Square Dancing Outfit

Hi Folks - thanks for all your kind words on my earthquake post, I think I have now recovered from in personally, by saying that I mean every time I step into an elevator or bus I have stopped asking myself "what would happen to me if there was an earthquake right now". I'm not sure the city has recovered quite so well, around 10% of the cities buildings were impacted by the earthquake and there's lots of repair and demolition work happening, but life is even harder for folks in Kaikoura so I am pretty grateful.

Onto something a bit more cheery now, I made a square dancing outfit! WHAT?? For our work function this year the theme was "Wild West" (which I may have chosen along with a work college) anyway a work function calls for a costume and as the theme was Wild West it meant I could finally use this square dancing pattern I bought for a couple of dollars when Arthur Toye fabrics was closing down.

My original plan was to make a square dancing blouse and a skirt from the Colette Ginger pattern. A few months back when I was at fabric a brac I found some great fabric for the top - this fun cowboy boot fabric, I loved it from the minute I saw it and as I had a wild west party on the horizon I knew I had to have it!

The fabric is a quilting cotton and pretty much perfect for what I wanted to maker - each boot has the name of a different state in the US. As always, I had my trusty assistant nearby to help me with my project.

She sat down on the fabric pretty much as soon as I took it off the shelf - as soon as I pull out fabric or a pattern she must sit on it immediately.

The pattern was a pretty easy sew, with four main pieces and elastic in the neckline and sleeves. I didn't have a whole lot of fabric so had to piece the sleeves together bit the fabric is so busy its hardly noticeable.

As I was sewing up the blouse I decided that if I was going to go dressed up I may as well take it all the way, so put away my Colette pattern and made the skirt pattern as well as the blouse from the kwik sew pattern. I really love gingham, but have a tendency to hoard it and not really wear it so decided to use some of it for this project. The red gingham I bought from Arthur Toye fabrics and the yellow was from the very first fabric a brac I attended!

Mia again was happy to "help" me with this part of the project, she sat on the red gingham as I tried to cut out the panels.

 The skirt is a pretty easy make (it has an elastic waist casing so no fitting issues) but its time consuming as there are so many panels to sew together and the frill on the bottom is actually huge - so much hemming.

Here's a photo of all the patterns sewn together, before I added the bottom frill and elastic at the waist - SO MUCH FABRIC!

In the spirit of "everything last minute always" I finished up the skirt the night before the work Christmas party, the finishing isn't the best on the skirt - but it's a costume so it doesn't matter too much.

On the day of our work party, I did win best dressed! Although the prize was a pair of possum fur nipple warmers - but I still won!

I didn't really take any photos on the night of the event, but Rich took a few photos of me wearing my square dancing outfit earlier today (Mia joined me for the photo shoot - of course).

I wore the skirt with this crinoline petticoat I've had for a number of years that I always think I should get rid of, but never do and it turns out that its a really handy thing to have in your wardrobe.

Also on the day of our work party we had a secret Santa and it turns out that my secret Santa understands me completely because I received this book:

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying or avoiding the lead up until Christmas - whatever you prefer!

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2013

I've been a little quiet in the past week - that's not to say its been a quiet week, quite a lot has happened but I've just not been in a blogging frame of mind. It happens sometimes right? 

Anyway I wanted to share some photos of the Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase Rich and I went to last Friday night. It's my good friend Ria's second year at Toi Whakaari studying costuming - she graduated early this week. So we went along to support her and see all the fancy costumes in action.

Each of the second year students had these displays set up of their ideas and inspiration - here's Ria's. 

Now onto the costume fun times - I didn't get photos of ALL the costumes - but I tried!

Then there were Ria's amazing costumes - she made not one - but TWO! They danced around and it was awesome.

After the show we had a chance to look at some of the costumes up close - so much hard work has gone into each one.

Here's Ria's two costumes up close - they are so freaking amazing - I love the fox head guy.

Rich took a photo of Ria and I posing with her creations - they are so bright and crazy you can hardly see us!

Here's another photo where you can actually see us - I didn't realise Ria was THAT much taller than me!

It was a really fun night out and it was great to see all of Ria's hard work on stage - I can't wait to see what she does next!

Armaggedon 2013 - Sugar Skull Ladies!

Last weekend was Armageddon - no not the end of the world. The Armageddon Expo is a yearly event of "pop culture" - whatever that means. Basically its the closest thing we have in New Zealand to Comic Con.

So I'm not hugely into Anime or Comics - but I am into dressing up in costume and usually there are tonnes of fun costumes and a general good vibe at Armageddon.

Before I went to the USA Ria and I agreed to dress as Rarity and Rainbow Dash. But I kind of forgot how soon after my return for the USA Armageddon was and I also didn't account for being sick so I just ran out of time to make my costume.

Ria was able to wear her Rarity costume when she went to Armageddon on Saturday with her boyfriend and we agreed to just wear "really cute outfits" when we went together on Monday (which was a public holiday). 

But over the weekend I bought this dress from Cosmic and I had a sudden bolt of inspiration - why don't we go as sugar skull ladies! So that's what we did - not bad for a last minute costume idea.

Ria did her own make-up as she is super good at that kind of thing - Rich did my make up as he's a total rockstar when it comes to this kind of thing.

I'm pretty sure I was the "scary" sugar skull lady - what do you think? 

Here's a few photos of some of the folks we met at Armageddon:

Princess Bubblegum - SERIOUSLY how cute is this girl!

Sarah from Labyrith (how incredible is her costume!)

I also met a lady Tardis - I loved this girls costume, so simple but effective. She told me she picked up the dress for only $3 and then turned it into a tardis. Also the wee hat she is wearing lit up!

Ria met up with one of her friends from costuming school - I don't know what character she was (I think its something from a game) but I DO know it was amazing!

Finally I met a lady Jigsaw and her costume was incredible - we took this super creepy photo together because I love being creepy!

So that was my Armageddon 2013 - I have to admit I was tired and run down and recovering from illness and travel but I am totally glad I went and I think our costumes were pretty awesome. Also I love being creepy xoxox

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase

Sorry I've been a little bit absent over the past few days - a lot is happening at the moment, hopefully I'll be able to do a few more posts over the rest of this week.

I wanted to tell you all about my fabulous Friday night, my lovely and talented friend Ria is currently completing a course in costume construction at Toi Whakaari. She has just finished her first year of study and last Friday there was a costume showcase at Toi Whakaari for the first and second year students to show their work.

I was so excited and honored when Ria invited us along to the fashion showcase end of year show - I really wanted to see all the amazing things Ria had been up to over the past year.

Also, I am a sewing geek and whilst it will only ever be a hobby for me I do love having the opportunity to admire the work of professionals.

When we first arrived we met up with Ria and also her boyfriend Ben - there were a whole lot of costumes in the foyer that we could check out before the show started.

Next up it was time for the show - Ria described the show as a mini WOW (World of Wearable Arts). Because the students are making costumes for performance (rather than being a fashion design course) all of the items were modeled with a little show which was just amazing.

The second year students had a major work on display during the show - here's a few of my favorite costumes from the show.

This costume was called "Lady Mouse" and it was so amazing. I think animal costumes can quite easily become creepy. But this one was so emotive and kind of cute, the movements of the actor were amazing.

This costume was called "Faerie Antoinette" and it was so beautiful and whimsical and the show even had bubbles!

This costume was called "Golden Eyes and Uncle Sam" - Uncle Sam was the dog and he behaved amazingly well. After the show Ria told be he was from a place that trains animals for theatre, TV and movies.

I think that this costume has to be the most impressive of the evening - it was called "Her Secret Admirers" and it had a real art deco look about it. How fabulous!

The first year students work was also on display as group works rather than individual work - first of all was pattern making in the style of 1940's and 1950's dresses. So many adorable dresses!

The first year students also created Elizabethan costumes, so incredible, I can't even imagine how much hard work went into making these!

Ria made the only white coloured costume so it was really striking against all the black on stage don't you think?

Here's a close up of Ria with her model and her creation - seriously, Ria MADE that! Isn't that incredible - I'm so in awe.

Here's a photo of us together after the show - Ria is such a star and an inspiration to me. To be honest, when I met her I was really only starting out my sewing adventure. She helped me to make my first frock and since then I've just constantly improved. Thanks Ria!

If you want to know more about Ria and her work at Toi Whakaari you can read about it on her blog Button-Eyed.

I hope you've all had a great week so far xoxox