The Singing Costumer

I am pleased to return from my blog hiatus with my Valentine's Day dress from 2021. I didn't blog about it at that time, but I did post pictures on Instagram. It turned out adorable, in my opinion. It's simply scrumptious. I especially love the way light reflects and dances across the satin fabric. A lovely shade of pink, gentle gathers, and a beaded net overlay combine for a soft and romantic look. In real life, I don’t wear dresses to work or church often. I’m much more comfortable in pants. But I love sewing them and wearing them for photos! I simply had to wear my beloved American Duchess Pompadours. I still need to sew an 18th century costume one of these days. For other accessories, I wore a single strand of pearls and a pink flower brooch. One of my favorite past-times is refashioning dresses from the thrift store. Sometimes, the dress doesn't fit and I have to figure out a solution. I used a pink satin bridesmaid gown for the main dress. The gown was long, so I ...

I’m so sorry I haven’t updated this blog in months. This was not my intention. But life happens. I was involved with a community theatre production (Stage managing and acting), attended a major comic convention, caught covid again, etc. I’ve also been working on my Children’s Party Entertainment business. ( https://favoritefablesententertainment.com/ if you are local to OKC, hit me up!) All that, plus regular life stuff, and it’s been quite the year already (Photo unrelated. Me on my 30th birthday in Walt Disney World.) I’m SO excited about some future projects. Expect some late Victorian shenanigans and some high fantasy. And, as always, Disney Princesses. I may have been bored one day and planned all my projects out to December 2023. Whoops. But I really can’t wait. It’ll be a fun ride. I just have to balance huge historical costume builds with more modest projects so I don’t burn out.  I will keep a weekly posting schedule from Labor Day to Memorial Day. This way, I’ll have the...

  Today, I thought I would show an oldie-but-a-goodie. I made it years ago, perhaps in 2012 or 2013. I have no idea of the circumstances, but I somehow acquired this bright blue fabric. Did I buy it at Joanns? Did I find it on the sidewalk? A thrift store? Did I get it from a rag lady? There is no telling.  All I know is that it is blue and has a bit of a seersucker texture to it. I love this blue. It’s just the perfect shade of turquoise. I have no idea what pattern I used. It may have been a McCalls pattern. I did a big purge of my patterns within the last couple years and this pattern was probably one that I let go. I know this is the second version of this dress I made. The first one was a fail, so I took off the bodice and cut a new skirt. The bodice is lined, and the skirt has a separate lining that acts as an underskirt. I even added a bit of tulle for some volume in the skirt. I wish I could give more details, but sadly I’ve forgotten almost everything about this make....

This was supposed to be my Christmas 2021 dress. However, I had to toss it in the naughty projects pile for a bit. I wasted a lot of time fitting it to myself and I got annoyed with it after a while. Maybe there was a reason I chose red fabric instead of green. A red dress works just as well for Valentine’s as it does for Christmas. I don’t see a reason to force myself to continue when there was no real need. The need to push myself to finish my projects and the need to be kind to myself is difficult to balance, but not impossible. My pile of unfinished projects is diminishing over time. And I love that for me.  This pattern, Vogue 2903, is at a medium difficulty level. There are a couple spots I couldn’t quite get right. The princess seams going into the armscye were especially fiddly to get smooth. But I think I was mostly successful. This dress has a nice, full skirt. I did a lot of preparatory work which I normally don’t. I serged around each pattern piece separately. I hand dr...

  I a m pleased to return from my blog hiatus with my Valentine's Day dress from 2021. I didn't blog about it at that time, but I did post pictures on Instagram. It turned out adorable, in my opinion. It's simply scrumptious. I especially love the way light reflects and dances across the satin fabric. A lovely shade of pink, gentle gathers, and a beaded net overlay combine for a soft and romantic look. In real life, I don’t wear dresses to work or church often. But I love sewing and wearing them for photos! These photos are from last year. One of my favorite past-times is refashioning dresses from the thrift store. Sometimes, the dress doesn't fit and I have to figure out a solution. I used a pink satin bridesmaid gown for the main dress. The gown was long, so I had plenty of material to cut the bodice and skirt panels. The beaded net overlay is from another bridesmaid dress. I love the combination. The pink satin and the embroidered and beaded flowers on the net go so...

I have been cooking and baking much more than I used to as of late. My favorite meal to make is garlic and butter steak bites, with roasted mushrooms. Simply delicious! I also love roasting parsnips or carrots with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and spices.  And as for baking, I love to bake cakes. I really want to learn to decorate cakes someday. All this to say, I need some aprons. Not only for cooking or baking, but for protecting my shirt while washing dishes or doing other chores. But I love beauty. I love form and function in equal measure.  Why waste my time making something boring? So for your consideration, today I present 2 Disneybounding aprons.         I actually sewed this first apron several years ago, but never posted it here. It is inspired by my favorite Disney Princess, Belle. I bought this apron pattern only because it reminded me of her ballgown. I used Simplicity 2592, view D. (Sadly, this pattern is out of print.) It is very girly a...

     Let’s go back to the Before Times. Summer 2019, I saw that anyone could send in an audition to sing at the State Fair of Oklahoma. No pay, sadly, but I thought it could be good practice for me. I sent in a clip of my singing, and they asked me to sing. It was very exciting. I used a costume I had worn before and had a great time at the fair. Then a few months later, March 2020 happened. Ugh. Obviously, there was no state fair that year. But this year, they asked me to sing on the big grandstand! Naturally, I had to make a new costume. This ensemble is in 3 pieces; the dress, the over skirt , and the cummerbund .       I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money on supplies and fabric, since I wasn’t being paid. Luckily, my local thrift stores provided some cool gold curtains and a tablecloth. The curtains are a very shiny, very light, smooth satin. And the table has a bit of a slub texture to it, and is a bit heavier. I think my total cost for this ...

     I’m kinda funny about my vintage style dresses. I love them and I sew them, but I don’t actually wear them. I need to change that. But I only wear dresses to church, and I wear choir robes every Sunday. I always feel like it’s a waste to dress up nicely when it’s only going to be covered up. This is, of course, nonsense. I need to be wearing pretty dresses more. I need to make some fall and winter-appropriate dresses. The only vintage style dresses I have are very much spring-only dresses. This needs to be remedied soon. I’ve been dreaming of a 1930s velvet number for a Christmas dress for a couple years. Maybe this is the year?      The fabric came from Joann Fabrics, as usual. It’s a dotted swiss cotton. Purple is my favorite color, and I especially love this particular shade of maroon-ish purple. And of course, florals are classic for springtime. I don’t know how many yards I bought all those years ago, but it was at least 7 yards. My plan is to mak...

I love all shades of purple. Lavender, violet, plum, true purple. I love them all. So my friend knew I would love a piece of purple silk from his mothers stash. I was so grateful and I knew I needed to make it into something special. This blouse was cut out in the last hours of 2020. It took quite a while to find a pattern that I could fit on the available fabric. Finally, I found Simplicity 1316. I cut out a size 14. I was worried that it would be too small, so I used a 3/8 inch seam allowance throughout instead of 5/8 inch. Well, that was a mistake. It turned out too big, so I had to redo each seam. That made this project take longer then it should have. But in the end, it turned out great. To finish it off, I bought a purple crystal floral button at Hobby Lobby. A bit of elastic and I had a perfect closure for the neckline. For this fancy vintage look, I paired the blouse with a skirt I made 2 years before. I think I made it for Christmas 2018. It was made from Simplicity 8250. It w...

I have had this pretty fabric in my stash for a long time, and I decided 2020 was the year to do something with it. It's a lightweight, almost sheer purple-pink cotton blend with a floral print. Some of the flowers are flocked and soft, too! It looks vintage (it might be), so I thought a vintage Easter dress would be just the thing. This spring, I am especially loving pastel colors and dainty flowers. Of course, these come in fashion every year. But for some reason, I am just obsessed this year. Another new obsession is Splendette reproduction jewelry. They are inspired by Bakelite jewelry of the 1940's and 1950's. They have such a wide range, including bangles in 3 widths, earrings, brooches, and necklaces. They offer each bangle in Maiden, Regular, or Duchess size (small, medium, or large). I own 9 pieces so far and I have an incredibly long wishlist. Here, I am wearing their Drop Hoop earrings and Midi bangle in Amethyst. Sadly , this color was discontinued and th...

Unmentionables. Smalls. Underthings. Lingerie. Underwear. Intimates. Whatever the name, everybody wears them (if you don't, I don't need to know). I love all the little frilly, girly bits of lace and soft cottons and smooth silks. So this year, I plan to make a set of underthings for every decade of the 20 th century. Each decade will have a dedicated blog with a pattern review and photos. I will also be posting on Instagram regularly. This will be a chance to improve my sewing skills, especially in working with lace and fine finishing work. I feel I have a solid grasp of the basics, and would love to make more heirloom quality pieces. Also, this project will lay the foundation for any 20 th century costumes I want to sew in the future. Half the work will already be done. Plus, it just makes me happy to sew pretty things. And that's enough reason. The only garment I plan to purchase will be my 1900 corset, and a 1910 corset, if possible. Thankfully for my budget,...

This cape is wonderfully warm. But it is harder to keep your hands and lower arms warm. Coats are better for this purpose. I especially love the hood with attached long scarf. It adds the perfect amount of glamour to this otherwise quite utilitarian cape. I keep imagining myself as Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn or another star of that era. And then I laugh at myself and move along.  But also, I still want some black huge movie star sunglasses for when I need to hide away from the paparazzi. Someday, this will happen. For now, these white Target sunglasses I found on  clearance  for $3 will have to suffice. This fleece was from Joann's. For some reason, I thought I wanted a huge fleece blanket in a leopard print. Imagine that on a bed. Thankfully, I thought better of it, and the fleece just sat in my stash and marinated for a little bit. I don't remember if there was any particular inspiration for making this fleece into a cape. I believe I u...