Julie's Green Venetian

As Promised,

2006-01-01T13:52:00.000-05:00

Months later.
I really did finish these right after my last post. They just never made it to the blog.

All pearled up and nowhere to go:

greensleeves

Wasted Time!

2005-09-21T10:17:00.000-04:00

I started a new job 2 weeks ago. I have a 1-1.5 hr commute most days, and my friend has been driving (carpooling) cuz her car has AC and mine doesn't. So, why, I ask, did I not think to bring my sewing in the car until 2 weeks into it?!!!

I remedied that oversight today. I spent the a.m. commute industriously attaching the pearls to my sleeves. The "greensleeves" have sat for MONTHS neglected. I figured they deserved their due--and I'd like them to be done just in case I have to wear the dress for the upcoming renfest.

I now have one sleeve completely finished, and have started on the next. I'll have a pic up when they're both dpme. I am hoping that will be by the end of this week.

Afterall, 3 hrs of pearling/day should finish it up pretty quickly, yes?

The Green Dress. A summary.

2005-06-22T18:56:00.000-04:00

This dress was my rough draft for the orange courtesan, since its fabric was precious and limited.
I started out making a side back laced bodice, and later altered it to be front ladder lacing in the more prominent venetian style.

From the bottom up:
The camica is cotton decorators gauze chosen for its lightweightness, sheerness and breathability. Lighter than hanky weight linen, most definitely. Of course, now I yearn for a linen camica. hehe. Its made from the pattern on the Realm of Venus, with a few modifications. the wrists and neckline are edges in gold thread, and the bands are hand-done redwork in rust embroidery thread. Here you can see my camica and its inspiration:

The corded petticoat is pink cotton shirting with a spiral of grossgrain ribbon. The ribbon channel encases a double row of cotton clothesline rope. This petticoat holds the skirts of the overdress out a bit, and more importantly keeps the skirts from twisting round my legs on warm days.

The corset is a double layer of white denim with a mix of poly, spring, and spiral boning sewn into the channels. Its made from the Custom Corset Generator on the elizabethan costuming page. The outer decorative layer is cut from some curtains Niter insisted I buy from goodwill. Thank you niter.

The dress is a green rayon thing, with one plain side and one checkered side. The checkered side is, of course, hidden on the underside. This was to be a purely for practice dress, afterall. Except now I like it for wearing. The plan is to not expose the under side of my unlined skirts (lining made it too heavy/hot, so I cut it out). The bodice is trimmed with some red-curtainy-material-guards. The ladder lacing was a huge cheat for me, since I just sewed some eyelet tape onto the inner edge of the bodice.

The sleeves are trimmed with black grossgrain ribbon in a criss-cross pattern. I liberally beaded each cross with a pearl, simply cuz it pleased me (i'm still in teh process of finishing this, actually). The sleeves tie onto lacing rings sewn to the underside of the shoulder straps.

Accesories:

The girdle is made from platic white pearls, platic amber beads, glass silver pearls and red czech glass beads. Its attached at key points around the bodice so that it conforms to front and back points.

The bag is the same as for the orange courtesan, a fanciful striped bag of wool and pretty swatches i had on hand.

The fan is also the same as for the orange courtesan, a hand embroidered fabric swatch over timtex interfacing and cardboard trimmed in velvet ribbon and lace, and attached to a dowel rod that i painted gold.

My mug is a wooden diddy that I got at MD ren fest last year. I simply adore it!

Things to learn/fix/finish:
1) Super angular back seams and a very non-subtle back points create unseemly buttpuckers.
2) Yes, like the orange courtesan, a partlet would be a nice addition.
3) I need to finish pearling the sleeves at the ribbon intersections.
4) It probably wouldn't hurt to shorten the hem a bit, as its a little too long. But then, it works well with my leather clogs, which are the closest things to chopines that I have.
5) Next time I do a practice dress, pick a completely solid fabric, its not worht the few bucks saved to have the underside of the fabric being checkered! ;-)
6) If I do ladder lacing again, I'll not cheat with the eyelet tape for the lacing. it doesn't hold the bodice completely flush to the body.
7) The armscythes (sp?) are a bit too tight on the front of my armpit. I might have to fix this. Later.
8) I regret not doing a center front seam with the skirt panels. Instead I had to split and placket in the middle of the front panel to make enough room for me to get in and out of the bodice, and this refuses to close completely.

Definitely a learning experience. But overall, I like the dress, and I learned a lot from it. Especially considering my super un-authentic previous attempts at ren costuming.

Bead-dazzling. And (mostly) FINISHED!

2005-05-21T18:54:00.000-04:00

I went to the bead store in the city yesterday. Yes, the one that our trio didn't make it to last time round. And just to redeem myself, my concerns were correct--all parallel parking. None too fun on a hill and in a stick shift with no power steering. Still, I braved it and ventured forth. It was an entertaining store, and they had quite the selection, but it was pricey and my heart wasn't in to it at that particular time. I left with 2 strands of pewter colored glass pearls and some matte czech glass beads in the darkest red I could find. Then I went to the famed "trim" store and got some cheap plastic pearls in ivory along with the gold cording that's currently functioning as the drawstring on my purse.

Stringing my pearls yielded this girdle. I didnt' put much design thought into it actually, and I didn't have the peach pearls I was so keen on (they were too $$ in the store, but now I kinda wish i'd just splurged). Still, I think its nice enough, and I will try to make a fancier one for my orange dress. Its strung on copper beading wire, and I'm not really sure what happend with that front claspy bit, but its functional. Kinda religious looking, too, I guess. I attached the girdle to the dress at some key locations so that it would conform to the points (beth's idea). The pic has them pinned down, rather than sewn. I got impatient.

girdle

Oh, and since I was fiddling with the waist of my dress, I attached the utility loops to carry my accessories. Here's a pic of them in action with my purse and cup. I'll likely add a flag fan to that group, and I'll still have one extra loop in case I think of anything else. Oh, and in this pic you can see the way the hem turned out, and the beginning of how the sleeves look with pearls on the intersection.

I'm calling this done. Sure, there are pearls left for sleeves, but that is a carride chore for when hubby drives, which is fairly often. I have NOT one single fiddly bit left. This dress is FINITO!!
Tomorrow I start working up the orange. Huzzah!

Liberal Interpretations

2005-05-20T18:53:00.000-04:00

Since I was trying to pull and all-nighter last night, I thought I'd keep myself awake by sewing. I decided to tackle the aforementioned fiddly bits and also start on the bag/purse for me to carry my goodies around the fest like a lady.

Now, I don't really know, well, anything, about venetian purses. I vaguely remember the topic coming up at some odd time or another, and there is evidence of purses, but I have no idea regarding styles thereof. This is where I get to be liberal and artistic. In period, seamstresses would no doubt have tiny little remnants of the lush venetian fabrics, yes? Well, I had some scraps and large swatches of various fabrics I am fond of, and rather than just keeping them to look at, I decided to incorporate them into a sort of strip-quilted bag. The bag is simple: strips sewn together to make a big rectangle, circle with interface stiffening for the bottom of the bag, light pink tafetta lining (light so i can see whats in there when i take a peek). So basically a glorified pouch with drawstring action. The bonus is that I can use it with both dresses.

bag
The only fiddly bit I've got left on the green dress is to add some utility loops in the folds of the skirt around the waist so I can carry goodies (like bag, cup, fan) sans hands. Oh, and I might add pearls to the sleeves, but that is most definitely NOT a requirement.

I decided to just do one 2 inch strip of red guard a bit up from the bottom hem of the dress instead of my previously planned wide bottom guard.. Why? Becuase when I hemmed it I was too lazy to cut out excess fabric (and also afraid of cutting in case i screwed up the hem. I ended up with a wide pillowcase hem, which i conveniently covered with the guard. Brilliant. It also adds a nice weight to the skirt bottom.

pillowhem incognito

Fiddly Bits

2005-05-19T18:52:00.000-04:00

Ah, how I hate the "fiddly bits." I've got a running list of little, but not-as-inconsequential-as-I'd-like things to do before the green is officially done. Foremost on that list is the hem and bottom guard. Then I've got some loose guard on the bodice to sew down, need to serge the inside of the skirt where I sliced off the lining, so it doesn't fray. Need to cut a bunch of loose threads--particularly the leftover threads of cartridge pleating. Need to sew a couple more hook n eyes on the skirt front slit to keep it from opening. Need to make some sort of pouchy/purse. Need to make pearly girdle to accessorize, and a flag fan. I did, at least, finally finish that dreaded roped petticoat. Man, am I tired of pink. After all my little list is done, I can go onto greener, or oranger, rather, pastures....

Last night, after complaining to Niter that I hadn't sewn all day and being bummed about it, I decided to get off my tushy and fix that problem. So at 12am I started sewing. I finished my sleeves. They are now hemmed on the bottom and trimmed with the thin black grossgrain ribbon around the wrist, and hopefully the right length that the ruffle from my camica sleeve sticks out just so. I might fiddle with putting pearls on the intersections of the ribbon. but i counted, and I don't currently have enough pearls. So that'll wait til i've got a long car trip and someone else is driving. ;-)

Oh, and a shout out to Em! My wonderous sister came over yesterday morning, helped me lace into the whole getup, and pinned up my sleeves and skirt--a very long process. So, that is ready to hem. And on my to-do list for this evening.

No pics, boring post. Poor readers. Sorry.

Sleeve Rings

2005-05-16T18:51:00.000-04:00

And, for a non-stressful story: the only sewing I did this weekend, despite best intentions. Rings on my straps for to tie on my sleeves. Huzzah.

sleeve rings

I actually was motivated enough to mark all over my petticoat for additionaly cording, but i was a dolt and used the "disappearing" side of my fabric pen. So by the next morning when my sewing time came round, my work had abandoned me. Doh!

Wristy Cuffs

2005-05-13T18:50:00.000-04:00

Finished the camica today. Finally. I've been letting it languish, cuz i had a secret fear that the neckline band i embroidered for hours and hours was too small. However, I think it turned out to be a decent size. I coulda made it a little bit wider, but its more than functional as is. I love the way my curly edging turned out, even though manipulating it around the sewing machine was an asspain. But it looks just like that portrait from waaaaay back in my blog. Finally.

And how did I end up working the wristycuffs? They had to be expandable so i could get my chubby little hands through. And i wasn't in the mood for eyelets. I ended up with ribbon loops on one side and loose ribbons on the other. Works for me, and I think its kinda cute.

I was planning on doing a straight stitch in the rust color around the edge of the cuffs to make a border and cover the machine stitiching. But I'm also kinda liking it sans border. Thoughts, anyone?

Also, I managed to attach the ribbons to my sleeves for attachment. They won't be this long, and they won't remain loops, but I need to make the points of attachment on the dress, and i'll do all necessary trimming then. Each ribbon will also get a cutesty little pearl at the bottom.

Here are both sleeves completed (except for bottom hem) on the dress. Notice how i gracefully lift one arm to show off the camica poof ( great idea, beth). Also note the curly edge of my camica sleeve peeking out from the bottom of the green sleeve. I'm gonna hem the sleeves to the ideal length for this. I think its cute, like a ruff, and I didnt' even have to make a real ruff. Mwaaaah-ha-ha-ha-haaaa.

And what happens when i wear my dress sans sleeves with the new super fabricy camica? Well, the extra sleeve fabric is so much that it covers my hands. I fix that by pulling said sleeves through the straps and looking a little Dangerous-Beauty-esque. Functional. And I really did see this in a portrait on Realm of Venus on the camica page. Notice my loyal hound:

All that's left are the sleeve attachments and hem. Before I hem I need to complete the roped petticoat. So, petticoat is my plan for tomorrow. I've also got accessories to do: fan, veil?, partlet, girdle, purse, but i can do those a bit more slowly, and they're not ABSOLUTELY necessary to wear the dress. ;-) SOOO close to done. sorta.

Well On My way to Spider (WO)man

2005-05-12T18:48:00.000-04:00

Finished the second sleeve tonight. It went much faster than the first. I only buggered up one part of the ribbon, right in the center, and was unwilling to rip in from all the edges to fix it. Clear nail polish did the trick. and you can't tell. Its in the pic. You'll never find where! Anyway, I attempted to mirror image the sleeves as precisely as I could (niter should love this), and I'm sorta proud of the (near) symmetry. hehe. And doesn't this look like part of a green spiderman costume?

I finally started sewing the neckline blackwork band onto my camica. Finishing my sleeves inspired me, as I need the REAL camica to do the poofing through the pearly slits. Huzzah!

One Down. Mostly.

2005-05-11T18:46:00.000-04:00

Tonight I worked on the lattice for my left sleeve. Honestly, once I got into it, the process wasn't that hard, and it only took a couple of hours. One nights work/sleeve is bearable, i think. And I'm very pleased with the result:

I will have to attach ribbons and whatnot to tie the sleeves on (right now its merely pinned). And i need to hem the wrist part, but that also will wait until i've got it tied on so i know the length better.
Note below, that my grids do not line up perfectly along the inside of my arm seam. I am far to lazy to do THAT much math. Just be happy the lines are straight, niter!
I also stole the sleeve opening idea from Beth, and tacked the sleeves together along this seam with pearls down the length. This is for my camica to poof through. This is my old camica, so there's not nearly as much fabric to pull through. I expect this look to get better when I finally finish gathering and butting cuffs/neckline on my camica.

And for buttpucker giggles. A better quality pic of what my buttpucker is doing now. Still there, still annoying, but no longer poking my arse, and I'm at a loss to fix it. I honestly believe its a design flaw. My point is so sudden in the back that I think it makes too much stress. On my next dress, i will make the point slope much more gradual (a la Beth's dress), and I really do think that will fix the problem. This was supposed to be a learning experience, afterall....

buttpucker

Lose Pounds In Seconds

2005-05-09T18:45:00.000-04:00

Sounds like an infomercial. However, its exactly what I did to my dear green "practice" dress today. I've been concerned with the excessive weight of the dress for spring/summer use. It was formerly checking in as a heavyweight at 7.2 pounds. Today I cut out the flirty, red skirt lining, and the dress was magically slimmed by 2.4 pounds. Thats a full 1/3 decrease for those of you up to doing the fractions....

The dress is wonderfully light in my hands now, and much easier to maneuver around the sewing machine. It also means i've got oodles of red fabric just in case I need it for any other projects--sleeves, pouch/purse, flagfan? The only catch is that now I have to be careful about lifting my skirts when I wear the dress, unless I want to expose my picnic like checkers on the inside of the green fabric. Still, I think that trade is worth the heat regulation. Now the dress is a slim 4.8 lbs. Not counting extensive undergarments, of course.... For a 10 second scissor-induced-diet, that's not bad at all!

In other news, I've been working on ironing out some of my fit issues. Primary on the list is that annoying butt-pucker. Today I removed that part of the cartridge pleated skirt (goodbye hard-won handstitching, I shall be doing more soon, i suppose), and have removed about an inch of the boning to relieve some of the pressures and strain in that area (not to mention keeping said boning from poking me immediately above my, um, crevice). I also found what I think is the source of my problem--the lining and outer fabric were not the same width, so it was making "weirdness." I was hoping all that would fix it. Unfortunately, mr. pucker didn't go away completely, though it is undeniably better than it was. Sorry for the horrid picture quality, but hubby wasn't home tonight, and I'm not so good at the yoga mistress thing (as I think we've already covered). I especially like how it looks like there's a toothbrush stuck to my bum.

buttpucker. ooh, it sounds so dirty..... I really am at a loss as to how to fix this now. But its no longer uncomfy, so I may just suck it up and deal. Unless my accomplices can help me the next time i see them. chuckle. Up for night-before-event-sewing, anyone?
The next issue is getting the front "slit" to come together nicely at the point of the V, and to hide that skirt slit in the front. Hook N Eye closures are wonderfee for both issues.

hooks and eyes help hold the skirt closed, even when the dress isn't laced. I'd say that's effective, wouldn't you?

I also worked on pinning the ribbon lattice to my sleeves. I decided to go with a larger grid than in my original pictures. For sanity as well as for ribbon-conservation. I've only got one sleeve so far, and its only pinned, not sewn, but I'm liking this look a lot. Hopefully will be able to sew this soon. Unfortunately, tomorrow night is out of commission for me, as I have to attend my little sister's concert. Note that this little lattice scares me. I just know its gonna move all around and be an asspain to sew. Simple. Hah.

sleeve

Sleeve Experiment

2005-05-05T18:41:00.000-04:00

My green fabric has a black checkered pattern on one side. I've decided to see what happens if i take advantage of this on my sleeves. Note that I'm planning on just doing straight sleeves that tie on, and will pull the camica out between sleeve and dress. I will most likely try a dressier style sleeve on my orange dress, but this is my "dress down" venetian, so I'm going simpler.

I went to the fabric store and bought ribbon. My original plan was to buy red/pinky ribbon to match the guards on my dress, but pitiful fabric store did not have that color. So I went safe and bought black. I decided to sew a lattice of the ribbon onto the green fabric following the existing checked lines. This is what the lattice is looking like so far:

I dunno. The effect is cool, but its kinda busy, as the existing grid is kinda small. I will think on it some more. I suppose i could do the same thing in a larger grid (more green space) on the nonpatterned side of the fabric.

Of course, I don't even know how period the crisscross pattern is. The only evidence I can find is this, from 1540's:

Huzzah!

2005-05-04T18:29:00.000-04:00

Okay, so that's some premature celebration, since I still have to finish the camica, petticoat, sleeves, partlet, girdle, hemming....But at least I have a pretty dress that all can look at. Okay, I suppose the pretty part is a tad subjective, but if you disagree, you're wrong. ;-)

Anyway, I've been thinking about how to wear my split front dress, as the layering options can be difficult if one wishes to wear a corset and a camica. I know that typically the camica is worn immediately under the dress so the fabric shows on the front split. But I've also seen evidence that there were sometimes more intricate things under the ladder lacing. Like this one:

Sort of like a stomacher?

Since my corset is of a decorative fabric, I'm thinking it could work in the above fashion, and it might solve some of my layering issues. What do you think?:

Front view. I folded up the bottom hem for shits and giggles so I could get a better idea of what it'll look like after hemming. So really, this is pretty much what it'll look like finished (plus sleeves). I might add a second guard to the bottom a bit above the wide bottom one. Depends on fabric availability and motivation. I think I've decided not to add the second guard to the bodice for now. This is based mostly on laziness, but technically there were more votes to not add it anyway! ;-)

Here's the back. I thought about adding guards down the side back seams but then thought better of it. Note that my collar guards aren't as symmetrical i like, but i'm dealing for now. I figure I can't see it, and if it really bothers me later I'll fix it. ;-)

And now for the super nitpicky stuff. This bottom bothers me right now. The skirt slit does not come together right. I'll play with the slit (chuckle) and try to loosen the gathering strings so it comes together more attractively. If not, hook and eye will be the answer...

Here is the butt. It is giving me issues. The strange pucker on the point gets to me. I think its an artifact of the weight of the skirt and the way one must attach the cartridge pleating. even the strong boning down the middle of my back can't keep this from puckering in. The outcome is that its poking me right above my buttcrack. Yes, I know that is graphic. Sorry. But I welcome advice on how I might go about fixing this?

stupid butt

And my other nitpicking. Because I attached the lacing strips behind the egdge of boning on the bodice, I'm finding that the very edge has a tendency to bend out, so if you look form the side you can see in. I don't like this. I may have to sew on some ribbon to lace through secondarily just to hold down this edge. Something that can wait and isn't a huge issue, but I will get around to it eventually.

nitpick

MisMatched Guards are period. I hope.

2005-05-04T18:28:00.000-04:00

Well, as promised, I worked on attaching the skirt to the bodice. That is now finished, though I'm unhappy with some aspects of it. I'll have to talk about that on a later post where i have a pic of me in it....

For now, here is the mighty....interesting...handsewing of the skirt to the bodice bottom, and also a good shot of how i cheated for the lacing inside. Ribbon strip that was pre-eyeleted. I had intended this only for practice lacings, but I'm feeling lazy, and no one can see this when I wear the dress. Its inside, afterall....

lacing/cartridge

I was too lazy to lace it on this evening, but below's a pic of my progress thus far. The bodice, as you can see, is attached. And I cut guards from my red floral fabric. They were 2.5 inches wide before hemming, so I figure they're around 2 now. In retrospect, I figure i could've matched the floral patterns, but its probably more period not to, since they would've been scraps anyway.

I sewed as much on with the machine as was possible (around the boning) and then made sorry attempts at handsewing the rest. The handsewn bits amuse me. Especially when seen next to the machine stitches. hehe.

And here is my conundrum open to popular vote. I now have one guard. Shall i leave it as is, or add a second thinner guard a la this photo? I'm waiting to tally answers!

hmmm?

Venetian Neglect

2005-05-02T18:26:00.000-04:00

Yes, I've been blatantly neglecting my dress diary for sometime. I apologize to any "regular" readers that I may have disappointed during my time off. I was sick of handsewing the skirt onto the bodice, and had to put away for quite sometime. I did use the time to alter some cute clothes I picked up on shopping trips--"tall" pants were on sale (i usually buy "short"), and rather than miss out, i figured i'd buy em and hem to my short legs. I also finished the blackworking for my camica, but still need to attach the bands to the camica.

This weekend I had my wisdome teeth removed, and I figured that the painkillers could take the edge off of jaw pain AND handsewing....

With this in mind, I decided that the original way that I was attaching the skirt was more work than I cared to do and was overly complicated. I ripped it all out and decided to attach the cartridge pleated skirt the old fashioned way (like this). I think I might have made more work in the end, when you account for all the seam ripping. Oh well, I never said pain killers made me LOGICAL....

I also started cutting and attaching guards from the red floral fabric to put on the bodice. Tonight I'm working to attach the skirt to bodice and to attach the guards to bodice. No pics yet, but as soon at its reasonably together, I will post some.

I couldn't resist

2005-04-07T18:25:00.000-04:00

Yup, only kinda getting close to finished attaching the skirt, but I couldn't resist lacing myself in to see what it looks like. Thus far, I'm pleased. I attached the inner lining of the bodice (with finished edge) to the inner most side of the cartridge pleats:

attaching

I plan on attaching the other edge of the cartridge pleating further up the inner bodice. This will keep that folded edge flush on the bodice, and I think will provide skirt lift. If not, it will just mean lots of extra hand stitching, but that's okay--it'll be sturdier. Its all about the learning.... Once the skirt is fully attached , I will sew the outer bodice edge down for a clean finish--no doubt this will be hand sewn too, as my sewing machine is not super enough for the cartridge pleated bulk. So yes, there is actually a lot more work before the skirt is officially attached. Then hemming and putting guards on. So--kinda close to finished, and kinda not. ;-) Still nice to have a pic of what is starting be be a whole dress!

Here's the dress so far:

Still obviously needs hemming...I don't like the way the boning tabs stick up on the lacing edges--its actually straigt, but the boning bends out from my body and makes it look funny in pics. Don't know how to deal with that, so I'm just leaving it as is for the moment...
As for the skirt split under the bodice: had to split it to get it on, but I don't like the gap. I will have to add some hook and eyes to close it once I'm in. And maybe a green panel behind so as to not indecently show my underwear!

Also, this dress is HEAVY! Not exactly a hot weather dress, by the feel of it. Linen, here I come....

Weekend on my Butt

2005-04-03T15:06:00.000-04:00

doing blackwork and watching movies, of course. This weekend I've used the free on demand movies for all they're worth. Hidalgo (okay), You Got Served (horrible--worst dialogue ever), A Guy Thing (amusing enough, and I really like julie stiles), .com for Murder (horrid), Little Women (a classic), Daddy Day Care (very cute), The Big Bounce (classic Owen Wilson--he plays the same character in every movie), Boat Trip, which I'm positive is NOT one of Cuba's sparkliest gems-- it was hilarious for the wrong reasons. I just finished Jersey girl which was a heart felt movie about dad and daughter despite it being hideously ben and j-lo. So, yes, I obviously watched a LOT of movies and so had time for much blackworking. I also ate more than my fair share of chocolate. Good for the soul.

Anyway, I've finished both wrist cuffs, and am respectably into the neckline band. The neckline has proven more challenging than expected due to its small size and the bleeding nature of my fabric marker. Its rather imperfect, but still just fine with me. ;-) These will all get straight borders in the rust after they're sewn onto my camica. Hopefully a project I'll delve into this week.

blackwork

Hubby was away, and I had high hopes for finishing a bunch of loose ends this weekend, like finishing some extra cording on the petticoat and perhaps the camica. So I figured I should finish the neckline blackwork before I could do the camica, and the whole weekend has been that. Hehe. Its nice to just sit and watch movies. Those other loose ends will wait.

I did manage to get out for a while yesterday and do some fabric shopping (yes, again), and FINALLY got the rotary cutter i've been slated for (even gave it its maiden voyage cutting the camica neckline above). I left the fabric store with underskirt material (3 yd remnant for $2/yd) which is blatently shiny and synthetic, and kinda looks like grandma curtains. But the backside has that slubby dull sheen silk look, so I'm going with it. I like the color--its the peach on the right. I also picked up a yard of orange texturey velvet (top) in case I get desperate for extra material for the sleeves--as we know my main dress fabric is limited. If I don't end up needing it, it can live its life as a large tote bag or something.

fabrics

Wish I were A Yoga Master

2005-03-30T15:01:00.000-05:00

Or mistress, I suppose.
Why?
Cuz last night I finished tacking my cartridge pleated skirt onto my makeshift waistband, and i can't get into it. Here is an amusing pic of me trying:

yoga
Since I can't yet model the skirt on my waist, hubby and I decided if I modeled like this i could be Van Helsing or Amadeus. Incidentally, this also gives a good idea of how much too long I made the skirt...Some major hem is required:

crazy skirt

Of course, I knew I was gonna have to split the skirt to get into it for real wear. But I was hoping to be able to wriggle in and out for the practice dress so I wouldn't have to split the back sides and then repair them later and split the front when I alter the dress to front lacing.

Beth has suggested a leap of faith where i assume the bodice fits. well, it certianly seems too.... and start the ladder laced alteration now to only have to split the skirt once. I'm quite tempted...

Here's a pic of my tacking the cartridge pleated skirt to the waistband. I did three tacking stitches per pleat. Right sides together...

cartridge tacking

Final matter:

Beth, here are my latest blackwork designs. I did the design alteration I was thinking of on the flaming onions--this way you can pick between two. This pic also has a background grid--look at the zoomed pic for more detail. Please note, though, that the grid we drew it on was 20 square/inch, and the grid in this pic is 10. But it will still give you a good idea of scale. The 20 square/inch was too pixelated to see in pics.

blackwork designs. Includes neckline idea, lemme know what you think.

Blackwork

2005-03-27T15:00:00.000-05:00

Pre-Easter at the in-laws provided much time for blackworking. Mostly cuz hubby and his brother were engrossed in video games. This was fine by me, however, as I got to listen to the game narrative and background music, which was conveniently somewhat period luting. The game was Bard's Tale, and I found it fitting to work on dress details during. ;-) I also got to stitch while my MIL knitted and we watched home decorating shows and ate chocolate. Oh, the decadence....

I am almost finished one of my wrist cuffs. I ended up picking a rusty brown embroidery? thread (I used 3 strands of the 6-strand stuff you usually use for cross-stitch). I cut a strip of iron-on interfacing for the cuff stability ( my camica fabric is really flimsy, and I think I needed more structure). The wrist bands are 1.5 inches wide. I drew the blackwork design on them with wash off fabric marker. Luckily, 1 layer of camica fabric and 1 of interfacing were fairly transparent, so this was simply a matter of tracing. Here's my progress so far. Its most certainly got that hand done look. But thats the point, right?

blackwork

As you can see, I decided to get "fancy". I filled in the diamonds with some yellow thread I had in my bag which happens to be the same yellow thread I used to do the edging on my camica neckline and sleeve bottoms. Why? Mostly cuz I only brought one wrist cuff for the weekend and I finished it more quickly than expected and wanted more busy work. I also thought the yellow would tie in with the edging and look nice. Period? I dunno. But I like it.

Then I finished the yellow and still had time to kill, so I decided to go back and add the middle lines in the x/flower bits. Luckily, we're back from in-laws and I've prepared my next cuff, so I won't be tempted to add more embellishment on it. I think its borderline "busy" already. hehe. The only thing they will get besides what you see above will be two straight lines on either side for a border. This will be conveniently placed over the sewing machine lines I'll get when I attach the cuffs to the sleeves...

Whew!

2005-03-23T14:59:00.000-05:00

Cartridge'd!!!

All three lines of stitching in, and I pulled them up to cinch it--couldn't resist seeing the effect. What neat little pleats they be!!!

Now I just need to figure out how to attach this massively heavy skirt to my bodice. According to most informative site I've read (Ren Tailor) you have to attach right sides of skirt and FINISHED bodice together. So I guess I have to finish the bodice boning/bottom first... I wonder if its possible to attach the skirt to lining and interlining only and then try to do a cleaner finish between the outer layer of bodice fabric and skirt? I may have to play around a bit. Also, I wanted to steal beth's ideal and do some utility loops around the bodice/skirt seam for attaching useful items--may i ask if there are any tips/tricks to this, dear?

I'm also seriously tempted to throw in a pocket or two. ;-)

Chuckle. I love this!

Progress...

2005-03-23T14:58:00.000-05:00

...is slow. Still, I'm brushing up on my stand up comics today while I work on my 3 lines of running stitch for the cartidge pleated skirt. And it is rather relaxing to just sit on the couch and stitch.

I decided to line the skirt with the first fabric I bought for my courtesan gown (yes, i'm on my third choice now). Its a mauvey-red with purple floral crap. I figured I'd never find another use for it, and it actualy does make a decent lining. It adds a lot of weight, which hopefully means nice drape and making the practice more similar in weight to my real dress, so my practice is more applicable... Here's the fabric, gurgi loves to get in my way when i'm trying to lay massive amounts of fabric flat on my very limited floor space:

fabric--this is where gurgi plopped himself right on the bit of fabric I was trying to measure and mark for pleat stitches. Silly pup--his evil eyes are showing his true colors.

Detail (for me to remember) of the skirt:
1) 3 panels, 58" wide at 53 inches long (plenty of lengh since I dont know how much extra I need for cartridge pleating "poof" and foldover.) I figure based on how much I have to hem this skirt I will know how long to make my real one to conserve as much fabric as possible...
2) lining and dress fabric are sewn together right sides together at the top/waistband with a 2 1/4" hem. When turned right sides out, this will mean the skirt will be 4 layers thick in the area getting cartridge pleated, and thus should make for a fuller gather and more body.

hem--sorry, crappy pic
3) I cut dips out of the top of the waistline that (hopefully) are in rough proportion to where my dips fall naturally in the bodice. The total skirt is 170" circumfrence, and the waist is 38". I worked the dips like this:

skirt dips--hopefully this math works for me, or there will be an ungodly amount of seam ripping. Love my sketch, dont' you? ;-) Its here so I can't lose it.

In other news, I have drafted some blackwork patterns I think I will use on my camicas. I was just gonna use other people's stuff, but then i decided to be creative. ;-) Hell, I've got time....
The skinny swirly one is for the neckline, and the more ornate one is for the wrists. The wrist one is loosely based on an example of Italian blackwork I found on DragonBear.
I may tweak a bit more, but I'm sorta fond of these:

blackwork

No survivor, No CSI? I'll sew, then.

2005-03-17T14:57:00.000-05:00

Yes, all my fave tv shows were moved or ignored for NCAA craziness. Thus my evening was unobstructed sewing. What's funny is how little I actually got done considering how long I had...I was retardedly slow when it came to pinning (and sewing, too, actually) this evening.

Anyway, I cut the outerdress bodice fabric, and finally figured out how to sew the blasted thing together with right sides together and turning inside out without getting hopelessly twisted on itself. Long story. There was a lot of seam ripping involved....

Regardless, here is the bodice as it stands now:

front

I like the shape a lot. This pic is sans fancy corset, so I'd say the boning in the bodice alone is pretty sturdy if i wanna cut back on some layers. I used the cable ties for boning in all my channels except for the boning that goes over the shoulder. For that I used regular old poly boning from Joanns, since I could get that in longer lengths than cable ties. My concern with the bodice "as-is" is that you can see the boning through the outer layer, so I may need to add a little padding layer. Sigh, I was hoping to avoid additional layers. This could be avoided with creative trim, though, as Beth suggested. I will think on it more. Oh yes, and I'm hoping those side wrinkles go away with skirt weight. If not, I will have ot be creative with ridding myself of them.

Here is the back as is:

back

You can see the butt point. its more pronounced than in pics from yesterday, but I still think it could be a bit more so. For the practice dress, I'm happy with this and won't change it. But on the real deal, my plan is to take the side seams further to the sides as they approach the bottom so that the triangle won't be so pinched, and to perhaps lengthen the triangle if the widening doesn't make me happy enough. The two sides on the waist are a bit uneven, but I think that will correct itself when I actually measure as to where I'm sewing the eyelets. This placement was rather cursory.

Also note: These are still my impermanent lacing strips, as I'm not ready to actually put in eyelets. I am still thinking of changing this practice dress to be a ladder laced front, so that would mean I just sew the back seams. So it is likely I will never put real eyelets in this particular model...

Oh, and just cuz i'm tickled with this idea:

straps

This is the result of taking boning up the front sides, through the shoulder straps and down the back. This is just wondeful, and I will definitely be doing this for the real dress. These straps are sturdy, and you can see that they hold their shape very well. They will NOT be slipping of my shoulders, which is great. And added bonus: they push the bosoms in from the sides to (hopefully) eliminate side cleavage while enhancing the sexy little bit in the middle. Italian Rennaissance cleavage enhancement.

Bodice Bruhaha

2005-03-16T14:56:00.000-05:00

Tonight I thought it'd be good to work up my bodice for my practice dress.

I had my lining cut out from yesterday, so I figured I'd do a "final" fitting with it before proceeding. To this end, I sewed the shoulder seams together, basted some eyelet ribbon on (an ingenious find from our fabric store weekend ) and roughly laced it to make sure it fit. It seems workable to me:

back--the wrinkles will go away when there is boning on the lacing edges--ick--pardon the underarm back fat. Hope that doesn't keep happening. The lining is not actually crooked either, that is simply an artifact of the way i crookedly sewed on the lacing strips--hey, I said it was rough..... Contrary to what it looks like, there is a back point, but its kinda lost in the wrinkling--hope that gets better. If the point is still too small (despite lengthing it from my original pattern), I will just make it more pronounced on the "real" dress.

front --good view of the general shape. The shape will no doubt be smoother with boning in and corset under--also more conical(less boob bump). This is a great start, I think. Don't worry, the neckline will be lower once the whole dress is together--I've got some seam allowance still on top there. I like cleavage. ;-) The waistline will come up to a more flattering level when the seams go in, too.

Since the lining was workable, I took to cutting out the interlayer so I could make the boning channels. The interlayer is white denim (leftover from my corset), and was cut with the same bodice pattern. I clean finished the edges to prevent fraying, and pinned my lining and interlayer together. Then I took my ruler to draw my boning lines. These are where I decided to put them--notice, I am gonna try taking the boning up over the shoulders for wide-set strap stability:

boning placement

I went out tonight and bought zipties for cheaper boning. I got some mighty 24 inch long ones, and I think they will work quite nicely (thank you Beth!). Now I just need to find a tool I'm willing to dull cutting them to the right sizes.

Overall, I'm happy with tonight progress. Tomorrow, perhaps I will get as far as cutting out the outer layer of bodice and starting the assembly process. How exciting.

Practice Dress Begins

2005-03-15T14:55:00.000-05:00

Wow. I have just now realized that my blog up to this point has basically been a whole lotta build up and research but not much dress making. Yes, I've sewn some underoos. But now, faced with the prospect of an actual *gasp* dress, I'm quite excited. ;-)

I am starting on my practice dress. The plan is to have the pattern in good working order before I cut up my more expensive fabric. The practice dress will be an army green type color (the plain backside of a lightly patterned cotton/rayon? type fabric I have just sitting around). If I decide to keep it around to use on dress down renfest days, I will be trimming it with some brown scrap fabric I have (using this for the lining, too). Also, once I'm confident that my closed front pattern is in good working order, I may alter the green practice dress (no doubt at a later date) to be a front ladder lacing style, since I think that would be fun to have in my collection.

practice fabric colors. very neutral/natural

Professionally fitted (compliments of beth) pattern in hand, I started cutting out the bodice lining:

lining
Then I realized that it has been since highschool (just about 9 years ago) since I have made any sort of bodice. And when I made that one I had a pattern with directions for dummies, and for all the directions I was too dumb for, my grandma helped. Thus I am not exactly sure how to proceed (how embarrassing). So, I started doing some dress diary research and heavy thinking (takes me a while). I think I am now getting an idea of how I'll actually work the sewing, since I wanna include some boning I will have a lining, then an interlayer, so the boning will go between lining and interlayer. Then I'll sew the actually dress outer fabric on top of all that hubbub. What I'm hoping is that you will not clearly see the boning through the outer layer. If I can, then I'll most likely have to add another layer. But I really would like to keep the layers to a minimum for hot days.

Also, I was struck by an idea I saw on the Semptress's site. In her construction of a pair of bodies, she takes boning all the way up the straps and over the shoulder straight down the back. I realize this may be unorthodox for a dress bodice (rather than an underdress corset deal like she was making), but I really kinda think that doing this will minimize strap slippage. I've read a few dress diary's where strap slippage was an issue, especially since the Venetians were fond of wide-set straps, and I really do wanna presesrve this style but not have to worry about my dress falling off. ;-) I think a cheap poly boning, rigilene, or even zipties (which I am eager to try after seeing beth's corset) are all flexible enough to work for this and still provide a decent structure. I also think having straps with just a little struture will help push my...ahem...assets in, and minimize side-cleavage, which is not exactly the look i'm going for.

Oooh, and brilliant Niter suggested quite a fun litle project to entertain me. After I cut out the bodice lining, she told me to take the negative and put it on my real fabric to get a sense of pattern placement. Of course, it took her a few moments to explain to retarded little me what the "negative pattern" meant--I was stupid and flustered last night. Regardless, it was a wonderous idea, and here is what I came up with-pardon the not exactly straight laying brown, but at least it gives an idea. Loving it.

front-- i think this layout is perfect.

back--still considering this layout, but I kinda like the way the pattern is here, i think i may move the two meeting lines on the design a bit further up the back, though.

Fun-Filled Weekend

2005-03-13T14:53:00.000-05:00

Greetings to my accomplices--I hope your drive home has been a smooth and enjoyable one--glad you're willing to drive so far for a visit! Oh, and sorry I forgot to give you your return trip chocolates (though that was suspiciously convenient, eh?). I think that means that the next time I come to visit you, I will have to make up for it by bringing you copious chocolates. Thank you again for all the wonderful gifts! I felt like it was Christmas. ;-) And Niter, glad I could unload my velvet upon you. hehe

For those of you not my accomplices, the three of us spent a very relaxing and yet fabric/trim- filled weekend together. We decided (rather at the last minute) to have a weekend of girliness, fabric sales, good food and just a *little* wine and karaoke thrown in for giggles. It was wonderful to finally be able to talk about design concepts in person (and with fabric swatches on hand, I might add). Sipping some great gourmet teas (from adagio.com--see button on left to get a coupon--shameless plug), and munching on strawberries and fancy pants chocolates seemed to complete the decadence of a weekend already dominated by decadent fabrics from various local vendors. The weekend got me psyched to sew again, which I'd been kinda putting off recently. Now I'm definitely feeling more motivated.

I was also extremely happy that the fabric store sales I promised did not leave my dear accomplices empty handed...that would have been not quite as fun, though I think we would've enjoyed ourselves with or without fabric purchases. After all, just looking and getting ideas is entertaining... But purchases are damn satisfying. Chuckle.

My personal "big" find was the fabric that I will slice up to make guard/trim for my dress. It is a dark maroony red wool--very soft and seems pretty fine (or so I think, don't know much about wool, actually). I got just under 2 yards of it (remnant), and I'm certain I will make that amount work for my purposes. Now that I have the main dress fabric and the trim, I will start considering the fabric to make my underskirt--currently I'm leaning towards trying a peachy golden hue, but I've not actually seen the three together, so that could change. Below is a pic of my orange dress fabric and red guard material. Notice how dear, long-haired Gurgi had to sit on the fur-attracting wool ASAP. I also bought two little fabric swatches that I'm considering for use in making flag fans or pursey-pouches. I don't really know their fate yet, but I liked em, and now they're mine. ;-)

dark red wool trim

A big bonus of our time together(for me at least) was that I had my bodice roughdraft pattern pinned up to fit me properly, and now I'm drafting the "final" pattern--thank you so much for your patience in helping me out with that, girls--especially Beth!! Hopefully, this means that in the next few days I will get a move on cutting out some bodice bits for my practice dress, and perhaps even *gasp* do some sewing!
Here is my pattern. I altered my corset pattern to get the general shape size, and experimented with adding the straps/back side lacing until I came up with something reasonable. Then dear friends helped me make it actually fit. Also, I love leftover christmas wrapping paper for pattern drafting. hehe

Roped Petticoat

2005-02-24T14:50:00.000-05:00

With my pink petticoat shell assembled, I trekked out during the beginning of today's snowstorm in search of cotton cord. My previous choice, a sisal rope, was a bit too thick after washing, plus I was worried it was the wrong material and besides, it kinda smelled funny. Cotton cord sounded like a good choice. The problem is that my deficient Jo-anns carries nothing of the sort (at least that I could find). Neither did Home Depot. So I decided to check out the camping section of Walmart for ropes. No luck. But as I happened by the hampers and clotheshangers, I thought....clotheslines...And behold, 100 ft of 3/16 inch cotton clothesline for under 3 bucks. Yay! So I got home and got to washing it for the preshrink, and unlike my previous rope it stayed just the right size....

Cord washed and dried, I decided to incorporate some rope right into the hem of the skirt (hemming and cording all in one? sounds like less work, and I'm a fan of that!). I decided to go with a wide hem, and I sewed 4 lines of the cord right into the hemline. I think it looks kinda space age-y, but cute, and it does add that extra stiffness that I think the bottom should have.

After the hem was complete, I started in on making the ribbon channels of cording to spiral up the skirt. I made the front of the skirt have evenly spaced ribbons going straight across, and did the spiraling-up-to-a-new-level on the back half of the skirt. This is so that the crookedness is not visible from the front. Why you ask? Well, I figured the skirt is pink, the ribbon is mauve, and the whole combo is kinda cute. So if its a nasty hot day I can cut out the decorative underskirt and just expose my underwear. Petticoat=less formal underskirt for hot days (if it comes out nice enough). Aren't I just clever? ;-)
In the ribbon channels, I decided to do two cords instead of just one cuz it fit nice and snug and the single cord was a bit roomy. Also, extra stiffness with 2.

assembly--bottom 4 channels in hem and double rope in the ribbon channels.

Here's the "finished" product. I may go further up with the channels, but for now I'm outta rope. I can't decide whether to add more or not. Thoughts?

complete? ( still need to make the waistband, even if i don't add more channels)

And I wanted to test its effectiveness, so here's a sidebyside of with and without the petticoat for one of my old skirts. Its somewhat subtle, But it does make a discernable difference:

without

with petticoat

I'm a Good Girl, I am

2005-02-21T14:49:00.000-05:00

Its been just over a week since my last post. tsktsk. And I started out so strongly....

This week's project is the corded petticoat. Today I have been ironing and cutting my fabric. For the skirt itself, I am using pink cotton shirting material, and have decided to go with a gored skirt that's waist is slightly bigger than me so I can have it on a drawstring (for the unexpected weight gains/losses--hopefully losses).

As for measurements: I decided to make the waist 40 inches around (mine is 32, but my hips are 44, so i figured that was a good compromise and would allow drawstring action). My skirt will be two rectangles for front and back (so 21 inches each--2x20 is the 40, and 1/2 inch seam allowance on each side) and 2 traingles on the sides to create the gored skirt effect. I decided to go with 100 inch circumfrence at the bottom of the petticoat based purely on a piece of ribbon i put on the floor and stood inside til I thought it was a good sized "halo" around my feet. Since the waist will be 40 inches, i need to add 60 by the bottom, so my gored triangles will have a 30 inch bottom each. I folded my fabric on itself selvage to selvage, and cut 2 rectangles of 21 inches and two rectangles of 16 inches wide. The 16 inch ones I cut in half diagonally to make 4 right angle triangles, which i will sew together.

Here are the pieces all cut--there are two layers, so 2 rectangles, and 4 triangles:

I sewed the trangles together into 2 larger gores, with the right angle sides together:

And, all assembled it looks like this:

I am actually worried that the 100 inch circumfrence isn't enough, but i'm gonna keep trucking and see how it comes out. If I don't like it I won't use it. ;-) or I can add in some extra panels, if it comes to that... It will be easier to tell once I have some cording in it to see how much it actually flares out

Tomorrow I will hopefully get out to find new rope/cording to provide the "body" of the skirt.
That's all for now.

Languishing Diaries

2005-02-13T14:48:00.000-05:00

I am still alive, I swear. My dress making has been languishing, taking a back burner to my obsessive gyming and weight loss regimen. And reading. I've been a literary crazy for the past week and a half--finished 4 books.

Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know that I attempted to start my roped petticoat, but when I washed the rope it swelled and would no longer have fit in the channels the size of the ribbon I bought. I will either have to purchase new rope or new ribbon. Rope is probably cheaper.

In the meantime, I think that my dress making will pick up again quite soon, as I spend part of this weekend perusing venetian portraiture in the National Gallery of Art. Seeing some of my researched paintings close up was certainly inspirational. The detail you can see in the real paintings is phenomenal. I am very much looking forward to starting up again. ;-) It was also amusing to my hostess (and myself) that I could identify different methods of lacing and blackwork and partlets on the portraits, while she was obviously looking more at the artistic value of them. hehe

Boring Eyelet Update

2005-02-02T14:47:00.000-05:00

My eyelets are finished. It took me god-knows-how-many-movies to get them all done. But they are adorable. I shall not bore with pics, as all the eyelets look much like the ones shown 2 posts ago. So, just picture that with thread covered eyelets on both sides... ;-) For reference, I used button thread at the wondrous suggestion of an accomplice--it is thicker and takes less stitching to completely cover the metal eyelet.

Also, if anyone endeavors to cover eyelets with thread like I just have, remember that if you watch movies during, you SHOULD NOT rent foreign subtitled flicks. Even if they are set in the period of the Italian Renaissance. I thought the costumes would inspire me. The major problem with my thought process is that its extremely difficult to sew around eyelets AND read subtitles at the same time. Unless you can manage to have your two eyes looking two different directions. Then it just might work....

This weekend I promise to start, if not finish, my roped petticoat. I'm gonna use some pink cotton shirting I already have, some sisal rope (hope this works) and a grossgrain ribbon in mauve for the rope channels. My plan is a gored skirt, and I need to sit down to figure out the circumfrence that I'm interested in. Don't want it too poofed/tudorish, as that's not really the style, but I do want some skirt support and not have the skirts constantly wrapping round my legs....

Necklace Spree

2005-01-30T14:46:00.000-05:00

Today, I went out for lunch with my whole family for my youngest sister's birthday. She's 17! Its so weird--she still feels 8 to me...and she'll love that I put that on the intraweb!
Anywho, after the lunch, my other two sisters and I decided to peruse the mall (my sister had to do an inventory in a store there at 6, and we decided to help her kill the time). We stopped in the Icing store (conveniently the one sis had to do inventory in...), and I found some kick-ass-awesome jewelry!

I think this might be courtesan usable--especially the first--the pearl one. But I'm putting them both online to show off cuz they're awesome. They were from the Icing's vintage collection that is now going extinct. So I got each necklace for $3, and the matching earrings for $2.50 each. I thought that was pretty good considering the normal prices ($12/necklace, $5/earring). Score!

I think the above is so much like some portraits I've seen. And the green jewels should accent the red dress nicely.

And this was just too cute not to buy.

Eyelets are Forever

2005-01-30T14:45:00.000-05:00

I know, tis been a while since my last update. I've been busy...but not on costumery! But I have managed to start the final phase of my neverending corset--covering the eyelets with a nice little buttonhole stitch. I have 24 eyelets to cover in totale. I have finished 12. These 12 took me 3 movies (King Arthur, Without a Paddle and Never Say Never Again) and one episode of the Venture Bros. cartoon on adult swim...

Its not much, but at least i'm posting something...

In other news, I bought ribbon to make the channels for my roped/corded petticoat. So I hope to start that soon.

Corset Conclusion, I Hope

2005-01-23T14:39:00.000-05:00

Wow. I don't think I should've wished for the boning to come in quite so much. Cuz sometimes you get what you wish for. It came Friday night. I have been working on finishing the corset since then. The boning is perfect in it--no channel fit issues (kudos to me and my knowledgable ruler use), and it looks very nice. Note to self and others: the spiral steel boning is MUCH more flexible than I had envisioned. This makes it much more comfortable than I envisioned. But in the future, if I want to go for rigid, I would go with the spring steel. That is what i used to approximate a "busk" in my corset, and it really does the job.
This pic shows the flexibility of the spiral steel--top is side to side, middle is straight, and bottom is front/back flexibility. I found that the spring steel (its jsut a strip of plastic coated metal with rounded ends) is only flexible front to back (not side to side), and even only marginally flexible--so it makes a great busk substitute. The poly boning acts like a weak spring steel.

Once I had all the boning in and had attached my lacing strips once more to assess fit (and removed them once again--yay jack the seam ripper), I decided I was ready to put the ribbon edging on.

The ribbon I found at the local fabric store, and thought it perfect. It has a slight shell design in cream and tan. It complements my corset fabric nicely. It is thick, heavy duty ribbon, so I thought would work well for the load bearing corset. And to make it stronger, I folded it in half (it is 2.5 inches wide, and the pattern calls for 1-1.5", so this seemed a good solution).

ribbon trim on corset fabric--love the way it looks together.
The thing I didn't love was how FRIGGIN DIFFICULT it was to sew onto my corset. With each pull of my needle (handsewing mind you), I was going through 2 layers of denim, one of thick curtain fabric and two of heavy duty ribbon--and sometimes more. Ouch. The needle stuck so many times I can't even describe it. And the thread kept insisting on knotting itself. Friday night I sewed on it for about 4 hours. On Saturday, I worked on it almost all day, and thought I would go mad. My sister, who was stuck in our apartment due to Maryland snow, took mercy on me and helped me--we were stitching from opposite sides of the corset to get it done faster. But Saturday bedtime came and it still wasn't finished. Sunday morning breakfast and then back to stitching--I just want the thing to be done! About 17 hours, 3 puncture wounds, 1 pinky blister,2 bent needles, 10 numb fingers and 4 callouses later, I was finished. Ouch. Remind me not to do this again. This corset better last for a long long time! It weighs 1 lb, 10 oz. My sister and I both bled on it.

As as if it wasn't torturous enough to do the ribbon, when it was done I had about a 1 minute feeling of accomplishment before I realized I needed to put the eyelets in for lacing. I used Dritz 1/8" eyelets in gold--this took me an additional 2ish hours--Ack! While I like the way they look (daintier than grommets), they were not deep enough for my 3-fabric-layer corset, so the innermost denim layer did not all get caught into the eyelets. To fix this, I think I may have to sew a buttonhole stitch around each eyelet. It'll hold all the layers, but a side effect is that it will look more period. Quite honestly, I could care less about period on the corset that goes under the dress, but looks like I'll be going that way anyway. I'd much rather just know that I am done, but looks like the corset has it in for me and I will have to work on it a bit more...

Here are some pics, though. I think its AWESOME. Now that its *almost* done (minus the sewing over the eyelets), I think all the crazy work was worth it!

Here is a close up of the finished product. I'm loving it, personally..

This is with a skirt I already had made from the same fabric for a past ren fest. Convenient little ensemble, should I ever need it...

And here is the back view. I intentionally made it a bit small in hopes of losing my 15 thanksgiving and christmas pounds. And if i don't lose them, oh well, its still serviceable. ;-)
Damn, baby got back.

Corset In Waiting and Partlet Brainstorms.

2005-01-21T14:37:00.000-05:00

Sigh....I wait for boning. What an interminable thing. Okay, so yes, I only ordered it 2 days ago. But I want it now! Pout. And no, I didn't pay for fast shipping. So wait I shall. My frugality often defeats my impatience. So full of vices....

So, despite inactivity due to waiting, I have sewn the decorative outer fabric to my corset. It looks quite sharp, I think. I hope that I kept well enough to the stitch lines that I did not significantly shrink my boning channels. I ordered 1/2 inch boning, and made 5/8 inch channels in my design. So they better fit when it gets here. Great, now I'm worrying myself....
Anyway, I am not going to bore you all with pics of the still unfinished corset, even if I do think the outer fabric looks sharp. I will wait until I have the finished product in all its splendor. At least, I hope its slendor-ful when I finish...hehe

I am planning a trip to the store tonight to get more ribbon for the corset edging. It seems I'm rather stupid and didn't buy enough the first time round. What's worrisome is that I got it on clearance, so if they're out, I must find a new ribbon option. And I did so like the one I picked the first time round. I suppose I should also buy grommets or eyelets to enable the lacing of the corset. If I get a few other things I can keep myself busy while I'm snowed in this weekend. Apparently Maryland is getting a snow dumping. If only I had my boning I could finish my corset for snowy day diversion. Ah well....

As for partlet brainstorming:
It struck me the other day that an interesting way to do the partlet would be to bead it. I do not think it is strictly period, but it should have the right look (i am thinking gold beads with either pearls or a garnety color bead at the junctions). And, I think I can figure out how to bead a net faster than I could teach myself to weave one. Now I need to find a cheap place to buy beads so I can experiment with it--don't wanna drop too much, cuz I could be wrong about it looking right or my ability to figure it out. hehe. I am excited to try it, as I haven't seen anyone else do this yet, and so it'd be unique. So secretly proud of myself for thinking of it....

corset plan of attack

2005-01-18T14:36:00.000-05:00

Ah, so I have received some great suggestions on how to fix my strangely fitting corset. First, I can make lacing strips to temporarily attach to the thing and see how it actually looks when laced. Awesome. Mission accomplished:

My temporary corset lacings (made of white denim and Dritz grommets)--I simply baste these on to whatever corsets/bodices I experiment with now and in the future to see what they look like laced without having to poke possibly-wrong holes into my garment before I'm ready. Yay!

Next is the whole fit and bodyline thing. It was suggested that the corset is too long around my waist/hips. So I will try to shorten the tabs just a bit, and cut the tabs up into the corset a little higher so they find my natural waist better. I'm also told this will make it more comfy. ;-)

I think that it is imperative for me to bone the whole thing (at least temporarily) with poly boning to see the true effect. This will allow me to make any adjustments before I order the more expensive steel spiral stuff in the pre-set lengths...

Tonight Jack, the seamripper, and I got to be great friends. I have never seam ripped so much. First the boning channels that I had to half cut off, then the temporary corset lacings (twice, cuz I tried it on twice). I also discovered the awesomeness of FrayCheck...Did wonders for cutting those tabs up higher when I didn't have the energy to sew a cleanfinish on the razzling demin.

Here are my results. I think I could cut the side tab even a little higher, and I will do so. Overall, I am much happier with my corset now, and though I don't think its perfectly shaped, it'll do:

My corset frontview. Notice the side tabs sticking out. I will remedy this by cutting the tabs a little higher. They will also be more sturdy when I get my real boning (steel instead of poly).

Sideview of my reworked corset. I like this line, and I think its period appropriate. And let me just tell you how weird it is for me to put such a buxom picture of myself online....Don't stare too much.

My outer corset fabric is in the wash preshrinking--shoulda done that earlier, cuz I would be able to attach it tonight if I'd planned better. Oh well, I will add it to the design tomorrow, I'm sure. I feel so productive!

And in other news....I've ordered the boning. I think I'm confident enough in the size of the corset that I can do it. Anyway, the prices really were not bad. The best prices I found were at Hedgehog Handworks. They also give discounts when you order in quanties of 4 or more, and everywhere else I looked only gave quantity discounts for 12 or more. I ordered some extras too, just in case--I probably will want ot throw a few into my gown, too, so why not?
For the boning, I decided to do a mix of styles:
1) The front 4 channels with 1/2 inch spring steel, which I read can bend forward and back but not really side to side (which means sturdier "busk" effect). I'm also doing the 2 back center bones with spring steel (but 1/4 inch), as I read somewhere that it was "must" for corset integrity.
2) The channels around the tabs will have 1/2 inch spiral steel, as this can bend side to side (important to have on your...ahem...sides). But also they are sturdier than poly, and I don't want my tabs flipping up. Hopefully that works.
3) A few non-important channels will have poly boning for some support. Mainly, these are the ones that are sandwiched safely between channels of steel--A way to save a little money.

corset woes

2005-01-17T14:35:00.000-05:00

I am pretty sure I stole this post's title from one of my accomplices. I worked on a corset today for quite a long time (granted, I had a lot of distractions). I used the corset pattern generator from the Elizabethan Costuming page. I opted for the boned tab style, since the site said that it was the most comfortable. And in all my fun layers of courtesan clothes, comfort will definitely be an issue. ;-)

While I think it looks okay in pics, I am not sure its gonna fit me properly. I kinda tried to play with it (I haven't put grommets in yet) to test the fit. I think it is TOO straight, if that is possible for the venetian silohuette. It does not make a conical shape, but kinda a straight up and down. I am hoping that once I get all the boning into it (it needs to be ordered first) it will fit better. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic. Sigh.

I've also found that its exceedingly hard to fit a corset to yourself when you have no one to help and no dummy...Here are my attempts so far. I apologize for the poor picture quality. Usually hubby is there to take good pics, but not tonight.

corset layout/boning--all the boning is straight up and down (except for the ones on the back) . Maybe this is the source of my "too straight" problem?

Corset "fitting" . Keep in mind its not laced (no eyelets or grommets yet), and there are only a couple pieces of poly boning in there--i'm waiting to get my spiral steel boning, but I need to know what sizes to order first.

As for the corset, I still am not sure what I think of it. I do hope I will like it more after "sleeping on it" and getting the boning/laces worked out. (I apologize for the weird picture angle. I was contorted trying to hold the camera far enough out to get the whole thing in the pic.)

So far I have only used the white denim for the corset. If I can get the pattern working okay I will cut out my outer brocady fabric, but as my supply of that is limited I am waiting until the corset pattern works to use up my decorative stuff.

I guess my corset will be on hiatus until I get the boning into it and figure out what's going wrong...

fabric store fun and curly camicas

2005-01-16T14:33:00.000-05:00

Well, over the weekend I hit the fabric store sale as promised. I cleaned up on thread. I bought all sorts of colors. Just in case....

I also got a liner for the inside of my dress bodice, a hideous 50 cent/yard fabric with teal checkers to use while drafting patterns (so i don't waste my good fabric), and some pink lightweight cotton shirting for any random use I come up with.

My other big find was 8 yards of a dark olive fabric to make a "practice dress." It was $1/yd. I have decided (and it has been pointed out) that I have almost zero experience drafting patterns. So, I am planning on doing a practice "courtesan" dress. This will be with the olive fabric. Its a poly/rayon blend, so kinda eh (not authentic), but it'll be good for practice and feels similar to my velvet weight/texture wise for good practice. The olive is plain olive on the back side, and diamond striped olive on the front side. I think I will use the plan side for most of the dress, and perhaps a bit of the diamonds for accent (maybe on the front of the bodice and around the bottom of the dress). Anywho, here are my new fabric finds:

fabricfinds--silky burgundy is for lining my velvet dress bodice, hideous teal checks is for pattern drafting, olive is for my practice Italian gown, and pale pink is cuz it was 50cents a yard and it might be good for something....

Other than that, I found that Simplicity patterns were on sale for a dollar each, so I bought two of them. #8881 is the Elizabethan dress pattern. I may try to use this pattern to loosely base my own bodice pattern on. the necline is basically correct, and I'll just have to tweak it toadd back side lacing, and fix the waistline so it is more Venetian (change the point in the front and add one in the back). The other pattern is #5794. It is a cloak. I will make it if I'm feeling luxurious. Particulary since my existing cloak may be sacrificed and recycled to be part of my red velvet courtesan dress. It is a dark mauvy pink, and may find itselft cut into strips of trim for the dress...

So, the cloak I currently have is the pink on the top with the black finishing stitches. While I love the cape's fit and style, I often complain that I do not want the pink cape (I made it in highschool). I am faced with a dilemma. It matches pretty well. Do I kill my pink cape to make fabric strips for guard trims on my red velvet dress? Or do I keep the pink cloak intact because, hey, it does match my dress....?

Also, since I got new thread I was able to work on my camica more. I hemmed all the edges (top, sleeve and bottom). One of my thread purchases was a silky rayon thread in a golden tone. With this I bound the edges of the sleeves and neckline to produce the "frill" effect I have previously referred to:

Palma Vecchio: La Violante

I think my edges turned out very well. I've got a closeup of the curling edge in gold, and a whole pic of the camica as it is now.

I think this is as far as I will go on the camica until the dress is finished. I have quickly gathered the neckline for this pic just to see how the effect worked. But i do not want to permanently gather the neckline until I know what the shape and size of the dress's neckline will be. Basically, I want my camica top to *just* peek over the dress. So, finishing the camica will be put on hold until much later. I also plan on gathering my camica sleeves. This will be done at the same time as the neckline so I don't screw up and end up doing them somehow differently....

gown construction blueprint

2005-01-14T14:32:00.000-05:00

Besides the gown itself and camica, which I think I pretty much covered in my previous posts, the rest of my ideas are as follows:

Corset:
I plan on making a corset to go under the gown. For this I will most likely use the Corset Generator and Sewing Instructions on the Elizabethan Costuming page. I have purchased a heavy white denim for this purpose. It seems quite sturdy, was on ridiculous sale, and is white so it won’t bleed onto anything in the wash. I am considering doing steel spiral boning in the corset for extra support (I lie a bit on the busty side) and “cinch”--I lie on the mushy side, too ;-). There are some boning retailers suggested on the aforementioned pattern site, and I will have to peruse those to find the best deals. I am still deciding if I want to do the outer layer of my corset in decorative fabric. But most likely, I will decide “yes.” If so, the decorative fabric will be some tan curtains I picked up in goodwill at the insistence of an accomplice. You can see it here, in the underskirt. Its leafy.

corset fabric is the underskirt

I also saw another corset idea I quite liked. On Festive Attyre, there was a picture of a corset that was laced in the back ,b ut had hook and eye closures in the front to make dressing (and undressing) yourself easier. I might experiment with this….

Underskirt:
We’ve already touched on this, it will be the red brocade from my previous post. The major thing I wanted to add to this info was that I am thinking about making it a “corded” underskirt. Which to my understanding means I sew channels containing rope around the bottom and up the inside of the skirt to provide a loose support for skirt poofiness. My thought is it would allow air circulation “down there” on warm days, as well as add to the aesthetics. I will experiment with this, as well… The references I have found thus far in on the Semptress page, and on the Festive Attyre site in the diary for the Bergamesque Noblewoman's Gown.

Depending on the cording used, this could be fairly rigid or much less so. I still am not sure if I’m doing this, but its at least fun to consider…

Partlet:
Oh, how I love the braided/woven Venetian partlets. A great example is from a Veronese fresco:

Veronese: Detail from a fresco (off of Realm of Venus)

And a delish detail shot (though Florentine, not Venetian) is found in an Eleanora de Toledo portrait:

See Partlet, above . Also for anyone interested, there are even better detail shots of this painting on the Raveness dress diary. She was able to see the painting in person, and got some excellent photos...

I have found various people who made these types of partlets and explained it on their websites. Some actually weaving them, like Briana on Realm of Venus, and others assembling crisscrossing trims on sheer fabric, like Alyxx. Both methods are very effective, and I will do the weaving if I’ve got time (and if I can manage to figure it out), but the sheer fabric option is also spectacular if I save my partlet til last minute!

Girdle:
I want to do a beaded girdle as seen in many Venetian portriats. One good example of a courtesan and her girdle is this:

Unknown Artist: Courtesan

Keeping in mind that the above example has a larger bottom piece for accent, I looked around WalMart to see what I could find to approximate it. I came up with a beaded tassle sold for window dressings. It was $2.50, so I figured it was worth the expense to save me from trying to make the thing…I also checked the beading section to make sure matching beads to this tassle are fairly common, and they are. So, my girdle will look like an extended version of this:

beadies for girdle (middlish left)

FlagFan:
I absolutely NEED a flag fan to complete the ensemble. First, they were in Dangerous Beauty,
and they appear in Venetian/Italian portraiture:

Titian: Portrait Of A Lady In White

I think the only details left after all the above are jewelry, hair and perhaps a veil. I will definitely hit thrift stores/goodwill/antique stores for the jewelry. I love that kinda stuff!

Hair, eh, i'll have to experiment. And if my hair sucks (its currently a bit short for braiding), that's what the veil is for! ;-)

Until next time (most likely after I go buy camica thread...)

Design Concepts #2

2005-01-13T14:29:00.000-05:00

Hrmm…what else can I bore you with? Some of my inspirations, I guess….
Well, besides the Dangerous Beauty movie (which was the greatest impetus for this project), my second most important influence has been reading through the creation of the Seresina gown by Jwlhyferdewinter . It was the first venetian courtesan link I found, and had a great effect on what I saw in my future. Mainly my future being “yes, I could try this….” ANd her dress is so lovely, it is definitely inspiration to try my own!

I wanted to show some portraits of elements I’d like to include in my ensemble. This also serves as notes for me to remind myself of things later! So bear with me….

I want my dress to have the general Venetian silohuette seen in numerous paintings from 1550-1600. A perfect and simple example is this:

Veronese: Portrait of a Woman

Note: Besides the excellent silohuette, I chose this because I interpret the dress to be made from reddish velvet. Sound familiar? However, remember that I do not want the front ladder lacing in my dress, just this general shape. I may shorten the waist, as I am shortwaisted, and I want it to be comfortable and flattering to my figure. Afterall, what girl doesn’t?

Below, we have proof that the Venetians did, indeed, have non-front-closure dresses and also featured split skirts with fun underskirts. This is part of my design concept as well. Again, a portrait of a velvet dress. Excellent. I am also interested in the method of trim on this dress, particularly the sleeves. I could entertain the idea of something like this….

Titian: Portrait of Titian's daughter Lavinia

New topic:
I would love to have my gown puddling on the floor. Or have a nice little train. I do not know how reasonable this is, as I plan to be walking around the Faire in it. Many of the historical portraits and sketches do show the dresses to be longer than floor length, or featuring a train.

Vecellio Sketch

One thought I'm toying with is that I could do JUST the train, but have the dress be to the floor (and no longer) in front. Then, for walking around the Faire, I could bustle it in the back. I have not found historical reference that this was done, but it does seem very practical, and I could imagine them doing it back then. I’m also inspired to do this by (you guessed it!) Dangerous Beauty! She has several dresses that she bustles (more excessively than I would, but you get an idea). I apologize for the crappy picture, but I took it of my TV, and those never turn out well.

DB ScreenCapture

Additionally, referring back to the Vecellio Sketch above, I want the back of my dress to have the “V” back at the waist and the low square neckline in the back, as seen on so many gowns of the time.

Last Item on my list for today. Trims. I love this portrait. It is part of the reason I bought the pink taffeta. ;-) Though I am not making this dress (perhaps I could later), I am a big fan of the guard trims used, and hope to incoportate something like this in my design (like my mulberry ribbons--see sketch, previous post). I just love this pink and green combo. But I'll just have to remember that for next time...

Moretto da Brescia: Portrait Of A Lady

Design Concepts

2005-01-12T14:28:00.000-05:00

Okay, so we know I’m making a courtesan dress. We know I’ve already started the camica. But what of the dress? What will it look like? What is this red cotton velveteen I’ve spoken of? Here we go:

Courtesan in Venice.
I’m thinking red. Okay, I’m "slightly" biased by the costumes in Dangerous Beauty, but they do wear an awful lot of red and I like it. The DB character also has an orange dress I love, but the orange in my local fabric stores are limited, and I can’t bear to buy fabric sight unseen from online. Besides, one of my courtesan-to-be accomplices is doing an amber/orangey dress. So I’ll stick to red. Anyway, based on Oonagh's Own website, red was a pretty dominant color. Sounds good.

Flashback to months ago. I visit the fabric store. I buy a red brocade-y cotton/poly fabric. $25 for 6-7 yards. Not too bad. In the store it looks red with purple-y red details. I’m excited. I can do all my accents in some deep purple reds. Sounds regal. Nope—at home the purple is lost. This is my first clash with in-store-lighting. Oh, then I find on Oonagh's site that there’s not evidence of purple being used in Venice during that period. So perhaps the evil store lighting saved me from myself…. End flashback. I have a costuming hiatus to decide if I like this fabric or not. Maybe I’ll use it for curtains if I don’t use it for a dress….

On to the recent past (a few days ago):
I find info online for a local fabric store “selling way below cost” “too low to put online”. I go. OH MY GOD! Delicious fabrics. Scrumptious. Exactly what I’d like to have as a courtesan. I get some swatches (the store was closing when I got there) to think about it. My choices range from $25/yd-$40/yd.

LUSH SWATCHES
I love them. (mental note to make a dress with that blue and gold...someday). I think if I do the diamond burgundy fabric as an accent and a cheaper fabric for the rest I can afford it. That night I go back to the local fabric store and find THE red cotton velveteen. It matches my diamond swatch almost perfectly. I get 6 yards of the red velvet. I take it home. I pull it out to admire it. STUPID STORE LIGHTING! Sigh…velvet no longer matches my pretty little diamond swatch.
Another accomplice counsels me on my non-matching fabric dilemma. Okay, so my red velvet doesn’t match the diamonds. But I haven’t bought the diamonds. And they’re expensive. So, the velvet (and yes, the evil in-store-lighting) saves me from the insanity of dropping possibly hundreds on fancy fabric that is best reserved for when I’m a more accomplished seamstress. I admit defeat. And yet, I’m very excited about the red velvet potential…

Serendipity:
I put the red velvet on top of the red brocade from several months back. The “red” brocade now looks deliciously mauve, and wonderful next the velvet. I think we have a winning combination…

My *final* fabric selection. The bottom is the red cotton/poly brocade. The middle is the red cotton velveteen, and the top is my fru fru pink acetate taffeta. Isn't is a sexy combo?

The pink is something I picked up at the local store for $1/yd. It’s pink taffeta (acetate, not silk). Totally not a “me” purchase. But courtesan demons in my head started talking about how cute it’d be to line the skirt in pink taffeta. I’ll get a rustle and a flirty pink flash whenever I lift my skirts…. Oh, the rapture.

This is my concept sketch thus far:

concept design

I decided not to do front ladder lacing, despite what most of the portraiture of the time tells me. Why you ask? Because I’m obstinate. And because I think my two accomplices are both doing ladder lacing, and I like variety. Probably I’ll end up with side back lacing, since I’ve seen that in an Arnold sketch of the burial gown of Eleanora of Toledo (c. 1562 ).

The trim in my colored sketch is not necessarily my final choice, but its good in the drawing for now…

I’m not sure which sleeve style on the concept sketch I like best. I’ve seen ones sorta like the one on the left. But basically, that one is from Dangerous Beauty, and I think not period accurate. But it is awful cute. We’ll see. I have a few other sleeve ideas I might sketch out before making my final decision…As the sleeves are removable I won't feel so bad if I don't go completely historically accurate on them. I can always add an accurate sleeve later on....

More Camica Fun

2005-01-11T14:27:00.000-05:00

Well, I was "sick" again today. I just couldn’t bear to get outta bed. And what do you think happened?! Well, I sewed, of course. This dress is gonna get me fired. ;-)

I finished sewing the bulk of the camica together. Then I played with possible neckline treatments on some scrap fabric I had. I think I will end up doing a tight clean finish (think appliqué look) on the very edge. Besides looking nice, I think it’ll cause a curly frill, and should look much like the painting below. Next to it is my swatch of experimentation. When I really do this, i'll most likely use a gold thread for the edging, instead of garish purple-pink.

Palma Vecchio: La Violante

Besides the frill, I’d like to include a solid band over the gathering stitches, perhaps a band with some decorative stitching like this portrait:

Jacopo Robusti - Il Tintoretto: Flora

Whether I’ll do the decorative stitching by hand or cheat and use one of my fast and easy machine stitches is yet to be seen. I do have 9 months, so I could afford the handwork. We’ll see…

Other than that, I decided to go back to my chemise to hem all appropriate edges. But before that I decided to REALLY finish the seams off good. That meant ironing the seams open and then folding over and ironing again to hide the clean-finished edges. I’m still paranoid about gauze fray, so I decided to stitch on the edges. What a difference this made! (see below, left seam super-seamed, right seam unfinished).

Unfortunately, my extra credit seam sewing meant I ran out of white thread and didn’t get to do any hemming. Oh well. I hate hemming anyway. I’ll do it later. Here’s a picture of my camica so far. Its not gathered anywhere, or hemmed. But you can get an idea, and you can see how fun and transparent it is.

More later. As I’ll be taking a hiatus on sewing until I have more thread, maybe I’ll post some concept/design posts for the next few days…
I know, "thread is cheap." But if I wait til Friday its 50% CHEAPER! ;-)

Camica Adventures

2005-01-10T14:25:00.000-05:00

Last night I decided to work on something. ANYTHING! I am just SO excited that I’m busting to start, even though I know I’m not ready for the real dress yet (besides needing some sewing practice, I also need to lose the 10 lbs I gained over Thanksgiving/Christmas). So, I decided to start the camica.

I will confess that I skipped work today because I am "sick", and (even though this wasn’t my plan) I ended up fabric shopping. I scoured the fabric store for a suitable camica fabric. Their linen was far too coarse for my liking, and the straight up cotton muslin was boring (i.e. a lot like my pre-existing chemise). I also had a preconceived notion that I’d get something translucent for my camica. That seems deliciously naughty and courtesan-like. Unfortunately, most translucent materials I found were some sort of polyester or poly blend. Which means Hot. And since my dress is gonna be velvet (its red cotton velveteen --more on this later), I want to keep other things to natural fibers and lighter weights to make it more bearable to wear if its warmish. And the Maryland RenFest (where I get the most use out of my costumes) can be unbearably warm. This will most likely end up being my autumn dress. ;-)

I was losing hope on my natural fiber translucent fabric dream (couldn’t afford silk). But then, in the home decorating section, I happened upon 100% cotton decorator’s gauze. Yes, it’s gauzy. It’s pretty friggin' see-through. And I love it. It’s like very thin linen, since you can see all the weave details. 4 1/8 yards came home with me for camica goodness. $2/yard.

So, Monday night I started cutting camica bits out. I used the pattern on The Realm of Venus website, altered a bit for my preferences and cut out in a different order. I made the body 38 inches long (falls somewhere between my knees and ankles--i'm short) and the sleeves an excessive 40 long inches from the shoulder. I wanted sleeve length for poof. And to approximate a cool “tuck-chemise-under-the-shoulder-strap” effect I saw in a painting for when I don’t wear my detachable dress sleeves. See below:

Marietta Robusti (La Tintoretta):
Venetian Woman

I clean finished all the edges of my cuts with my awesome new sewing machine (Christmas present from hubby Janome 3500), using techniques I learned in my beginners’ sewing class. Very proud of myself. I felt the clean finishing was necessary, as it is gauze. And gauze is, afterall, prone to fraying.

fraying gauze vs. clean finish

I started sewing bits together, but really only managed to attach sleeves to gussets before it was bed time. More later.

*since originally posting this, I've found a painting that supports the translucent camica idea. Go me! See below:

Giovanni Antonio Fasolo: Fresco:
Detail from "Games" (from The Realm of Venus)
translucent camica sleeves

In the Beginning

2005-01-09T14:22:00.000-05:00

Here goes....

I have been in love with the Renaissance Festival since high school. I have very fond memories of making my first costume with two dear highschool friends in my grandmother's chaotic sewing room. Looking back on it I remember how fun it was to be making uber-girly clothing that we normally can't wear in the 21st century (at least not without getting some very strange looks). I also think about my poor grandmother putting up with the three of us. She should be sainted.

In college, I had the pleasure of watching Dangerous Beauty for the first time. Besides educating me on how empowering it is to be a respectable whore whom occasionally deepthroats bananas, it piqued my interest in the clothing of the Italian Renaissance. Basically, I wanted one of those dresses. Really really badly....

And I still do. As I do not have funds to pay for a fancy seamstress, and I do have a bit of sewing experience, I've decided to try to make one. We will see how this turns out. Or if its any cheaper than just getting the friggin seamstress. My initial forays to the fabric store have cast doubt on the affordability of this project. Apparently I have expensive tastes...

First project will be the camica...Second, corset, I guess.