i had the perfect project in mind for this week, the theme was exactly the motivation i needed to make something that i'd been planning on making for months, but it didn't materialize. i spent the latter part of last week trying to finish a quilt so that i could baste it on friday, then had a very awesome day on saturday (which i need to blog about, and will asap!), slept most of the day sunday, spent most of monday prepping for a class that night (i should blog about that too, it was really good), and then a busy day on tuesday, with a massage appointment in the morning, a bank appointment (i got an RRSP! and a tax free savings account! i'm a real grown up now!), way too many errands, and dinner with a friend.
after my friend left today, i had great plans to watch the movie again while working on the project. yes, i'd left it to the last minute, but i was confident that i could do it. and then i sat down on the computer, and realized that i felt like crap. and not just my usual chronic crap, that i'm generally pretty resigned to, except when it flares up, but icky-ucky-sinus-cold-that-makes-my-eyeballs-sting-and-a-cough-that-won't-stop kind of crap.
that pretty much caused my motivation to run away, and i spent the rest of the day feeling sorry for myself and looking at pretty crafty pictures on the internet to cheer myself up - i couldn't even motivate myself to get up and go into the living room to go watch the new episodes of criminal minds, okay? i definitely wasn't motivated enough to actually unpack my sewing stuff and draft a pattern!
HOWEVER! my sister made an AMAZING project this past weekend, that fits perfectly with the Iron Craft theme (which was to make something inspired by a movie), and since she doesn't blog, and completely neglects her flickr account, no matter how much i harass her to photograph the things that she makes, i'm going to post about it for her.
Andi was invited to a party this past weekend with a combination theme of Star Wars and the French Revolution. i still don't fully understand WHY, because i am not sufficiently geeky, unlike her LARPing friends*, but it had something to do with a photo found on the internet that combined the two, though google images isn't inclined to find for me at the moment. it was like Star Wars meets Marie Antoinette or something. (i'm sure she'll correct me if i'm wrong!)
anyway. Andi being Andi, and being much like myself, decided that she needed to make an entire outfit for the party. two days before.
and because she's so kickass, she actually managed it, and it was amazing.
(though you may be inclined to think it, since she can throw together an outfit like this in 20something hours, she really isn't the devil, i promise. my camera just gives everyone red eyes, even when the red eye setting is on.)
the outfit consisted of a dress or chemise with 3/4 sleeves that end in a flounce, a matching boned stomacher, a fully boned brown stays (the word "stays" was replaced by the word "corset", but in the 18th century, stays was still used) with tabs and laced straps, pannier hoops/hoop skirt, and the star wars petticoat.
all of the fabric she used was thrifted. the overdress is made out of a curtain (nod to Sound of Music!), the stays are made out of several layers of twill, the petticoat is obviously a sheet, and the lining of the overdress is and the hoop skirt are both a lighter weight twill. my sister has the most AMAZING luck thrifting fabrics! you should see all the incredible silk that she finds! (remember the 10 yard skirt that i made her out of thrifted silk?)
it obviously isn't historically accurate, though i do think that she is intending on making a chemise to be worn under the stays in the future, and i think she's going to make a different petticoat for non-star wars events!
the ribbon on the tied straps matches the overdress more than the stays itself, because they're slightly visible under the wide neckline of the overdress.
she didn't bind the edges of the stays in time for the party, because she didn't have time to do it properly (ie, by hand)
the stays actually have two layers of boning - the more obvious vertical boning, and a smaller amount of parallel boning across the upper chest, to maintain the proper silhouette.
*no offense to LARPers, we just like to make fun of Andi and her friends by declaring that SCA is just a form of LARPing. so basically that line was just an inside joke designed to make fun of my sister. that's how we show love in our family.
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