Blue Tailcoat - Part 4 (Complete!)

Aren't the sleeves cool? I really love how they turned out!

Putting the collar in... believe it or not, collars have always scared me to death. Turns out they're absurdly simple and nothing to be afraid of.
Almost done...
Marking the buttonholes. Buttonholes are another thing I used to be afraid of. These, however, I did in about 15 minutes. Hurrah for machines with buttonhole functions!
Shipped it off to my client, and he presented me with some pictures of the finished product!

I think it turned out fantastic! It was so fun to work on a project like this and get to do fun little details like the sleeve buttons and the piping.

I also love that it fit perfectly. Patterns can be notorious for not fitting properly, but from the pictures it looks wonderful!
Want to commission your own costume? Simply send me an e-mail at elenatintil [at] gmail[dot] com and describe your vision and I'll give you a price quote on the project.

Scottish encounters and celebrating Irish-ness

Sometimes life is just plain interesting.

For instance, now that we've made the switch from Daylight Savings Time, if I wake up at 8:10 I will be just in time to see the sunrise over the forest outside my bedroom window.

Yesterday I was so inspired, that I actually wrote a bit on my latest book before breakfast. For the record, I never write before breakfast. Well except for maybe a blog post. But never novel writing. Anyhow this book is interesting because I'm writing it in tiny spurts -- never more than a page and a half at a time. Yesterday I hit page 14. So, we'll see where it goes...

Yesterday was also the deadline for the blue tailcoat project. So I spent most of the day frantically sewing, and ended up dragging the project along to a doctor's appointment. That was sort of... interesting. The cool part was that the receptionist saw my project and came over to look at it. Turns out she does costumes for a living history group and gave me the information on it. I looked up the website and nearly freaked out... it's a Scottish living history group.

Of course, I'm also terribly amused that I find out about the Scottish group the day before St. Patrick's day. But there isn't a "Scottish Day" in American tradition, so I guess this was the closest God could get...

And maybe the Scotland fixation explains why I didn't get the date significance when my friend Alicia announced she was working on a drawing of the Irish Mutant, Banshee. I feel very annoyed with myself for missing that one.

Speaking of mutants... I recently decided to do some X-Men research and ordered... um... a lot of comics from the library. By a lot I mean somewhere close to... *whispers* 100. And about a quarter of them came in yesterday. There had only been 14 listen on the website when I had checked before heading in to town, but when I arrived the number had almost doubled. That was slightly embarrassing. But, oh well, I have plenty of reading material now.

I'll conclude this post with an Irish blessing, and now I'm off to find something green to wear...

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

The Hunger Games

You know, it's funny. I'm both skeptical of popular media, and I also want to check it out to stay afresh of the times. It's an interesting battle.

I had little interest in "The Hunger Games" until a friend of mine declared they were the best books ever and I absolutely had to read them. I've learned to trust recommendations by my friends (mostly because I never stop searching for something new to read) so I immediately placed a hold for them at my library. Of course, I was #300 or something on the reserve list, so I ended up having to wait about three months for the books to come in!

Then, when I finally got them, I spent about three days warily looking at the covers and wondering whether I really wanted to read a story about a dystopian future where people apparently fought to the death for food.

I mean, really?

At last I had absolutely nothing left to read and I was going to end up with overdue fines... so I picked up the first book and started reading.

"The Hunger Games" (and its sequels, "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay") take place some centuries in the future. America as we know it has fallen, to be replaced by twelve districts. A thirteenth that was obliterated as a warning when it tried to lead a rebellion against the Capitol. As a final safeguard against future rebellion, the Capitol instituted Hunger Games to remind the populace of their absolute control over the districts.

Every year, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 is selected from each of the districts. They are then dropped into a huge arena and forced to battle each other to the death until only one remains.

The worst part? The entire thing is broadcasted on television and the people are forced to watch their children die.

Katniss Everdeen finds herself thrust into the midst of this horror when she steps up to take her sister's place, after the 12-year-old's name was drawn. Katniss is a resident of district twelve, the mining district, and has spent most of her life hunting in the forbidden woods to feed her family. This gives her a bit of an edge, but will it be enough? And what will happen to the other contestant chosen from their district, a boy whom Katniss owes a debt of gratitude to? Will she be forced to kill him? Or will she die first? Is there any way out? Will they be forced to submit to the Capitol forever?

This is not a book for everyone. It is at times hard to read, and can be dark and violent. However it is also a book of hope, of light, and of understanding the human condition and the power of love. It is one of the most brilliant young adult books I've ever read and I strongly recommend it to anyone who feels brave enough to try.

Word of warning. Do NOT begin book 1 without having the next two volumes close at hand. Both of the first two books have cliffhanger endings and you will go absolutely insane if you do not have the next one to start immediately.

Blue Tailcoat - Part 3

Well I meant to get this up yesterday, but between internet issues and general business it didn't happen. So I'm actually further along than the photos show. Oh well!

First off is a look at the lining with the sleeve attached...

Transferring dart marks is always a pain. Since this pattern is made with stiff paper, I cheated and cut out the dart mark so I could use it like a stencil. Still proud of that one...

Here I had to reshape the lapels. The pattern called for the curved shape you see on the right, but my client wanted something straighter and more military, as you see on the left.
Adding the interfacing to the blue wool.

A look at the back.

A closer look at the join between the waist and the tails. These tails were pretty frustrating to put in because the pattern is poorly written at this point. However I was adding a split anyhow (not included in the original pattern) so I finally just scrapped the directions for this part and followed my intuition. I think it turned out pretty nice.

In the next three pictures I've put the body of the assembled wool over the lining. You can get an idea of the shape of the final coat, minus the full sleeves.

(Bear in mind, the dress form is being used as a hanging device only. It's a female dress form, so the actual coat will hang much straighter when worn by its intended user)

Sleeve time! Sleeves are hard to iron properly, so I used a hand towel to construct a poor man's sleeve board. It worked like a charm!

I then assembled the cuffs, including the pipping on the top. Below you can see the sleeve and cuff laid out as they will be in the final garment.

There will also be three buttons across the top of the sleeve... but I haven't gotten them sewn on yet, so look to see the rest of the coolness in post #4, coming later this week!

Laconic update

Hi.

I am home.

I am also dead tired from an insane day of traveling on Friday.

Plus a light case of the flu.

Hence the lack of posts.

But! I have been creative today and tomorrow you shall see the results. So. Stay tuned...

Rings and Engagements and Weddings, OH MY!

Remember how I mentioned earlier this week that my brother's girlfriend was one of our travel party down here on the island? Well my brother took advantage of a beautiful beach sunset on Tuesday to propose to her. And now one of my best friends from high school is going to become my sister sometime next summer.

And we've got a wedding to plan!

We girls hurried over to the library first thing yesterday morning (okay, not first thing and it wasn't morning but you get the idea) and checked out half a dozen books on weddings. Then we spent a couple hours pouring over them and the bride-to-be started a notebook full of thoughts, ideas and reminders.

I love weddings. I'm a die-hard romantic and I've organized some pretty complicated things before. However it wasn't until yesterday that I really understood how many details are involved in wedding planning! It's a big enough task that I'm actually a little bit relieved that I'm not the first bride in my generation (although I'm the oldest) and I'll be able to go through the process as a helper at least once before having to deal with being the centerpiece of the operation.

It's going to be awesome though. And a whole new kind of adventure...

Magneto is in Jane Eyre.

No, it's not a crazy mash-up. It's just that Michael Fassbender who is playing Magneto in X-Men: First Class is also starring as Mr. Rochester in the newest version of Jane Eyre. I just discovered this a few days ago and feel pretty silly for not figuring it all out earlier... I knew there was a reason I liked this guy!

Anyhow, you can read Fassbender's latest interview here, which covers both movies as well as several other interesting projects due to come out soon (including one that co-stars Viggo Mortensen and Kiera Knightley).

What else has he been in? Fans of 300 and Band of Brothers should recognize him as well. In fact, he met his X-Men co-star James McAvoy while filming Band of Brothers!

(Fassbender as Mr. Rochester)