Moving on...

 No pics, more's the pity,  but I did get the waistband on that skirt today.  It was a massive wrestling job and it turned out...acceptable for stage, lol.  The fabric is a wiry poly rayon blend and it does. not. gather. well.  

I actually carted the skirt with me to My Sweet Babboo's  physical therapy appointment; it took nearly the entire time to gather and pin the skirt to the waistband  Sewing the channel for the drawstring was...not fun.  The bulky waistband seam allowance kept wanting to flip up under my presser foot, so I had to try and hold that out of the way while simultaneously pulling the elastic in the waistband out to match the waistband.

It is functional but not pretty. 

I have two more skirts to make from that fabric but for the next one, which I cut out before I quit for the night, I shaved 20" off the top of the skirt.  It will still have 180" sweep, but I tapered the front side seams 5" on each side.  The center back is still just cut on the selvage, but the other two seams will taper down.  20" less fabric to wrestle into the waistband should be a little easier to manage in this stuff.  It may end up looking more Edwardian walking skirt than Dickens but  I don't have time to wrestle with these things.  I just didn't have the right type of fabric to make it.

I have pulled out my Bible costume; I did make the blocking rehearsal so I know what I am doing for the final choral scene.  All I have to do know is learn the tenor part for the song...guess I will make the vocal rehearsal Thursday.

Planning to take some time off of work this week to sew, but I have to chauffer the Recovering One to two doctor appointments tomorrow.

We'll see how things go.

Blew that one...

Welp, I found myself with more skirts to sew after our last-few-folks fitting on Saturday, so last night I was pushing hard to finish the skirt I already had started.  

I had zig-zagged dental floss to the top for gathering, and even gathered a fair amount up.  So I took a deep breath and forged ahead, pushing five yards of rather wiry fabric into gathers around the 45" waistband.  Took my time sewing it and decided it looked good enough, so I cut off the long tails of dental floss that were hanging about.

Then I found that I had put the opening in the waistband, through which the final touch of the drawstring will go, on the center back seam instead of at the front of the center panel.  Too bad, so sad, not redoing it.

Then I set about threading the elastic through it.  And discovered that I should have given myself a wee bit of wiggle room; I had cut the waistband exactly 2x elastic + seam allowances.  With the really bulky gathers, I lost some space and the channel in the waistband was a little too skinny in places.

Minor problems; I forged on.

And found that the doggone elastic would rather fold in half than deal with a too-skinny casing.

I wrestled with it, trying to get it to lay somewhat flat, and even started topstitching the drawstring channel, brute forcing it to stitch close to the seamline.

Then I realized that the elastic had dodged the stitching and instead of being caught and sewn flat, was folded in half. Again.

At that point I realized it just was NOT going to work, so I removed the waistband altogether, wrestled the elastic out and sliced a very slim bit off at the join, pulled out what was left of the gathering dental floss at that point, cut another waistband a half inch wider and went to bed.

Went to work today, and DS the Elder (AKA the Artist) came by after work to help put Christmas lights on the porch eaves, since My Sweet Babboo is still in shoulder-surgery-recovery mode.  And he also brought us our Christmas present...some wifi speakers so we can listen to the same music throughout the first floor of the house at Christmas, which he also set up for us ("I love doing stuff like this" he commented as he opened up the boxes).  It sounds fantastic when we have stuff streaming through it; I just have to load Spotify on one of my old phones or tablets, create some playlists and we will be set.

Then I heated up the rest of the Thanksgiving leftovers...that I haven't already put in the freezer...and we polished them off.  So I am actually going to have to cook something tomorrow, lol.

I should have headed upstairs and faced the mess again but...Cyber Monday... I had to go hunting for  a couple of things.  DS the Younger (AKA The Actor) did some streaming so I watched him as I perused the electronic aisles, and I decided to tackle a project that has been waiting for nearly a year.  

I got a cotton sweater on sale from Lands' End last year... a subtle Christmas sweater.  It was tan with knitted in evergreen trees...nearly missed getting a pic before it sold out but this is it...

It was backorded when I  submitted my order in late October of last year, supposed to be delivered in early December if I remember right. Delivery kept getting pushed back...I think I got in in February of this year.   It fit well, it was super comfy (like all the Drifter sweaters) and I loved the barest hint of 'Christmas Sweater' in the knitted-in tree shapes BUT the color is a lot more ...yellow/beigey... in person and it looked ghastly on me.  What to do, what to do...

Rit dye to the rescue.

So, as kind of a palate cleanse after the disaster yesterday...I am dyeing the sweater tonight. It's been through the dye bath and is now in the post-dye wash cycle; I was shooting for a deep blue-green color and I *think* that's what I have.  Won't know for sure until it's dry, but it will be a much better color for me than the beigey-tan it was to start with.

I have to work 4 hours tomorrow and take My Sweet Babboo to therapy, but I think I'll be ready to face that waistband...

I'll post a pic of the sweater after it's dry.

It'll Do...We Think...

 I finished up the brown cloak...

Hard to tell what you're looking at from the pics; it just doesn't photograph well.  Long cloak with a shoulder cape and collar on a band.  Held together with a hook.  Curved edges finished with the serger because 1) I needed to keep as much length as I could and 2) I was going to have to serge the edges anyway to prevent fraying and 3) Time, time, time...

If you click on the photo of the back  you might be able to see the damage to the fabric (it's most visible at the lower edge of the left side of the shoulder cape in that picture). I honestly have no idea when that happened or how; the fabric has been bouncing around our storage area since 2005.  It should have been in a box or a bin, but who knows if it was.  It looks like a water mark coming off the center back seam.  I ran it through the washer and dryer but it didn't change the appearance of the damaged area at all.

But, it doesn't show nearly as much if the light isn't hitting it straight on, no actor worth his salt spends any amount of time with his back to the audience, and...keep moving, lol.  I put the vest and cloak on our Scrooge character and he loved the way it felt.(And it was a Good Thing that I lowered the pockets on the vest; they could have actually been lowered a bit more but they're ok)  So...at the moment, anyway, it's in.  We'll see what it looks like under actual stage lights next week.

Moving on.

 I have a pile of Basic Dickens Skirts to make...three for adults and one for a little girl.  I have just enough elastic in the stash to do them, but I'm gonna hafta get some more dental floss...I used all I had on the first skirt.  It's the best thing to use to gather a bodacious amount of fabric.

In the *Whew* category, we matched bloomers to sizes on our list today today and we have enough for all the girls who are listed on the cast spreadsheet.  I was really worried about those.  So long as no one pops up at the last minute who wasn't on the list...we should be good.

Past Thanksgiving now, and all my company has headed home, so I will be focusing on sewing skirts.

Maybe I'll get some Christmassy something up around the house...if I get the skirts done, lol.  I have some sick leave to use or lose by the end of the year; I may use it all up this week.  If I sew during the day instead of late at night...I'll be less likely to fall ill, lol. So -- preventative sick leave.  Right?

In which she encounters problems

 

...and no, it's not just the fact that the kitty wants to sit on exactly the thing I'm working on...

This is the pattern I started with for the cloak for our time-traveling Scrooge character.  I intended to just use one shoulder cape, but otherwise I wanted the same.  I made one years ago when we were doing the Gospel According to Scrooge.  I never saw it after that production.  Dunno  what happened to it...

Anyway, I had something close to 6 yards of brown poly moleskin...it's a heavy, drapey, sueded fabric with a satiny back.  It was quite popular, you know, fifteen or so years ago.  Can't find it anywhere now.

HOWEVER...today...I pulled out the pattern and, instead of having 3 actual shoulder capes, it has ONE..the other two faux capes are flounces sewn directly to the main cloak.  So I couldn't just use the longer one, as I'd planned.  I couldn't remember what I did with the first one (it was 2005 when I made it...) but I figured I probably just added onto the actual top layer; it was the only one of the short cape pieces that was cut out. Simple enough to do. 

So I pulled out the brown fabric that had been in storage at church since 2005.  We'd made some short ladies' capes from it, but there was a goodly bit left.  Just rough measuring it before I brought it home, I thought it was close to 6 yards.  Turns out it was 5 3/8...and it was a scant 45" wide.  Oof.  I couldn't put the main cloak pieces on a folded piece of fabric; I was going to have to cut them one at a time.  And the cloak pieces by themselves required 54" of  length. So, not including the top cape, the collar or the collar stand, I needed 6 full yards.  Shortening the cloak really wasn't an option...remember, our Scrooge actor is 6'4".  I didn't want the cloak to hit his knees.

What to do, what to do.... I abandoned the sewing room for a time, doing a frantic internet search for ANY black or brown fabric that had a nice drape and found absolutely nothing.    My go-to fabricdotcom has been assimilated into the Amazon abyss, and somebody needs to tell the folks at Amazon how to make filters so you can actually find something.  Fashonfabrics club was also a fail.  I didn't want wool fabric..1) $$$ and 2) moths... and there was just nothing in a drapey poly or poly rayon blend to be had.  So I had to make do.

Well, I *could* fit the pieces all on the fabric if I ignored the fact that there is a nappy, sueded surface and just count on the lighting to hid the difference in the shading.  We had to have SOMETHING.  So, I figured I'd go ahead and make up what I have, and keep an eye open for some wider fabric to make a last minute switch if possible.

Then, when I was laying the pattern out, I noticed that one selvedge of the fabric looked odd.  Backed away from it and...it looks like water had soaked all up on only one side, leaving a wavy border that extended as much as 7" in from the edge the entire length of my fabric and was devoid of the nappy surface.  It's the weirdest thing.  I can't imagine what could have done that.   But I had already looked for replacement fabric so...I decided to just keep going, and then run the thing through the laundry. Mayhap if it's just that it got wet and soaked and dried flattened, a trip through the washer and dryer would revive it.  

Maybe.

So I got about halfway through it before I ran out of bobbin thread on the sewing machine and decided to call it a night.  If I can get it finished in time, I'll run it up to the rehearsal tomorrow afternoon and see how it looks in movement.  It may not matter if the nap isn't quite right.

Maybe.

One down, ??? to go...

 As I have heard MANY of the contestants on The Great British Sewing Bee exclaim, 'I am chuffed!'    I sewed on ALL the buttons whilst waiting on My Sweet Babboo at physical therapy today.  They are blind buttons; the vest actually closes with velcro and has a little wiggle room for fit, although the stripes won't line up quite so nicely if it isn't fastened up perfectly.  

I have to admit...after looking at the photos I posted of the vest-in-process, I decided the pockets were marked too high, and I moved them down about 3/4".  Basted everything in and made sure it was all on point, then took a deep breath and sewed the box for the pockets.  Had to redo one about three times because I kept catching the end of the welt, but once I had verified that everything was stitched right I slashed through and just kept going.

Since I put a muslin of it on our actor playing the Scrooge character I'm fairly confident it will fit.  

It's going to be Friday before I can have a block of time in the sewing room again.  The caped cloak is next...

Back in the Costuming Zone...

 Four weeks from LAST night, the 2022 Christmas production opens.

Yeah, I'm just a little anxious.  Life has been very busy.   My Sweet Babboo had shoulder surgery last month and he needed more repair and so has a lot more of a recovery than I did.  He's not going to be driving for at least another 3 -4 weeks, so I'm doing the chauffer thing just about daily.  Working from home to minimize the to-and-froing,  I also scaled back my costuming commitment...someone else is handling the Costume Mistress role for this production, I am kind of organizing the opening scene, which is a play-within-a-play Dickens scene.  I expect to be making a bunch of little girl pantalets at some point but for now I have a specific assignment.

One of our main characters is a time-traveling Ebenezer Scrooge...long story.  Last year, the part was played by a guest actor who had his own costume.  But he's unavailable this year; he's traveling with a production called 'The Ebenezer Experience'...if you get a chance, it's worth seeing.  So...one of our own will play the part this year.  So he needs a costume.  And he's 6'4" tall...so we had nothing in our stash that worked.  So 'tis my job to get something for him to wear.

He's providing his own pants and shirt, so I'm working on the vest and cloak.  And, as the gimmick used for time travel is a pocket watch, the vest must have functional welt pockets.

I had been picking up costume patterns over the years whenever Hancocks (RIP) had a Big Sale, and I pulled a pattern from the collection that really looks rather hideous on the envelope photo

but had a suitable starting point for a vest.

I'm using view B, but I altered the neckline considerably.  In addition to making it about 3" longer, lol.  I also added a center back seam and a slight curve to the upper back after fitting a first pass muslin.

The fabric came from one of the other ladies on the costuming team...she has an upholstery business and this was a remnant.   I had to make an emergency trip to Joann's for lining and paid a truly ridiculous price for some poly lining...I couldn't manage to pull one of the '40% off any full price fabric' up on my phone in a timely manner; apparently I had to have a password for the app to do that. I'd made the run to the store while My Sweet Babboo was doing his physical therapy so I was on a time crunch.  I gritted my teeth and paid for it, and grumbled all the way home.  Grumbled more when I cut it out, but what ya gonna do?  They're the only fabric store in town.

Took me three tries to get the welts right; first ones came out too small, even though the pattern measured right.  I did an envelope-style welt so I'm guessing something happened with the diagonal seams.  Block fused interfacing to another piece of fabric to cut longer welts and cut the first one out upside down (the stripe order matters).  Fused another piece and recut that welt a third time.

I have absolutely everything done on the vest I can do other than the welts.  The lining/ facing assembly is constructed, the vest back has the tie ends attached...I'm gonna hafta take a deep breath and tackle the welts.  I cut them with the stripes going horizontally, so I'm going to have to sew them exactly right or the stripes will show the boo boo.  But I've got to sew it with the lining on top of the welt, so it's going to be blind.     Gonna do that tomorrow...when I'm a little fresher than I am at past midnight, lol.

Once that's done, it's just a matter of bagging on the lining and adding the velcro closure and the just-for-show buttons, which I don't have yet.

After this, it's a cloak for him.  I have nearly six yards of fabric; I'm going to make a cloak with a short cape and a collar.  I hope.  The fabric is narrow; each piece, except hopefully the collar, will need a length of fabric.  So it's gonna be close.

After that, I have some skirts to make up...and then possibly the bloomers.  We'll see.

Costume check will likely be three weeks from tomorrow.  I'm running out of time.

Start with a Scarf 2022 - the July Set

 Finally, the last post in clearing the backlog that was waiting for the blue skirts to get finished....

Janice's wardrobe picks for July were kinda titled 'Dressy-ish outfit that either resembles a suit or includes a skirt' and you can click HERE to see what she chose for the six scarf-based wardrobes.

Me, I mostly pulled stuff from the closet...some from the 2019 wardrobe, actually, lol.

I'm all about blue and white for the July wardrobe.  The only item specifically obtained for the July additions is the blue knit skirt... made from my favorite Telio Jockey knit that's gotten crazy expensive in the past year or so.  Fabricdotcom, (which is, alas, no more, having finally been absorbed into Amazon) had some on sale earlier this year so I grabbed a few yards at the not so insanely expensive price, but I'm mourning the days when it was $12.50 ish a yard.   The pattern is the Swing Skirt from Loes Hinse; I added the pockets from her Oxford Pants pattern.  I made an identical black skirt for the 2019 wardrobe so I knew I would like it.  It just has a nice polish to it when worn.  It looks pleated...it isn't,  those folds go away when I put it on.  It's  just from the combo of the elastic waist and pants hanger.

The scarf, which is pretty big, was purchased from Lands' End on sale at least a year ago; the white linen duster was likewise purchased on a sale from Chico's about the same time.  The blue/white stripe boatneck top is a Burda magazaine pattern that I made up some time ago...maybe more than 5 years ago. But you can't beat a classic striped boatneck T!

The SAS Pampas sandals and the white hoop earrings were both used in the 2019 wardrobe.  The sandals may look a little more worn now, but they are still quite useable.

This will be the last catch-up post for a bit;  I have to make a hat before I can post any more, and I'm not sure when I will get to that, because, costuming.  But  at least I've cleared a little of the backlog, lol.

Anyway, here's where the wardrobe stands at the moment.  I hadn't put it all together before getting the images ready for the post;  I kinda think it looks surprisingly good all laid out...

The Clothes:

The Accessories:

Start with a Scarf 2022 - The June Set

 Rolling right through the pieces that have just been waiting for the back log to clear; we're up to June.  Two tops,  shorts or crop pants, bracelet(s), shoes and a tote bag.

Here's the Vivienne Files post for the June wardrobes; here's what I've done:

The white shirt is, like, OLD.  I could dig around and figure out when I made it but we'll just go with...more than 5 years ago, lol.  It's a Cutting Line Design pattern that is, I think, out of print. 'Town and Country' was the name of the pattern; this is the campshirt from that set.   When I pulled  the shirt out to photograph a few weeks back there were some orangy marks on it; I thought it was ruined but it turns out that the marks were just from the previous trip through the dryer that needed repair...the spots washed out and the repaired dryer is safe for whites again.  

The floral campshirt is also from Cutting Line Designs; it's a current pattern, 'Easy Ageless, Cool'; the fabric is a lovely cotton lawn that I got from Gorgeous Fabrics.  I made it earlier in this summer when my bummed up shoulder made button-up shirts easier to wear than pullovers, lol.  If I remember right, I did get the print specifically to make the June shirt...it just took me till September to get it made.

The shorts came from a chance stop at an outlet mall on our most recent trip to Florida at the end of May.  I wasn't planning on buying clothes but My Sweet Babboo wanted to get some shorts so we headed into the Lee shop.  I found the pink shorts and my brain went 'ding ding ding'...and they came home with me.  Perfect for the June wardrobe, eh?  

I've had the Fierce Lynx 'Passionate Lynx' bracelet set for a while; it's one of my favorites.

The tote bag and the sandals were actually purchased specifically for the June wardrobe.  The tote bag came from Amazon.  I'm not much of a bag lady, but decided to get one  since I have actually used the tote I got for the 2019 wardrobe.  Worth the Amazon price, anyway.  The sandals are Cobb Hills.  In real life, they lean a lot more towards beige than they look in the picture; when I opened the box, I was actually really disappointed with the color and thought I would send them  back.  BUT...when I put them on with the pink shorts (or the pink and green dress from the May set) they actually kinda turn pink.  And they're comfy.  So we'll call them keepers.

So, here's what I have so far:

All the clothes

All the accessories

Start With a Scarf 2022: The May Set

All I had to do to finish this set was make a decision, lol.  I had completely forgotten that it had a mint green sweater in it.  Which means I got it all ready to photograph and...oops, no green sweater.  I had it on my spread sheet... I just missed it.

So I dithered a bit.  And I'm not entirely sure I'm thrilled with what I came up with, as it bends the parameters a bit, but...I'm really behind, and I don't have time to sew up something because...Christmas costuming ...so  I'm punting, lol.

Anyway, have a look at what Janice posted for the May wardrobe selections over at The Vivienne Files, and then you can decide if I'm cheating a bit here or not.

t.

I am straying a bit from the shades of pink and green I've used so far.  That clear, cool pink is REALLY hard to find, as is that particular shade of mint green. So I'm allowing some variations, lol.  The greens in the dress were one thing, but when I picked the emerald green sweater from the closet I just went deep.  It's actually the same style as the white sweater shell in the April set...bought on a big Chico's sale; I just got the sweater in two colors. So it is my last second pinch runner, lol.  But...I think it works.  I put the scarf on it and it goes, so I'm calling it good.

You will recognize the dress as the one with the rather bungled pocket job but it IS fun to wear...and I have gotten compliments on it when I dared to wear it out of the house, so I'm guessing no one is looking at the wonky pockets, lol.  Life is short.  I'm wearing it.

The pants are the linen no-side-seam pants from the SWAP Wardrobe.  I've worn them several times over the summer and they are very comfy.  I really like linen pants; it's the rustic linen from Fabric-store.com and it made up beautifully.   The earrings are from Fierce Lynx; the bracelet is from Novica...both were purchased earlier in the year because I knew I would need some mint green pretties.  I got the Aravon sandals last fall on sale when I first started adding pink and green to the wardrobe. Again...kinda different, but they work really well with the dress.

So, here's all the clothes so far:

And all the accessories:

Sigh.  I was clearly never meant to be a graphic designer, lol.  I'll fix the oversized shoes for the next set.

And, just incidentally, 17 years ago today was the very first Sew Random post.  For talking about Christmas production costuming...time flies.  Much love to all you folks who have hung with my dithering over the years!