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. :)