Autumn Sewing

Hello everyone!

I have been really busy sewing and embroidering all autumn. Now that it´s 1st of December, I thought I will show you what I have been up to this autumn. :) And then I should probably start working on some Christmas items I have been planning to do...

First project is 1890´s Walking Dress:

Here are the materials I used for my 1890´s Walking Dress: dark purple lace, mauve taffeta, dark purple cotton velvet, beige/purple plaid, beige satin, mauve floral jacquard, dark purple lining fabric and mustard cotton which I used for lining the bodice. Dottie approved all of them. :)

Front and side view of finished dress. I haven´t yet made 1890´s petticoat so please excuse the silhouette of the skirt. The petticoat will give it it´s flare at the bottom. It is on my "To do" -list. ;)

The sleeves are Mutton Leg Sleeves and I used Laughing Moon´s pattern (LM103) for them. I adjusted the cuffs and made them pointy in the back. The bodice pattern I´ve drafted myself. Front opening closes with hooks and eyelets. Buttons are for decoration only.

I made a reticule form cotton velvet with metal clasp. The floral motif is embroidered by machine.

Back view of the dress with machine-embroidered sash made from beige satin. I took an inspiration for the sash from the book Victorian Fashions by Carol Belanger Crafton.

Detail of the sash. The black border is hand crochet by me using cotton crochet yarn. I also made the tassels using the same yarn in orange and black. I love the colors, very autumn, very Halloween! 

Hem of the skirt.

Since this is an autumn outfit it needs an outer-garment- a cape! Which were ever so popular during this period. The pattern is from Truly Victorian (1890s Cape). Standing collar is wired with heavy-weight millinery wire. Dark purple lace fabric is applied over the plaid fabric to give it interesting detail and to make it more cohesive with the dress.

Front and detail view of the cape. I still have to make a hat to go with this piece. 

Side and back view of the cape worn with the dress underneath.

This purchased velvet bag I had for ages and it was stored away and unused. I remembered it and dug it up. I embroidered the motifs on a machine, added lace trim and gold tassels and it´s back in the game! 

I made this Halloween table-runner from quilt-weight cotton fabrics. I love it! Two machine-embroidered designs on big squares and smaller squares.

Detail of first embroidery- Skeleton Unicorn from Urban Threads. I framed the design with some decorative stitches.

Detail of second embroidery- Pumpkin and Squash from Embroidery Library. Both designs were free in October. And they got me completely crazy about machine embroidery. I had an embroidery machine for two and half years and only used it a couple of times to embroider reticules. For those I used designs that came with the machine. But now that I discovered what gorgeous designs are out there, I will definitely embroider on it more!

Other view of the table runner.

I had to get these silly lanterns! Maybe you can tell I love Halloween. ;)

And some more machine embroidery. Our cushions were rather faded and after seeing these designs I had to embroider them. These are from Embroidery Library and they took ages to make. I have set my machine almost at a slowest embroidery speed to not to put excess stress on it. This way I hope it will serve me longer. Each of these designs took about 4 hours to embroider and that´s only embroidering time, when you add thread changes ( about 38-48 thread changes per design), each design took me whole day to make. But they were well worth it.

Geisha appreciating new cushion.

 Witch´s Hat and Too Cute to Spook designs in detail.

Witch´s Boot design in close view.

And I was so excited about Halloween I made this hexagon bag from the same fabrics I used for the table runner. Whole bag is hand-stitched. There were still some fabrics left so I started to work on hexagon quilt, but that will be finished later...

Back view of the bag.

Bedroom needed new cushions as well. These are from Urban Threads. 

His Skeleton Cameo- Baroque style embroidery design. Both cushions are 40 x 40 cm.

And Hers Skeleton Cameo design. These two almost took entire spool of obsidian embroidery thread (500 meters)!

Thank you for reading and see you soon! :)