Some quick updates on the medieval costume:
1. I started re-attaching last year's braid neck-trim... and it looked awful. One quick trip to Spotlight later and I have new braid. (Discounted and discontinued, so I got extra.) It is a dull gold. I also got some cord to match.
2. The sleeve linings are sewn but not attached to the dress yet. They are a vivid rust colour. They look good.
3. I am about to cut out the edgings for sleeves and hem. They will take time and energy and may not work. They are a boring brown. They will look... authentic. Also, due to the weather forecast, the hem edging may actually have to be functional in keeping the mud off, so I have to make it deeper.
4. This is turning into a very busy week. I have no idea how much time will be available for doing this costume.
5. There are a few spots on the dress where the dye blotched. I probably don't have time to do anything about this. Unfortunately, it's in a rather visible area. Well... visible from certain angles, anyway.
Showing posts with label dress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dress. Show all posts
Sunday, 30 June 2013
Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Preparing to go Medieval
So the costume for this year's Abbey Medieval Festival is UNDERWAY!
Not a costume I'll be able to enter in their costume competition, since it involves knit fabric and a serious lack of authenticity, but on the other hand I will be able to finish it in time, which is a very definite plus.
It is, in fact, last year's costume with alterations. The costume was originally made for a costume party I went to as Eowyn from The Two Towers - the white dress she wears when we first see her at Edoras. For the Eowyn version, the dress had a gold hip-belt, gold ribbon/cord down centre front, gold/jewel braid around the neckline and cord binding the upper sleeves. Worn with white shoes and a gold band across the forehead, it was pretty effective (the only real problem was the lack of long golden hair. Ah well).
Then for last year's Abbey I removed all the trimmings except for the neck-braid and pinned my hair up under a sheer white scarf draped across the front neck to look like a veil/wimple. I forget what shoes I wore, but I also had a wide-brimmed straw hat to keep the sun off.
This year I started by removing the braid trim, and then used Dylon Machine Dye in Navy to dye the dress. I tumble-dried it, which I was a bit worried about (being cotton) but it seems to have been ok. It's come out a nice dusty blue with just a hint of green - the original fabric was 'natural' rather than pure white, so had just a touch of yellow in. Colour-mixing rules apply to dyeing as per usual. I had suspected this would be the case, which was why I didn't dye it green in the first place - yellow-green not being my best colour, I didn't want to take the risk!
The plan now is to re-attach the braid around the neck, line the hanging parts of the sleeves (I'd hoped to do this last year but it didn't happen. Those visible seams really bugged me!) and edge the sleeves and hem with a contrasting fabric - partly for a historically accurate look, and partly because the white polycotton thread didn't dye and is rather obvious on those hems. I also want to make a pair of undersleeves so my arms aren't just showing everywhere in the hanging sleeves, as ladies of the time would most certainly have had another garment on under the outer dress.
Then there's the question of shoes, hat/head-dress, belt, accessories... and at least some of these will undoubtedly have to wait for another year, since I only have 10 days to do all of this!
Not a costume I'll be able to enter in their costume competition, since it involves knit fabric and a serious lack of authenticity, but on the other hand I will be able to finish it in time, which is a very definite plus.
It is, in fact, last year's costume with alterations. The costume was originally made for a costume party I went to as Eowyn from The Two Towers - the white dress she wears when we first see her at Edoras. For the Eowyn version, the dress had a gold hip-belt, gold ribbon/cord down centre front, gold/jewel braid around the neckline and cord binding the upper sleeves. Worn with white shoes and a gold band across the forehead, it was pretty effective (the only real problem was the lack of long golden hair. Ah well).
Then for last year's Abbey I removed all the trimmings except for the neck-braid and pinned my hair up under a sheer white scarf draped across the front neck to look like a veil/wimple. I forget what shoes I wore, but I also had a wide-brimmed straw hat to keep the sun off.
This year I started by removing the braid trim, and then used Dylon Machine Dye in Navy to dye the dress. I tumble-dried it, which I was a bit worried about (being cotton) but it seems to have been ok. It's come out a nice dusty blue with just a hint of green - the original fabric was 'natural' rather than pure white, so had just a touch of yellow in. Colour-mixing rules apply to dyeing as per usual. I had suspected this would be the case, which was why I didn't dye it green in the first place - yellow-green not being my best colour, I didn't want to take the risk!
The plan now is to re-attach the braid around the neck, line the hanging parts of the sleeves (I'd hoped to do this last year but it didn't happen. Those visible seams really bugged me!) and edge the sleeves and hem with a contrasting fabric - partly for a historically accurate look, and partly because the white polycotton thread didn't dye and is rather obvious on those hems. I also want to make a pair of undersleeves so my arms aren't just showing everywhere in the hanging sleeves, as ladies of the time would most certainly have had another garment on under the outer dress.
Then there's the question of shoes, hat/head-dress, belt, accessories... and at least some of these will undoubtedly have to wait for another year, since I only have 10 days to do all of this!
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
WIPs
So yesterday was surprisingly productive. (It did rain, but only for ten minutes.)
I worked on the Solomon's Shrug
No, it's not finished. That's the amount I got done out of one ball (Sirdar Juicy). AND it finished the yarn at the end of a row!
I also worked on the Full-skirted Medieval Dress:
which I've been working on for a couple of months, on and off. The instructions are from Medieval Costume and How to Recreate it. Please note I said 'instructions' not 'pattern'. There is a diagram on page 99 of the book showing how you layout the fabric and manipulate it, but a lot is left up to the dressmaker to interpret.
I'm hoping to make one to wear to the Abbey Medieval Festival in July (I go every year, it's awesome, if you're in the area check it out) but I thought I'd better make sure I wasn't going to stuff it up hugely and waste a lot of fabric, so I made a doll's version first, which is being modelled here by Kim. Please make her welcome.
Here's another picture of the dress which shows more of the skirt:
It is an ENORMOUS skirt. A full circle reaching down to the floor is a LOT of fabric. The good thing is that the actual yardage to buy isn't that much, since there's some pretty impressive cutting and piecing going on.
And in other news:
The skirt waist has been gathered and the waistband is pinned on ready to sew. The colour is actually a very dark navy - imagine a blue-black. The pattern is from No Time To Sew, with a few alterations. (Like shortening it by 5" and tapering the panels in an extra 6" at the waist and even then it needs extra gathering. And yes, I did make the smallest size.)
Next up, hopefully I'll be finishing these off. Although, there's always the next project to start on...
I worked on the Solomon's Shrug
No, it's not finished. That's the amount I got done out of one ball (Sirdar Juicy). AND it finished the yarn at the end of a row!
I also worked on the Full-skirted Medieval Dress:
which I've been working on for a couple of months, on and off. The instructions are from Medieval Costume and How to Recreate it. Please note I said 'instructions' not 'pattern'. There is a diagram on page 99 of the book showing how you layout the fabric and manipulate it, but a lot is left up to the dressmaker to interpret.
I'm hoping to make one to wear to the Abbey Medieval Festival in July (I go every year, it's awesome, if you're in the area check it out) but I thought I'd better make sure I wasn't going to stuff it up hugely and waste a lot of fabric, so I made a doll's version first, which is being modelled here by Kim. Please make her welcome.
Here's another picture of the dress which shows more of the skirt:
It is an ENORMOUS skirt. A full circle reaching down to the floor is a LOT of fabric. The good thing is that the actual yardage to buy isn't that much, since there's some pretty impressive cutting and piecing going on.
And in other news:
The skirt waist has been gathered and the waistband is pinned on ready to sew. The colour is actually a very dark navy - imagine a blue-black. The pattern is from No Time To Sew, with a few alterations. (Like shortening it by 5" and tapering the panels in an extra 6" at the waist and even then it needs extra gathering. And yes, I did make the smallest size.)
Next up, hopefully I'll be finishing these off. Although, there's always the next project to start on...
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