Hello, friends! I hope the weather has been as lovely in your corner of the world as it has been for me these past few weeks, because it really is nice outside. I’m savoring all that spring has to offer before the heat of summer truly kicks in.
That’s not what I came to talk about today though. No, I realized a while ago that I’ve gone over six months without having a big costume project to work on. Six months! Half a year! Do you know what that is?
Unacceptable, that’s what! So I’ve set out to fix the situation by entering the annual Foundations Revealed competition. For those of you who don’t know, Foundations Revealed is a membership-based resource for sewing, especially historical sewing. I’m not personally a member (grad student budget, anyone?), but I happily gobble up their free resources, and I’d love to be a member someday. Each year, their competition has a theme, and this year’s is characters from literature (poems, novels, short stories, etc.). No character came immediately to mind, so I went searching and happened upon a poem by Thomas Hood titled The Dream Fairy. In it, the eponymous fairy comes down from the moon to grant dreams to good children. It’s a cute poem, and it gave me a similarly cute idea for a costume.
(As it turns out, tracing over a photograph is the fastest way to get realistic proportions for your design sketch. I have no shame.)
Art skills aside, let me take you on a tour of the plan. I’ve been itching to try my hand at some historical sewing for a while now, so the costume is based on late 19th century undergarments. Dreams are something of a transitional state, between sleep and wakefulness, so I want to capture that feeling in a “transitional” type of dress, as if the fairy were caught changing clothes. Plus, undergarments are typically simple and easy to make: an ideal first project! The specific pieces I’m going to make are a chemise, drawers, and stockings. I’ll trim everything with handmade lace (of course) and embroidery.
Then there’s the wings. Every fairy needs a pair, and what better wings for a fairy who comes down from the moon than those of a luna moth? I mean, just look at these beautiful bugs!
This is actually one of my own photos: I was lucky enough to spot a luna moth a few years back and wasted no opportunity in photographing it. They’re fairly rare to spot since they only live as adults for a short while. The fairy’s wings are modeled directly after the luna moth, both in shape and color. I’m going to make the frame out of wire and fill it in with crocheted mesh, in the style of Irish lace. In the interest of fantasy, I’d also like to add some floral motifs, as both the wing-spots and the top edge of the upper wings. Of course, I’ll need a harness of some sort to attach them to, and the chemise will need to be able to accommodate them. I expect the wings will be the most complicated part of the costume, and might require a few prototypes, but they also have the potential to be the most eye-catching component as well.
To be honest, I’m pretty nervous to enter this competition. I saw the entries for the previous years, and everything is amazing, even down to the absolute beginner level. I’m not entering to win, but I’d like to make something to be proud of. That being said, all we can do is our own personal best, right? I’m excited to start this project, and I’m excited to share it with you all! So stay tuned to hear more about it, and until next time, stay crafty!
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