This ensemble circa 1780 was made with an Ikea duvet cover like my previous 1780s Italian gown, except I actually bought this duvet set prior to that one. After a bit of a snafu with the fabric, I decided I didn’t have enough fabric to make a whole gown but I could do a jacket and matching petticoat combo. I used the Amalia jacket by Scroop patterns and added a bunch of trim inspired by extant jackets of the era, however, I was wishy-washy on how exactly I wanted to trim this jacket and went through several iterations before deciding on the final look. I used the free Frances Rump pattern (t ..read more

I promise I’m still around, in fact, I recently moved this whole blog to a new server, although not everything transferred perfectly and I’m still fiddling with the look and feel of the site. I finished this costume project earlier this year. The design is heavily inspired by this dress in the Museum of London. It’s dated to between 1776 and 1800 but I think it is closer to 1800. Finding a good fabric really spurred me to recreate the gown. It’s not an exact print match but the colors are similar (I think the original fabric was probably more vibrant than it is today). The two fabrics were ..read more

This new historical costume was made for a Costube (Costuming YouTubers) collaboration. Laura Ingalls Gunn invited me to a small 1840s themed tea party and even though I already had two 1840s costumes I had just seen Black Snail’s new 1837-1840 pattern and knew I had to make it! I figure the pattern’s date range was good enough for 1840s. The dress is based on an extant from the V&A museum. I’d highly recommend the pattern but I did make a couple fit changes. I shortened the bodice and sleeves by several inches and I cut the largest size sleeve and had to adjust the armholes. The tea p ..read more

This costume project was a big one I finished earlier in the year and made a video about it here. The dress is a recreation of this gown from a Norwegian museum. Dated to 1815, the gown is part of a collection of “bridal attire” including a pair of green shoes and an orange shawl. But the reason I really wanted to make it was because it had a pattern! Sort of. The listing included a hand-drawn image of the bodice pieces with no sense of scale but it was enough to get me started. Once I started playing with the pattern I noticed that it wasn’t a perfect replica of the gown. The biggest issue ..read more

Dresses are my favorite to wear in the hot summer months, which in Texas is most of the year. And I need a few new ones to replace some tried-and-true dresses that are getting pretty worn out after years in my wardrobe. This is my second Deer and Doe Myosotis dress and I love the loose-fit, shirt-dress style with the gathered skirt. But I’m disappointed, though, that some of my fave pattern companies don’t have very inclusive sizing. Deer and Doe is especially egregious as their highest bust size is only about 46 inches! I made a few fit adjustments since making my last Myosotis dress: chang ..read more

I made this dress on a pretty tight deadline intending to wear it to a small Victorian-themed, Covid-safe get-together this past winter but that got delayed multiple times and I still haven’t been able to wear this gown out and about. I choose the 1840s specifically because the era is pre-crinoline and pre-bustles. I didn’t want to have to make any complicated underlayers when I was already short on time. But the more I dive into the 1840s the more I like it. I think the ’40s are underrepresented in the costuming community which is sad. The 1830s have the big, over-the-top sleeves and hair t ..read more

I started working on this costume in 2013 (!!!) and finally finished it last summer. It was the first costuming project I ever started and I abandoned it halfway through when I realized the pattern I had bought (thinking it was a casual work dress) turned out to be a fancy summer dress. In my defense, the fabric they used for the sample on the envelope cover is quite plain and beige, not fancy-looking at all. I decided to give it a second change and took the whole thing apart, replaced the piping, re-cut the sleeves out of extra skirt material, re-sewed and re-hemmed the skirt, and finally a ..read more

I admit I’ve been neglecting the blog lately in favor of YouTube, but in my defense, youtube videos take a long time to make and once I’m done I usually don’t feel like blogging! But I wanted some photo documentation of some of the costumes I’ve sewn in the past few months. I finished this 1780s Italian Gown last November and I’ve been adding accessories onto the look since then and reviving some old pieces. The original bodice from November 2020 The dress is from a pattern by Black Snail and originally I cut the front bodice section too small, likely because my lining fabric – a linen – stre ..read more

I actually finished this shirt in January but it had a problem (I’ll get into that later) and only just recently fixed the issue. This is my third Kalle shirt. For my first, I made the hem halfway between the length of the crop style and the tunic style. For my second, I cut the cropped length. For this one, I went with the tunic length. I want to say this is a Japanese cotton shirting. It’s extremely finely woven and really smooth. It might even be made by the same brand as my first Kalle’s fabric. All I remember is that I bought it from a fabric store right before it closed. The stripes lo ..read more

It’s the peak of summer here in Texas and I am definitely pro-sunhat. But I hadn’t thought of making my own until I saw the Sulis Hat pattern by Pattern Fantastique. I used leftover white denim for the body of the hat and white linen for the lining. The brim has two layers of fusible buckram. If you’ve never used buckram before it’s a cotton netting that’s coated with some kind of glue that when dry, makes the fabric stiff. Fusible buckram has an extra layer of glue on one side so you can fuse it to fabric like you would any other kind of interfacing. I think I made a size medium which might ..read more