Post, post, posty mcposterson!

k, I'm sorry f-list! Last one for today (probably) In a complete stroke of happenstance, as I was checking my f-list, this was posted on lamodeillustre.....which happens to be just about a perfect inspiration for the fabric I bought in LA just a couple of days ago!!!! (Well, except for the bowler hat. I've already discovered the not-nice things close-fitting caps and hats do to my facial features.)

In tones of Sepia....

Weekend Random Roundup

Flying out early morning on Saturday - *way* too early. But the sunrise was absolutely beautiful -- it looked like a horizontal super-saturated rainbow, with the greens and everything! Pictures out the plane window of course, do not do it justice.



bodice_goddess took me to breakfast at the famous"Pantry Cafe" in LA. The food is absolutely fabulous!



I needed the fortitude for a mini fabric shopping trip in the garment district. I ended up with a whole bag of really awesome buttons, and a length of fabric for myself, and one for sis, if she likes the color. (Alas, no pictures) After a whirlwind shopping spree, we went to the Arboretum. bodice_goddess needed to finish her corset for the Tea and Skate the following day, so we whipped out some binding, and I tried my hand at flossing for the very first time. I bet I can finish flossing the entire corset in pretty short order the next time I go down. Doesn't she look absolutely fabulous?!



We walked around downtown and saw the lights and watched people skating on the outdoor rink - portents of my time on the ice the next day!



bodice_goddess had planned a suprise birthday dinner at a murder mystery dinner theater - so much fun!!!



I crashed out as soon as we got back - she ended up finishing up the grommets while I slept. The next morning we did a final fitting of the bodice and added lace around the cuffs. Next off to the Tea and Skate! We took a quick detour on the way to the airport so I could snap a few pictures of the beach. *sigh* So beautiful! I knew I was on my way back to freezing temperatures.....



My flight was delayed for hours (and hours and hours) because of the thick, freezing fog enveloping SLC. We finally boarded around 11:45 PM LA time. ugh. The fly-over was pretty cool, though. (But not cool enough to warrant getting to bed at 4:30 AM on a work day) So. There you have it! A wonderful whirlwind trip to LA!

Oh what a weekend! (Tea and Skate)

Had such a lovely time! bodice_goddess looked absolutely smashing in her all-black outfit! I braved the ice, and managed not to kill myself, although I would have sincerely appreciated someone to hold on to! In the pictures my skirt looks like it's too long in front, but that's just becuase of my terrible butt-sticking-out-omg-gonna-fall-over posture. I've decided that a coal-scuttle bonnet shape does my face no good at all - I need to stay far, far away from anything that plasters to my skull. Also, tying the ribbons under the chin....not terribly flattering on me.

Tea and Skate '09

There are some videos of the skate as well..... :D

Laurelling Gown - Jaquelinne Sleeves and Partlet

Here's a quick sketch of what I envision for the sleeves and partlet:

Laurelling Gown - Jaquelinne Edition!

I am so relieved! The fabric for Jaquelinne's dress arrived today, and it is SO gorgeous!!! Hollyness, when do you think you'll get the spangles? The plan is to do pearl and crystal florets in the centers and spangles on the lace edge and perhaps the crosses - Jaquelinne, is this OK?

I need to purchase another set of 22" stretcher bars for my embroidery frame, and find some awesome cord/ribbon for lacing. I think that's pretty much all that is left to buy. w00t!

My to-do list: (* denotes finished tasks)

*Gather materials
*Draft patterns
*Get measurements
Cut (bodice, skirts, guards, sleeves, petticoat, partlet, shoulder treatments, camacia, drawers, smock)
Construct bodice
Attach rings
Attach guards
Construct skirts
Attach guards
Cartridge pleat and attach skirt
Construct shoulder treatments
Attach shoulder treatments
Construct sleeves
Couch gold on partlet
Bead partlet
Construct partlet
Construct camacia

I think it's time for me to call it a night, since I'm completely tuckered out.

More Gown Photos

Because sometimes, I just can't get enough of myself. (in case you missed it, that statement was *dripping sarcasm*)

The overall look, with hair that is going a bit flat and not-so-fluffy. I was kind of worried that the bodice would look funky without stays, but everything worked out just fine with the kirtle lightly boned, and OMG, this dress was SO comfortable All. Day. Long!


Closeup of the bodice and belt by the ever-fabulous Aine. I'm so happy with the way that the frogs turned out, I'm itching to make more.


Closeup of neckline - necklace and earrings by Aine, of course! (I added the tineh widdle bows, tho!)


Closeups of sleeves and belt. I still am totally in love with the sleeves, and they survived a full day event with no noticable deterioration! Yay for pinking!


The veil I decided needed to be dyed about midnight the night before the event.....heh.


I need to fix my camacia neckline, and change out the sleeve ties, but other than that, I just can't wait to wear it again!

Teehee!

After all the angst, I think this my be my favorite outfit I've made for myself - evar!

Solstice 2009!

lick the pic to go to the album.....my camera was being all wonky, so a lot of them are blurry. BOOO!!!!! So, if anyone has pics they'd like to share, lemme know, k?

Solstice 2009

Jaquelinne will be put on vigil at 12th Night! YAY!!!!!!!! OMG SQUEE!!!!

Two nights to go, can I make it?!

The kirtle bodice is done, done done! Yaaay! At the last second, I decided to not wear stays under the kirtle, and to bone the bodice, as per descriptions in my new book of goodness and awesomeocity.

I didn't have quite as many bones as I would have liked, so the front is just a smidge bit woobly, but not too bad, I think (especially if it's worn underneath another gown)


I haven't done hand bound eyelets in....years! I usually end up doing hook and eye or rings for just about everything. I'm happy to report, I remember how to do them! :D

p.s. The fabric looks totally polyester and shiny in these pictures, I assure you, it is not IRL.




Kirtle bodice, no stays, with coat - all seems well in the world! (I did try on my camacia, and I think I'm going to need to fix the neckline down the road....just not right now)


w00t! Frogs sewn on! I finished tacking on the last one about 1:30 am last night, so hopefully they end up OK. That top one looks eerily crooked, I hope it's a trick of the camera.....I'll check it when I get home. (Oh, and there's actually 5 of them, not 4)


Still left to do:
-tea dye camacia (it's harshing my ivory mellow)
-pleat and attach kirtle skirt
-find and wire veil
-attach trim to bottom of kirtle OR hem kirtle
-pattern/make partlet
-tack on rings for sleeves
-attach aglets to sleeve ties OR trim to length
-whip out a hood for my poor neglected husband

All this must be done, with a full day and a half of work and only 45 hours left to go. Sheesh. Every time, man!

Dress - second look.

yeeeeah.....my collar is not mimicing the portraits very well at this point. I think it is too high. I shoulda cut the collar down like I was thinking. Poo.

My inspiration portrait looks like there may not be *any* points - rather a sloping curve. This *might* be a perspective thing, see how the black line kind of dissapears into the ruffle on the right? My back-up portrait most definately has points, but they are much lower.

I'm trying so hard not to be bummed out about this dumb collar yet again. I'm having the worst case of I-suck-at-everything-ness.

I love this book!!!

It has recipes, sources for finding materials, and best of all, color palates with how each shade was achieved!

Huge Dress Update-O-Doom

This weekend has been very fun, if not hectic and at times frustrating. The bad being work harassing me pretty much non-stop, and Mo being a poor little sick goggie and pretty much, keeping me constantly carpet cleaning up piles of sick. (And also a splitting headache-trying-to-blossom-to-migrane that thankfully went away after a couple of hours. Sneak in the pills early and head it off at the pass!)

The good - being to hang out with all the awesome seamstresses (guild?! hahaha)! Holly came down for the weekend, and both dragonfly_sidhe & The Strid spent a goodly amount of time crammed in my sewing room. Thea drove up on Saturday, and experienced the wackiness that is a sewing weekend - and survived! (I hope!)

I've fallen behind in my posting about this *bleep-ety-bleep-bleep* dress, so here's the quick version:

Figured out the frogs - but yet to make them....It's a four-strand braid....




I actually finished the pinked sleeves! (Although I don't have any pictures of the finished product. *lamehead*

I graphed out the pattern I drafted up (remember my previous sleeve misadventures? Yeah. Like that.)

The grain is running down my arm, so I could (relatively) safely pink on the bias and not have it all fall to shreds in seconds. I used my trusty pinking chisel to create a quatrefoil starbursty thing in each of the squares....(I was only about 1/6 the way through in this picture, but it looks like I hadn't even started!)


Whew! Finished! Only a few bruised knuckles to prove it! They look very plain and sad when lying so flat! I also decided to pink *only* the outer sleeve to try to save on the chance of ripping and fraying or best-case catching on my belt or something.


Anyway, when the fabric moves, it kind of weirdly looks like fish scales.


Closest pic I have to the completed sleeves is Mitri 'helping' me sew on the braid to the seams....


For about two seconds I thought about putting some gold trim on it, but then decided not to. (the final straw was realizing it looked very 'trendy pirate')


I also FINALLY figured out the sleeve treatments! Woot!!!!! I do not have pictures, tho. Boo! I got a good head start on the kirtle, which I ended up deciding to do a solid pointy-front on to make it viable as a dress in its own right. The bodice is 90% done, just needs rings, and the skirt is cut out and hemmed - just needs pleating and trim (that the ever-lovely bodice_goddess sent to me!!!) around the bottom. I should have made the kirtle first - I am a bit worried that the overdress will be a bit too snug when all the underthings are on.

So, after the kirtle is done, I have left to do:

-partlet
-wired veil
-hood for mah honee because I feel so guilty that he has no new clothes

In other seamstressing news, dragonfly_sidhe is nearly done with her new gown (which is SO BEAUTIFUL), as is The Strid, who calls her dress "The Sexy Tomato". Her dress is so ADORABLE!

I made Hollyness some new gutchies and a partlet, which I am quite fond of! It works pretty well with my dress, if I do say so myself!


And bonus sneak-peek at the jewelry Hollyness made for me! :) YAY!



I think I will end up making a flat-necked partlet (like I made for Holly) - I don't think the giant popped wing-ness of the collar will play nice with the curved pleat/gathered style. (It's the corner that I think sticks too far out. I messed around with pinning the point in - It looks OK (with the ruffly partlet over it) but I don't want that to be a permanent solution)

*phew*

Hopefully I'll be better about updating as things finish up!

Oh, hey ladies! We really REALLY need to get a Photoshoot of us all together, K?

:D

ZOMG! SLEEVES!

TA: Motion passes - White sleeves it is! (I know, I know, I'm skipping the next Roberts step, but who wants to vote, anyways?!)

Ok, back in the day when I was first wiffling about this project, I was kind of smitten by the white sleeves a la:


I was originally forcing myself to use *only* what is in my stash, but it just so happens that last week I added to my stash a whole lotta white silk taffeta ($3/yd!!!). I had forgotten about the original idea of white sleeves since I changed focus to my specific inspiration portrait:



So, here's the question.....is my friend Sofonisba wearing white sleeves? *Could* she be wearing white sleeves? If I do sleeves of white silk, I'll probably do tiny slashes and decorative braid.....if I do sleeves of black velvet, I'll probably do paned sleeves, even though I'm not seeing a whole lot of examples. How much am I allowed creative licence??