Brielle's Notions

I shall return in August!

Greetings,

I am afraid I must bid you all a fond farewell...but it shall not be forever!

I shall return in August to open up the costume shop again.

I am going to be out of town on another job.

If you send me an e-mail inquiring about a costume and/or estimate... I won't be able to reply until I return. You will recieve a "vaction reply" from me.

If you would like to reserve a space on my Halloween Costume Sewing Schedule leave a comment here or shoot me an e-mail. I shall respond first part of August.

 

Have an amazing summer full of adventure!

"I have no say in it, Gibbs. It's a pirates life for me. Savvy?!"

Farewell my loyal followers...I shall miss you!!

 

P.S. Thank you all for your compliments towards my Snow White costume! Very kind of you indeed.

 

Spiderman Inspired Nailpolish.....oh yes.

Greetings!

I was rather happy about the new OPI collection nailpolish.

This summer it is inspired by the most recent remake of Spiderman.

At first I was kind of leery of yet another spiderman movie. However, this one appears to be really cool! I am looking forward to seeing it.

With me being the only girl growing up with my brothers I became rather saturated with superhero fun. So Spiderman toys and comic book tales are rather familar to me. (as well as Batman, X-men...and all other assorted awesomeness) 

Thus the reason for my superhero love I am sure. 

Anyway....

...While wondering around Ulta I spotted the "Spiderman" display in the corner.

So, what was a girl to do? Why purchase 2 colors of course!

To be honest I was really dissapointed there was not a "Spidey" red. I mean, come on. It is a Spiderman Collection and no bright red! I am ashamed of you OPI!

However, they did (almost) make up for it with a great shade of bright blue and lizard green that I purchased.

Here is what the nail colors look like....

 

Some close up shots........ Yes, I used both colors.

Why not? I was feeling wild.

I even wore it to see Avengers....for the 3rd time. shhh...

The blue color is very much a brilliant blue color. Super pretty in the sunlight. I also really liked the green color because it has so many golden tones to it.

Most of my nail polish are very dark vampy hues so these are perfect for summer.

Do you have a favorite nail color for summer?

 

Thanks for reading and don't forget....

"With great power comes great responsibility". 

Have an awesome day!

 

Snap Shots of a Vampire....

Greetings,

We had a more professional indoor photo shoot planned in a studio, but due to technical difficulties it didn't end up happening. However, I didn't want to waste my makeup and dress....

So I figured why not a snap a few shots in the yard?

Might as well make the most of if it before the rain hit again. 

To see more shots and information about the dress click this little link...

However, once with weather turned dark I decided to snap a few shots of my fangs in the house.

hahaha. Yeah.......so there ya go.

That's right. No sparkles in site. I prefer classic vampires.

You might want to put some garlic and vervain at your window tonight....

Have a great day.

Lovely Gowns in "The Raven"...

Greetings,

I just returned from seeing "The Raven" today. I thought it 'twas an entertaining well done adaption of Poe's classic tales all rolled into one.

This has always been my favorite of his works so I simply had to see it.

As Poe's tale "The Raven" was published in 1845 I assumed we would at least get a couple of pretty dresses from the ladies in the movie.  

The costumes did not disappoint!

The Costume Designer was Carlo Poggioli. Who also did the designs for Van Helsing, Season of the Witch, Cold Mountain, Brothers Grimm..etc...

He brought that perfect blend of dark romantic into the costumes.

Emily Hamilton was the main lady of this gothic victorian tale.

Thus, I decided to just focus on her costumes for this post.

           *A little Phantom of the Opera-ish don't you think?*

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, .....

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore....

"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore-
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
                Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (a few lines, not the complete tale)

I wasn't able to find stills of all her costumes...but here are few. From what I can recall I think she wore 5 gowns and then lovely victorian undergarments.

The men's costumes were excellent as well! Lots of thought went behind each look. Poe had an awesome black wool circle cloak with a high collar.

Now I want to create a gown for a masquerade! Oh what fun it would be. I love the off the shoulder gowns and long gloves...just stunning.

 

Thank you for reading. Have a magical day!

2012 Costume Wishlist (for me)

Greetings,

So with 2012 underway I wanted to share a little list with you.

I have had a checklist going of costumes I would like to recreate for myself this year. Now, everything is completely subject to change of course. Nothing is set in stone.

I forced myself to only pick 10 costumes from my giant wish list.....however...knowing me, I shall probably change things around and make something else too. Or....three and completely leave out one on the list. No idea.  We shall see....

 

~ Brielle's 2012 Costume Sewing Wish List ~

"Movie Inspired Costumes"

 

1. Arwen Coronation Gown  (and shoes)

I actually just finished this costume! It has been in the process of being made for....years, but at least we can check it off the list.

 Would you like to see some sneak peaks of please click here...or the real thing here

If I had my way I would love to recreate every single one of Arwen's Costumes....but alas....time does not allow..and one can only afford so much silk velvet.

 

2. Sim's Gypsy Costume

This costume is from the new Sherlock Holmes Movie "Game of Shadows".

Sim wears it when she is going to be attacked by the Russian and first meeting Holmes. Love that whole chase scene...and the music. You can read my research for that costume here As a true sherlock purest, no...they didn't do everything right, but the costumes are great in this movie!

 

3. Costume Re-Make: Elena's Dancing Dress

ok. So, I made this costume....back in, 2006?...2007? I think it was. However, my skills have improved and now the costume is too big for me. So I am going to remake the bodice completely and keep the orginal skirt I made. That is easy to take in..etc.

So excited! This is one of my very favorite movies. LOVE it....

At least I have a corset,....and the puffy slip...oh and the leather boots!

4. Oliva Dunham's Jacket(s)

I suppose it isn't a "real" costume, but a garment.

However I have been wanting to make a really nice fitted black jacket like Oliva's for over a year now. So I need to get that done. Just a classic fitted jacket to accent the waist and be worn with just about everything. I figured I might as well copy hers.

Olivia is from the tv show Fringe. You can check out my post about that here

 

5. Victorian Gown (and corset, etc...)

My wardrobe is lacking a true Victorian Gown. I am so excited about this one! I found a sketch I drew in the college library 2 years back...(completely forgot about it) and have decided to make it.

So I am re-drawing it and working with that idea. It isn't really based upon anything other than my own mind, but... I have placed some Victorian Gown pictures that capture the mood of what I am thinking.... what say you?

6. Anna Valerious's Riding Costume

This Costume is from the 2004 version of Van Helsing.

Ok, I know...I know, it isn't like the real classic Dracula book..and the classic Van Helsing didn't look anything like Hugh Jackman. However...for all the hollywood glam and slightly cheesy lines..I like this movie anyway. And the costumes. Well. Those are awesome.

Sort of goes with my Victorian Gown up there.....and I have the sword!

 

7. Elena's Black Bodice and Brown Skirt...

 I could wear this in real life....right? LOVE all her costumes in Mask of Zorro.

You can't see the skirt in these images, but it is a very pretty brown silk with black velvet ribbon around the bottom. Worn with black leather boots...of course!

I actually got my hair cut like this. Not that it really looks like hers..but hey, a girl can dream.

 

8. Elizabeth Bennet's Brown Linen Dress.

This costume of mine is actually...um...mostly done. I have it pretty much finished, but the dress turned out too big. So I have been avoiding seam ripping it out so I can make it smaller, but I MUST make time for it. (one should not avoid her seam ripper...)

I actually like all of her costumes in this movie. I simply picked the brown one because I had some brown linen. :)

I figured I should have at least one "Jane Austen" dress in my collection.

 

 9. Blair Williams Jacket (Terminator Salvation)

I really love this jacket. The style is great. Styled with the v-neck blue tee and necklaces it gives sort of a cool look..I could wear it with one of my organic skirts too.

 

 10. Cora Munro Costume (Last of the Mohican's)

This has been on the "to make list" for a long while now. I think it would be so much fun to go do a photo shoot at a historic fort!...I just need a good pistol. Hmm...and tomahawk. Easy enough.

 Just have to find some striped skirt fabric...and make the corset too. 

 

I really want this one to though.....

11. Blood Red Arwen Dress

So I might have to do another Arwen dress too...just because.

 

_______ Total Wish List item....er....Dream List? _______

1. Zam Wessel Costume

Star Wars Fans, I want to try and make this costume. Princess Leia is my favorite lady in Star Wars....however, she doesn't have any costumes that are extra special or that stand out to me.

So I decided to go with this costume because I have always liked it....

 

2. Quorra (Tron)

Wouldn't this be so much fun? I just don't currently have the money to make it yet.....

 but I do have some boots! However...I don't want to cut them up to put lights in them...so I better find a less pricey pair to create some light ups... I like that her costume has a leather skirt too. Or...should I say, digital leather? o.O

_________________________________________________ 

Anything you think I should make?

I am totally open to ideas....

__________________________________________________

See it isn't too massive of a list,...is it?

Everything could change.

I only work on my own stuff on the weekends, but I figured this was a start! 

Customers are always first. :)

 Thanks for reading!

A hat fit for a hatter.....maybe even a mad hatter.

Greetings!

Someone e-mailed me just yesterday asking if I had finished my Mad Hatter Hat....and yes! I have.

I also make a Mad Hatter coat....I better get those pictures posted soon as well.

Here is what the Mad Hatter's looked like in Tim Burton's version of "Alice in Wonderland".

Another shot of the full hat...so you can see how tall it is.....

I shall also post about it over at the costume site on my Alice Costumes page, but I wanted to share it here first. So if you want to see it on the website click here

I do still need to get some hat pins, but that can wait for now...and I also need to sew some pink thread on the peacock feather, but alas....moving on. 

Now, my hat is not identical in every way to the original one from the movie, but as with all my costumes it is simply "movie inspired"

So here are a few pictures of my Mad Hatter Hat....

This was my first "real" hat to construct. I have done some hats for theater productions..etc...but not to this level of detail. The base was first created from layers of hat buckrum then I built it up with felted wool and other random bits of notions.

All the fabrics are real silk. Rather wonderland don't you think?

The fabric for the outer part of the hat was something I dyed.. It is 100% silk (actually it was a lovely shade of light gold when I started..) but in order for it to become a proper Mad Hatter Hat...well, it needed to be green-ish.

The Scarf/Sash tied around this tall hat is also 100% silk, in a lovely rosy shade rather similar to the movie I thought.

I then painted daisy flowers around the bottom in a similar fashion to the movie hat.

I decided to stitch up the back of my hat to sort of look like "lacing" simply because I thought it was a fun whimsical touch.

The lining for the hat is a dark brown silk with gold dots on it. The movie one is brown and red dots, but I couldn't find one like that...but I thought the golden dots still matched nicely. :)

Here are a few closer up shots of the stiching. I wanted to make it rather...."Mad Hatter" style so I whipstiched the edges together with this lovely thread woven from diffrent strands of color.

My brother made this awesome hat stand for me. Looks perfect with the hat I think.

And last but not least.... two more shots of the complete hat.

I was trying to make the display look similar to a Disneyland window display on MainStreet...so it sort of looks like that, a little bit...just need some disney magic.

Thanks for looking at my hat!

Battle of the Evil Queens.....

Greetings,

There has been a lot of "buzz" about the new Snow White movies in the costume world...

On one side you have Snow White and the Huntsman...and the other, Mirror, Mirror

Each movie has its own little story line, one seems to be a more dark fantasy and the other appears to be a light hearted (cheesy?) comedy.

Costumes for the "Huntsmen"  are designed by Colleen Atwood.

Costumes for the "Mirror Mirror" are designed by Eiko Ishioka

 

However, what I noticed out of the 2 trailers the most...was the queens. 

What queen shall you be voting for?

I personally...really like the look of Charlize Theron's queen the best. Amazing costume work and her overall look is just perfect. Love it. The Raven theme also stole the show for me, being I realy like ravens and her gown is highly accented with feathers and bird like elements...and the collar! LOVE.

Julia Roberts...has a fun fantasy costume that reminds me of a 1960's childeren's fairytale book. So for its over all theme the costume designer did a nice job. Lots of warm colors and fun fabrics.

 

Of course we can not forget the Snow White's.

Kristen Stewart is not my favorite actress. at all. However, I am hoping she can pull this off. Because I would have never picked her as Snow White.

I really like her over all look here. Colleen Atwood added touches that are classic Snow White (with the puffed sleeves etc...) but added a cool "ranger" like twist to her costume that I think makes a perfect combination. I am seeing alot of "Alice in Wonderland elements here..." but I think it shall be a fun movie.

Lily Collins does make a cute little Snow White.

Again, following that 1960's style fairy tale. (with the bright colors and comedy style lines) her gown is very pretty though. Looks perfect for a little girl princess. The amount of silk used in this movie is incredible! She appears to have LOTS of costume changes in this film. So that is fun.

 

Before we leave... here are a few shots of the guys as well.

Um....the pictures speak for themselves, no?

So...my favorites here are on the huntsman's side, but to be fair they didn't give the "mirror mirror" prince much of a chance going up against Chris Hemsworth and Sam Clafin.

The Huntsman's costumes look perfect. A bit Aragorn-ish, but with more green and brown tones. I am hoping we get to see more of the Prince's costumes soon...however his battle ready look is very classic as well.

What say you?

What Evil Queen's movie is your favorite so far?

A dress fit for a tea party!

Greetings!

I have had a number of requests for Alice in Wonderland inspired dresses to go with my Alice Gloves. So I thought perhaps a party dress inspired by Alice's gown made by the Mad Hatter would be a good option.

The look is a fun party type dress with a bit of Alice Flair.

Perfect for Tea Parties, Halloween events and even for wearing around the house if you like.

 

 If you are interested in having your own Alice Dress, this one will be for sale soon.

 

You can read more about the gown and view a larger collection of pictures on my costume website.

Click here to go see the rest of them, if you would like.

Thank you for reading!

  

This is the movie gown the Tea Party Dress was inspired by.

 

I've been published!

Well....my gloves have been published anyway.

Looks like my little alice in wonderland kids gloves have been featured in Parenting Magazine  "Glee Fashion: Back to School" photoshoot. ah!! I was rather excited, to say the least.

Here is how it looks on the website...

 
You can see the outfit from the shoot here or it is in the September issue of the Magazine.

I thought I would take a few pictures of the magazine for you to see. 

 
What do you think? Isn't the model cute?

Here is the shopping guide with my etsy shop address in the magazine.

 

 Here is another shot of how the little gloves looked on another spread of the page.

 

Thanks for reading!

If you are interested in your own pair of Alice in Wonderland Gloves, for kids or adults... please visit my Etsy Shop.

 

Bedtime Fairy Wings

Ok, so how do you store fairy wings?

If any of you costume wearing people have any tips for me, just leave a comment and let me know. I would enjoy hearing what you do with yours.

I decided to put mine above the bed.

I suppose it works with the theme of my room.

Thanks for reading!

 
 
 
 

Sewing Energy Food! (sweet treat edition)

Greetings,

I have a weekend of sewing ahead of me and thought some "sewing energy" food was required for the journey.

 

•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)
(¸.•´I happened to see that my favorite chocolate brand was on sale, so I picked up 2 bars of all natural dark chocolate in 2 flavor varieties.

One is Intense dark chocolate with cranberries and almonds (has a wolf picture on the front) and the second bar is the one pictured here with the bat on the front.... Yes, usually the packaging sells me on chocolate and these taste amazing too, so I get the best of both worlds.

I also need a giant mug of herbal tea!

My Pirates of the Caribbean mug from disneyland works best for this.

•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)
(¸.•´ Another treat/snack of my weekend is fresh raw coconut...it is tastes great cold and is nice to go cut off a little chunk for a bit of a tropical treat.

And last but not least. Organic Red Raven Plums.

ok. I really like ravens. alot. I always wanted a pet one like Maleficent had in Disney's Sleeping Beauty movie. I would just need a cool staff like that to have it perch upon. Anyway...

All that to say when I saw red raven plums with a raven sticker on them, I simply had to buy a few.

 So there are my "sweet treats" for this weekend.

What do you eat as a treat when you are sewing/working/studying?

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Win a pair of Cheshire Cat Gloves!

Greetings,

 Today I have a giveaway to share with you.

Over at www.sillygrrl.com you can enter to win a pair of my Cheshire Cat Inspired Gloves.

 

All you have to do is visit this giveaway link and leave a comment over there. :) Comments on this blog won't count, you shall have to visit the giveaway link above.

The giveaway runs from now until July 1st...

 

Thanks for looking! Have a lovely day,

Sneak Peak of a Regency Dress...

I wanted to try something new and create a dress from a drawing I designed centered around a Regency style dress that collided with Tim Burton style.

Here is my sketch for the ideas of the dress...

 
 So my version of Tim Burton Regency = This Dress. :) What do you think?

I have had the white embroidered cotton for a few years and then someone gave me the black and white striped cotton. So I thought the 2 fabrics blended well for this look.

  Here is a sneak peak picture from our Photoshoot. More coming soon!

 

 This gown will soon be for sale on my Etsy shop.

If you have any questions about that, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail.  

Thanks for Reading!

 

Inspiration Scrapbook

 

I have a habit of collecting random pictures from catalogs and magazines that I find inspiring or looks that I want to re-create. I have found the best way to keep them organized and use-able was to put them into a quick to make "scrapbook of ideas"

Most of my pages and images are from Free People Catalogs, the style of that company is just one of my very favorites. Click here to visit Free People or I also tear our pages from other clothing catalogs as well.

   
  * I also gathered pictures of swords and jewelry from a weapon catalog

For me, the quickest way to create a page is just tear and cut the pictures to fit. I do not use a paper cutter or ruler.

If you want everything to be straight and even to fit your own personal style, go for it! I personally just liked the more boho-messy look of it with tearing the pictures.

I have compiled some of my favorites pictures in diffrent categories or looks...as you can see in the pictures below.

  
  

Then, there is a section that is sort of organized by color to inspire costume looks or designs.

 
  
 
 
  
 
 This book is certainly a work in progress and will always keep growing.

I only did a few pictures of some of my favorite pages.

Oh! I almost forgot, the cover looks like this.

 
 How do you organize ideas and keep things inspiring for your design work?