Under the Redcoat

As anyone following me on LJ knows, I've been going nuts trying to get a ton of outfits done by this past weekend. I did it. Here's the photographic evidence:

Just read the caption on flickr to figure out that one. It was worn the first day we were there.

I swore there was one of me wearing my tan and pink striped round gown but I can't find it now. I wore it Saturday. It needs pink linen trim around the neckline, badly, because I'm only a shade lighter than the tan!

On Sunday, I wore this:

Originally, I wanted a red velvet belt to go with it but I couldn't find my belt buckle...until we got to Williamsburg. By then, I didn't have access to red velvet! Oh well, next time.

Ignore my face in this picture. I look like I swallowed a bee and ate a blueberry. I re did the trim on the pink dress...again. This is the third time. I think I finally like it. It looks right with this style dress. Now, to make sure I don't swallow a bee or a blueberry next time I wear it....

Mom's outfits:

I can't find any pictures of Mom wearing her brown striped dress although she liked that one.

Mom and me. No, I have no idea what we were looking at. Probably the campfire...or Ice Cream making!

Mom's green silk dress. It needs a bit of work but she loved it. It's going to be her Halloween outfit. Now to get Dad to be the headless horseman!

My latest Regency Gown

While I've been working like mad on everything for Under the Redcoat (I need to make mine and Mom's outfits!), I did squeeze in a new Regency era gown. This one is in the style of about 1803~1804. The bodiced petticoat is out of purple silk. The overdress is out of off white cotton voile. I wore my blue stays and a Regency styled chemise beneath the gown...and gray boots!

The picture is stolen from Maggie (thanks, Maggie!) since I forgot to take any of myself. The skirt is embroidered with white cotton cord down the front and around the entire hem line. I bought that material off of etsy a while ago along with another piece, both of which are about 3 yards, because they did look lovely and are easy to make into skirts. The hard part was finding a "vanilla" NOT white matching sheerish cotton to make the bodice out of. I found it recently on ebay and went about making this dress on Thursday. :-)

A quick post to show I'm alive

It's didn't come out the way I hoped, but this is the Steampunk Ever After Just Breathe Gown. I'm planning on ripping off the sleeves and redoing those completely. I want to shorten the bodice and the straps of the bodice but that's it for the main body of the gown.

Elizabethan!

This was me on Friday Night! I wore my Elizabethan.



Although this photo is a bit blurry, I thought the side view gave the perfect shape.




I loved seeing everyone and hope y'all had a good time despite some of the issues we all experience. Sunday was an awesome day if nothing else.

Elizabethan!

First, hello new people! I think I have five new people on my blog since last time I posted.

Second...



I actually finished it! Yay! After a huge issue with the first pair of stays in which I cut out the wrong pattern -the stays themselves were perfect...for a Venetian bodice to a dress; anyone have a lot of bright coral pink linen lying around so I can make a skirt for it?- I decided to go back to the drawing board and made a pair of pink silk stays instead.


I drafted my own pattern:





I used my 18th C stay pattern as a base, lined up all the pieces, drafted out a few of the lines, and then redrew the stays into one piece on muslin. I then tried on the muslin, corrected a couple of minor issues, and used that as my Elizabethan Stays pattern.


The stays are made out of pink silk, linen, and buckram. I used good ole duct ties for boning and it's fully boned in the front but only lightly boned in the back.


The smock is 100% linen. It has a couple of minor issues but nothing that should show up while I'm wearing the entire outfit.


The skirt is 100% linen as well but has cotton (machine) blackwork all over it. The difference between the weight of the skirt linen and the smock linen is night and day. The skirt almost has the same weight as a pair of jeans and the smock feels like a handkerchief. I know some people were thinking of using the skirt linen as a chemise but I really don't see how. It's so heavy! Which is great for a skirt or a kickin' pair of 16th C Italian bloomers (hmmm...) but not so much for a chemise/smock.


I'm planning on wearing this Friday night. I should get some good pictures from that!

Pictures!

The above shows the pattern pieces for the Elizabethan Surcote on the black velvet. The green is from what was probably an old sheet at one point. I bought the fabric (along with a huge lot of other fabric) thinking it would make an amazing lining. It did...for my sister in law's Spanish Surcote. It went beautifully with the green velvet. I made a copy of that pattern to use for my own Surcote.




It's hard to tell in the picture, but the hem is very generous. I will hopefully take a picture tomorrow of the new petticoat to go with this Surcote, my embroidered jacket and a bumroll to give a good idea of how it fits. I need to work on making my stays was well...




Above is a close up of the shoulder detail. I haven't finished the surcote; I do still need to hem it, stitch the armscye shut and sew up the cuffs, but most of that is a few minutes work. The hem isn't but I think I might be able to get that done quickly.

OT: I can't see DISQUS at work

I know a lot of you are switching to DISQUS for thread commenting. (Three people on my read list thus far)  I just wanted to let you know why I'm not commenting.   My work computer has "outlawed" DISQUS so I don't see a comment button.   I can't comment at all.  It's not that I don't want to comment, it's that I can't.  So, please, don't take offense in anyway if you are curious why you never see my comments on your page in the future.  It's probably because you are using DISQUS and I can't see where to comment.  :-)

In other news:  I began to stitch up the "shoulder loops" for the Elizabethan Surcote.   I started with a buttonhole stitch on one side of the "loop" to keep it tacked to the lining but I'm thinking a simple whip stitch might work better and quicker.  The sleeves are an open style and sewn as is the main body of the surcote and lining.  It looks really neat on the dress form thus far.  I can't wait to finish it tonight and take pictures to share with everyone!