Merry Christmahanukwanzayule!!

Well, it's come and gone, which means I can now begin to work on the QoH gown....YAY!!

But first things first....

I made a couple of things I have never done before....

The first being a child size skirt and chemise (working without the child's measurements)

sooo hoping it fits her....the skirt is flannel (for the chilly times at faire) and the chemise is just cotton.

The second was a child's lined cape (I was told it's not a cloak 'cause it has no hood)...

it's a fleece outer shell with a cotton lining. I hope it works well for him :)

I was going to make an adult one but ran out of time.

My assistant...

Was cutting out some fleece for a short cloak I am making as a Yule gift for a friend, and figured I'd catch a few pics of my almost 3 year old assistant.....she' s a little better at making it take longer than she is at making the project go faster lol

lol she kept insisting on trying to attack the scissors as I was cutting the fleece.

She even decided to crawl around under it at one point...lol

Yay!

The lace for the chemise and the hearts to trim the overskirt came in today! They look just as good, if not better, than they do in the pic from the website :)

I now have everything I need to start the rest of the gown. The deposit for the corset has been sent. I'm probably going to start it sometime after the 19th, seeing as I have 3-4 other things to make by the 18th. I can't wait! *happy dance*

I just have to sit down and, using one of my other skirts, do a test run of where the hearts are going to sit, hoping 6 down each side will be ok, and praying I don't have to order another dozen of them.

Queen of Hearts...my rendition...

There is an event in February, that I am planning on going to, called "Wicked Winter Faire". The theme fore this year is "Wicked Tea Party". Yep, basically Alice in Wonderland. When I found out, I thought "cool! I always wanted and excuse for an 'American McGee's Alice' costume.". The more I thought about it the more I realised that it just wasn't a good idea, for a few reasons. First being that the dress itself, is at least knee-length. Let's just say I have an issue with one of my legs, and there's a reason I don't wear shorts or short skirts... another reason being that I saw no sense in making an outfit that I would wear, maybe once or twice.

I was mentioning all this to a friend of mine one day, and he said "well, what about the Queen of Hearts?". I hemmed and hawed, trying to think of how to pull it off, even the idea of the Dutchess ran through my head. Problem was, I was having trouble getting my mind past the outfits I saw either lady wearing in every picture I had seen from the book.

I finally had the opportunity, one day, to read both "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the looking Glass". Yes, at 31 years old, I had never read either I had seen the Disney movie when I was younger). Well, I get to the chapter that officially introduces the Queen of Hearts character. I remembered the scene from the movie as well, as I read about the gardeners running about painting all the white roses. Around this same time I find out that it is just about a definite that I am going (the only thing that will change it is if I am working at the time and can't get the days off). I mention to my mother the beautiful corset I had been wanting to get, for a couple of years, from Mayfaire Moon. Thus starts the wheels in motion....

This is my rough sketch of the gown:

the corset is going to be a 5 lacing corset from Mayfaire Moon, done with this fabric:

I am making the chemise, underskirt, and overskirt myself. Here are the fabrics I am using:

the lighter red is a silk I found that I like, that will be the chemise, the lace is a 5" wide Ventian lace I found, I am going to use that on the sleeves and neckline of the chemise. The black and deeper red are both crepe. The black will be the underskirt, and the deeper red will be the open front over skirt. There are going to be a dozen of the small hearts, they are about 3" in size, those will line either side of the front of the overskirt. I have the lace and hearts on order. The skirts will be worn over a full petticoat.

I am also going to make my jewelry for the outfit. A black bead necklace with red bicone spacers and a crown and heart pendant:

I found the best headpiece as well...here. I figure I am going to get it in either black or silver, seeing as I really don't wear gold.

I can't wait to get started. I figure I will start it a little later this month. The deposit has already been sent for the corset, and I am just waiting for the lace and appliqué to come in.

Not just sewing anymore.....

Ok, for the past 2 1/2 years I have been sewing. This year I ventured into a bit of jewelry making as well...

I "inherited" my brother's soon-to-be ex-wife's old beading & jewelry making stuff. One night I was sitting here looking through it and found some coordinating items and next thing I knew I was sitting here putting together a necklace.

next thing I knew, I wanted earrings to match:

then, just because I had the stuff to do it, and wanted jewelry to coordinate with the green-tone outfit:

yeah, my creativity has kinda started going crazy.....lol

Fancy schmancy....

A couple of halloweens ago I had an idea to make a really nice black & purple fairy/demon/whatever outfit. It was to consist of a split sleeve chemise and double layer (sparkly tulle over satin) kerchief skirt. Here's the pic:

So after making that chemise, I figured I wanted another "open sleeve" style chemise, but not using sheer fabric, more cotton or muslin, something to wear on a regular day at faire, when I wanted to look a bit more "dressy".

I had seen various sleeve options that were offered for merchant and nobility bodices, and though "hey, I wonder how that would work as a sleeve for a chemise...", I sat down one night and started describing my idea to my friend Stephen, who added his thoughts. By the end of the conversation, I knew what it was I wanted to do...

This is the final product:

the final outcome was an open sleeve chemise, with 4 tie points at each sleeve. Each tie point was designed to gather as well to prevent the droop you see on the other chemise and to try and maintain a slight puff at those points of said sleeve. The tie points are: wrist, mid forearm, elbow, and mid upper arm. This allows for me to wear the sleeve various ways, such as full split (only tied at the wrists), open from elbow down (tie at elbow and/or mid upper arm), full open, full closed...well, you get the idea.

I think this chemise only took me, maybe 4 days. Partially due to taking my time to make sure the channels were straight, plus having to wait to get more ribbon for the ties, as I didn't think to read the side of the ribbon spool as opposed to how much I actually needed, plus finding beads to fit onto the ribbon was interesting.

Here is a pic a friend of mine took so I could have one of me actually wearing it:

I nicknamed it the "chemise of doom" but it wasn't too horrible of a nightmare to make. Prolly wouldn't make another, and if I do, it'll be for me, or I'll be getting paid to make it :P lol

Well, gotta start somewhere....

Ok, after seeing quite a few others I know have blogs to show off and gab about their latest projects, I figured I'd start one of my own. Beats having to weed through my occasional rants in my other blog doesn't it? lol

Well, here's a bit of a back story...

I love going to renaissance faires, and have been attending them for about 8 years (as of this post lol). Like quite a few people, I always bought my garb. I always told people "I can't sew to save my life". I would plan my annual tax return into whole new outfits...bodice, skirt(s), chemise, etc. Well about 2 1/2 years ago I was unemployed, and fell into a bit of a garb bind. I had been wearing a pair of bloomers I had gotten, as a decorative part of an outfit, with every outfit in lieu of having to wear nylons. Needless to say, the bloomers fell apart. With just over two weeks til the next faire, and no money or time to order a new pair, I was stuck. Well I thought to myself "hmm, I have quite a bit of free time right now, maybe if I go a bit slow and take my time....it can't hurt to try...". So I picked up a few yards of cotton, a couple of packages of elastic, sat down with a pair of scrub pants, traced the outline, and went from there. Once I had the pieces cut out I sat down with my bf's mom's sewing machine and went to work. I can't remember now how long it took, but in almost no time I had made my first pair of bloomers! They came out pretty well for my first try. From there I went on to try making a basic chemise using written instructions I had found online. Again...Success (although I did learn the hard way to be careful when aiming for "poofy").

Since then I have not only bought myself my own sewing machine (Singer Prelude, $75 @ Target), but I have gone on to make more bloomers, my own kerchief skirts, a couple of men's shirts (that was an interesting undertaking :P lol), a few more chemises, pants, and as of this year I have started making my own floor length 8-gore skirts. Most things don't generally take me that long, maybe a day or two.

So far most of what I have made is pretty straightforward, cut pieces a certain way and sew them together, very easy, very basic. I had one chemise that I messed up and cut the sleeve pieces a bit too short, so I basically made it a short-sleeve, problem fixed easily. I did create one chemise from a design I had run through my head. I may give it it's own post, even though I did so already in my other blog...

To this day I have yet to use any type of pattern for anything I have made. The closest thing to a pattern I use for anything, is the clear vinyl cutout I made of the outline for the bloomer pieces. I still refuse to make my own corsets and bodices, I'll still happily pay someone else to make those lol.

Well, I think that's the story....and a bit of a tangent as well lol. Happy reading!