Great Portrait

She wears an outer

I think this is the best gown!n I am looking for something different and I think I would like to use grey fabric. With silver trim not gold.

ise. Tabs appear on the edge of the collar, the edges of the cuff openings of the false sleeves, the shoulders, and the edges of the sleeves just above the cuffs while her under-garment has many small, regularly-spaced slashes. The under-bodice appears to be fastened by a set of small (pearl?) buttons.

More on Renewal Gown

Okay so here are some friends and people around the web who also have lovely examples of Elizabethan Gorgeousness.

Wedding Gown Inspiration Continued

So

So these are some of my inspirations from as well as written information I have gleaned from the New Year's Gifts given to Queen Elizabeth I. I know I want to have a gray gown and I think it will have white forepart or kirtle it depends.

Wedding Gown Inspiration

Is this best portrait, I wish it was in color, of a lovely young lady and both her back and front of her gown!!!

CoCo Inspiration Continues!

I love this painting. In fact my best friend and I will be attending Costume College, in which I just got my recipet for my admittance and I have my hotel so we are good to go!!!

2011 as I mentioned before will be Gothic Gowns or gowns from Pre-Raphealites from the 19th Century. My BFF wants a Gothic Fitted Gown. She wants a gold under dress with a burgundy over, I think I can make 9 12-inch circular emblems with a flying dragons on it.

Next Year~ 20th Anniversary Gown

Next year marks my husband and myself's 20th Anniversary. When we got married, we had a lovely wedding, very traditional more for our parents than ourselves. We have always wanted to have a Renaissance Anniversary and well why not our 20th?

I would like to use something other than purple which I am always using it seems! I have gray fabrics~ 10 yards of Velvet, 8 yards of Damask, 10 yards of a shiny damask, and some darker gray velvet.

I have black damask with Fleur de Lys fabric on hand for the hubby's outfit, and I want to make my boy black at the same time.

But I need to think about what gown I want to make for me first! LOL I have silk taffeta that I have placed a pattern on, and I am going to use some designs I have from Rowena Charleton Designs you can find her here: http://www.rowenacharlton.com/

I want to do use silver cord and couch it down between the designs.

But this does depend on my arm as it takes me forever to do anything right now. SIGH good thing my 12th Night outfit is done from last year.

Okay more later

Still Dreaming....Next Year's Plans

Hey All

So I have a very nifty embroidery machine, if you have some money and you really want a kick-ass system please check out the Husqvarna Diamond it is well worth the cash, why? It can do the largest area for embroidery at this time and when they make another that can do a larger area I will upgrade to that one! LOL this does mean? That I can do one side of a Doublet at once.

Anyway with that said? I want to embroider an Elizabethan Jacket. Like this one to the left which is 7 years out of our actual time period, but lovely none the less.

Here are some more examples what I am looking at making especially the one at the bottom, I have Tudor Roses and Fleur de Lis on my device so I have some designs that I want to put all over my choice for this, this specific Jacket to the right is made from Linen and black Silk thread.

Pondering Estrella

I have some black velveteen and gray linen, or could do this in wool......it will be for Estrella and it will no doubt be cold.

Just Thinking Not Doing

My Shoulder operation went well. I am in a lot of pain, thank the Gods for pain killers!! I am Still working on the Faire Gown, but no progress as yet, I can't use my right arm.

So off to plan Estrella garb.

I love the Jacobean Jackets.

Like this :

and this is a sample of what I want on the edges & sleeves

http://www.needlenthread.com/Images/patterns/Hand_Embroidery/Fleurdelysborder2.gif

Hats & Skirts

So this was my Saturday and Sunday, we went to the bean festival and that took most of the day and all of my energy!!!! Then I had to go and find a dress to wear to a friend's for dinner, because I gave away all of the clothing in my closet that was a size 20 or above, I had no special clothing to wear at all.

I found this lovely shirt dress in apricot linen and I wore the earrings I made and my necklace I purchased with green beads and an apricot flower, Indian food without the peppers so I could eat the stuff! It was lovely!
So Hat is in need of hand sewing which I can do at work, and I have 216 inches or 6 yards of skirt done, now to put the gaurd on it, I am going to make the linen lining next and then... the gaurd that is my Monday. Monday night I am heading to a friend's to get her to fit my bodice pattern because I lost weight and it is too loose. Then I can cut out the interior and well get everything set up, I might see if I can take off a Thursday so I can have an extra day to finish this and make it perfect for Saturday. I am now waiting for the jewelery to come from Dragonpipes. I don't have anything blue and gold so I ordered a set with a brooch because it was awesome.

New Fish Tank!!!

Yeah so we spent on upgrading the freezer and the fish tank! The one we had is 10 gallons and we got a 55 gallon tank and now we get to fill it with new fish along with our old ones!!

Cilean

Gown Continued

I have today off, and a good thing since the fog kept flights delayed for up to 3 hours. I was able to sleep which was great, and I got the design of the trim sewn to the forepart, now I have to glue the gems to the little gold squares and then attach them and figure out if I am going to gaurd the bottom with either in the blue velveteen would it look okay since I am guarding the skirt in the same velveteen?

I don't know, but I will do some research and see if I can find another solution to the bottom. I need to back the forepart with the duck cloth which is also in blue.


Cilean

Forepart Creating!

This is where I am at now, every single thing you see is from my stash!
I have been collecting for at least 15 years, I go to Gem Shows and well
all sorts of places to find what I need!

This again is the Blue/Gold shot Silk Taffeta, my son almost gave me a heart attack because he was working with bleach cleaning a fish tank, and he casually drops his hands on my fabric! Silk? ! Yikes! Hates bleach! But luckily? He did not have any on his hands, it was just water and it dried without any issues! This is $26.00 a yard fabric and I only had 2 yards of it to begin with.

I had to beg my husband for his math expertise in the diamond design as I had less than 4 yards of the trim to do the forpart, I think with the dark blue velveteen on the bottom it will look smashing together.

Well it is late and I am bushed, I will work on this perhaps Wednesday as I have that day off.

I haz Sleeves!

Well not competely done, because I decided I needed to pink it so I have been working on that design.

Don't you love the shot Silk Taffeta? It is blue and gold and it shines in the sunlight! I am so glad I found this!

Right now I am working on the forpart, I will have pictures as soon as I can get it, I have less than 4 yards of trim left, which means I have to be very careful in placing the trim so that it will have a good effect and will give me a grand look as well.

Old and New!

Pretty nifty eh? On the left we have old freezer, really small and hard to get into without taking every single thing out of it and often forgetting what the heck you have at the bottom. For me it was a nightmare. So Hubby got a bonus, not the biggest but hey? It is free money! We were at Best Buy and saw they had a floor model sale. Then I did some research and they were selling new ones online for the same amount! Huh? So I spoke with the manager and he lowered the price another $75.00, and well that brought it down over $250.00 and well it made it worth it, plus with the no intrest on the credit card, we decided it would be a good thing, so I have budgeted 50.00 for the next year to pay this off and we have a new standing freezer that is 20.6 cu feet and well we have space!!! So awesome! We moved everything from the old freezer, well hubby did that in like 30 minutes, we have so much more space!! I bought corn already and some fruits. I plan on getting more and since we have a vacuum sealer, it will be so much fun to get everything in the freezer and well, know we have space!!

Faire Gown

So I can only hope I can work this out and have it done in 2 weeks. I am using patterns I already have so it should not be too difficult, just sitting and cutting and sewing, which always takes the longest!!! I went to Thai Silks, Gods! The SCA has had a discount with them for many years....many many.... and every time I go to the shop....I have to fight for the discount. I know times are tough but I sometimes spend $200.00 with them and still I have to prove that I know what I am saying is the truth. SIGH

So I picked up 2 yards of Silk Taffeta shot gold and blue, I am going to use the trim on that and pink the sleeves. I should have enough for a pill box hat, I am going to machine embroider a Fleur de lys on the too of the hat (my signature). The fabrics are very dark blue and not black but they are deep. I have some duck canvas I am going to build the forepart with. I have cut this out for the forepart it is 50 inches long and 36 inches wide at the bottom and tapers up to 12 inches at the top. I will see if I have enough of the trim to go a crisscross on the fore part and then I am going to do a stripe with the pinking on the sleeves.

Sunday~
Sleeves- Cut out and add trim
Forepart Cut out and add trim

Monday~
Work on skirt
I am going to use some linen I have on hand to line the skirt, and I am going to pad the skirt's cartridge pleats so that it will look fuller.

Friday~
I need to work on getting someone to refit by bodice block as I have lost a bit of weight and so I need to tweak the bodice just a bit. I want someone to help me really make sure my shoulders are fitting proplerly no matter how many times I ask my Mom, she will not fit the dratted thing like a 2nd skin....SIGH I will ask about and see if anyone can drop by and help me out.

Saturday~
Build the Bodice and begin on Lacing Holes.
Add Lacing rings to tie my sleeves on with
Work on hat

Not saying any of these will happen, but I am hoping by putting out the list I shall feel compelled to finish any of these on the days.

2010 Not the Best Year....Sigh

This year kind of sucks... We lost a valued friend in May of this year due to Cancer, however we found out if he had gone to the Doctor when he first had issues, he was having gran-mal type seizures but would not go to the Doctor. So in January he could barely walk, it was Leukemia and it was everywhere and he was gone by May.

This was my husband's best friend, they got through hell together and I kid you not, really crappy childhoods involving social services and social workers and well horrible things.

But they survived together, as brothers under the skin.

Hubby has been very quiet about this whole experience, every grieves at thier own pace.

We got a call 2 days ago, His Mother of whom he has massive issues i mean really.....massive.... is dying her Cancer has reached her brain and it will be a matter of days...he is with her at her hospice in Seattle.

I hope she stays long enough for me and the kids to arrive on Thursday.

Cilean

Trim Choices

So I want to make something new for Faire, and I will be going in a Month from now, so of course I want it down ASAP, I have fabrics and I did want some silk taffeta to be my forepart and sleeves. Then I remembered I had these piece 12 I got from eBay for I think $20.00 with shipping. I have pieced 3 of those pieces together, they are not with the design going vertical but horizontal. I have 2 trims in my stash:

This one above I don't have a lot, good thing I know where to get more of it at a good price.

This one on the left I have 40 yards of on hand.

So if anyone reads this at all? Could you give me some help in choosing?

Cilean

Costume College Recap!

New Hotel the Marriott Warner Center,

What I loved about the Hotel:
Room 17 Floors!
Space- More Rooms set up for classes!
6 working elevators
Restrurant- Very tasty if expensive
Customer Service- Everyone was on the ball, and professional

What I did not like:

If you were paying for your hotel room with a debit card they charged your entire time plus $200.00 for incedentals!!!

You had to have all of the names of the people who were rooming with you at check in or you would be held responsible for all charges!! Gulp! So this was my first time having roomies I had never met, so I learned a lesson! But it was easy to fix once I get the information!!!

The tables in the rooms are sized for lecture writing space, not for cutting tables or even sewing tables, this posed issues for workshops, plus those of us who were in workshops got really tiny rooms, so this is something that needs to change for next year. I have done this workshop 4 times now, in 2 hours everyone has their peices cut out and pinned and those who will not be embroidering could begin to sew, typically in 4 hours from beginning of class most of the Smock is done, instead we had to share space by combining 2 tabels for cutting and well we got some of the smocks cut out....it was a little dissappointing.


My class on Renaissance Fabrics was up against another Renaissance Workshop so I did not have the amount of people I usually have, however, they were a fun bunch!

This year was the theme of Steampunk, which I have wanted a reason to begin to collect for this, while I never really thought of Victorian as a time period for me, the fantasy of Steampunk has caught my imagination. Of course the hubby wants an outfit as well!! LOL so we shall probably be looking dapper at WonderCon next year in April.

I am hoping to be able to decorate for the Time Traveler's Tea next year. I put in a proposal but I have not heard as of yet....

Cilean

Doublet Issues!

Well, I found out even with me setting 1/2 inch seam allowance, when I put my French Seams in? It took so much that now my lovely deep Aubergine Linen doublet is now 3 inches too small!!

I am making another I have add 3/4th inch all around to see if this will make the French Seams work. As soon as I find my camera I will take pictures!

Cilean

Linen Doublet & Kirtle Project

Drama from the upcoming surgery, has me stressed so while I waited for the upteenth phone call, to tell me any news on when this event will happen, I decided to put together this diary and well get started.Here are the Linens, the Gray for the kirtle and the Aubergine for the Doublet. I have some options on Trim, A: Fleur de lys, B: Purple, Silver, Black C: Purple and Silver D: Purple, Silver, Black, Green, Teal. I am leaning towards option C: Purple & Silver.

So here is my mock up on Paper Tape Cilean, or PT Cilean, I draped this pattern myself.

And this is the redrafting to a Toile fabric that is heavier and I can then use that to fit to my body.

This is the Doublet pinned to PT Cilean, I am now heading to my Local SCA meeting in hopes that someone could help me fit, I am bringing my Smock and PoF so that this could happen.