Beads, Glorious Beads

http://www.lampworketc.com/

The above is a wonderful link to a chat site that has a bunch of tutorials. My house is full of inspiration, I love picking up books loaded with bead pictures. I pour for hours, days, years over the different designs and methods. Always wondering: how'd they do that? I then sit for hours over my hothead torch, trying to replicate the designs I have seen. Some seem so hard, and end up being incredibly simple. Others infuriatingly complicated!

I believe in the concept of "figure it out on your own". I believe that it inspires innovation and convergent techniques. But I also believe in extending a little helping hand every once in a while. Over the last couple years I have graduated into a multitude of designs, each one can be considered a wonderful mistake. I have found that Ivory delightfully reacts with many different colors. I have found that True Black will sometimes react and create a malachite look. I have also found that when told: "you can't do that on a hothead", you can.

Unfortunately I have also found that other "bead masters" can be incredibly stingy about their knowledge. Mistakenly thinking that someone else can replicate their work. As if any bead can be replicated, this is glass people!

That is why I really like the website posted above, there are pages and pages of FREE tutorials, mixed in with tips.

Now if you want to pay, through the nose too, for tutorials, there are lots and lots of artists out there that think that techniques are unique to them. But I have found through time and experience, the beauty that you are inspired by can be replicated, given a little time and willingness to experiment.

In time I hope to write out a few tips for the budding lampwork enthusiast, I have to get the camera shots down first! Otherwise, if you have any questions, feel free to post and I will answer them as best I can. And if I can't I will point you in the right direction.

Fitting your Body Form

I don't know how many women out there can actually use the standard body form; XL, L, M, (and for the rare few) S. As soon as I pulled mine out of the package, I realized that no matter how I adjusted the internal nobs, I just was not going to get a physical representation of my body! Every time I adjusted the bust to the correct size the waist and back measurements were way, way too large.
So originally, to correct this issue, I dialed the internal nobs to my rib and waist measurements and added a sports-bra with fiber fill to represent the bust. To bad I did not take a picture of that set up, it worked for a little over two years... it worked nicely as a dust collector. Unfortunately it did not help with my sewing skills, but it did help when Halloween rolled around.
Recently I was watching an episode of the "Fashion Show", one where the contestants had to sew an outfit for an "average" sized woman. You know- a size 10-16. A normal woman. The contestants took fiber blanket, shoulder pads, and muslin to help fill out their body forms to their models sizes. That is when I got the bright idea of fitting my body block to my body form, and filling out the problem areas with foam. This would allow me not only to have my true silhouette, but would also be easy to pin to with out the fiber breaking down.
I first cut out my body block in heavy weight muslin, making extra sure to sew along all the delineated lines. I kept the neck line and arms eye at working circumference, so I could use that as reference when designing tops. I also kept the true waist line so I could tell the tilt of my torso... I do have mild scoliosis (you can kind of see the line difference in this picture). I then hand sewed the back seam, working from top to bottom, pulling the fabric taught without pulling the stitches. I then cut foam padding to fit the base of my bust, the width of the under wire. I cut a second piece of foam to fill out the fullness of the breast, fitting the entirety over the existing base bust. Luckily I did not have to add a third layer, but It could be continued in order to fill out a larger bust.
Now my body form looks very voluptuous, heehee. I wanted to test to see if the form was a true fit... or would just become another dust collector. I went to my closet and picked out a shirt that fit me well, and placed it on the body form. Viola! It fit, perfectly!
I wanted to share this with all you seamstresses out there, working with standardized or second hand equipment. Showing that with very little work and a little ingenuity, you can definitely make something that works for you (or your client).
Happy sewing!

Transfering Patterns or designs to embroidery

A word on transferring designs. I truly enjoy applique and embroidery, especially Celtic and Nordic knotwork. These designs can be truly breathtaking and complicated. So I wondered how to transfer these intricacies to fabric form without having to use transfer chalk (which wears away, way to quickly), washable pens (which don't always wash away), permanent markers, basteing stitch, or overhead projectors.

What you need:

1. the pattern/design you want to replicate, and the size you want. Do not use original peices, always make a copy.

2. tule (if you use a light colored one, you can use it on both light and dark fabrics.)

3. Sharpie, wide tip

4. masking tape

Now take the tule, lay it over the design, use the masking tape to tape the tule down (it likes to travel). Trace your design or pattern, all lines, avoid blacking in mass areas. When done, remove masking tape and lift up the tule, file away your paper design/pattern for later reference.

Now lay the tule over the fabric you plan on using, you can see your outline perfectly. Now you can use disappearing ink pens or pencils for the design. Or you can be OCD like me, and not mark up the fabric, but pin the top two corners of your design to the base fabric. Now start your embroidery, flipping the tule up and down as needed... kind of like a physical counted cross stitch.

enjoy

The Joys of Pattern Drafting part II

Okay, since my last pattern draft post, I have been able to complete all my pending projects and finish two others. I finally went back to the drawing board... literally. As I stated before, the pattern draft, for my body style, required 3 darts each for the bust area. This caused the fabric and prints to be severely butchered, ruining the aesthetics of the outfit. Granted, the fit of the outfits were perfect, all of the sundresses require no underlying structure for bust support. Amazing!

Now I want to get the fit with out misshaping the fabric or disfiguring the print designs.

I started where I begun before, cutting a basic shape from Muslin and sewing in all the darts. I then marked lines all the way up the underlying darts and up to the opposing seam. On the back piece this was easy, I only needed 1 dart on either side, thus the curvature of the dart to the arms-eye is slightly sloped. On the front, in order to figure out where to place my "master" line, I drew lines all the way through each of the three darts. I then picked the one that was most freezable for the fabric, taking into consideration the slope of curvature. I cut the fabric all the way up these "master" lines, giving me 7 pattern pieces, in total.

Now in doing this, one might notice that one or two of the pieces do not lie flat. This is where the iron is very important. On the pieces where there are intact darts, iron out the pieces so they are as flat as possible. (The fabric may dimple or round over, just get it as flat as can be!) Now I transferred these fabric patterns to paper, and Voila! a new pattern, fully fit with NO darts.

These 7 pieces, require more sewing in total, but they allow for the print, fall, and drape of the fabric to stay intact. Finally I feel more confident modifying this base pattern into the different clothing designs that are rattling around in my head.

As a side note, I do have to make a little statement on seam allowances. I never forget to add seam allowance to all my drafts. I had a teacher in college who drilled that very successfully into my head! But I have noticed that I forget to transfer this seam allowance to the sewing machine. On one of my latest projects (the blue striped sundress with black edging), I drafted out 5/8" seam allowance, but placed my sewn seams at 3/8". As you can imagine, the final fit was a bit off. Lets do the math... 2/8" x 14 = 3 1/2" off of drafted pattern. that is 3 1/2" added to the final fit of the dress... that is 3 sizes to big, needless to say, it fell off. Luckily I figured out this mistake early, and only wasted about 20 minutes of sewing and ironing.

Always remember to sew your seam allowances at the correct width... also! when drafting out, if you use a large tip pen or sharpie, to cut INSIDE the lines, or else you will end up adding 1/8" to all your pattern pieces. The more pattern pieces you have the greater error will occur.



Pictures to come soon!

Aargh! Homemade patterns...

Inspired by this seasons new show, the Fashion Show, I have been starting to design my own clothing. I began with a Pattern draft for the upper body, fit PERFECTLY. With help from my handsome partner (love you hunny, xo), I was able to get the darts in the right place. I have since tried making two different sun dresses. The first one thwarted me, because during the initial stages of sewing I realized that the fabric I used had more 'give' in one direction over the other. Creating the issue of expanded lines. Granted the dress turned out incredibly comfortable, it just was highly disappointing in the aesthetic fit.
The second one, I am half way through, and have had to stop before i set it on fire. I do not want to modify the base pattern draft, but would like to see all the styles I can make with it before I move onto different cuts. All the darts and tucks are perfect, but I wanted to make it have a double lining for the bodice.... What is thwarting me is sewing the neck and arms eye and then turning it right side out.... it is a continuous turn, I just can not seem to get it all the way righted. It is really making me feel a little defunct!
I also realized that I really don't like what the original pattern does to the fabric. Since I have a somewhat simplified form of a hourglass as a body shape, the breast darts equal 3. It seems to butcher the fabric, which starts to make me not enjoy what I am making! Luckily I am using fabrics that I have been scoring at the local thrift shops! So I am not so heartbroken. I do believe it is best to forgo my original idea of making as many styles off the original pattern draft and move onto the next step and making modified pattern pieces which allow the originality of the fabric to stay intact.
But first I will have to conquer the 2nd sundress, just to show myself that I can not be intimidated by necklines. LOL.

Dealing with Medival Reenactments in the South.

From 1997 to 2007 I played in the SCA in Northern California, happily learning, loving, and celebrating with the Wonderful Kingdom of the West. I was "found" at a College clubs day, my first semester of college, and was hooked from the start.

Due to the wonderful weather, diverse locations, and multitude of existing art work, it was like a SCAdian Utopia. In those 10 years I did move in and out of Northern California, I played in both Caid (Southern California, and Hawaii) and in Antir (Oregon). But I always came back to the West, and was happy to do so.

About two years ago I decided to enhance my mundane life by building equity... and also to be closer to a family member I had not seen in years. So I moved to the Kingdom of Trimaris, otherwise known at Florida. Now in the West Kingdom I had a persona focused on 10th century Viking... and era that I truly enjoy and wish to continue. But here in Trimaris... the weather is not conducive to the Viking era...

I have found that I have had to do some modification's, And i am trying to do them in a period-correct manner. The first event that I participated in, required me to modify my basic needs, just to survive in the outdoors with out ending up in the emergency room.... Recently I have expanded on those difference, to make them more livable, more aesthetically pleasing, and of course close to period style....

The first change was a full coverage bug screen for the sleeping area. The second was elevating the bed, the third was converting all Costume silhouettes from cold weather to warm weather wear. I am attaching some pictures of the changes made... and will in time write up little essays on each, and the construction along with documentation. But as of right now, it is to Hot to to continue... so adieu.