Photos from Kendra at Costume College 2007.
Posts Tagged ‘aouda’
Aouda from “Around the World in 80 Days”
Posted by Trystan on September 2nd, 2007
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Around the World in 80 Days
Posted by Trystan on October 22nd, 2006
I do believe the event was a success! People came dressed in a fun variety of costumes and seemed to have a good time. The food and drink were excellent, and one person said “great idea to have an event in a bar!” Everyone was enjoying chatting so much that we didn’t do any organized story-telling (Thomas and I had even prepared readings from Around the World in 80 Days to kick things off, but never got to it). Unfortunately, I didn’t take many pictures, plus the dark setting wasn’t conducive to stellar photography. But the few I did get are here.
The first to arrive were a pair of hippies on a wild acid trip, traveling through the doors of perception the whole afternoon. An Edwardian lady in motoring garb traveled to the Reform Club in one of those new-fangled motor vehicles. A French pirate jumped ship to join us. We had an intrepid orchid hunter and a collector of African insects. Several swanky Art Deco dames came with their hatboxes and luggage. A time traveler from the future was accompanied by a 1940s lady. A Middle-Eastern couple were resplendent in flowing striped garb. One very elegantly attired couple must have first-class tickets on the Titanic or other such luxury transport. A World-War II French Resistance fighter barely escaped Paris in time to join us. Two soliders stepped through a futuristic Stargate for the afternoon. A 1920s spiritualist traveled between worlds and told us of our past and future lives. A Victorian suffragette had just been released from prison before arriving at the pub.
Everyone had a tale to tell (some taller than others ;-), and I know I thoroughly enjoyed talking of Antarctica, Edinburgh, Dickensian London, Timothy Leary, and the Pyramids with such wonderful company!
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- Aouda
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- Mr. Phileas Fogg and his Indian bride
Around all the worlds
Posted by Trystan on October 15th, 2006
I finished my outfit today (whew!), and I’ve made some, IMNSHO, kickass party favours. Just gotta print and assemble all today. I also hope to finish one or more photo albums of our travels. I’m encouraging everyone attending to bring their own travel photos, scrapbooks, or memorabilia to share! It’s going to be an afternoon of all kinds of travel talk, real and imaginary.
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- Each attendee will get a passport
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- full of stamps from places real
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- and imaginary
I had loads of fun making these! I scanned my own passport for the London Heathrow, Egypt Cairo, Australia, New Zealand, and faux East Germany stamps. I found the Liechtenstein stamp, Titanic font with logos, and Orient Express crest, and Stargate: Atlantis symbol, Star Wars Rebel and Imperial logos, Star Trek Federation HQ in San Francisco logo, and Sauron’s eye art from the Web. I scanned the Moria door, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy logo, and Earthsea symbol from my own books. The Chinese stamp is a rubber stamp that I scanned. Then I added appropriate immigration and visa type text to each one.
The passport is just one half-sheet of cardstock folded over, so each one has two pages of visas inside. I designed four variations of the visas so people would get slightly different versions.
Candle in the wind
Posted by Trystan on October 14th, 2006
Man, it took a heck of a lot longer to make this skirt than I thought it would. And I’m still not finished — have to hem the lining. Tomorrow, though, because I’m beat.
Aouda’s skirt in the solid grey part of the sari looks beeeeeeeyoooouuuutiful. So much better than using it as an overskirt. However, it was more full than I’d expected, and pleating it all into the waistband was a bitch. Couldn’t get the pleats even from the sides to the back, but fuck it, it’s good enough for government work. (Why no, I’m not a perfectionist, how could you tell?)
I lined the skirt in black satin for weight and because the grey sari was rather sheer. Lining was a good idea, but made for double the work (more seams, lotsa basting). Oy, the basting.
Speaking of which, I hand-basted the pleats (I learned during Cosi Fan Tutte that this is very helpful even if it breaks my cardinal rule of Least Hand-Sewing Evah). I ran the thread over a candle (in lieu of beeswax, which I’ve never thought to use), and that reduced the usual tangling immensely. Only got 2-3 easy-to-remove knots, as opposed to the knot-every-other-stitch I got before. Thanks to Rachel for the suggestion!
Kendra is a genius!
Posted by Trystan on October 9th, 2006
OMG. I can’t believe I didn’t try this in the first place!
A comment from Kendra made me realize I hadn’t really tried the grey part of the sari as a full skirt on its own. I knew from the measurement it wouldn’t work with a hoop, but I hadn’t tried it over just a petticoat. Duh!
Tonight, I pin-pleated the length of the sari into a simple skirt over a petticoat and with the bodice. I was kinda slapdash about it and didn’t pin the skirt flat enough to fit the jacket smoothly, but you can get the jist.
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- Grey sari skirt
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- Grey sari skirt
Dude, it’s like those fabrics were made for each other! Because they were!
Methinks I’ll be saving that burgundy silk for some 1840s creation in the far mystical Someday wherein my projects and The Stash collide…
Color me bad
Posted by Trystan on October 8th, 2006
I fixed the sleeve-poufyness (mostly), but now I can’t decide what to use for Aouda’s underskirt — black satin or burgundy silk. So I pinned ‘em both up and took pix to compare and contemplate.
Both of these are just pinned up (so they’re a bit messy), and both would, aside from the fabric color, have the same shapes. I’m going for an early 1870s slightly bustled look. The skirts are over a petticoat and small bustle pad. The front of the overskirt would be a simple apron with the sides pleated up. The back of the overskirt would drape in a waterfall fashion, nothing too fancy, just want to take advantage of the pretty sari border.
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- Burgundy skirt option
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- Burgundy skirt option
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- Black skirt option
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- Black skirt option
I’m waffling on the burgundy because I’d love to use all 6 yards on something really pretty. The Aouda underskirt would take 3 to 4 yards, which wouldn’t leave enough of the burgundy silk for anything else significant. And I just couldn’t spend more when I found this silk at Joann yesterday, not with the state of my finances and with the holidays coming up.
I have a strange hankering for an 1840s high gothic gown, something like this or this, both with a lovely fan-front bodice and smocked pointy waistline. That style would be gorgeous in the burgundy silk.
But then, it’s not like I need another “someday” project. I have probably 100+ yards of fabric in my sewing room, scads of patterns, boatloads of trim — not to mention over 50 somewhat-fleshed-out projects in my brain. I will never have the time and energy to make all of *those* so saving some pretty fabric that I *might* make into something someday is kinda dumb.
So yeah, dunno what I’m gonna do. I need to stop dithering and start the skirts this week because the event is the Saturday after next!
Bad sleeve?
Posted by Trystan on October 1st, 2006
Hmm… seeming success is a bit thwarted…
While laying awake at an ungodly hour, I had debated the sleeve shape. The more I doubted having enough sari fabric for a hoop skirt, the more I felt that a narrow sleeve would look better, more balanced. So when I got out of bed, I poked through my costume books and patterns. A slight bell-shaped sleeve was my pick, and I found that McCall’s 4697 had the right shape.
First, I lined the bodice, no problem. Lookin’ good. Then I cut out the sleeve lining and pinned it to the bodice — yep, it worked great. Laid it out on the fabric and toyed with different directions of the sari pattern until I figured out what I wanted. Cut, sew, bag-line.
Bodice with sleeve, in-progress
Fine, still no problem (well, I did accidentally stay-stitch the sleeve and lining *before* I’d turned it right side out and then had to unpick that stitching; but there’s always some minor screw-up like that).
I even hand-basted one finished sleeve into the jacket to see how it looked (I never baste!). Tried it on Lola, and she looked awesome. So I sewed both sleeves in for real and tacked the bodice lining to cover the raw edges of the sleeves. Very tidy.
Next I futzed around with the collar. Wasn’t sure about adding an actual collar or leaving just the edge, especially since I’ll be wearing that fabulous necklace. Decided to go ahead and finish the edge, and I can always add in a collar later. Painstakingly folded the lining and fabric edges and hand-sewed those suckers together (remember, I hate hand-sewing).
Now it was all done but fastenings!
But then I tried it on me corseted. A bit snug in the waist, dunno how that happened, but nothing major. The real problem, however, is the way the sleeves poke out in the back. I pleated the sleeve head in with the pleats right behind the shoulder seam. This kinda makes the sleeves pokey.
Not noticeable on the dressform, for some reason, but obvious on me. Hrmm… I think the fix is fairly straight-forward — pull those pleats in a smidge so less of the sleeve head sticks out. But, ugh!, that means unpicking the lining and the sleeve itself (I hate seam-ripping).
Dunno if it’s noticeable to anyone but me. Probably is. I should fix it. *sigh*
Into the silk
Posted by Trystan on September 30th, 2006
I cut the sari! Scary, but it’s looking good. I debated which part to use for the bodice — either the choli end, which has a tight repeating pattern, or the end of the sari that hangs over the chest, which has a big wide pattern. Decided to use the choli for the bodice and leave the wide-patterned ends for the pagoda oversleeves. Though I *wish* I could have used that for an extra skirt ruffle, but there just wasn’t anything leftover from the choli for sleeves.
I’m a bit worried about the skirt. Looks like there isn’t enough material for the skirt to be big enough for even a modest hoop. And the ruffles may be a bit skimpy. *sigh* Saris are probably better meant for Regency gowns which don’t eat up yardage. Ah well. I still might split the material lengthwise and make two ruffles. That’ll balance the wide sleeves better even if the whole skirt isn’t so full. May need to cut down the sleeves anyway — gotta mock those up before any more cutting, of course.
Spray-basting the silk onto the inter-lining
Upon various recommendations, I tried a spray adhesive meant for basting quilts. Very cool stuff. I first cut the bodice pieces from the sari, then I spray-basted them to black medium-weight cotton for interlining. Worked great, and made it very easy to treat these two layers as one.
The lining and bodice are ready to be matched up now, but I’m going out to dinner for my mother-in-law’s birthday. So no more sewing today. Maybe more tomorrow.
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- Front of bodice, in-progress
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- Back of bodice, in-progress
Saved by my pal
Posted by Trystan on September 28th, 2006
Sewed the lining of Aouda’s bodice last night (tried it on the dressform, fit weird, need to try it on me). Massive mad props to Kendra, who draped a pattern on me last weekend!!! I gave up on the Simplicity one and just went to the expert. The muslin looked awesome. Just doing a double-check with the lining, then I’ll start plotting it out on the sari fabric. Will use the sleeves from the Simplicity pattern and just make up the skirt on my own (that much I know I can do).
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- Bodice lining, front, in-progress
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- Bodice lining, back, in-progress
Aaarrrrgggghhhh
Posted by Trystan on September 22nd, 2006
I hate fitting!!!!!!
*$&)*@#_*!@#&$()&
Time for a beer now before I torch my sewing room and the dummies and everything.
