Hi everyone! This is my first time entering a contest on Craftster, so yay!

My company held a costume party for Halloween, something which hadn't happened in quite a while. I decided to dress in Gothic Lolita for the event (and a first time too!), and set to making my outfit a month before the event. (Sadly, I got sick for the first two weeks, so not a lot of productivity there.) I decided to base my outfit on one of Atelier Boz's creations(http://www.boz.ne.jp/main.php?act=detail&sysnum_lrg=1&sysnum_mid=3&sysnum_item_cd=1353&20101101213344), and coordinated that with a peasant top, black tights, and a pair of granny shoes.

By the time the entire ensemble was finished, I could list down things I wished I'd improved or done differently, but I think the most important thing is that it was finished, and all the pieces too. *sigh*

Everything, with the exception of my undies, tights, and shoes, were made by myself. (So that's the petticoat, the underskirt, the overskirt, the corset, and the peasant top. Oh, and the choker is a piece I cobbled together as well.)

Detail of the underskirt:

You might think that this is upholstery material.
You are absolutely right.



Action shots taken by a colleague and good friend of mine at the Halloween party:
 









For more fun and foibles, here's a post on how people reacted to the costume at the party. (http://the-hobby-horse.blogspot.com/2010/10/denoument.html)

Here's another on the production process, the challenges I posed to myself making this costume, as well as a number of notes on what to do next time. (http://the-hobby-horse.blogspot.com/2010/11/production-in-process.html)

Thank you all for looking! I hope you enjoyed this humble post. ^_^*

Hi, everyone. as promised in the previous post, here's the skirt the petticoat went under. This beauty was commissioned by Clair, a very good and craft-y friend of mine.

The skirt in daylight, with petticoat:


In incandescent light:

A closer shot of the lace:


Here's Clair wearing the entire get up, pre-Victorian Valentine ball:




And that's that. I still owe her another skirt, really. That needs to be remedied soon.  

Thanks for looking!

Hi everyone!

I want to report an overdue success story. All thanks go to N30Nb100d for the advice.

Sometime in October last year, I was in the middle of making a monstrously sized petticoat, and was having trouble with getting the waistline to look nice and neat. and now, voila!


Here's what the skirt looks like, fully fluffed:


the button and loop to close the waist up at the back:


This petticoat has now gone to my good friend, and been christened at a Victorian Valentine party early this year. she wore it under a skirt I made for her. (in another post!)

Thanks for looking, and hope you liked it.  

Hi everyone. I'm almost done with one particular petticoat for a client of mine, and I must say I'm stuck.

Here is the petticoat in question:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/putingtikbalang/TheHobbyHorse%20on%20Blogger/blog%20post%20pictures/DSC00057.jpg

at full fluff: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/putingtikbalang/TheHobbyHorse%20on%20Blogger/blog%20post%20pictures/DSC00070-1.jpg


The piece is about three layers of textile: one in cotton, and two more in stiff tulle (with ruffles attached to their lower halves), each measuring 82 inches long. My task is to fit all that into a 38- to 40-inch waistline. I tried adding a casing onto the piece and threading a 40-inch garter band in, but the waistband got all curly and, uh, brain-like.  

Is there a way I can attach a 40-inch waistband that lies nice and flat against the wearer? I think it may require lots of hand basting, but I'm at my wit's end right now.

Thank you very much for your help!  

PS: More petticoat pictures here: http://the-hobby-horse.blogspot.com/2009/07/first-time-petticoat.html

[Note:]

Hello everyone!

Last weekend, finally set on a long, brown jersey shirt that had been in my closet for the longest time. It's served me faithfully for quite a while, and I wanted to jazz her up for a bit. At first, I wanted to cut off the bottom part of the shirt and attach the excess to my sleeves, but after reading a bit on dressing the hourglass figure, I decided to fiddle around with the collar!

So here it is. I like how the colors pop out against the brown background. Note: when working with jersey or other knitted fabrics, go easy on the edging stitch, or else the ends will go all curly -- unless that's the effect you want. ^_^"

On to the links!





thanks for looking!  

Hello everyone, and good day. I'm rather new to the community, and it's a pleasure to be part of such a creative congregation.

I've purchased a Bernina Holidaynu 1021 sewing machine, and I could never be happier. It purrs, sews through textiles like butter.  

Here are the links to the pictures:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/putingtikbalang/TheHobbyHorse%20on%20Blogger/blog%20post%20pictures/DSC00251.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/putingtikbalang/TheHobbyHorse%20on%20Blogger/blog%20post%20pictures/DSC00251.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/putingtikbalang/TheHobbyHorse%20on%20Blogger/blog%20post%20pictures/DSC00253.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/putingtikbalang/TheHobbyHorse%20on%20Blogger/blog%20post%20pictures/DSC00252.jpg


My question is: how do you work the reverse stitch for the machine? I've pretty much figured out majority of the machinery, but that particular bit leaves me baffled. I've tried looking online, but have found nothing of help. There's also the manual it came with... if only I could read in Hiragana and Katakana.    

Your answers and help are greatly appreciated. Thank you!