Apron Dress cosplay for a Viking Warrior!

Each year they have a Viking Funeral in my city at the local yacht club. They launch a boat and set it on fire using flaming arrows. And it turns out that my archery club do the honours.
So this year, I get to fire some of the flaming arrows! So of course, I need an appropriate outfit.
There are a lot of theories about the Apron Dress, and of course about Vikings. No one is apparently exactly sure what they looked like or wore, because not much has survived. But there is some general consensus that there was an Apron Dress and it would have looked something like what I am planning to make. The apron overdress was used to display embroidery and beads, which are usually linked to wealth in many cultures. I was planning on being moderately wealthy.

Under Dress

I found a pattern in a box and thought that it would suit it. I really needed a pattern for the under dress, because the last time I tried a free-pattern one it was a disaster!

I pulled some spare fabric out, but found that I only had black for the under dress and navy for the apron dress: they wouldn't contrast very well, nor stand out against the darkness when I shoot. And then I remembered this light fitted sheet that we had in the cupboard that didn't fit our bed anymore.

Perfect!
I chopped all of the elastic off.

And then laid it out to pin the pattern pieces down.

The pattern only went up to an 18, a bit small for me, so I marked out where a size bigger would be and then cut a seam allowance of another cm on top of that.

I pinned the curved seams together and sewed them, leaving the side seams free: if the dress was too small still, this is where I would add fabric in.

But I had estimated pretty well! I actually had to take it in at the sides to fit. It's hard when you're different sizes in the top, chest, hips AND waist! 
Back zip (not so traditional, but so much easier!)

And I used an existing top to measure out the sleeves, which I patched together from leftovers from the bed sheet.

The final touch was trim around the neckline:

It's very comfortable, being such a worn sheet.

Apron Dress

This part was easy - I used an apron that fit me well as a template and cut the overdress out. I also cut out two strips to turn into the dress straps. I would also need some longer, thinner strips to sew into ties for the lacing on either side of the dress.

I hemmed all of the edges and checked the fit: not quite right on the sides.

I had to take them in quite a bit.

The final touch for the over dress: I had picked out some trims (with some help), two that complemented each other but still went okay with both fabrics. My help also convinced me to get some fur trim... not sure what I'll do with it yet.

I wanted the trim at least on the top of both sides of the apron, and the straps, and then the bottom hem if I had enough. There had only been two rolls of the wide trim in the shop, so I might not be able to do it all.
After that I used some scraps to test where my side laces should fit.

Rather than buy something new, I made the laces from leftover trim. You fold and fold again to make it stronger. I figured if I made them a metre long they would be long enough to lace through.

Bling

I scoured op shops for weeks hoping to find beads that could be fake amber, bone and other semi-precious, as well as a metal belt that I could re-purpose a couple of discs from for my dress brooches. No luck! In the end I went to the store and bought some things instead.

 Finished dual necklace ready to hook up whatever brooches I find or make:

Like the beads, I had been looking in op shops for something for the brooches, like an old metal belt or something. But I ended up with two pairs of earrings from a cheap jewellery shop.

Very quick glue gun use to connect the earring parts and then attach the brooch bits to the back.

I think they turned out pretty well.

$10 for this leather look-alike bag that will do very well as a belt pouch. It will fit my phone, keys, etc that I need to take on the night. Costumes and practicality don't always mix! I hung it from a $2.50 belt I got from an op shop.

The final look:

Eco Dye Experimenting

What do you do with a day off? Buy some random veges and fruit and try to dye things!

This is a mixed tea, with green tea and flowers.

The tea one brewing. We let it boil, and then took it off the heat and let it sit for 1.5 hours.

Same with the coffee: we brewed a pot, then tipped it over the fabric and let it sit.

We thought that the hibiscus colour would have been the strongest, but it just came out kind of a red-brown.

The coffee stained darker than we thought it would.

After that we did some of my usual dyeing, with tea leaves, native leaves and rusty things.

 

The colours came out very dark this time. I think I need to be a bit more scientific with my experiments, to figure out what does what!

These are the ones that we had already dyed with coffee and tea. Nice colour range on them.

This is definitely a favourite.

And the patterns on this one! This was the last one I did, just chucking as many leaves into it as I could.

#lovelypennypatterns

Making Robin Hood Hats for a Cosplay

Robin Hood's Hat

This was a very quick hour of sewing that will be for a future costume. 
I borrowed a pattern from another blog and cut out a template for the hats from an A3 piece of laminated paper:

Went shopping for felt and feathers.

But could only find small pieces of felt, so I had to sew two together to have enough to work with. 

I pinned the two larger pieces together and then pinned the template over it and cut it out.

I hemmed the bottom edge the wrong way around, as I knew that I would be turning it up later on and this would hide the hemming. Then it was a matter of pinning the two pieces around the edge that I was going to sew.

Turn it right-way around, and turn the edge up:

Poke two holes for the feather to go through:

And there you have it! It would be better without the seam in the middle, but I'll need to source some larger bits of felt if I want to do that.

I had made that one (admittedly as a test) for a friend. The next one, in black, was for my husband. The template was too small for him, so when I cut it out I just left an allowance around the edges to make it bigger:

Once it was sewn together and the edges turned up, I actually put a few stitches in the side so that the hat wouldn't unfold itself.

It doesn't look too bad on me either 😉

And finally on to my hat! A nice deep blue. Repeat all previous steps.

And there you have it: ready for some Merry Men and Women!

#lovelypennypatterns

Op Shop Refashion: adding to eco dyed shirts

Something I've noticed about selling craft is that you need to find a niche: something that no one else does, or at least that no one else does quite like you do. I achieve this with my wire-wrapped beach glass necklaces, because I've never come across anyone else who does it that way (let alone adds dangly bits, shells, and all sorts of things).
But eco dyed garments are becoming more popular now and there are a number of people in my area who do it. Some do flowers and steaming on silk, others rust dyeing, but there is also the woman that I learned to eco dye from. I don't want to be a poor copy of her beautiful work, so I need my own "thing". That's why I started adding trims to my dyed clothes, and dyeing with grevillea leaves, because they are something different. Then mum gave me another idea: add bits of off-cuts from the Indigenous prints that I love so much. And I thought, "I've got a lot of those, why not?"
These are my first forays into my new line of embellished clothes 😉

I do like this fabric, I had better try and get a bigger piece of it to make something.

I'm going to re-wash this top so that the shirt fabric rolls in. It's a nice effect.

I thought the spots matched the tea spots on the top!

There may be too many patches on this one.

I'd like to do some more leaf shapes though, I think they fit the tops well.

I've got some sewing to do!

This was going to be a quilt block, but it's sat around for over a year so I thought it should be re-purposed. It will go on something soon.

#lovelypennypatterns