Trailer Painting

I tried to put the stencils on the trailer.  Spike came out okay.  The seal of Rassilon ?  Not so much.

The original idea was to make the Spikes all "silver" (also known as Milestone), and the seals either Pink (Strawberry Freeze) or Purple.  I placed the stencils on the trailer.

Left them with the paint to dry....

And got this....

 It's hard to tell in the photo but the seal looks horrible.  The Spikes at least look like seahorses.  I'm going to paint it over (I still have a lot of the blue) and then make a new stencil for the trailer. 

Historical Fortnightly #15 White!

The Challenge: White
Fabric: Cotton Jacquard for the dress and sleeves. Cotton broadcloth and cotton duck for the lining.
Pattern: The one I edited from McCalls 2798
Year:  1580's vaguely
Notions: Thread and a shoelace to lace it up the back.
How historically accurate is it? It's actually fairly accurate for the late 16th/early 17th C. I was rather surprised when I put it together how cool it looked on.
Hours to complete: roughly 5 or 6
First worn: Probably to the Renn Fest day of wrong but maybe before that.
Total cost: $50 for the fabric.

Research:

I admit, this is what I was going for. Doctor Who actually can be quite historical (Girl in the Fireplace. This one is from Vampires in Venice) and sometimes it can completely miss the mark. This one looked awesome and I thought it looked historical enough to wear to SCA events.

Some of my inspiration from period sources:

Progress!

The Vampire Dress!   I threw the veil over the headless, broken, dress dummy just to show the color contrast.   I'll do a full write up for the Historical Fortnightly (Doctor Who is historical!  ...Yeah, I know.  But this dress actually does follow the lines of the back lacing 1580's gowns enough that I can easily wear it again without the blue veil.)   The sleeves are pinned on in the photo - I'll add lacing rings tomorrow.  The insides are not sewn up yet.  My dress dummy is broken and doesn't have hips which is why it looks very long waisted.  It's not.  

More pictures tomorrow when it's completely done - I just wanted photographic evidence that it was in dress form before midnight...although it's after midnight now when I'm posting.  ;-)

Eh, it works.

This will be so much fun to walk in for opening ceremonies on Saturday!

Challenge Accepted!

I'm going to Pennsic in about a week (OMG!  PENNSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!) and beyond being super excited, I'm trying to get a bunch of things done for Pennsic.  I'm almost done sewing up my friends' wardrobe but I also now need to work on mine.  You see, I found out that it's going to be cool this year - not warm.   I'm used to the 95 during the day/ 45 at night Pennsics.   This is going to be 75 during the day.  ....

So....my thin linen chemise and linen dresses probably aren't the best idea then, right?   Right.   I have velvet gowns - which I'm bringing- but then I ran into another problem.

***Opening Ceremonies will take place at ~~~ 8 PM Saturday July 27~~~ Please gather in Atlantian Royal on N40 about 7:30 so we can form up and process in our usual Grande Atlantian Style. Please, if possible, wear Blue and/or White and, if you have any appropriate banners or pennants, please carry them that day. 

 Although I have a lovely blue linen dress, I have nothing in an appropriate shade of blue or white that would work for Opening Ceremonies.  Hmm...

Then I thought of my little blue box....

And Venice....

And....

My little geeky heart could not look back.  The veils are blue.  The dresses are...well, off white... but how can I say no?  I need to make a Vampires in Venice outfit because it just so needs to be done.

So, research!

After DVRing the episode and watching it about as many times as the Girl in the Fireplace one (face it, fellow costumers, if you like Doctor Who, you already know exactly which episodes these are and why I'd watch them a gazillion times over), I realized each of the dresses are different.   Only today I found a picture that confirms that:

The dresses range from white to a yellow cream color.   Most are done in some pseudo mid 16th C style with some more accurate than others.  Some have a print on them, some don't.  Luckily for me, all the "vampires" are brunettes.  :-)  I'll fit right in. 

Supplies:

I have a white lace parasol and a pair of white gloves.   I really just needed the correct color sheer material for the veil and something vaguely white to ivory - preferably with a print- for the dress.

I'm debating about getting this GORGEOUS cotton jacquard at Joanns that has a peacock feather print.  I'm going to double check my bins of fabric to see if I have anything that might work.  I recently used a lot of it up so I don't *think* so but we all know that means very little.  

As for the veil:

The color could not be more perfect.  I found it at Wally World for $1.50 a yard.  Yes, it's 100% dead dino but the color and the weight are just what I need.  Besides, this will be at 8 pm when it will already be cooling off rapidly.  I probably won't wear this through out the day.  (Okay, maybe I will.  I want to see how many people scream when they see me.)

Fun time!  Now, to make this and at least one other dress plus finish the doublets in under a week.  Challenge: Accepted!