Thursday, March 15, 2012

Erin O' The Green

Oh, Erin O' The Green, she's wearing o' the green
Flighty, Feisty, Irish Fairy Queen

Erin stands 4" high and is fully posable.

Hand painted face and hand embroidered tunic

Butterfly wings and ginger hair

Striped Stockings

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Like Lucy Jane on Facebook!

I spent the better part of an hour making a fan page for Lucy Jane!  Please stop by and give us a 'like'! :)

http://www.facebook.com/seamstresslucyjane

Ideas?  Suggestions?  Let me know!
I'll be editing the website to include a Facebook link, AND will be getting the Etsy shop up and running and on the website as well.  Tomorrow.
Right now, I'm off to sew more elephants and craft some 4" tall fairies!

Ever Yours,
Lucy Jane

Monday, March 12, 2012

Top 'O The Mornin'!

It's St. Patrick's Day this weekend!  To celebrate, I have two lucky new friends available on the website!
I'm going to be getting them into an Etsy shop this evening as well, so stay tuned for that!!!
Anyway, for the introductions:

Meet Seamus:

And Molly:

Thursday, March 8, 2012

For William and Elena

Several of my friends are having, or have just recently had, new babies!  I wanted to share what I made for them.  My ellies are made using a Funky Friends Factory pattern. (And I've just ordered 3 more patterns today- I'll share about those when I've gotten accustomed to constructing them!)

Here is a soft, star themed gentleman for my friend Jenny's William.  She is due very soon now!  This is her first child, and I have to admit it was a little amusing to see how wide her eyes would get as the dozen or so women at her recent baby shower exchanged stories of their experiences! :)  She is going to be a wonderful mom and I wish her every possible blessing and happiness!

For the Little Prince
And here is a fuzzy, striped-y, fun gentlelady done to match a Cat-In-The-Hat themed nursery for a friend from school who had her baby in December.  (Her name, coincidentally, is also Jennie!)  I wanted to have given it to her before Elena arrived, but the red and white striped fabric was harder to find than you'd think.  Every stripe I found around Christmas time had bits of green in it.  At last it was found.*  I wish her every wonderful thing in Mommyhood too!

For Elena at her debut
A stripe-y ellie in a tutu!
There is another one being made for a friend who custom ordered one to give as a baby gift.  I'll show it in a post very soon, but not until the recipient has received it.  Don't want to ruin the surprise!

What do you think?  What sorts of colors/themes would you like to see in an ellie?  Let me know!

*It looks beautiful, but that corduroy was harder to work with than the usual fleece!!!  And I had bits of red fluff from the inside seam edges all over my work table! :)  But it was worth the extra effort, no?

Monday, March 5, 2012

More Hobbiting

I found this the other day and loved it:


And as promised, here are the concept boards.  I'm still working on finding the right contrast fabric for the center of the bodice, but I'll update when I find it.  I may be searching some specialty stores in Marietta this week before I make a final decision.  Anyway, here is what we have so far:




Sunday, March 4, 2012

Not The Regency Dress I Was Intending...

but it was on my list anyway, so it's all okay.  Let me explain:

JoAnn Fabrics has this wonderful white cotton with pale blue stripes that I want as the fabric for my Regency dress to be worn at the Hydrangea Festival in June.  Because it is a "coordinate" fabric, it falls under a certain group of cottons called "Baby Basics" on the shelf.  You know, mix-y match-y stuff for a nursery, etc.  For the longest time, it has been on sale.  But not a very good sale.  Like, part of last month, it was $1 off per yard.  It's originally $5.99/yd.  $5 a yard isn't terrible, but I knew I could do better.

It finally did come off being $5/yd, only to be on sale for 30% off.  Which makes it $4.19/yd.  Ok, yes.  Less than $5/yd, but still not quite the deal I'm striving for.  Then this week I got a load of coupons for a "make your own sale" event.  YAY!  "Surely,"  I thought, "surely it will be off sale and I can use the 50% coupon and get it for $3/yd.  Please, please, please!"

No. Such. Luck. :(

It is STILL on sale at 30% off ($4.19) until March 17, which is the day AFTER the coupons expire.  Argh!!!  But it's ok.  I'll keep watching and waiting.  Eventually sometime between now and May 1st, it just has to go off sale and there also be either a 40% or 50% off coupon in the mail.  Preferably the 50% one, but you know, I'd even take the 40% if that was the best one offered, because that would still make it $3.59/yd.  Anywhere less than $4/yd would be awesome.

So there I was in the fabric store, with a bunch of coupons in my hand...

And I remembered the sheer overlay confection that I have wanted to make and absolutely could not justify spending the money it would cost on.  I couldn't afford it at regular price; not in my wildest dreams.  But for half off, well now... I might could shift some other projects around to make that happen!
And that's what I did.  I ended up with this:

This photo does not do those sweet, sorbet colored stripes any justice!

I'll be working up a concept board for it this week, so you can better see what it will become, but the general idea is a short sleeved Regency era dress; the main body of the gown being the white muslin and then the sheer stripe wonderfulness over that, with the front skirt part split up the middle to the waist line so it is all flow-y and gossamer and ethereal.  The sleeves will not have the muslin under them.  They will just be sheer cap sleeves.  Don't forget how hot it gets here in June!

I'm planning on wearing this on one of the two days of the festival, since it's a hassle to sweat so much in one on Saturday, get home right away and have to wash it out and let it hang dry and hope it is ready by Sunday morning!  This way I have a dress for each day.  And more justification for buying the pretty sheer! ;)  If you really want to know, it was more than $20/yard at regular price.  Those 50% off coupons make this little seamstress a happy camper.  Er... sew-er. :)

That white and blue striped cotton will still be mine.  Eventually.  For now, I have materials to play with while I watch and wait for it to go off sale again. :)  I'll post the progress as soon as I can!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Concerning Hobbits

Special Note: While Lucy Jane is predominately a lady of Regency England influence, the costuming and artistic creativity under her name spans all manner of time, history, imagination, design concepts and inspirations.  I'll try to make it easy to keep up, but understand, I'm a tad bit all over the place!! :)

It's hard to believe that it has been 12 years since Peter Jackson dazzled us with his vision of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  If you have somehow been living under a rock and have not seen these films, I'd like the mailing address to your cave dwelling so that I can issue you an engraved invitation to get your hands on the DVDs and enjoy the goodness that is Middle Earth.  Afterwards, I'll send you another invitation: to see the upcoming 'prequel' to what happened before Frodo and Sam took the Ring into Mordor.  That's right!  The Hobbit, also being made by Peter Jackson and the magical people at WETA, is being released this Christmas!!!

LOTR geeks, Rejoice!!! :D

Here is a trailer to further drive home how excited I am about this! More costuming news after the break...

Isn't the excitement contagious?! :)
So a decade-ish ago when each of the LOTR films came out, I did what any normal (read: over-the-top) fantasy/fiction fan does when a wildly popular book is made into a blockbuster smash:  I went to the theater IN COSTUME.  Oh, my skills have vastly improved over time, and I'm not saying that my Elf get-up was anything much to crow about. (I will try, try, try to find a long lost photo!)   But it was such fun!  I kept my prosthetic ear tips on for work the next day, just to mess with people, and that was fun, too! ;)

Now, I am aware that technically, I'm not tall enough to be an Elf.  Numerous sources, not the least of which is this End-All-Be-All LOTR Wiki Site, state the average height of a Middle Earth elf to be between 5'5" and 6'.  Conversely, the average height of a Hobbit of the Shire is 3'6" or so.  Hmm.  To my knowledge, there are no female human characters in The Hobbit.  One of the only LOTR human females is Eowyn, a Shieldmaiden of Rohan.

And so, for the December release of The Hobbit, my choice has been either a very short elf, or an unusually tall hobbit!  Drawn up to my full height, I am all of 5'2".  Having been teased for much of my adult life as being "the short one", I decided to embrace my small stature and dress as the latter option.  (The release of the film still being eight and a half months away, I don't consider it beyond the realm of possibility that I will, in fact, create an elf costume in addition to the hobbit one, and see the film 2 nights in a row... we shall see...!)

In the following months, I'll take you through the process as I create a hobbit outfit.  (All the while praying for one of our 60 degree Georgia December days for the premier, as I will be barefoot!)  I'm just putting some finishing touches on the concept board now, so look for that in the next fortnight or so.

Who is your favorite LOTR character?  Whom could you most convincingly dress as?  What do you think of over-zealous fans who are as comfortable in a robe/corset/suit of armor/wings/whatnot as everyone around them is in jeans and t-shirts?