The next item which I made for the Victorian ensemble for the Dickens Fair was the Truly Victorian 441 – 1861 Garibaldi Blouse. This was probably the easiest and most straight forward piece of the ensemble that I made. I was fortunate that Jill had already made hers (technically twice, since she made a muslin that was too big and then had to make a second one that was the correct size). Since I knew her measurements and I knew mine, no muslin was needed. Which was a good thing because at this point, I was getting a bit tight on time and really wasn’t relishing making two of these. That being said, it’s a good pattern and I will definitely make another one.

I used a cream colored cotton sateen from JoAnn’s. It was actually pretty perfect. Easy to work with, soft, natural fiber but looked clean. Sewed up quite nicely.

I had just gotten my new Bernini 770 which has all these fun stitches on it that I decided to take it for a run. I was using an eggplant colored thread since my skirt was eggplant colored. I used the roses on the color and had to go for a simple on down the placket since otherwise it would have been too much.

But on the cuffs and hem, I took the opportunity to use the PIG STITCH. Yes, you read that correctly. THERE IS A PIG STITCH ON MY MACHINE. If I hadn’t already thought this was the world’s awesomest machine, this would have clinched the victory.

As mentioned, the skirt and thread were eggplant and I was fortunate to have two lovely eggplant buttons (actually left over from another project that has since been abandoned because it was started so long ago that the fabric and style aren’t even in fashion any more. Sigh.).

Here’s how it looks together. I love having the roses on both the cuffs and collar to tie it together.

And of course, I needed to hem the shirt. Why not use the straight “ground” of the pig stitch to tack it down and give me another excuse to hide some piggies on my shirt. There is a distinct possibility that I will be using this stitch A LOT.

      

When you’ve got a hoop skirt, you’ve got to have a petticoat to go on top of it. Otherwise you can see all the hoops through it.

I made my petticoat based off the Truly Victorian Free Petticoat Pattern. They’ve got all the yardage listed there although I ended up buying an entire bolt of muslin because I figured I could always use it for actual muslins but I needed up using most of it.

I couldn’t find fabric with eyelet on one side and I wanted more ruffles so I bought separate pre-ruffled eyelet lace to use on the bottom of the top layer. It turned out to be a decent compromise.

Attaching the eyelet ruffles to the bottom of the skirt. I think I bought the whole “bolt” of the ruffle lace which was 10 yards. 

I also had some serious issues with the bottom layer of my skirt. The bottom layer of the pattern isn’t gathered as much as the top layer although I did add a plain fabric ruffle to it as well for extra “poof.” Somehow when I gathered it, it ended up shorter than expected and didn’t quite fit over my hoop skirt. I thought my calculations for the amount of ruffling were good . . . but apparently I was off. So I had to add some wedges in at the sides and back.

I did this by cutting out wedge pieces (here I’m cutting 2 at once) that matched the bottom skirt. I had some leftover as you can see in the picture above (which should have been the first sign that something was wrong :P)

Then I cut a slit into the bottom layer of the skirt at the sides and back and stitched in my wedge along the sides. You can’t see this layer anyways so no harm done as you can see below:

This is the petticoat as the free pattern says to make it. Clearly you can still see the hoops through the top layers. The bottom part has 2 layers as described above so that part was fine. But this was not going to cut it.

So I added not one, but two extra layers because I was pretty sure one wouldn’t be enough to hide those hoops. And I’m glad I did.

Each layer, including the bottom two, was gathered using my serger. This is actually the first time I’ve gathered using my serger and it was pretty cool how well it worked! I will definitely be using this for the next petticoat because I really want a pale pink petticoat next so we’ll have to make another. My understanding is that back in the day ladies would wear 5 or more petticoats as needed to hide the hoops!

And here’s a back view. I need to fix the tie. It doesn’t quite get tight enough and then the petticoat sags a bit, but should be an easy fix . . . but probably won’t get done until absolutely necessary of course.

      

This post is waaaay over due. This hoop skirt, or crinoline as they are sometimes known, is from the Truly Victorian pattern TV141 – 1858 Round Cage Crinoline. My friend Jill and I made them together last December for the Dickens Fair. We pretty much made it exactly per the pattern so there’s not a whole lot to talk about but I took a bunch of pictures during the construction so here you go.

Piles of boning and fabric. I usually get my corset making / boning supplies from corsetmaking.com. They sell lots of good costume making stuff in general. I also like GoldStarTool and plan to get a grommet press from there eventually.

First step was cutting out the patterns for the kick bag which is a fabric covering for the bottom three hoops that prevents you from accidentally stepping through the hoops and getting caught. I cut those out while Jill cut and marked the grosgrain ribbon at the appropriate places.

Those both took a while so I ended up sewing the grosgrain later although I think we did get the kick bags done together.

After the kick bags were done it was time to start adding the boning. Those bottom bones are really quite long. Had to use the real measuring tape for those.

We forgot to order hoop clips so I used packaging tape to connect the hoop boning together into circles . . . next time I’ll definitely use hoop clips as I can hear it crinkle. It’s not too bad, but I’d prefer the cleaner finish. I’m sure this won’t be my last hoop skirt

Finally, I finished up the top of the kick bag.

This was one of the only places I varied from the pattern in that I put the grosgrain strips into the seam of the kick bag before sewing it up rather than after. It gave a cleaner finish. Thanks to Jill for that tip since she hit that spot before me

Next up was putting the boning through the casing. We used ready made casing. I’ve seen other people sew together two layers of grosgrain ribbon. If I were going for a particular look, I might do that, but in this case, the ready made casing was great and much faster!

The top two rows have an open area so I had to finish off the ends of the casing with some hand stitching.

The rest of the rows connect so I just sewed those together (after putting the boning together with tape).

A little in progress show before I added the top two rows.

Finally, I used some 1” wide twill tape for my waist band. I need to get something a little better though. Maybe some webbing since the twill tape kinda rolls up and digs in. I’m sure if I had been wearing a corset it wouldn’t have been a problem, but I wasn’t. Either way, I want something smoother.

So that’s my hoop skirt! It’s got a great shape. I’ve seen a few made with different colors and I’d love to make a more colorful one or at least a darker one for under dark skirts, not that you can really see it once there’s a petticoat over it.

      

Gah, I’ve been so busy doing things that I haven’t had much time to post. There have been plenty of quilts, plenty of bags and plenty of costumes (one of the items was 6! muslins for a dress). But I’ve finally got pictures of them! So here we go . . .

First up is this quilt for Grace Circle of do. Good Stitches. I’ve posted about them before and it was once again my time to be quilter this past April. I chose to do a Jelly Roll Twist quilt, a free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop, with the  variation that the square had to be solid, the strips had to be a print and it had all had to be pink. This was a totally selfish choice so I could use up some of the pink fabric I have leftover from another project that is still in progress.

These were the sample squares I posted. Everyone’s came back differently and I was a little worried, but I love how it all turned out in the end with a super scrappy and happy look!

For the backing, I used some wide back Riley Blake chevrons that I had purchased for another project. I ended up buying a different backing for that project so this was just hanging around. As part of my constant attempt to de-stash I decided to use this because it was pretty dang perfect and I was happy to free up the space. I love the look so I will definitely keep these chevrons in mind for future backings. Would love some in black and white. I was also able to use batting from my stash that was leftover from another project and happened to be the perfect size. Double stash win!

The binding was also from my stash! Again, purchased for another project that has been hanging out forever and that I’ll probably want to use different binding for by the time I finish it so figured I might as well use this one here. I’m really happy with how everything turned out with this quilt! I’ll be shipping it off to My Very Own Blanket this week.

      

I recently completed the Betz White Weekend Duffle. This pattern is offered as part of her Craftsy class Sew Better Bags: The Weekend Duffel. I won the class for one of the bags I submitted to the Bag of the Month Club competition. I was super excited about it! Thanks, Bag of the Month Club!

I’ll talk about both the bag and the class. First, the bag. The bag is offered in two sizes and I chose to make the smaller size. For the main fabric, I used a quilted cotton that my mom gave me and otherwise I used fabric from my stash. No new fabric was purchased for this bag! I did have to buy hardware though. I’m really making an active effort to use fabric from my stash this year and so far I’ve been doing pretty well!

My favorite part of the bag was how the lining was put in because it pretty much hides most raw edges. In the video, she hand sews three of the base lining edges, but I was able to only hand sew the two short edges and I was pretty happy about that. I suspect she doesn’t recommend machine sewing the other long edge because it’s a bit of work to pull the rest of the bag through (I did it the same way you do the ends of the lining), but doable if you’re determined (as I am).

I like the shape of the bag. It’s got standard pockets and a zip pocket on the inside. I like the handles. I like the detailing although I had to add an extra row of stitching around the edge because 1/8” was still too far and didn’t hold it down well enough. I also like the way the way the zipper is inserted. Goes well with the way the lining is attached.

However, it should be noted that this bag takes a while. There are a lot of steps. None are significantly complicated, but there are a lot of them. Arguably it shows in the quality of the finished product. But for that reason, I don’t think I’m likely to make it again unless I want this shape in particular. I have other similar bag patterns that I would probably try first just because it’s something new. I will probably use many of the techniques I picked up in the class though — which brings me to the class.

The class teaches the basics of making a bag. If you’re relatively new to bag making, it’s a great class. Like almost all Craftsy classes, I watched it on 2X speed. I do this with audiobooks, too, so I think it’s me, not the class. If I had been sewing along with the class, I might have left it on normal speed. My only “complaint” about the class and it’s not really a complaint, more of a preference, is that I wish she had provided a pattern. There’s a list of instructions included in the class materials, but I had to keep referring to the video to see how to do something or what the seam allowance was. Sure, I could have taken notes when I first watched it but I didn’t. And really my M.O. is to watch a class and then go do something. It’s just how I work. I mentioned it in case you’re the same. If you like to sew along with the instructor, then this class is perfect for you! And as I mentioned, even as an experienced bag maker at this point, I picked up some great techniques like the way she adds the lining.

So, there it is, my Weekend Duffel! Not sure what I’ll be using it for. I had planned to use it for a dance bag, but it’s a bit bigger than I expected (I’m terrible at grasping how big something is based on measurements unless I mock it out) so it might get used for something else. But it’s so fun and cheerful that I’m very happy with how it turned out!