For a Noah’s Ark themed party at Carnevale 2025, I looked around at what costumes I already had that I could use and found Leonard’s leopard-print silk breeches and waistcoat. Perfect base for an 18th-century-ish leopard! I found a faux-fur vest on eBay and carefully chopped it up to make a tail, mitts for front
It’s been a long time coming, but I finally finished Leonard’s pink suit! I made the pants and waistcoat back in 2023 and commissioned the matching coat around then too. But I never got around to trimming the coat until I was inspired to wear the whole outfit for the Salon at Palais Royal event
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 costume idea had been brewing in my head, but it wasn’t until a combo of pandemic lockdown and an excellent cosplayer opening up for commissions that it came to fruition. I’d been dreaming of David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane image (which I have a huge poster of) and his Ziggy Stardust persona, but done as
I’ve had this fabric earmarked for Leonard’s 16th-century suit for ages, and I finally bit the bullet and commissioned Jenn to make it for me. After all, she’s the pro, having made countless gorgeous such suits for fellas in the Court of St. George. We had a great time planning the design and during the
One of the events my friends and I planned to attend at Venetian Carnevale 2020 was the Napoli Ball, and 1860s evening attire was requested. But Victorian ballgowns bore me, so I decided that Leonard should branch out from the 18th century. I bought a black wool tailcoat tuxedo, a waistcoat, and a shirt. I
Many of us have seen this delightful painting with an 18th-c. gent wearing leopard-print breeches and waistcoat. It’s the generically named “An Interior with Elegant Company” by Venceslao Verlin (d. 1780). While I can’t find much about this specific painting, there are other images from around 18th-c. Europe of men and a few women wearing
My motto for this website and all my dress-up endeavors has long been, “We’re born naked, everything else is a costume,” which is a paraphrase of RuPaul’s “We’re born naked, everything else is drag.” Because Mama Ru and I have the same philosophy that all the clothes / makeup / hairstyle / etc. we garb
I’m not ignoring my costume blog, but I really haven’t been “costuming” per se that much. Sure, I dress up for costumed events maybe once every six weeks, but I go huge stretches between making anything new. Until, dun dun dun, Costume College! Well, at least this year. I’ve gone back and forth over the
Wherein I cross-dress to portray part of Marie-Antoinette’s court as we frolic at the Petit Trianon…,
I’ll wire the hat to the wig and then c’est fini. The event is tomorrow!
I think instead of covering shoes for Leonard (because the buckles arrived while we were gone), I’m going to make a tiny tricorn to perch atop his wig. Should take about the same amount of time and most of the same materials (all of which are in The Stash). Inspired by my decision to use
Back to work — but not in the office. I luckily have today off as part of the July 4th holiday! So I’m sewing (tho’ it’s pretty dang hot, even in our insulated bungalow). All 30+ buttons that I covered on the drive up to Oregon are now attached to Leonard’s coat. Still have to
Leonard’s coat has sleeves and cuffs. Button shapes are all cut so I can cover the forms on the drive to Oregon. Will sew them to the coat and pants when I get back. Only other thing left to do is hem the coat’s skirts, which are wildly uneven and a small part of me
Leonard’s pants are done, or as done as they’re going to get for now. I plan to make the buttons in the car ride to Oregon, so I’ll sew them on last minute. Also, I may just safety pin the fly closed bec. it’s weird. Kinda needs smaller buttons to lay flat and I don’t