Lyesera's Cosplay Blog

A place to put my ongoing cosplay and costuming progress photos

[lyesera]

Back at PAXEast and it was great. I made my Tataru costume and my fiance's Richter Belmont costume.

[lyesera]

Getting pieces of smock cut out. Not enough in this section of muslin to also handle the sleeves and the side gussets. But I was able to cut everything else out.

More to do tomorrow. For now, D&D.

[lyesera]

So COVID wound up being rough on me. Which I'm ashamed to admit because things were okay. Great even. I could work from home. My fiance could work from home. We made our bills and even bought a house.

But my mental health tanked hard, I dropped the handful of projects I had and got lost in anxiety, work stress, and then moving stress.

Recently, however, I joined my local SCA group, my Shire, and it gave me a small kick in the butt. I have also recently fallen in love with early 1500 English dress. That's right, Tudor era.

I am giving myself a deadline of October to put together a standard, common Tudor woman's outfit. There are three events I want it for so I hope it's enough to keep me on task.

First up, using the Tudor Tailor (image below) I am drafting out my smock. I have 10 yards of muslin to help me mock it up next and all of the linen I will need for the smock. And hopefully a little extra for various other ends.

[lyesera]

Trying to get out of my funk. No costumes, just some simple skirts for myself.

I went to a nearby Goodwill. I found a sweater, a shawl, and this thing. We think it was a nightgown? It was pretty worn down, missing buttons, had some holes, but I thought it would make a really neat skirt.

Bought it, brought it home, and seam ripped it apart.

Had to regather the skirt after I seam ripped it. It went fairly quickly.

I found it was quite difficult to find a good spot to cut the waist band out of, but managed to get it out of the old sleeves. I cut one of the waist bands in half - not perfectly, I gave one side an extra inch. This was for the back closure, as I didn’t want it to be on the side.

I sewed one side of the band to the skirt to hold the gathering in place.

I then made a placket and sewed that into place before I hand-felled the other side of the waist band into place.

Overall, I’m very happy with this skirt. I was thinking I might benefit from some kind of petite coat to flare it out a bit. I might visit that later. In the meantime I have a skirt pattern I’m testing out.

I had some left over cotton from an old cosplay project. The Four Link’s one. I bought two different lighter blues for our friend and he picked the one he wanted, I held onto the other for myself.

I had a small problem, the fabric wasn’t wide enough to get the straight grain of the pattern aligned with the straight grain of the skirt. I know this is a BIG problem, but I couldn’t make it work. So before I go any further, I have the skirt panels hanging to see if I can get that bias to stretch out and I can cut them back into shape.

I’m doing this now because I purchased some wool fabrics that I’d like to make some skirts out of. They are much wider and the pattern should fit. I’m just trying to figure out if I like the shape of the skirt at all before I cut my nice wools.

I’m not sure, yet, if I am onboard with making an Edwardian Walking Skirt pattern on my own, but I will say, after watching Bernadette Banner’s video on her modern Edwardian Walking Skirt, I might do if I’m not happy with this pattern. I really like the way that skirt draped.

[lyesera]

So frustrated right now.

I have been really struggling to handle the regency short stays (trying to take my time so not to completely mess up) and wanted to take my mind off of how I’ve been starting to feel like I did over reach.

I bought four different linens recently with the intent to turn them into shirts. I hadn’t patterned anything out yet just wanted it. Which sat around for a couple of weeks.

Finally told myself I was going to do it tonight and completely botched it. I measured wrong not once, not twice, but three times and now I have several pieces of fabric and not a single usable garment out of it.

I was so so upset I actually cried over it. I am so mad that I could screw up that way.

All being said, the fabric available could still make a shirt. not the shirt style I intended, but there is something salvageable there. I’m trying to hold onto that thought, but I’m genuinely still very upset.

I just have all this desire to sew and apparently no ability to do it or do it correctly.

[lyesera]

Maybe silly, but I’m super excited. I have some linen thread finally! Also my boning came in.

Thanks to the Costubers and their CoCoVid event, I was introduced to https://burnleyandtrowbridge.com/. Vermont doesn’t appear to have a lot of materials for historical recreation (at least to the best of my attempts to find any) and so I was able to source this online.

Also, a small update to the Regency Short Stays. Trying my hand at hand sewing. My poor attempt at a back stitch. Going to try doing small increments of sewing in hopes that I’ll do more frequent work. We’ll see how that goes!

[lyesera]

Regency Short Stays - update

So I need to stop promising updates the next day. It took a long while for me to get where I am. Many thanks to the Youtube costume community and their CoCoVid panels and demos they’ve been doing. I learned a lot in just a few days.

My first mock up went horrible, I got discouraged, and I stopped sewing for a long while. Now with some new tips and tricks from many wonderful people who have been doing this longer than me, I have finally started a proper mock up.

Here are all my pattern pieces cut out and basted together with 3 layers each of the same cut out. I will be assembling it at some point in the near future and doing a test fit.

[lyesera]

So I didn't get my mock up yesterday. Wound up spending time adjusting the pattern to my size. I had purchased the XXL version of the short stays but I'm bigger than that and had to scale it up.

Here are my finished pieces. I took the day to do it so I made sure grain lines and other markings matched the original pattern.

Today is a busy day but hoping to have my mock up by tomorrow. I have already cut the pieces but now I have some shopping to do and then a drive through brewfest with the others to get to.

[lyesera]

So needed a project to do finally. Masks can only get me so far. But I am getting good at them...

So I decided I wanted to try a structured under garment...

Of all things.

I know, still very green to be doing that but I need something that'll make me take some time and keep my mind focused. And I've been interested in a short stay anyways.

I suffer from a chronic pain condition and regular bras and I don't always get along. I have been wondering if ye old stays would help with support while saving my shoulders and ribs from thin pressure points all day.

I don't currently fancy a long stays that extends down to the hips, or a modern corset, of which I've tried a few store bought. Which I don't know if it's because they weren't made for me specifically, but they are not forgiving to my mid section and poor posture.

So if nothing else, I'll have a project. But maybe I make a chronic pain friendly alternative for bust support.

I'm trying the Redthreaded Patterns Regency Short Stays. Spent some time reading and mapping some little things out on the pattern that I want to make sure I get right.

Tomorrow, taking some of my remaining muslin and making a mock up to figure out sizing and such for a final, personalized pattern.

[lyesera]

Haven't posted any cosplay recently but I did go all out cooking. I made a Monster Hunter Iceborne themed spread. We were defeated. Too much food. But I am super proud at how it tastes.

[lyesera]

Turning costume and cosplay left overs into face masks to donate locally. Have 40 here and still have lots of fabric!

[lyesera]

I am 2 days behind posting. PAXEast day 3 was amazing. In full cosplay again, got stopped lots, even had people taking pics while we ate.

PAXEast day 4 was lazy. Rightfully so, we were all beat. Spent the day demoing and checking out cosplay and last minute shopping.

[lyesera]

PAXEast, day 2. Cosplay pics of what I managed. Lots of shopping done.

[lyesera]

PAXEast, day 1. Taking a casual day tomorrow to focus on pics but will be back in costume Saturday.

[lyesera]

We. Are. Done.

Blue, forth and final Link ready for it's wearer. Today has been last minute craft work. LongRoad and BitterPill have been gluing the swords together.

Work in progress. Also, figured out a simple solution to the lighting of the gems.

Balloons!!!

We used a white light by itself and the light from the orange balloon with a small piece of the balloon stretched over it to diffuse the light. It looks great!

It's bright, it's colorful, and as of this morning we know it'll last all day at a con. We can also change out the batteries. Honestly, the best $10 we've spent.

[lyesera]

We're ready.

[lyesera]

Benn so busy lately trying to wrap this up. As of now Green and Purple are done and I have the measurements to work on Blue.

Had an issue with LongRoad's over tunic originally. Made it a bit tight. Had to recut the back panel to get more space. Was really concerned I wouldn't be able to make the hat but with some clever fabric shifting, managed to get it together. Yay!!