A Dress Diary

11:01AM - Portrait contest results

Well the contest is over! Here is a link to the page of all the contestants entries : http://margospatterns.tripod.com

My gown won 1st place in the novice category.

The others are as follows:

Intermediate: Ady 1st Going the extra mile for the right jewelry, And
all that hand embroidery, wow!
Kate 2nd and an absolutely lovely job!
Peggy 3rd, nice colour and what a fabulous fit! 

Most creative Rebecca- that picture is kind of hard to decipher lots
of nuances, nice job!
Most beading Bernie V!

Congratulations to all the contestants!

Current mood: enthralled

9:56PM - Finished contest gown!

As promised I have lots of pictures! And here they are: pose from the painting,  same view other side,  full length front,  full length side,  full length back. This gown has been a journey, and a difficult one. I'm glad it's finished, but then again no gown is ever finished is it? I do plan on making an embroidered partlet like in the painting, but it will have to wait till I can afford to buy some more linen. Sounds like a good winter project! Now that I've gotten this project done I need to finish 3 other working class dresses to wear to Pennsic. I also have my lovely yellow wool that if I have time would like to make a working or middle class dress by then too. Plus some more under things, would like at least 2 more smocks and a partlet....wow that sounds like lots to do by the time I leave August 11th! Ugh, no rest for the weary.

Current mood: relieved

1:50PM - Portrait contest END!

Yeah, the day is finally here and I am finally finished! Unfortunately I must be off to work in a very soon here and I wont be home till tomorrow night to be able to take any pics.

Current mood: accomplished

10:31PM - Contest update

2 DAYS LEFT

Working right now on embroidery, so I won't get everything done tonight like I hoped. But I tried the gown on so that my mom could help pin the hem. Here is a pic so far, with only one sleeve pinned on. (still need to insert my white silk poof) So I still have to sew the hem. I did do up my hat, I think it looks rather good. You can see several pics here, front view, side view, back view. Now back to the cutting of the velvet trim!

Current mood: anxious

8:20PM - Contest update

3 DAYS LEFT

After a long very hot weekend of working at our fly-in, I managed to get the skirt cartridge pleated to the bodice! I also did some more embroidery for the last sleeve yet to be done, until I ran out of gold. So I guess tomorrow I will have to pick up some more, $9 and I wont even be close to using a 1/4 of it. Oh well I guess I don't have much choice if it's gonna get done. So now all I have left is to put together the last sleeve, sew them both on, and hem the skirt. Not too much really, so tonight I will take a nice break due to no more thread! With any luck maybe I'll be finished tomorrow night!

Current mood: exhausted

10:49AM - Contest update

9 DAYS LEFT

I took a break from working on sleeve embroidery to take a picture of the bodice on me. the sleeves are starting to look in better shape. Once I get something with enough trim on it I'll post a picture.

Current mood: hopeful

4:01PM - New website!

I have the beginning of my website up. Not too much on it yet, but I do have all the pictures of my finished dresses on the picture page. I'm not real sure what I will do exactly with it, and I will still post here on my journal of course! 16th century finery

Current mood: crazy

11:56AM - Quick update

Just gonna jump in here quick, got the trim sewed on the bodice. I put the sleeves together and they did NOT have the look of the painting so I will have to make some minor adjustments. I have a baronial meeting today/fathers day at the airport, so I'll take something with me to work on.

Current mood: rushed

11:48PM - Another update

Can you tell I'm excited? OK, here is another picture with most of the trim pinned on. I just need to do the other 2 strips that angle up from the point and then the trim for the sleeve panes will be slightly smaller scale. They are at least all drawn out on the velvet, not I just have to embroider them, glue em', and cut em' out. I also have most of the sleeve parts cut out but I need to finnish this trim first before moving on to the sleeves. I would really like to get the hat done too for the end of this contest but I don't know if it's in my budget for this month.

So it's late, I'm going to bed to get an early start on my sewing tomorrow!

Current mood: ecstatic

9:58AM - Working class dress

I went to a demo yesterday and a kind man took a picture of me resting in my first of 4 working class dresses. (that he also kindly cut out the background) This was from the silk noile stash I got from my Joann's raid. And as I said there will be 3 more, in varying bodice styles, in burgundy, green and I dyed some navy blue. The funny thing is when I got to comparing, the green and the burgundy silk I got are the same exact two colors I used in my finished green dress with the burgundy guards! Subconsciously I must like that color of green even though I will clearly tell you I don't like green at all.

As a side note I did get some of the trim done for my contest dress while at work yesterday, and I hope to get much done on my 2 days off this week!

Current mood: cheerful

9:08PM - Contest Update

Progress! Since my last post I sewed together my bodice and put on the binding. Now comes the harder part of the trim. After work today I started playing around with the shape and size for that awesome cutwork trim on this gown. I came up with this, in it's stage of being glued so that the velvet wont fall apart, and finally the finnished stage. I think it look freakin awesome! Even though it was only a test piece I thought it was cool enough for a little sneak peek.

Current mood: giddy

10:51AM - Contest update

OK OK I have been really procrastinating on this particular dress, and I'm not sure why. But I only have till the 30th of this month to get my booty in gear! So I have now enforced the rule that all other projects are off limits until July. Also with so many demo's and such coming up I will not have many whole days to work on this. Sigh.... So I'll get off the computer now, start setting up the pool, and the rest of the day is reserved for sewing!

Current mood: rushed

12:39PM - Fabric hoarding!

Alright, so I got the new joann fabrics mailer and found out they were having a sale this weekend. Turns out the 4 bolts of silk nole I've been eying that was $3 a yard was on sale 40% off!!!! Then I had another coupon for and additional 10% off my total order. So needless to say I bought up all 4 bolts and a bolt of very small whale corduroy, some cut velvet, and some brocade!!! They were partial bolts but I went out of there with 37 yards of various fabrics for $60!!!! The line behind me at the cutting table was astonished at the yardage's I was purchasing and asked "What on earth are you making with all that stuff?" But now I will have a good amount of garb to get done for Pennsic this year.
Well I better get to pre-washing!!!

Current mood: giddy

5:04PM - Drying out!

Ok, I had no battery power at Baron Wars for me to take any picks. It was quite rainy and muddy, however I did buy some red linen to make a new corset and some wool cashmere to make maybe some nice hosen. But for now I'm off to finnish unpacking and washing muddy garb!

Current mood: exhausted

11:35PM - Quick update

Just popping in for a quick note. I have 1 week till Baron Wars to get some projects done. I have finished my pavilion and a few things for inside, I'll take some pics next weekend to post. I really only have my cloak to do and to finish off some tunics for my son. Hopefully there will be pics a plenty after next weekend!

Current mood: excited

12:27AM - Velvet dress

Decided to wear my new velvet dress to our regional A&S fair today. My son took a good pic of it seen here. There were many lovely entries in the fair, hopefully I will be able to enter one myself soon. I even drug my son along and convinced him to take a dance class with me. He was even called up to Her Majesties court with the other children, his first time, he loved it. I think he is learning to enjoy the SCA more now that he's older.

Current mood: amused

11:34PM - velvet mess

As promised here is a pic of the doublet bodice I just finished. Not sure how long it will last as I have found out just how old this velvet is, it can rip very easy. If you can see all the little red dots all over the carpet, thats the velvet falling apart, I was covered in it. Yuck!!!

Current mood: exhausted

7:12AM - Another diversion

My friend brought me home some lovely FREE fabric the other day. 2 large pieces of heavy burgundy velvet, a piece of heavy red velvet, and a usable scrap piece of a very large patterned red brocade. So as I ended up getting called off on Monday, and I had Tuesday off, I tried to get caught up on some sewing. Unfortunately for my contest dress I need some $$$ to get some linen to get any further than I am. So I worked on my pavilion changes, until I ran out of the color thread I was using. But I don't have much left to do on it really. So I decided midday yesterday that I would try making something out of my velvet. I had enough out of the one piece of burgundy to make a skirt, though not super full, but it's heavy enough as it is. The other piece (same size) is for the bodice and sleeves. I decided to try a doublet bodice since I have yet to do one of those. So I did a mock-up quick and it looked great, so I cut the bodice out and have it partially together. I was trying to not spend any $$$ on this one and use what I have layin around, but I need some fabric for facing and some buttons. So I guess I'll break down and see what I can get for cheep on the way home from work today! I'll try to get some pics up later tonight if I have time.

Current mood: productive

10:09PM - Update

OK, as promised I did cut out the skirt panels an I had attempted to sew them together, then my sewing machine went on the fritz! But I got them sewn together today so I'm happy. I'm also happy I found a nice silver pomander ball when I went to Coronation yesterday!! Been looking for one. So now my priorities are doing some modifications to my new pavilion for me to use at Baron Wars in May. Seems like I got lots to do and just keep adding mare and more projects! But I always seem to do this and I usually do get it all done, with no time to spare I might add. My friend is having neck surgery on Thursday so I will be spending quite a bit of time there in the next 2 weeks following, maybe I'll get SOME sewing done!

Current mood: drained

9:27PM - Update

Here is my finished Green Dress. The high neck smock is really what I just finished for the contest dress. It's temporary till I get the embroidery done on my other one. Which I was actually thinking of changing from silk to linen, that means starting over on it, so I'm not tottaly sure. This green dress came about because of my need for something to wear without a hoop skirt so that I can do some work. I only spent around $40 on this dress so I wont care if I get caught in the rain either. But for real I am going to cut out the skirt panels for the contest dress sometime here in the next day.

Current mood: giddy