To all who mourn in Israel, He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory. Isaiah 61:3

Friday, September 12, 2014

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.


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.


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


For the bodice back:  TV 463

 Source:  Truly Victorian 463

Skirt pattern to be altered:  TV 861-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!

g


18 comments:

  1. how fun!!! what an awesome project! you know, to my eye, the yellow triangles on the skirt in the second image look like they could be a contrasting fabric set in the pleats. just a thought! can't wait to see how this turns out :)

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    1. Thank you Samantha! The contrasting yellow does look like inside pleats huh? You are so right! I think I have decided upon what to do for the skirt...the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of making the skirt out of velvet as well as the bodice...But I am definitely going to be doing a contrasting pleat jobby in the future!
      Blessings!
      g

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  2. The long narrow triangles on the second skirt seam to be box pleats in another color that open by movement. This is a wonderful costume idea and I love the Idea, you could use the simple bodice in another costume.

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    1. They do look like box pleats upon second look don't they? What a project that would be...Thank you Thalia! I think this will be a fun project!! And I hadn't thought about using the bodice with a different skirt! You are brilliant!
      blessings!
      g

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  3. What a delightful idea! I'm sure the kids will love it.

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    1. Thank you Vivien!! I hope they do....my youngest son approves already...hahahah!
      Blessings!
      g

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  4. Too cute
    Can't wait to see the final product!

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    1. Hello Kristen! Thank you so much...it is a sweet little bee outfit isn't it?
      Blessings!
      g

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  5. Really looking forward to seeing this!

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  6. Oooh! You looked great in black and yellow at the CoCo tea. This sounds like such a fun project.

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    1. Thank you so much Jennifer! The 20s dress was one of my favorites from Coco, so your compliment means a lot! I hope it is a fun project...the dress should be a simple affair...I hope!!!
      Blessings!
      g

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  7. Oh my goodness, this is such an awesome idea! The bee costume is definitely one of my favorite masquerade costumes from that era. By the way, I know it's completely off topic, but I've been wondering what pattern did you use for your blue 1830's dress' sleeves? It seems too complicated for me to figure it out myself, and I would love to try out sleeves like that in my upcoming 1830's ball gown.

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    1. It is a super cute costume isn't it Eleonora! I can't wait to get it complete...
      The sleeves from the 30s dress were taken right from the Truly Victorian Romantic Era pattern...If I remember correctly, I followed the directions on the pattern exactly...and I totally understand about them being complicated! But, when you make them, they end up being fairly simple!
      Blessings!
      g

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    2. Thanks a lot! I'll have to consider buying the pattern :)

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    3. Wonderful! I can't wait to see your dress that you make using it!! Laaaaaaa!!!!

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