more curtain-along thoughts

So the curtain-along is off to a great start already, and I've heard from quite a few people who have bought the fabric and are excited to start their own projects.  Hooray!  And I've also thought of a few things that I didn't cover in the first posts about this project, so here goes:

1. There isn't any type of tight time-frame on this project, so don't worry if you can't start right away.  I was thinking that it might be fun to organize a few meetups for curtain dress participants next summer at various costume cons, but that still gives people a lot of time to work on stuff.  I also thought it might be fun to do a wrap-up post where I share all of the completed curtain garments here on my blog a year from now, and I can continue to add examples to my Pinterest board indefinitely.  But I definitely don't want people to think that they can't join in because they have other things that they need to finish first.  Take your time - it's all good.

2. I mentioned that you could buy other colorways of this fabric by the yard, so I know there will be some curtain-alongers who aren't technically using curtains.  But what about people who would like to use curtains, but they would prefer a different pattern?  Well... why not?  The more the merrier in my opinion!  Half of this project is about the fun of making a wide variety of costumes with the same fabric, and half of it is about looking at curtains as a cheaper alternative for fabric.  So maybe we'll just have 3 categories in the curtain-along: the original curtain dresses, dresses made in with the same print in different colorways, and dresses made out of curtains that use other mics. prints.

3. After my last post, I got a few more great suggestions about where you can find curtains or fabric for this project.  Did you know these curtains were also sold at Kohl's?  I didn't!  Kohl's has great sales and coupons, so you might be able to pick them up there for even cheaper than you can get them elsewhere.   Also, I had several people mention that they found the fabric sold online at fabric.com and Fabric Guru, but when I went to share the links today, they appear to be already sold out.  So it looks like some of you found those sales on your own!  But keep searching for Felicite fabric online for other good deals.  I found most of the colors sold by the yard for around $15, which isn't too bad if you just need a smaller amount for something like a jacket.

4. I know some people were questioning the scale or colors used in this print, so I wanted to touch on that.  No, this isn't a reproduction print, so it's not going to be 100% accurate in every way, but it's still pretty darn good... and it doesn't cost $40 yard, so I'm willing to make some compromises.  There are plenty of examples of garments made out of floral prints that are this scale or even larger, and as soon as I think "those colors aren't right" about any of the colorways, I always find an extant garment to prove me wrong.  For example, I was worried that the "mineral" colorway might be too pastel, but then I saw this jacket from the Met that is a close match with the "mineral" color scheme, and I think it also resembles the shape of the flowers and leaves quite well.  The Met jacket is brocade instead of a print, so I know that some purists will be deterred by that, but if you just want to make a pretty jacket and don't care about strict documentation, then I think it would be a wonderful choice as inspiration.  Not every single dress in the universe needs to be a complete reproduction.  Sometimes just capturing the essence of the period and having fun without going broke is good enough, and that's what this project is all about.  

5.  Here are all of the blog entries that I've bookmarked about this project so far.

• Mistress of Disguise
• The Costumer's Closet
• Maggie's Costume Wardrobe
• Scene in the Past
• American Duchess
• Dresses in Time

I know there are probably more that I'm missing, but I've had a busy week and haven't kept up with my blog feed very well.  PLEASE let me know if you've blogged about this project so I can add you to my list!  

I'll be adding these blogs to my Pinterest page once people start working on their projects and have some photos that I can pin.  Oh, and if you don't have a blog but would like to talk about your project, I'd be more than happy to let people do some guest posts here on my blog so you can show off your work to everybody.  

Happy curtaining!