Recap from Figments & Filaments

In things that kind of blow my mind, we now have a costuming convention right here in Kansas City last weekend.  Figments & Filaments was a first year costuming convention whose goal seemed to be to draw together as many of the different avenues of costuming under one roof.  There was a heavy representation by the SCA and Ren Faire contingents, as well as a ton of steampunk.  Not too many of the recreationists (is that a word?  I think I'll declare it one) and definitely not the usual 'con costuming' vibe.  But this was great, because it meant that almost everything there was new to me.  I brought out mine and my niece's hanboks for the display gallery, which turned out really well.  I was surprised by just how many people recognized them as being Korean and were knowledgeable enough about them to have good discussions.

I started my weekend off with a lecture from Matthew Gnagy.  I can't even remember what the official title of his talk was, but it was two hours of everything from fashion education to historical costuming to tailoring for TV.  What really stuck with me, though, was how many Ah ha! moments I took out of his talk.  You know the feeling.  You've been working on something for months or years, plugging right along, when some little thing that you read or see somewhere just makes you go OH!  THAT'S how that's supposed to be done.  Weird shifted sleeve gusset things and the shoulder padding in suits were demystified.  As well as the concept of using trim as both a stiffener and anchor for gathering, rather than sorting out the garment, THEN applying the trim.  So lots of time cuts and the like.  There was also some great discussion about the history of (and the differences between) tailoring and dressmaking that gave me lots of thinky thoughts to ponder while noticing my own hand-sewing habits (good and bad).

I also attended a great show-and-tell about cotton and other textiles in Medieval Japan.  Getting to touch all of the fabulous fabric types and examples of the different dyeing techniques was a real treat.  Another surprising jem was the talk on the changes in military uniforms leading up to and throughout World War I.  A group of living historians from the Liberty Memorial came out and they had TONS of fun stuff to look though.  I learned a lot about the changes in warfare tactics and how the uniforms had to change because of it.

Saturday, I co-hosted an informational meetup for the Kansas City Costumers' Guild.  Which meant fully dressed first-thing in the morning.  But we had muffins, so that made it okay.  We got a lot of new faces pop up, so hopefully we'll be able to use that to help boost activities in the Kansas City area.  Our first post-F&F activity is a sewing circle at my house next weekend, so we'll see how it goes.

Saturday night was the fashion show.  I got V to wear her Poison Ivy dress again and I showed the kimono and obi that I made for my mommy.  Unlike the usual con crowd, a hotel full of historical costumers instantly zoomed in on the little details in the beading and embroidery, which was a lovely ego stroke for me.  They had a neat setup where they projected complementary images on the backdrop, which I thought was fun.

Lounging about in the halls, putting the finishing touches on my petticoat.
It's a bit warm, but oh man, the Mr Freeze smoking jacket is so comfortable.

Sunday morning was largely a wash for me, as we stayed up late the night before eating pizza and doing an MST3K of Man of Steel.  By the time that I rolled out of bed, I had to scramble to both dress and pack at the same time.  Luckily, I had slotted my 18th century getup for this, which required no doing of the hair and makeup.  Yay for caps!  I've got 8 different projects from the Historical Sew Fortnightly in this outfit, having just completed the short gown a few weeks ago.  I was tickled to finally have a complete outfit so that I could get some use out of the things that I'd been working on for the better part of the last year.

And the best part, they've just announced their dates for next year. APRIL 24-26th, 2015 at a new larger) hotel down in Overland Park.  It's three weeks ahead of Costume Con this time, so there should be plenty of wiggle room to do both .  So excited!

ASL

A bit late getting this out there, but a few weeks ago, I got to do an impromptu road trip out to St Louis for Anime St Louis.  Now, anime cons are not my usual cuppa, but I had friends competing in the qualifiers for the World Cosplay Summit and I agreed to come out as moral support/gopher/roadie, etc.  The WCS, for those who've never heard of it, is a competitive thing for cosplay duos from a whole slew of countries compete to get a trip to Japan to represent their country in competition.  It was facinating to see costuming with a different purpose than what I usually get up to.  These were artists who really focused on embodying their characters and telling a story.  I'm more of a celebrate the craft of it kind of person, and only have a few character cosplays for the fun of it.  Don't get me wrong, there was pleanty of mad skills being represented, they just take it that one step farther.  All of the teams had elaborate props and stage setups, as well as well-choreagraphed presentations including everything from dancing to fight scenes!

Aren't they just amazing?

It felt like a bit of a waste to drive all the way across the state and not compete, though.  So I took a look at ASL's Masquerade info and they actually had no rules prohibiting non-Japanese source costumes.  Score!  So I brought out my Queen of Hearts costume and entered it.  A local friend also happened to have plans to be at the con, so I batted my eyelashes and G agreed to dress up as the King with me.  Now, these were never intended to be competition costumes, so I was unsuprised that out of 80 or so entries that we didn't get anything.  But it was fun as hell to play dress up for a different kind of crowd.  One thing I noticed that's different from my usual haunts was in how the average person interacted with me in costume.  Usually, I'd get someone say something to the effect of complimenting me on my costume by name in order to show that it was recognized.  But amongst the anime fans, I was addressed in character.  Like, to the effect of people holding doors and bowing and saying "Your Majesty."  Such a treat.  Note to self: more cosplay of royalty.  

Tsk, tsk.  Trying to pawn off the wrong color of roses.

HSF 8: UFOs (UnFinished Objects) - Cranberry Short Gown

I first started working on this back in November, thinking that I'd finish it in time for the last HSF challenge of 2013 - Celebrate.  I'd already completed every other item needed for a simple 18th century outfit, all I needed was the top.  Well, life being what it is, I got preoccupied making Christmas gifts and then investing everything that I had into the 1920s Batman villains group.  So, into the bottomless pit that is my WIP basket on the shelf.  Four months later, I finally found the few hours that I needed to finish the trim and stomacher.

So this gown is made from a single decorative shower curtain that I picked up at Goodwill for a whole $2.99.  I kid you not.  It may be polyester, but there's a small diamond pattern woven into the material and it's just worn enough that, from a few feet away it's kind of hard to tell.  I found that using stupid cheap materials helped me get over the freak out of trying something completely different.  Most of my historical sewing has been from the Victorian era onward, so the drastically different construction styles of the 1700s were a bit intimidating for me.  But with this, I found I could just let go of the stress over trying to get it 'right', since hey, it's an effing shower curtain.  It's already so far off of accurate that it's just not worth worrying about.

Pattern listed in this Duran Textiles newsletter, which I almost certainly came across on the HSF Facebook.

As you can see, I took some serious liberties with the pattern.  I had to sew two panels of the shower curtain together to get a piece of fabric wide enough, but then I cut the gown in one piece, just like the pattern said.  But when I tried it on I felt like I was wearing a sack.  While it's not intended to be a flattering piece, I kinda felt like it needed a little something more.  So I took in the side seams down to the waist, putting the rest of the skirt into an inverted box pleat.  There's a box pleat in the center back, which is top-stitched down to the waist, then left open in the skirt.  I also cut back the center fronts a couple of inches and had the gown close over a stomacher instead.

I took advantage of all of those pre-hemmed ruffles from the shower curtain to add ruching around the neckline and sleeve cuffs.  This was one of those things that sounded simple enough in my head, but ended up being awfully cumbersome in actuality.  While technically straightforward, hand gathering all of that trim felt like it took forever.  Seriously, 80% of the time spent on this had to be working on that trim.

The gown closes over a stomacher in the center front, but the front edges tuck under
the giant ruffle so that you can't see them.  It kinda makes it look like it's all one piece.

From the side, showing the box pleat that lets the skirt open up over the petticoats (that I'm not wearing).

It dips down low enough in the back that I shouldn't have any trouble tucking a fichu around the neck.

And the stomacher all on it's own.  There are six zip ties at 1 inch intervals sewn between
two layers of cotton canvas.  then the front and back were covered with cranberry fabric.  

What the items is: 18th Century Short Gown

The Challenge: #8 UFO

Fabric: one ruffly polyester shower curtain from the Goodwill

Pattern: modified from the one published in this Duran Textiles newsletter.

Year: mid- to late-18th century

Notions: polyester thread, zip ties.

How historically accurate is it?  Maybe 40% if I'm stretching it.  I took some liberties with the pattern and the materials are laughable for accuracy.

Hours to complete: 15+ (hand ruching only sounds simple in your head)

First worn: Figments and Filaments is coming up this weekend.  I'm thinking of breaking it out for that.

Total cost: $3 for the shower curtain, perhaps a $1 worth of interlining for the stomacher and a half dozen zip ties.


And to top it off, here are some of the extant garments that I used for inspiration:

18th c Cotton Caraco (Belgian), from the Met.

Caraco Jacketc 1760 (altered 1780), LACMA.

Silk Dress c 1778 (French), the Met

Plaid silk caraco jacket, c. 1770 listed by Whitaker Auctions.

HSF 7: Head and Toes - 18th century court gown project

I thought I was taking an easy out on this challenge, but oh my gods, no.  I've had these shoes for something like two months now, but had been so intimidated by the thought of punching holes in them that I've left off on attaching the buckles until there wasn't much choice left.  Despite viewing both the tutorial and video on the website, I was still having trouble visualizing how the buckles went together.  However, Lauren was great with a prompt response to a plea for help via her website and having a different photo of the buckles in action certainly helped.  I still ended up poking about twice as many sets of holes as necessary, but there's nothing to be done about that now.  Most of them are hidden by the upper latchet, but at least one prominent set of holes isn't, so I'll be looking for a way to embellish them that covers that.  Giant silk ribbon bow, perhaps.  Must put ivory ribbon on the shopping list.

I'm still kicking myself for my first few holes that I made with the awl, as that was quite a struggle.  However, with a bit of leather conditioner, I think that those holes will be the easiest to minimize the appearance of.  I later switched over to the punch on my grommet setter, which was super easy and made perfect little round holes which look great everywhere, except smack dab in the center of the upper latches on the shoe turned away from the camera.  Ah well.  The sting is eased a bit as I chose to go with a pair of the Imperfects.  What little damage I could find was nothing compared to the scuffs I made putting on the buckles, so I consider that a choice well made.

I haven't done any further embellishment on these because I'm wanting a pair of straight up ivory shoes to go with the 18th century court gown that could double to be worn with my more generic 18th c outfits.  Also, I can't stand to cover that leather up because it's soooooo soft.

Year: 1770s
Notions: reproduction buckles
How historically accurate is it? pretty spot on
Hours to complete: 2, but at least half of that was spend staring at them in terror with an awl in my hand.
First worn: Hopefully next weekend for Figments and Filaments
Total cost: round about $150 for shoes plus buckles

HSF 6: Fairytales - 18th century short cloak

For the Fairytales challenge, I decided to make myself a Little Red Riding Hood cloak.  I used the pattern diagrammed out in Costume Close Up, partnered with the instructions from The Hive Online's discussion on short cloaks and building on what I learned from the short cloak I made last fall for my mother-in-law to wear with her Acadian costume.

The wool is re-purposed from a plain hemmed shawl that I wore with my Melisandre costume.  It had been run through the abuse of a hot wash and high heat dryer cycle to get it a bit felled and a softer, more abused look.  The lining is silk twill and it and the silk ribbon for the ties and hem facing were dyed together.  (The ribbon went into the bath first, then the twill.  But at that point, I needed to add a touch more water to keep everything submerged, and thus the lighter tone of the hood lining.)

The entire thing is hand-sewn, with a silk ribbon used as a lightweight hem facing instead of leaving the edges raw.  I doubt it's terribly historically accurate to accentuate the ties with buttons, but I had the wolf head buttons on hand and couldn't resist.

The Challenge: #6 Fairytales

Fabric: wool outer and silk twill lining

Pattern: from Costume Close Up, with modifications from The Hive Online

Year: mid to late 18th century

Notions: silk ribbon, gold tone buttons and cotton thread

How historically accurate is it? Just about as accurate as I can get.

Hours to complete: Maybe 12, I didn't really keep track.

First worn: you're looking at it

Total cost: $18 for the wool, $1 worth of silk twill, $3 worth of ribbon and $3 for the buttons.  So $25 total.

Yeah, ignore the fact that I'm in my skivvies.
I was pulling double duty and photographing an upcoming project at the same time.

I just LOVE the way this falls over the shoulders.

Yay for an even hemline on the fist try

Close up of the back of the hood.  I'm still not sure I got the pleats arranged the way they were intended,
but this is what I could manage to make work.  The instructions were very insistent on there being a
correct way to do this, but not terribly clear on exactly what that way was.

Close up of the buttons and ties.

And the hem facing.  I pretty pleased with the color matching.  Even though they're not all the same intensity,
they are all the same shade and I think they go well together.

Now, to find myself a basket!

HSF 4: Jeogori for Hanbok

I spent the weekend out at Naka-Kon, a local Japanese cultural and anime convention and I wanted to share something new I made up for my niece to wear to her Very First Con!  Ahem.  Proud aunty, much?  You betcha.

A friend and I had agreed in advance that we'd wear our hanbok together at some point over the weekend, and once it became confirmed that my 14-year-old niece was going to join us, I wanted to make one for her, too.  Cue the last minute side-lining of the court gown project to work on this.  It turns out that I'd loaned out the Folkwear hanbok pattern that I'd used, but I lucked out in that the individual pieces from my own mockup were still in the drawer.  Having know measurements, but a vague notion of my niece's dimensions, I just sewed any of the broken down panels together and then sewed a one inch fold down the center of all of the pieces.  It came out, not actually that bad.

The fabric was a yellow synthetic organza with screen printed roses in silver from the stash of fabrics that my friend D brought back for me from South Korea.  Like the other samples intended for jeogori, the fabric was sold in one length and the designs were pre-arranged specifically for that garment.  The black of the cuffs and matching chima look pretty dark in pictures, but in natural lighting, she made quite an impact.  The chima is organza over bridal satin, with the organza tucked up and stitched onto the satin base to give it that fluffy look.

What the items is: Jeogori for Korean Hanbok
The Challenge: #4 Bodice
Fabric: pale yellow synthetic organza with silver screen printed roses, synthetic black taffeta cuffs, synthetic silver satin for piping and white cotton sheeting for lining.
Pattern: Folkwear 147
Year: modern adaptation of the jacket length popular during the mid- to late- 1800s.
Notions: cotton cord for piping, black satin blanket binding for ties (shut up, I had some leftover from a Christmas present and it's stiffer than ribbon), and white tailors tape for finishing the sleeve seam and the bottom hem..
How historically accurate is it? Meh, I'm kinda stretching it with this one.  While the shape is technically fine, the materials are a purely modern adaptation.
Hours to complete: 8, but only because I let myself hand finish all of the internal seams and hem facing.
First worn: just today for the panel on Korean clothing at Naka-Kon
Total cost: while I had to make a last-minute run to get the materials for the chima, the jeogori was entirely from stash.

HSF #4: Under it All - Petticoat for an 18th Century Court Gown

Next milestone in the 18th century court gown project is the petticoat.  Now, at first glance, the dress looks like it might have an open skirt on top of a petticoat of the same red fabric, with a bit of additional fur trim.  However, if you look closely at the far right hand hem of the dress, there's a small bit of something off white -ishsticking out there at the end.

Hmm... might have to find me a stuffed spotted dog to go with the costume.

The lovely people over on the Grand Ladies website where I first spotted this dress have hypothesized that it's a pale bit of petticoat sticking out and that, consequently, the fur-trimmed panel in the front is simply intended to create the illusion of a second petticoat underneath.  Now, I'm all about keeping it simple, and it seems that having the skirt be all one piece will not only save fabric, but also be easier to maneuver in. There's no worrying that the heavy fur will flip parts of the skirt open and look unsightly.

So, a pale petticoat it is.  I decided to keep it simple with this one and use what I had on hand.  I had eight yards of un-dyed dupioni silk left over from a cosplay project that never materialized, so I opted to use that.  Bonus points in that if I ever stop wearing this costume, I'll have large pieces of silk that I can tear out and dye to fit whatever the new project needs.  It's what they would have done back then.

On to the math.  My panniers have a 160" circumference at the bottom hoop.  For simplicity's sake, I'm going to pretend that's in a perfect circle for the next bit.  Working under the assumption that each additional petticoat is going to add 2" out from the body has worked well for me thus far in life.  If you'll remember from your geometry classes, the circumference of a circle is equal to 2πr, where r is the radius of the circle and π is Pi, (approximately 3.14).  So my pretend-it's-a-circle panniers would be have a radius of 160/2π, which is roughly equal to 25.5 inches.  Assuming that the ivory petticoat is going to stand out two inches from that, the petticoat would have a radius of 25.5 + 2 = 27.5 inches.  The circumference of this would be 2(3.14)(27.5) = 172.7 inches.

The fabric I have is 45" wide.  Assuming 1/2" seams, that leaves me with 44" of usable width per panel.  If I had 4 panels, then that would give me a circumference of 176 inches.  That sounds close enough to me.  So, four panels it is.  Now, how long should I cut those four panels of fabric?  I came across a couple of great tutorials from La Couturière Parisienne (excellent break down of the length requirements over different sizes of foundations) and The Fashionable Past (superb step-by-step instructions for the pleating that deals with all that extra fabric).  While the final dress was going to be floor length, I wanted to make sure that the petticoat was a good 2" shorter than that.  Keeping in mind that I'd be in 1" heels, and that another inch was going to get eaten up in the hem,  I decided on 44" for the raw length.  I'm trying to be careful about keeping track of the math now, because this is acting as the trial run for the outer skirt.

I used machine stitching to assemble the panels and attach them to the waist band, then hand stitching to finish the hem, waist ties and the top of the side pleats.  The lengthwise seams were pressed open and the selvages left as is.  Openings were left on each side to access the pockets, and these seams were turned under twice and finished with a running back stitch.  The hem took about 3 hours of hand sewing to do, but it was a simple stitch and kind of meditative.  I figure that some people can spend 3 hours watching tv in a single night, so I don't consider that time wasted at all.

From the front.  You can still see a bit of hoop showing through, but the pleats stacking up on the ends should offer enough cushioning where I'll need it.  I'll wait and see how the fashion fabric drapes over it before I decide if I need to make another petticoat to go under this one.  It's hard to tell from this angle, but my friend crawled around on the floor and assured me that there's about a hand's width gap between the hem and the floor.

Side view.  While it't not quite as narrow a depth as historical references, neither am I.  So I'll call this good.

And THAT is how I plan to get through doors in this costume.  Will just have to make sure that the chemise is long enough to provide some modesty in the elevator.

Just the facts
What the items is: petticoat for an 18th century court gown
The Challenge: Under it All
Fabric: ~ 5 yards of un-dyed silk dupioni
Pattern: La Couturière Parisienne and The Fashionable Past
Year: 1770s
Notions: poly thread for the panel assembly, gold silk thread for the hem, un-dyed rayon ribbon for the waise binding and ties
How historically accurate is it? 9/10
Hours to complete: 6, about half of which was spent hand-sewing the hem
Total cost: $55 US

Epic Fail

Ha!  You can tell I'm relatively new to this world of blogging.  I've just now realized that when I delete comments on the comments tab, I'm actually deleting the comment.  Here this whole time, I thought I was just deleting the comment notification.  Epic fail.  So, apologies to anyone who's noticed a comment of theirs disappearing.  It was wholly unintentional.

Along the theme of epic fails, my dress form bit the dust today.  Apparently, the court panniers were just too much for her to handle.  She had a good run, though.  I figure that with all of the heavy Victorian bustle gowns that I've hung on her, it was bound to happen eventually.

So sad.  :(

On the bright side, though, a replacement has been ordered.  I went with the Dritz Twin-Fit Dress Form, Full Figure.  Ordering through Amazon, I was able to get it at a much better price than if I'd purchased it in the store.  Until it gets here, I'll just have to set aside the petticoat for the court dress and work on something else.  Perhaps I'll start drafting out a pattern for the bodice.

Project Summary: Bilbo's Dressing Gown from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

I have a Honey, and my Honey has a particular affinity with Hobbits. So, when the first of the Hobbit movies came out, of COURSE he needed to have himself a new costume. We collectively latched onto the idea of the dressing gown. Him because it was quircky and awesome, me becaue I could turn my head to the side and go "How the f*** did they make that?" One of the things that I love about this hobby is figuring things out bit. I've not seen a lot of people attempt this particular project, so I really wanted to put what I learned out into the world. Hopefully, it'll help someone else.

In one of the early sequences of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, we Bilbo settling down in his tidy dining room to eat his dinner in peace. As Tolkien fans know, Bilbo’s dinner (and his life) are interrupted by a company of dwarves. During this key sequence of the movie, Bilbo is seen wearing a quaint and cozy patchwork dressing gown.

The dressing gown appears to have been made out of a patchwork of velvets in a variety of solids colors and prints. The patchwork appears to have a random pattern. It has a solid burgundy velvet collar, cuffs and belt with piping on terminal edges that is light (but not white or ivory) in color and appears to have a very small pattern on it. Looking at the screen caps from the back, it appears that the back of the dressing gown could possibly be from three pieces with princess-style seams, which would give the garment a bit more of a fitted look. However, I could just as easily reason in my head that those were folds in the fabric. Seeing as how working with the quilting was going to be a challenge enough in it's own right, I went with the easier interpretation and went ahead and made the back a flat piece with a straight line seam down the center. Any fitting was then done at the side seams.

The pattern I used as a launching point was Butterick 3648 Making History: Dickens St. Nicholas/Ghost of Christmas Past. I chose this for simplicity's sake: I already had it on hand and it was 'close enough". I figured a bathrobe couldn't be that hard to cobble together. So I adjusted the sleeves to be a bit more tube-like and the robes shorter and less full.

I made a muslin mock up out of an unremarkable cotton print from my stash. It was important to keep in mind that heavy fabrics will stand out more and this was taken into account in the fitting. Hem allowances for collar, cuff and bottom hem were taken into account. Grain lines were marked onto the mock up pieces, which was critically important for matching the patchwork layer.

The muslin mock up was disassembled and laid out as a guide for assembling the patchwork layer so that I wouldn't have to quilt any more of the velvet than absolutely necessary. It appears that the dressing gown is made of quilted velvet, sewn together in squares and rectangles to form a completely randomized pattern. The next step was to sort out what, if any, sort of pattern was used in the organization of the quilting. A couple of black and white prints of the costume helped me focus. I used the base of Bilbo's ear as a size reference and then outlined all of the places where I could identify the shape, then extrapolated from there.

This is what I could come up with as far as a recognizable pattern.  A few of the 8-square blocks had a repeated pattern and I could identify four distinct arrangements.  For each block, I penciled in what color/pattern arrangements were present.

While it was impossible to find the exact fabric patterns that were used in the movie, we compiled a set of fabrics to give the same impression of texture and color in the original. Some fabrics were used in the form in which they were purchased; other pieces of fabric were dyed into one or more colors to create more variety in the final piece.

When choosing fabrics, I wanted to stick to natural fibers. This gave the benefit of breathability, and also the opportunity to adjust the colors of some basic light colored solids to increase variety. Choices were further weeded down by systematically ignoring all stretch or panne velvets that were available. I was left with the choice between cotton and silk, and went with cotton because of the appropriate prints I could find and relative affordability. While a few of the patches in the final garment are presented in the exact color in which they came, many more were dyed to that color by Michelle and I. I purchased large quantities of solid colored velvet in light blue and ivory, then cut them into 1/8 yard pieces and dyed them in small batches using Dharma Fiber Reactive dyes to yield a stunning array of blues, greens, golds, reds and browns.

All of the velvets and lining material for this costume were purchased online from Denver Discount fabrics. They did not have the appropriate color of burgundy for the trims, so that was also dyed by hand using the Buttercream velvet and Dharma Fiber Reactive dye in Burgundy. The 100% cotton chambray lining was originally purchased in peach, but the fabric was a poor match for the velvets and was also thrown into the burgundy dye bath. The cotton print for the piping was pulled from my stash and was originally a pale lavender. To help it blend in with the earthier tones of the velvet patchwork, the print was dyed with a mix of maroon and brown Rit dye, giving it a much more muted color.

My honey was conscripted to help with the cutting and labeling of squares, in addition to doing much of the ironing which had to happen to every seam. Trying to keep the nap going in the same direction for all pieces was a pain in the rump. What we ended up doing was to use chalk arrows drawn on the back of each piece.

SO many little squares and rectangles.

A plain cotton muslin was dyed a dusty rose and used as lining.  Once each of the body and sleeve pieces were fully quilted, I used the lining pieces to cut out the pattern piece from the quilting.  The lapel is made from two 3" wide strips of velvet that were tappered to 2" at their terminal ends, then attached to a cotton backing with piping along the seam.  The cuffs have velvet on the inside and out, with piping along the terminal seam.  The belt is simply two long strips of velvet sewn right sides together, then turned right side out.  The hem was turned up and sewn by hand to avoid obvious stitch lines on the velvet.

Photo by official CC30 photographer, Richard Man.

Photo by official CC30 photographer, Richard Man.

Photo by official CC30 photographer, Richard Man.

The hairy feet, Honey did all by himself.  I had nothing to do with that, beyond the generous tip left for the housekeeping staff for cleaning up the dusting of curly dark hairs off of our bathroom floor.  We entered the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Masquerade at Costume Con 31 (May, 2013) where it received a Workmanship Award for Best Journeyman. Such a well dressed hobbit.

As a fun side project, I made up a small quilt to use up the leftover materials.  The quilt is made exactly like the robe, with lining and piping scraps pieced together for the backing, and rows of piping along both edges of the burgundy velvet border.  It's too small to be a lap blanket, but it should look lovely hanging on the guest room wall.