Robes de Coeur
  • Blog
  • Quilting
  • Clothing
    • Menswear
    • Womenswear >
      • Self-Made Patterns
      • Commercial Patterns
    • Hats
    • Miscellany
  • About
  • Blog
  • Quilting
  • Clothing
    • Menswear
    • Womenswear >
      • Self-Made Patterns
      • Commercial Patterns
    • Hats
    • Miscellany
  • About

Leather Costume - Spray Painted Cape

4/30/2018

1 Comment

 
The leather album art project, first pants from scratch, then a modified jacket, was finished with a cape.  I had several yards of dark red ponte knit to work with, and I merely rounded the corners to make the shape I liked.  Feeling inspired by the idea of old brocade curtains and lace, but faded and worn, I decided to spray-paint the cape with lacy stencils!  I bought an outdoor fabric spray paint from JoAnn's, in brown. 

Read More
1 Comment

Leather Costume - Modified Jacket

4/26/2018

2 Comments

 
The next part of the leather costume was the leather jacket.  I suggested starting with an existing jacket and modifying it, so we went to Goodwill and picked up a black leather jacket.  Being a motorcycle jacket, it had the following features:
  • leather, to protect against road rash in case of fall
  • tight snaps at wrists and elastic at the waist to prevent wind from getting in and ballooning the coat
  • double closures: a CF zipper to close the coat, and a double-breasted snapped closure to keep wind from getting in at the zipper.
It was very 1980s style, with raglan sleeves.  Since my client is big boned, the cuffs were too tight to snap shut on him, but the rest fit. 
Picture
the jacket after I removed the elastic at the waist Some chalk marks on the shoulders, from the first fitting. He's wearing the pants.

Read More
2 Comments

Leather Costume - Pants

4/23/2018

3 Comments

 
My favorite kind of project is when someone gives me an idea or assignment, and then lets me make it how I want.  If the idea is unusual enough, I am stretched by trying to make it, and I learn new techniques.  One repeat customer of mine always gives me such projects*.  In October 2017, he approached me with a new idea, for album cover art, and as always, it was my favorite kind of project. 
Picture
* One time his inspiration was "the nineteen-eighties, super-artificial, and kind of Japanese".  I combined this with "Neelix from Star Trek Voyager" and came up with a red vinyl jacket that closed diagonally across the chest with red pleather details reminiscent of a Japanese fan.  I had never worked with vinyl or pleather before, so that was new!  Nor had I ever altered a pattern like that, or made anything like it.

Read More
3 Comments

How to Iron Gathers

4/19/2018

0 Comments

 
A tutorial, today!  Sometimes you need to iron a garment with gathers; if you put the iron right on top of the gathered area, you'll cause creases and make the area flat instead of full, so you need a different technique. 

Read More
0 Comments

"Shell Stitch" - A Needlelace Edging

4/16/2018

0 Comments

 
Today, a brief needlelace tutorial!  This is a simple edging stitch, meaning you can use it to decorate your hems and other edges, even if you're not hard-core into lace-making! 

The stitch is called "shell stitch" in the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, as well as in other sources.  However, several Victorian resources I've found online name it the "point de Venise", and Thérèse de Dillmont simply numbers her stitches (which is not memorable at all)!  As you may recall from my post about French Needlelaces, the nomenclature for lace is not consistent.  So "point de Venise" could mean Venetian needlelace in general as well as being a name for this particular stitch.  I'll stick with "shell stitch" for this tutorial, since the finished nubs look like wee shells. 
Picture

Read More
0 Comments

Appliquéd Fish dress

4/12/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture

The next UFO checked off my list!  A friend whom I described this project to waxed poetic about it, trying to decide if it was a "melusine dress" or "ondine gown".  "Mermaid rag, haddock frock," I quipped back.  Though it's watery, fishy, and beautiful, there are no sprites or fairies on this garment, so "fish dress" is fine by me.  My poetry is in the dress, not the name. 
The whole thing started in a vintage shop dressing room, with an interesting wrap dress that closed with an overlap in the back, not the front.  The back, consequently, had a v-neck.  Alas, it was a dreadful khaki color and too small for me, so I didn't like it; but I liked the idea of it, and came home to try my own version, using (yet again) Simplicity 3631's bodice.

Read More
1 Comment

Quilted Jumps - Finished!

4/9/2018

2 Comments

 
Time to get the first thing off my UFO pile!  I started these quilted jumps, a kind of casual 18th Century substitute for stays, back in 2015, using an older sewing machine.  I re-found them in 2017, and put them in my working pile again, and now I am finally done!  (Just as Spring arrives and I have no reason to wear them for months!)

Read More
2 Comments

Darning a Tartan

4/5/2018

1 Comment

 
In 2003 I visited Scotland, and I wanted to buy some tartan souvenir, since the plaids are so beautiful.  Since I have no affiliation with any Scottish clan, I didn't feel right buying a clan tartan; luckily, there are non-clan tartans.  So I browsed through a very touristy shop, and one particular color combo caught my eye: almost equal parts blue and green, with thin orange and black stripes, and subtle gray easing from one stripe to another.  I looked at the tag, and read "New York City". 
Picture
The tartan belongs on the bed. The kitties don't!

Read More
1 Comment

Let's Over-Analyze Skirts!

4/1/2018

5 Comments

 
Happy Easter!  Flowers are blooming all over Portland after a gray winter, and Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and our new life in Him! 

But here on my sewing blog, let's talk about skirts.  Last Easter, a friend said something scathing about Easter services at church, about women wearing skirts that don't hang right, with their slips slipping out the bottom.  I then went to church and saw exactly that!  See, most modern women grew up in jeans, and don't wear skirts often enough to know how to manage them.  This ignorance shows at weddings, when bridesmaids sit with their legs open, or at Easter services where nylon slips fall below the hem of the skirt, or in historical dramas when the actress fights with her costume.  (Keira Knightly, though otherwise a wonderful actress, is guilty of this.  She never alters her body mechanics to suit the costume; she's always stalking about, long-legged, whipping her skirts around her legs ungracefully.)
Picture
Weather Report image from the Tacoma Times, 3 May 1904. Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Today's post will be about how a skirt works, what undergarments are ideal, how to keep a slip from slipping, how to wear a skirt, et cetera. 

Read More
5 Comments

    Karen Roy

    Quilting, dressmaking, and history plied with the needle...

    Categories

    All
    1910's
    Alteration
    Antique
    Dyeing
    Embroidery
    General
    Hand Sewing
    History
    Lacemaking
    Mending
    Menswear
    Millinery
    Modern Elizabethan
    Musing
    Other Sewing
    Philippians 4:8
    Project Diary
    Quilting
    Regency
    Retro
    Self Made Pattern
    Self-made Pattern
    Terminology
    Victorian
    Vintage

    Blogs I Read

    The Dreamstress
    Male Pattern Boldness
    ​
    Lilacs & Lace
    Tom of Holland
    Fit for a Queen
    Line of Selvage
    Mainely Menswear
    Bernadette Banner

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017

    RSS Feed

Blog

Quilting

Clothing

About

Copyright Karen Roy
​© 2017-2022