Female tusken failure

 So it was time for me to start with the soft parts of the female tusken, the main thing I have left to do.

After having stared at this image in high resolution for far too long I realised that there is omething strange going on with the fabric. The weave of the fabric continues without a break over the frayed edges and into the next segment. Either they have done some crazy pattern matching when cutting out, or the fabric simply isn't cut. The more I thought about the only solution would be if the fabric was pleated into tucks, and then those tucks would be cut open and the fabric frayed to create the edge. Tha would also explain why there is a female tusken whitout a frayed edge on the seams, it looks like it is inside out, and it might be possible that the tuck is so small that it didn't create a nice fray so then they just turned it the other side out. That is purely my speculation.

A huge issue here was to be able to work this by my own, it would have been a lot easier to work on a body.

Well some creatitivy with a styrofoam head and the stand for my dress making mannequin at least gave me something to work on, even if the head is way smaller than my own.

After a day of pleating and pinning and tacking this is where I was at. I felt like a Christmas tree when wearing it, definitely not the body hugging shawl of the female tusken. It was also way too short in the back.

I simply couldn't get enough fabric on the sides to shape it. With that I decided to give up on this experiment. I still think there is pleating going on, but I think that the shawl was probably first sewn together to get the silhouette, and then smaller tucks were made to create the fringe. Since I want to finish this fairly quickly I will probably go back to the common way of doing the shawl, which is to cut cut fabric strips and sew them together. Like I did with my first tusken female. Bonus is of course that it's a fairly quick and easy method, I only hope that the fabric I have, and that I have made some cuts in, for example the face opening, will be enough. But first it time to undo all the pleats.

I still think it's important to show when something goes wrong, it's so easy to just post the good results. And I am still convinced that there are tucks and not separate fabric pieces, I am just not the person to figure it out completely.

A UFO dress

 So with new inspiration I want to start on my sewing projects, but I also decided that I first needed to do a proper clean up of my sewing space. I live in a two room apartment, so my sewing space is a corner in my living room, not very big and it had gotten cluttered. So I sat down and made sure to sort everything back into its boxes, you know haberdashery, sewing thread, small craft things. While doing that I also found a bag with fabric in it. 

It turned out it was cut out pieces for a dress, and the description for the pattern was in the bag as well. It was the base pattern that I have used for the I heart SW dress, the little Greedo dress and the big Greedo dress. The last time I used this pattern was apparently in 2018 so I had no idea about the size of the pattern or what I had thought with it.

I sewed up the bodice and it fit. It's a very short bodice though, so I wanted to see if i could lengthen it, something I have done with the other dresses well. I didn't quite understand why I had cut out a variation fo the bodice with collar and decorative pleat down the side, which gives the dress a very vintage 1960s feel, and then I had cut it out in this very soft and patterned jersey, I had also cut out two sleeve ruffles for it.

Why I like this pattern is that it is very easy and goes together really quickly. I hadn't cut out a lining for the collar, so I folded it double instead, which made it quite narrow. I also skipped the sleeve ruffles and use the fabric from them to add a waistband to make it longer. All in all it took me around 2 hours to sew it together, of course it helps that I it's a knit fabric where I didn't have to finish any edges on the inside, and I now have a new dress and one less UFO in the sewing corner.

Inspiration is back and is called Project Toad

 After a January that had me doing nothing and feeling no inspiration at all, I feel that it's time to start doing something again.

In fact I'm now so inspired to start with new projects that I have put up a deadline that I need to finish my female tusken soft parts in February, see I even publicly write a date, so that I can start with the other stuff that I want to make.

I'm into two things - project Toad and linen napkins. The linen napkins are for my 16th century camp gear. Earlier this year I got a lot of old linen curtains that were going to be trashed. The linen is a bit too rough and not tight enough to use for clothes, but it will be great for household items. I feel like making napkins and towels will be a great thing to have going, and I can keep on testing embroidery and embellishment on them.

But the main thing is that I have decided to go for Project Toad! My husband has agreed to come one day to NärCon Sommar, and that he can be Toadbert.

Toadbert isn't the most common toad, but I feel that he fits my husband really well. I've given him the mission to find a pair of white trousers, a short-sleeved white shirt and a yellow tail, and brown boots. Cosplay is new to him, and I feel that it will be best to make him wear as "normal" clothes as possible. I will then sew the blue vest and make the toad hat.

I will of course make Toadette for myself. I feel that she isn't too complicated, but I have some decisions to make. How long do I want to make her dress? How long should her ball/plaits be. The length will also determine how big they are. I will get a longer plait with larger balls, but they might also be too chunky if I make them too big. 

For the toad head/hat I plan on starting with this foam pattern for a mushroom hat.

The pattern is from Pretzl cosplay, and is for quite naturalistic hats, but I think I can use the button mushrrom pattern and modify it ino a toad hat. Since a full foam hat is really warm I'm thinking covering the whole hat with fabric, and cut out venilation holes, probably where the white circles are. For Toadette's balls I'm planning on using styrofoam balls that I also cover in fabric.

Cover in fabric migh be trickier than just painting, but that will allow me to use the same fabric in the hat as in the vest and dress, so that it's totally matching. I'm also planning on using a fourway stretch fabric, might make it harder to sew the clothes but will probably be easier to use to cover the foam.

Well that's the plan and I am quite excited, now I only need to finish the Tusken and get my next paycheck so that I can start on Project Toad.

Costume plans 2025

 So normally I start the new year with a lot of plans of what I would like to do, but to be honest this year I don't really know. I feel like I have everything I need for historical costumes at the moment, and I don't have a cosplay project that gets me super excited and just wanting to start with it. It's also a fact that money is tighter, and good fabrics are just getting more expensive, and I don't want to just shell out a lot of money for a project that I'm not totally commited to.

Still there are a few things I am thinking about.

A new pair of cuff warmers. I have already started on these. I felt that the cuff warmers that I made in December were a fun project that only brought joy and had me go creative and just do something for fun. The next pair that I'm making I have decided to let them take their time, but I am also going to challenge myself and only use new embroidery techniques on them, compared to the last ones that were made with chainstitch that I feel totally comfortable with. This will be a slow project that I will have on hand to keep my hands busy and when I don't do anything else.

One or two tops/blouses. I was so happy with the skirts and the dress I made in the autumn to wear for everyday. I can't just use skirts and dresses so I have decided that this year I will find one or two patterns for tops/blouses that I can play around with and start making more clothes for myself, this is also a challenge for myself to buy less readymade clothes.

Female tusken. This project has been on my project list for so many years now, but now I have decided that I will finish it this year. To be honest I don't think it's much more than a full weekends job left, I just need to commit to it.

A lengberg bra and supporting underkirtle. For historical projects this year I need to make myself a bra, and then of course I want to make a lengberg bra. My breasts have changed a lot with my weight loss and I need the support, at the Medieval Week I also bought a wonderful undyed wool to make a proper underkirtle.

Toadette. Yes I want to make Toadette as my next SuperMario character, it would be so fun to just run around in it. For me the most complicated thing would of course be to make the hat, but otherwise it looks like a fairly simple project.

For my husband. For my husband I would love to make a proper schaube to go over his 16tth century clothes. This needs to be a discussion on if we want to invest in that much new wool that would be needed to make it good. I also want to do some fixes on his landsknecht uniform but that shouldn't be too much work. 

My 2024 costuming year in review

 So it's time to look back on the year and see what I have made. When I think back to this year it feels as if I didn't do a lot of things for myself, since my main focus was on my husband's landsknecht costume, then I realise that I still got quite a lot of things done.

This is my favorite photo of us from Medieval week in Visby, which was my main costume even this year. I made all the clothes that my husband is wearing, I remade my pink gown totally and I am wearing a new hat and new socks.

This was another of our events, a 1524 evening feast, and here I am wearing my blackwork cap that I finally finished and a whitework apron that was also totally new, and my husband got a new pair of hose more fitting for a burgher.

When it came to my cosplay, rather than 16th century, projects I did make my winter version of Princess Daisy from Supermario.

It was a fun and cozy costume, but my computer was dead when I made it so I never got to post any in progress posts about it.

With my changing body after my gastric bypass I could make a comeback with a lot of my older costumes.

In May I once again wore TFA General Leia at ComicCon Summer in Stockholm

And both at NärCon and Bokmässan I wore my admiral Daala

Bokmässan, which is the biggest literature event in Northern Europe was a new experience, and the most fun part was that I could share it with my husband, who was there as a writer.

Then, as is quite usual I think, in the autumn some new unplanned projects came along. I got the chance to patten test the new 1916 Seatoun skirt from Scroop patterns.

It was fun to dress up in 1910s fashion again, it is one of my favorite fashion eras but I simply don't get the chance to dress in it enough.

I also started to make everyday clothes, something I haven't done a lot of previously, but I started with the Summit dress from Scroop Patterns

And after the Seatoun I also made both modern versions of the skirt pattern, the Tara with and without pinafore.

I also made some small things for the HSM 24 challenges, that I have posted about in a previous post. So all in all it was a pretty productive year, even if I am missing the big impactful costumes for myself, the landsknecht was pretty impressive though.

The HSM 2024 recap

 This year I managed to finish all the challenges for the Historical Sew Monthly. Of course it helped that I had a big project, my husband's landsknecht, that I could use for many of the challenges, but it was still fun.

Here are links to this year's challenges

January - Just peachy

A new gollar

February - Seasons of fashion

A quilted petticoat

March - Made to move

A generous apron

April - Colours of nature

A pair of trossfrau socks

May - New Clothes from old

The pink trossfrau gown

June - Up your sleeve

A landsknecht doublet

July - Always in style

A pair of 19th century mittens

August - stripes and dots

A pair of landsknecht hose

September - New stitch in town

A docken barret

Oktober - UFO spotter

a blackwork cap

November - worn by all

A pair of short hose

December - That's a wrap

a whitework apron

All in all the HSM challenges have been firmly planted in my 16th century wardrobe, and even more in my husband's wardrobe, and the theme has really been pink and red. One thing I have learnt over the years with the HSM though is to not plan too much, if I have projects that fit with a challenge that's fine but I don't really go out to find projects in order to fit them with the challenges, well maybe the mittens this year was a case of what can I do that will fit the 12th and final challenge. 

The Historical Sew Monthly is a great community and I am happy to be part of it. 

HSM challenge 7 - always in style

I did it! This year I actually completed all 12 HSM challenges, I think that is the second time I have managed that. The final challenge that I needed to finish was the July challenge - always in style

Make a garment or accessory that is appropriate for more than one historical period… or even a historical piece that can be worn with modern clothing! (Note that the piece should still be ‘historical’, not just ‘historically-inspired’

In order to come up with what I should do I started thinking around. I did just finish a shift that would work for several historical periods, a shift that I had forgotten about and found in a box with just the hemming of the neckline left, but that would also be a bit boring. Then I started thinking about mittens. My wrists are always cold so I have an assortment of cuffwarmers, but I can always use more. Fingerless mittens have been used a lot. I have made a pair of long 18th century ones and some folk costumes in Sweden still have them as an accessory. This autumn Lina Odell also released a book all about doing embroidered mittens with inspiration from folk costumes. Now for the HSM challenge it should be historical and not historically inspired, still I didn't copy a specific pair but rather used several historical parts as an inspiration.

Photo by Hilding Mickelsson/Hälsinglands museum, cc-by-nc

Most preserved mittens seems to be black with silk embroideries. I was sure that I had some black wool, but I was wrong, so I was really happy to find this example of a mitten that was made in another colour.

Photo by Hälsinglands museum, cc-by

This pair of mittens has a typical pattern, made with silk and using satin stitch, stem stitch and herringbone stitch, in Swedish plattsöm, stjälksöm och flätsöm. The mittens also has a pointed tip that is folded back and shows a silk lining.

I started with taking a pair of mittens that I use at work and simply trace it to make a pattern. This is a very simple design, just one seam and a hole for the thumb rather than a sewn thumb. The shape has come from several years of use and molding to my wrist and hand.

I cut out the pattern in a scrap of wool and added the point at the top. I also drew out the base for the embroidery, deciding not to be too accurate but instead being ok with not totally symmetric and perfect pattern.

Most of the embroidery actually felt like just doodling with needle and thread, rather than with a pencil. I didn't have any silk so I used cotton, in the colours that I had at home. I also used mostly chain stitch, which is also a common stitch in folk costumes and that I am simply better at than stem stitch. I also used satin sitch. The raw edges were folded under once and also attached with more chain stitch.

The backsid of the mitten with the simple green row of chain stitch. The most tricky part was actually to attach the point in the right spot. For the lining I used a scrap of poly brocade, that is an historical pattern. I was a bit dissatified with the placement of the point, it didn't end up as centered as I would have liked.

Me wearing the finished mitten, that I also now use at work instead of the old grey ones.

The finished pair of mittens. Compared to the originals I have simplified the design, but I also now want to make more pairs that are more inspired by historical examples. It would be fun to have a pair inspired from my mother's folk costumes, which have a lot of circles and flowers in chainstitch and one inspired by the embroidery on the cap and bag for my own folk costume, which has a flowers in chain stitch. All in all it was a fun project and I can definitely see me making more of these out of scraps of wool.

What the item is: a pair of mittens from the second half of the 19th century
How it fits the challenge: The mittens are from the 19th century, but I am using them with my every day clothes at work
Material: 0,4 m wool
Pattern: my own
Year: ca 1850-1880
Notions: cotton floss
How historically accurate is it? 60% - they are not as elaborate and they use cotton floss and poly brocade instead of silk, they are also a bit too long compared to the original.
Hours to complete: Made over a weekend
First worn: to work on December 17th
Total cost: stash project but probably around $6 if bought new