Strange and Unusual
It doesn’t happen all that often when inspiration will strike and I can see clearly in my head the project I want to make. When it does happen what a beautiful moment! This project was one such thing. Early days Tim Burton is my dream aesthetic forever! Those movies, before they got CGI heavy, are a source of delight for me. Vincent, Frankenweenie, Edward Scissorhands, etc are some of my all-time favourite films. When I realized Beetlejuice was on one of the many streaming services I subscribe to it needed to be watched immediately! I’m honestly surprised I haven’t sewn more Burton inspired clothes. It’s quite shocking but the situation will be remedied shortly. I’ll walk you through making this shirt in tribute to our strange and unusual Queen Lydia Deetz.
Strange and Unusual Aesthetics
Beetlejuice has no shortage of iconic costumes. Aggie Guerard Rodgers did such an outstanding job costuming this film and it is a nearly endless supply of inspiration. Here are some of my most favourite.
Absolutely everything Delia Deetz wears in this movie is absolutely fantastic! The glove headband, the huge earrings, the sharp lines and bold lip! ICONIC! Catherine O’Hara is a national treasure and she looks stunning in every frame of this movie.
This powder blue jumpsuit Ortho wears does not get nearly enough screen time in this. Look at how AMAZING this outfit is. I love it, I want it.
Lydia Deetz has such a beautiful goth look with the layered veils and hats. It’s pseudo victorian and I am obsessed.
These are all remarkable outfits and I would love to circle back and try my hand at making a couple of these. But, for this first (hopefully not last) Beetlejuice inspired sewing project I had to choose this most iconic of outfits. Ok, well maybe the second most iconic: Lydia Deetz’s red wedding dress. I wanted to capture the look and spirit of the dress but making something wearable in my day to day life.
Supplies you need
Back in March Fibre Mood made their Victoria blouse pattern available to download for free. The purpose of which was to hold a competition to ‘hack’ the pattern into some other fun creation! I downloaded the PDF when it was free and made a hacked dress with red pompom accents. I loved the dress and sewing the pattern was enjoyable so I kept wanting to circle back and try it again. While watching Beetlejuice it struck me that the Victoria blouse’s basic shape matched pretty closely to the wedding dress of Ms strange and unusual herself.
Unfortunately, the Victoria blouse is no longer available for free but you can still purchase the pattern from Fibre Mood for about $15 CAD.
I also purchased:
2 Yards Red Mirella Crepe
1/4 Yard Nylon Swiss Dot Mesh
1 Small Pack Dylon Red Pagoda Dye
2 Snap Closure Buttons
1 Hook and Eye Closure
I could not for the life of me find red swiss dot mesh anywhere. The options are black, white, or nothing. I debated going with a red lace instead or a red chiffon type fabric but the cute dots felt so essential I wasn’t ready to let them go. So instead I bought white swiss dot mesh and red dye. I just followed the package instructions and dyed this 1/4 yard of fabric in my sink. The colours didn’t perfectly match. The dyed piece was more of a blue-red and the crepe an orange-red. However, since they sit next to each other on the shirt and aren’t overlapped it’s not obvious. The swiss dot mesh also has a similar stretch to the Mirella crepe that made sewing the two together less frustrating.
IMPORTANT NOTE
In case you are somehow still unaware I am not so good at reading through instructions ahead of time. I generally just like to get going which means I sometimes miss key information. Fibre Mood patterns are not printed with seam allowances included. That means either when you are cutting out the pattern pieces or cutting out your fabric you need to add in the seam allowances. Within the pattern information, there is a graph that shows you where and how much seam allowance you should be adding to each piece.
I did not do this when I first cut out my pattern. Anyways this means my blouse has a less accurate fit and risked being too small for me. Instead, I sewed every seam with 1/4 inch allowance unless it stated otherwise in the instructions. Spoiler alert it did turn out all right but it would have been better if I’d been smart and added the seam allowances in.
Tips and Tricks
This is definitely a slow sew. Take your time and enjoy the process because doing so will save you a lot of frustrated seam ripping. Especially when you factor in sewing a netting type fabric. May you never have to seam rip that out. It is a literal nightmare.
While sewing the mesh swiss dot fabric I sew my stitch length from 2.5 to 2. That little difference meant everything was more secure.
When attaching the mesh netting to the bottom portion of the shirt front the original instructions say to press the seam up and stay stitch in place. Since doing so would mean the edge would be visible through the mesh I instead pressed the seam allowance down and stitched into place. For the same reason instead of pressing the arm seams open they were pressed away from the mesh and stitch down.
Fitting the sleeves is a bit trickier since they are partially attached to the front mesh section. What I did was pin the sleeve in and distribute the extra fabric saving the mesh section for last. Once they were attached the seam allowance was pressed into the sleeve section and understitched down. All these steps make the front mesh section clean looking.
Only other things I did differently was changing up the hem. I rolled the bottom stitch up 1/2 cm then another 1/2 cm. The Mirella crepe was surprisingly easy to sew with and I just had to press the seam up once and then fold and pin in place to sew.
Notes for next time
I really do love how the blouse turned out but I think to make it just a tiny bit better I would make the ruffle at the top longer for a bit more drama. As well I wish I had added a ruffle of the swiss dot mesh to the bottom of the sleeves.
I Myself, Am Strange and Unusual
Really think I accomplished what I wanted from this project. I see the influence of the strange and unusual Lydia Deetz but it’s still wearable and not too ostentatious. If anything I could have added more mesh ruffle at the bottom of the sleeves and around the neckline. Still, I’m excited to wear this out and about, you know to the grocery store because we are still in a pandemic. Already dreaming up more Tim Burton inspired sewing projects.
Stay Strange and Unusual!
Hannah
p.s. If you want more creepy DIYS check out this Halloween post!
