Sleepy Hollow photographs

The phootgraphs of the finished sleepyhollow dress have evenetually been taken. Above is just a small version of one of the photos, but i didnt want to post a stream of photos on here so the rest of them are here;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachaelscostumes/
Enjoy :)

Sleeves finished

As promised, here are photos of current progress.
Sleeve trims are finished and the first layer of pleating on the skirt is finished.

I added the trim to the neckline last night. I think the stripes on my dress are a bit thicker than that on the real thing because the trim looks a bit wider. Ah well. It doesnt looks so bad. I left off the white frayed organza from the trim though, because it didnt look very good, which okay isnt accurate to the original cosutme but i am also wanting it to look good aswell as accurate so you know. Also, i havent found any black lace to put around the neckline that looks right so that might have to just be put on when i find it. Other than that its alright.

Fitting

So i tried the dress on for the first time since i sewed the skirt on. Plus i hitched it up. So heres a couple of photos that my mum took on the first proper fitting. The sleeves arent done, obviously, and the skirts need hemmed, and the back of the skirt isnt exactly the same as the film one but...it was my first try at an en fourreau back!. Plus the Stomacher is too flimsy so it creases alot, so i think i will put some boning or interfacing or something in it to keep it straight.
Other than that though, i am rather ridiculously pleased with how its looking :)

Stripey Dress

So i have been working a bit more on the stripey dress, and for one afternoons sewing i am quite surprised about how much i have got done. It's coming together quicker than i thought it would. Although i think one thing that will take a long time will be all the trimming and stuff, but i am not up to that yet.
Anyway, yes i drafted the pattern for the bodice and it fit perfectly so i started with the real fabric.



So once i had amde the pattern and cut out the fabric for the bodice i sewed it all together, and then i attempted my first 'En fourreau' back, and i reallly like how it turned out. It might not be exactly the right way to do it, but it worked for the dress so i'm happy. Also, the stripes made it quite easy to pleat the back and get it the right size, which was helpful :)

I have also now added the skirt to the bodice aswell, which is kind of in the wrong order as i havent sewn the lining of the bodice yet, and yes i am getting a bit carried away because i am excited about finally starting it, but it will be fine.
So heres some photos of how it looks so far. Obviously the skirt isnt hitched up yet or anything.

Underskirt

So i have finally got round to making some progress on the stripey sleepy holloy dress, I started sewing the underskirt last night. So i have never actually worn a bumroll before underneath my dresses so i am vaguely excited about that, as it will give it a better shape (although i am a tad worried the one i have is too big, but we will see) but it also made it slightly more difficult to pleat the skirt. So i started by just pleating the skirt straight into the waistband as i would if i were doing a flat skirt, but of corse because of the added shape of the bum roll, it just didnt work. So i decided to actually pleat and shape the skirt straight onto the model and hopefully that will help me get the right shape. Anyway, here are some photographs of the progress i have made so far. I think it looks okay with the bumroll?







p.s sorry about the darkness of the photographs, it was night time at this point and the light in my living room isnt that good for photographs.

Stripey fabric

So after much searching i have found some stripey fabric that i can use for the stripey dress.

The black stripe is slightly lighter than i wanted, but it was the nicest black and white striped fabric i could find. The only other fabric i found was made from a cheapy stin polyester and would have looked terrible, so i plumped for this one. The stripes are each an inch wide, which i think it about right, and it is a cotton fabric but it still has a slight lustre. It has a subtle floral pattern woven into the fabric, almost like jacquard, that doesnt really show that much. I know the original costume didnt have this, but i think its alright to use, and it will creaet an interesting texture to the finished dress. It also doesnt really show up that much. so its fine.
Here is the fabric that i have gathered fro the riding jacket and stripey dress all together in the box;

Sleepy hollow sketches

Just some quick sketches of the two sleepy hollw dresses.
(click on the pictures for bigger version)


The back of the bodice is slightly wrong on the stripey dress i think but i havent had a chance to have a closer look at the back stripes on the bodice yet.

Sleepy Hollow dresses

Although I have my A level Exams in approximately nine weeks and will have no time to make anything because of revision, I still can’t help but think of my next costume project. I recently watched sleepy hollow again and remembered how much I love Katrina’s costumes from that film (Colleen Atwood is definitely one of my very favourite costume designers). Out of her costumes, I think my favourites are the Grey Riding dress;


and the black and white stripy dress that she wears for only a short time at the end of the film.


I would absolutely love to try my hand at making these dresses, so over the next few weeks I will be keeping my eye out for fabric bargains and gathering the different components

So excited! i will have to try really hard not to start these dresses early because otherwise theywill end up being rushed and i wont get all my revision done.

No harm looking at fabric though