ladyazreal

[ladyazreal]

I've had a busy end of year. I started November at Hynafol! My very first larp event. I mostly kept to myself and my guild for the first half and began branching out towards the end. Which is how I usually function in new situations. I met a lot of interesting and kind people while I was there. I'm already making plans for next year!

Of course, I made all my costumes for the event.

I also managed to make a small amount of coin-selling doodles while there. I have big plans to open a shop next year to offload some sewing projects and maybe sell some more caricatures.

[ladyazreal]

Took a few pictures, a few hundred, for my Halloween project. I haven't made any edits to any of the pictures. The plan is to get all the costumes made and shot, then sit and make any edits needed.

This costume might be my favorite. The shirt, vest, and corset were all made with leftover fabric. I had enough of each little fabric batch to make fun two-toned pieces. I like the result so much that I will sew more things like this in the future.

[ladyazreal]

This year, I'm working on a swamp witch outfit for my Halloween series. 6 days of witches, maybe 7 if I'm feeling adventurous. I'm recycling this witch hat because I did not like it initially. I made it last year and never wore it due to a bunch of errors I made trying new ways to make a witch hat.

I added a thicker wire to the brim of the hat and some craft foam to the cone, and it's much nicer, but since those fixes were added after the hat was made, it's sloppy and just not something I'll wear frequently. So EMBELLISHMENTS have been added to give this hat a nice swamp-witch feel. I have some mushrooms that need painting then gluing and then I'll be ready for pictures this weekend!

Behind it, you can see my wall of witch hats, including a WIP for an 18th-century inspired hat also for Halloween.

[ladyazreal]

I have an obsession with this pattern. Last year I made a cute 1950s-style playsuit for pride. I absolutely love it. It didn't get a lot of wear since I wasn't leaving my house as much but I decided to make it a tradition to make a pride outfit or item every year. These stays were made from some of last year's leftover fabric. I still have some left and will need to find little projects to make with it. Next year I'm going to try for a pan flag-themed project. The trouble is I haven't been able to find any pan flag colored or themed fabric I liked. Either they are too busy or just patterns that don't mesh with me. Since I have a year to plan now, I'm going to work on making and printing my own! I'm played with designing my own fabric before so it's time to commit.

[ladyazreal]

These stays are getting a lot more wear than I thought they would. I made them a little small so they aren't the most comfortable. I've since remade these in a different fabric and a little bigger for a better fit but I always return to these white ones. The pattern is just so delicate and cute. I followed the Ikea bed sheet trend and made these stays with an Ikea pillowcase.

Hard to see but the new stays fit much better.

[ladyazreal]

Recently played dress-up with a few friends at a local park. The park was gorgeous and had these little ponds? creeks? small bodies of water. So it was a great spot to get some fantasy shots in our renfaire garb even though our neighborhood fair has ended.

[ladyazreal]

I'm dusting off my Katrina dress. I want to do some picnics in the park near my house and this dress just seems like the best option.

I actually tore off the ruffle from the hem of the petticoat to fix it. At the time I was not very good at sewing in a straight line and now that I've grown in skill I figured it is a good time to fix some simple mistakes on this. There are a lot of other little things I think I could fix on this dress but it would be easier to remake it which I don't want to do. Luckily those are all internal errors and until you're examining the inside of the dress you won't see them!

[ladyazreal]

Had a good day at Sherwood Forest Faire. Of course, I made my outfit, I like adding little trinkets and bits from the shops.

The weather this weekend started out great but then towards the end of the day Texas turned up the heat and gave me an opportunity to buy a nice leather fan!

[ladyazreal]

I'm not good at keeping up with blogs but I am still making costumes! The most recent is this green fairy. The design is not complicated but it is made from slippery materials. I had to work slowly to keep the fabric from sliding around or snagging on things. The fabric also frays like crazy so I had to finish all the seams and there are a lot of seams in the skirt. Luckily I have a serger so the seam are finished just not very pretty, haha. The wings were purchased on Etsy.

It's not easy to see unless I hold it out or give it a spin but the skirt is a massive circle! It's a gathered circle skirt and one of these days I'm going to measure the hem. The sleeves were fun to make, they are just some random scraps of fabric I draped and attached to the bolero. I was stopped a few times at Faire for pictures. So if you see this and have a picture of me I'd love to see it!!

[ladyazreal]

I wasn't able to do 13 days of Halloween. There was just entirely too much life happening and I stopped at 6. Here we have day 5: a hobbit and day 6: a green Aes Sedai. Both costumes were made by me. This was a lot of fun and since I made all the costumes I still feel very accomplished, although I only made it through half the list. There's always next year but I'll plan for 6.

Sewing all those costumes was fun but also stressful. Putting a deadline on creative for fun takes some of the fun out but I ended up with a lot of fun pieces I can mix and match. I also got better by the end and a bit faster. The leap in skill helped me with my November sewing.

November was a mad dash of sewing to get ready for The Texas Renaissance Faire. I started with that green coat. Using a dress pattern I made it a bit bigger to accommodate long sleeves if I needed them and shorter in the front so I could walk without having to carry it. I added a scarf with an attached hood. I didn't think a hood attached to the coat fit the vibe of the coat but the scarf made the look very elegant. Overall the coat was a success.

For the second day of the faire, I made matching gnome outfits for me and my partner. He's not pictured but he matched mine. Everything in the gnome picture of made by me! The hat, stays, shirt, skirt, overskirt, and even the belt is upcycled by me, and the Christmas pins I also glued together for this look. It was a lot of fun putting these outfits together.

So far in December, I've made this dress and those stays. The stays are made from an IKEA pillow case and the dress is from some leftover linen. the dress is a lot shorter than my usual outfits. It'll get some wear in the summer but it's still a bit short for me. However, I do think this outfit is really cute and great for a kind of rococo vibes.

[ladyazreal]

Day 4: A vintage witch pattern. I wasn't actually able to find the vintage pattern, just a few of the images. However, I thought it was so cute that I needed to make it. Each bit is from a different pattern but they all work well together. I predict this will get a lot of wear.

[ladyazreal]

For day 3 of 13 days of Halloween, I convinced a few friends to dress up and run around the park near my house.

I was a faun leading a parade of fairies and unicorns. It was a very fun day!

[ladyazreal]

Finally getting started on my Marie Antoinette dress. I'm not going for historically accurate. I would need a lot more fabric and additional petticoats. I'm going for historically adjacent. Historically good enough? Anyway, here are my stays, chemise, and fancy bum pad.

The stays are made from pink linen, interlined with canvas, and lined with cotton. The bias tape and ribbon are also cotton. The bones are synthetic baleen. The bum pad is made from vintage fabric I was given a few years ago.

Overall this was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I think the whole thing took me about 8 hours to make. The stays were just very repetitive.

[ladyazreal]

Day 2: necromancer

This dress gave me too many issues such a simple pattern. I do like it though. But the velvet is so plush and looks so dark, like staring into the void.

[ladyazreal]

Here is the start of my 13 days of Halloween! A pumpkin playboy bunny. I used a Michael's foam pumpkin and made the body suit. It was good practice for the 1890s corset I hope to make soon. The bodysuit needs some fit adjustments but since I don't ever plan on wearing this outside of my house I'm just going to ignore them.

It was a fun quick costume to make though.

[ladyazreal]

Took some pictures in a recent dress I made. There will be better pictures posted in October but I wanted to post these. I'll be taking more pictures tonight of another costume. that'll be two out of my 13!

[ladyazreal]

a peak at my faun costume. I have 13 costumes I'd like to make and I think I have about 2 completed. completed enough to wear but still not what I was envisioning. My hope is to have those done this week and get some pictures taken this weekend. This may end up going down to 4 costumes. Who knows!