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.
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
But let’s not get too excited about it. Here’s why: Much of this stripey redingote was made three years ago & has languished in the UFO box, so I didn’t have a ton of work left to do on it. But because I’d started it so long ago, it wasn’t in great shape, &, of
Kendra of the most excellent Demode was sweet enough to give me this wee little award. So what the heck, I’ll play along! To accept the award, one must: Display the award and link back to the person who nominated you. State 7 facts about yourself. Nominate 15 bloggers for the award. Notify the winners.
One key aspect of “largess” in the SCA is the generosity flowing from royalty to their subjects. To welcome visitors, to thank people, & to otherwise show appreciation & caring for others, small gifts are given by royalty at many occasions. They may purchase items to give out, but ideally, their court & artisans will
The problem with working on several costumes simultaneously is that I don’t get that “ah, finished!” feeling from having completed any one item. All my projects are in a state of half-done, all at the same time. It’s annoying & not my usual mode of operation. But I’m in deep now, & there’s no turning
