Finally completed this very long practice project. A very large GIR hoodie! I broke 2 sewing machine needles on this and accidentally stabbed myself numerous times with my pins and embroidery needles!

i made this little pixie bonnet and then made this little button-down without even realizing that they would match perfectly. i love serendipity

My toxic trait is that I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I can learn to make anything.

Sewed a circle skirt for the first time! (first picture also shows a purse I crocheted.) I've made a few quilts, but no garment making! I used quilting cotton because I read it was appropriate for a circle skirt, and I used an elastic waist band because it seemed more forgiving while measuring out the pattern. Overall went well, but I definitely discovered a few aspects I should improve upon for next time! Maybe next time I'll even experiment with pockets! Either way, this will definitely be a repeat craft!

I made Tudor shapewear out of fabric scraps!

This is part of my ongoing project to make a Tudor French gown for the ren faire. While I'm not super concerned with historical accuracy for things like fabric fiber content and dyes, I *am* trying to be as accurate as possible with the silhouette, and that classic Tudor noblewoman silhouette requires some very specific undergarments.

This garment was commonly called a "bum roll" and was worn around the hips to add width. Sort of like 16th century butt pads.

I used this pattern from The Tudor Tailor by Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies, which I resized to fit my hip measurements. This was my first time resizing a pattern!

(Ignore the Magic: The Gathering playmat, my sewing table is also our card game table.)

Since this is essentially underwear, I decided to make it as cheaply as possible by using scrap fabric. The roll itself is made of leftover muslin from an embroidery project, the ties are made with fabric leftover from a quilt, and the roll is stuffed with scraps from various projects!

The next step of this project is to make a farthingale (similar to a hoop skirt), which will be worn on top of the roll to complete the silhouette.

It's Duck Tape Prom voting time. I'm always so impressed with what people manage to get duck tape to do. These are my favorite Finalist looks.

(These are from the gallery that I feel totally should have made it to finalist status for voting 😕)

The flippin detail on that narwal?! Excuse me?!

Beautiful mermaid

The layers of ocean?! Incredible.

This train! Her shoulder detail!

How well this suit fits.

Over 300 roses. Are you kidding me? Anyway, what's cool is, they do this all for a 10,000$ scholarship, prom outfits made entirely out of duck tape. Voting is still open, if you wanna vote, and we know tumblr likes to vote. 🙂

Justine Woods | I love you as much as all the beads in the universe: a garment-based inquiry into re-stitching alternative worlds of love. 2021

Top: “We carry our homeland(s) close to our heart. (front view)”; Middle: “We carry our homeland(s) close to our heart. (trout filleting detail)”; Bottom: “Our bodies our stitched with 193 years of diasporic love (back detail of beaded Drummond island.)”

love you as much as all the beads in the universe: a garment-based inquiry into re-stitching alternative worlds of love “engages with a praxis of decolonial love through garment construction and beadwork as a practice-based method of inquiry. My research centres decolonial love as methodology with the expressed purpose to physically and conceptually re-stitch alternative worlds that are grounded in ethical practices and based on respect, empathy, reciprocity, consent and love. Engaging in decolonial love as praxis, the artistic production of my MDes thesis re-frames pattern drafting, garment construction and stitching methods within decolonial and relationship-based contexts. This MDes thesis prioritizes, and foregrounds, all of the relationships that make up my identity as an Aabitaawikwe of Penetanguishene, Ontario and centres these relationships as praxis towards building alternative worlds of love that honour, celebrate and mobilize Indigenous internationalism, intercultural solidarity, co-resistance and liberation.”

Justine’s research and design practice centres Indigenous fashion technologies and garment-making as practice-based methods of inquiry toward re-stitching alternative worlds that prioritize Indigenous resurgence and liberation. Her work foregrounds all of the relationships that make up her identity as a Penetanguishene Aabitaawikwe; an identity she has inherited from her family and her Aabitaawizininiwag Ancestors. 

Im trying to make a dress that's like cottagecore, but make it messy and experimental and you're a drunk fairy, asymmetrical on the hem and all, but!

I'm insecure about using this lace because it's meant for curtains but i just love this pixel art vibe and dont wanna buy any lace trim or crochet it... also the orange is way too flashy on its own, that's why I'm prob gonna try the lacey drunk fairy route for it

like if it fails it might look cheap, but if i make it weird enough maybe it will look experimental and couture? Idk lol

Stuck in a performance

the outfit is designed and made by me

Bucks Fizz, costume design & garments &materials development for Easy Jet/Eurovision pr campaign, May 2023.

Costume design: Magda Durka

Costume making/seamstress: Magda Durka & Florence King

Pattern cutting: Magda Durka & Florence King

I bought the fabric to make this top for my grandson. He loves Thomas the Tank Engine and friends. I saw this pattern and knew the Thomas fabric would be perfect! I don’t enjoy garment making but I do love how it turned out. We are taking him to ride Thomas and Percy at the end of September. Hoping he will want to wear this on the train rides! Woo Woo!!

Finished my dress, and made a shirt. No photos yet, because it's stupid hot here with like 163% humidity and I look like a sweaty bog beast. Next on the docket with be a pair of slacks, or a bra, whichever I get the oomph to do first.

look what i made!!! it used to be a vintage tablecloth!

Here I had to cut out four different pieces to create my corset before stitching them together adding seam allowance of a cm to each pattern piece.Then I cut them all out and started sewing them together to create the corset bodice shape.

Adjusting Period Costumes for Practical Wear

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I'm working on a Tudor-era French gown to wear to renaissance festivals. French gowns aren't a very practical garment, since they mostly existed to be big displays of wealth by using as much expensive fabric as possible. This is probably never going to be something I wear everyday. That said, I am making some adjustments so I'll be more comfortable in my costume.

Here's the thing: Tudor gowns were worn in England, a place that is famously cold and wet. And, as Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies point out in their book The Tudor Tailor, Tudor England was actually colder than modern England because of The Little Ice Age, a global cooling phenomenon that happened in the 14th through 19th centuries. (And that's not even getting into modern climate change.) Because it was generally cold, Tudor-era English folks wore a lot of layers and used a lot of heavy fabrics in their clothing.

I do not live in Tudor England during a global cooling event. In fact, I live in the Southeastern United States, where summer days routinely get up to 100+ degrees Fahrenheit. Most renaissance festivals fall during the late spring, summer, or early fall, which means it is HOT. And although I love wool and velvet as much as the next guy, I'd rather not have a heat stroke while waiting in line for steak on a stake.

Obviously, some adjustment is needed to make this costume appropriate for the climate I'll be wearing it in.

I'm not super concerned with historical accuracy, but even if I was, Mikhaila and Malcolm-Davies say that Tudor women did change their wardrobes in different environments. Clothing would be made from material appropriate for both the temperature and the lifestyle of the wearer. Noblewomen specifically would add or remove layers depending on how hot or cold it was. This means adjusting my costume plans for Southern summers is more historically accurate than you might think.

With this in mind, I'm making a few adjustments from a typical reenactor's Tudor noblewoman costume:

I'm wearing fewer layers. The plan is to just wear a farthingale, kirtle, and gown, without bothering with a chemise, stockings, or a petticoat. Hardcore reenactors will be gasping in horror at me leaving out the chemise, but no one is going to see it and it doesn't provide any shaping, so it really is just an unnecessary layer. Same with stockings. Petticoats and kirtles were used interchangeably even in the Tudor era, so leaving out the petticoat is actually period accurate!

Whether/how often Tudor women wore stays is hotly debated. I am not wearing stays because they aren't strictly required for the silhouette I want. I may add some boning to the kirtle if I feel like I need it, but we'll see.

I'm choosing fabrics that are lightweight and breathable. I'm sticking to natural fibers as much as possible, and because I'm on a budget, that means this baby will probably be mostly cotton. Was cotton fiber widely available in 16th century England? Nope! But it's cheap and comfortable and that's what I need for this project.

Being picky about fabrics means I will be spending more on materials than if I was willing to, like, use thrifted polyester curtains, but I think it'll pay off. I'm hoping sticking to natural fibers will help keep sweat and BO to a minimum.