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.
Berthas are ugly and hard to make! But I’m getting there — evidence is in my folder on the Y!Group. Photo of my bodice with the bertha pinned on and lace pinned on (but not gathered). OMG I hate berthas! So completely ugly. And it kept angling weird, and the pleats went wonky on me
I feel kinda like a rockstar because last night I finished all those bloody hand-bound eyelets (though they were not actually bloody, thank the gods) *and* I am this close to being finished with the CC26 program book. The later looks a whole lot better than the former, but still. I’m doing it. Go me.
Bleh, hand-sewing. Hand-bound eyelets blow chunks. I’ve done one half of the bodice tho. Think it took about 4 hours (I called in sick to work today — was headachey in the a.m.). My fingers are sore. Not in an RSI way (yet) but in a ‘wish I could work with a thimble’ way. At
Ugh, three hours to make one sleeve. Bloody freakin’ hell. Wasn’t even hand-sewn! Just fiddly as all get out. Only took a few teeny breaks to see some of the fights during the Sharks game and relieve my back. Here comes Calgary, should be interesting. Nose back to the grindstone…
I just got a vintage chemise off eBay to wear with my gown. It’s perfect! Fits great and the neckline is the right shape for the low neck of the bodice (at least in a quick try-on last night). My old Victorian chemise is black and I was worried about it showing and about the
Piping has been applied in all the places it’s supposed to be. Well, not the sleeves, since I needed to design them first. Speaking of which, I’m going to pat myself on the back for figuring out these sleeves entirely on my own, no patterns, no friends helping, nothin’. They’re not all that complicated, but
I made piping and stuck it on the bodice. It did not kill me. Yay. <—ironic Took pix but not posting them because y’all know what it looks like. Just took pix to prove to myself that I did it. Sleeves — couple o’ mockups and I think I have the size right now. After
Period sewing techniques suck! So insanely slow and looks much more crappy than modern tricks — specifically, only flat-lining instead of flat-lining for strength and bag-lining for tidiness. Gah, the inside of this gown looks like hell and took all day to “finish,” such as it is. This masquerade costume is full of stuff I’m
Got the answer to some questions I asked of the Masquerade Directors, FYI. First, is about our Winterhalter — yes, his costume needs to go through workmanship judging, even though he’s really a ‘prop’ for the presentation and what we’d planned for him to wear is more theatrical than documentably historical. Kendra, Sarah, and I
Out of skirtland! That monster is done! Well, I need to put hooks on it, but that waits until I’m all corseted, and there’s no-one around who can tight-lace me right now. But I’m calling the skirt DONE anyway 🙂 Picture with obligatory crappy flash is in my folder on the Y!Group. Now on to
Ok, back to the salt mines of my masquerade costume. Ugh. Trim. I usually love trim. But frickin’ rows of ribbon are BORING and TEDIOUS and my back is KILLING me from sitting at the machine. Of course, the next thing after that is hand-sewing, not any better. Whee! <— note facetiousness.
*wibble* Insert tiny moment of Costume-Con panic here. About, well, everything.
You mean I’m hand-sewing something and that others are *not*? Wow, the planets must be out of alignment 😉 I’m 3/4ths of the way through hand-sewing the hem of the base skirt. A lot of my skirt will be hand-sewn actually, because the thing’s so giant. So far, only the panel seams have been machined.
I have my base skirt assembled with the 2 tiers of black lace. I realize my lace is rather heavier than in the original, but ah well, it *is* a lovely embroidered lace and the pattern. I think, overall, my gown is going to be darker than the original. My purple is darker, my lace
It’s a real costume now — I earned my first wound. Last night, I stabbed a needle under the quick of my right thumb (because I’m incapable of using thimbles). Didn’t bleed *on* the fabric, thank the gods. But blood has officially been shed, so it’s real. Y’know, like Velveteen Rabbit “real.” And, oh the
