October was very eventful. I wouldn’t say it was productive because I didn’t get that much accomplished, but a lot happened!

I started and completed three dresses. I began work on two others. I added more fabric and glittery things to my ever growing collection. I got photos of my flower dresses. And I received a copy of a book that i’m in! This is going to be a write up of all those things, along with sharing my plans for November.

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Starting with the most unusual and arguably most exciting thing: I’m in a book! A real book with pages, one you can go out and buy or order from Amazon! This is the book, I don’t make anything from sales so I won’t be encouraging anyone to buy it, but I might mention it a lot because I find it neat.

It has a couple photos of my Elsa costume and I answer a few questions about the process of making it!

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This month also included two photoshoots, both for my flower dresses. The first was for my Halloween Inspired dress, and the second was for my Fall Fairy! The Halloween inspired photos are posted here, and i’ll be posting the pumpkin patch pictures closer to Thanksgiving. I’m really happy with this set of photos, they are exactly what I had picture while making the dress!

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Projects for November will be a strange variety. I’m aiming to complete two 19th century projects for “Nineteenth Century November”. This will include a Gordon Highlanders inspired uniform and a Regency dress.

The dress is actually one I started a few months ago and never completed – it’s been taking up space in my WIP drawers for months, so it’s time to get it finished!

I’ll also be working to complete two projects I started in October. The first is a maroon middle ages inspired ensemble that consists of a dress, chemise, and gold chiffon overdress. Right now the chemise is complete, the dress is made (just needs sleeves and eyelets), and the overdress is still in the planning stages.

The second is a brown menswear inspired ensemble that consists of a tunic, doublet, and pants. It started out as a Renaissance themed outfit but it kind of has bits that belong in the 1600’s too… so it won’t be anything resembling historically accurate, but i’ve really enjoyed making it and am happy to have some tailored pieces in my portfolio! Right now the doublet is almost done, it just needs lining and eyelets up the front. I haven’t started on the pants or tunic, but those should be easy by comparison.

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This month I finished my two 18th century pieces, a Robe l’Anglaise which was kind of a fail, and a Chemise a la Reine.  I also completed the chiffon chemise for my Middle Ages outfit, I’ll have a blog post about this up soon. I really love the color, it’s such a lovely rose  tone.

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Now for the heap of things I bought. I’ve been really using up my fabric collection, last month alone I used 25 some yards of fabric, a lot of which have been in my collection since the start of this year.

Fabric is my main source of inspiration and without piles of it around I tend to feel reluctant about using material, I mean what if I run out? I know that is a silly fear because I still have more than enough to make fifteen costumes, but my shelves were looking empty…

Last week Joanns was having a big sale so I decided to get some things to fill the emptiness. This led to three new project ideas, an order from Onlinefabricstore.net, a trip to Michaels and an amazon order.

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The first project idea is a Toothless pajama set – he’s the main dragon in my favorite film How To Train Your Dragon. Ever since making my Appa PJ’s I’ve wanted to do something similar with his character and seeing minky fabric 50% off was the push I needed!

 I got three yards of the black double sided ultra cuddle fabric, then ordered one yard of normal minky and one yard of minky stone, which looks like it has a scale pattern! I’m not sure when i’ll start this project – it probably won’t be until the new year, since minky makes a HUGE mess.

My Christmas costume is going to be a huge glitter ball which will be bad enough, I don’t want to deal with black fuzz at the same time!

I also bought more plaid with a civil war era dress in mind. Last time I was sad because they didn’t have enough to make a dress with, but this time they had a full eight yard bolt, so I grabbed it up! The plaid dresses in the mid 1800’s were usually made from cotton, but this has such great texture and I loved it too much to resist.

I got eight yards of the plaid and a single yard of a matching green.

 I bought ivory gauze for a tunic (the one that will be paired with my doublet), two yards of glitter chiffon, and a little more than a yard of gold and ivory quilters cotton. These two fabrics were the color inspiration for my Chrsitmas costume idea. I’m not sure how they will be used in the finished piece, but I loved the textures!

Lastly from Joanns I got a slew of random items. Gold beads, ornaments, grommets, and a pendant for my christmas costume. Brown beads for my Doublet, and scented pinecones. I’m not sure what the pinecones will be used for – I might make them into a headpiece, or spray paint them gold for my christmas costume. Right now they are making my sewing room smell delicious, so i’m not in a big rush to use them!

 Also from onlinefabricstore I bought a bolt of ivory tulle, five yards of organza, and five yards of buckram trim. I needed to spend three more dollars to quality for free shipping, so I got a yard of medium buckram as well!

Then it was time for Michaels where I got a heap of christmas decorations. I’m planning on making two headpieces and using the rest for my dress.

I got three of these crazy glittery garlands which I love to bits. They are so sparkly!

And thirteen of fake, miniature, gold, poinsettias. I used some of these last year to make a headpiece and knew I wanted even more this year! I remember when I was younger I was scared of poinsettias because my parents said they were poisonous. At the time I didn’t know the poison was mild, so whenever I saw someone touch one I would be scared they would die.

 Lastly I got candles and ribbon! The ribbon will be used for lacing and the candles are for a headpiece. That headpiece is going to be a crown and a candelabra. Which is probably a huge fire hazard and may not actually work, but i’m determined to make it look lovely.

So that’s it! I had planned to put up a making of post but I forgot to get photos of the finished dress, so that will have to wait until Monday.

Thanks for reading!