Since the first Accessory Challenge theme is Hats, I thought I share some that I’ve made. And then I realized that, since switching my website to Word Press almost 2 years ago, I still haven’t moved about half my photos & dress diaries here. Ooops. So a lot of the hats I made & gave
For the Costume College Gala in 2013, I had a hard time coming up with something to wear. Originally, I wanted to make the 18th-c. masquerade gown I’ve been lusting after for years. I have the main fabrics, I know how to design & create it, I have scads of research about it. Heck, I
For Costume College 2013, I was invited by Loren to join a group creating Disney villains — but 18th-century versions! This was inspired by a group of costumers who had done 18th-century versions of Disney princesses at the previous year’s Gala & were planning to wear their outfits at the Ice Cream Social. Since I
This is the ladies auxiliary of the Tactical Alcohol Consumption Squad, as formed by Kevin Roche and Andrew Trembley. They created the St. George Special Forces to consume absinthe, so, with Kevin’s blessing, we created the Pink Drink Commandos to consume Cosmopolitans. Any gal who enjoys a Pink Drink can join — just use the
I’ve delivered the last largess parcels for this reign (basically, through Pennsic), and I made a bunch of little things to fill out the boxes. See, Their Royal Majesties commissioned a series of beautiful, historically accurate, hinged wood boxes to fill with gifts and give to the royalty they would be visiting or who would
A little something we did in France!
It was freakishly hot the night of the party, so these are not the best pix o’ me, as wearing a wig makes me pour gallons o’ sweat (I’m *such* a lady). But halfway thru the night, I went to the restroom and saw myself in the mirror and realized, damn, this looks good! Totally
Recently, I entered an Arts and Sciences competition at an SCA event. The category was Performing Arts, Original Composition. So I wrote a sonnet in the Elizabethan form circa 1590s-1600 (commonly called the Shakespearean sonnet style, although as I showed in my documentation, he did not create this form, he simply popularized it). While I
For the Northern California Pirate Festival in 2013, Bella Donna attended as “The House of the Rising Sun,” a New Orleans house of ill repute and gambling establishment. So we dressed in essentially 18th-century undress, plus lots of makeup and bling. Since I wasn’t satisfied with anything in my closet, I whipped up a new
In May, I was honored to be chosen as one of Queen Etaine’s artisans. In the SCA’s West Kingdom, the Queen’s Artisans are people (non-Laurels) recognized for their artistic ability and usually given some creative goal to work on during the reign. Since Etaine is a costuming Laurel, she had a very specific and exciting
This has got to be my favorite costume I made for the Chateau de Pys trip — the black silk francaise that I hand-sewed 75% of (not necessarily by choice). That amount of hand-sewing is a first for me, and hopefully a last. But it looks good and didn’t fall apart on first or second
I haven’t really blogged this outfit because I made it up pretty fast and out-of-my-head. It’s a basic kimono shape that I free-handed, using old bamboo/cotton mix sheets for the lining and silk taffeta for the outer. This proved to be an incredibly comfortable and stylish combo. The trim is some metallic stuff from Jo-Ann’s,
Pictured here at Chateau de Pys in 2013, this redingote is made of a striped rayon/mystery fabric, fitted out with velvet batwing collar and cuffs painstakingly hand-edged in silk ribbon. It’s paired with the same black silk petticoat I wear with a lot of my 18th-century outfits. I added a simple black fichu to fill
First worn at Chateau de Pys in the south of France, 2013. Made of silk-cotton border print fabric lined in cotton. Accessorized with a silk organza cap I made from my own pattern (about half hand-sewn), a silhouette pendant given to me by Kendra some years ago, and a silver bat brooch I bought in
I don’t have any sewing progress photos because I’m just going, going, going. Also, the black francaise took up permanent residence on my dressform for months, so I couldn’t photograph anything else effectively (I tried some iPhone mirror pix in the middle of fitting stuff on myself, & wow, those sucked). The to-do list for