Big phat shoulder rolls
Just recording weeknight progress so it feels like I’m getting somewhere…
Category Archives: 16th Century
Plausible
Accomplished sewing stuff last night. Added a 3″ hook-and-eye placket to the 1580s bodice. Fits beautifully now, and while the placket is nothing great to look at, it’ll all be covered up with trim soon enough. Still need to add to the skirts waistbands, but that’s a quick fix. Then I can wear the gown
Seam-ripping at 6am
Explanation: I decided I wanted to wear this gown to the SCA’s Crosston Ball, but the dress no longer fit. So I came up with a way to extend the size … a week before the ball! At 6am, riddled by insomnia, I just bit the bullet, got up, and did some seam-ripping. I removed
It’s not motivation, it’s desperation
There’s a smell of fear in the air — I looked at the calendar. I realized I have way too many costumes to produce in a shockingly short amount of time… Motivation won’t come to me, I just have to force myself to get shit done. NOW. Thus, tonight I cleared away some sewing room
Oww, oww, oww
My fingertips and my back are keeeeeeeeling me. Hand-sewing all day (you may all laugh now, or check for snowballs in Hades since that means TWO full days of hand-sewing for moi). However, it looks like a dress now… Front picture shows where I always screw up the very front edges on a curved or
Stitch ‘n bitch day
Good sewing progress, thanks to the fabulous influence (and cheezburgers) of Kendra and Sarah. I got the skirt of the Valois gown hemmed and cartridge-pleated, both by hand, as one does. Now I’m ready to attach it to the bodice, though I still need to prep the bodice edge. And I think I’d like to
Guarding
Doesn’t look like much, but I’ve been at it all day, off and on, between errands and chores around the house and, of course, screwing around on the computer. Cut the skirt panels, shaped the waistband and hem (the front comes to a point and there’s a small train in the back), finished the top
It’s officially a dress
Massive progress! Friday after Thanksgiving, I made the skirt and painstakingly pleated it into the bodice. I usually have trouble attaching pleats to a V-shaped waistline (I’ve done it successfully once and since forgotten how I achieved that). But I figured out a way again. Let’s see if writing it down helps me remember… After
We have a bodice
Finally got something started here! I thought I’d just use the same bodice pattern I made for the black and grey 1570s kirtle — just needed to cut the back of the neckline squared. But when I did that, something changed in the fit of the shoulders, so I actually had to futz with the
Moar fabric and new plans
I think I’d like to make this gown for the SCA 12th Night this year. I can use the same side-laced bodice pattern as the black and grey 1570s gown. If I don’t get it trimmed, I can still wear it plain. So it’s not as super-mega labor-intensive as my initial plan of making the
Postphoned
I’ve decided not to try to make the MQoS pink gown for 12th Night this year. Just don’t want to push it. The thing is alllllll trim and pearls, meaning allllllll hand-sewing, and we should know how I feel about that by now. Why kill myself to do it in 2 months? Even with Mom’s
MQoS trim hunt
It is begun! I cut the pink taffeta, spray-basted it to some white twill for body, and sewed all the side seams of the bodice. Then I started hand-sewing on the trim. Have to start with trim over the seam lines, you see, then work out in 1.5″ spacing. I’m not actually doing the exact
Almost eyeletted
Ran out of thread! Sewed all but three eyelets on this bodice (while sitting around at Grandmom’s house in the days after my paternal grandfather’s funeral in Pensacola, Florida). Mom showed me how to do a proper buttonhole stitch instead of the basic overcast binding thing I learned from the RenTailor site. But my hand-sewn
Perhaps a French gown
When I found this red and gold damask, I didn’t immediately know what to make with it. I’d lusted after this fabric for at least a year. It’s from the Christopher Lowell home dec collection at Jo-Ann’s, it’s 100% polyester, and it’s usually $19.99/yard. Now, I am not a fiber snob — I’ll use anything
Random sewing on random project
Had a strange itch to sew today, so I tinkered with the Slipcover Kirtle pattern to make it work for this project. That previous kirtle ended up a smidge too loose the one time I wore it at an event, which irritated me. Took out the pattern and fussed with the straps and the armscye