Steampunkish pirate part 2

I thought I’d start with a pic of the costume as it stands now and then follow with a series of ‘how it’s built’ pics. I wanted to avoid cogs and keys - I love it on other people, you know the ones who make an enormous effort and look amazing, but I can’t afford the level of detail involved and I think just chucking a few cogs on stuff can easily look rubbish. Anyway it’s a subtle steampunkery I’m going for but feel free to offer any advice!

Starting with the petticoat and ruffly shirt (both from charity shops) and the bustle…

Then on with the skirt – this is also a charity shop skirt which has large pleated gores. I just tacked sections up at regular intervals to give it that pouffy look. The skirt was too big so I put a large pleat in the back too. This helps to accommodate the bustle but I think it needs a bit of attention or maybe something extra, like a silky red something with tassels draped around?

And from the front, ok it needs ironing!

Then a crazy tight cinch belt. That’s pure elastic folks, with velcro at the back and corset-look pleather at the front. Did I mention it’s tight? I have a 29 inch waist normally but in this thing? More like 25!

And then an extra added belt – this was really long so I cut out a section, unpicked the stitching, and re-sewed it back together much smaller.

A couple of cheeky side and bustle shots – is the bustle too big do you think?

And last but not least - a corset back waistcoat, my previously mentioned hat, and a little bag for my phone and cash. The waistcoat is from ebay and the bag from a charity shop.

Because I had some of the things in my to-do pile and stash, the whole thing cost me no more that £30.

I also have a pair of stripy plus-fours I found on ebay because, if you remember, I HAVE TO ROW A BOAT IN THIS! Oh dear, I think I might have trouble but do you know what? I’m gonna try! It’s for charity!

Beccy

A little embroidery….

can transform a boring skirt into something a bit special.

Take one 70’s stretchy skirt…

…add an old embroidery transfer…

…and play around with stitches you got from an old embroidery book.

It looks better on me than on the mannequin, but I never take photos of me if I can possibly help it! The stretchy synthetic fabric was the devil to embroider neatly and I should have used some stabilizing fabric to stop it puckering, but overall I think it’s pretty cute.

It is the same skirt as this one, just in a different colour….

…wait a minute! Unless my tagging system is rubbish (and to be honest it is a bit) I haven’t blogged the other skirt.

I just got an idea for another post :)

Beccy

Resizing a too-big skirt…

This skirt already had pleats in it, all I did to make it smaller was to add a few more, regularly spaced, until it fit.

Another easy refashion, and the bonus of this kind of alteration means that if (when?) I put on any weight I can just lose a pleat or two.

Beccy

Shirred dress thing to skirt…

No, that’s not a weird new fashion for teensy bra-tops, I just forgot to take a before picture! The shirred ruchy halterneck bit was originally attached to the skirt and really all I did was hack it off leaving a sizeable chunk of shirring to fit around my waist.

Et voila! The easiest (and quickest) refashion I’ve ever done. The original dress thing was a shapeless mess that I couldn’t breathe in, at least I might get a bit of summer wear out of it, if it stops raining long enough.

Beccy

Long and unwearable to short and cute (with a tutorial!)

Look at the fabric of this skirt! Once again I grabbed something in a charity shop that didn’t fit because the fabric was so lovely. It’s too small in the waist, to long, there is a button missing and some of the fabric is torn around where the buttons were sewn on. Apart from that, it’s gorgeous!

Fleurs, fleurs, fleurs, Les Anemones!

First thing I did was remove the waistband – sometimes that’s all you need to do to ease a tight skirt. If you have a skirt that is too small, you can lay a skirt you have (that fits you well) on top of your too-small skirt to see how much of the waist you need to remove to make it fit.

Once you’ve removed your waistband, normally you can just hem the top and say-no-more but this fabric is a little flimsy and I wanted the waist to be a little more substantial.
I traced the curve of the waistband onto fusible interfacing and cut a piece an inch wide. I ironed this onto the top edge of the skirt.

Now you need to fold down your waistband and sew. Because it is cut on a curve, I needed to do a bit of snipping…

And then iron it down…

and sew…

If you are feeling fancy, you can ignore this last step and trace the line of your new waistband onto some stiffer fabric and cut it a strip an inch or so wide to make a facing. You can then sew this to the skirt face-to-face, fold it to the back and hem neatly. This way would be much neater on the inside and you could use something contrasty and exciting! I’m a bit lazier than that though.
Because I had cut off the top button on the waistband I needed to add another and this meant another buttonhole. I won’t bore you with a how-to because the interweb is littered with them.

Et voila, it fits!

And after cutting it down to knee length and a hemming session later…

I love my new summer skirt, now if we could only get some warmer weather!
Beccy

Pintucks in corduroy?

This skirt was waaay too big, and dull. You can see where I had put a box pleat in the front but I didn’t like it very much so I unpicked it and started again.

I saw this idea in Sew Subversive and thought it might work even though the cord is very bulky.

I kinda like it. I sewed the pintucks down with contrast stitching so they face the middle and yeah, it is a little bulky but I much prefer it to how it was before.

Beccy

Kasia skirt number two…

Blimy, are my hips really that big? Haha must be! And I should really use the iron more before I take photos. This is the Burdastyle Kasia skirt I started an age ago, made from some more of those curtains I found in a charity shop for £6. Remember I made Burdastyle’s Coffee Date Dress from the same fabric? That £6 is stretching far and I’ve got loads of the fabric left. Matching hat? :)
  
Don’t you love the buttons? All from stash, I decided to make two buttonholes instead of three – I’ll let you know if it gapes weirdly. I think stacked buttons might just be my new favourite thing. I had all my buttons out and was trying to find something that matched. Mum started looking too, and five minutes later she had come up with this combination. Go ma!
This is my second Kasia, but I don’t think I’ll make any more. I managed the waistband first time round (but I was so involved in getting it right, it didn’t actually fit and was too big), but this time I lost my mojo and botched it together. It’s an arse. Consider that a warning chaps!
Beccy

Thrifted sundress to skirt…

Sorry for the poor before photos, I took them late last night when I decided to start this project!

I got this dress from a jumble sale on Wednesday, it was 20p (!) in fact everything was 20 or 30p but by the time we got there (approx 15-20 minutes after the doors opened) it was a scrum with ladies elbowing each other out of the way for the chance of a bargain. I got a few things, but I saw some beautiful fabric disappearing into people’s carrier bags *sigh*…
Anyway, I like the fabric but the dress is totally not me – it also felt a bit maternity with that not-quite empire line and huge belly-framing bow in the front.
So I decided to take the top off and make a skirt out of it.

The back was shirred so I decided to rip the stitches along that not-quite empire line and cut across the middle of the shirring, making that the waist so I wouldn’t lose the casing for the bow/belt and could use the elastic instead of a zip.

You probably can’t see but there are gold holographic sequins on that top, *shudder*

I sewed bright pink bias binding around the top to stabilise it and added a casing to the top of the shirring to hold a wider piece of elastic. I also pulled the shirring tighter by pulling the elastic and tying a knot in it.

I took about 8 inches off the hem, re-hemmed then rethreaded the belt. All in all, it was about an hour’s work and now I have something I’ll actually wear!
Beccy

I finished Que Sera and a new skirt!

The cardigan is the free Que Sera pattern from Knitty I started ages ago. Isn’t it pretty? Stop looking at those buttons, I know I went a bit wrong with my measuring :) I realised too late that I wasn’t going to have enough room to fit in another properly spaced buttonhole so I put one as high as I could in the neckband when I knitted it on. I think it’s ok?
The skirt was one I’ve had for ages, but it was far too big and had a bleach mark on the hem:

Yeuch, very sloppy! To fix it I added two box-pleats, one in the front and one in the back to pull in the waistband. Then I hemmed it shorter to get rid of that nasty red bleach spot.
This is my new teaching outfit – it’s the first day of class today and I wanted to make a good (smart-ish) impression. I might have to dig out my wide red belt though, to add a bit of zing - I am an art teacher, after all!
Beccy

Remember this dress?

I bought it in the Summer for 50p from my favourite charity shop. It is labelled a medium, well I’m medium by most standards and although it fit my hips, I couldn’t zip it past my ribcage. It has been sitting in my ‘to do’ pile (winking at me) ever since and I decided, finally, to do something with it.

Isn’t the fabric great?

It looks like a much easier refashion than it was. Well, it wasn’t really hard, I detached the skirt and waistband, made button loops out of one of the straps and resewed the waistband back on to the skirt. It was a faff because it was overlocked to within an inch of its life, and took ages to take apart. Actually sewing it took about ten minutes, and there were threads everywhere!
I’ve also nearly finished my second Kasia skirt from Burdastyle – I forgot about that waistband fandangle though!
Beccy

An easy skirt refashion….

Yes it’s another granny skirt, I just can’t get enough of them at the moment, and since charity shops are full of them I’m happy as Larry!

I’d already slit the pleats higher on this calf-length skirt before I took the first photo, they started much lower down, somewhere near my knees – why can’t I ever remember to take a before pic? All I did then was hack off about 6” (enough to make a scarf or something?) and re-hem it. It’s fully lined, so I did the same there too.

At this point I decided it was better, but not finished – it needed something else… buttons! White, plastic and 80’s never looked so cute.
 
And a little pocket, a girls gotta have somewhere to keep her lipbalm!
Beccy