Expansions and Renfaires and Garb, Oh My!

SO my good friend E, who gave me the American Cancer Society head-wraps, has decided to claim two of them for herself. Originally it was to be only one, but then when I got inspired on another one she decided she wanted that one too. Since she is providing the base fabric, and is gonna purchase most of the rest of the supplies for them, these will never appear in the store, but i have a feeling they may end up being two super-awesome HipScraps. Unless a miracle happens and I get called back to work, she will be coming over tomorrow and we will be discussing what we're going to do with the head-wraps. And, since she intends these to be renaissance festival garb, we are also going to discuss the entire ensemble for both pieces, and make a plan to slowly work through creating the additional pieces. I'm pushing for two 10 yard skirts, a vest and a cutoff chemise for the pink, and three 10 yard skirts and a vest and a cutoff chemise for the burgundy. Knowing her, underneath the skirts will be some awesome knickers, since she's a fighter. I'm also thinking that instead of making two separate vests for the two ensembles, that really we just need one reversible one.

I have the patterns already for the 10 yard skirts and the vests, and the company that makes those also produces a fantastic knicker pattern, so I'm thinking that since we're going to all the trouble of creating these costume pieces, I should go ahead and consider making up some of these for the store too.

10 yard skirts are simple and a faire basic, as well as being a belly dance standard, so once I have figured out the best way to make the, it should be easy to zip those out. The knickers are really not belly dance friendly, but will suit those coming to my store with faire garb in mind. I'm actually already trying to figure out how to make tear-away 10 yard skirts, so the fighter girls can extravagantly fling them away to reveal their knickers, swords in hand.

I used to make chemises all the time, so there should be no problem getting those out and ready to go too, although I may use a pattern this time around ,for sizing reasons.

I honestly can't wait to get started on these! One of the things that bugs me about sending the HipScraps out is sending them off without skirts and vests to be worn with them...maybe having the pieces available for creating ensembles will encourage shoppers. I may not make any money on these two, but it will be, I expect, a great learning experience as well as a good start for truly deciding whether I want to carry ensemble pieces in the store.

If these come out really well, I will definitely have to shell out the cash for a photo shoot for E in her outfits. She'll love them, and they will be great advertising!