Saturday, December 12, 2009

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!!!!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

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!

Monday, December 7, 2009

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