green_martha | Entries tagged with casaque

There are still some things I have to post.
Like,, how my casaque turned out !

My digicam had issues with the petrol color, the most accurate one is the fourth picture. I'm very please with the outfit - although I seem to be the only one to find a cute factor in it :) I was afraid the pocket hoops would be too high but with a little stuff in them (car keys, etc...) and after a short while they slided down to their right position. I'm not happy about the pattern I used for the casaque (Mill Farm), I had to go back so often to Waugh that I might as well have just skipped ordering it. I used Katherine's tutorial for the petticoats, and just made them to be tied over my bump in front, which worked just fine. The stomacher was partly pinned to the jumps, partly to the skirt.
The cap is a bit on the big side, I've since taken it apart, cut it down a little and folded the lace in half. It looks much better ! (I'll post pictorial evidence soon, I promise). The jewelry is my wedding jewelry, which goes with lots of my costumes, apparently. I think it's time I let go off the blue-brown color scheme.

And I promised those to

heileen, I figured I might as well share. ( Recipes behind the cut )

Current Mood: accomplished

To sum it up : I had one of the best times of my life. It was a blast, we totally need to do that again.

The long version ( will go behind the cut )
Owie, I think I covered it all, although I barely scraped the surface of all the fun we had. *pouts* I'm missing you already !

Expect another post about pending projects, and a separate post just to show you the details of the casaque outfit - thanks to my wonderful photographer

heileen. But for now, I'm going to bed. I'm even giving up on getting more patterns saved before the CoPA stops being free, I'm just waaaaaaay too tired.

The casaque is done except for the hem ! Yay ! I didn't touch the shoes but that's not such a big deal, as it was only an option for today. I still have good chances to get them done by Saturday.
I should probably try everything on and make sure it fits, and add some linen tabs to the stomacher so that I can pin it to my outfit. Making a cap for

lady_darkstone would be nice... Except I just remembered her dress is blue and pure white, and the fabric and lace I have are a yellow-y ivory. Not good. Well, good that I did notice before cutting them up. I'll have to go stash-searching again, maybe I can still find something.

Current Mood: accomplished

What the heck are you doing, girl ? After one of the last caaque fitting it occurred to me the garment would look a lot less potato-sack-like if worn open over a stomacher. So what do I do, on a ten days' notice and with a busy schedule of visiting parents and friends and medical appointments ? Start an embroidered stomacher, of course. But since I'm in a bit of a cinch time-wise and I don't have

gilded_garb's embroidery mojo, I took some errr... shortcuts.

This is some yarn (a cotton-something mix, I think), couched over a piece of silk from my wedding dress. And I have only done about one half of the desing, eek ! Though I'm getting faster at this, I need to get more efficient, I still have a pair of shoes to make and some knick-knack to finish on the casaque itself !

Current Mood: rushed

The answer, I had it all along... I DO have some pretty pretty fine lace I can use for the 1890s Paquin dress, see ? It's pretty and really finer than whatever I've found online or in a shop yet. I have quite a lot of it - I seem to recall 7 meters, but looking at the bolt I'm not sure there isn't a bit more. I haven't found a better way to display it's yumminess yet. Now I just need to find fabric for it.
Okay, now the bad thing ? Searching my stash has let another yummy-pretty piece of lace emerge, it's a little more dead-dinosaury and bulky, but still very pretty, and yesterday I stumbled upon THE perfect dress to display it, yet another 1890s, though a little earlier than the previously mentioned Paquin dress. So that means after I'm done with the casaque, the cradle dress, the possible new outfit or outfit revamping for Vaux, I have two dresses on my To-Sew-List that I badly badly badly want to make without any fabric nor occasion to wear it yet. Ewwww...
I must sew faster.
And post pictures but that requires lurching a big heavy book up from the living room, that'll wait.
Okay, I'm back to working on the stomacher, I think I'll attack the shoes tomorrow only.

Current Mood: mischievous

My dress dummy is in a corner of the house with almost no direct daylight (we want to install a skylight, someday), so bad lighting ahead :

From left to right : my attempt at matching the front pleats on both sides by threadmarking them. Of course after this careful work I had to redrape all of it ; then the casaque as it currently stands, cuffs need to be finished and it's still in need of a hem (

heileen, I'm afraid it's highly likely I'll wait for your help to mark and sew it) ; then the cable ties boned stomacher base, and finally a cap that just needs some ribbon for sprucing it up. I'll probably make a second cap for

lady_darkstone as well, as it's quick and I have the fabric at hand.
BTW

heileen, she'll be coming in on the evening before our outing and is willing to help, as long as she gets some as well.
Here's the museum's page, I just spotted there are two exhibitions going on there, one modern photography exhibit in the gardens and the museum, and a non-modern painting exhibit inside the museum. There's also the permanent exhibition rooms, aka the house as it stood at the end of the 19th century. The museum's not big, the entrance is free and there's a (really nice) pick-nick area. And we can park right outside of the park. We just need to figure out if we go Saturday or Sunday (if we go Sunday, we can do some fabric hunting on Saturday... not that we have a Marché St-Pierre here, but I have a "secret" dealer who has nice and rather cheap stuff if you don't want 100% natural fibers), and what we bring to eat. I must say I'm very tempted to try my hand at macarons again...

On a completely unrelated note : WANT ! Not wait, not want, NEED ! Anyone have suggestions as to where to go hunting for that kind of lace ? I have some that I could make do with, but it's not nearly half as wide as this one...

Current Mood: cheerful

I spent the night worrying my parents' cat would escape and disappear again before my parents come to pick it up today. Great... So I finally got up at 4, only to go back to bed at 7 because I was so darn tired.
In the meantime I managed to cut, sew and bone with cable ties the base of my stomacher. That's already something, right ? Now I'd want to go on with the decorative layer but I have to go to the market first, blech. Don't even want to go out... And will have to go again later this afternoon to find a butcher who's not on vacation. So that I have something to feed my guests tonight.

Current Mood: sleepy

... but SOMEONE stole the show...

My parents' cat, who had gone missing for eight days, suddenly reappeared in our living room, a bit hungrier than normal and meowing VERY loudly, purring like mad. Dunno where she's been, but she does seem happy to be back to a place she knows.

As a result, I did not take pictures of the casaque (had some snuggle time with teh kitteh instead). All I have to do on the casaque itself is sew the tucks on the cuffs and hem the thing.
So what remains ? Shoes, cap, and stomacher. Possibly a new chemise as well - I need some new roomy nightgowns anyway. I don't know if I have suitable fabric for a cap. I have some stuff I can make do for a chemise. I'd like to find some fake leather in brown and black to pimp up the shoes - other wise I'll make them matching the casaque but I'd prefer to have a more generic pair. I have all the supplies for the stomacher, so I may start on it now and leave the hem for later (like, for when I have someone to makr the length on me). Or maybe not right now, but right after I've taken care of the house and laundry and taken a nice shower. It's hot again here *pouts*. I hope it doesn't get TOO hot by the 22d...

Current Mood: surprised

I've been stalking all your CC posts and a lot of comments as well and adding a lot of new faces to my friend-list. I need more costuming peeps !

Right, stop procrastinating girl, go put those sleeves on the casaque, NOW !

Current Mood: procrastinating

I have indeed made it far enough that the end seems in sight for the casaque. Which is good, given how slow I am and knowing that yesterday was mostly spent snoozing on the couch. Let's see what's left to do :
- hem one pocket slit
- sleeves (have a semi working pattern)
- cuffs
- hem
- front facings
- stomacher
- accessories if time allow, shoes at least should be partially covered

Doesn't sound like too much, right ?

Current Mood: productive

This one just made me laugh, because I look so abominably huge in it... I'm a mountain ! A teal mountain !

I know, the petticoats ties are showing a little in the back, but that'll be hidden under the casaque - which will BTW be made out of the same teal fabric. And you can also get a glimpse of the shoes I need to recover to go with this costume. They were cheap and are leather, and if my feet don't swell up too much, they should be reasonably comfy to wear for an afternoon around a park. I couldn't find the right combination of toes shape, louis heel, affordability and not ankle-breaking heel height around town, so I settled for toes, price and ankle safety. And well, they're actually quite cute as is - but I'm a shoe-aholic, my opinion might be slightly biased.

I finally caved and did what I told the HG I wouldn't do : I took over the living room table for my sewing. It was just too tempting when I have bits of translation all over my desk and the table downstairs was unfolded to it's biggest (seats 12) and totally free of any clutter. As a result, I do have some sewign pictures to share. And since I was taking pictures, I added a few to the batch.

First, the Cthulhu onesie. It's a bit wonky, and the short sleeves might or might not be practical, but I didn't have enough fabric for longer sleeves. I also wanted to make a wrap-over front, but again, nto enough fabric. This is what happens when you recycle a t-shirt of yours that's miles too small.

Then, this is what I did this afternoon between two rounds of sewing and such.

Two coats won't make it, I'm afraid. There are already three coats on the door frames... Whoever thought purple was a nice color, may your rot in hell.

And finally, the Big Belly Pictures. Or more accurately, the casaque pictures. Well, actually, what I did do today was the red cotton petticoat, I just threw the casaque on to get an idea of how it'd look together, and folded a piece of fabric into a makeshift stomacher. The casaque looks horrible, but it's just coming out of the suitcase. And the hazardous fabric color will not stay, don't worry. It was on sale a Ikea and matched our wedding decor, but now that we don't need it as tablecloth anymore, it's going to serve for mock-ups only.

There's been some knitting in the meantime, admire my second ever-sweater and first baby item, the Baby Yoda Sweater. Except for the dreadful seaming up it was quite an easy knit.

Current Mood: accomplished

I could bang my head against a wall sometimes. Except well... it might hurt. I went looking for

koshka_the_cat's basic rococo petticoat how-to, did all sorts of searches with her usernam and variations of the theme... Nada.
I left Koshka out, just googled some 18th century petticoat how-to. Guess what page came on top ? Yup, that's right, Katherine's.
Of course, it might have helped if I had actually remembered she'd posted it on her website and not on her LJ. Katherine, you're too good about updating your website ! :D

I have a week, and I fully intend to have my casaque and two petticoats done by the end of it.

heileen, do you know around what dates will you be in the area for our little outing ?

Current Mood: blank

... to see the fabric of DOOM (doom doom...) I made the pocket hoops out of.

Mwahahah !
I plan on starting the petticoat/skirt muslin today. And I need to start thinking about recovering the shoes I bought. The heel is not perfect but the point is okay enough for me, and they are comfortable, which is important. And stable, which is even more important for my wobbly ankles.

But first, I'll finish ripping out that old wallpaper.