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 just found these tatted lace masks on Etsy (via Instructables, where I was doing research for work, honest). That could be perfect for Carnivale! See, at Antonia Sautter’s atelier, I tried on a lace mask that fit pretty nicely over my glasses. It was intended to. And I’d thot about trying to make such
Finished hand-sewing gold lace on edge of hemmed fabric strip for 1580s/1590s head-on-a-plate ruff. Now, I guess I start cartridge-pleating the ruff and/or make the neckband — that is to say, assemble the ruff? Later that day… Fingertips iz sore. Finished cartridge-pleating a smidge less than 4 yards into a 16″ neckband. Didn’t attach it
Started working on my ruff for 12th Night. A quarter of the way through applying the lace by hand (ew, but necessary).
Next on the docket, that head-on-a-plate ruff for my 1580s gown. Because I hath seen Patterns of Fashion 4 and it doth rock. Yea verily forsooth!
I finally got to wear this Jacobean jacket at Mists Bardic and received compliments & queries about how I made it and what it was all about (update: I’ve worn it many times since, and people always ask if I embroidered the whole thing — heck no!, I tell them :-). I wore it with
Finished something! Well, except for closures (doesn’t everyone need a little closure?). But there’s enough trim on the black Jacobean jacket, enough to call it baked. ‘Cept do I want bows or not? I could add pink ribbon bows up the front, prob. four of them. Might still need to close with pins because there’s
I just sewed a bunch of trim on the Jacobean jacket and I’m still kinda drunk. And I think the jacket could use more trim. That’s what I love about Elizabethan and Victorian bustle eras — shit-tons of trim. Add more, then add a little bit more on top of that. Just in case.
I sewed a lot of trim on my black Jacobean jacket. But there’s still more to do! Got the godets outlined in black braid, put on the lace at the collar, and eeked out a bit more of the crewel edging for cuffs. But I want to edge the sleeves’ crewel stripes in a narrow
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
There’s no point even considering hand-sewing something when the pattern you’re using (Jacobean Jacket by Dawn Anderson Designs) isn’t terribly accurate to begin with. It’s not horribly inaccurate — I can see exactly why the designer chose to put a seam there and that *is* accurate for doublet bodices in the era, even though it’s
These are the instructions and pattern to make a small, metal-framed purse, for a class I taught at Costume College 2008. Metal-frame purse instructions PDF — Complete details for making a purse with a metal “kiss clasp” frame. This style of purse is accurate from about the 1400s to the present day, and you can
What I wanted to find at this year’s trip to the LA Garment District was something to go with this hot pink and silver (polyester) sari I’ve had in the Stash for years: I made a sketch of my costume concept in Tara Maginnis’ drawing class at Costume College (shown at left). The idea is
So I updated my swatch book last night. Which required measuring of some yardage. And I don’t think I have enough fabric for my intended Carnivale costume. The black shantung embedded with shisha mirrors is only 4 yards of 45″ wide material, and something tells me that just won’t be enough for a robe a
Well, no in-progress updates or anything! Half a year later, I picked up the project again about two weeks before the Lumieres Summer Pique-nique. I wanted something new to wear, as I’d worn the same pink francaise to two other picnics at the same location already. Also, I got the idea of buying a big
