Turning Over A New (Silk) Leaf

This 17th c. gown is one I'd like to re-make, in silk satin, so I'm going to sell this version on

Every once in awhile there comes a time when just about everything in my costume closet no longer suffices.

This non-sufficiency happens for several reasons:

• The costumes no longer represent one's skill
• They didn't originally fit great, and magical closet transformations never took place, thus they still don't fit well
• One increases or decreases in size, and the costumes don't
• The materials from which the costumes are made are no longer as bitchin' as once thought
• I'm just not that into it anymore.

After constructing my wedding gown, which was made from silk taffeta, I felt it was time to up my game.  The silk was so lovely, so nice to work with, and so pretty and shimmery and sheeny that I don't want to go back to synthetic taffeta ever again.

I didn't mind this year's Titanic costume, and it fit alright, but I never really cared for it that much, so to a more loving home it shall go...

I also don't want to wear uncomfortable, ill-fitting garments anymore. This presents a conundrum where the wedding gown is concerned, because it was too small.  Way.  WAY too small.  I get the "pleasure" of deconstructing the bodice and attempting to let it out through its various seams, but because it's my wedding gown, and made from such lovely materials, I want to neither sell it nor remodel it into something else. I pad-stitched the dickens out of that collar, and it deserves to be preserved!

Sometimes I'm just not that into a costume, even though it turned out alright. This Victorian will be great for somebody else...

I think these kinds of overhauls are good for one's self.  It's a shedding the old to make room for the new, and I feel excited by the challenge of making better clothing from now on. It won't always come out perfectly (the wedding gown being an example of that), but this is a life-long skill, and there's as much fun in the journey as in the final result. :-)

Anyway, I have a bunch of stuff to photograph and list on Etsy in the next week or so. I'll post here on the blog, and on Facebook, when it's all up and ready.