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Lots of projects on the table right now. We're going out next weekend, and it's a dresscode event, so I'm making some stuff for A. He's been bored with his wardrobe for ages but not really come up with anything he wants except three-piece suits, which is neither something I can throw together just like that nor something he can buy off the rack on the spur of the moment, so he hasn't made much progress. I made a zoot suit, a pair of zoot trousers and a pair of black jodhpurs for him last year, all of which he wears a lot when going out. He found a three-piece vintage morning suit with cutaway jacket that he wears sometimes as well and he has invested in some high-quality dress shirts with double cuffs, a number of nice ties, a couple of good braces, proper riding boots, a good pair of shoes and a great set of cufflinks; but he's very picky about his clothes and thinks that he wears the same things too often.
The dress code for this thing next weekend calls for either tails or fetish gear. We're not going to go strictly by the rules, he'll wear the cutaway jacket over an opulent, patterned black and gold jacquard waistcoat, a gold ascot tie and vertically striped trousers in the same gold and black colour scheme - I'm currently working on both the vest and the pants. He's going for a ringmaster effect, and the cut and style of the trousers and waistcoat refer to early 19th century men's fashions with high-waisted, fitted trousers, a fairly short vest and gaudy fabrics. I think he will look great, if only I get everything finished in time. I'm not really worried about him getting in; I doubt they'll be anal about it being a formal morning coat instead of a formal evening coat if the rest of it looks outrageous enough, which it will, by a mile.
As for me, I hope that I'll be able to finish the black and silver uniform dress, which is almost half done - all major pieces put together, I've done a fitting and it looks promising, good fit and all (as it damned well should be, it's the sixth time I'm using this basic pattern. Yes, I have three other versions of this dress that you haven't seen photos of).
Half-finished shoulder pad - couldn't find cotton batting and I wanted it to be quite hard and stiff, so I used scraps of cotton that were left over after some LARP project of A's. About twenty layers, all in all, then I just basted it all together, shaped it and vliesofixed another layer of outer fabric on top, which gave it all an excellent shape and hold, and finished the edges. I love vliesofix - regular fusible interfacing I don't trust at all, but vliesofix is another matter entirely. It's ridiculously expensive, but hard to beat, along with linen or cotton, for small areas and when you want extra stiffness and body.
Cut out, interfaced and threadmarked.
The collar is done, but not attached yet, as are the shoulder pads - they came out quite well, I think. Not counting on getting it done in time, though, so I have a couple of back-ups; I made an olive drab cotton twill version of the dress with forest green piping and matte silver buttons that has only been out and about once so far, I'll probably wear that if not. It has a keyhole neckline with a buttoned mandarin collar that I'm not entirely sure about, though; it looks nice, but a little more obviously tarty than I normally like, and it was sweatier than I expected too, in spite of the cotton fabric. I made it with a fairly risky slit at the center back, for ease of walking since it's not stretchy, but I'm thinking I should probably add a box-pleated fabric panel there to transform it into a kick pleat instead and remove at least one overtly sexy element.
There's always the Red Cross button corset, too. And the black and chartreuse bustle skirt, with the plain black buttoned corset. And... yeah, all right, it's not like I really need another uniform dress, I just enjoy making and wearing them so much.
The dress code for this thing next weekend calls for either tails or fetish gear. We're not going to go strictly by the rules, he'll wear the cutaway jacket over an opulent, patterned black and gold jacquard waistcoat, a gold ascot tie and vertically striped trousers in the same gold and black colour scheme - I'm currently working on both the vest and the pants. He's going for a ringmaster effect, and the cut and style of the trousers and waistcoat refer to early 19th century men's fashions with high-waisted, fitted trousers, a fairly short vest and gaudy fabrics. I think he will look great, if only I get everything finished in time. I'm not really worried about him getting in; I doubt they'll be anal about it being a formal morning coat instead of a formal evening coat if the rest of it looks outrageous enough, which it will, by a mile.
As for me, I hope that I'll be able to finish the black and silver uniform dress, which is almost half done - all major pieces put together, I've done a fitting and it looks promising, good fit and all (as it damned well should be, it's the sixth time I'm using this basic pattern. Yes, I have three other versions of this dress that you haven't seen photos of).
Half-finished shoulder pad - couldn't find cotton batting and I wanted it to be quite hard and stiff, so I used scraps of cotton that were left over after some LARP project of A's. About twenty layers, all in all, then I just basted it all together, shaped it and vliesofixed another layer of outer fabric on top, which gave it all an excellent shape and hold, and finished the edges. I love vliesofix - regular fusible interfacing I don't trust at all, but vliesofix is another matter entirely. It's ridiculously expensive, but hard to beat, along with linen or cotton, for small areas and when you want extra stiffness and body.
Cut out, interfaced and threadmarked.
The collar is done, but not attached yet, as are the shoulder pads - they came out quite well, I think. Not counting on getting it done in time, though, so I have a couple of back-ups; I made an olive drab cotton twill version of the dress with forest green piping and matte silver buttons that has only been out and about once so far, I'll probably wear that if not. It has a keyhole neckline with a buttoned mandarin collar that I'm not entirely sure about, though; it looks nice, but a little more obviously tarty than I normally like, and it was sweatier than I expected too, in spite of the cotton fabric. I made it with a fairly risky slit at the center back, for ease of walking since it's not stretchy, but I'm thinking I should probably add a box-pleated fabric panel there to transform it into a kick pleat instead and remove at least one overtly sexy element.
There's always the Red Cross button corset, too. And the black and chartreuse bustle skirt, with the plain black buttoned corset. And... yeah, all right, it's not like I really need another uniform dress, I just enjoy making and wearing them so much.