New Blog!

As some of you know, I gave up on tumblr to publish pictures of the extant gowns I come across due to their near constant changing of their various formats. Basically, they took away the format I preferred without warning or reason. Without the ability to post in a slideshow format, the gowns and other outfits I posted looked...stupid for lack of a better word.

So, I've come over here to play with various formats and I've had some success. You can see the new home for the extant gowns in private collections here at All the Pretty Dresses or http://extantgowns.blogspot.com/

Please feel free to add and comment! I'm looking for advice on what format looks the best. I have three different options up right now; the slideshow, the multiple pictures together with links, and the table format with brief descriptions of each photo. Each has it's own pluses and minuses but, since that blog is specifically to keep a record of extant gowns for researching purposes, please tell me what style you like best.

I'll start tagging the entries soon and they'll use the same tags as I had on the tumblr site.

Coif

I wanted to put this over here to with a bit more explanation. Coifs were worn in the 16th Century as a cap for underneath other hats when you were out, as just a hat when you were in your own home. I wanted to make one because I do some Elizabethan in the SCA but also because they are a nice smallish project that you can finish and show off your embroidery skills at the same time. It's much easier than bothering with a full chemise!

I used red silk for the various designs. The real metal spangles are sewn on with silver/white silk thread. The cap itself is linen. The designs are all based on extant embroidery projects from the 16th Century.

It's hard to tell, but I added small loops of cord at the bottom to act as a drawstring; similar to many extant coifs.

The seahorse design is based off of the Oxburgh design here: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O138490/panel/

The seaweed design is loosely based on this:
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O13571/pillow-cover/