While I should technically have used this money on sewing necessities (trim for my new bonnet for one thing...), I could NOT resist these earrings. They are TOO PERFECT. I hope I can wear them as part of my Faire garb! If not, they were only $25, and I just loved them too much!

 I'm in a very Elizabethan mood. :]

The bodice is ready for the shoulder treatment, and then it will be as done as it can be without the eyelets (ewww...). I'm pretty sure I want some kind of puffy roll... Need to play around with shapes, which I'm actually not excited to do. Then sleeves and skirt, which are so easy. In fact... Maybe I'll do that right now instead of the shoulder rolls/puffs. Yes... This is a good plan. 

However, I also wouldn't mind starting the linen Regency. Ack! Must. Stay. Focused.

I accidentally chopped a bit too much off of my Elizabethan bodice to make it smaller, but it still fits! In fact, I think it fits BETTER because it's just a hair too small! Yay!

  

 

I need to figure out the shoulder rolls... Guess it's a matter of playing around with the fabric.

In other news, I am completely consumed with the desire to make a WWI British nurse's uniform. I already have the fabric and pattern picked out. Yikes!
 

 Okay... I hate to brag, but my bodice is the most amazingly perfect fitted thing ever. I think I'm in love with it... :] I lightly boned the bodice lining with reed, and what a difference it makes! It's so pretty and smooth in the front!! And I also cut out a one piece back as per Christina's suggestion. I'm very happy with it, except now it's a little too big so I'm going to have to take it in at the side. No biggie!

The back wrinklyness on the right side back is caused by the bodice being pinned together (I "laced" the other side together with a whipstitch for the pictures) and the fact that it's too big, hence the overlap.

     

 Yay!

  

So.... Got my MRI results back today. The cyst is gone! Which is a good thing.

But they found something else. A "sigmoid colon lesion." Awesome.

So now I get to have a CT scan. Even more awesome.

I'm getting pretty apathetic about all this nonsense now. I'm definitely not as scared as I was when this all started. It all seems like a bunch of useless procedures, but hey, my insurance covers it so it doesn't cost us anything. I know I shouldn't say I'm tired of doctors already because this is nothing compared to what some people have to go through, but it's certainly starting to be a big pain.

I also got my first Gardasil shot today. All I can is OUCH. It hurt more than any other shot I've had, but at least I didn't pass out like some people do!

Alright... Enough of this nonsense, I have 6 yards of luscious cut velvet that wants to be made into an Elizabethan gown. :)

Alright. Corset is newly boned and fits amazingly. It's gives me the perfect shape and is actually extremely comfortable!

Next I need to get my basket together with my cup and sewing things. I discovered I don't have anything to use as interlining, so I'm just going to make a caul out of leftover silk, maybe with some gold embroidery if I can find my thread.

I can't find my sleeves for the red doublet gown *ugh* so if I have to wear it, I'll just have to use the English gown's sleeves and forepart. Hopefully it will look okay, but even more hopefully I can wear the English gown!

I have lots of cash to buy lunch, so I'm set in the food department. And I'm actually going to remember to bring my make up and sunscreen with me!

All of my clothing and shoes I can grab easily. Hair is a breeze since I'm wearing my caul... What am I missing? And why am I stressing out so much?? This needs to stop!

In other news:

I'm glad I didn't try and go all out for the art exhibit tonight. It was quite small and we only stayed a few minutes, then got malts at Watson's and ate candy cigarettes. Good times.

I discovered I have about 4 yards of brown velvet trim that I put on my other wool dress, so I'm going to use that on the new one too. It looks really pretty!

Alright... I need to go take care of the aforementioned things so that I can be as little stressed tomorrow morning as possible!

Thank you, chamberpotts for finding it! :D And thank you Bill Rockwood for taking the picture!

I love how one of my eyes is retarded... :-P

I almost put Day 4. See how quickly time flies? :]

I need a break from steampunk again. I already took a break to make my 40s dress (which is done, but it's been too cold to wear it; tomorrow, I PROMISE! with belt and hair!) but now I want to cut into that wonderful wool! I've only been working two days a week now, thus my income is drastically reduced. As a result, I know I'm going to have to start scaling back on projects. It's not like that's a bad thing though! I have a lot of things that need fixing, or just plain finishing, and there honestly aren't a lot of projects I'm desperate to do. I have the pattern, fabric, and boning for Elizabethan pair of bodies (which I think I'll bring with me this Sunday to work on at faire), and I have all the dresses I want to sell that I can revamp.

Speaking of selling dresses, is anyone interested in an Elizabethan gown? If I can find the sleeves, they're yours with the forepart too. But I can't guarantee I know where they got to... :-P It's my red velvet doublet gown from a couple years ago. Lovely, but since hopefully I'll need an official, approved court dress, I don't see myself wearing it any time soon.

For making me look lovely!

Featuring my new tall hat:


I really need a full-length image of this dress!!!

For the most part, yes! School is almost over. And in the last two weeks, I won another $3500 in scholarships! Woot! I just have to keep it together for another month and a half. Then I'll be in Ventura. Anyone live in Ventura County who wants to show me around and go to costumey things with me? I hope there's fellow costumers in Ventura. I shall be very lonely if there aren't!

I had the most wonderful day at faire this past Saturday. I was so happy... so really very happy. I can't wait until next year, when it shall be such happiness every weekend! I hope I can find some pictures to show you.

AND my Marie Stuart mourning bonnet came! Finally. It's just perfect! The straw is nice and light and lacey which lends to the slightly cobweb-gothic feel. I had scads of leftover black silk, so I trimmed it up and it's done except for the lining. I need to go get black netting, and then black silk gauze for the veil. Not to mention fabric for the black collar and undersleeves. We're going full mourning! A trip to Jenny's is in order... I'm in love with the shape of the bonnet too! It's so different, and so charming, but also seems slightly gothic. I know that's not what Victorians went for in their mourning clothes, but I used to "be goth" so some of that comes out in me every now and then...

I'm battling with the ball gown bertha. I think I finally have it where I want it. It isn't quite as big as the original, but I've gotten over it. So it's not an exact recreation, but then, the original wasn't lavender pink either!

This weekend is Bat's Day! I'm going for the ex-manfriend's birthday. It should be lots of fun! This is my... 5th year going?! I've got a really splendid outfit to wear, and so does he.

I guess the only thing I can complain about is what I've previously complained about before. Going to faire made me realize it even more, and with El Dorado coming up in a month... Well, where ever he is,  there is a guy who can appreciate me and my silly hobby and wants to dress up with me!

       

Well... today was almost perfect! Almost...

I got to see all my wonderful faire friends and everyone at court was so nice and happy to see me, which made me very glad indeed! I'll admit I had been a little nervous, since I wasn't sure if anyone would remember me, and I'm not one to just barge in anywhere and start talking to people. But thankfully I was welcomed back quite warmly. Master Jarvers gave me another beautiful posy. It is going with last year's posy on my shelf. I think I'm going to have quite a few! I also saw the Tinker, but I missed you and Sebastian, Christina! (I hope your concert went well!)

And I fell in love.

With the most beautiful tall hat ever created on the God's good earth! It's red and cream, and made from fabric salvaged from an antique dress. I put a down payment on it today and will pick it up when I go to faire next weekend. It goes really nicely with the English gown, and is so jaunty and small! I think it needs a feather or some such, so I think I'll just swap the feathers out from my red velvet cap and put them on the tall hat.

Here's the bad part...

No more than 10 minutes into the gate, I notice a really horrible rip in my skirt. I guess "horrible" is a little strong, but it's right in the front! I debated about what to do with it, but I finally decided just to make a small patch and cover it up. I considered adding guards, but I really like the elegance of the gown's simplicity, and guards would ruin that. I just hope I can find some more velvet. I must have some scraps somewhere!

And the velvet seems to be a dust magnet, because the bottom 4 inches are just drenched in dirt. I don't know how to get it out! I guess beat it like a rug?!

I'm so excited for next weekend! I'll be there both days with Niamh. I'll have my hat. I'll have the rip in my skirt fixed. And it shall be lovely. I hope.

It's finally starting to look good! It's amazing what the silk does for this outfit. It actually makes it look decent!  I started putting pearls on the sleeves, and I'm going to be working on that on the plane too. I don't like embroidery, but I really like pearling things!

I boned the bodice and it fits smoothly and quite lovely! I used reed to bone it, and created channels out of some scrap red silk I had in the stash, since I really wasn't into taking apart the whole bodice to put the boning on the inside. The channels look rather pretty! And I made ties out of the forepart/sleeves/stomacher silk and I have aiglets to put on them too. They need to be shortened, but I'm still playing around with the length. I also shortened the puff sleeves, because I just really, really liked the look of smaller puffed sleeves like I'd seen in portraits. I think it needs one more tie on top because it's pulling and making me look wide...


It's going to be so pretty! I'm so excited!! :]

   

...or blood poisoning. Dumb needle lying on the ground! :-/

My foot hurts!

Back to boning the Elizabethan bodice!

That's what this dress looks like! I am NOT using that ribbon! It just happened to be the only ribbon I had on hand to try the dress on properly. I'm not sure what I will end up using. Possibly make ties out of the red linen, similar to how Angela Friedman's dress has ties made from the same material as the collar facing (here, the first dress angelafriedman.com/portfolio-bristol.shtml). And I don't like the puff sleeves. They are much too big.But that might just be because I'm seeing them over my huge billowy smock sleeves. Over slim silk sleeves, it will hopefully look better. If not, I'll just make them smaller. And the bodice is all wrinkly, but that's because I thought I could get away with not boning it. I was wrong. So I'll be doing that too. The kirtle is boned, and obviously the corset, so I thought the overgown would lay smoothly. It's not... And now my London airplane activity is going to be putting pearls and beads on the forepart, sleeves, and stomacher.

And I cut my face out of them because I looked awful...

   

Katie's bodice is now done. And my Elizabethan bodice is now done. Really bad pictures of both, especially the one of me. No stays, no period undergarments. Just kirtle with bodice pinned on. In the dark.

 

She strikes again!

So I started the Elizabethan English gown last night. The bodice looks splendid, if I may say so myself. I used the same red linen as the kirtle to line it (hello lazy; or maybe I'm being frugal?). It helps bring out the red in the maroon and keep it from looking too purple.

After assembling what I thought were all the pieces, I tried it on... And it didn't fit. Not even close. I panicked, because I had cut into my fashion fabric and had really NO extra to cut out a new bodice.

And then... I realized I forgot to cut out the side back pieces. :]

Silly Samantha....

So now it just needs the puffed sleeves and the skirt. Easy enough, eh? I think I can get it done this weekend!! Then it will be the sleeves, stomacher, and forepart that need to be cut out, edges finished, and tied/pinned to their respective places on the kirtle.

Oh yes, and I need to figure out how to attack aigulettes to ribbon...

Yaaaay kirtle is done! But it's not very flattering... :-/ And I have a feeling the overdress will only make me look bulkier.... *sad*

Anyway, here it is. Wish I could get better pictures of the back spiral lacing and the handsewn eyelets, but my camera is pure evil. :-)


I look like a lusty Italian peasant! ;-)
 

Sort of.

I was flirting with the idea of making a natural form dress (have the patterns and fabric all picked out too!) but have been suddenly re-inspired to work on this year's Elizabethan. So I must take in the kirtle, then I can make my gorgeous forepart, stomacher, and sleeves. So excited! If money weren't so tight, I'd go right out and buy a bunch of pearls to put on it! I do have a 50% off coupon though.. Hmmm...

In case you forgot, or didn't get to see it, here are the fabrics:

I can't stand that the kirtle is just a bit too big. So I'm going to have to take off part of the skirt, and take it in at the side-back seams. Because silly me already sewed all the hand-sewn eyelets... *facepalm*

In my defense, the toile DID fit nicely over my corset! I have no idea what happened...