Texas Renaissance Festival!

Yesterday we we able to go to the Texas Renaissance Festival.  We try to go every year, and it is definitely one of the things we will miss about living in Texas.  This is the first year that I have made all of our costumes.

I've posted about the costumes individually , but I'll link them here for the Google searchers.  I'm wearing McCalls 6141, altered for maternity.  It's still is a great fit at 33 weeks!

Logan is sporting McCalls 5500 on top and Burda 9671 on the bottom.  The applique is a dragon, roughly based on an online coloring page.  He got tons of compliments on his cool dragon!  The pants get worn constantly.  They fit him well and he likes them.  The tunic is a little big, but he's comfortable in it.

Mitch is wearing a heavily altered McCalls 4530 on top, and Simplicity 4378 on bottom.  The pants are a TNT for him.  He loves his tunic, and I am so happy to have finally managed a Ren Fest outfit for him that is comfortable and looks good.

My little princess's gown is based on Butterick 4910.  She loves it, and passers-by universally found her adorable.

We had a great time at the Faire! We watched belly dancers, jousters and sword fights, enjoyed all of the interesting costumes, and ate way too much faire food.  But the coolest part?

The elephant ride!!

Simplicity 4378 Ren fest pants

Done!!  My costume sewing frenzy can finally grind to a halt and I can sew something fun!!  For the last piece of Mitch's Renaissance Festival garb, I used his TNT scrubs pattern, and just left off the back pocket.  Utterly boring, and I am not going to put you to sleep with the gory details.

However, here is a cute picture of my Renaissance Man, all put together.  As you can see, not much of the pants even show.  I did not expend much care on these pants for two reasons.  One, I am tired of sewing costumes.  Two (and the primary reason) Mitch is planning to get some new boots at the Faire this year, which means I will be making new (and better) pants for next year.

I am happy to say that Mitch LOVES his tunic.  So much that he wanted me to show you a better picture of it, so that you can all admire how great it looks on him.  Also, because the trim is awesomely cool, and he wanted you to see it.  I think also we may need to get a new belt when we get him some new boots...

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Speaking of boots, I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who chimed in about appropriate footwear to go with my dress.  In the spirit of practicality, I went shopping for boots. 

and came home with these!  The picture is making them look a bit more golden than they are, but I think they are just right!

For those who may be questioning my reference to these as practical, I invite you into my closet for a random sampling of the shoes that were on the floor after having been kicked off this week.

As you can see, the caramel boots are distinctly practical in comparison...

And, since shoes should always be purchased in pairs...

These came home with me, too.  Won't they look amazing with my black silk pants??

Simplicity 4378 again

Whew!  These took me forever, and I fudged so many things on them.  Don't look closely at the breast pocket.  It is completely in Mitch's armpit.  I'm not sure how I did that, since I used the same placement markings as last time and the pocket is fine on the last set.  And the shoulder pleats are facing the wrong direction.  WTH??  Anyway, Mitch declares them wearable, so I'm calling that good enough!

Like the cheesy pose I talked him into?

It just goes to show that when you aren't really excited about a project, you won't really have your mind on it.  My head has been occupied with other things.
My Sew Chic Myrtlewood pattern arrived, as well as the pink and brown herringbone wool from which I am planning to make it.  Now I just need lining fabric and an accent piece for the hip sash.  I was planning a trip to Dallas yesterday with my mom to go to the Golden D'Or in search of the perfect thing, but Myra developed a stomach bug, so I stayed home with her.  Now I'm waiting for some swatches of Ambiance and some silk dupioni to come from fabric.com in hopes of a color match.  We'll see...
On the houndstooth coating front I've nearly decided to use Simplicity 2764, although I am very nervous about pattern matching.  The front isn't actually a princess seam, but rather a shaped release tuck.  Interesting construction, but we'll have to see how it plays out in real life.  The cover picture shows a plaidish fabric, so I'm hoping that bodes well for my houndstooth, but I am worried about how my inevitable FBA will distort the lines.  We'll just have to see.  I'd like for this to be an early foray into learning some tailoring techniques, specifically stabilizing the raglan sleeve with a stay and building in some structure with interfacing.  I'm also planning to add a lining, which the pattern does not include.  It should be an interesting adventure.
These two projects have totally taken over all sewing portions of my brain, so I really can't be responsible for my actions in the sewing room right now.  I think I may have to shove aside my January plans in favor of this dress and jacket.  How fun is that!?
And before I go - another cheesy shot of my cute hubby!

Simplicity 4378 - take 2

I really, really wanted Mitch to be able to wear his scrubs on call last night, and by the expedient of sewing in every single spare minute, I managed it.  Fortunately I had my sewing group, so I was able to finish up the pants without small fry underfoot.  That was great!

Look, he's smiling!  He tried them on for me last night and raved about the fit, the pockets, the neckline - everything.  He loves them!  Whew!  As you can see, we toned down the color a bit, which should help prevent him from being mistaken for the nurse, which actually was a problem with the darker blue.  This pale blue is a much more traditional color for doctors.
I made a few other changes, both to improve fit and the overall look and functionality.  I added a bit to the side seams of the pants.  As I mentioned when I made the last pair, they were a bit snug in the thigh.   I think that this is a combination of Mitch's runner's legs and the fact that this is a "unisex" pattern, which always seems to mean "drafted for women, with men as an afterthought".  This was also a problem in the shoulders.  Mitch has quite broad shoulders in the back (from swimming), but the top fit elsewhere, so I added an ease pleat to the back shoulder.

He likes it.  The fit is much better and he has much better movement.  That took care of the fit issues.  Look and functionality were the next problems to tackle.  Mitch wasn't a fan of the low-cut neckline, but I was afraid if I raised it too much he wouldn't be able to get it over his head.  I decided to sew up a muslin with the neckline where he requested it and see.  I also tested out my ease pleats on the muslin.  What do you know - he was right!  It fits great with the neckline a full inch higher.  I also tossed out those horrible neckline facings in favor of a mitered, bound neckline, which is what you see in higher end RTW scrubs.

Nice, eh?  For a first attempt at mitering an inside corner, I think it came out pretty well!  You can also see the breast pocket, which I divided (by sewing a straight line - he he), to allow for a separate pen/caliper pocket.  Mitch loves that!

Well, I am really happy with how these came out.  Mitch seems to be as well, although the true test will be when he gets home later today, after living in them for 30 hours or so.

Test run!

Mitch wore his new scrubs to work today. He likes them, so that makes me happy. There are a few more minor changes for the next set, but nothing critical, so that pattern is a go. The color, while fabulous and exactly what Mitch wanted, is also the precise color worn by the nursing staff on one of the floors where Mitch often is working, so I think we'll be going with the more traditional "doctor" blue for the next round. Apparently his co-workers spent the day asking him why he was wearing nurses scrubs.

It also got a wee bit cooler today and so Logan got to wear his jacket.
I think that delighted face says it all.

In other news, I got started on Vogue 8323. I am making view A, but with the 3/4 sleeves. By my upper bust I am a size 10, but by both measurement and tissue fit, I need a 1 inch FBA. This is the first time I've needed a full FBA on something with a princess seam, so I used this really cool tutorial to help. It's great! It even has animations to show you how to spread the pattern.
Here are my altered pattern pieces. This was a little complicated because of the wrap neckline. How weird does that pattern piece look? The big "wing" is the wrap self-facing. I had to sort of reflect my slash and spread at an angle to resize the front, but so far it looks good. Maybe I'll have a new top to show you soon!

Simplicity 4378

We're still not sleeping, so I've been getting grumpier by the day - missing my favorite therapy - so my sweet hubby shuttled me off to the sewing room yesterday, and I go to sew all morning! Turns out, I was working on a second trial of scrubs for him, so we both got something out of the deal. My first attempt at a scrub set for him resulted in scrubs that were too big in the top, too long in the rise and too short. Hmm - not really wearable. He also told me that he prefers a set-in sleeve. Would you believe that I could only find one scrubs pattern that has a set in sleeve!! This is it. Simplicity 4378.

I even checked Kwik Sew, Burda and Ebay/Etsy. This was it.
Anyway, here they are. I made both the top and the pants from the pattern. Tracing Mitch's favorite scrub pants didn't work, since the fabric was so different, it changed the way it felt to him, so I decided to scrap that and start over. These pants had the features that Mitch was looking for, so I gave them a go. We like them! The fit isn't perfect, but he loves the pockets. So did I! The pocket and facings were all one piece, so you just folded it to form the pocket bag. Way cool! The only changes I made were to move the cargo pockets to the rear and added a self-fabric casing. The pattern called for a ribbon, which I thought was weird. They fit fairly well, although I'll add a bit to the width next time, just for comfort. Mitch is a runner, so he likes a little extra room in the thigh. The drawstring, per the pattern is self-fabric with an elastic component. Self-fabric drawstrings don't bear the weight of several pagers and phones well, so I used cotton strapping as usual, but the idea of the elastic was interesting, so I gave it a go. Mitch isn't sure he's sold on the idea, so we'll see how it performs.
From the back, you can see that the top is quite snug across the shoulders.
Up closer - the sleeves are really straining. Good thing I double stitched those seams! The top is going to need some serious reworking. Obviously, I'll be altering the fit in the shoulders. I also really dislike the neckline. It is faced and topstitched, a treatment I have never seen in RTW scrubs. And can we talk about what a pain that was!? I definitely prefer the band, but I may try a mitered binding for the next one, since that is generally what you see in RTW.

Tomorrow Mitch is going to wear them to work for a road test, so we'll see, but I think we are nearly there!