I won a prize - Lisa

Is this epic silliness?  Heck, yes.  We finally got done enough with our Elizabethan outfits to wear them to the Renaissance fair.  Mine is done.  Could I do more?  Sure, but I'm DONE.

We wandered by the costume contest, partly to see it, and partly to allow the boy to go on the bungee jump trampoline thing.  While standing and watching him, I got recruited for the costume contest.  I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that it was supposed to be starting and there were only 4 entrants. Still I got 2nd place and that was fun.

(Can I do a quiet shout out to the young woman with the merchant class outfit that was flawlessly authentic and beautifully sewn?  She shoulda won it all.)

Down to the 'to-do's; - Elizabethan - Lisa

For the most part, this is it.
- I need to add rings for the sleeve ties.
- I have aglets for the ties that I have stored in a very special place.  Wish I remembered where.
- I need to pin the for-skirt to my farthingale.
- I need to add a panel in the center front because my bodice gaps a little which is frustrating because it seemed loose when I started.  Being squishy, I have trouble lacing to the same size consistently.
- And I have some decorations for the shoulders left to add.
- I should probably have a head covering.
But I'm basically done.  Hurrah.  Hurrah.  NEXT.

 We are going to the Ren Faire on October 5th.  I've never been.  I'm afraid I will sweat to death. I may have more pictures.  Or not.

Back to work (Eliza-beef-'n) - Lisa

Sigh.  I'm taking a break from fast, fun things and going back to work on my Elizabethan gear.  I've enjoyed making the underthings but so far I have not been inspired by the actual dress.  Maybe because we started these so long ago, and the project keeps being postponed?  Still, this is something we're doing, so I'm back in the saddle.  We recently cut muslins for our bodices and are ready to cut the fabric.  But before I do that, I need to fix what I've already done.  The neck opening for my chemise was too big and I couldn't keep it on.  None of the blackwork showed when I got dressed.  So I'm making it smaller.  What a pain.  Also, I'm aware that the opening should be big but it is too big for my taste.

First the blackwork facing had to come off and be made smaller.  I cut and sewed it back together less about 2 inches of width and 1 1/2 of length.  It was quite a lot, but I wanted to match the pattern on the embroidery as best I could.  I cut close to the turned edge at each corner so it had to be hand sewn to make sure the rough edges stayed turned under. Then I had to add fabric to the neck of the chemise.  Sounds simple, but it wasn't.  It was like adding the neck facing AGAIN.  I didn't want the addition to show meaning there were few places I could machine sew, so I gave up and sewed it by hand.

WRONG

On to the skirt.  I had already sewn the cartridge pleats to the waistband but the front was... off.  So I put EVERYTHING back on and marked the center front and back a few (5) inches where I want the front to be relatively flat.  Then I pulled all that careful stitching and did it over.  By hand.  Grrrr.  But now it's done and I can hem it and put on trim.  (after I shrink the hoops by about an inch each because of course they are not quite right).  When I put skirt on, the weight of the fabric pushed the front of my farthingale out and I ended up on Margo Anderson's Facebook page where I got a lot of helpful suggestions.  I ended up putting the bumroll UNDER the farthingale which redistributed the weight into the proper shape.  The over skirt is now done.

Next up is the fore panel.  Sad to admit that I wish I'd had more hot glue experience before I started it.  Arrgghh.  I had tentatively hemmed it, but that all changed once the overskirt was completely finished.  I finished hot gluing the black 'gems' and decided I needed to tack 'pearls' around them to disguise the hot glue mess.  Anything in ' ' can also be called 'plastic'.  Though once I got the ribbon trim on, I was pretty happy.

Here is a picture of the bottom half of my Elizabethan/Renaissance outfit.  All done.
I may add more to the forepanel, but I'm pretty sure I want a complete bodice first (wink).  I still need to shrink one of the hoops a little.  And the whole thing still seems a bit too big and shiny.  Probably because it IS big and shiny.

Sewing Sunday and a Doublet - R and L

Last Sunday was a sewing day.  We wisely decided to target ONE THING for sure with a couple of backups if we had time.  Lisa needs to make a dress for the Gatsby Picnic.

One thing I know, is that I don't want to make a traditional 20's dress.  It just won't be flattering.  I've been looking into early 30's and actually settled on a 1911 dress with modifications. 1911 Dress   I made a muslin of the top of the pattern modified for size and styling.  It fits!  I also had Rob help me choose between 3 fabrics I had targeted for this dress.  I plan to use the middle picture, shorter, and with the collar and cuffs from the picture on the right.  My fabric is lawn, similar in color to the middle dress with ivory trim.

Robin is still immersed in multiple projects. She is plugging away at a renaissance outfit for her bf, and also has a plan for a pirate costume with a very funny alternative vision targeted for the WEHO Halloween street crawl.  She posted earlier as Pirettes of the Caribooban.

Robin:  OK, I HATE that this photo is snapped with me and my hair in "work mode", but that's the way it is. I modified the pattern to hold giant boobs (it's actually one of those Halloween tie-on butts" but worn upside down on my chest. I added 8 inches to the front of the pattern and, instead of making it elastic, I put in a facing and made it a drawstring close. No idea if it works, as I haven't modified the "butt" yet. Still need to finish the sleeve casings and maybe put a little lace on the sleeves, as I am a girly pirate.

With this accomplished, I actually was able to re-trace the pattern for the pants (which the dog had eaten) and cut out the fabric for both mine and my bf's pirate pants. I'm a fancy, girly pirate and he is a dirty shipwrecked deck hand, so I'll have the fun of distressing his outfit and the fun of decking myself out in "finery".

And now for the doublet progress: The wings are interlined with some REALLY stiff stuff so these suckers WILL stick out like... well, like wings.

Here's the skirt decoration. I later found that it will intersect the body, so I have to hand sew on another line of piping to make it match the body of the doublet.

 Here's the sequence of hand sewing on three different sets of trim to make it into one really pretty line of decoration.  Velvet is very shifty and it is a tiny bit wonky in spots, but the overall effect looks straight.

After sewing was done, Lisa actually fixed what she thought was a terminal error in a sock she was knitting.  You can sort of see what's left of the problem in the light grey lattice near my fingers.

After that, she lay about like the lady of leisure she is soon to be, while her cats convinced her it really was the ONLY option.

Renaissance Man's outfit

I've been told that "men don't wear OUTFITS" , but what else do you call this?  My patterns are from Margo Anderson's Elizabethan Gentleman's Wardrobe, which you can find here: http://margospatterns.com/Products/ElizWrdrb.html
I gave Roger a choice of pant silhouettes and he actually chose the pumpkin pants, stating that if he was going to wear a costume, he was going all out. Good on him!
The fabric is green velvet.  The doublet will be the one on the right, with a lot more trim but with hanging sleeves for temperature control.  The pumpkin pants will be green velvet backed with orange satin charmeuse and lined with cotton muslin  with orange charmeuse puffy underpants poofing out between the strips. Roger has already chosen his green and orange pheasant feathers combined with a grey ostrich feather for his cap. This year it'll be a flat cap because I'm not sure I'll have time to get heavy duty into millinery.  I already made his shirt, blogged here:http://idlehandsthems-fitsworkshop.blogspot.com/2012/05/i-shall-make-you-cambric-shirt-mens.html

Note:  I'm particularly indebted to this site:http://www.elizabethan-portraits.com/ , a source for much inspiration.

OK, it's now taken me days to unfold each page of the pattern to search for the proper pieces for the men's slops. Margo makes great patterns but there are so many pieces that finding what you need can be time consuming. I've decided that the canvass I have on hand will just have to work for these pants as the thought of yet another trip to Joanne's is killing me.
Last night I finally got down to cutting and actually sewed some seams. Oh, the progress! Before I got there, however, there were ADVENTURES IN DYEING. I stove-top dyed some muslin to use as the pant pane lining but I didn't agitate it enough and it came out blotchy. The next day I threw that and some undyed muslin in the machine, added a huge pot of boiling water to the machine's hot water and ran it through the agitator three times. Still splotchy, but different hues.  That's ok, the material will be used in different parts of the outfit and really won't be seen....much.
I cut out the base in canvass, the inner lining in white muslin, the panes in velvet, interfacing and dark green muslin for lining, and the orange charmeuse for the underlay that shows through the panes.  Next up will be adding the decorative trim.

I cut the lining by tracing from the pattern. Then I cut the interfacing.  The instructions said to trim off excess to 1/8 inch. Well, my seam allowance is 5/8 so i said to myself" Why don't I just cut them less 1/2" on each side and I won't have to trim?"  Nice idea except I forgot I did that, then used the interfacing as the template for the velvet.  That's why my velvet is skinnier.  That's why I will have to either re-cut the velvet or cut another two panes. I think I will just cut two more panes, even though the lining will be a different shade of green I used it all up).  Oh, well....

And today I realized that I basted the center pieces incorrectly.  I was supposed to sew the outside seams together, turn them, THEN baste the remaining raw edges.  I realized that this morning as I was going over how to put it together in my head and realized I'd screwed the pooch messed up yet again. At least I won't have to re-cut.....That is two "Doh!" experiences in a row.

Then THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK! Seriously, I came home to a masticated mass of pattern paper. That dang dog had MOVED A CHAIR in order to get up on it and get to the top of the dining room bureau to nab those pattern pieces.  I was too distraught to even look at what was damaged, I just gathered it all up and threw it in a box with a lid to be dealt with later. I'm not a fan of jig-saw puzzles and this will be a big one. Those patterns were expensive, Here are the decorated panes for the slops or pumpkin pants.  The panes go over the canvas base and charmeuse gathered overlay, then the overlay is stuffed with netting. The decoration is a 1 1/2' satin ribbon with gold 3/8" gold braid in the center, 3/16" gold looped braid on each side of the ribbon, and a looped green and gold braid next to the looped braid.  All in all, very fancy!

The pants are basted together and ready for the cannions.

Can I tell you how difficult it is to work with velvet? I'm doing everything I've read about, from using basting spray, hand basting, using a lot of pins, etc. and the velvet still crawls and wiggles all over the place.  I don't have a walking foot for my machine.  I've loosened the tension.  I sew a bit, release the pressure, sew a bit more and yet, I can't get it right.  It's not something you will be able to see unless you inspect closely, but there is not a perfectly straight seam anywhere on this garment.  I'm hoping the trim will distract the eye from the imperfections.  Of course, my boyfriend doesn't notice any of the mistakes and thinks these things are wildly funny. He even asked "Will these pants make my butt look big?" to which I answered with a resounding "Yes!"