Gina the Spelling Bee!!!

I knew it would happen...and it did.  Yesterday at about 9:17 am to be exact.  The moment when all the nicely laid plans of my upcoming sewing projects were tossed out the window.   They weren't gently tossed out the window,  oh noooooooo.  They were heaved with joyful, gleeful, reckless abandon out the window of a Mac truck careening out of control, doing about 75 miles an hour down Highway 21.  The funny part is, I am totally ectatic about this kink in my perfectly laid plans! 

The incident:  Last week I was approached by the principal of my boys' school.  She asked me if I would be the "Spelling Bee" for the annual fund raiser, The Spelling Bee, and I said yes.  I get to dress up like a bee and go to all the classes to "advertise" the Spelling Bee for the school.  They had an outfit already that was a cute little T-shirt, black pants, yellow mits and pipe cleaner antennae. Immediately upon seeing it, I was reminded of the fabulous Victorian Wasp Masquerade Dress that I have longed to make for a while but never had any place to wear it.  (Now, I know that wasps and bees have nothing in common as bees are productive members of this world, making honey and pollinating flowers and wasps are just jerks, but the general idea is the same.) I approached Mrs. Anderson about making it to wear and she got excited along with me!!!

Next up was time for research.  I knew that there was an image of the 1880s masquerade dress, but I didn't know there were two different images, that were similar but with slightly differing elements, like the underskirt and bustle.  I also did some reseach into bees.  I discovered that while their abdomen has the black and yellow stripes, their thorax is not striped at all.  One source I read said that it is brown, but when I look at a honey bee, I see yellow fuzzy "hairs" over a black "skin".  This is very interesting as the images of Wasp costume, the bodice appears to be made of velvet! Huzzah!!!  Now, I am NOT going to glue a bunch of yellow hairs onto a black velvet bodice, nor am I going to look for a velvet that has the pile in yellow and the base in black.  Nope, not going to do it.  I am however going to make the bodice out of black velvet from my stash.  I also have some black bridal weight satin left over from my Court Gown.  I scored some fabulous pale yellow silk at a local home fabrics store.  I don't think they knew what they had, because it was so not the cost one would usually pay for dupioni silk!  Scooooore!!  Love it! 

Beautiful honey bee!!  See the lovely fuzzy thorax?  I also love this pic as you can see the pollen it has collected on its leg.  I plan on making some cute pom poms for my shoes to emulate the pollen.

Source:  Elements: Environmental Health Intelligence

Love the yellow bustling on this image and the shoes.  The underskirt is very boring though.

At first I thought the bodice on these two images was super boring.  Then I saw the intelligence of the designer.  If one was going to use this costume for a bee, the thorax is not striped but monotone and the arms of black would perfectely emulate the legs of the bee or wasp.  The use of black stockings and black shoes is also perfect as the bee and wasp again have black legs.

Source:  Vintage Printable

On this dress, I love the look of the long, narrow triangles on the skirt.  Don't know if I will use them, but they are pretty awesome.

 Source:  rebloggy Tumblr

Of course my black fabrics would photograph navy blue...why not!  Hahahahaha!!!  They are really in truth black.  The silk is such a lovely color!

For the bodice front:  TV 460

Sourch:  Truly Victorian 460

For the bodice back:  TV 463

 Source:  Truly Victorian 463

Skirt pattern to be altered:  TV 861-R

Truly Victorian 261-R

I was so excited about this project, that yesterday I raced right home and began cutting out the velvet bodice.  While cutting, I remembered exactly why I hate velvet with a passion.  It leaves fuzzy traces of itself all over the floor when you cut it out and it is so adverse to having itself sewn to anything that you practically have to staple, glue and nail it down to get the job done, but I  WILL bring it to heel before our time is finished!!!  BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....  You have been warned velvet!!  

Blessings to you my friends!

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