progress

Started working on filling up Brinna's sidebar. She doesn't have as much time to work on content as myself, nor as much html know-how, but we'll get there. I'm still working on my side, too.

Twilight blouse

inspired by Stacie Orrico's tunic on her album Stacie Orrico

i wore this for Easter, but have never been happy with the lay of the neckline (the fabric is really too thick for the proper drape). Pictures should be forthcoming soon.

patterns
Vogue 7800 A for tunic (modified = sleeves)

fabric
100% (Kona?) cotton in dark purple

notions
silver eyelets
silver embroidery floss

Hobbit Lass outfit

made and designed by Luinel
inspired by Danielle's work dress in Ever After

As a child, we never celebrated Halloween. I never went trick or treating. There was one harvest fest at are church where i dressed up (i think as Laura from Little House on the Prarie) and one homeschool book report (with other homeschoolers where we dressed up as our favorite character) where i dressed up as Abigail from Ten Kids No Pets. Until i was over eighteen i never wore costumes. That sort of changed when we moved to Colorado and began helping with the Harvest Festivals at our church. The first year i threw together a Hobbit costume that was decidedly lacking (but pretty good for two hours planning). When i joined the NC Fellowship i knew that would no longer make the cut.

So i decided to make myself a costume. Unlike most of my peers i didn't have anyone i wanted to emulate. I only knew that i am mainly a Frodo and Gandalf fan (and i didn't want to dress like them, particularly because our mod already had a good Frodo outfit). Luinel was only beginning to be born deep in my mind and, at this point, was only the alias i used in the group. I didn't have much time to make a costume. I decided to watch Ever After for inspiration (one of my favorite Drew Barrymore films). Almost instantly, my Hobbit lass outfit was born.

Danielle's work dress is the inspiration, but as i have no one to lace me up nor the budget for the fabric to make so many layers i found a pattern that was slightly similar but not identical and used it. I wanted to use all natural fibers (the obvious exception is my cloak) so i scrounged for 100% cotton (i shopped at Mary Jo's Fabrics, Wal-Mart, and Hancock Fabrics), and dyed the overdress blue myself. For the undershirt i was sort of inspired by Eowyn and made a v-neck, for the colors i was inspired by Gandalf and chose a dark grey courderoy. I always intended to sew arm bands or wear cotton yarn wrapped around my sleeves (like Dannielle and Eowyn respectively) but never got around to sewing the cuffs or braiding some cotton. The shirt's fabric is a natural linen instead of strongly bleached, the overdress' less finely woven and even more natural with brown flecks. The skirt was only a yard of fabric: i cut it with a slight A-line shape, designed my own button flap, and used these beautiful grey buttons that i found at Hancock (plastic, but beautiful).

The result is what you see before you. Very little modification, buttonholes for the laces (which i swore never to do again, particularly because the buttonholer was broken on the machine i was using and i had to do it myself with zigzag and a four point turn), and a quick costume in time for the Renaissance Faire in Huntersville, NC. All in all: looking back i would have done things differently, but i learned a lot, and now have no desire to stop costuming.

patterns
Simplicity 7756 B overdress (modification = buttonholes instead of eyelets)
a pattern of my aunt's for the top (an old one that i borrowed and would not recommend to anyone)
no pattern for skirt
the cloak was made from a pattern / tutorial at Alley Cat's LotR Costumes

fabric
100% cotton muslin, loosely woven, with brown flecks throughout
100% cotton muslin, natural
100% cotton courderoy, dark grey (not historically accurate from a Renaissance pov, but pretty, none the less)
i don't remember what kind of fabric i made the cloak from, though it was definitely artificial in origin and semi-melted when ironed; it has a rough texture on one side and is soft on the other side and is very warm

notions
light blue thread
white thread
white cotton cord for lacing
four dark grey buttons (for skirt closure)
non-fusible interfacing (for lacing reinforcement)

under construction

As i'm sure you can see, this blog isn't exactly all here yet. We're still working out the kinks and uploading content to our sites, but rest assured we'll be blogging soon. Hope you enjoy what you see so far and please come back soon for more.

first post

I've been wanting to write more about my knitting and sewing designs for a couple of years now. It started when i began designing my Hobbit Lass costume shortly after joining the NC Fellowship. After I was done I found that i couldn't stop designing and dreaming up new things to make. It's amazing to me that i moved to Charlotte, NC, in August of 2003, joined the group, attended a viewing of the Two Towers at our fearless leader's home, and i designed and completed a costume before October 31st when the group attended the Renn Faire in Huntersville. This was of course months before attending Trilogy Tuesday in Raleigh--in costume--with a lot of other kindred spirits (thanks so much to King Cardlothien who organized it for us).

Since then i've taken knitting up again and am sewing both projects that have been on the backburner for a couple of years and new ones. The NC Fellowship was a good place for me to become passionate about both or the above because so many of the people there were just as crazy as me (if not crazier) and wanted to have costumes just like i did. I learned a lot there and miss belonging to a group like that.

I have found that i still greatly want to share the entire experience with others. Because my focus has switched to blogging since then it seems natural to me to start sharing my ideas here. I'm all fired up from reading other peoples' knitting blogs and have been inspired by a lot of movies lately (as well as spoiler images for upcoming movies). I think that knitting and sewing will always be a part of my life... i don't know about costuming. It's important to me that, if i sew a costume, i can wear it in real life, too. Parts of my Hobbit lass outfit got a lot of wear for quite a while. If i'm going to make a costume i have to be comfortable wearing it in public or what's the point?

The name for this blog came from a strange but perfectly natural place... My sister and i have had a secret syntax for a long time; it's not that we've made up a language, it's just that we know each other so well and are passionate about so many of the same things that we can talk to each other kind of in code. You wouldn't want to play Taboo with us while we are on the same team (we slaughtered the other team at a New Years party a couple of years ago)! We spent last spring break in Yuma and i quickly got fed up trying to find a single swimsuit that would modestly and attractively fit a young woman who has DD or DDD breasts. I finally said that i'd just have to design my own suit and market it to the public along with a line of clothes and lingerie. That evening we came up with a name for such a store: Big Tracts of Land.

Fans of Monty Python and the Holy Grail may understand the reference: at one point in the film a young man is being coerced into marrying a woman with "big tracts of land" by his father. When you see the bride it's obvious that land isn't the only thing she's well endowed with. It was just a joke but i fell in love with the idea. The funny thing is that my sis is pregnant and now having the same trouble finding stuff that fits because of her new size. Now i'm not planning to sell anything here, but i just thought it would still be a good title for showing off the stuff my sister and i have made. Who knows how long this site will last or where it will go, i'm just full of tmi on the subject to comfortably stay quiet.