Woman In Black

Last night, I took the Woman In Black blu-ray to my parents' house, and made them watch it.  (It's fun to scare my mom.  What can I say?)  I decided that this will most likely be my Halloween costume this year.  I've slacked HARD these last couple of years, and I really need to make up for it.  So the 2012 version of the film is set in the Edwardian era, which is roughly 1890 to 1918.  I made an Edwardian corset this winter, which would be perfect to wear under my mourning gown.  Except that I'm not sure what style the Woman In Black's clothing is. 

I've been scouring the interwebs all morning for good images of the costume, but there don't seem to be any.  I found this silhouette from behind, which tells us that the skirt isn't super voluminous, and neither are the sleeves.  From what I can tell (and please correct me if I'm wrong), that points to the Edwardian era.  

But then, there are these, which look more like Victorian clothing to me.

This photo, the adopted parents with Nathaniel, also look like late Victorian clothing. 

The timeline in the story is a little fuzzy, too.  I'm not sure how long ago the woman died.  I might go watch the movie again, to see if I can find dates on the death certificates in the movie.  At least it would give me a solid starting point.  I'd really like to find the costume test shots, but that would decidedly ruin the ghostliness of the Woman, for those who haven't seen the film. 

Seams in Sheers

My chosen project from the Burdastyle Handbook is the blouse, and I'm doing it in a sheer fabric.  It's going beautifully, but I should have done a bit of research first.  The seams are not very attractive, and I need to find a way to fix that.  Had I planned ahead properly, I would have found that there are a great number of ways to finish seams in sheer fabric, and that the most preferred is the French Seam.  That involves sewing the pieces with the wrong sides together, which is not what I have done.  So, I'm going to attempt a false French seam with only a 1/2" seam allowance.  It will be slow and tedious, but hopefully the results will be worth it!

The Cutting Class has a very nice illustration of French seams.  I think I'm going to look a little more closely at the rest of their site, too!

Threads has some interesting alternatives that completely hide the seam allowance, leaving nothing more than a tiny band of color in its place.  Kind of wild, really.

And I seem to remember something about adding a flesh colored piece of fabric to the inner side of a seam to hide it, I think from Gretchen Hirsch, but I'm not sure.  If anyone finds that tip, please let me know!

Wish me luck!

H&M Sweatshirt Peplum Blazer

What the heck is a sweatshirt peplum blazer? It's the best way I could describe this jacket, which I found at H&M.

Actually, I'm not certain it was this exact blazer, but the one I saw was so lovely! It was made of sweatshirt material in bright primary red or blue, with big buttons, and princess seams. Naturally, they didn't have it in my size. I'd probably have tried to make it, even if they did... Anyway, I think this is a comparable pattern:


Or this:


They each achieve a similar shape, but without the seam at the waist!  And who doesn't love a nice long line?