Dress pattern

Well I had finally found before Pennsic this year a patter close to what I needed for my Anne Meyer Dress. I bought the pattern at Pennsic from Pillage Village and took it home and cut it all out. Period Patterns are a great source for information and the patterns themselves. They give pages of photos and dates, countries and brief information on various dresses for the time. I used pattern 46.

Warning, it says patterns are size 20 on the outside, inside they have cuts up to size 24, the largest size is really about an 18. So you are really going to have to play with sizing and such.

I tried editing the pattern on my own, wasn't working. I tried on my body double, it just wasn't going there. I took it with me to a stitch and bitch at my friend Katie's house, and she helped me reshape the pattern to fit me and it looks great! I still have to cut out the pattern on good fabric, but she also taught me some sewing terms and ideas I didn't know and it was a nice session.

So actually I will be making a dress with the sewing machine this week out of some generic material to make sure it fits and I know how to put it together ok. Then I will cut it out of the good material and hand sew it.

I am still working on the second set of trim, and on Saturday I redesigned the chest trim because I had already done it before I moved in April, but couldn't find it to save my life. So I just redid it.

Barleycorn Scroll

Here is a photo of a scroll that was to be given at Barleycorn, but they weren't there so the name is blurred out, but this is embroidered scroll number two. I really need to give myself more time with these things.

Been busy, need to blog more

I have been busy as heck lately. And I feel bad I haven't blogged here since. I have done numerous scrolls and a banner. I have finished the first set of trim, and started the second set while I was at Pennsic. I should have the second set done in the next week. Then I have to work on trim that goes around the chest.

Here is what I have done, now I am missing one scroll I did for 12th night and another one for Birka, I keep forgetting to take photos of them.

Here is my friends Kris aoa she got at the Bardic Kings and Queens Competition of the East.



Here is a baronial award of the Pine for my friend Hobbe



Here is my table for the A&S Northern Lights competition, the first major and probablly the last competition I might enter



Here is a better photo of baby chuthulu and a bunch of his friends I made and gave out as tokens at Northern Lights



Here is the first of two Queen's Order of Courtesy that I did for Corination



Here is the second one



Here one of my scrolls I forgot to photograph, but here is the guy getting it, so you can see the back of the scroll



Here is the six foot banner I made for the East Kingdom fencers to use at Pennsic to unify them under one flag it was all hand sewn except the hemming along the outer most edge (ran out of room)



(fyi that is not my floor, but the boyfriends floor. Not that mine is much better, but he has cable and I was watchin' the tv while workin;)

I also did a scroll and AoA for Wars of Roses and a banner for a household I will try to find a photo somewhere.

starting dress...

Well officially I have started a part of the actual dress. I cut up linen strips, ironed them and marked up one half inch markers for the box pleats. It was fussy trying to get these things to lay right, and I tried ironing each individual piece, then pinning them down as I went. I wound up matching the marks and placing holding stitches. I will put reinforcement stitches once I am done with each strip and then iron down and starch. I will have to put a reinforcement band on it as well cause the linen is pulling apart quickly, so I need to work fast and then do a whip stitch around the edges to keep things together.

blackwork as of 01.11.08

Here is how it looked yesterday before I started working on it again. I actually now have five inches on each band and have rolled it over to have a blank work area again.

Body Double

One of the hard things about doing period garb that is close to the body, and you have an unusual body type or size it getting it to fit right without bunches, pulls, or openings in weird places. So to work on my meyer dress and get it pretty darn close to fit correctly I have made a body double out of duct tape and suran wrap. Then I put it over a fat girl sewing dummy and stuffed it with fluf so it can be used to size me. I might put a piece of knit fabric over it so I can pin things to it, but I have to go get said fabric first.

Here is me and my twin...yes ooohhh shock I have a photo of myself in here instead of just my craft. Scary aren't I. :D

crochet for fun!

Here is baby chuthulu, he will come with me to all future events and hangs out in my stitching bag.




Here is daddy chuthulu who hangs out in my boyfriends bathroom.

up to 01.05.08

Here is four of six lines of blackwork on the first upper arm lower band.

catching up...

ok, holidays are over and now is the time to catch up on things.

1) I have finished the collar for the undershirt to my meyer dress
2) I have finished the silk work of the neckline, but still need to add the gold to it for the undershirt to my meyer dress
3) I have completed a baby chuthulu and a full air freshiner chuthulu with crochet for my boyfriend - I am a freak :)
4) I have started the blackwork for the upper arm lower bands (longest arm bands) for the meyer dress. I don't have enough time to do all of them before Northern Lights on March 1. I will do the lower upper arm band and the band that goes across the chest by March 1. I will do the lower two arm bands by Mudthaw for the K&Q A&S comp.
5) I have ordered the fabric for the over dress. I changed it from white to green because this is not my wedding dress and I don't do well with white. It came in last Friday
6) I got irish linen for the undershirt and washed it.

I found the undershirt pattern in the Tudor Tailor, I just have to adjust it to my size and do a mock up. I think I will use one of the dresses from the Tudor Tailor as well and just drop the shoulder a little more, need to mock that up as well.

Blackwork takes forever! Each of the lower upper arm bands will take about 80 hours each. They are 16.5 inches long, and there are six rows of (three rows with two sub rows each) blackwork and so that is why I won't make my March 1 deadline. It took about a week to do five inches of one arm band.

Photos to come soon. :)