knitting – Foxes Period Costumes

Posted on September 27, 2016October 18, 2016 by The Costumer — Leave a comment

Costume College 2017 — The Shawl from Hell

As part of my personal continuing education and need to keep my brain alive by learning new tricks, I’ve taken up knitting, and not just any knitting, hand-knitting lace. Because I don’t have enough things to drive my insane. Anyways, my neurologist signed off on the idea as being a good one and gave me her blessing to proceed. And ultimate truth be told, I fell in love with all the knitty bits that Claire wore on Outlander and had to have them …and the only way to get them was knit them myself. Fortunately, Lion Brand carries the official Outlander kits.

As my current skill level is slightly better than a novice, there is a whole lot that I simply do not know, thus making any project that’s beyond knitting the 4th doctor’s scarf is new and has a steep learning curve. I’ve ripped it out at least 5 times now because it’s such a simple pattern, it’s easy to get confused.

My chosen project is a Lady’s Wrap circa 1961. It’s to go with my lavender silk cocktail dress for the Friday evening cocktail party. According to the lady from whom I acquired it from on Etsy: “This pattern is from Bear Brand and Fleisher Yarns Hand Knit Mohair Fashions Vol. 55, from 1961….” I invite you to check out her Etsy shop: Vintage Knit Crochet. There are lots of good things to recreate there.

The yarn in question is Patons Lace yarn and the color I’m using what they call “Plum Smoke.” I got it at Joann’s, on sale, before I even knew what I wanted to make because I loved the soft heathery deep lavender color. So when I decided what I was planning on making clothing wise, a wrap for a sleeveless lavender silk cocktail dress seemed natural.

I decided to take a break and write up a little something on this project before I go bonkers and rip it out yet another time.

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Posted on September 17, 2016September 27, 2016 by The Costumer — Leave a comment

Costume College 2017 Project list …

One of the advantages of going to Costume College is getting to learn what the next year’s theme is going to be, and thus getting a metaphorical leg up on your fellow costumers — not that there are any prizes to won outside of bragging rights and exposure. But it’s nice to be able to dress the party and not be rushed, which I’m going to be anyway because I’m on a D-I-E-T and planning on losing a half a dozen or more dress sizes between now and then …and I am so not going to make everything in a size 28-30 when I could very well be a size 18 by then, just saying.

The theme for next year is the 1960s, which is actually rather great as far as I’m considered. Besides being a child of the ’60s, I am finding myself actually preferring the clothing convention of those two decades: conservative clothes with clean lines and ended with a little funky. Basically, me in fashion. So I decided I would make clothing that I could rotate into my normal day-to-day wardrobe like dresses, skirts, sweaters, pants, jackets and cute little blouses. So I started trolling the interwebs for vintage patterns — those iconic styles from my childhood that we saw so exquisitely reproduced on Mad Men and lovingly watched reruns of Bewitched — but since they are going to be incorporated into my capsule wardrobe, I’ve got to really like them.

I have now acquired about a dozen or two patterns now and each delightful acquisition, with the exception of two, when shown to my (semi-retired) MOD revivalist hubby what meant with “No, that’s too high fashion.” You can well imagine the conversation that has followed….

Me: What do you think of these?

Him: They’re too high fashion.

Me: Did I at any time say that I was specifically doing MOD? No. I said I was doing the ’60s. And for that matter, I don’t think I was specific about what century either. I could very well be doing 1560s, [insert dramatic pause] which gives me an idea…

I also made a list of the number of outfits I am going to need for the three-day event. There’s the Thursday evening Welcome pool party reception, Friday classes, Friday evening cocktail party, Saturday Classes, Saturday night Gala and possibly Sunday breakfast, but only if it looks like I can jet out of Woodland Hills in time for church in Glendale.

Thursday Evening: I’m thinking something hippie chick. I’ve got some truly obnoxious green and blue paisley that will make a wicked swimsuit. Or possibly the pink and orangish swirl for a skirt and some type of floaty peasant type shirt.
Friday Classes: I’m leaning towards something sporty so I can move around. I have some blue and gray paisley reproduction print from Liberty of London that I’ll be using for the shirt. Haven’t decided if I’m going with sleeves or not.
Friday evening cocktail party: This is the one outfit I’ve got locked down. I have lavender silk crepe di chine that I am going to hand-smock the yoke and bead. (Think something that you would expect Samantha Stevens would wear to a corporate cocktail party hosted by the Tates.) And I’m knitting a mohair wrap to go with it. Said wrap is already in production.
Saturday Classes: Again, like Friday classes, I’m leaning towards something sporty so I can move around. To appease the gods of MOD-dom, I’ve decided to go a bit more MOD. I’ll be hand-knitting a sweater. It’s cute: it has a bow. I just need to decide what to pair with it: a skirt or the 1960’s equivalent of skinny jeans…. and research appropriate colors.
Saturday Gala: Because it’s my first love and truly my field of expertise, I’m going 16th century. I haven’t decided with I’m going Tudor or Elizabethan or Venetian, but definitely 16th century.
Sunday morning: something that I can wear to church. However, as I’m typing this blog post up, I’ve decided. I scored some borderline hideous, reproduction blue-green and bone floral print cotton from Liberty of London and a semi-current Simplicity Patterns 1960s dress pattern release that I’m going to whip up.

Costume College 2017 won’t be until the end of July or the first part of August next year so I’ve got six to nine months to change my mind. Let’s see if I do. [Okay, make that let’s see how much I change my mind.] Blog posts to follow as each item progresses.

Posted on April 11, 2014January 14, 2016 by The Costumer — Leave a comment

Sci-Fi Pawty Prize donation – Wecanhas … scarf the fourth?

Doctor Who 11th Theme Music For the full experience, click the link, you know you want to.

Being the proud and fur-covered mother of her four rescued felines, it is my privilege to help where and how I can.

So with that now being said, I asked myself … what does a Whovian period costumer do to incorporate her three of her four passions of Sci-fi, costuming and supporting animal rescue charities on a shoestring? She hand-knits the Fourth Doctor’s iconic Scarf and donates it as a prize for Boris Kitty’s 5th Annual Sci-Fi Pawty. The SCIFpawty is a virtual Science Fiction Convention on Twitter. The hashtag #SCFIpawty The proceeds will once again benefit One By One Cat Rescue in Kutztown, PA a no-kill, non-profit organization.

So what does a person or more specifically a Whovian need to know about the scarf featured below?

This scarf is by the book. As outlined in my blog post entitled A Whovian’s …err “Delight”? — making the fourth Doctor’s Scarf I use the “Official BBC Enterprises Knitting pattern for the ‘Doctor Who’ Scarf,” which can be found here: http://www.androgums.org/scarf.html.
Yes, it really is 12 feet long.
The scarf is knit in 100% acrylic yarn, specifically: Lion Brand Yarn’s “Vanna’s Choice.” I love this yarn. It is soft, has a good hand, has a wide color palette and best of all, is machine wash and dry.
The colors are cannon. I’ve used the color resources at Witty Little Knitter. If anyone has done their homework, Tara Carstensen certainly has. [Dudes, seriously. She took an OTT Light and a Pantone color book with her when she got the opportunity to have a hands on with the Shada scraf.] Here is her template and list of yarns.
Pictures [below] — we fussed over which phone took the best and most accurate representation of the colors. The husband’s iPhone won. We took pictures against both a black coat and a warm, dark brown coat to give you the best opportunities to see what it will look like before it arrives at your home.
Hand-knitting — I hope in stating that this scarf has been hand-knit by yours truly would imply that there might be an irregularity or two in the knitting process. There are three or four little “burps” in the stitches. Now when you consider everything that Four put his scarf through, these are nothing; however, I did feel compelled to mention them.
Cat Fur — the cats have made their own contribution to this project. Thus, there is small small quantity of car fur that has unavoidably knitted into the scarf.
The scarf has been washed in 7th Generation “Free & clear” it get out all of the awful sizing and the aforementioned cat fur as possible.

And as a sneak peak, here is our annual #scfipawty avatar: our 3 of 4, Obi-wan as his name sake.