Costume Making

I just haven't been in the mood to do any knitting. I guess it's the summer heat that gets into you. Especially when you live here in DC metro area, with all those humidity.

Lately, I've been thinking about sewing. I've just been too busy with stuff. Plus, I've just never gotten around to finding a sewing class. I don't really like driving in the dark, and I'm too worn out by end of the day to really concentrate.

Now, I have several sarees, and I bought pre-made cholis at an saree palace. The drawbacks to these cholis are: fit, and color. Cholis are supposed to fit tightly, but these cholis that I bought are made with a certain body type in mind and one part is too loose, other part sits lower than I'd like. You know how that goes - like how clothes are designed with 5'6", slender women in mind.

I got this pattern from MomWiz (Bazaar Beledi). It seems to be a very basic one, with 3 bodice cuts and two sleeves. It comes in just one size - M/L, or 10-14 Ladies size I have a feeling that I'm going to make alterations to this pattern. I traced a copy onto alphabet paper that I got at G Street Fabric.

Here's the front, in one piece:

And the back, two pieces:

And the sleeves.

I've got muslin, which are supposed to be good for prototyping whatever you're sewing. It wouldn't do to cut up that expensive silk you got off eBay for 40 dollars per yard.

So here's the back piece:

And the front piece:

Yesterday I went over to G Street Fabrics after work to look for Folkwear Pattern 134
- this one is more authentic, and I want to see how this one stacks up against the pattern I got from MomWiz. But, alas, they did not have this in stock. I ended up ordering it online and I'm hoping it will arrive early next week.

Meanwhile, here's what I bought:

I got the Gaza Dress, Russian Settler Dress, and Afghan Nomad. I'm looking forward to trying all of these. The Russian Settler dress would be great to wear for the church bazaar. This one ends just above the ankle.

However, the more authentic way is to wear it floor-length. Here's a photo of dresses in a museum, which Prokhudin-Gorsky took on one of his photographic expedition throughout the Russian empire before the Revolution - three costumes typically worn by women in different regions of Russia. These would have been worn by married women from monied families.

Here's another example of what would have been commonly worn by peasant women: woman in Perm province hacking flax.

In addition, I bought the book so I could learn how to alter patterns to make clothes to fit my body. And I don't even now how to sew yet. Well, not quite - last tme was back in junior high school.