A Literary (Sewing) Diversion

As you may remember from my last post where we were dressed in (vaguely) 1920s garb, we recently celebrated our daughter’s 30th birthday.

Thanks, I like to think, because of our endless buying of books, reading together when she was little and, later, our own reading habits and recommendations, she is an avid reader and, although she has a predilection for fantasy literature she is also a big Jane Austen fan.

So, when Cool Crafting came up with a special Jane Austen kit as part of their literary series, I pre-ordered it and, whilst waiting for it to be delivered, I made two mice for which I already had the pattern and hoped I’d get it all done in time for the big day.

The clothing designs Cool Crafting produce for their various animal patterns mean that you create rather good copies of full size garments and, even though I’m a fairly proficient dressmaker, I still found plenty to challenge me with the process and the fabrics provided.  Straw patterned pleather anyone?

The outfits were really designed for Cool Crafting’s famous Luna Lapin which is a rabbit so the bonnet has space for rabbit ears but my mice only have mouse sized ears so I should have closed the hole up really but didn’t want to chance messing with the pattern as there was only so much special pleather available.

Anyway, one of the biggest challenges for me (apart from the pleather bonnet) was doing the French knots used in place of buttons on the breeches and waistcoat for Mr. Mouse as I am no embroiderer and had to follow a video tutorial on YouTube in order to achieve anything vaguely like a French knot.

I feel the empire line dress also deserves a little photo of its own before being covered with the short jacket that completes the outfit.

(completed also by the era appropriate undies)

I’m not sure about the French knickers being era appropriate but I put them on her anyway – she is a modest mouse.

At the moment, our daughter is living in a house share but has plans to move into a much larger space soon so I put the pair on stands, in a pretty covered box and said I understood if she keeps them like that until she has the room to display them.

The Happy Couple

Back to human sized clothes soon – in fact I already have some trousers to show you, it’s just getting round to doing the post.

We’re going to a craft fair this weekend where I’m hoping to buy an example of my most recent obsession, craft-wise, from the lady who taught the workshop I went to last weekend.  News of which, hopefully, will be in a future post.  Have a good weekend whatever you’re doing.