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I'm thinking I may finally tackle the Spanish overgown I've been wanting to do for a while. I want something new and spiff for St Andrews but I don't want to spent every waking moment of the next month working on it.

I'll be making it to wear over my Venetian style kirtles, but I've only found one example (Anonymous Brescian Artist, c 1570: ( Read more... )

I needed to wash my interlining for the new kirtle before I could start cutting, so instead of vegging in front of the telly while that washed and dried I figured it was high time I did the last couple of items for the neverending project (Oooh oh, oooh oh, oooh oh oh ( Read more... )

Laid out a bodice pattern for the new kirtle over the weekend but got delayed in cutting it out due to weekend company and a complete living room overhaul ( Read more... )

About that whole dress thing.


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Here is the sleeve, all stitched together.
The silk ribbon was pretty much perfect for putting this together. I also went in and made bar tacks over each join at the sleeve openings to make sure everything was super sturdy.
Here is the sleeve pinned into placeKindly excuse the faintly aggressive bosoms of my dress form. No I'm not shaped like that ( Read more... )

I realized that there's been rather a lot of sewing since my last update so I figured it was time to check in and toss up some pictures (all pictures are gargantuan ( Read more... )

As is typical of any project, the last part is the part that seems to be the most agonizing.

The original portrait, for referenceThe sleeves on the reference dress are a bit unusual. The forearm appears to be pieced from as many as 6 or 8 pieces running vertically down the arm which I have never seen done. Nonetheless the execution of this effect ( Read more... )

Following the pattern of the last couple of years I don't remember to do any work on my court garb until about a week before Barleycorn at which point I drive myself just a little bit insane ( Read more... )

I will preface this by saying that if I had it all to do over again I'd probably do it just about exactly the same way. This just plain worked.

Part 1: Demolition
Obtained supercheap LED lights from Radio Shack. After much attacking with various manner of tools and many fits and starts and close calls with Exacto knives I found out that the best ( Read more... )