Happy Halloween

Hope every one is safe tonight trick or treating .  The three dresses you see my daughters wearing are all hand made the blue one is Cinderella (a dress we used in the ball scene in sound of music).  We thought it close enough to be Cinderella even with out the puff sleeves and flounce.  The green tan dress is a peasant dress my children have for Shakespeare week at school that doubles as a Halloween costume and the red Shakespearean costume I made 2 days ago ( 20 hours of cutting and sewing in one day to make that dress.  It will be used for Shakespeare week as well.  It is a little big for all my girls but I figure we have a ton of costumes that fit them well so this is one with growing room.  The nice man in the photo is my husband who I am lucky enough to be married too.  I was dressed up as well in a Shakespeare costume mine was red velvet with gold trim but since I was the one with the camera no one took a picture of me.

New Red Shakespeare dress

I made this dress on October 29th just in time for Halloween.  It is a size 6 adult dress and my daughter needs to grow a little to fit it well as she is about a size 2 to size 4.

But since we have a lot that fit her now, that is good that it is a little big and she can where it next year.   My children have a 1 week long celebration of  Shakespeare at school at the end of every school year.  So this costume will see lots of wear during that week.
The nice thing about this costume was I already had all the supplies to make it on hand.  This dress uses a lot of fabric 13 yards.  Thus a very heavy warm dress to wear  which is good for Halloween.  The back is closed by lacing it up, yes she needs help from someone else to do that.  Not one zipper or button in the entire dress,there are   11 grommets per side 22 grommets total to close the dress.
There are several fabrics used in the construction of this costume, upholstery fabric (red leaves), upholstery fabric tone on tone cream fabric, cream silk to line the drape part of the sleeves and line the inside of the fitted sleeves, burgundy satin on the out side of the drape part of the sleeves.  The bodice is lined with the cream upholstery fabric  this will make it last longer.  Every seem is enclosed in bias tape so as not to fray. This red fabric wanted to ravel as soon as it was cut, thus the reason for 20 hours of cutting and sewing in one day if I had waited it would have unraveled on its own before I even got to sewing it. The sleeves are also fully lined but they are lined with cream silk to make it more comfortable and soft on the skin as opposed to upholstery fabric which is harsh at times.  There is gold cording to lace up the back.  I used black velvet ribbon on the sleeves with an over lay of upholstery braid.  I also used gold, cream, and burgundy upholstery cord on twill tape to highlight seams, neck line, and hem.  Because of all the linings and seam bindings and the shear number of pieces this dress had this is probably one of the hardest dresses I have ever sewn.  If I was to sell a dress like this its price would be between $600- $1000 dollars depending on the fabrics used.

I do want to make more complicated patterns like this in the future for my children to have. I took some of these photos with my phone so not the best of quality on some of them.

Leisel's curtain dress

So I am in the middle of the play and last night was opening the actors did amazing great job to all of them.   This is Leisel's Dress you can see one of the other dresses in the background with some of the mods I did to it after I posted.

It had even more modifications than that by the time I was done with it.  As with the others this is a vintage pattern that I used for this dress.  I did a major /minor modification.  Minor in that I moved the zipper from a discrete under the arm to center back which makes it much much much easier to get in and out of for the 1 minute costume change.  I am happy to say that all the actors made all of their costumes changes in that 1 minute that is saying a lot considering the amount of people their ages and that this is an amateur production.

Louisa curtain outfit

Louisa is the one that has the scarf pulled off of her head by captain von Trapp.
So since she had to wear a head scarf I made her out fit more peasant like this too is a 1940's patterns for the blouse and skirt.  This one I wish I had reworked so that it was a zip up  dress too like the other dresses.  But as it stands it is a pull over top and a zip up skirt which is still a pretty fast costume change.  This one does have the wrong lace on  it but I ran out of the other and well that is just how it goes sometimes.  Also since taking these photos I added a bow to the front of the blouse to make it easier to figure out front from back when changing costumes I have also added cording to the front edge of the scarf.

Brigetta curtain outfit

OK so busy costuming for the play have not had time to post or take photos.  SO most things I will have to post after the play.  I have since modified this dress from what you see in this photo above.

I have made the neck less wide by inserting two fabric panels over the shoulders.  I have also added braid binding over the shoulder around the outside and inside of the collar as well.

 Once again a zipper closure to make a fast costume change.  Once again this is a true 1940's pattern that I used to make this dress.

Marta's curtain clothes from sound of music

As Marta's character is a tiny bit older than Gretel I put less lace on it to make it so she looked more like a small child and less toddler like.
The person playing Marta has been a family friend her entire life so it was nice to hear her say she wanted to keep it.  Too bad that is not something that is able to happen as we have to save these for the next time we have the play.  As if any are missing we would have to remake all of them.  Marta also wears pantaloons.  In the last photo of this post you can see the bow tied that has actually changed to just look like it is tied and not actually to accommodate a 1 min costume change.

Gretal's sound of music costume

Here is the outfit the character Gretel will wear as her play clothes made out of curtains.  The curtains are this paisley in the play and they have a lace band at the bottom of them so I could add lace to the dress I also have a cording on the curtains so I could use that in the clothes as well.

 The apron and such that you see is lining material from the curtain in the play.  This is the youngest actress in the play she is 8 years old but she is so petite she wears a size four like a 4 year old.  She also has lovely blond ringlet hair she is just adorable and I expect to steal the show because even in practice when she gets on stage all the other actors and crew all go awwww she is so cute. She is wearing bloomers so she can play leap frog on stage and still look like these are play clothes.  The back of the dress has been modified since this photo was taken as 7 actors all ranging in age from 8 to 18 have to make a complete costume change in less than 1 min I made it so the bow now is sewn to look like it is tied but does not actually have to be tied and does not cross over the zipper area.  This way she can just unzip this and droop this on the floor in the back as she is putting on the other costume.  The bloomers I think we are just going to push up and tuck under the other out fit which is the sailor like  uniforms.  After the play I will add a hook and eye to the top of this dress but not know as the actors do not have time to deal with it anyway.

Other spinning I have done as of late

So you saw the post earlier about spinning milkweed.  I have done other spinning and plying.  We are actually learning plying in class tomorrow but I tend to jump the gun on most things as my teacher always tells me. I tend to overachieve and the rest of the class is to ignore me as I am an anomaly in the class.  That being said

I have shown wool that I spun the first clas but here is where it is now.

This was spun on drop spindel then plied on drop spindel as well.  This is a chuncky weight yarn

This is the second item i I did with drop spindle some was done with a spinning wheel too.  But all was plied on a drop spindle at home.  Also done with roving.  Also a chunky weight yarn.

Third project I did from that 1/6 of fleece that I cleaned and spun then plied.  All of it was done on a drop spindel top whirl ( the others were a top whirl too).  This one is a lace weight yarn.

the last one you saw earlier that was the milkweed yarn.  Done entirely on a drop spindle and it was a fingering weight yarn.

Spinning milkweed fluff...Happy birthday Vova

I was told you could spin milkweed fluff so since I have milkweed in my yard and we are tarring out out yard currently I thought I would collect the fluff and give it a go.  The milkweed in my yard is not an accident.  My grandmother vova sent me seeds, my older sister sent me seed, and my middle daughter collected seeds.  Thus three spots in my yard had plants each from a different person.  My children and I collected the seed pods Saturday and removed the seeds from the fluff pretty simple just time consuming we collected about 14 pods.  Milkweed is poisonous.

How to do this read on if you want to and do it.  Do not blame me for any reactions you do this  at your own risk.

How to

1. collect seed pods
1. I had a reaction see red warning below
2. remove seeds from fluff 
1.  do this where there is no air current as the fluff will get every where.  We did it outside on the porch with fresh air but no breeze that day
2. 
3. 
3. store fluff in bag or cardboard box till use otherwise it will fly away
4. card it: card about 1/3 wool to 2/3 fluff
1. add wool to carder first card up, then add fluff and card that transfer wool/fluff at least once then add a tinny bit more wool and card again and form a roll ready for spinning 
2. 
3. this makes my mouth itch as the fluff flies around and little bits rest on me remember poisonous stuff I had reactions to it see below
5.  I used a drop spindle to spin mine to a single ply then used a drop spindle again to make it into a double ply yarn.  
1.   
2. Fluff right in above photo, single ply top left, double ply hanks bottom left
3. reaction again on mouth from fluff flying see below

When it was done it feels like angora and spins easily.  Real soft has a sort of sheen to it where ever you see the milkweed sort of like hints of spun silk or spun rayon.

Now  what does one do with something that is poisonous hmm... do not want it on baby items and the like.   Maybe a wool hat or just leave as yarn as look what I did not sure I want to do it again type of thing.

I have been told you can also spin dandelion fluff but I don't have those in my yard.  Also how long would it take to get rid of all those seeds yikes so little.  But at least that stuff would not be poisonous.

Some benefits of milkweed during WW2 it was collected for life preserver vest 2 bags full = i jacket which would float for 100 hours before the water would make it sink pretty impressive.  Also if you have warts the milk if put on the wart will kill off the wart.

When I was a child we would collect milkweed and caterpillars and watch them change into chrysalis and then into monarch butterflies happy memories of my Vova on this her birthday. So I did this in honor of her and all those happy memories.

Warning : Milkweed is highly  poisonous to the point of death if you get about an ounce of it in you.

Ask me how I know yeah I got mild milkweed poisoning while doing this project.  Makes your mouth and throat burn and makes you want to exasperate whats in your tummy (my nice way of putting that).  But if you get too much in you, it can kill you so be careful.  Also makes my lips itch when spinning and carding it, as the fluff flies in the air and little bits land on you.   Mine was a mild case of poisoning as I had gotten some milk on my arms from the plant and had not realized it and when I do yard work I wipe my mouth with my forearm not my hands and yes that is where the milk weed had spilled and dried as I could not see it.  But just that small trace made my mouth burn and throat burn and made me toss my cookies and my lips itch so be careful if you try this  I am not recommending that you do though because of this.  Now none of my children had issues that helped me remove the seeds from the fluff.  So I maybe more sensitive, who knows be very careful and you try at your own risk I do not recommend it

Halloween fun

Here are some recipes and fun things to do this season.

• Carmel apples  use the next recipe cooked to the hard ball state and the recipe how to make the soft caramel can also be used for caramel apples

so much to do so little time

 

•  Make a mummy mask as a decoration
• Roasted pumpkin seeds recipe 

• Make creepy door way with just black garbage bags looks neat in the breeze and has an interestingly creepy sound when it moves

• Decorate cookie you can use store bought or make your own.  Let the kids decorate them neat or messy they ( what ever their skill level) will all be cute no matter what all together.

• Have some science fun with making your own alien ooze.