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.
By Lady Violet Ruthvene in the SCA, written to help the West Kingdom prepare for a masked ball Two great medieval traditions made mask-wearing popular among the citizens of the Republic of Venice: the festival of Carnevale and the Commedia dell’ Arte theater. Between these, you have a variety of mask styles to choose from,
Just recording weeknight progress so it feels like I’m getting somewhere…
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
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
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
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
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
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
Finished and worn at Dickens Fair! More pictures on Flickr.
Here’s a crappy iPhone photo before I left for work… Late that night… The jacket and belt are wearable! No pix — it looks like this morning’s photo but with a lot of trim on it and parts that you couldn’t see were unfinished are now finished, plus there are a lot of hooks and
Needs a buttload of trim, plus sleeve hems, but the concept is proven. Can kinda see the paper diamond pattern I made for the belt (I was inspired by the handy pattern Koshka drew from an extant 1860s Swiss waist; I didn’t actually print that out, but I eye-balled it). I’ve since sewn the velvet
Got the basic form cut and sewn last night. Added darts for better shaping this morning in between bouts of “OMG MIGRAINE.” Probably should not have sewn first thing in the morning, more importantly, probably should not have had half a bottle of red wine so late Saturday — that contributed to the sewing frenzy
I keep having to talk myself off the ledge when it comes to what I’m going to wear to Dickens this year. It seems like every morning I wake up with some Great New Idea about making a partially new costume in One Week! What was that saying? Right, as-if, and monkeys might fly out
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
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
