Enormous Beth-a-Val Laurelling Post

During morning court, TRM Timmur and Tianna put Bethany on vigil.


Bethany's husband, Vilhelm (Robert) had a unique view of the proceedings, as he is herald for TRM.


Bethany's wonderful laurel, Duchess Caryn escorted Bethany to the vigil room. During the entirety of Bethany's vigil, Caryn manned (womanned?) the guest book. There were many munchies and delicious snacks set out. The vigil room was lush with beautiful pillows and rugs, and it was a very wonderful experience.


I frantically got Bethany ready in time for evening court. Doesn't she just look BEAUTIFUL?!?!


Bethany returns the green Apprentices belt to her Laurel....


And Caryn receives the belt with gracious words....


Baron Thorvald reads words from Sir Tryggvar (Jeff-ay)....


Words are read for Royal Peers....


The amazing Dame Thea(dora) says very inspiring things about Bethany....


Jaquellinne had me crying with her kind words which rang so true, Bethany is so very generous and kind...


Duchess Caryn stands up for her Apprentice, and says very kind and beautiful things...


Bethany is given not one, not two, but THREE Laurel medallions. They are passed around and 'blessed' by the Laurels of the Kingdom...


Bethany swears her oath to the Kingdom, and TRMs swear in return....


And here is our newest Laurel!!!!!

I am so very thankful that I was able to finish her dress in the short time allotted. I wish I had more time, but it turned out OK, I think! The hat was the last to be completed, and it is pretty cute. Of course the wonderful and talented Holly made all the jewelry and belt.

12th Night

Holy blast from the past, Batman! I made this dress for Tianna back when we did "Twelfth Night" for 12th Night. She played Olivia, and I played Viola. It was so much fun, I really wish there was a recording of it, we worked so hard! I don't even know if there were pictures taken. :(


Full length views





Details of the dress. The dress itself didn't take *that* long to make since we already had all of the understuff made, and I've made this type of dress multiple times for her before. I am still extremely pleased with the sleeves. From the poofs to the slashes, I think the sleeves turned out very nicely. We still need pearls on the sleeves, and Holly borrowed one of my shirts, because I didn't have time to finish a new one for her, but here it is! She looked fabulous!

Got some stuff done....all pea pods, daffodills, and gilly flowers are done. I've started on an an orange portion, which I am going to call 'round flowers' because I have no idea what they are. The next flowers will be either red or blue, I have not decided which ones they will be. I'm still worried about the scroll-y vines.

Do I do them out of yellow or gold? Do I continue to beat myself to death with the bleepin' plaited braid stitch, or do I do laid gold, or something else entirely?? I don't want to do something completely lame, because I'm putting an enormous amount of time into this, and I don't want to mess it up too much, but I really don't know if I can teach myself plaited braid. Aaaah, the dilemma!!!

At least I have quite a while before I get to the point that I actually have to worry about the gold scroll work.

And even MORE sewing updates....

Holly took home the dress I made for her, and has been adding crystals and pearls to the bodice and sleeves. She reports that it took approx. 178 crystals and 342 pearls. (I think that's just for the bodice, but I'm not sure...)

I can't wait to see what it looks like all gussied up wif' the sleeves 'n everything! Yay!

Next year is the year I make my red velvet dress of sparkly gold goodness. I swear. I want a fancy-schmancy too!

First chainstitch project

y crewel wools came in yesterday!! I can't believe how beautiful all the colors are! I felt like a kid opening a brand new pack of crayons. YUM!

I don't quite know what I'm going to do with it, but I'm pleased that it looks as good as it does!


Next up....trace out the coif pattern!!

Beginning of first needlework project...wish me luck!

Embroidery design half-way transferred

Sis' Projects

Since I'm so proud of Sis, I have to post what she worked on over the weekend! (I'll bug her until she posts her own dress diaries!)

Shes using Reconstructing History patterns for her project, and as I had suspected, the paniers are more angular, rather than the curvy lines found in the museum pattern. It is probably just a convenience thing, but at least I'm not the only one that is on that track.

Anyway, back to Sis. She's cut out the pieces, made casings and has attached the boning casing to the outer (side) pieces. It amazes me how very careful and methodical she is when she's pinning and cutting. I'm not nearly that patient and exact! She's going to be a GREAT seamstress...

Stash

Various trims...the gold is slated for the red velvet venetian.


Reddish quilted fabric for an 18th c. something. The green brocade has reddish bits that match the quilted, so I'll probably try to make an outfit that has both. Maybe.


Small remnant of undetermined project potential


On the left is a fine linen-cotton blend, and on the right is a rougher 100% cream linen. One can never have enough white linen kicking around!


Pale lavender/pink quilted fabric. Hmmm....I am thinking this might have to become the 18th c. hoodie I've been wanting to make forever!

Guess what I did this weekend?

Bodice, fully constructed and lined. Boning channels down the center front "V"


Skirt - grey wool flannel along the top edge to pad out pleats. The top edge is curved to follow the "V" in the bodice. On the right is the center front slit.


"V" pinking, and trim pinned.

Sleeve constructed, sleeve pouf attached at sleeve cap.


Trim pinned in place on the bodice, sleeves attached. The shoulder and around the neck will have one more row of trim above the one already in place.

Still to do:
-Sew rings down center front bodice
-Sew hook and eye at "V" point
-Cartridge pleat skirt
-Attach skirt to bodice
-Hem skirt

That will complete the gown itself, then I still need to make a shirt and a false front for the bodice. Not bad for a couple of days of work!

More dress updates

The skirt is about 85% hemmed, and the trim is 99% done.

The dress dummy is not proportioned the way a corseted body is, so it looks wrinkly and kinda funky, but it really does fit very well on a real body. Also, the skirt is not attached yet, it's hanging on by a couple of pins, so the skirt actually is level, it just looks funny on the dress dummy!




I am especially proud of the way the sleeves turned out!

The trim will (eventually) have crystals and pearls at the points and down the middle to flesh out the pattern. *PHEW!* A lot of sewing got done over the weekend, considering Holly and I ended up going shopping every single day while she was here!

I will be working on the false front and the shirt through the week, and hopefully will have them completed by next weekend. Holly took the dress home and she will be finishing off the hem and attaching the skirt. (hopefully!)

It was a nice weekend; both Holly and dragonfly_sidhe came over and we all puttered around in my sewing room for an evening. I am in total lust over dragonfly_sidhe's trim that she used on her shirt/smock....it is SO MADE OF AWESOME AND PUPPIES!

One day I want to get the sewing arrangements more comfortable....I need a daybed or a comfy chair or two!

Patterns purchased

Sis and I ended up buying some patterns last night:

18th century Women's Underpinnings
1740s-1790s Stays
Sacque or Robe Français
Open Robe Anglais

I need to do some poking about to see if I can find out what is going on underneath 18th c. gowns. The biggest question for me right now is if there are petticoats worn underneath the gown. I would have to assume that there is at least something between the hoops and the gown, otherwise the boning could show though. If there are indeed petticoats, how many, and what kind? (I can't imagine there would be *too* many, since the weight of multiple petticoats could crush the panniers?)

I am so very excited to be helping Sis (now ofglen_abashed) with her 18th c. outfit. She even wants to do a massive hairstyle! (How cool is that?!)

Underwear Post

o, I guess this is going to be all about underwear...

First, we have the smock and drawers: (The embroidery on the drawers is on the left cheek. "baci questo" roughly translates to "kiss this", or so says Babelfish. This is my passive-aggressive way of telling off a couple of people who really ruffled my confidence a couple of years back.) There is somewhere an extant pair of ladies drawers that say something to the effect of "I need the heart" embroidered on them. Different sentiment, but same idea, I guess. I have a bunch of each cut out and ready to assemble so I have a change of "underwear" for every day at Estrella. Nothing special about the patterning for these. The drawers are basic 'pants' pattern, cut off about at the knee. The smock is drafted from a tank top with the straps angled out to the shoulder points.

Then there is the corset. Some day I might actually go through all the construction bits on how I made it, but here is the quick-and-dirty. Pattern is loosely based on the "Effigy" corset. There are 4 layers (seriously, it's not that bad); 2 inner layers of cotton duck, and 2 outside layers of cream silk leftover from my sisters wedding gown. It's boned with plastic zip ties (I love those things) and bound in leather. I may or may not be brave enough to post pics of me wearing it. Next corset I make I am defineately going to make it about 1-2" smaller.

Next comes the roped (corded?) petticoat and regular petticoat. The roped petticoat is knife pleated onto a yoke, and ends about 1/4 of the way up my shin and the regular petticoat is box pleated onto a waistband and ends about 2" above the ground. I used this pretty gold brocade in case it ever peeks out from the bottom. I'll be changing both waist treatments sometime in the future. The roped petticoat isn't balanced yet, but it still gives lots and lots of volume without all the bulk. I loves me my roped petticoat!

Ok, now comes the camacia. I'm torn as to whether I like it or not. I will try to get up the mental fortitude to finish it, but it's not looking likely at the moment. I've thrown it across the room a half a dozen times last weekend. You can't exactly tell from the pictures, but the neckline is square, the front is about 4x larger than the back (to get all the lovely gathers without all the bulk all the way around), and the sleeves are set in with large gussets. I have a condition that makes me twitch when there are exposed seams, which is half of why this camacia is not on my 'favs' list. I wish I had taken the time to french all the inside seams, but I thought I wouldn't care that much. But now that it's almost complete, it ends up that I *do* care that much. Oh well.

Ta-daa! I might post pics of me wearing stuff later. Maybe.