Tag Archives: cleves

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#cleves leaves done! Now I drape over the structure because I think it needs a bit more care to fit it this time.

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#cleves progress is happening very fast now ๐Ÿ™‚

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perlenmutzer

Progress from 2006:

Progress 2016 after stripping all the fire damaged bezants and sequins:

New pearls on the upper right, the same pattern was repeated on the upper left and a matching overlapping design added to the lower part.

Yes, it looks very wobbly. This is part of how the fabric was eased over the original support. I’ll be clipping the cotton tulleย to let it ease as well.

Stash of pearls used for the update. There are a good number left to be able to use over the seam once assembled.

I am about to add the leaves again, these are different, they are what I used on my Krantz for my laurelling, so these are very apt ๐Ÿ™‚

Again the pearls look wibbly, I don’t want to stretch the stitches once I put this back on the support so am having to live with it until then. Once on the support these will have heavier thread passed through to support the curves.

So happy to get this progress. I am doing eat therapy on my hands every couple of hours, 10mins at a time.

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Cards on table: current costume obsessions

I’ve been looking through my stash of fabrics with a calculating eye and have finally settled on a few absolutely desperate to make right now projects. Most of which use my stash in some way or another ๐Ÿ™‚ This is all locked in and I have plans for what occasion each will be for ๐Ÿ™‚

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Freya from Hunstman: Winter’s Warย (robes and armour) & Norma Shearer from Upstage

The armour can be from my stash (so lucky!) so can Norma’s gown. It’s the robes that is currently making my brain itch because I need to calculate and create my patterns precisely.

But that slinky velvet. Obsessed. There is a preview that has survived and it’s at the NZ film archive! The skirt front of the gown isn’t so exciting but the rest is. And I have many options to adapt the front of the skirt. And a lot of research as slinky gowns abound in the 1920s.

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An early mantua.ย 

These are illustrative only, I am trying to debate between my stash options of black ribbed silk or a shot pale blue polyester. 9m of each!

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Sheer 1870s

I have about 12m of cotton net. Now that I have my fluffy Robe de Style in lace I can put it all towards a fashion style that has had a dedicated folder for over a decade!

 

These are “new” projects. I am still working on my wall of things but these are mostly stash busting so really just a shifting around in my workroom ๐Ÿ™‚

 

 

To finish:

Marie Antoinette: thought I’d forgeotten? AHAHAHAHAH! All my trims are here so time to start patterning and washing sizing out of trims ๐Ÿ™‚

Cleves red velvet: this is long term hand sewing. And fiddly. But everything is put aside.

Valois: the skirt needs hemming and I am worried I have been rushing the stitches. Also the silk is insanely difficult to work with. I have scrap silk that is less difficult to try!

Silver Spanish: it’s lining, so much lining. I also took out some extra weight from the skirt to make it wearable.

Princess de Cleves: You’d think a doublet would be easy. Nope. But I figure I can couch some braid over the existing braid for some extra texture!

 

Hannibal gown: reassembly!

Phantom wedding gown: in storage with the Hannibal gear, no rush, but it is silly to leave it this long!

Mina: I have toย make the lining absolutely perfect as the silk has zero stretch and all my bodices have had some stretch. I now have the same ripstop cotton as for the bustle so it will be done!!! For my birthday? Maybe…

Worth Sunburst:ย on hold, I did just find my 9m length of pale aqua silk chiffon so I may wind up with my own interpretation of the gown seeing as there are two extant versions already.ย Also I have glass pearls set aside and that is more of the Kyoto style than Met style ๐Ÿ™‚

 

Ahsoka: lost a bit of steam on this. Still want to finish her ๐Ÿ™‚

Mothma: my dress shrank :/ I’m thinking of passing on the fabric parts to just reset.

Darth Talon: New bikini is fantastic! ANd I do need new lekku. My 2nd set are just too heavy ๐Ÿ™‚

Ashara: potentially be remade into my own SWTOR jedi knight Neimhaille ๐Ÿ™‚

Nyreen: With Andromeda coming out and more female turians running around I dug out my robes for her that were about to be thrown out. So resizing them ๐Ÿ™‚

Leia: my senatorial robes have just gone into the wash, I got new photos for my tutorial, and finally found a pair of soles that work! SHe has no heel, her shoes are made with that really gummy rubber and there are so many cool seams in her boots anyway.

Draenei: slightly on the back burner again. I have a habit of wanting to figure out how then figuring it out andย then not really wanting to finish ๐Ÿ˜‰

 

So at the heart of it I love patterning, and figuring stuff out, not so much the final stages. Ah well ๐Ÿ˜‰

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Library demo

Yesterday was lovely ๐Ÿ™‚ I ย do enjoy displays for kids so long as the theme is very particular. So we were teaching history.

I generally don’t have that sort of hook in recreation costumes, so it winds up being a better opportunity to do activities such as read.

It was also lovely getting interesting questions from kids and parents.

So happy to hear there were people interested in the dressing a lady part ๐Ÿ™‚ The worry is that after a full display of gothic plate makes everything else pale in comparison! So it was a relief- I really wanted the Spanish ensemble because I could have talked about the differences between male and female dress and how very similar they are in places.

But I do now have all the patterns to go through and work out a generic layer of paddings and facings.

So, I need to keep hunting for sliver lace for my Marie Antoinette- I am seriously going to look at sarees, it’s rare to find two the same but I need about 20m of lace and close to that in scrolling appliques.

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Did stuff

Bought thread, pulled apart costume for zip for Maleficent, sewed a row of ribbon on my verdugardos, tidied channels along seams on the inside of verdugardos, covered and inserted shoulder pads in my spring jacket (also reshaped the shoulders), dyed fabric for farthingale hem (firm cotton and fulled wool) trimmed Valois skirt (tore skirt, fixed skirt) reassembled skirt pinned in full silk lining.

Now I think I can have a break, but I may wind up trying to do more of my Cleves hem trimming.

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The next few months

Not hectic, but a lot of planning ๐Ÿ™‚ And not in order of importance.

!) Spanish work. I have texts and physical costume to finish. They are both at the personally satisfying stage but not at all ready for public viewing. But the two have been working together. And I do now have my physical project stored in a way I can work on what needs to be worked on.

2) Cleves/Cologne wardrobe. Finally got my “sunt” kirtle made. This is so that I can do all the finishing work on my gown and accessories while I work on the undergarments proper. I know I am bang on in fit and contruction of my outer gear (making a new heuke though) but the undergarments are taking a little more time.

3) Marie Antoinette. This is possibly my last media recreation costume for a while, so it’s going to be a delicate but ultimately workable project. There are elements I can bang out quickly, there are going to be small hand worked elements. And I finally decided how to tackle the lace. It’s not the first time I have hunted for real metal lace so I know how and where to look.

4) Mina. I need that corset made.

5) Maleficent. The gown is fitted and assembled, I need to figure out the machine sewing stage as pressure and thread and everything will affect the hang of the seams. Hand sewing might be my best bet. This is bias cutting and it is only mildly less difficult than with charmeuse satin.

6) Sunburst. It’s been ridiculously long time coming, and I am still not sure I have enough supplies. I think I missed out on the last lot of beads that match so I’m going to have to carry a swatch with me.

7) Workshops- waiting to hear back what is going to be the best match. But I now have a frame work to make these totally portable. But I also have to make it clear I do not do easy techniques, they are not shortcuts, what I teach is a way to look at a project with a different eye. Iย do teach some basic principles but they are not easy. Once you get it though, oh it makes everything else make sense.

8) Showcase. Yep I’m having a showcase of my work, and so I need to tailor that to the audience, so I will be promoting that as soon as it pops up.

9) Other workshops. These are going to be limited and I am struggling with the self promotion aspect. Had way too many knocks. Not valid ones, they come from misunderstanding but it still has decentered me enough to not be in marketing headspace. Marketing is not about being self assured it’s about promotion. I don’t do that!

10) children’s charity events- got a few planned. I need to confirm a few.

11) Elsa. I need a new cape. My cape is literally too beautiful for this world- it’s so delicate that I want to preserve it. This is not a flaw, this is me making art in a format that is not really intended for durability. Oh it’s going strong, but repeatedly handling it is going to break it down eventually.

12) Website. It’s 13 years since I self hosted so maybe this year is just feeling worse because of that number. I don’t believe it is unlucky, but rather it was Friday the 13th that we had the house fire, so it’s just there in my mind. So coincidences stand out. Confirmation bias or whatever, I still just feel the need to do better.

And my site has really changed from what I wanted due to interference of others, but I do need to play catch up and do this asap. My archive of what I have done has been lost and it’s no use me saying “but I did that in year x” if I don’t have my work up then it’s meaningless.

I think that’s it. Enough to try and get a handle on anyway ๐Ÿ™‚

 

Today is tidying up after the sewing and organising so it’s going to be a day of rest, then tidy, rest, then tidy.

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A weekend of amazing :)

I had spent the week spring cleaning- well winter cleaning, and I have finally made progress on actual projects this weekend ๐Ÿ™‚ get the bulk of the grunt work going on the remake of my Cleves gown ๐Ÿ™‚

In the decade since I last wore my gown I have tried to better my understanding and on the whole not much has changed. I have however wanted to add what i thought was a more authentic flourish in my plush border and to add a border of my crimson velvet at all edged of the gown.

I finally have been able to find good evidence that I can do a wide border on my skirt and have the base fabric show at all edged before the fur/plush lining peeks out.

As I was trying to be as thrifty as a tailor, I did not apply the silk guarding over a crimson velvet base, but instead only used velvet where it was seen. this saved me a good two yards of fabric! In the time I am looking at stitching was very lowly considered, the price of the fabric was the lead, and 2 yards, or just over 2 els was a huge saving!

The tailor could not melt velvet down for precious metals (as they could cloth of gold or silver) so the tailor did not nave any real motivation to save the tiny off cuts that would be left over. They may be able to use larger pieces for pouches but not much more.

Apprentices were often minors or slowly working their way to journeyman so were not well paid. It made sense to piece ever smaller pieces of precious fabric as sittching was cheap.

So my gown has a hem made from narrow scraps of crimson velveteen mounted to white plush. The top edge by machine the edge that is seen is sewn using a beading needle and by hand:

 

 

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Once assembled all the handsewing through layers folded back will create depth, so that the silk looks as though it is indeed mounted straight to the crimson velveteen.

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Of course I am also on a budget and this gown has many sentimental connections so I wanted to use only fabrics I already owned. So I had a very limited amount of guarding fabric. This lead to some piecing in my sleeves but also at the very sides of my skirt.

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Once assembled this is completely hidden.

And I love the really subtle difference the tiny crimson hem makes. But it is about a week of extra work on top of everything I needed to do to make this gown.

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more hemming

My cleves gown really needs to play catch up with myย Saya Entera and Vasquina y Ropa.ย So this gown is using all the resources at the moment ๐Ÿ™‚ย I need to decide on adding to my embroidery pattern so that means sorting out pearls by size.

Shower time, and then hemming. It is well worth it just tough!

 

 

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Early start to what should be a good day

First a shower, I am online with a coffee to wake up. Then removing some clothing from my project workboxes, and then I can work on my real passion projects:

  1. Vasquina y ropa y manga redonda. It still needs a jubon y manga justa. That will require my embroidery frame set up to lay the miles of trim on!
  2. Maleficent Christening Gown- so close to finished, and then I can work out how much leather I really want. Also I have a date for this one now ๐Ÿ™‚
  3. Mina Red Gown- well I need my corset finished to refit the bodice. My new mannequin is amazing so should be much easier.
  4. Marie Antoinette silver gown- I had some fail with finding enough colour remover, I have it now and can press it all tidy.
  5. ย Worth Sunburst gown- I need to transfer the cutwork, so it’ll be a case of machining the detail and then beading on the frame and finally cutting.
  6. Cleves festkleid, I am facing tiny narrow strips and scarps for the hem as spotlight no longer sells vibrant red velveteen (crimson- it’s crimson)

So that is a lot, but I’m able to put the projects in different project boxes so I can use the machine and frame.

The neighbours are also working early- so this is great. I’ll put All The Musicals on! To the CD storage box.

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