hats....my favorite part

 
One French hood, no crescent. I think it's a lot fancier than I'd originally intended, but it's hard not to get carried away with the pearls. Guess I just inflated myself to "Lady" Bess.

 
As worn here over my hair fresh from the shower, it isn't quite what I have in mind, but I think if I frizzle and/or roll the front hair to make the Elizabethan heart-shaped frame for the face, it might be about right. It's pretty anyway.

  

warning, boring list ahead

Now then, since Julie put up her to-do list, I thought maybe I ought to actually consider what needs doing by Friday. Really I’ve got a couple of options. I was thinking of wearing the green dress on day and the loose gown the other. Here’s what I’d need to do to make each happen.

If I want to wear the loose gown and French hood:
1. Finish the sleeve embellishment on the loose gown.
2. Line and edge the gown.
3. Cover the hood, sew on jewels, and make the veil.
4. Hem the kirtle.
5. Add my silly little “utility loops” to the kirtle. That or put a pocket in the surcoat.
6. Make a silk sash to hang the girdle pendant on.
7. Find something to hang my Madonna miniature on.

If I want to wear the new-and-improved (yet again) green dress ensemble.
1. Add loops to the armholes of the bodice for the sleeve points.
2. Replace the hat-feather and put a pin on there.
3. Starch the heck out of my poor little wilted partlet.
4. Maybe take up the hem on the grey underskirt as I was tripping on it last time. Maybe not though, since the terrain will be flat this time.

Clearly the green dress is a quicker option, but I didn’t spend all weekend sewing so I could wear an old dress. I think the green dress list could readily be done the night before if I get in a bind, so the plan is to finish whatever I can of the loose gown outfit by Friday. If it’s not wearable by then, I’ll switch gears.

Oh, and here’s the French hood picture that I was modeling mine after (William Brooke, 10th Lord of Cobham and his Family by an artist of the British School, 1567), taken with appreciation from http://www.tudor-portraits.com. I’m particularly fond of the one on the lady on the right with the little point in the middle, although I’m going to go a row of billiaments at the front too.

  

all that for this?

So something like 15 hours of work after the last picture, we have this:
 

Wow. Couching is slow. Ok, ok, I know it's fast relative to any other kind of embellishment, but jeepers. I think I bit off more than I should have. However, the gown is down to embellishment on the sleeves and addition of lining and hem. I think I'm going to skip the fancy-pants dagged border on the sleeves for now and put a "temporary" velvet strip at the bottom instead to save time. And sanity.

 

Here's the other thing I did yesterday when I could no longer stand the couching. It's going to be a late-ish French hood sans crescent. It's wired with electrical wiring rather than millinery stuff because it was late and the husband had that on hand. Seems appropriate anyway, considering that the sleeves have electrical cable ties in them. It's the all-Home-Depot-all-the-time outfit. I'll dig up a picture of what I'm shooting for next time. Basically, I tried on this outfit with every it of headwear I had and it all looked silly. Erm, sillier than usual. Cheers. 

linebacker

 
So here's where I'm at halfway through the weekend. The dress engineer says I look "imposing" in this. I'm going to go ahead and assume he means well. There's no lining, no edging, no hem, no gussying up of the collar, and I've only put about half of the various velvet bits on here, but you get the idea. It's big. It's dark. It's....imposing, I guess?

 
Here's a close-up of how I'm couching satin cord and lots of cat hair onto the velvet strips. I don't apparently sew any straighter by hand than I do on the machine, but from a little further away than this the effect is kind of nice. 

one week (but who's counting?)

Indeed, one week to the faire in Salem. It's about time to get going on this project, no?

So first of all, just for Julie, some more pictures of ouches. All ouches, all the time.
 
These have been filled in with the sort of paint one uses to make fake stained glass windows. They're somewhat lumpy because the paint shrank a lot each time it dried, so I kept adding more. The one on the bottom right is not so lumpy. I found it stuck to the bottle (thank you cats). I'm thinking about trying to stick the rest to the bottle too, just to smooth them out. In principle, these would go on the little hood I'd like to make to go with the loose gown/ropa. That would of course, depend on me getting done with said gown.

More pictures for Julie - these are the enormous ostrich feathers courtesy of Auntie Tina. The ruler is 18" for scale, so they are, as I said, enormous. Do let me know if any of these will suit your mad hatter hat. I like them all, so don't be shy.
 

And finally, a really bad shot of the back of the gown. I'm working on applying the velvet strips. Yes, I'm machine stitching the long parts of these, but that will be covered with couched cord, so I think it's ok in this case. I'm discovering just how bad I am at stitching straight.
 

I do love this velvet. It's the thickest, plushest cotton velvet ever. There are assorted other velvet strips yet to be applied, but you get the idea. I have started the couching as well, but failed wretchedly at taking a picture of shiny black cord on shiny black velvet on dark grey wool. I'll try again on a sunnier day perhaps. Oh, and is not my sewing area a disaster? I can't even identify all the junk behind the gown on my desk. And chair. And other chair. Etc.

That's all so far...but with a one week deadline I daresay there will be more to come. 

shiny object over here

 

Er....it's possible that I haven't done any actual sewing for a week. I have, however, been shopping. These are approximately 7/8" (including the loop) costume jewelry bits that I'm thinking will be nice as ouches on either my Tudor gown or my late gable hood. I got them from this place. I haven't made up my mind about the settings as they look pretty plastic-y (go figure) to me. I was wondering about some sort of enamel instead. I might just have to check that out. I've got extra loops to glue on so I can sew these onto fabric.

Speaking of fabric, I have 9 yards of the velvet shown above on its way to me from Class Acts Fabric. Linda (the owner) is mighty nice and I've been eyeballing this fabric for several months. The plan is to make up a Tudor gown from the velvet after I get the loose gown together. Ahem. Yes. That's the plan. And we always stick to plans, no?