Next Week - The 10 Yard Skirt!

This last Wednesday wrapped up with our students completing a pair of pantaloons made from 4 yards of taffeta. We used the Tribal Dancer Folkwear Pattern designed by Carolena Nericcio-Bohlman. (she and I co-teach this class) They both picked the same  fabric and color, but ended up using the pleating techniques in their own individual way. Isabel created smaller pleats and Helen created larger pleats. Both ways were challenging in their own right, and both ways of creating pleats created a lovely, blousy, full pair of dance pantaloons!

Next week, we  move on to sewing a 10- yard skirt out of 8 yards of fabric! Go HERE to sign up or to find out more about it. Seating is limited, so hurry! We have a LOT of fun and a lot to share!

Sewing Instruction Starting September 16th at Studio SF!!!

August 16th started my new project: a collaborative effort of sewing and textiles instruction with Carolena Nericcio - Bohlman. I have been sewing and making things since the age of  5 and Carolena has been sewing since her teens. She has formal training. She has an extensive knowledge of textile, sewing, design, construction, and costuming. She has a tribal belly dance costume pattern that has been published through Follkwear.  I have an extensive knowledge of textiles, sewing, design and construction with a couple sewing patterns for sale under my belt. Ive done years of high end garment making and costuming. I design, do quality alteration work, understand the ins and outs of reading and following a pattern, I know how to make a pattern fit everyone or how to choose a design that will work for you - between the both of us, we have a lot to offer.

It is time. Time to break down the barriers between the sewing world and the world of the person who yearns to make things, but has no training. As we all know, the basics of making one's own clothing are skills that most of us are not taught any longer. We all should at least know how to sew on a button or hem a pair of pants. Many of us have fit problems or are sick of what the prescribed fashion of the day offers us.

So I took two new students down to Fabric Outlet: the local fabric store located conveniently down the street from the San Francisco studio, and I gave them a tour of the various sections. See - they don't look scared or confused at all!
Here are Isabel and Helen about to purchase taffeta for new pantaloons!

 I grew up navigating fabric and notions because if was common for little 5 &  Dimes to have a sewing department when I was a kid. More people sewed in those days and. it became second nature to me. We don't have access to all of that fabric abundance now. Most of us have never been in a fabric store. Our options are limited. Sewing machines that are now very user friendly scare us to death. What the hell is a bobbin??????????? And even though there is probably a Joannes or Hancock Fabrics near many of us somewhere.........most of us are still overwhelmed when entering the doors.

After our fabric store tour,  I gave a little tutorial on the basics of a sewing machine. It helped. They now have  fabric and notions that they were able to pick out without a lot of stress, and with some practice, they can take on their sewing machines with less fear. And there was a lot of laughter. That was a good sign.

Because Studio SF is set inside a belly dance studio, and because Carolena has her tribal pattern at the ready and  our first students are dancers, we are starting three segments that pertain to ATS (American Tribal Style belly dance) : Pantaloons, Dance Skirt, and a Choli. The Pantaloons class starts on September 16th!

And with luck, our intention is to be able to move on to things like hand sewing, simple alterations, and MORE Folkwear patterns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG - there are so many to choose from and there are so many I want to make. What a great excuse!!!! :)

Register here  - Space is limited, but we have room for a couple more students!  Register now!!

Here are the deets for the classes:
Join Kathleen and Carolena in a series of classes designed to teach you the love of all things textile! Make your own costume using the Folkwear Tribal Dancer Pattern.

Pantaloons - 16, 23, 30 Sep
10-Yard Skirt - 7, 14, 21 Oct
Choli - 18, 25 Nov, 2 Dec

* Learn to shop for fabric and prepare it for sewing. Choose yarn and needles appropriate for a project.
* Understand how to read and fit a sewing pattern.
* Learn basic, intermediate and advanced sewing skills.


Week 1: We’ll start with a trip to the fabric store to select appropriate fabric for Pantaloons, a 10-Yard Skirt and a Choli. Next we’ll prepare the fabric for sewing and take a peek at the pattern instructions.

Week 2: Measure twice, cut once! We’ll take measurements, cut the fabric and start sewing.

Week 3: Fitting and final touches.

Price
$110 for the three-class in series.
Class Size
Limit 5 students per session

Please note: Fabric shopping starts at 5pm to give us time before the shop closes at 7pm.

Class Time: 6pm - 9pm

Address:
670 S Van Ness Ave
San Francisco, Ca 94110
415-431 -4322
www.fcbd.com

Sewing And Knitting Classes For Summer And Fall!!!

Knitting in summertime?? Yes!!! Of Course!!! Now is when we prepare for winter!! And you wont regret it! Carolena will walk you through the steps of getting the right yarn and needles, gauges, stitches - all that stuff that will help you on your way to graduating one day to a sweater with 2 sleeves that are the same length!! It will also give you something fun to do on those long winter evenings while watching movies!

And starting at the end of July, we will be progressing onwards to showing you how to look for fabrics, learning how to not be afraid of your sewing machine, and how to make your own pantaloons, choli, and 10-yard skirt using the Folkwear Tribal Dancer pattern!

Now, there are lots of things that we want to teach you how to make (and have an excuse to make it ourselves), so once we get the tribal dancer costuming classes under our belts, we would like to include some of the other Folkwear patterns. And how do you choose which one............

So sign up for knitting and sewing!!!
HERE

Studio SF

Well, Happy New Year everyone! 2014 was pretty good to me and I hope it was for you as well! And on that note, 2015 is coming in with a bang for me!! I will be spending a great deal of time at the newly renovated FatChanceBellyDance studio in San Francisco where I will be working closely with Carolena Nericcio-Bohlman on our growing Bessie Line of clothing and adornments!

 Carolena and I have known each other for a very long time now and we are melding our ever-growing love of fashion that is flattering, easy to wear, and makes you feel awesome at any age. But with our naturally maturing minds and bodies, we are gravitating to wanting older women to be able to feel as awesome as we did when we were younger. We do not strive to be invisible. You can still be fun and faithful to living outside the box. You can still feel alive and vital in your clothes! And that is our mission. We don't like what is being offered to us and so we will make it for ourselves and for you. Being dancers and of the dance world, we know how your clothing needs to make you feel and fit...........................

So I introduce Studio SF:

Stay tuned!!! And Happy 2015!!!

SPRING SALE!!!

Hi Everyone! Im having a little Spring Sale in my Etsy Shop! You can have 15% off of anything listed in the store until Wednesday the 11th!

Let me know if you dont see your size! I might POSSIBLY have something in stock that isnt listed. Esp. the Sampants - sometimes I forget to relist when one sells!

Just use this discount coupon code at checkout:  15PERCENTOFFYAY

FLUFFIE RUFFLIE PATTERN PRE-SALE!!!!

FLUFFIE RUFFLIE PATTERN PRE-SALE!!!!
It is getting to be time to focus on getting more Fluffie Rufflie patterns printed up! Ive had requests for them, and I have a Want List. Consider this a Pre-Sale - and you get your patterns first before I start selling them on Etsy! As soon as I have enough names and email addresses, I'll invoice you via Paypal and get these printed up again. Please send me your name, email address and which style you prefer: A) the Fluffie Rufflie Pantaloons (wide leg) or B) the Form fitting Fluffie Rufflie Dance Pants.
  Send your info here: kc.costumecouture@gmail.com

They are both $20.00 plus flat rate postage. I send them to you very old school - in a plain envelope - nothing fancy. These are a very basic pattern - no pretty, fancy illustrations or pictures, and you have to understand how to use a pattern without a lot of explanations and details (although I have a link to a tutorial and Ive written out instructions, yardage, etc.) They are not hard to make, just require patience and a lot of fabric! The Dance Pant style requires cotton lycra or spandex/stretchy fabric for the upper body. The Pantaloon should be made out of wovens.

Thanks! X

This is Dance Tribe in South Africa! Tarah Van Wyk made the Fluffie Rufflie pants for their costumes using my pattern!! She made their belts and bras, Her mother made their Gawahzee coats!!
This style is the form-fitting Fluffie Rufflie Dance Pant - stretchy fabric upper body!

Dear Fluffie Rufflie Pantaloon Purchasers:

One day I woke up and looked here at my pages and noticed that my Fluffie Rufflie Pantaloon tutorial is missing. I dont know what happened. Its just gone. So my profuse apologies and I beg your forgiveness if you came here looking for help and there was none to be had!

What you CAN do while Im working on making a new tutorial for you is to follow most of THESE instructions for the Fluffie Rufflie Dance Pants. You wont be working with a knit upper body, so the construction for your pantaloons will be similar, but not the same.

Seam allowance for the Fluffie Rufflie Pantaloon is half an inch. You can serge (overlock) the edges, but sew it with your straight stitch. This will give your garment more durability.

Fold the upper part of the Pantaloon over to form a 2" casing for your elastic. After you have stitched down your casing (leaving about a 1.5 inch opening in the back to insert your elastic.

The rest should be basically the same - you'll just have a lot more fabric to handle and a wider pant leg to attach the flounces to.

Hope that helps for now!

The Fluffie Rufflie Pattern Results

I really want to see what everyone is making with my Fluffie Rufflie Patterns!
Marci Turner-Holcombe sent me this photo of the Fluffie Rufflie Dance Pants that she made for Forever By Your Side - Belly Horror 2011!

This is a lovely photo by Stereo Vision Photography!
Please send me photos and I'll put them in my Facebook Album! I REALLY want to see what you come up with!! Its pretty exciting!!
Thank you Marci!
XXX

Kellsie's Wedding Dress

 I met Kellsie a few years ago at a party at my last house in San Francisco. Her sister was my roomie, Kristine Adams, and we had a big birthday/housewarming bash. So later on down the road, Kellsie came to me to work on the gown that she wanted for her wedding.  She brought me a dress that she had purchased earlier but it wasn't working for her any longer.  She loved it, but wanted a more Steampunk feel for her wedding attire now.  Silk was the main fabric used in the purchased gown. So she brought me some beautiful jacquard fabric, the dress, some ivory silk, and a Truly Victorian pattern  - style # 1879, the Cuirass Bodice with Evening Options. You can purchase this pattern from Lost Coast Historical Patterns or Lacis.    

 This was the dress before I cut into it. We decided that we would take the bodice off and make it into a skirt. This was a very full skirt and more of a hobbled bustle effect was wanted. The skirt was a wee too small, so when I started cutting down the skirt, I added more fabric to the back, repositioning the zipper, and that took care of that.  I constructed a sturdy, wide waistband to carry the weight of the skirt and to produce a nice line under the jacket.

This is the skirt unbustled. I ended up using most of the extra silk fabric given to me to make the inner structure of the bustle skirt. I chopped off quite a bit in front to shorten the skirt and to create a slimmer front. There were a lot of flowers on the train, but I repositioned them and placed them in strategic points where there would be hooks for bustling up the train when she wanted to do so. It was nice to have the option.

I followed the pattern for the jacket pretty closely. I always make a mockup first and it fit pretty well the first time with a few adjustments. Im dont even think I had to read the instructions more than once. It was pretty straightforward. I think I shortened the sleeves and lowered the front, then further squared off the front of the bodice. I used hooks and eyes to fasten the front. When I was done with the dress, Kellsie took some of the extra fabric flowers and made a veiled headpiece. She also did the beautiful embroidery on the upper bodice. Kellsie picked out her trims and I placed them where I thought they would look best. I think we did a lovely job. She had a strict budget and we used as many existing materials as we could. We reused a beautiful dress with lots of yardage in it, and we made something it  much more interesting. And now she has a Victorian two pieced gown that she can reuse if she likes.I'm sure she will since she too, is a costumer and loves to dress up now and then!

This is Kellsie and Kristine - two hot babes! Congratulations, Kellsie!
kc.costumecouture@gmail.com

Sneak Preview Pattern Cover

Well, I have a ways to go before I actually can get these patterns printed up the way that I want them to look  - but Im so excited about the drawing that Katherine Summer did for me, that I just have to squeal with excitement, jump up and down, and show a sneak peek!!!!!!!!!!!

I 

Isnt it pretty? Damn, she's good!!!!!!! What talent! Im so lucky!!!!!!!!

kc.costumecouture@gmail.com

P.S. 

The Fluffie Rufflie Dance Pants tutorial is up here in my "pages" section - hope it helps! XXX

SUbZero Festival - June 3rd!

Black Lotus Clothing, Katherine Summer  and KathleenCrowleyCostumeCoiuture will be vending at SubZero this Friday evening, June 3rd! This is an outdoor street festival is San Jose - Cant wait! As usual, we will collaborate in creating a great shopping experience!

SubZero Festival

6pm - midnight
San Jose SOFA disctict in Downtown San Jose
(on South First Street between San Carlos and Reed Streets

We will be putting on a fashion show that starts at 7pm - come check out what we are coming up with for the show! You will not be disappointed!

Come check our fashion show and then stop by and say hi!

kc.costumecouture@gmail.com

Fluffie Patterns Are Now In Stock

. Tribal Fest is over and it was great fun - thank you all for coming to the Salomes' Suitcase Trunk Show! I'll write more about it later! I'll just say that we had great fun dressing everyone for the Rapture that never happened!!!!!

If you dont know yet, I want to let you all  know that I have two Fluffie Rufflie Patterns available now . There is no fancy packaging yet, but if you just cant wait (and it might be a long wait.......) I have these in stock and ready to ship. I'll have a listing for them on Etsy soon, but in the meantime, you can message me with which pattern(s) you would like, with your zip/post code and I'll invoice you, then send it to you!

Fluffie Rufflie Dance Pants (multi-sized from XS - XL) $20.00

 This is Elizabeth Mahina - and this is her Etsy Store! I love her Good Karma Wrap Cover-ups!

 Fluffie Rufflie Pantaloons (multi-sized from XS - XL) $20.00

 This is Jen Cerdena and her troupe mates!

 kc.costumecouture@gmail.com

Tribal Fest and The Rapture

 We've got Tribal Fest AND the Rapture on the 21st!!!!!!!! How exciting! Be there or be square!
Ive been sewing furiously to dress the Heathen for fine Tribulation viewing!
See you there!

Tribal Fest Trunk Show!!!

Its that lovely Tribalie time of the year when we all head over to Sebastopol, Ca. for  Tribal Fest!
Salomes' Suitcase (the design collective that I am a part of) will be having a trunk show at the Fairlfield Inn - very close to the festivities - and right where many of us will be staying!

We will be dressing up the conference room with all of our decadent splendor!
You will be able to escape the overwhelming Tribal mayhem and try on our garments and adornments in comfort! Yes, I said comfort - not out in the open, or under a tent! (not that there is anything wrong with that!)You can hang out with us and shop - and then walk back up the road, or go party in your rooms - party central!

This Fest will be a blast! Cant wait!!!!!!

Salome's Suitcase Trunk Show
~Thursday May 19th 3pm - 10pm
~Friday May 20th 2pm - 10pm
~Saturday May 21st 2pm - 10pm

Fairfield Inn Conference Room
1101 Gravenstein Hwy. South
Sebastopol, Ca 95472

Email us if you have questions!
salomes.suitcase@gmail.com 
kc.costumecouture@gmail.com

Fluffie Rufflie Pattern Pre-Order !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Pattern Launch!!! 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,.........................3,2,1......................................

So here’s the scoop: Please Read It All even if you dont want to....................

Im having a small amount of very basic Fluffie Rufflie patterns printed up. At First. These will be the Fluffie Ruffle Dance Pants (the form fitting pants that hug the body to right above the knee) and the Fluffie Rufflie Pantaloons. I’ll have some very basic instructions – nothing in depth or pretty to look at. At First. The packaging wont be pretty, either. At First. These will be so basic that I might have to go back and print the sizes on the pattern for you. At First.

I’m doing it this way because I gave myself a deadline to get these out and I want some for the attendees of my Cues and Tattoos Costuming Workshop.  I want you to get sewing!!!

Because most printers require you to have a basic minimum to get started, I have to work up to this. I don’t want to make a thousand of these if  I cant sell a thousand , but we will have to have baby steps on that one…………….I just want you to have something to work with if you have good sewing skills and can figure out basic shapes. It isn’t a hard design to make at all, what is difficult is all the fabric required to make them  and figuring out how to make the inseams balance out on your leg. I can tell you how much yardage you need and how to put them together. But you will have to figure out all the inseam stuff on your own. You’ll see what I mean when you see the pattern. But just like regular commercial patterns, you cant make them fit everyone, so making a mock-up of the garment first is ALWAYS a good idea first no matter what! My sizing will also be more generous for the larger ladies! Yay! And its a much smaller investment than having them custom made - usually

I will be selling these at $20.00 each.  

What  I would like you to do if you are interested is to email me at kc.costumecouture@gmail.com and request which pattern(s) you would like and how many.  Make sure that I have an email address for PayPal and I will send you an invoice  for the total amount.  Let me know if you would prefer me to send USPS priority – if you have a large order, this may be more cost effective for you.   I will print out your order and paypal receipt, place it in a folder and mail these to you as soon as I get them, which will be early next week.

I'll send out a notice if I have to push this back at all.

I will be offering these to my Cues and Tattoos Workshop attendees for $15.00. And then I will have a minimal amount to sell at the festival. You are under no obligation to purchase a pattern at my workshop and if you want to copy someone's pattern for yourself, thats ok too.

Postage rates will be:

U.S.A      $2.50 ea. + .50 per each additional pattern

Canada   $2.75 ea.  + .75 per each additional pattern

Everywhere Else   $4.75 ea. + 1.25 each additional pattern

Postal fees subject to change 

By purchasing these patterns, you will be getting these into production and allowing all of those who sew a chance to wear all this rufflie goodness! These patterns are for home use only. You can make some for you or for your troupe, or your mother, or your neighbor, or your dog,  but  you cannot make these for resell on Etsy or anywhere else without my permission. 

If  some of this doesnt make sense or you have questions, please shoot me an email! I'll get back to you asap!

And I'll answer your questions anyway as they come up!

Just remember that Ive never done this before and I'm basically learning as I go - as I do with most things, so there is always room for improvement! I'll want your feedback!

XXXX

Fluffie Rufflie Pantaloons:

 Fluffie Rufflie Dance Pants:

kc.costumecouture@gmaiil.com