Rococo gaga

yeez... I have been lazy couple of months about writing at all. I mean, I have made several new things and wrote nothing about it, I have to do some cathing up. So first things first. beginning this year I had the annual elfia in Haarzuilens in april where I made a big, and I mean really big costume. 

I gave it the name: rococo gaga, beacause... yeah, you can see why....

It was a bit of an madness to make.....

The dress, is made from table plastic, have you ever sewn plastic with an sewing machine? I calling MADNESS! Really, at some point I couldn't put the plastic under the sewing foot, so there was no other way to staple the many layers plastic in the side where the skirt is with a stapler... hahaha *looks a bit gaga out her eyes*

In the end, there a very few photo's made, and the dress began to fall apart at the end of the day... yeah, you still are wearing plastic, and the movements you make, the bodyhead that lives onder the bodice can't go anywhere, so the plastic began to weaken at some points. the dress lives, plastic isn't maked for something like a hole day of walking, moving, rubbing and go on. I really loved it to wearing it, but it was also very exhauting. My head was screaming at the end of the day. The wig is glued on my forehead, instand botox!! And also walked more side way....The dres itself wasn't that heavy, but there where things I couldn't do, like go to the toilet, or sit like a normal person. 

At some point the dress began to vaporize and I began to catch flies under my plastic skirt, and yes you could see them....

I did knew before I began to make the dress that the evaporation would happen, so I wanted that every layer under the dress would be from natural fibers. So my first choice was cotton. Printen cotton. I knew I would lost a lot of water and I wanted that the under layers where easy to wash afterwards.

In this picture you can see clearly the evaporation in the sleeves.

So for my choice of fabric colors and prints....
The dress itself arise from the idea of an fairytail. I made it my one with an colorfull twist. Because you can litterly look through my outer layers in to my underlayers. I based on the fairytail `the emperor without clothes´
But I made a gender swap and it became `the empress without clothes´. I didn´t want to be completly be naked under my see through dress and considered some options for underneed. what for colors, or underpinnings. And after some concideration I wanted something colorful, with many patterns and that was almost wrong. So I had to do pattern matching and search for a color scheme that would please the eye, but also make the eye a bit twitch. 

I began with the under clothes. I used many different patterns, all of them from commercial brands.

For the shirt I used Simplicity 5359 . For the bloomers I used simplicity 2777 , I sewed not two but four pockets in and on this pants, I dind´t plan to sew that much of pockets, but I decised later I wanted other pocket on the pants who you could see, and I never took the other pockets out, so, yeah... four pockets... The where quite usefull. I don´t have pictures where the two new pockets are yet sewt on.

So the stays where next, the fit very nice, I think it is my first pir that fit that great. I like the figure they give me, and I will use them even with more historical correct 18th future dresses. Until I have made a more historical correct pair of stays in a more... neutral colored fabric.The pattern I used for this pair of stays are butterick 4254.
I have made stays before, but never they fit that good as this pair.

So here are the huge panniers in progress. I like the size, but the overall look was a bit a dissapointment for me, also they are not so stable because they rest on a couple of strings. I want to make a new pair of this size of panniers, but than a full fabric body so that the boning cant swing to much as it do with the strings. I used simplicity 3635 as my guideline, and the new pair I use for the full fabric body panniers. The new one, would be for more historical based dresses.
I dind´t make any progress pictures after this one, the plastic dress is made from simplicity 3637. These patterns are not printen anymore, but you they are still fnd them at etsy or ebay.





So this is it for my rococo gaga. I want to wear it again, but I can´t do it without help, and have to fix the dress at some points. Perhapes I can wear it for a photoshoot where I can get help with make up, hair and dressing. So fingers crossed for a next time of wearing.