12th Night Dress

When Caid 12th Night approached I remember saying that I was not going to make a new court dress for the event. I already had a good amount of court gowns I built in the past and I only wore them a few times.

Of course I say one thing and completely do another.

Here's my dress I wore to Caid 12th Night.

Pardon the wrinkles. 12th Night was at the beginning of the month and I just now managed to pull the dress back out from the garb laundry pile to take photos. Its made out of a lovely brown linen I bought up in the LA Fashion district. There was a linen sale. An SCA gal can never have enough linen.  The plus for using linen is this dress is now washable!

I used a different style of pattern than the one I drafted for my orange silk Italian Ren. I was trying to have a more 1520's Venetian silhouette so I changed the neckline and put the closure in the front.

This portrait was my main inspiration:

Palma Vecchio, 1520s: Woman In Blue

 I was completely taken with this portrait and wanted to create the same feel as it. I ended up only having a week to put the dress together (I caught the plague the week before) so there are parts that need refining. Overall, I think I did a decent job.

 Once again, Trim from a impulse by at war.  I KNEW it would come in handy! Do to the shape of the neckline I had to put it all on by hand. That.. was an adventure Alas, you can catch some scorch marks on the trim there. My iron was WAY too hot *facepalm*. The ties are made of simple grosgrain ribbon. the gold balls on the end are leftover buttons from some other project long forgotten. I thought they finished up the bodice nicely.

Ah yes, my "Special" moment. The trim was a bit of a nightmare to put on and I ended up with bizarre gap at the back of the neckline. So I added this little loopy bow detail on the back  I thought it was kinda a cute detail for the time I had. But I might change it out later on.

I really loved the red brocade I used for the sleeves. I lucked into a yard of it when a friend of mine was getting rid of his fabric stash. The diamonds are really pretty. 

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of me in the dress except one:

And the jazz hands in it are epic.

Middle Eastern Coat and Aphrodite Headdress.

I hit an SCA tourney last weekend all decked out in my middle eastern garb. And it was actually cold enough that I could wear my Persian coat I made for Estrella.

 

Here it is on a body! It really is a very comfy overcoat. Nice and warm and comfy. Though I am thinking of taking the wrists out a touch since it can be a chore getting it on and off. Thank you to my friend Ty for taking this photo.

I also am starting my Aphrodite costume for this year's Labyrinth of Jareth. Some other gal pals and I are all going as various Goddesses. I ended up drawing Aphrodite from the hat. And while I've never felt like the Aphrodite type, I have been having a great time figuring out how I want the costume to look. I am going for a Alphonse Mucha style costume. The dress is going to be very simple but the accessories will be very ornate.

So far, I got the head dress done.

The Jeweled band there is recycled from a previous costume when I went as a female version of Bacchus. I wanted the crown to look very Mucha-esque. I don't believe I will go much further than what I got. I think I'm currently walking the fine line between elaborate and tacky.

 I'll be starting the dress hopefully this weekend. Labyrinth is on a couple weeks so I have a limited time. But since the dress is so simple, I think I can pull it off pretty quick.

More progress shots to come!

Hair Falls, Hair Clips, and RegencyGowns, Oh MY!

Anime Expo is fast approaching! And my friends and I tend to get a few tables together in the Artist Alley there. We go under the name ZOMGWTF?! Studios....long story behind that name. Its comprised of my other artist pals, Shing Khor, Trishana Prater, and Kythera of Anevern. And trust me when I say our styles and what we sell are VASTLY different between the four of us.

We like to keep people on their toes.

Anyways, every time the four of us get together for an event like this, I use it as an excuse to try my hand at doing something new. Last year I did a bunch of accessories for my Dollfie (...I really should take some photos of those). This year I decided to turn my attention to my interest in belly dancing and make some dancer style hair falls/hair clips. Well, okay that was my original idea. It ended up evolving slightly. As my brain is want to do for most projects I work on.

Take a peek! 

These are the hair falls/clips I originally started making.  A couple of these may turn into matching sets if I get my motivation springing again tonight.

And then I ended up finding these butterflies and kinda fell in love with them. So I made a couple sets of those as well in a similar style.

 

Did I mention I bought a LOT of butterflies? I ended up veering WAY off course from the hair fall style and ended up making these. I really like how these turned out. I'm considering making a few more simply because they are just fun to make...Need more butterflies though. Maybe some dragon flies if I can find some good ones.

And my one odd guy out here. I was going more for a Retro vintage style clip here. Might make a couple more of these just so I have some options.

And here is the result of the work I did while watching copious amounts of MST3K in my studio. These were a BLAST to make. It put me in a sort of zen state to slam out so many. I'm hoping I can sell a few. They will be available to buy in the Artist Alley during Anime Expo. We are in Row D...Not sure exactly what table number yet but I will let you know! Those that won't sell will be up on my Esty site right afterwards.

And since this is a costuming blog...

Regency progress! Keep in mind this is all just pinned together at the moment. Pins and sheer will are keeping that skirt on my dress form. I'm still tweaking this. As you can see I redid the stomacher. Since I don't have period stays (YET!) to wear under the dress I needed to rethink the stomacher to

 hide a bra. Alas, the stomacher looks great on the form but fits me really weird. So I'm going to have to bring a friend in to take a look at it to see where I'm going wrong. But at least I'm making progress!

The Beginings of Regency Morning Gown

It starts.
Yes, I have started YET another new historical garment.  But this one is actually un SCA related. Who knew? I picked up a pattern from Reconstructing History. Its not bad  but keep in mind it seems to need a lot of tweaking to get it to fit properly. The sizing is a bit wonky in places, mainly the sleeves and arm syes. I had to tweak the pattern to make it lay right.  Luckily I bought plenty of fabric to use for a mock up and a finished piece.

Here is the mock up version I did. Behold! Sleeve-zilla! Yeah,I wasn't too fond of the sleeves there. I was going to do the long sleeve version at first but it just wasn't doing it for me. And the short sleeve/over sleeve was huge. More of a three quarter sleeve. Not overly thrilled with how sad it looked.

 And here is the current version after I narrowed the arm sye and widened the shoulder strap. Overall, a MUCH better fit. The sleeves were cut down considerably.  They hit just above the elbows now with a bit of a poof. MUCH happier sleeves.

The dress is a bib font style so a stomacher will be going over the front of the bodice. I was screwing around a bit with lace trim to see what I can do with it. I'm a ample bosumed gal, to put it lightly, so the stomacher is a titch too small. Nothing that can't be tweaked.

.

Roughly, its going to fit like this when its done. The skirt will be next. I'm also considering making a chemise to go under it, but I'm not completely sold yet.

A close up of the fabric I'm using. Just a regular cotton print from JoAnn Fabrics. I usually tend to avoid white when possible since it washes me out, but the print was adorable and the white was so warm that I went for it. I want to try to make this dress pretty feminine.

Hopefully my next post will have the skirt attached!

Happy New Year-Blue Ren Details AND Future Projects Ahoy!

Just in time for 12th Night...again!

Okay, Maybe not JUST in time actually. I finished this back in December but didn't have a chance to post photos since I've been crazy busy with the holidays. The Blue Ren was both me screwing around to make some more court garb as well as put a lil somethin' somethin' up for Calafian Winter Arts. I ended up getting some fine trinkets for the dress. Honestly, that's the main reason I enter Winter Arts...for the free baubles.
I'm part raccoon.

Anyways. Here's some details on the sucker
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So I went back on weight watchers recently and I ended up losing about...oh...5 pounds and a couple inches since I made this. needless to say It was a touch large for me compared to the rather perfect fit I originally had with it...not that I'm knocking the weight loss but damnit, I had that bust PERFECT before the diet.

Bodice detail...more or less. You still can't really see the beading I did on the trim. Feh.

You can see the beading a LITTLE better here. I was trying to go for subtle but honestly, next time I bead I think I'm going to make it a bit more bold so it reads better.

Side button closure again...Its flattering and I'm a one trick pony.

Detail of my orange sash with the tassels. Yup..Orange. I love me the orange.

The main reason I left the sleeves off this go around. I wanted to show off my first round with black work embroidery. I'm pretty happy with my first go around. So far, that leaf stitch is the only stitch I know. I'll need to hunt down some black work books soon to learn more. I'm hoping someday to to another chemise detailed with black work.

So that's it for the Blue Ren. Going to be taking a break from the Rens for a while *GASP*. I figured I made enough to get what I wanted to learn out of this pattern. Lined up a have a few fun things coming. SCA wise I need to make myself a couple of short (and quick) Persian coats to wear to Estrella war. It tends to be a muddy war and the calf length coats are perfect to wear in that weather. Hopefully i can slam out a couple soon.
I also plan to work on two big UBER projects which I want to document heavily. First off is the German Cranach gown. aka...one of these.

I bought a fantastic pattern of one from Reconstructing History and I've really been drying to try my hand at it. There are a LOT of techniques I'm going to have to learn to make it, but I'm willing and hopefully will have the resources to learn from.

My other project is a full Victorian bustle dress. A steampunk con is coming up in my neck of the woods around May and I wanted not only my zombie hunter costume but also a Victorian lady costume as well This picture is heavily influencing my design... especially the middle dress. I want to make the under garments and the dress. Its an ambitious project but one I've been wanting to do for years now. Honestly It has me a bit intimidated.

Wish Me Luck!