Category: costume

Dressing Fancy

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As you may know by now I love a good costume and nothing makes my little heart happier than going to events where others feel the same. Whether it is Steampunk, Medieval or just a chance to dress up in something, I love the sense of freedom it gives you, and the creativity that people display in what they chose to wear.

I think it is interesting that most of my friends still enjoy what we might consider pursuits that are for children, not adults. They love dressing up, fantasy games, board games, model making and painting, and costumed dance and drama. I think these are very vital for our mental health, they keep us in touch with our carefree inner child, and they give us the opportunity to spend time with like minded people.

I have been updating my podcast list on my tablet as I have been doing lots of machine sewing recently and I love to listen to podcasts or watch sewing vlogs while I do that. Two of my favourite are on the history of Fashion, called Dressed, and one about fancy dress, called Dress Fancy. They are both well worth a listen. I have just discovered two recent episodes on the history of lace on the Dressed one so will be listening to those soon.

One of the things I love about Spain is the opportunity to dress up at the many fiestas here. I love all of them, whether it is Moors and Christians, the traditional dress at religious parades and the many different ones celebrating local events. The Benidorm one that I went to this week started some 40 years ago as an extra day after a 3 day festival honouring local saints. One of the bars offered free food and drink for anyone dressed up that day and it grew from there. It is estimated that 30,000 people come for the fiesta which makes it the largest fancy dress party in Europe, perfect for me!

I went with one of the local coach companies and met some friends there. As they were doing Steampunk I bought an outfit from England. This worked well and I got lots of compliments on my hat, although the temperature did get up to 29 degrees so may have to think of something cooler for next year 😉

What was wonderful to see was the many groups who had come with a theme, it was so crowded that I didn’t get chance to get pictures of everyone but there were many crews from Top Gun, Wizard of Oz characters, plus many Elvises, a few Rod Stewarts and at least one Freddie Mercury.

The 1960s was a popular theme as well with some brilliant outfits like this silver one.

Disney is always a popular choice and this Malificent was magnificent.

Henry 8th was there, with just the one wife, a beautifully dressed Anne Boleyn.

As I was leaving the main area I bumped into B1 and B2 from the children’s video series Bananas in Pyjamas. My children loved this when they were little.

These cleaning ladies were wonderful, even down to the cigarettes hanging out of their mouths.

The gnomes had excellent patchwork waistcoats on.

These Morris dancers spent a lot of time doing performances for the crowds.

This couple must have spent hours on their amazing Avatar face painting.

I think one of my very favourites was the three girl bikers, loved their sequinned helmets!

Many of the groups had a travel theme, there were ships captains, airline pilots and a group of stewardesses dancing in front of the bar we were at.

It was just absolutely brilliant to see everyone dancing and enjoying themselves, all the more precious after the last couple of years, when at times I think we all thought we would never be allowed near more than 5 other humans again!

I ended the afternoon with a trip down to the beach for some food and a cool off and watched the sun go down so I was able to take some arty shots there.

A really lovely day out. I have had a very sociable week this week and so am going to have a very quiet one next week. After today the reindeers will be completed, the rabbit has already been delivered, so my next post will be sharing those pictures.

I have signed up for a couple more Future Learn courses as my Mary Queen of Scots one ends this coming week, and my online History of Canals one ends the week after so wanted to have something else to keep the brain active. Oh and I have finally got my guitar, courtesy of my aunt, I did my first lesson today.

I played guitar whilst at primary school and loved it so this was another of my things I wanted to do in retirement. I am just using some apps and You Tube videos at the moment but enjoyed getting back to it this morning.

I will be finishing off the Christmas ornaments for family this coming week as my stitching project and have a new knitting project to share with you in the next post. I hope you are having a lovely time whatever you are doing, have a great weekend, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Welcome to the Asylum!

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The long awaited return to Lincoln for the Steampunk Asylum weekend did not disappoint. This was the first weekend we had stayed over just for the event, rather than having a re-enactment event as well and we had great accommodation at The Swan in the Brayford Marina area.

We had a full Saturday and Sunday there. The outfit for the Saturday was my new Egyptologist outfit, a simple and cool one which I was able to add a pistol and a hammer to. I picked up the wonderful necklace in a charity shop in Whitby a few years ago and the hat braid came from the last Whitby market. Ellen was an Edwardian butterfly/ fairy.

I have tried to group the outfits we saw in themes. There was definitely a Britannia theme and we saw many red white and blue but this couple below were amazing, especially on a warm weekend. I loved the red and gold and wings on the outfit in the second picture.

Sunday was the return of the Glories of Bombay outfit while Ellen did Harry Potter. There were so many wonderful outfits to see, it really seemed like people were pulling put all of the stops after a three year break.

There was a Superhero costume display on Sunday so I was able to get pictures of them all together. We also met this Captain America in the most stunning gown.

This couple were stunning both days, amazing head dresses.

One of my favourite women, Rachel, was there, I have admired so many of her previous outfits such as her big top and octopus Queen and this Rememberence one was beautiful.

Huge congratulations as well to this Japanese warrior and this Knight as it was a very warm weekend to be wearing this much costume.

There were so many peacock inspired outfits on Saturday and this was one of my favourite.

There were some amazing group outfits, I think the ones in boats were my absolute favourites, incredible creativity.

I just love the fun and the total bonkersness of it all. In a world with so much sad it is just a wonderful fun and inclusive environment to be in. Thank you to the Ministry of Steampunk for all your hard work, we have already booked our accommodation for next year.

I will return soon with the Anglesey pictures, it has been brilliant to catch up with my work colleagues. I am so glad not to have to do my job any more but miss these wonderful people. Hope that you all have a good week ahead, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Where did you get that hat, where did you get that hat?

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I now have a lot of Steampunk hats and decorations for them but this is the first one that I have made from scratch. I was taught how to make medieval headwear by the very talented Kat a long time ago so I have used the same techniques here.

I was aiming for a small pill box type hat so first cut out buckram stiffening then lined it with wadding before sewing the outer fabric on. The lid was also lined with felt to give it an edge to help sew it into the top of the hat.

The blue embellishment was made in the same way with stiffening and wadding and then sewn to the hat. The ostrich feathers came from Ebay, they are just tucked in at the moment but will be pinned in when I wear it.

The lace came from stash, I think it is some my Mum may have bought here in Spain and I have embellished it with seed beads. The hat has been sewn to a headband covered in lace so I can easily wear it without pins.

I have blogged about the outfit pattern before but realised I had not specified which one it is. The pattern is Butterick B6305 and is part of their history collection, dated 1870-1880.

I have modified it a lot, as you can see the original pattern has a very fitted front with a bow at the back and an apron front. I am not very good at making fitted items, I blame my generous bust 😉

As I was quite short of time have opted to leave the front as fold over reveres, embellished with some lovely lace that I think I bought from a Steampunk market. I have a cameo brooch to keep it closed.

I just made my own pattern for the cuffs as the ones on the original pattern are very complex but I think they look pretty and showcase the blue fabric really well.

As it is a looser jacket it did not look right with either apron or bustle so I have just made a little drawstring bag in blue to complement the outfit. I still have a complete jacket minus sleeves cut and sewn, as I was going to use the same material to line it.

I also still have the front jacket facings in blue and additional material so may come back and make a more fitted blue and cream one when I have more time. Saying that I don’t have any time do I, even now I am retired and I still have two more lots of material to make outfits with that I haven’t even started, but you never know!

The skirt is very simple but I am pleased with the neat pleats and darts. I had to cut the skirt much narrower than in the pattern, the material is very stiff and so it would not drape with that amount of width.

The material is beautiful, but as it is very stiff I have had to hand finish most of the jacket seams so that they won’t rub but it should be fine to wear now. I do so love the fabric, and am so pleased that it has finally been used after a mere 16 years in stash! It will be lovely to have a new outfit for Whitby.

I have also finished some little felt and Liberty flowers that I am intending to add to my purple top hat for decoration for Steampunk and re-enactment events. I like to wear a top hat in the evenings when we go to the beer tent.

The templates for the flowers are free ones from here and I used the same ones when I was making my 1940s felt flower corsages.

I backed the Liberty with iron on interfacing so that I could use the flowers raw edged.

I am looking forward to some lovely celebrations here this week as it is my 60th birthday 🙂 We are going for afternoon tea on the actual day, one of the bars here does a gorgeous afternoon tea and they even do a really lovely gluten free one! We tested it out a couple of weeks ago with my sewing group and it was delicious.

shall miss Spain but my 90 days are nearly up so until I return will be thinking about the epic sunsets like this one the other evening.

The sky was an amazing colour and I was out for quite a while taking pictures. We haven’t had one like that for a while but they are always amazing in autumn.

I will be having an epic adventure in Katy though, so won’t be too sad. I will be back as soon as I can from the road via the miracles of the WordPress app, with hopefully some great pictures from our re-enactment events. Fingers and everything else crossed!

Have fun until I see you all again, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

A very productive week!

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I have had not only a very accomplished week work wise, getting through a huge pile of marking and admin and the start of a new term, with a brand new masters module to teach, but also a very productive week with other things.

Ellen came up this week, she took me shopping, which was very useful as I am now stocked up with toiletries and things for about the next four months so will not have to go to town for a long time. I found that during the first lockdown last year it was sometimes difficult, or more expensive, to source specific things that I needed so at least I am prepared for the long haul now as I doubt I will be going into work before Easter.

Then we had a lovely day yesterday of baking, and cooking and cutting out the new Steampunk dress, aided by lots of tea of course!

Thank you very much to Leigh, who commented on my last post telling me that the dress is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was able to find the details of it here. It was made in 1885 by an American company and is an evening dress. That quite surprised me as I thought it looked more like a winter walking ensemble with the jacket bodice and the fur.

The fabric is a delight to work with, very easy to cut and doesn’t slip about or fray. I think I am really going to enjoy making this outfit, unlike others where I have been wrestling with slippery satin or velvet that sheds everywhere 😦 It did take a while to do the pattern matching though, it is big repeat and it is not an exact repeat all over the cream fabric. I have not yet manged to cut the sides of the jacket or the skirt as it took a while to get the other pieces accurate.

I did not have as much of the blue so I am going with a blue front panel and collar, cuffs, apron and possibly the bow. I am modifying the pattern to use a more pointed back to the jacket, as in the original, and a smaller bow than in the pattern. I am also hoping to use some of my vintage lace collection to embellish the sleeves and bow. I really love the motif on the fabric, it has that gorgeous mix of Victorian and Indian influences.

It was slightly easier to use the pattern as I have already made it once, with modifications. It is listed as ‘plus difficile’ but since the last time I used it was to make the tablecloth jacket, which involved pattern placement on three different embroidered tablecloths looking for the right combination of motifs, it felt a lot easier this time. The last one turned out very well and is still one of my favourite makes.

This version will have a different front as well, it is a faux button front with a placket behind it with hooks and eyes so that will save me actually having to make buttonholes, some of my least favourite things!

Hopefully I will finish the cutting out this week and then tack it together for a first fitting next week. Ellen is coming up again for a bit (hurrah for support bubbles) so hopefully I will be able to start putting it together after that.

I was looking though previous posts about the pattern and I had found this gorgeous image where someone had used the pattern to produce this stunning outfit.

I did a search to see if anyone else had used it but apart from two of my pictures didn’t find anything else yet but will keep looking on pattern review sites as I love getting new ideas. I did find this beautiful original dress, which is very similar. No idea where from again but love these colours.

I am so pleased that I have got another project underway, I love the creativity of putting together not just the outfit, but the hat and all the embellishments, lots of lovely research to be done over the next few months. I am currently looking for shoes, gloves and a parasol to go with it.

I hope that you are all having a lovely weekend, and are tucked up safe and warm if you are in the UK. It has been quite a week, weather wise, with dreadful floods and snow and sleet. Thankfully it is only the roads here that were flooded but there have been some really bad ones elsewhere.

Have fun, take care and stay safe. Thanks, as always for visiting and commenting and I will see you all again soon.

Flower fairies, flying geese and a bit of faith

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As promised in a previous post I have some of my daughter’s wonderful creativity to share with you today. She bought a wedding dress from a charity shop a while ago, meaning to turn it into a flower fairy outfit. As she has had a little more time on her hands at the moment due to being on furlough she has created this amazing piece of gorgeousness.

Flower fairy 1

The dress started life as something very similar to my friend’s dress that I added the lace to a while ago. She has added lots and lots of artificial flowers, lace applique and beading to transform it.She is so clever and so dedicated as it took forever to stitch.

I think it looks amazing and can’t wait to see it in real life. I think we need to do a photo shoot in the woods somewhere, she has discovered some very lovely ones near her house so that will be a project for the future.

The dress is to be worn with a flower crown and these gorgeous flower fairy shoes made from artificial leaves that her friend Charlotte has created for her.

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Flower fairy 13

I would have had some lovely Sawtooth Star blocks to share with you today but unfortunately they have proved very tricky, or rather the flying geese part has. I do remember having similar problems last time I tried this as well. I am persevering but so far have seam ripped the centre part of the block twice so am going to try again this afternoon.

As with everything you have to have a little faith, in yourself when tackling new things and generally, especially during difficult times.

Have faith pillow

I made this pillow for Ellen at Christmas to remind her to always have faith in herself and that any challenges can be overcome. I was going to post about it a while ago but lost the pictures so thanks to Ellen for this one. This is one of Jenny of Elfantz designs again.

I have also just finished the heart embroidery, again by Jenny. The picture below was the last work in progress shot.

Heart embroidery

I am pleased with this now as I think the flowers detract somewhat from the wobbly lines! I am not sure how I am going to use this, probably a pouch or a bag, I think it would look good with ric rac edging.

Heart embroidery 2

Heart embroidery 3

I need to order some more embroidery hoops before I can begin a new camper applique embroidery so I am going to do a smaller circle and hexagon with my new Millhouse threads while I wait for those to arrive.

Now it is back to trying to sort of those geese, wish me luck! Have a good week ahead, take care, keep safe and thanks for visiting.

The treasure trove that is Bombay Stores

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A couple of days before Christmas Ellie came up for a short visit and we decided to go and do a bit of fabric shopping. I am trying not to buy things and to be good but I do need to make several new Steampunk outfits and I just do not have enough yardage of any one fabric to make all these so I thought I would treat myself to some for Christmas.

We are lucky enough to live near Bradford which has the most amazing Asian fabric shops, our favourite being the wonderful Bombay Stores which we have visited several times, notably to buy Amanda’s and Kerry’s wedding fabric. As well as fabric they have Asian wedding dresses so we always have a quick look at that section to marvel at the beauty of these. They also sell amazing bags, shoes and jewelry, this video gives you a quick overview of all of the fabulous things.

I adore the Asian dresses, if you are not familiar with them then I have found a couple of Pinterest pictures for you to admire. The colours and the embroidery, beads and crystal are amazing and there are so many different colours available as well as traditional red.

Asain wedding dress 1

Asain wedding dress 2

We were really lucky that day as they were having a sale – brocades at £1.25 a metre and satins, organza and lining fabric at 75p a metre! I had been planning just to buy a sari set to get enough fabric to make one outfit as these are very good value at between £20 and £30 depending on style but instead got a total of 35 metres of fabric plus silk and embellishments for under £40.It was indeed a very happy Christmas to me 🙂

I am taking my inspiration for the first outfit from a few sources. I love this outfit by Yaya Han, who is a cosplayer and model and wanted to make something peacock inspired. I have not bought this pattern as it a little too fitted for me so am planning to use one of my other Steampunk patterns.

Yaya Han Peacock costume

I have also found some lovely hats like this one below and I love the colours they have used so wanted to have a peacock hat as well.

Steampunk Hat 1

I also have a set, bought from Bombay Stores as a present by Amanda, to say thank you for making her wedding coat. I did not have time to make up before her wedding so it has been in the stash ever since . It has a fabric for a full length tunic with the most amazing embroidery as well as fabric for lining.

Raj fabric 2

I bought the turquoise fabric with lining and the turquoise and gold organza in the picture below intending to just use that but they all go so well together that I am going to use all of them for an outfit which will be a turquoise jacket embellished with embroidered motifs.

Raj fabric 3

I also bought some small pieces of silk in peacock colours as well as these gorgeous jewels to make peacock embellishments. I think they will made wonderful decorations for my purple top hat which I plan to wear with the outfit.

Raj fabric1

The other part of the haul was 10 metres of this amazing brocade plus some gold lining fabric.

Bombay stores gold

 

I was not certain which pattern I was going to use for that however my lovely Steampunk Seamstress Squadron Facebook sewing friends alerted me to a 50% off Simplicity pattern sale last night so I bought this coat pattern. I am think of making a fairly straight skirt to go with this coat as an evening outfit for the ball at Lincoln Asylum event in August.

simplicity-military-cosplay-costumes-pattern-8769-envelope-front

I also was lucky enough to have some fabric and a bag of very cute charms for Christmas from my brother Ben and sister-in-law Amanda, I love these patterns and am going to save the charm pack and fat eighths ones for a future quilt as I think the autumn colours are gorgeous. One of my retirement plans is to make lots of quilts for different seasons for my bed.

Christmas preseent fabric 1

Christmas preseent fabric 2

I have lots of things that I have made over the past couple of months that I have not posted about yet and some other plans for evening making as the outfits will have to be weekend work, which thankfully I have so many more of this term! I have just finished knitting a little hat for my great-niece Ava, now to knit some dinosaur spikes to go on it.

I hope you are all having a fun weekend with lots of nice crafting or other things planned. Thanks as always for visiting my blog, I have just upgraded my WordPress subscription to get rid of all of the adverts as they were becoming very irritating so hopefully you will all enjoy your visits even more now.

Take care and I will see you all soon.

Butterflies and sunshine

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Lincoln Steampunk was brilliant again. We did not have as much time as usual wandering around the castle area due to some confusion about catching the bus to the campus to see what was going on there but saw lots of lovely costumes as always.I really loved this purple angel with working wings.There were also some beautiful and unusual costumes like the black ballgown with cogs and the book spine corset dress that had the most amazing ruffle skirt.

It was very hot so we were happy not to be doing too much walking. We spent some time at up the University campus where we bumped into a woman we recognised from last year.She had previously been wearing a Death Star dress and Millennium Falcon hat and this year she and her partner were dressed as two more characters from Star Wars, with a twist. I give you Gin Solo and Teabacca!

How brilliantly creative is that. I love the detail here with the gin bottle belt and the tea holster complete with cup and the marvelous gun.It never ceases to amaze me the ideas people come up with.

There were lots and lots of butterfly costumes and pretty flowers, these two sisters had made beautiful parasols by appliqueing flowers to plain umbrellas and I loved the butterfly head dress here.

The ladies from Lichtenstein were there again with the usual fabulous themed costumes. This year it was sewing accessories. I only managed to take one picture of them while I was at the event, so these are from their Facebook page. They are so beautiful and the detail of their accessories is amazing.

We bumped into some more friends from Steampunk, who were also wearing very brave costumes for such a hot day. Here are Fox and Sian. At least Fox is not wearing 7 stone of armour on a boiling July day as he often has been. And there were plenty of chances to stop for restorative tea which we don’t have in the 1400s!

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Ellie looked amazing, you have already seen the Worth dress but it deserves some more pictures and more of the beautiful hat which is new for this event. She is so clever and really suits the elegant Edwardian look.The hat was a plain cream one from the charity shop and I think the black lace really makes it look stunning.

We also bumped into a couple that we met at Clumber on the 1940s weekend, I love this red, white and blue ensemble. This women told us previously she had about 50 hats which I think is splendid, as I said in my last post we need more hat wearing, preferably very beautiful and ornate ones as well.

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I was very pleased with my new hat, everything stayed attached all day. I have now bought myself a glue gun so there is no stopping me now in my ability to create wondrous things!

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Lincoln - selfie

We are definitely going to go for the whole weekend next year as one day is just not enough. Of course that will mean at least 5 outfits as we would like to go to a ball as well so I really had better get cracking. I do have 3 skirts and a jacket to use as a base for a creation, as well as the tablecloth jacket but I need at least 2 more outfits really. I had better get scouring the charity shops for more bargains.

I have had a very pleasant rest of the weekend,I only worked Saturday morning so there was lots of crafting time and catching up with friends. I do love this time of year, lots of new beginnings and plans for the autumn.

Hope that you have a lovely week ahead, term starts next week so it will be very full on then so I am making the most of the lull. I will be back later in the week with pictures from Scotland. Take care and thanks for visiting.

Costume inspiration

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The recent visit to Bankfield Museum gave us so many ideas for future Steampunk costume. There were some lovely fashion plates up the stairs and decorating the rooms and then some gorgeous Victorian gowns. I really love this purpley/grey one on the left here and Ellie would love to make the pink one below.

Costume Bankfield 3

Costume Bankfield 4

Costume Bankfield 11

The dress in the foreground of the picture above was originally purple and you can see that on the fringe and the mottling on the back of the dress. The one at the back is so elegant, I love the shaping on the jacket.

We also loved the fact that they  had dress up, and not just for children. These top pictures were really high quality reproductions of two of the Regency outfits they had on display, the embroidery on waistcoats from this period is always stunning.

There were also some displays of local textile production, including a lovely collection of hat pins, cuff links and buttons all made from casein which is actually milk protein! Fascinating to think that buttons can be made of milk.

It is so nice as well to see pictures of the women who made the hat pins. There was such a huge demand for them then. I think it is a great pity there is not more hat wearing, and I don’t just mean woolly ones in winter. Bring back hats for everyday wear!

Costume Bankfield 13

There was also the display of the gorgeous costumes from the Gentleman Jack TV series, part of which was filmed in Halifax, at Shibden Hall where Ann Lister lived. This is the fourth TV costume exhibition we have seen, the others being Victoria, Downton Abbey and a sneak peek at some of the Wolf Hall ones from before the exhibition . I really like seeing the clothes in detail, close up without the cases the museum pieces often have to be in. The sleeve silhouettes on these dresses are gorgeous and I love the lace shawls.

In the cases round the room there were also some fascinating needlework tools and accessories and samplers, I love seeing things like these, they really make you think about who was using them and what they were making and the skill level of these very young needlewomen.

One of the most interesting was this pincushion made from a shell. You can also see a walnut thimble case in one of the above pictures, next to the miniature sewing machine.

Costume Bankfield 32

I have started reading the Elm Creek Quilts book series again, I first read them all about 10 years ago and loved them so have the joy of re-reading all 20 books in the series and was very excited to learn that a new story is being published. It is definitely making me want to make more quilt blocks again after all the Yarndale stock is finished.

I am interspersing time in the craft room doing that with finishing off a knitted animal and then am going to work on some Christmas and birthday gifts. As well as more Barbie clothes I really want to make a quiet book. I have been doing some research and have found some gorgeous ideas. I particularly love the ones that are little doll houses like this one in this video. Look at the cuteness of the little cat and teddy and that wonderful wardrobe!

Quiet book doll houseSo many lovely things to make and luckily more time to do them! Jake is happily finding his feet in Japan, the doctorate is done 🙂 apart from the final proof read and printing off so I can indulge myself in all manner of crafty loveliness with all this free time I now have!

 

Hope that you are having a nice weekend as well. I will be back soon with some of the Lincoln Steampunk costumes.Take care and thanks for visiting.

Bustles, blossoms and beats, the creativity of Steampunk

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As always there were amazing costumes. I really love the fact that Steampunk gives people a chance to participate on any level, whether it be using things you have in your wardrobe and adding a top hat, or even adapting a wedding hat, re purposing charity shop finds, buying clothes ready made or tailoring/creating your own fantastic costumes.

This woman is a costume maker and her garments are always out of this world.I love the starry fabric of her dress.

Steampunk event Costume 4

Steampunk event Costume 7

This white one below is a great example of putting things together, the costume is all ready made items and then it is set off by this amazing head dress.

Steampunk event Costume 1
Steampunk event Costume 2

It is a very inclusive activity that can be done at any level, unlike re-enactment where there are unfortunately lots of authenticity rules, understandable but it does make it expensive even for a beginner.

For just a basic outfit you would need to spend about £100 even if you made all the garments yourself yet Steampunk can be done for next to nothing. My outfit this year, which was the most original I have done not using many things already in my wardrobe, only cost £67 to put together and that is including buying the skirt and hat that I have already worn to other events and to re-enactment lots of times .

I also love the fact that it is encouraging people to sew and to make, anything that does that is fantastic and every single one of the thousands of people who were there this weekend had done something creative which is so good for everybody.

There were some wonderful examples of this creativity, this woman’s costume was music themed. I really like her hat made of records and the bustle from sheet music!The attention to detail is wonderful, look at the music note fabric and the tiny piano on the back pack.

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Steampunk event Costume 23

I think the most original re-purposing I saw all weekend was this great set of wings made from ties, an adult and a child version, how fantastic is this!

Steampunk event Costume 3

Although this top hat decorated with Lego people did come a close second.

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We loved this gown and hat with so many ribbon roses, we spoke to the owner about how she had made it and they were all hand made then glued on to gown.

Steampunk event Costume 15

This was a fantastic Elizabeth 1st inspired neck piece, we loved all the detail on this.

Steampunk event Costume 21

There was also a large contingent of Votes for Women themed participants, celebrating the centenary of the 1918  Representation of the People Act which gave some women the right to vote.

This lovely woman was one of the many who stopped and complimented me on my jacket, having seen the pictures on the Seamstress Squadron page which was so kind of them.

Steampunk event Costume 13

There were some fabulous gowns as well such as these lovely ladies and the gentlemen with the matching waistcoat. We all especially loved the princess outfit in pale blue at the bottom.

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Steampunk event Costume 20

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And so much colour, I love purple and these women looked fantastic as did the one who was wearing peacock themed colours and the other very bright Marie Antoinette dress.

Steampunk event Costume 19

Steampunk event Costume 27

Steampunk event Costume 18

I have already decided that next year’s Lincoln outfit will be purple and turquoise, using the skirt and top hat I already have.

I had actually decided on this colourway before the event as I was doing some some hand stitching and brought down some threads in those colours and thought how wonderful they looked together. Not quite sure what the theme will be but will work on that.

It was not only the costumes that were marvelously creative but also the machines. From the cogged bustle which actually moved, the ever inventive backpacks, through the  mobility carts and wheelchairs to bikes there were some amazing adaptations, another reason why Steampunk is so inclusive.

Steampunk event Costume 16

Steampunk event Costume 11

We are really looking forward to our next event, Steampunks in Space in November, and I have a Sci-Fi theme for that to go with my new hat. I had some money from Ellie and Jake for my birthday and I bought a dressage hat, similar to a top hat but shorter.

Then we will have Whitby in February where we are going for an overnight stay so can do two days! I will show you the jacket I am planning as my next make soon as I am allowing myself plenty of time for fitting issues!

It is a very dull and grey day here, not at all August weather and the leaves have started to fall from the trees so I suspect that summer is sadly over. I do love autumn as a season but have enjoyed the lack of rain!

Hope that you are having a nice week where you are, take care and thanks for visiting.

Bordado – the art or pastime of embroidering cloth

stitchesoftime5 Comments

Bordado, as we found out in Seville, is Spanish for embroidery. The Folk Museum had lots of really interesting artifacts all housed in the beautiful Moorish Pavillion.

Seville Bordado museum

The first section we looked at was devoted to materials and their transformation and there were lots of displays of all types of artisan workshops including gilding, woodwork, leather and bakery.

There were also some brilliant works in progress pieces, one of the most exciting things for me in museums is seeing the unfinished pieces so you can see how they have made the embroidery.

In these pictures you can see the whitework paisley before the holes are cut and where padding stitches have been done first before satin stitch. There is also the lace being worked over a paper pattern.

I was really interested to see the tissue paper pinned round the working area on this last piece to keep it clean. That is something I haven’t done but is a great idea. The embroidery frames are beautifully made as well.

Seville Bordado 5 - paper

Then to my great excitement there was a whole gallery of embroidery and lace, one of the biggest collections that I have ever seen, so much wonderful work.

Seville Bordado - lace display

Much of it was a very similar type of work, sets of tray cloths or table cloths and napkins all unused and very similar in design.

Seville Bordado - napkin display

I wondered if they had been sample pieces for a book on embroidery or a series of magazines.I would guess they may be from the late 20s or 30s looking at the designs, there was no information about their origins though.

There was also very detailed whitework, some with cutwork lace.

I have never done any whitework though have some books on it and would love to. I don’t think I could ever make lace though I love looking at it.

One of my favourite pieces of whitework was this amazingly detailed unfinished tablecloth, you can just see the pencil outline of the rest of the design on the right.

Seville Bordado - whitework 3 - unfinished

Things like this always make me want to know the story of the maker, what happened, was it boredom and it became a WIP? Was there a tragedy and she never finished because of this?

There was also lots of amazing Spanish lace, whenever we go to the Easter Parades we admire the beautiful lace mantillas that the women wear with the high combs and these were stunning examples of mantillas and shawls.

When we at the recent fiesta in Alicante there were a group of people in costume with mantillas and lace aprons, it was too crowded and dark to get pictures then but these are a couple from Google from previous year’s fiestas to show you how beautiful they are. Spain has such a wonderful history of textile crafts and I love these traditional costumes.

Alicante costumes

Alicante costumes 2

I am still working on Jenny’s embroidery sampler at the moment and having fun practising stitches I have not done for a while like chain stitch. I still can’t master French Knots so may have to substitute seed beads.

I have a nice week ahead as I am working from home all work which means lots of early finishes and sewing time. We might even get some more BBQs in, only 7 to go to hit our target of 20. Hope you are also going to have a lovely week, take care and thanks for visiting.