The Color-Shifting Ball Gown

I found some beautiful, shimmery, color-changing fabric online (and then later at Joann’s) that I HAD to have, and thought it would be a wonderful overlay and I decided I was going to make a ball gown for the charity ball at Anime Boston. I also really wanted to try draping pleats on the bodice, so I created a black corset dress and used the shimmery, color changing fabric on top. the skirt looked beautiful:

The pleats however, were quite a pain because the fabric did not want to stay in place with being pressed or steamed. So instead I had to hand stitch the pleats, which then led to how do I make the design of the stitches look intentional. It was a major pain.

Eventually, I got it, but then trying to get that effortless, off the shoulder look was a whole new adventure that required quite a bit of measuring, cutting, seeing what it looked like on the dress form, cutting some more and accepting that it was not going to be perfect by any means.

Then came realizing that the stretchiness of the color shifting material meant that the bodice was pulling away from the waist making the dress look more boxy than intended. So, I had to cut that all off, and cut out the corset/bodice pieces separately in the overlay fabric and sew those all together and then place it on top. In the meantime, the skirt portion was starting to run (like stockings) from the weight of it. And I realized that I needed some kind of trim to break up all of the same fabric colors. I got the trim, had to accept that the fabric runs and does not cooperate like I wanted and I will not be able to rent this out. Also, in the process, I either gained some weight or had mis-measured the corset part and the zipper wouldn’t close so I had to change the closure to have it fit me. But it was finally done, and looked, more or less, like I imagined it would. Then we weren’t able to get tickets to the ball, so Muse and I did a photo shoot in the Prudential Center.

The White Faux Fur Cloak

One Renaissance Faire trip I got it into my head that I wanted an all white, faux fur, full-length cloak. One that would have holes for my arms that would not be visible when not in use, and would have pockets on the inside. This way, I could keep my valuables close, and access them easily if I wanted to purchase something, and could just use the arm hole to pay instead of opening up the middle and exposing myself to the cold if the day is chilly. So I modified a pattern (I also recorded the process so that will go up on youtube at some point) and got some beautiful faux fur.

For the most part, aside from some learning curves (i.e. best way to trim and sew faux fur) it came out well, the pockets were added into the lining after measuring what I would need to carry with me.

Really grainy picture of the pocket

And then some issues with the decorative top-stitching not coming out at all the way I wanted it to, so I had to give up on that and do some regular stitches. But overall, it came out nice. It is very VERY heavy though, so due to the weight and the minor messes from trying to do the decorative top-stitching, this will also not be available for rent. However, I could be persuaded if someone really REALLY wanted/needed it for a special event. I do plan on making some shorter versions of this in the future though, so that it weighs less.