WAY overdue for another post!
Quick Halloween Update
Eeep! Has it really been 8 months since I last posted? Somewhere in the flurry of activity before Halloween to finish my courtesan gown, I never managed to get back to LiveJournal and update things. :( Bleh.
I really do need to pull the gown out from my closet where it's carefully packed away and take pictures of the finished product, plus the chemise. I will say that the corset worked spectacularly to hold my bust up, keep my posture good, and was actually comfortable until about 3 am when I couldn't stand up anymore and tried to slouch in a chair.
Ended up using the false hair I'd ordered to make a partial wig - I folded the entire length over onto itself until it was only about 10 inches wide, tacked it onto a think stretchy black headband, and hid the tacking stitches by braiding thinly over the headband. Then I twisted the rest of it back into a fancy knot, wrapped strings of the same crimson acrylic beads I used for my girdle around the knot, and bound the remaining loose ends with a scrap of black velvet ribbon. The effect once placed on over my real hair was fun and looked a lot more elaborate than the 20 minutes I spent pulling things together. I received a lot of compliments from friends who thought it was all my real hair :) Misson a success!
The crimson and gold benarasi sari fabric was a dream come true so far as drape and hand feel. I spent the night moving around grandly for the sheer pleasure of feeling it swish. (Pictures WILL come, I promise!) The most annoying part was deciding to put a black velvet ribbon guard on the hem an hour before my party started - I ended up with sore fingers covered in needle pricks because I was trying to run around and check on the food, decorations, etc. while hand stitching.
What I've Been Up to Since
I've not been idle, although doing whole lot less sewing that I'd normally like to. Completed a custom French hood order for one of my customers on eBay - a pearl-trimmed Anne Boleyn out of black cotton, and an adaptation of Katherine of Aragon's gable hood. The interesting part about that order was the fact that my customer was male (apparently he and his friends enjoy dressing up as Henry VIII's wives for parties), and was actually the most fun I've had doing a consignment.
Other than that, I've been working non-stop towards my qualifying exam. Took a business trip in January to Case Western Reserve University in order to learn a process necessary for my research, and since then have been in the lab trying to finish up some experiments. Right now my exam date is hopefully going to be the second week of June, and I really REALLY need to finish my proposal (a 15 page document in the style of a national Institutes of Health grant) over the next couple days and get it sent out to my committee. In all honesty I'm making the process worse on myself by being so worried about it, and stressing about being off the normal timeline. After all, I'm ending my fourth year of graduate school...even considering I took my third year to write a Master's thesis, I still feel bad about being behind. On the up side, I really enjoy the research I do now and the surgeon I work for, so I can't complain too much. I just wish the project didn't keep evolving and growing fangs and horns every time someone on the committee helpfully suggests 'just one more thing' I could look into. Ugh!
The Latest Project
My latest decision has been on this year's Halloween costume. I tend to get really bogged down by stuff I'm doing for school, and sometimes the only way I can relax is by making plans to spend a lot of money on fabric and dream up ways to use it :P The past few years have been an awesome foray into the realm of historical costuming, and I feel like I've learned a ton about construction techniques which can be useful in all sorts of projects.
All of the stress led me to the decision that this year I'm going all out and discarding the rules of historical accuracy. I've always loved lavish fabrics and sweeping gowns, and especially the elements of fantastical magics (my favorite authors are Mercedes Lackey and Anne Bishop). In the middle of sitting at the library between cups of coffee and the stack of scientific papers I was poring over, I had a sudden vision of a woodland enchantress dressed in totally impractical silks and sheers, carrying a wand, with a dagger at her waist. You know, the kind that look like their clothing would never survive a day out on a picnic? The thought stuck with me when I went back to reading, and I came home and sketched out several options.
It's ironic that I want to include several historical techniques in the construction of something that never existed at any point. On the other hand, most of the gowns I see on the covers of fantasy novels are in fact inspired by Elizabethan, medieval, or Italian Renaissance fashions (ignoring the sometimes questionable amounts of leg and cleavage revealed).
Here's my favorite of the four sketches. I'll go back and scan the other three in, and I actually may make some changes to this one. Right now I'm planning to make a Gothic fitted dress as the base (kirtle or cotehardie) out of some glorious teal dupioni-textured brocaded faux silk and wear an Elizabethan style corset over it with attached draping sleeves. The sketch isn't totally accurate to my current plans, as it laces up the front - I'd rather move the lacing to the back so that it doesn't get too 'busy' in the front, and to hide the front lacing on the dress. I also plan to make a tabbed corset, not the smooth-waisted one here.
The sleeves will come halfway down the backs of my hands, and close with buttons. I'll probably line the upper half of the dress using the muslin that I have yet to drape. And I'm not sure what the corset will be made with yet; it's a toss-up between using some spectacular bronze crystal organza over a tan tapestry fabric patterned with brown leaves, or using the same organza over more of the dupioni fabric for the dress. I think I'll have a better idea once the organza arrives in the mail, which will hopefully be soon.
Trying to decide what I'll make the partlet from. I've always loved the look of an open-front partlet, especially in a contrasting fabric. There's some very pretty gold taffeta with black patterning on eBay at the moment, but I'm not sure the gold will flatter my skin tones. Whatever fabric I decide on will also be sewn on the bottom 14 inches or so of an underskirt, made of cheaper non-patterned fabric (why spend more on expensive fabric for the whole skirt if it won't be seen?). And I still don't know if I'll be layering the bottom of the dress, or just making it full length and tacking up parts of it to show off the underskirt. Probably option 2, so that I can use the dress for other costumes later.
It's almost 3 am here, and I should get back to work writing. Hope this entry holds together since I've been awake too long and dependent on caffeine.
Eeep! Has it really been 8 months since I last posted? Somewhere in the flurry of activity before Halloween to finish my courtesan gown, I never managed to get back to LiveJournal and update things. :( Bleh.
I really do need to pull the gown out from my closet where it's carefully packed away and take pictures of the finished product, plus the chemise. I will say that the corset worked spectacularly to hold my bust up, keep my posture good, and was actually comfortable until about 3 am when I couldn't stand up anymore and tried to slouch in a chair.
Ended up using the false hair I'd ordered to make a partial wig - I folded the entire length over onto itself until it was only about 10 inches wide, tacked it onto a think stretchy black headband, and hid the tacking stitches by braiding thinly over the headband. Then I twisted the rest of it back into a fancy knot, wrapped strings of the same crimson acrylic beads I used for my girdle around the knot, and bound the remaining loose ends with a scrap of black velvet ribbon. The effect once placed on over my real hair was fun and looked a lot more elaborate than the 20 minutes I spent pulling things together. I received a lot of compliments from friends who thought it was all my real hair :) Misson a success!
The crimson and gold benarasi sari fabric was a dream come true so far as drape and hand feel. I spent the night moving around grandly for the sheer pleasure of feeling it swish. (Pictures WILL come, I promise!) The most annoying part was deciding to put a black velvet ribbon guard on the hem an hour before my party started - I ended up with sore fingers covered in needle pricks because I was trying to run around and check on the food, decorations, etc. while hand stitching.
What I've Been Up to Since
I've not been idle, although doing whole lot less sewing that I'd normally like to. Completed a custom French hood order for one of my customers on eBay - a pearl-trimmed Anne Boleyn out of black cotton, and an adaptation of Katherine of Aragon's gable hood. The interesting part about that order was the fact that my customer was male (apparently he and his friends enjoy dressing up as Henry VIII's wives for parties), and was actually the most fun I've had doing a consignment.
Other than that, I've been working non-stop towards my qualifying exam. Took a business trip in January to Case Western Reserve University in order to learn a process necessary for my research, and since then have been in the lab trying to finish up some experiments. Right now my exam date is hopefully going to be the second week of June, and I really REALLY need to finish my proposal (a 15 page document in the style of a national Institutes of Health grant) over the next couple days and get it sent out to my committee. In all honesty I'm making the process worse on myself by being so worried about it, and stressing about being off the normal timeline. After all, I'm ending my fourth year of graduate school...even considering I took my third year to write a Master's thesis, I still feel bad about being behind. On the up side, I really enjoy the research I do now and the surgeon I work for, so I can't complain too much. I just wish the project didn't keep evolving and growing fangs and horns every time someone on the committee helpfully suggests 'just one more thing' I could look into. Ugh!
The Latest Project
My latest decision has been on this year's Halloween costume. I tend to get really bogged down by stuff I'm doing for school, and sometimes the only way I can relax is by making plans to spend a lot of money on fabric and dream up ways to use it :P The past few years have been an awesome foray into the realm of historical costuming, and I feel like I've learned a ton about construction techniques which can be useful in all sorts of projects.
All of the stress led me to the decision that this year I'm going all out and discarding the rules of historical accuracy. I've always loved lavish fabrics and sweeping gowns, and especially the elements of fantastical magics (my favorite authors are Mercedes Lackey and Anne Bishop). In the middle of sitting at the library between cups of coffee and the stack of scientific papers I was poring over, I had a sudden vision of a woodland enchantress dressed in totally impractical silks and sheers, carrying a wand, with a dagger at her waist. You know, the kind that look like their clothing would never survive a day out on a picnic? The thought stuck with me when I went back to reading, and I came home and sketched out several options.
It's ironic that I want to include several historical techniques in the construction of something that never existed at any point. On the other hand, most of the gowns I see on the covers of fantasy novels are in fact inspired by Elizabethan, medieval, or Italian Renaissance fashions (ignoring the sometimes questionable amounts of leg and cleavage revealed).
Here's my favorite of the four sketches. I'll go back and scan the other three in, and I actually may make some changes to this one. Right now I'm planning to make a Gothic fitted dress as the base (kirtle or cotehardie) out of some glorious teal dupioni-textured brocaded faux silk and wear an Elizabethan style corset over it with attached draping sleeves. The sketch isn't totally accurate to my current plans, as it laces up the front - I'd rather move the lacing to the back so that it doesn't get too 'busy' in the front, and to hide the front lacing on the dress. I also plan to make a tabbed corset, not the smooth-waisted one here.
The sleeves will come halfway down the backs of my hands, and close with buttons. I'll probably line the upper half of the dress using the muslin that I have yet to drape. And I'm not sure what the corset will be made with yet; it's a toss-up between using some spectacular bronze crystal organza over a tan tapestry fabric patterned with brown leaves, or using the same organza over more of the dupioni fabric for the dress. I think I'll have a better idea once the organza arrives in the mail, which will hopefully be soon.
Trying to decide what I'll make the partlet from. I've always loved the look of an open-front partlet, especially in a contrasting fabric. There's some very pretty gold taffeta with black patterning on eBay at the moment, but I'm not sure the gold will flatter my skin tones. Whatever fabric I decide on will also be sewn on the bottom 14 inches or so of an underskirt, made of cheaper non-patterned fabric (why spend more on expensive fabric for the whole skirt if it won't be seen?). And I still don't know if I'll be layering the bottom of the dress, or just making it full length and tacking up parts of it to show off the underskirt. Probably option 2, so that I can use the dress for other costumes later.
It's almost 3 am here, and I should get back to work writing. Hope this entry holds together since I've been awake too long and dependent on caffeine.