This black silk robe a la francaise is about 80% hand-sewn, more than I ever intended. I've retrimmed it 4x now!
Recreating the pink portrait of Mary Queen of Scots had long been a dream, & I finally did it for my birthday.
My drag alter-ego is Leonard Autie, hairdresser to Marie Antoinette. He sometimes gets a new suit for Carnevale.
At first, when one of my BFFs Sarah said she was having her birthday party at Castello di Amoroso & asking people to come in medieval costume, I figured, whatever, I’ll wear some of my usual 16th-century garb. It’s what I like, she wouldn’t mind, & it would fit in at the 14th-century-style Italian castle
I completely failed to get photos on my own camera at 12th Night, but luckily friends took a few nice pictures of my new outfit. Here is my sleeveless zimarra worn with the 1530s gown (no, not historically accurate, but the combo looked nice for one event :), and I even whipped up a new
My coat for 12th Night is getting quite close to done. Needs hemming & a short collar. But I will probably go sleeveless at this point. See, I still have this crazy idea to wear it over the 1530s gown as more of a giornéa or perhaps it might be called a cioppa — either
I didn’t plan on making anything new to wear at 12th Night because I just made a nifty new 1530s dress for Collegium, so of course I wanted to wear that. But I was asked to join the court of Obidiah & Ascelin, and her royal highness requested a festive, wintery 16th-century theme for their
After owning a fancy new sewing machine that does embroidery for nearly half a year, I finally got around to testing said capabilities just this week. I was spurred on by two things: 1) I was finished with Collegium so I had time & 2) a new group popped up on Facebook devoted to historical
This is the gown I made to portray Veronica Gambara, the hostess of the “Feast in 1530s Correggio” at the SCA’s Collegium Occidentalis XLVII. I was running the event and wanted to cap off the day with a festive meal set in a specific time and place in history (which is not typically done in
Off & on for the past 20 years around Halloween, we held a party called the Famous Dead Person’s Ball. There are only two rules in this afterlife: You must come as somebody at least marginally famous & at least temporarily dead. We’ve had friends come as everyone from Che Guevara to Mae West to
I can’t believe how fast this gown went together! Ok, it didn’t hurt that I essentially had the patterns already done. But the sewing was all straightforward stuff, nothing complicated. Attaching the parts together was really just a lot of cartridge-pleating, which I find easy — well, tough on the fingers, and yes, blood was
There’s not much to show for it, but really, I’ve started and am, in fact, well on the way with my gown to portray Veronica Gambara at the Collegium class “A Feast in 1530s Correggio.” The gown is a loose interpretation of the portrait shown on the right. Except I’m using burgundy velveteen from The
As I last blogged, I needed a partlet for my Venetian courtesan gown. Well, here it is. I ended up going the simple route because I had a spectacular fail when I attempted a fancy ruff neckline. The saving grace is that it was easy to just hack the whole thing off for this no-neck
For the upcoming renfaire Much Ado About Sebastapol, I need a partlet to wear with my Venetian courtesan gown when I perform with Bella Donna. This small addition to my outfit will make it even more historically accurate & a bit less, um, busty, which is better for this very family-friendly faire. So I looked
As advertised by Loren, this costume was both fabulous *and* comfortable to wear! My version was much more voluminous than the other ladies, but I planned it that way. I wanted to float around on a big cloud of silk. And I did. Good news is that this will become a Costume College tradition, so
A bio-queen a la “RuPaul’s Drag U,” even tho’ nobody figured it out at the time. This was the costume I pulled together at the last minute for Costume College’s Saturday-night Gala. I intended to be a female drag queen — a faux queen — but everyone just thought it was me dressed up extra
I kind of need to have a finished belt before I can hem the gown, because the gown(s) hang differently when caught up by the belt. You’d think this belt would be easier, but no. The sari trim was floppy, so I lined it with some light buckram, thinking that would be sufficient. Alas, it
Only occasionally do I follow costumer trends. Usually, when everyone else wants to make chemise dresses or venetian gowns, I’m not convinced & wait 5 years until they’re all bored with the idea to create my own weird little take on the concept. Unless someone has a really really good idea. That’s easy. And comfortable.
