Remember that 18th-c. Does 17th-c. Masquerade Gown that I was so excited about, but then got almost finished making and hated it? When planning for Carnevale 2025, I came upon a way to resurrect it into something more me that I could love — and get multiple uses out of. The party theme was Cabinet
After Carnevale 2024, I was randomly hankering to make something! And I had this gorgeous burgundy liquid metallic velvet in my stash that somehow said “princess gown” like Sleeping Beauty style. Which technically is a mid-15th-century Burgundian style like this Pinterest board and these: Complete with the pointy hennin, of course. But I wasn’t interested
I’ve wanted to make a repro of this gown since seeing the painting of Lady Frances Courtenay by Thomas Hudson at the Huntington in 2011. I love seeing how one era interprets another era, and this style is so romantic and pretty! Apparently, this was a whole genre of painting, a trend for upper-class women
In an ongoing quest to figure out 18th-century men’s pants for me / Leonard, I started a new pair of breeches that were just going to be to test out the pattern but have developed into a whole new suit. I made umpteen mockups of the fall-front breeches from the original pattern by Eagle’s View
This was not the Edwardian black-and-white stripe suit I planned for Carnevale 2022, but this was the one that turned out pretty damn good in the end. A year before, our group decided to take a walk in Edwardian costumes, preferably in black and white, during Carnevale. So I thought this would finally be the
For the Costume College 2015 Gala, I wanted to go along with that year’s “Plucked From the Pages” literature theme. And one of my all-time favorite book characters is Cathy’s ghost in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. It’s such an iconic scene from gothic literature. Of course, I’ve made this costume before back in 2002
It’s a known issue that I tend not to strictly recreate historical portraits. I also have a tendency to goth-ify my costumes, no matter the historical era or fantasy genre. Sometimes, this leads to greatness, sometimes … well, it’s a challenge. It can look rather weird in progress, & this ‘chemise a la gothique’ is
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
First take on my Leonard wig, and I’m not sure. Ok, it’s super-messy, that’s a problem. But that’s not my real problem with it. I think the shape is too girly. It’s been sitting on a head clamped to my cutting table for a few days, and every time I look at it, I think
I hate the sleeves I put on the loose gown yesterday. They look like Henry VIII being an asshole. Another Reconstructing History pattern FAIL. Also, the collar is way too big (again, a reason not to follow the RH pattern; it’s so freakin’ *off* as far as size goes, either too big or too small,
I F****KING HATE PLEATING!!!!! Stupid polonaise. Stupid skirt. *This* is why I put the damn thing off all week. I have to rip it out *again* bec. I still can’t get the back to lay down properly. Not all that pleased with the front either, but it’s not as entirely sucktastic as the back. ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
I finally finished this sucker, despite a number of setbacks. Like discovering I had cut out two upper left sleeves out of the crewelwork, and of course, there wasn’t enough fabric left to cut a right upper sleeve. So instead of making the sleeves half crewel/half solid, they’re all solid. DOH! The pattern was kind
My so-far attempt at a Jacobean jacket. The muslin looked really good on me, and this part doesn’t look too bad, even though I could not line up the border pattern and I royally f-ed up the godets. Speaking of which, does anyone have a trick for putting in triangular godets? I’ve never gotten them
I started my bodice outer layer… Oopsie, I forgot to baste the silk to another layer; it’s not as flimsy as I thought and I was just on a roll and went straight to sewing. I’d hate to rip all that out and weaken the material. Will only 2 layers in the bodice be horrible?
So here I am last night, prepping the top edge of the skirt for cartridge-pleating. I’m using a strip of gingham because (a) I have a boat-load leftover from a previous cartridge-pleated skirt, (b) it makes for super-fast and easy marking, that is, no marking needed, just count off the squares, which is simpler when