claim to have really designed it. I mean, you see pants like this all over the place in the east. I like to call them my "Aladdin pants" or sometimes my "gypsy trousers."  These ones are even more fantasy-gypsy style because of the two-tone design I gave them. I love the style and I love these colours. My first pair I made several years ago and have loved  them near to death, though, despite the wear and fading they've taken, I have to say I'm proud of how sturdy they've been so far and how well they've held up! Not bad for a hand-sewn novice job I'd say. You can see a picture of me in the old pair in my vest coat refashion post.

I'm very happy to have two pairs, because now I can rotate them during the summer months. They are very comfy and keep one quite cool when the weather is hot. Also, I get compliments on them all the time, which I love. Who doesn't love getting compliments?

Bonus! I made a little sachet with some of the scraps. It was surprisingly quick to make and filled with dried lavender buds it smells delightful.

Steampunk vest coat refashion

All right, one more post before the big Trip to the Keys. I meant to post this weeks ago but didn't get a chance to because of how busy I've been getting everything ready for going to Florida. Now, however, everything is packed and I am dressed and ready to go and now we just wait until it's time to actually get in the car and go! What a  nice feeling.

So, the matter of the vest coat. At least, I think that's what you would call this garment. It's like a coat but without sleeves, OR it's like a vest but really ultra long...Call it what you will, I found it at the thrift store for $2 and loved it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't my style. I could never wear this anywhere and feel confident in it, even if it did look good on me. So I decided it was refashion time. I needed to give to flair to this business-woman style coat thing.

 Thankfully, a little ribbon can go a long way for giving an item some flair....

And so can a bustle.  Yes. A bustle!

*hearts are floating around my head right now*  Now it's steampunk and I love it. And you better bet your buns that I wore this thing in public and will continue to do so whenever I can get away with it.

The first time I wore it was to a bell choir concert our friend was in. I paired it up with the blue shirt above, an a-line black skirt and some purple, blue and grey striped knee-high stockings. I felt awesome and I received a generous compliment from a girl who turned out to be a fellow steampunker. It gratifying to say the least. I've been wanting to sew a bustle onto one or two of my garments for a year or so now and I'm insanely pleased that I've finally done it. And it looks quite good, though I do say so myself! Now all I need is a pair of goggles and a dirigible!

Well, and a few more steampunk style pieces...This is only the beginning, my friends...

What do you think? Yay or Nay on bustles? Is steampunk your thing?

Seaside Saturday

Dear me, I've been meaning to get this post up for a few days now! The past few days have been quite eventful and busy. But my weekend was wonderful; restful and relaxing as weekends frequently should be. John and I went to the seashore in Plum Island, Massachusetts. His parents own a house there and so it's one of our more frequented spots for beachtime. 

Saturday was a beautiful day. I would be lying if I said we haven't been getting a lot of rain lately. In about two weeks we've had 3 days of sunshine, two were today and yesterday. The other was Saturday-though it may not pass as a sunny day to some, it was warm and the cloud coverage was thin (though fairly evenly spread. It was not a blue-skies-day, just a sunny one). A light fog floated on the ocean and mist prickled our skin occasionally. Really lovely beach combing weather. 

The Olivia Jayne outfit

 

It was also good weather for a charming outfit. Inspiration for clothes (and the way they get assembled on me) comes from all sorts of places. But I think this one is particularly funny. I was inspired by a video game character. Olivia Jayne is a tiny dranei girl in World of Warcraft's newest expansion Cataclysm. I was fishing over in the area where she roams (yes, yes, I play WoW) and noticed her adorable outfit. Intrigued by the colours and general cuteness of the whole thing, I sought to put together my own "Olivia Jayne" outfit. It's reversed, colourwise, but all in all I think it's pretty good. :)

The skirt and shirt are thrift store finds, $2 each. The oyster necklace and flip-flops are beachcomb finds. The scarf is the most expensive thing about this outfit, and I'm ashamed to say  that I spent $10 dollars on it, a long, long time ago when I wasn't as thrifty and clever as I am now. 

Skipping

Searching for sea glass

 We took a stroll on the beach, combing it all the way for treasures and then sat and watched the waves for awhile.

iridescent oyster shell

The fallen seagrass fence

sea grass close up

crabshell

skull of some sort...

beach comb finds

foggy island

tumultuous waves

John took a nap on my lap and a close up of my flip-flop

After a short nap, John and I walked back to his parents' house where we ate dinner and cake. But on the way back, I saw and snapped this pretty picture:

The glowing Narcissus

A very lovely day, indeed.

The Orange Dress

This is a dress I've been planning and thinking about for a while now. I was looking at my sketchbook and saw some sketch/concepts for it dated May 2009! I figured it was about time to get it done. I was mostly inspired to do so because refashion co-op had a "Dress Challenge" and I totally meant to enter. I think I may be too late, now. I believe the last day to enter a dress for it was May 21st, which ended five minutes ago.  I finished it Thursday but neglected to post it until now, sadly.

I made it out of this old green t-shirt that John didn't want anymore and this orange* floral fabric that someone used as gift wrapping for me at one point....Pay no attention to the dates, my camera a little senile at this point.

 I'm totally loving these colours. The fabric has little green leaves that really look nice with the green shirt.

 I gave it a lace up back but I think it looks a little shoddy, so I believe I'll re-do it someday. For now I'll wear it as is to the beach and other casual summery outings.



*John thinks it's more of a peach than an orange.

Refashion Magic

This past week I made an amazing skirt...Out of an old pair of pants. It may be my best refashion project yet!

Springy, stretchy knit dance pants

It started when I got my amazing turquoise and brown striped socks for my birthday. I have a plethora of shirts and blouses that matched the turquoise stripe, but as I searched my closets I realised...I had no brown skirts! This must be remedied, thought I. I grabbed up a brown pair of pants. They were the stretchy, swingy, wide legged dance style pants. The kind that almost look like a skirt if you keep your legs close together as you wear them.

I hardly ever wore these pants; they were too short for my style, and slightly too large for my waist anyway. I thought about simply cutting the inseam apart and resewing it together skirt style but I didn't like that idea. It would be too long and the material wasn't right for a long skirt. It would make a nice knee length skirt, I thought.

Recently, I found a skirt at the thrift store that has since become my favourite skirt. It's made of the stretchy, springy nylon stuff, is an aqua green colour and has a floaty, uneven, wavy hemline. It looks like a fairy skirt. I, then knew, as I looked at my brown pants, exactly what style skirt I'd try to make.

I pose with my teapots

I cut the inseam and then cut uneven waves off the bottom of each pant leg. (I regret now that I did not take pictures of this part.) It looked good but not good enough. Just the pants, cut, cropped and resewn as a skirt didn't seem right. Not wide enough, not flared enough. It hung limply. It needed some gores. I snipped up the side of each leg and used the cut off pant legs to be large triangle style gores. I sewed them all together and voila! A really lovely skirt.

A spin shot

 It has flare and bounce and goes really well with my socks. Turns out, it also goes really well with one of my other best refashion garments: A blue striped bodice-vest I made out of an old button up collar shirt.

awesome

The lace up back on my refashioned bodice

This kind of outfit makes you feel magical. And it's perfect for Spring and Summer.

Update 5/2/11 5:30pm: While browsing one of my favourite refashion sites Refashion Co-op, I noticed they have a refashion "dress challenge" Which sounds totally awesome! And I think I'm going to try and make a dress for it. I don't get to refashioning as often as I like, but I love it and I would love to have motivation to do it more often (as if I need more clothes, haha) so I'm thinking of joining the co-op. We'll see! In the meantime, you should check out their site as it's mega cool and pretty inspiring!

Oh the things I've been up to.

It feels like I haven't posted in forever! Well, this past week has been pretty full of all kinds of stuff, fun and otherwise. John's been working some long days and some how that makes me tired too...Some kind of empathy link going on there.

Anyway, I've been taking tons of photos. And here are a few of what I've been up to lately...

 And what spring has been up to...

Getting excited about leaves!

 I crocheted a bit

a scarf - nearly done!

 I had a birthday on the 21st. I turned 24!

 (Hello)

Blue skies birthday

 On my birthday, I found a bead store and bought some. It's my birthday present to ME!

Beautiful beads

 Then I made some earrings with them...None like the other, two different earrings = twice as expressive. :)

Who needs matching sets?

 Had a great Easter.

Easter egg rolls. (Clever, no?)

Yum.

 Lots of rainy days = lots of green!

See those tiny green flecks? Those are called "leaves," my friend.

Ultra fashionable

I  made some earrings for my friend, whose birthday is near mine.  She also likes wearing mismatched earrings. So I made her a pair that matched to mismatch.

A "pair" of earrings

 And wrote her a 20 page letter...

Earrings and a letter

Birthday socks!

 I got some amazing socks in the mail from my sister! Thanks, Bett!

Here I model my fab socks

I also had a mega gnocchi failure and an awesome cupcake success. You win some you lose some, meh.

I plan to redeem myself and boost my gnocchi-ego tonight and try again. Stay tuned, tomorrow I'll be posting the myriads of photos of spring flowers I've been taking. And if I make any more earrings, I'll be sure to post those too!