Yellow Sheer Civil War Dress

I am finally getting around to posting some photos from my most recent project: My cotton sheer Civil War dress!








Layers 1, 2 and 3:

I made a new chemise from the Simplicity Fashion Historian 9769 Pattern and reused my corset and drawers (from the same pattern) that I originally made for my Victorian 1840s dress.

All the glorious LAYERS!

5 layers in the photo... add in 3+ more for chemise, drawers and corset (and stockings of course)!

Layer 4:
I can finally say I started a project the right way (from the ground up) as I constructed my very own Cage Crinoline using the KayFig 7-tier 108" hoop kit! That was loads of fun hammering and awl-ing the thing together; It felt like using heavy machinery compared to what I'm used to. I completed this while I was 9 months pregnant, so it was the perfect project for me while lying in wait!






Layer 5:
I already had my "Wedding Cake" Petticoat made from the free Truly Victorian Pattern but I made another one for good measure to ensure my hoop rings would not show through. Oddly enough, I have never bought fabric for my petticoats, I just use a combination of bedskirts and sheets from thrift stores. I just LOVE ruffled bedskirts for undergarments!

Layer 6:
I had made another simple flat petticoat (with a cute bedskirt yellow eyelet ruffle) but this still didn't smooth thing over enough for my liking.

Layer 7:
To completely smooth things over I made a very flat simple petticoat. This helped immensely since my starched bedskirt ruffles get a little crazy.


Layer 8 (Top):
My dress pattern is Peachtree Mercantile Day Dress, ca.1860 which I have to say, was completely worth the crazy price $35+!!. I have never paid so much for a pattern before, but the photos and history and in-depth sewing instructions (with variations!) was almost overwhelming and taught me so much about the construction of this garment.

The fabric:
I bought 10 yards of this yellow windowpane fabric at a thrift store in Modesto for $8!!! (Please don't hate me... I had no idea it was quite so much fabric when I bought it, but could tell the unmarked quantity was a steal anyways! I didn't know I'd be making it into a Civil War dress at the time, but I soon started to question my ability to pull this dress off and didn't want to invest a huge amount of money into buying fabric. Then I got the idea to use my thrift store find (even tough I can tell it probably has a small percentage of synthetic fibers in it). I'm happy I went the "cheap" route because the final fit is not what I'd like it to be. Too blousy! At least I know that... I'm slowly but sure understanding that I cannot skip the multiple toile fittings. :-(

My glorious hand-stitched cartridge pleats!

The trim:
I bought some cotton eyelet trim and replaced all the white ribbon with yellow. It was a bit of a pain, but worth it... I think.



The Details:

Look at that hand gathered shoulder!

Ah.. and all the prettiness of the sleeves!

The shoes:
I finally splurged and got some American Duchess "Renoir" $190 shoes! They were so fun to put on with the victorian button hook! I FINALLY didn't have to hide my ballet flat feet!

Fun! Fun! Fun! I hope to make a better bodice one day so I can solve the blousy fit problems *I created* when I decided to add more gathers to the Peachtree Bodice. Ugh. I promise I'll check to see if I like it first next time.  :-)

My Craft Room (in all its glory)

My glorious husband recently finished my long dreamed-of craft room, so I thought I'd share the successes!

And here's the finished room!

The layout is pretty typical of all those amazing Pinterest rooms but there's a few differences: The first is that Manuel sanded down, primed and repainted a hand-me-down bookcase.

This was after sanding it down and priming the walls.  You can still see a bit of the original color.

You can see he left off the back piece since it was that horrible cardboard backing cheap bookcases come with. That stuff's impossible to sand, so instead of buying new plywood, we opted to showcase the pretty Benjamin Moore "Chesapeake Blue" walls.

I bought some magazine backing boards from Amazon (see below) and had to turn them on their side to fit the existing shelves.  That's why mine don't look as pretty as all the Pinterest examples. I think they are pretty awesome anyways!

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.  The very first thing my husband built was an amazing rolling farmhouse Sewing Table! Here you can see the inner workings:

He later painted the legs white and stained the top of it. I can pull it away from the wall for sewing my gigantic victorian/civil war skirts!

My hubby also built an amazing wall unit to store two (of my four) Reflections Twistainer panels. Get this… I had to buy 4 sets of them to get enough containers to fill my wall unit, but the four sets actually came in scrapbook storage boxes!  The Reflections sets were on clearance for only $5 a piece at Michaels. Those boxes are usually 5 bucks a pop anyways, but with these I also got the snap tray, AND a bunch of containers!  So, for 20 bucks total I now have 4 matching scrapbook boxes, an amazing wall storage solution AND two portable (extra) Twistainer trays in case I want to pop some of them off and take them with me somewhere). 

The 4 matching scrapbook boxes are currently being used to store paints and things as you can see on the center shelf of the bookcase above.

In case you are wondering, here's how my husband wall-mounted them: He just drilled some holes in the corners and screwed them into some scrap plywood. He used some of our old crown moulding to encompass the units and here you go!

Here's the Reflections Twistainer trays before painting the crown moulding.

See? It stores my buttons, extra fabric and my laces!

Manuel used Ana White's plans for my rainbow Craft Organizer from this awesome book:

I covered some toilet paper rolls with origami paper to make some ribbon holders.  They are purdy now.

I also repurposed some Starbucks mocha milk jars for my buttons.  Let me tell you, they are a pain to get the sticky label residue off of. A PAIN.  Goo Gone still didn't remove it all!

Details, details.

Manuel also repainted a heavy mirror for me!  I call it my mirror of Erised.  :-)

The mirror color BEFORE...

… And AFTER!

And finally, the only project I did all by myself: I got some old frames, cut out some sturdy cardboard, modpodged it and stuck some Burlap on it. I did this so the Burlap wouldn't sag when hung up on the wall. I used some contact cement to glue on the clips, and here's the result!  A wall for my children's artwork! Yay!

EXTRA! EXTRA!! Here are some bonus photos of the "White Tree of Gondor Quilt" Manuel made me when he proposed to me nearly 10 years ago. It fits perfectly in my crafting space!

And look, it's on a repainted Twin Trundle Bed (so we can actually have married couples come to stay with us)!

Here you can see the original color before he painted it. He paid $80 for the bed on Craigslist.

And here's the reason for it all: My closet housing all my sewing projects! 

Costumes I've made myself...

...And my vintage collection!

Here's the sad part: I only get to kept this craft room until my kids demand separate rooms.  I shall cherish it every day until then!

Here's Eowyn "helping" daddy. Such a sweetie.

Eowyn's Neverland Birthday

Here are some photos from E's 1st birthday party!  Descriptions to come one day!

The pirate and fairy dressing station: The costume chest!

 For the "pirate kids" I made pirate hats, eye patches, binoculars, moving telescopes, and pirate sashes! For the "fairy kids" I made personalized fairy tutus, and wands.  I also gave the boys some dollar store compasses and the girls some face pixie dust.

Pirate fonts were projected, traced and sharpied.

Handmade fairy tutus, pirate hats, eye patches, binoculars, telescopes, sashes and wands with store-bought compasses and fairy face glitter.

A close-up of the pirate hat on my Basset Hound 

Painting those binoculars

In the tree I hung dozens of jute/feather ornaments I made.

Hanging out in Tiger Lily's teepee

You can kind of see the feather ornaments in the tree here. 

Walking the plank.. fun for a girl just learning to walk!

London cityscape silhouette in the window behind the treasure.

Fabric silhouettes I cut out and fray-checked

Opening presents in front of the "Second Star to the right" table.

I made a puzzle game where the kids had to complete each station (like walking the plank, "flying" in the bounce house, etc) in order to get their puzzle piece which in the end would construct a treasure map of the party.

Puzzle hunting sign.

Completed puzzle

Bonus cool map I made with "reveal by fire" lettering!

The Best Apps to Earn You Some Starbucks (or whatever!) Money

Hello, all! You know I like coffee. A lot. Unfortunately, coffee costs money... of which I do not have! Therefore I've become an expert on finding various ways to earn some extra cash to feed my Starbucks addiction, and I wanted to grace you all with my newfound knowledge!

1) Receipt Hog (The app that gives you money just for spending money… whoa!)

The first great app is Receipt Hog. This is is a fun and rewarding way to turn receipts from everyday grocery shopping into cash - no matter where you shop or what you buy! You just scan your receipts from Vons, Winco, Walmart, Walgreens… basically anywhere that sells groceries or pet store items into the app. Then they award you giftcard points for the dollar amount you spend (not what you buy!). It's the only time you actually smile after spending money you hate to spend!

They also have a fun slot machine that wins you extra points to help you earn gift cards faster. I hate referral links unless they actually benefit YOU, so here's one that will give YOU 5 FREE SPINS if you use it: http://app.receipthog.com/share/f6hjs3dh

2) Ibotta (The app that gives you money for buying specific products)

This apps blows my mind. It's well-designed, it's fun, AND it gives you money for buying things you were going to buy anyways, like milk… and eggs. And not a specific brand of milk or eggs. ANY brand of milk or eggs. WHY?!? I don't understand it, but only my very first shopping trip they already paid me cash. Nice. Again, if it can make me smile after spending money I hate being forced to spend (stupid hunger pains!), I'm all for it.

Again, here's a mutually beneficial referral link: You get 2 DOLLARS in CASH when you scan your first receipt if you use my referral link: http://ibotta.com/r/LQ76w Whoohoo!

3) Mobee (The secret shopping app!)

Okay, so this doesn't help us Fresno peeps…. YET, but, as I love Starbucks and have fantasies about one day doing some mystery shopping there, I am going to hold on to this app until some missions show up here. You basically go to a certain store and answer questions about what you see there (the employees, the cleanliness, etc.)

Sadly, there aren't any jobs in Fresno. BUT Bakersfield, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Modesto, and anywhere else in America (not just California), you should get started now! You folks are missing out on some fun secret shopping!


Annnnd, here's another awesome referral link: We BOTH get $3 when you start using my short and sweet referral code: WQQF

4) BzzAgent (not actually an app, but a website that gives you free products to try out!)

And just in case you were wondering how I get to do all my free product testing, BzzAgent is pretty darn awesome. You try free stuff, and then you fill out short product reviews on them!

So far, I've gotten free $25 Fekkai Shampoo and Conditioner to try, Dr. Scholl's shoe inserts, a large bag of Hill Science Dog Food, A big bag of Kashi Chips, a Full Size Neutrogena foundation, two boxes of Fiber One bars, and more! It's crazy.

No referral link here. Just sign up at https://www.bzzagent.com. It's crazy.

5) TeachersPayTeachers (where other teachers PAY YOU for your lesson plans)

And for my teacher friends, this website has paid for entire vacations of ours! You upload lessons you've created and... People. Buy. Them. I guess SOME people have more money than time. I am not one of those people, but, believe me, there are PLENTY of those people out there because I sell products every week. (Sometimes multiple products a day!) Insane-to-the-membrane!

Again, no referral link, just go there and upload your stuff! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com

Okay, have fun trying out all these apps! You can thank me by using my referral links! :-)

Time Travel Tea 2013

This dress for the Time Travel Tea was my chance to final make a Steampunk-esque dress and break the rules of historical costuming. The rules were to dress from “any tea-drinking era” and our local steampunk group was partnering with our costuming society, so I felt free to try something new!

I found a synthetic (polyester... gasp!) pleated bedskirt and knew I had to use it for a skirt. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite understand that it’s impossible to dye polyester without harsh chemicals and so my vision of an ombre skirt didn’t come to fruition but rather dyed only the parts with lower synthetic fiber content. Oh well.

Other pieces:

• I didn’t have time to make a proper Victorian cage crinoline but instead just used a pillow bustle (from my Dickens fair dress) to give my tush some oomph.
• Ruffled bodice using my Dickens Fair bodice pattern.
• Ruffled wristlets and ruffled spats from a knitted scarf I found at a thrift store. Embellished with ruffled scraps of fabric.
• A mini-top hat made from a Starbucks cup covered with fabric from my bodice.

More fun pics from the event: