Costume College, Saturday

Saturday started off bright at early at 9am for more programming.  I started with a talk on tailoring a man's Regency tailcoats, presented by the gal who designs patterns for Laughing Moon.  I picked up a few tid bits about construction and such, but it was mostly targeted towards people who are going to use their patterns as opposed to those figuring it out from the tailoring manuals of the time.  She did have some good notes about fabric weights and the types of support structure that were and were not required for the time period, though.  So that was helpful.

Next up was a class on beginning bobbin lace.  While kits were available (of which I bought one), there wasn't really the time for any instruction.  It was more of an introduction to what it was, with the tools for those who want to try it at home.

If I ever get around to using my kit, this is the sample of what it is that I'll be making.

 Next up was 18th century women's outerwear, which covered short and long cloaks and pelisses.  No real new information for me there, but I caught a lot of names for references and research collections online.  Also, now I want to make a pelisse.  No good reason for it, other than I haven't made one yet and they look interesting.  Oh, this 18th century rabbit hole that I have fallen into.

Also hit Five Faux-Historical Accessories which singled out some of the biggest no-nos of accessorizing historical costume, as well some both some cheap-n-easy-n-close-enough and not-so-cheap-but-super-accurate ways of fixing it.  Makes me want to go home and make a lot of purses and reticules and the like.

Saturday night was the big gala event, and what a production it was.  They do this semi-organized 'red carpet' event where they have chairs lining the halls going into the ballroom and attendees get to walk down it and have their picture taken/be gawked at.  It was kinda fun, if a little overwhelming.  But I suppose it's better than the alternative, which is everyone just crowding about the space and hoping to catch a picture of the costumes if they can. It also significantly ups the likelihood of finding photos of yourself online the next day, which I appreciated.  The Honey and I went the full nine yards with the hair and makeup, which I thought really pulled the whole thing together.  The look was relatively simple, really. After a touch of concealer where needed, we just loaded up with a metric ton of matte white eye shadow from Sephora, then touched the cheeks with a matte red. Red lip liner only, to keep it matte.   A scant touch of mascara for both of us and a light dusting of pale blue eye shadow for me and we were ready to go.  I know there's not really supposed to be any color on the eyelids, but my babies were getting lost in a sea of white powder and I had to do something.

Here we are texting the obligatory "look how silly we look" selfies to our friends back home.

Here we are all dressed up.  I like how the red/blue/ivory with gold and brown color palette worked out.

Actually, sitting in panniers turned out to be not that difficult after all.
So long as the seats next to me remained unoccupied.  ;)

Such a cad.  The outfit was like an open invitation to ham it up for the crowds.

Another full length shot.  I think I know why women in the time seemed to pose with their hands
where they did.  I needed to use the fan to hide where my pocket access slits tended to gape open.
Add that to the list of things that need to be tweaked when I get home, as well as adding fur revers
to my bodice, hooks to hold the front of the skirts up and moving the shoulder seam on Honey's coat.

I fell behind and this outfit totally would not have happened had it not been for Bethany's last minute help.
I did the pattern & mock up of the coat, her the cutting and assembly, and I the hem/trim/buttons.

Honey's wig, courtesy of Bethany.  It was perfect!

I'm just giddy over my wig.  I took a lot of progress pics and promise to get those up here at some point very soon.  I had to use the glue stick trick to get the tiny hairs in front of my ears to stay in place, but next time will have to powder them a bit more thoroughly.  I'll probably disassemble the wig and re-style it at some point before the next Costume Con, try to make the shape a bit less cone-like and a bit more symmetrical.  Maybe now I can read Kendra's book in depth and figure out a better way to manage that nonsense in the back.

Shot of my wig, courtesy of Geri, who had the forethought to take side
view photos of both the wig and the dress for me.

And some bonus shots of some of my favorite costumes of the night.  Most of them were from people I didn't know personally, so if you recognize yourself or a friend, please let me know.

So miffed that this photo didn't turn out better, but I had to include it anyway
because the makeup and prosthetics job on this was just phenomenal.

This matched pair were really sharp in their slate grey.  I kind of wanted to follow
him around and take pictures of the pleats in his coat, as they were pretty sharp.

This outfit was so fun, and she seemed to have such fun wearing it.  Bounding around
and running up and down the halls, fluffs of hair and swags of fabric bouncing in the breeze.

Not the best view from the side, but...

...check out that trim!  I will bow down to the master on this one.  That braid is well done.

The little embroidered emblems inside the swirls of trim were so intricate.

Another entry from the 18th c court ensembles group.  It was a coronation gown,
so she had one hell of a train following her around.

  

The petals of this skirt were just to die for.

Woo hoo, plaid!  Orange and blue plaid is one of those prints that I'd look at on the bolt and think, nah.
But it loos SO sharp in a bustle dress.  Well done, Tracy!

Possibly my all time favorite of the night.  The embroidery on this was so sharp.
And her veil was divine.  And the TIARA!   

Tanya looking RWAR!  All of her costumes were so fun.

Urgh, this pic just does not do justice to Melissa's awesome sleeves.

Victorian looking positively innocent in white at a table filled with red.  Loving the hair.

Costume College, Thursday & Friday

While classes at Costume College properly start on Friday morning, the event gets rolling on Thursday evening with the Pool Party.  This year they had a Tiki Chic theme and I wore the hibiscus kimono that I'd made for mom.  I loved that it gave me the excuse to wear my hand-painted haori jacket that normally gets no love at regular cons.  Lesson learned.  Wearing silk to CoCo = getting petted in the elevators.  Whether that's a caution or encouragement is up to the individual to decide.

I paired the outfit with a paper parasol that I'd picked up in a zoo gift shop somewhere
along the way (maybe Denver?).  It fit with the "purses and parasols" sub-theme of the
social, but was otherwise kinda useless in this after sunset event.

My adoptive con family (not con mommies, more like big sisters), who took me in and made me feel right at home. 

With Honey later in the evening, when he got bored and decided to crash the party.

While we just about closed the party down, it's a good thing that I didn't party TOO hard, because classes got rolling first thing Friday morning with Freshman Orientation at 8am.  I was surprised by just how many first timers there were.  But then again, the Dean seemed a bit surprised/pleased, too.  So perhaps this wasn't the norm.  I promptly ignored the number one rule of con-going and booked myself solid from 8-5 on my first day.  But there was just SO much to do.  After orientation/latter absorption time, I headed off to my only Limited class of the weekend, Embroidering a mid-19th century handkerchief.  It was essentially white work, which I've been working on for a while now, but I picked up some great alternate ways of doing things and learned a bit about how to take a line art design and choose the proper stitches to actually work it.  Plus the instructor brought in a batch of extant examples to drool over, and really, most of the class time got eaten up with the ogling, but I'm not complaining.

I had a linen handkerchief in my busy work bag for hemming, so I substituted it in for the cotton practice one
we were given in our kits.  I'm not really great at following through on practice projects, so I'm hoping that it
being a serviceable piece will help me stick it out.  The flowers and leaves are just so LITTLE, though.  Perhaps
I can use that to my advantage; challenging myself to complete just one leaf or just one flower at a time.

Monday I also hit up a Make-n-Take leather thimble workshop, a hand-bound eyelets overview, a sewing machine maintenance class (in which I took a LOT of notes, and also learned that perhaps ten years is long enough to be torturing my economy model Singer).

You kind of needed a thimble in order to work on this thimble, but I did get it most of the way done in class.
It's one of those in progress projects that I'll need to bang out when I get settled back at home.

Last class of the day was another make-n-take, this time getting us started on making death head buttons.  The instructor had some great super-sized props for teaching a large class and the class was great at getting me over that hump of not knowing where to even start.

I must not have been wrapping my button mold tight enough, but that led me to accidentally
discovering how to make two-color buttons when I tied off what was left of the red that I was
given and finished off with some of the white embroidery floss left over from my handkerchief class.

Friday evening's activity was the Ice Cream Social (theme: Club Ice, which I'm taking to have meant jewels and such).  But after a long day with no break, I was feeling pretty puny and decided to lay down for a nap instead.  The Honey kept poking me, though, and I did get up and get dressed in my Mr Freeze smoking jacket (with matching cravat and big 'diamond' tie tack) and head on down.  This was another one of those awkward social situations where I could look around the room and recognize lots of people from there blogs and such, but I had never met them personally and didn't know how to start.  I was definitely getting that bit where newbies can find Costume College intimidating, because it seemed like EVERYONE was there in groups and it's kinda overwhelming.  I mean, really, how does one go about approaching someone new and saying the equivalent of "Hey, I've totally read all about the underwear you're wearing under that dress.  That corset makes your boobs look great!" and not come off at totally creepy?  Hmm... perhaps the social should have included and ice breaker?  I didn't snap any personal shots of my costume for this, but I did stop by official photography, so I'll have to post that once they become available.

And thus ended day two .

HSF 14: Paisley & Plaid - 1920s Flat Cap

Since I knew that I'd be well and truly occupied with Costume College this weekend, I got a quick and easy item out of the way for the next HSF challenge a few weeks in advance.  Behold, the early 20th century man's flat cap (part the second).

The hat matches the plaid lined Norfolk jacket that I finished for my honey back in January.  The hat I'd originally made was a touch too small and I had inserted the lining inside out (but I'd run out of time to remake it until now).

The original attempt at a flat cap for the 1920s Joker was made out of the plaid gauze flat lined to linen, then lined with polyester lining fabric.  For this one, I went with a more coordinated match to the suit.  

What the item is: man's flat cap
The Challenge: Paisley & Plaid
Fabric: wool/poly suiting, plaid cotton gauze lining, a few scraps of interfacing for the brim.
Pattern: loosely based on whatever tutorials I could find on a cursory google search.
Year: 1920s
Notions: just the thread to hold it all together
How historically accurate is it? I'd give it a 6/10.  The look is there, but it was not based on any particular extant piece.
Hours to complete: 3
First worn: at the KCCG's Friday Night Jazz Dinner
Total cost: I'm calling it zero, since it's assembled with scraps left over from the Joker's Norfolk jacket project. Even then, it's only a few dollars worth or materials.

Costume College, here I come!

Well, we've made it safely to Los Angeles, with all costumes here in their entirety and very little finishing left to be done.  Curls and ribbons still need to be attached to his & hers 18th century court-appropriate wigs , as well as a generous second helping of hairspray and gentle fingers to get them Gala-ready.

A pair of almost ready wigs.  While the base wigs are fully styled, any of the attachable pieces of curls and such were rolled up and packed in a separate box.  This avoided a significant amount of squish during travel.

Honey's court suit coat still needs buttons, and the trim could use a bit of a touch up with a hot iron.

And a sneak peak at Honey's court suit.  Despite being a "last minute" project, I'm still just tickled at how it turned out.

Pretty much everything needs a good ironing, but other than that, everything was finished on time!  Thanks in no small part to our summer house guest and sewing buddy, Bethany, who stepped in when life frazzles made personally finishing everything an unattainable goal for me.  She took my mock up for the coat for the court suit, cut and assembled all the layers (including those persnickety cuffs) and had it ready for me to hem/trim/top-stitch and throw into a suitcase.  PLUS, she styled a wig up for Honey to wear with said court suit, so that now we can be a pair of poncy ash blondes together.  Plus plus, having another costumer hanging about all summer was infinitely handy for all of those little conundrums like "How should I shape this?" or "Do you think this goes like this or like that?"  Seriously sped up the process to have a constant source of "no, that's fine; keep going," on hand.

It feels weird to be going to a con "alone" for the first time in, well, perhaps ever.  I often travel or meet up with some assortment of my 'usual crowd', whether it's Costume Con, Dragon*Con, Arisia, or any number of smaller cons we've hit up along the years.  It really hit me when our plane landed at LAX and, other than the sister-in-law who so graciously volunteered to pick us up at the airport, we had no one to notify of our arrival.  There was no coordinating of dinner plans or making last minute supply runs.  While my Honey is accompanying me to the Gala, he's not attending the con itself and it hit me that I don't ACTUALLY know anyone else here.  Despite knowing that I'm approaching a long weekend at a hotel filled with people who geek out about costumes just as much as (if not possibly more than) me, I'm finding myself feeling just a tad bit lonely.  I am terribly non-assertive when it comes to interacting with new people, so if you see me standing about, please come say hello.

This costumer's closet.  Wow.  I'v been working my arse off since January.
It feels like it should have taken up more space than that.

From left to right we have:

Thursday Pool Party (purses and parasols): hibiscus kimono w/ crane parasol

Friday Night Social (club "ice"): Mr Freeze's 1920s smoking jacket (let's hope I don't regret wearing velvet)

Saturday Gala (If the Shoe Fits): His & Hers 18th c Court Ensembles
Sunday breakfast (Underdressed): 18th c short gown w/ cotton petticoat & white work apron
Sunday Tea (Ladies' Day at the Ascot): 1780s Chemise a la Reine w/ hedgehog wig and bergère hat

That's one ethnic, one cosplay (that doubles as 1920s), and three plus one from the 18th century (and a narrow few decades of it at that).  It was odd to be packing and have no corsets, hoops skirts or bustles in the pile.  I kept feeling like I was missing something.  For some reason, it doesn't seem like a lot, even though that's five costumes for me, plus one for my date to the Gala.  I feel kind of lost, not having any plans for hall costumes, beyond probably wearing the short gown around on Sunday before changing for the tea.  I get that this seems to be less of a wearing stuff during the day sort of event, but still.  I had to plan "normal" clothes and that's just plain weird.  Maybe I'll wear around the haori jacket from the kimono and the smoking jacket if the classrooms get cold.  ;)

Oh.  Might want to find time to reassemble the panniers before Saturday night.  *adds that to the list*

* * *

Edited to Add:  We crossed paths with a rowdy pair in the parking garage today who are also first time attendees.  Great big scary world just got the teeniest bit smaller.  :)

Sewing Update: late 18th Century "Hedgehog" Wig

Styling a wig to wear with my recently completed chemise de la reine was one of the many "short projects" that I had on my to do list to get ready for Costume College.  I needed something that would look a bit like this:  

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Marie-Thérèse-Victoire de France, dite Madame Victoire (1787)

Anne Rodbard, Mrs Blackburne, ca. 1787.

Go big or go home, right?  Frizzy fluff-tacular with trailing barrel curls in the back.  Not possessing a significant amount of hair myself, I had to go to a full wig.  I started with the "French Curl" wig from Amphigory, mostly because I already had one on hand that had out-lived it's original purpose.  It was my default generic Victorian-ish thing for a few years and the trailing curls in the back were starting to get a bit mangled from being pinned up into elaborate up-dos.  So, yay for re-using.  

I'm liking this cut/style for a starting point not only because of the curls, but because of the LENGTH of the curls.  On the crown of the head, the hair comprising the curls was only about six inches long.  In the middle, it was ten.  And I didn't measure the trainling ones in the back, but as you can see, they were fairly long.

Here's what I started with.  A little worse for the wear, but still serviceable.

I took a hand full of the nicest-looking of the trailing curls and wrapped them in a plastic bag for safe keeping.
This way, I wouldn't damage them in the back-combing adventures to come.  You can see where the teasing process has started on the left.

Midway through teasing the wig beyond all recognition.  I was seriously giggling my way
through this process, because it felt so awful to abuse the wig in such a fashion.
All I have to say, is thank goodness I never had to do such an atrocity to my own hair.

Opps!  Missed one.  I went over the entire head a couple of times, and any pieces where I could identify an individual curl got teased again.

Once I'd achieved a satisfactory amount of fluff, I needed to manage some width.  So I took the longest pieces of fluffed hair and pinned them back up into wig's foundation with wig pins.

Pinning up sections of teased curls with a wig pin.

Now it's time to see how it looks on my head.

Urh my god, it's so fluffy!  I felt ridiculous.  Seriously, I did this in the middle of the night and it took every ounce
of self-restraint I had not to wake everyone up and show them my ridiculous hair.

Trying it with the hat and that is MUCH better.  I'm going to the leave the trailing curls bagged up
until I get to con.  The less opportunity to mess them up, the better.

All of the tips and instructions I could find on the internet recommended using ridiculous amounts of hairspray at every stage in the styling process.  As I still need to pack this sucker for flying across the country, I'm not going to be able to store it on the wig form and protect it's shape.  (All of the space/wig heads available for such endeavors are already earmarked for the wigs of ridiculousness that goes with the court ensembles for the gala).  Instead, I'm just packing plenty of cheap hair spray and the styling combs and will touch it up when I get to the hotel.  As there's nothing much to be done with the curls hanging down the back, I've left them bagged up as well.

And that's one more thing checked off the to do list.

WIP: Man's 18th Century Court Suit

We're into the home stretch of getting ready for Costume College.  People at work have started noticing that I've got a vacation coming up, so they're asking about where I'm going and those inquiries usually lead to questions of "Are all of your costumes done?"  I usually just laugh and try not to cry.  Costumers are NEVER done.  We just run out of time and sequins.  There's no time for a proper write up, of anything, and it feels like most everything is in a state of almost done, so how about a photo-heavy sneak preview of what I've been working instead.

Honey is getting an 18th century court suit to be my escort to the Gala.  I had to start the costume from scratch and did so at T minus 28 days before con.

Linen shirt, linen stock and fall-front silk tafeta breeches.

The breeches were lined in cotton flour sack material from my grandmother's stash.  While the opacity was necessary, it adds a touch of bulky that, when combined with the extra roomy seat of the style and the "plastic-ish" shwerpiness make them kinda diaper-like.  Oh, my honey must love me, to wear something so unflattering.

Final fitting of the waistcoat before buttons and top-stitching.  I ended up trimming off about two inches of the upper neck area where it's folding back in the photo.  Adding a safety pin to close the cuffs really helps the look of the sleeves.

Adding the waistcoat does help tone down the ridiculousness of the bum fluff.  Not that the whole thign won't get covered up by a coat, anyway.  I saw it written in somebody's blog that the terribly unflattering seat of the pants just helps encourage the modern gentleman not to do anything so terribly inappropriate as take off their coat.  :)

And a shot of the knee band and buckle, of which I am terribly proud.  I found that lovely bit in the jewelry section intended as a photo fram for a necklace.  The plastic backing was held in place by a horizontal metal band, so rip out the plastic and trim off the loop for the necklace and Viola!  We have a buckle.

Since the fitting photos, I've finished up the buttons and button holes on all three pieces, as well as the top stitching on the waistcoat.  Now I just need to find some white tights that'll pass as stockings and finish up the coat, and that outfit will be done.  And by "finish the coat", what I really mean is "stop procrastinating because you think it's going to be hard and just get on with it already.  I have the mock up cut out, so at least it's started.  I don't fly out for another eight days yet.  I've got plenty of time.

I think.

HSF #13 Under $10 - Man's 18th century Stock

At first I was despairing when I thought that NOTHING of the gentleman's court suit I was working on would count towards any of the current challenges. (not paisley or plaid and CERTAINLY not cheap). But then I realized that one of the accessories that I was considering certainly would and all was saved. 

My honey's court suit needed neckwear, so a stock it would be.  I mostly followed the garment detailed in Costume Close-Up (only with WAY less pleats).  I happen to be one of those people who abhore ironing, so I chose to sew down all of the pleats.  I went with the terribly mathematically accurate method of using the in- and outside of the presser foot to measure my pleats.  There is a strip of linen scrap left over from the shirt that forms the interlining of the stock and the base to which the pleats are sewn down to.

Measuring up from the bottom one half the width of the presser foot anchors the inside of the pleat.

Flipping the outer layer back down away from the interlining and sewing one quarter the width of the presser foot makes for a (relatively) sharp crease when the layer is folded back up.

I ended up straying from the instructions in the book when it came to the back closure.  Not wanting to put out the money for an authentic reproduction stock buckle, I took myself off to my local crafting supply store and found a set of metal buckles intended for scrapbooking. 

$3.49 for a set of 8?  Don't mind if I do.

I also had to deviate when it came to the tabs for buckling.  I had a lot of trouble getting a linen tab to taper off sharply enough to be able to fit through the buckle.  After my first couple of failed attempts, I got frustrated and just cut the damn thing off, fitting a piece of silk ribbon into it's place.  The ribbon was easier to thread through the buckle and could be cinched blindly while worn for easy adjustment.  Not the prettiest bit of sewing I've ever done, but it'll do.

The largest was a touch small for the stock, but it was light weight.  As my honey was already concerned about stuff wrapped snugly around the neck, I decided not to use something small.  Although, in retrospect, this size might have gone better on the knee band of the breeches and the fancy buckle I used there would go better on the stock.  Ah well.

Only downside to sewing down the pleats is that it makes the finished product a bit stiff.  Or else I've made it too wide for my Honey's neck.  Probably a bit of both.  Either way, I'm going to run the whole thing through the wash a couple of times, to see if I can't get it to give up a bit of the fight.

With the coat collar covering some, and a wig covering most of what's left, the back closure really isn't going to be seen all that much.  I'll probably just have him tuck the ribbon tail into the neck of the waist coat and call it good.

For the HSF: 
What the item is: Man's Stock (formal neckware)
The Challenge: Under $10
Fabric: handkerchief weight linen outer, mid-weight linen interlining.
Pattern: Costume Close--Up #24
Year: later half of the 1700s
Notions: poly thread (internal stitchings), linen thread (top stitching), a scrap of silk ribbon to replace a too-thick tab and a buckle from a set intended for scrapbooking.
How historically accurate is it? the part you'll be able to see is pretty spot on. I used the machine to sew down all of the pleats so that I wouldn't have to re-iron every single one of them whenever it was washed. But I didn't want to put out for a proper recreating stock buckle and so used what I could find. Plus I didn't size down the tab sufficiently for easy buckling, so I had to replace the tab with ribbon. I'll give it a six out of ten.
Hours to complete: about three
First worn: another piece ready to pack for Costume College.
Total cost: uses mere scraps of a $15/yd piece of linen. Even counting the full cost of all of the buckles in the set that i didn't use, we're still at under $5.