miscellaneous projects

24 June
Well, I've been up to lots of things, but this is the first sewing item that fits here. I'm making a fifties dress.
I'm using a modern Vogue pattern for the bodice and I'm just winging it on the skirt. It's a polished cotton hibiscus print. I really love the fabric and although I'm a bit sick of the 50s after The Pajama Game, I thought that I better make this up while the style is still a hot "trend".

I won't be adding a real journal about this b/c it's pretty straight forward. I just have to gain for confidence in zippers & it'll be a snap.

30 April
Time flies! Today I took some time to make up the Flemish style gown to wear over the tartan kirtle.  It's made of the same blue linen that is in Joe's blue outfit and one of my mom's gowns. There's nothing to tell about it, the bodice is based on the pattern I used for the green & MQofS gowns; adapted from Margo Anderson's Lady's Wardrobe. The skirt is just to widths of the fabric box pleated on to the bodice. I got rather lazy and just used the salvage for the front edges instead of hemming. I'm using a tie from a white linen blazer I have in my "real clothes" closet for the lacing. Sometime ago I made a partlet to go with this from left overs of the cotton linen blend that I made my plain white high necked smock from. I'm planning to make some sleeves out of some fabric that goes back to my first ever attempt at a Ren Faire costume about 5 years ago. It started life as a pretty seafoam green, but a few minutes in brown dye gave it a much more peasant-y feel. Joe thinks it "doesn't go" with the other colors in the outfit, but I really like the dimension it provides. Overall the outfit has a nice French or maybe Scottish feel to it. It feels very authentic and I'm looking forward to having something to wear when it's really hot.

16 March
Eek! Has it really been since February?
I've had Scottish Ramble, food poisoning, a run of Murder at the Banquet, a bridal shower that UG coordinated, and about a million other things happening in my life since February. Sewing... I have made myself a peasant-y smock & a tartan kirtle. I'm planning an over dress to go with it since I fudged an used a zipper in the back. I figured I'd also be able to wear the dress to Scottish events w/o the smock. I'm also part way into a gown for my friend Chrissy & I've sold 2 things. One was a commission of a tai chi tunic and the other was a doublet, sleeves and slops that I placed for sale on ebay. 
 

1 February
I finally got around to bringing the camera home from the office, so here are some pics!
    First is of my button hole attachment for my sewing machine. I'm making the holes for the silk puffs on the shoulder wings of the Italian Ropa. Next is the way I pinned the silk to the wrong side of the wing. It was then stitched down and then the underside of the wing added and the whole thing turned. Next to that is the wing in its final state. The final pic here is of the inside of my new lilac farthingale that will be worn with my Thistle Kirtle. The skirt hangs funny without something under it and this gives just enough shape to fix the problem.
Check out the photos of Joe's Hunting Outfit on the Blue Gentleman's page. I've also added some photos of the Thistle Kirtle with Ropa and the Hunting Outfit on the Armoire page.

27 January
Well, my list of things I need to finish is getting shorter. I just added the ribbon points to Mom's blue Jacobean sleeves. The eggplant looks really lovely with the pattern. I'm totally finished with Joe's brown hunting outfit. Okay, I need to add the rings to tie the sleeve to, but that's very minimal. As soon as I take the time to order more gold studs my gold sleeves will finally be finished.
That leaves:
My Thistle and Grey Striped Doublet
My White Set of Ruffs
Joe's Blue Doublet
Mom's short Heraldic Ropa
Not too bad! Oh, course it is only a matter of time before the list grows again, but that's the way it goes.

17 January
I finished (finally) my Thistle Colored Ropa! Last night in a moment of divine inspiration I thought that adding a simple wing shoulder treatment that had been jazzed up with little puffs of the silk lining fabric was the answer.
Here's where the idea came from:
I figured that it was about time I learned how to use the automatic button hole attachment for my machine, so I tried it out on this project. Worked really very well. I cut little strips of olive silk and using the rounded end of my sewing tweezers I pushed out the puffs. I like the way it looks, but next time I'd measure where I was placing the holes. Since I made big holes and chose to eyeball the placement, they are a little uneven, but the overall look is very nice.
As a side note I'd like to mention that when we did Murder at the Banquet this fall the character of Wanda had as part of her costume a lovely peacock feather pin on her shoulder mysteriously akin to the one worn by Nicole Kidman to last night's Golden Globes. I'm starting to wonder what her stylist looks like...

P.S. I also managed to make a farthingale that's smaller than my other one. I used a falling apart bridal hoop for the pattern and I grabbed an old sheet to make the skirt. It's lilac and the boning channels are green and blue. It's sorta pretty. I'll be using it under my thistle kirtle since after I saw photos of myself in it w/o a hoop I realized just how much it needs it.

6 January
I have a few pics of what I've been up to, nothing is in it's finished state, but oh, well! First up is the doublet fabric and the silk used as piping on Joe's brown hunting outfit. Next to those is an idea of what it will end up looking like, the sleeves will match the doublet.
               
Next is a photo of Justin's outfit, I'm rather proud of the way the faux fur looks! And last is the Jacobean print sleeves I'm wrapping up for my mom. She'll wear them w/ her blue linen dress and we're adding  aubergine (aka eggplant) ribbon points.
Well I'm off to finish up some of these things...

4 January 2005
I've been bouncing from one project to another this last week. I still need to attach the faux fur to Justin's ropa, but that shouldn't be tough. Got to love remnants. His venetians are finished with the exception of adding the non-period elastic at the waist. Joe has a new pair of venetians that are almost finished, they just need the leg bands added. His brown doublet needs the lining cut and then it's just sewing it together. I added to the venetians and will be adding to the doublet some piping I made of a olive silk, it's amazing how much a tiny little touch like that helps to make the patterned doublet, the solid brown venetians and the olive tights come together. Joe isn't sure what type of hat he'd like for this outfit, but that can be a down the road task.

28 December
Everything is organized! I spent a good part of last weekend creating organization in my work room. Here's some of what I accomplished:
Male mannequin base together, both male & female dummies are standing at the same time.
Small fabric chunks sorted into baskets
Completed costumes into an under the bed wrapping paper style tote
Lots of fabric pieces washed and folded
Current projects organized and into bins
Lists made of To Do things for my projects
General order created and furniture rearranged - better air movement, much warmer and my desk isn't the 1st thing seen at the top of stairs

LOVING my sewing related Christmas gifts- new Rowenta Iron from Joe's parents and a fancy Rotary Cutter & mat from Joe!

13 December
Today I took the pieces of the blue doublet and used them to cut another doublet!
That's right folks, why make just one when you can make two?  I had made a doublet a few years ago for Joe from some brown, gold, pumpkin colored fabric that we found one day at Walmart for less than $ 2 a yard. Well, it wasn't very good. As a first try it was ok. Today I cut some more of that same fabric into what will become a new doublet.  I also found that if I made the fabric pattern run the opposite way on the body & sleeves Joe's gets both! We've decided that these must be his hunting attire, since they are rather drab when compared to his other outfits.

I also pulled out some corduroy that I've been saving to make new venetians for our friend Justin. I'm going to be seeing him in the near future and that's good b/c I'm going to pray to the fabric gods that I have enough to make them.

Also talked to Joe about selling a couple of things that I made for him but he has never worn. We have a friend who is constantly asking, "When are you going to make me something?" Well, now I can say that I have something, venetians and sleeves, that match and are looking for a home.

Oh, and I ripped apart a modern skirt that is destined to become a forepart and sleeves for a friend.  Ignoring the dry clean only tag I washed the two pieces I ended up with in the tub they lost a lot of dye, but fared pretty well.

Wow! I'm going to bed, what an evening.

15 November
not exactly a costume item, but cool none the less. Today I figured out how to make shared borders for websites!!! I use FrontPage and after I was able to turn on the shared border tool, it's really easy.

19 September
It's been quite a while since I've update here, so I'm thinking I'll have a bunch to say. Yesterday we attended Minnesota Renaissance Fest, again, this time with Teddy. I'll be posting a few photos soon.  We had a wonderful time and it was really fun to look at fest through new eyes, ok the eyes of a bear, but it really made me appreciate everything in a new way. We looked for a better belt for Joe, the Wal-Mart one was never intended to be a permanent one, but true to form Joe has decided to wait. We also looked for tights at Felix to go w/ the blue fabric, but Joe thinks he'd like to have light blue ones and that's not a color that Felix will do since he'd sell one pair to us and then be stuck w/ the fabric. Looks like I'll be contacting Renaissance Dancewear to see what they have. We also looked for a tankard strap for me, but they were all too large. I'm not totally sure I like the idea of one, but it makes it easier to carry other things if I'm not carrying that. I've made yet another side project, big surprise. I was looking at this beautiful Jacobean print fabric that I had just a tiny bit of b/c the roman  shades in our bedroom are made from the same fabric and thinking hmmm that would be really pretty with my thistle kirtle. This isn't the first  time I'd thought that. but it was the first time I thought it and remembered that I'd seen some drawings of women wearing a short version of a ropa. I dug around online and came up w/ the sources I was looking for and I wow have a mid-thigh length ropa that's in purples and lined in silk.

26 August
Things have been a little crazy around here! But I have changed the name from "gown journal" to "project journals" since I seem to get off task as often as I stay on it! Nothing else has changed, just the name. I'll be back up and running on major projects after the big event we have next week is over.

20 August
So, I made it through the first weekend of Ren Fest, didn't end up making a ropa and didn't end up finishing the gloves, c'est la vie. The Scottish Ramble banner looked great and the rolling basket mom and I picked up worked wonderfully, the liner worked pretty well, if I do say so myself. Turns out that I wore my gold underskirt with a pin in the hem, found it later when I was washing it! I also found out that my Mary Queen of Scots gown must have been hemmed unevenly when I did it this winter b/c I couldn't get the hem of it to line up w/ the underskirt. That's fixed now, but it seems I've just added yet another little alteration project to my list, fixing the white silk forepart. Since it is rather obvious to me that Joe's doublet and slops are going to have to wait until fall, I don't feel to guilty working on a mini side project. At the Wayzata (that's why-zet-a for you non-MNers) Community Church Rummage Sale this week I found a little camp stool type of chair for $2. The canvas is very badly faded and it needs sanding, but it seems like it could be a great little chair to have around.

11 August
I took a brief hiatus this weekend to attend 1. a family wedding, 2. Bristol and 3. the Wisconsin State Fair. Of the 3 Bristol is the most relevant  to these pages. We had a great time, took lots of pictures and I hope to get those up soon. MNRF starts this weekend and I'm trying to finish up a few things before then. It's unseasonably cool here this week and I fear that I might need another layer in the mornings, so I'm quickly whipping together a ropa of grey wool that I've intended to use for this propose for sometime. I also need to fix the hem on my gold forepart and finish off some gloves I picked up at the Temple Israel rummage sale. I'm also working on a photo album of Ramble pics and, hmmm that seems to be it, so now...

31 July
I've been working on a side project for the last week, a banner for A Scottish Ramble, which is an event held in Saint Paul each February that my mom, Elizabeth has been coordinating for over a decade. As a part of "Highland Fling" weekend at MN Renaissance Festival we will be exhibiting, so I figured what better time to learn how to make a banner! I'm almost finished and am only in need of cutting out the letters, ironing them on, stitching over them and adding fringe. I'll get pics up asap.