Leah of Hel - Young Avengers

 

Agent Carter blouse

Agent Carter blouse, made of rayon challis with woven cotton trim. I came thisclose to being able to match the vintage buttons used in the actual blouse but the seller only had six buttons and I needed ten. Ah well...

Bee & Puppycat waitress uniform

 

Regency Round Gown

Regency era cotton day dress, made mostly to test out Laughing Moon's regency round gown pattern before I invested real money in nice materials. Verdict: good fit, historically accurate, and good quality pattern. If I come across some silk for a decent price I may remake this pattern as an evening gown.

Solas - Dragon Age Inquisition

 Commission of Solas, everyone's favorite lying hobo apostate elf. Sweater, undershirt, pants, belt, and shoes were included. The sweater is made of linen/acrylic blend 4x2 rib knit in a natural marled linen color with 1x1 rib collar. The undershirt is olive knit with basically an attached faux suede dickie. It zips up the back. (Very stylish.)

The collar fabric came from the same manufacturer as the sweater fabric so it matches perfectly, but it was very (very) thick. The collar is lined in the 4x2 because self lining it would have been too bulky. I also extended the brown faux leather trim to just below the seam rather than stopping right at the seam so I could get the rivet in. I went through a number of drafts and tweaks of that collar shape and I'm happy with what I ended up with, but it took me a little while to get there. Knit is not the most cooperative fabric when it comes to trying to shape it like this. I tested out various angles of rise and height, interfacing/internal structure...

The seam around the collar and around the cuffs is accented with a hand stitch, and the brown trim is one piece, no seams. Water soluble basting tape (both to turn under the edges and to hold it in place for sewing) was indispensable for this.

The pants are a linen blend, pieced and accented with a hand stitch and faux leather lacing. Not sure what's up with all those seams, but that is how they're designed.

I purchased an extra long belt on etsy and stitched on the accents by hand. They're the washers from black grommets.

The shoes are made from sueded knit backed with cotton rib knit to add dimension (the suede knit is thin, and backing it made it look a little more like woven straps) and self-lined in knit. They pull on like socks and have some elastic built into the lining to help them stay up. I attached a 6 mm shoe sole so they can be worn outside or on concrete. The toeless style is not the most comfortable shoe design ever, but sanding down the front of the sole made them a little easier to walk in and stand on.

odds and ends

A lined Star Trek Voyager totebag and a plushie Mass Effect Hanar (I'm not sure why Bioware hasn't made an official Hanar plushie, since they have an Elcor and three different Dragon Age plush, but anyway--). Made as part of a gift for the r/dragonage gift exchange.

Jane Porter - Tarzan

Commission of Jane Porter from Disney's Tarzan, including bustled petticoat. The dress is made from a matte synthetic satin, which mimics the look of silk (while being washable and more cost effective) and is much more wrinkle-resistant than cotton. The ivory and lavender accents are made from crepe weave.


The petticoat is a frankenstyled reproduction Victorian steel boned bustle pattern. The historical version of the dress this petticoat is designed to be worn with would be floor length and a bit more columnar in shape when viewed from the front; I shortened it and added extra ruffling on around the bottom half.




The costume is two pieces, dress and overskirt. The overskirt drape and polonaise are attached to the brown waistband and wrap around. I draped and redraped that overskirt so many times; I generally draft patterns flat and geometrically so getting this how I wanted it to look, length, width, and pleat-wise, took some work. The polonaise/back bustle thing is shaped with batting to create the smooth, Disney-ish shape (though obviously I did pleat it; darts looked weird).

I fussed around with the collar quite a bit and experimented with three piece pattern cut on the bias before going with a six piece pattern, cut on the grain. It was worth the trade off of adding seams to get a much smoother, more accurate shape without bias wrinkling.

The scallop trim is attached to the lining. In a minor miracle, the hem circumference ended up being perfect for my scallop width and they met right at the center back seam. As all scallops are these were a bit obnoxious, but for the first time ever I pressed them using a stiff template (same template I used to trace the seam line). I don't know why this never occurred to me before. It's faster and less tedious than pressing with a point turner.