The lost Tuorial

It all started with a plaid dress...

When I started this Blog I had a little camera with which I shot my pics. I started working with my I-phone and Hipstamatic later. About a year ago, the camera got lost. When I found it a few days ago I uploaded the pics and found this little suprise. A making of my plaid dress, the very first I ever made!

Take a look....

                                    Watching Sharon Needles win Drag Race while sewing.

Sadly, that's all. But you can see how i place the boning and the pattern.


See you soon,

Axel

1745-75 Robe a la Francaise / Contouche

Madame de Pompadour vous embrasse!

 So I finally had time to shoot the Robe a la francaise ! I made this gown already 6 months ago but just didn't have time to take pics. So here it is!

When I think of rococo i think of this shilouette! It might be the most iconic ones. The Contouche was in fashion almost the whole 18 century and was worn with paniers or a crinoline to give the skirt a oval shape. In the back, it is pleated and falls down lose like a cape.

I had a hard time to make the pattern but it worked out wonderful and i am very proud of it. There is a corset with boning worked into it. As you costume-lovers out there might have noticed, the hairstyle is not completely accurate for the time. It should be smaller since the big hair started later. But i thought why not combine the two the two most iconic rococo things and go big? Hope you like it.

I also made a little landscape-model and a new dollstand. I will post a making of of this work soon!

Listening to: Mozart - 'Piano Sonata No.11'

Enjoy!

 I used 'Fab 40ties' -Barbie and gave her a Reroot with Saran hair in a custom blend with Azure-Blue and HiHo-Silver (both from www.mylittlecustoms.com). I also 'Powdered' her with Dry-Shampoo. Jewlery as well as the hairstyle is, of course, also made by me.

Be kind to one another,

Axel

1845-50 Green Dot Summer-Dress

This one is for March.


Last year in August my friend March died. We went to Berlin together for Holidays. On the airport she had an aneurysm, which means a vein in her head just popped. She was in coma for one week and died, short after her 33 birthday. I miss her every day and I`ll never forget the love she had for me and her lust for living. She was the most generous and gentle person I know. And she also had great humor.

Once, she went to a theme party as `The green dot disease`. Which means she just put green dots all over her, just like measles. From there on she made a side on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/greendots.at) and put pic`s on it whenever she found a green dot somerwhere in her daily routine. She also put green dots all over vienna an wherever she went. Now, we, her friends, try to spread the disease around the world. There`s also a webside where you can upload pics, if you find green dots in your life.../www.greendots.at

This is my tribute to her.

Listening to:  Umi No Mieru Machi - Joe Hisaishi (Kiki`s delivery service)

http://www.schlosshalbturn.com/

I had to work the last 2 weeks everyday, even weekends, so I didn`t have a lot of time to sew. But still, somehow, I managed to finish my green-dot summer dress.
It`s again made out of cotton fabric. Today i went out to take pics. I used the `Scarlet O`Hara - Barbecue at Twelve Oaks` Barbie.It has a hoopskirt underneath.

Be kind to one another, life is short...


Axel

Hoopskirt 1855-66

All hail the Queen.

Now let`s go to 1855-65.

In the 60ie`s of the 19 century the silhouette of the hoopskirt and therefore the skirt changed. All the fullness gathered more in the back and the front became flatter. You can see it in the famous portrait of Sissi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria. It`s from 1863. I have to admit, I `m a big fan of her Style and Story.
 It could possible be that i watched the Sissi Triology with Romy Schneider to often as a child. They are always on TV in Christmas-time or just on Sunday. This triology is very common here in Austria. Not like `The Sound of music`, which a lot of Americans believe to be `Austrian-Reality`. Even Bill Clinton asked during a stay with his wife Hilary here in Vienna to visit a staging of the book or the movie from 1965. Unfortunately, there wasn`t one at that time because no one knew it.

Sissi (1956) by Ernst Marischka


So i wanted to get that kind o shape and it worked out very well. Take a look:

And here with the skirt over it:

The dress you can see here is something like a `Dummy`-Dress. I tested lot of things here. First the pattern for the Bodice, which i changed afterwards because i found it to be a bit too big. Second the Technique. Working a corsett into the bodice, which is very common in the Theater an Opera world and a very good idea when you work in miniature. I found out, that one bone in the middle is not enough. As you can see its puckering. I also tried to sew in piping, which acctually worked very well. And i worked with a skirt pattern out of `Patterns of fashion 1`by Janet Arnold. It`s very easy to just copy it out in a size that fits Barbie. You just have to adjust the pleats a bit to the Bodice.

 I didn`t really want to feature this dress too much because I can see all the `flaws` or let`s call them `things-you-can-do-better-next-time`. But, acctually, i think it turned out very nice! And I wanted you to see all my process and, hopefully, progress.

The undersleaves are removable and just gathered with rubberband on the ends.

So here`s the Pattern or the Crinoline and the Bumroll, which gives the hoopskirt a lift to the back.

Have fun!


Be kind to on another,

Axel

Hoopskirt 1845-55

My inspirations. Bustles from 1858.

Sharing Secrets...

Greetings everyone!

 Since my new dresses won`t be finished until June/July and since i realised i already have one follower (i´m very happy about that!) I decided to do a post about my undergarments!

I´m stil in the romantic period between 1845-55, so this one i didn`t want to be too wide.

The shape of the underskirt is very important to the finsihed shilouette of the dress, so i took a long time to try an figure out what works. I was not satisfied with petticoat`s and i found out that a crinoline/hoopskirt is the only thing that works. This is what i came up with.
The shirt Mona-Lisa Barbie is wearing in the pic, is from Pirates of the Caribbean Angelica Barbie, which i bought for re-bodying.

To give the hoopskirt a little lift in the back an to make it more flat in the front i used a Bumroll underneath. And remember it`s miniature size, so the fabric of the skirt will also add a lot of volume. The bodice with the boning pushes the skirt down a bit.. More secrets stil to come! ;)

And because I had such a hard time to find Patterns for Historic Fashions for Barbie`s Model Muse Body I decide to share my Patterns. Hope you have fun with it! If you need help, write me a Message.

I used a very thin cotton fabric and for the boning thin plasic stripes out of real corsett-bonings. Just take the fabric double, sew it together by the lines, bone it and gatther it on top!

More to come!!

Be nice to one another,

Axel

My plaid dress that I love so much