The Regency Rainbow: Green!

I decided earlier this year to complete a Regency styled gown in every color of the rainbow. I already had an orange gown and had completed a red gown. Next should be yellow on my list but I haven't found the perfect silk yet to do the gown I want. Instead, I went with something a bit more silly. I went with green and decided to play up the colors of a watermelon.


The main body of the gown is a dark green dupoini silk I got from Fabric.com for $1.95 a yard a couple of years ago. The pink is a shantung that I got from my local Joanns. Although the colors are period, the silk isn't. Since this was supposed to be a fun quick gown, I machine sewed almost all of it.


However, this was the gown that broke my last sewing machine. I started this gown way back in the spring/early summer. The skirt is a block of four yards of fabric. I made a growth tuck right below the knees and then slipped a long strip of the pink silk beneath it. I've seen this done in period gowns of the time to give the effect of multiple ruffles when it's really just one ruffle with a growth strip sewn above ti.


The bodice came out beautifully. It's a pattern I created last year and I've been using ever since. It's actually only a elongated front with a small back piece. I think it's in Patterns of Fashion where one gown is cut like that.


It was the sleeves that were my downfall with this dress. Originally, the pink trim you see along the neckline was the "puffy" sleeve for a pair of short panned sleeves that were to go on the dress. However, my sewing machine died and the silk frayed and I just didn't feel like fixing all the issues I had with the sleeves to begin with. So! I noticed how wide and how long the puffy sleeves were, sewed them together and then cut out two stripes. I sewed those strips together and then folded the very long strip in half to sew that. Once I had a very long tube of pink silk out of the former puffy sleeves, I pleated the thing to the neckline and that's how the trim ended up there.


I cut out the sleeves from the same green silk but I also cut out linen lining since I knew it might get cold and the silk is rather thin. My chemise sleeves only go down so far to keep me warm. They actually came out rather well but are a bit tight at the elbows. Something to work on next time!


Another issue I had was the sewing machine needle hit a pin that was holding a pleat on the trim. This caused the needle to go about as dull as a dried spaghetti noodle. Which, in turn, caused the needle to pull at the light weight silk and cause some minor "pulls" in the fabric. I can just buy more of the silk and re do the trim but it's slightly annoying.


Other than that, I'm actually rather pleased with the way the dress came out. I've dubbed it my watermelon gown and I might have to make a very silly hat in a Regency style to match!

Christening Bonnet

This is cross posted from my LJ account.

I used the February Baby Bonnet pattern for my nephew's Christening bonnet today. I made it last night and it took a full five hours to get the entire thing done. I used your basic acrylic soft white yarn from Wally World since my brother and sister in law (and everyone else in the family) just wanted something to cover the kid's head that would keep him warm. It didn't have to be any of the fancy yarns. :-)



As you can see, my nephew liked it. :-) I didn't want to do anything too lacy -he is a boy- but I wanted something that would look special. The pattern I chose was simple, used needles I have used in the past without crying, and still looked nice. yay! Still, I messed it up. It was one of those things of reading directions at 10 pm and realizing that what you thought the directions said aren't even close to what they said. I basically was doing increases when I shouldn't have been doing increases. Rather than take it apart, I just did a few rows of decreases knowing that it would give that bonnet bump towards the back of the cap. It came out looking like a bonnet -just not the bonnet in the pattern.

The back of the bonnet. I have no idea what there is that "bump" there on the back circle. I think I added one stitch somewhere and I really don't know where. I didn't notice it until the bonnet was finished.


Top view looking down. You can see a bit here where I had to switch yarns. It wasn't obvious until you get it out in the sunlight. The back is a different yarn than the sides are.


Side view. There is no real pattern to the design since I really messed it up. I ended up just being impressed it fit in the end.

More of my nephew wearing his new christening cap! :-)

The Great Pumpkin!

Yesterday, I asked my oldest nephew if he could be anything he wanted for Halloween, what would he be?   His answer?  A pumpkin!

I didn't have the time to make him really look like a pumpkin (the whole sphere thing were you can't move your arms) but I did want him to wear something warm for Halloween.  (My sister in law wanted the kids to go around in their Renaissance outfits I made them, which is awesome, but they were made for 60+F temps.  I didn't want the poor kids to wear their winter coats over their Halloween costumes.  Where's the fun in that?)  My idea was to make him a cloak in green and orange that looked vaguely pumpkin-ish.





The cloak overall is very simple.   I cut out one BIG orange circle, cut out a neckhole and then a slit down the front.  The cowl is a smaller circle that I cut up a bit to make it look sort of like leaves around the edges.  The hood is a large rectangle that I attached to the cowl first.  I then sewed the cowl wrong side to the cloak right side so the seam would be tucked inside.   I also used a "pumpkin seed" shaped button for the front of his cloak.  (It's really a walnut shaped button but he doesn't know that)

His 1 year old brother's cloak is out of the green and has a green and orange tassel on the back of the hood but the 1 year old was asleep when I dropped the cloaks off at my brother's.  My nephew seemed to love it and he can say he's a pumpkin for Halloween while still being warm!   The cloak is fleece and will also work when I get to drag the poor kid and his mom to an SCA event.   My sister in law already has a lovely surcote to go with her Italian gown. 

Dress up the siblings!!!!

This past Sunday, I took my middle brother, my sister in law, and my two nephews to the Renaissance Festival. Of course, since they were coming with me, they had to dress up. This means I made an outfit for each of them. I wasn't able to do a lot of mock up which was disappointing. However, I think they came out okay for the most part.

I wasn't going for 100% accurate, by any means. What I did want was something my brother and his family could wear to the Renn Fest or to an SCA event without looking out of place. More of a generic medieval or Renaissance look.


First, my wonderful 3 year old nephew!

He's sporting a Turkish style coat with a simple shift beneath it. I probably should make him a different shift because it was on the small side and looked a bit girly by itself. (Not that he cared. He's three. Such things aren't that important yet.)

Next, my 1 year old nephew!

He's wearing a basic blue linen shift with black velvet trim. I was going to go all out and make a Prince Edward outfit for him but I cut it wrong and did this as a back up.

Next, my sister in law!

:-) She LOVED her dress. It's a basic 1550's Venetian in style with a generic mop cap. She loves green so I make a lot of her garb and clothing in that color. People stopped her to ask where she got her dress which made both of us very happy.

My brother! (And the back of my sister in law's dress)

My brother said "Robin hood" and so I made him a basic green linen t-tunic. He's swinging back in this picture so you can see the fullness of the tunic. He wants a doublet and shirt for next year. :-)

So, see? I made stuff this month!

New Red Stays

I realized at some point this week that I don't have and essential part of my September 11th garb anymore - my red bodice. Every year, at the Renn Fest, I wear a blue linen skirt, a white smock, and a red bodice. The red bodice I wore last year survived the it's last day last year. So, a new bodice it was!

I found the perfect scraps in my scrap pile -a piece of silk that was just big enough for a bodice and a piece of red cotton that was the exact same color. The cotton was big enough for a lining fabric as well as just enough bias trim. Woohoo! Scrap pile win!


This is the pattern I used over the red silk. The pattern is my own.


The bodice once it was finished.


The inside of the bodice. You can see all the boning channels here.

I wore it today and there are a couple of issues. I need to add more eyelets -which I've done now- and I need to redesign the armscye because the front boning was pressing into my underarms which is not fun. I just need to cut it down a bit and it will be fine. I've already taken out the bones that were there.

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/