Hoop skirt and bum roll!

 I'm finally starting to get  a good collection of my costume's pieces going.  I just finished my hoop skirt and the bum roll to go over top.

 My hoop skirt =)

 I love love LOVE my dress form.  It makes picture taking a lot more easier, that's for sure.  And now I can make custom pieces that I couldn't even fathom drafting from measurements before.  Drafting is so pain-stakingly time consuming.

 The back, with the bum roll attached.  Again, I used heavy duty duct ties instead of expensive boning.  The support is a little flimsy, but considering I made these two items using only the supplies I had in my sewing room already, I'd say it turned out better than I could have expected.

 Overall, this was a pretty cheap project.  I used 45" muslin to make the skirt, which would have cost less than $10 if I had to buy it.  I used twill tape for the ties on the skirt and the bum roll, about $4 total.  I used the stuffing from an old, badly flattened bed pillow, and then cut up a work shirt for the bum roll since we're switching uniforms.

Overall, I'm really happy with the result.  =)  All I need is to make a shift now and I should be done with all the underthings.

Back in the Sewing Swing of things

I'm back!! =)

I haven't been posting much since I reeeeeally haven't been working as diligently on my Ren Fest costume as I should be... =(  But, since it is now May, and I only have until August to get this project finished, I've had to step it up.  Here's what I've been working on for the last week or so:

 My corset is finished!! 

 Detail of the boning channels

 I used duct ties (basically insanely huge zip ties) in place of corset boning, which gets pretty expensive.  It looks pretty much exactly the same as real boning

 The eyelets for the corset strings were all sewn by hand.  I did some research, and this is more authentic than using metal eyelets, and they'll also be more resistant to the stress of a tight fit, since no fabric fibers were torn to make them.  I used an awl to stretch the holes

 What the inside lining looks like...every seam is bound and finished, by machine then a hand slip-stitch.  Very time consuming.  Also part of the reason why I put this project down in November and didn't pick it up again until a couple weeks ago....

 Eyelet detail

Inside channel detail