londontsukino

[londontsukino]

SO excited to stumble upon your sewing content! If I may ask, on that second dress, how did you like the French seams on the skirt? I absolutely love them. I like how, if you're careful, and with a little handsewing, you can encase the raw edges of your in-seam pockets too!

Awww, thanks so much! I only started seriously learning how to machine sew a few months ago, so it’s really amazing to hear that, lol. I think I actually do prefer the French seams on the second dress. It still takes my brain some effort to wrap my head around to do it, but it’s a lot easier than the first dress and having to sew through some thick af layers to finish everything up with bias tape. I think one day I’ll try getting a better finish with the in-seam pockets, but for now pinking sheers will do, lol. Thank you so much for the ask!

[londontsukino]

The count of Cagliostro 1920. Lost film.

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rb and tag what your f/o list wouldve looked like if you were a self shipper at 16

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singing with his full body.

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guys i think we're all sleeping on PAW PAW EMERITUS

source: motleyzooanimalrescue on ig

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Concord, California

Yahoo

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Pumpkin garden

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This is the lead vocal track of Mary On A Cross - no harmonies/backing vocals, no music, only Tobias's take. The real deal, so to speak, not the kind that's isolated artificially through vocal isolating software. Hope you enjoy.

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Everybody's getting lifted backstage!

Rob Pitcher and Elizabeth Welch, Oberhausen

Miki Nakamura and Max Niemeyer, Oberhausen

Paul Tabone and Kelly Mathieson, West End

Ana Marina and Alexander Lewis, World Tour

Matt Blaker and Harriet Jones, West End

Darua Goes and Fred Silveira, Sao Paulo

Celinde Schoenmaker and Harriet Jones, West End

Jonathan Roxmouth and Meghan Picerno

Oliver Savile and Scott Davies, West End

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It’s done!

After ten days of work (and another three for a waistcoat I’m not that happy with; see below), the NotD coat is finished! Woohoo!

Overall, I’m really pleased with it, which is just as well as it’s taken so much time (and grief!). I worked out that if I’d paid myself minimum wage for all the hours I put in the labour alone would amount to about £500. One of my ex colleagues used to suggest I set up a dressmaking business and wouldn’t believe me when I told her it wouldn’t be cost effective as the amount of labour involved would make everything too expensive.

Anyway, I have taken quite a lot of photos, so you can see how it turned out:

This got long so I’ll stick the rest behind a cut.

I ended up adding some extra fabric to the tails, as they were sticking out at an angle and didn’t look right. It means an extra seam but it’s not that visible and I much prefer it this way, with more fullness at the back (and it properly covers my bum, which is very important!):

Though it looks fine on the dummy when I put it on I’m not convinced I didn’t raise the back waist seam a bit too far, but it’s sitting on my waist so… *shrugs* I don’t often look at myself from behind so it probably doesn’t matter that much.

After sewing on the two back buttons I changed my mind and went with the covered ones in the end, deciding on reflection that those I bought last week were a bit too pale. They would have fitted better if I’d made the binding more of a contrast (which I’m glad I didn’t as it would have been more obvious that it’s not exactly perfect in some places). I had to make the buttonholes manually as there was no way the automatic buttonhole foot wouldn’t get caught at some point. I haven’t sewn any that way since I first started out six years ago and was using my mother’s old machine! All the ones I’ve owned have had an automatic function so I had to practice a bit to remind myself how to do it. Thankfully they’ve turned out well.

I also solved the problem of the gap between the collar and lapel by stitching them together. It works a treat!

Though I’ve made a miniature version for Eight Bear, this is the first time I’ve tried to replicate an existing garment for myself (the Dark Eyes coat was an interpretation rather than a direct copy), and I am actually really proud that I’ve ended up with something that does look pretty much like the original, as well as Steven Ricks’s recreation, which has been a definite influence!

That said, while the coat has turned out well I’m not massively pleased with the waistcoat. I decided to make another one on a whim as I had a more accurate pattern and saw what looked like an ideal fabric but I don’t like it all that much now it’s done. It was hell to put together because the satin just started disintegrating and still is; I’ve had to sew up holes in both the pockets because the seams have just frayed straight through and I’d put them together before I thought of stabilising the edges with interfacing. It’s another men’s pattern and I should have made some adjustments but after doing so much to the coat I really couldn’t be bothered and just put it together as it was; I should really have added some length, which is ironic given the amount I had to remove from the coat, and perhaps levelled it off at the front. Consequently it’s not a great fit and sits really awkwardly on Stella as you can see, though that may have something to do with the fact that I put the buttonholes on the wrong side out of habit:

There is a watch on the end of the chain this time, because the pockets are real! I quite like the look of the waistcoat undone when I put it on, but done up not so much. There’s a lot of spare fabric in the front for some reason, which I tried to hide by smoothing it under the collar and then stitching the collar down. It hasn’t entirely worked, and it doesn’t help that the brocade is such a bouncy fabric and doesn’t press well.

Putting it all together I do think it looks better on Stella than me, but that’s probably because I rarely wear so many layers! I wish I had a better backdrop than the bedroom but it’ll have to do:

Maybe I could unbutton the waistcoat and untuck the shirt and be Eight having a casual day? I love the coat but I do feel much more comfortable wearing it over a t-shirt and jeans!

Now I just have to wait until some cooler weather to be able to put it into use. My only gripe is that there are no external pockets, either on the original or the pattern I used! Surely you’d think the Doctor would need pockets?

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Look what I got recently! 💜 Converted it to digital for you guys to finally hear the whole song! House Of Doom (9 Min Ultra Doom Version ft. Papa Emeritus III)

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Royal Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty 1994 designed by Maria Bjornson. This production was just amazing! Look at the grandeur and over the top look of this production! For you Phantom peeps, you notice a definite Il Muto similarity in the costumes for Act 1. I also love how the King in this production is the Sun King. :) 

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The CNCS, France’s national costume museum in Moulins, is currently showing an exhibition on musical costumes, and they had PotO costumes from London (the original ones I think!)

Also luckily these were among some of the few to not be behind glass or cloth so I was able to get good photos.

[londontsukino]

Do you have any reference photos or photos of the Las Vegas sylvan glades? I see a few but I can’t find any of the back, or if there’s really any photos of the back of anything similar I’d be super grateful.

Oh, I do (I do I do I do I do, to quote ABBA).

They were in large the same as the general Broadway and US Tour versions, so those would also work as reference photos. I assume the Vegas lot was even mixed into the Broadway lot after Vegas closed. But since you asked, here are some Vegas specific:

Vegas dress on display on stage, and Vegas costumes worn by Amelia Abrahams, Courtney Coumbs and Jordan Ashley:

Vegas dress on display on stage, demonstrated by costume supervisor Sam Fleming:

Reversed skirts revealing the tutu skirt construction and underlayers at the costume maker:

Erina Noda and Courtney Combs backstage:

And - admittedly not Las Vegas costumes, but the basically identical versions on Broadway, featuring the back:

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The guidance of the morning star will lead the way into the void

+ a little animation under read more

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she’s really on to something here