Looking Less Like A Theater Goer And More Like The Cast?

I've started trying to design clothes instead of just throw myself into them lately, and decide what kind of thing I want to wear with the help of Pinterest. I've come up against a hitch.

It seems like many amateur seamstresses, who's blogs I read for far to long each day, have an aversion to hand made clothes that look 'home made', 'home-ecy' or like some kind of costume, but I don't seem to have the same problem.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to wear poorly made or poorly fitting clothes, but looking a bit like I've just come from a street carnival doesn't set off the alarm bells that maybe it should.

The people I hang out with probably contributed to this. I've talked about my goal to make a cosplay costume, now even more important for going to video gaming conventions with my boyfriend, I've talked about going to goth festivals with my family, and I regularly go to parties where the dress below would be greeted with joy, complements, but not one weird look.

(source)

I love ridiculous embellishments, frills, useless buttons and stylish embroidery and I went through a phase when I was a teen where I wore pink feather fake eyelashes and borrowed the glue from them to stick plastic gems to my face. I see feathers and gold and silly hats and I start thinking about how I could make one for myself.

(source)

Maybe I have a not so deeply buried dream of being a costume designer. Maybe I just want to be an art instillation. Do you think it would be possible for a woman to make a bit of cash posing for pictures in ridiculous dresses like drag queens or people who impersonate superheros and celebrities?

Maybe I should have been born a drag queen. I'd have come out bright pink feathers and all.

(source)

I've mostly decided just to live with my nutty side. Any friends I want to keep won't treat me any worse for it, it brings me incredible joy to dress up and hey, even if I get made fun of on the street I can just take a taxi.

Embellishments

I've been thinking a lot about ways to personalize the clothes I make lately. I love what I've made but it's not the amazingly fantastical wardrobe that I dream of.

(source)

I've been a little addicted to pinterest lately and I've been making an online inspiration board so that I can put some actual planning into my next project instead of doing the first thing that springs to mind.

It's actually helping me learn a lot about my tastes that I didn't know before and showing me things I didn't consider before (and some I still won't).

One of the first dresses I fell in love with was this one to the left. It's 125 years old and it was made for Ellen Terry, a famous Elizabethan actress, to wear when she played Lady Macbeth. It's covered in hundreds of jewel beetle shells, many of which had to be sewn back on or even fixed when it was restored.

I'd love to try using them on one of my own creations and I even have a plan in my mind. I'm going to make an old Butterick 5967 in green satin with the beetle wings as trim along the neck and edges.

It seems like not many home sewers try out beetle wings (yeah, I'm not surprised either) but the nice woman over at Needle n' Thread did a project with them and helpfully describes how to prepare and work with them. Now I just have to read the rest of her blog. :)

(source)

If I do make this dress I'll definitely be make this embroidered beetle as a hair clip. It was designed by Michele Carragh for a costume for Game of Thrones using references from 'The Stumpwork, Goldwork and Surface Embroidery Beetle Collection' by Jane Nicholas.

(source)

How fancy do you guys let your projects get?