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?
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:
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!
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?
In the month since my last post, SO MANY things have been happening here. Although my Facebook is the best way to keep up with me, currently, I realize that I need to up the ante and post here more regularly. One way I'm going to make that happen is by doing on this blog what I did last year on The Modest Peacock: the A-Z Blogging Challenge!!!
If you haven't heard of or done the A-Z in April, follow this link and check it out! It's amazing fun! And just to give you a little bit of scope: I signed The Modest Peacock up early on the official sign-up day and I was blog #383 to join. I took a lot of time to decide whether I could even do the challenge on more than one blog (It takes up a little bit of time and effort to create a themed post every day of a month, not going to lie), but today I decided that I absolutely can. So I've just today signed up Lucy Jane's Writing Desk to participate and it is blog #748 on the list. Wow! That's a lot of blogs!!!
I didn't sign up until I wrote out a rough draft list of possible post titles that have to do with all things Lucy Jane: sewing (mostly costuming), tea, etc. When I reached the half way mark, I knew we were good to go.
There are still some things that are having the kinks worked out. Business license questions, next years taxes (yaaay, fun! :P), travel logistics for taking the show on the road, and other such things. But there is currently a stack of fabric around 2 feet high being gone through and pattern pieces cut out. I'm completing concept boards for at least 6 costume designs that have been making laps in my head (it's wearing me out, honestly), and I have the fabric selected for my new Regency Dress to wear to the 5th Annual Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival that is coming up fast. Whew! It's amazing the momentum that builds when creative people get on a roll! ;)
I have plans later in this coming week to catch up with some photos here, so be on the lookout for that.
I hope you all have a lovely day, and I will post again soon!
I want to thank all of my friends and supporters who are waiting patiently whilst I get some personal matters in order, but also whilst I am sorting out all things Lucy Jane and where exactly I want to take all of these ideas. There are some housekeeping duties that will need to be seen about first, before I just jump off the deep end into my creativity. :)
The Dog River Library opening in the fall was a great success, and I made many new friends. I am looking ahead to things in the spring, like the Hydrangea Festival and other things, but it has been difficult, especially over the Christmas holidays recently, to keep up with everything that is going on and to prioritize accordingly. I've felt led to take off parts of the website for now, until all of the elements are just right, and until I get a clearer view of how I want the site to function. I'm spending much time in prayer and reading my Bible daily and asking the Lord what He would have me do. Right now, the answer has been "wait". So, I wait.
And- as I first mentioned, sweet friends- so too are you waiting, as I wait on the Lord. Thank you for not giving up on me. While we wait, I am filled with hope. For,
I know that the entire month of October came and went without a single post, and for that I apologize! I did the NaBloWriMo challenge over at The Modest Peacock, but have not taken the time to do a blog challenge with this blog yet. I should look into that.
Sarah McCabe of The Aspiring Sub-creator won my peacock fairy giveaway. Show her some blog love!
Here's more of what's been going on: The new library is opening tomorrow!!! :D There is going to be an auction to help continue to raise funds for the new facilities, and I donated these items for it:
1 "Gretchen" elephant
1 "Hope" elephant
1 "Peggy" elephant
1 "Hope" Breast Cancer Awareness fairy (Goes with the pink ribbon Elephant)
A cloth doll very much like this one, but with a different dress.
It was paired with the book "Ox Cart Man" by Donald Hall
I also made a 4 inch high Little Red Riding Hood. (Like the fairies, but with no wings.) I was in a bit of a creative rush to get her finished, so I didn't get any photos. I'll see if I can get one tomorrow before she is auctioned off.
There has been more happening, but that's all I have time to update on at the moment. I'm headed off to hear a beautiful friend of mine sing in an opera at KSU! I will get some more thoughts (and photos) together and hopefully post again here before the weekend is out. Take care, my loves!
