Isabella's Project Diary

Here is another look at one of the two paintings that was my inspiration for this dress. It's Venus and Amor by Holbein and I'm sure most of you have seen it many many times before.

Here's my self portrait that I took at the renn fest. I kept forgetting to ask anyone I knew to take a picture of me. Oh well!

And here's the full dress on the dress dummy. Honestly, it looks a LOT better on me.

One small detail point, I sewed the ribbons on the dress for a reason. If you look at Lais of Corinth which is a very similar (possibly the same but the details are different) dress, you can see on her left shoulder (our right) that the ribbon closest to us looks to be folded over and has a starburst like stitch pattern on it rather than going through an eyelet on the dress. Now, it may be just some affect of the painting but I rather liked the idea of just sewing the ribbons to the dress (so they wouldn't slip as much and you are far less likely to loose them) than creating yet more eyelets.

The non-flash picture It's a bit blurry but hopefully you get the idea.

The flash picture It's not that shiny. I still need to add the hooks and eyes as well as the trim. I want to make it look like a faux zone front gown. I was going to use yellow ribbon but I think a cream ribbon will work a lot better. The problem is getting to Joanns to get said cream ribbon.... Anyway, it's 100% hand sewn and I tried to base it on various period (1780/1790) designs.

The inspiration for this gown comes from Portrait of a Venetian Lady by Veronese and from A Musical Evening by Ludovico Pozzoserrato. I have to fix the sleeves I made for the gown but I think, by the end, you can see what I was thinking.

( Because it's picture heavy )

I have a couple more pictures up on my flickr account if anyone wants to see the back views. You can also see close ups of the photos I posted here.

I remember a really awesome page on the Shinrone gown. It was done by a gentleman, I think (I could very well be wrong and apologize for that), that made exact copies of the remains of the dress in muslin and fitted them to a lady. He then filled in the "gaps" with some broadcloth. From that, he managed to extract a pattern and get a really neat interpretation of the gown. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I lost the page and can only remember the basic ideas of the recreation...

N'rmind. I realized I was confusing two different things. Sorry! Found what I was looking for though so all is well.

First, how many others got to see the isosceles triangle of the moon, Jupiter, and Venus? It was pretty cool.

Second, I bought the airplane tickets for LA. They were a lot less than I originally had thought which is a good thing. I'm going to wait on the car rental. I can get a car for $180 (taxes, everything included) for the week but I want to see if they have any specials closer to the time I'm leaving.

I'm trying to plan my trip. Of course, right now, the LACMA is not showing off there costumes and textile display. (And did I mention this is the week BEFORE the Feb 7th lecture? ::sigh::) I'm still heading over to LACMA and there are a few other places I have planned. I also know my cousins will kidnap me for a few days but...

I don't think I'll go to Disneyland. If I do, it will be for the day and get the ticket at the door. I'll check and see if the office has any discount ticket but, honestly, a one day entrance fee for Disneyland is as much as a season pass to Universal Studios. (I think I might get the season pass at Universal and head down to Florida at least a couple of times later in the year.) So, I'll probably just go to Universal Studios and spend the money I would have spent on Disneyland, on fabric!

I really need to drag the Christmas decorations out. I also need to get five different sewing projects done by the end of the year. Three are really easy. One is half-way done. The fifth is my 12th night dress which might be changing. Now that the Heraldic Garb Competition is on, I'd love to try that. I do have an idea for it. 1490's-1500's Italian in gold with red wings on the upper sleeve. The lower sleeve in black velvet, lined in white fur, with the sleeve slashed. The underskirt in black and white stripes? Maybe in black velvet with some sort of black and white cord as a guard?

I was going to do the Catherine Parr dress, given the theme, and I do have a lot of the fur already laid out but I might put that on hold and do the Heraldic Garb instead.

Me in my red & gold Venetian. My hair really is that color right now. It's fun when I just have barrettes on the sides to see people's reactions. It's almost as bad as wearing garb in a grocery store. :-)

EDIT: The front view is here I just don't like the underarm look there. It goes away with the sleeves on, or at least it's not noticeable. The "chemise" is a very old one but it works for seeing how things will look once I wear one of my real chemises. This one was meant to be a "pirate" shirt. :-)

One of the repairs I made to the Peacock Gown. It should hold until after Pennsic. I think, after Pennsic, I might just recut the bodice all together. I found enough scrap fabric that I can just remake it.

Ginsie helping me sew And y'all say you have problems with the cats helping? ;-) That's Shiloh in the background. Ginsie and the "orb" are in the foreground. This was a couple of weeks ago around the Fourth.

I have a few more up on my flickr account, as always. Feel free to ask questions, look around, and make silly comments (or serious ones). :-) I have finish one sleeve. Hint: Sewing while watching "The Nativity Story" (Gives new meaning to 'Christmas in July' :-) ) is extremely slow. I'm going to see about sewing during "Affair of a Necklace" tomorrow.

The purple Scottish Italian dress is almost done. I finally figured out how to pleat the back without having to cut it up. It looks nice now.

I created a pattern for my Mom's kirtle. It *should* fit her perfectly but I'm making it out of the blue cotton first just to make sure (and so she'll have a nice cool blue Atlantian gown to wear on Sunday of War Week:-) ). She also loves the 12th c ish Green dress from the butterick pattern and really wants that so....padawansguide? That's what shall become of the green silk velvet. I promise to take out the princess seams and make it closer to the 12th c...because I just wouldn't be able to stand it otherwise.

Anyway, I cut out the canvas for the bodice of the kirtle. I'm still debating on whether or not to use the purple cotton for lining or just regular old muslin. Given that I think this would be best served as an Atlantian dress, I'm thinking the muslin (that, and it's lighter than the purple cotton for the summer).

I also worked on the pink Eleanor gown. 11 more of those rounded designs to go on the back and the dress is done! I decided to go ahead and make the back match the front and not do the back like the shoulders. Instead, I'll just do one panel for the sleeves that is "embroidered" since that's the way it looks in the painting anyway. I do have pink pearls for the sleeves and I know I have the three strands of black pearls I bought from fabricdragon last year in a basket, I think. I need to remember where I put them.

In non-sewing news: I did see Becoming Jane last night. I rather liked it. A couple of things (dresses) made my eyes go "huh?" but all and all it was pretty cute. Then again, I know next to nothing about Jane Austen's life.

Here's the Eleanor dress picture again. Look at the "puff" in the sleeve to the right (her left) that is in towards the torso. There isn't any gold trim on it. There also doesn't look to be any on the sleeve to the left either except for the front facing panel. Now, I think I could get away with just doing the front panels of the sleeves but I might be crazy enough to do the front and back panel (every other panel) of the sleeves.

I still have no idea when I'll be teaching this weekend but I will be teaching about 16th c Italian dress (and outfits!) at Sapphire. My guess is Sunday (hopefully) but I really don't know. Feel free to come, sit in, and point and laugh with your sewing/knitting needle. :-)

I took the knitting pouch partially apart. The Greek key is still very much there. I added a couple of rows of white and I'm starting on Spike in blue. I just really don't want to run out of yarn and since I have a ton more of the white (I swear, this is the endless white yarn!), I want to go with a white background instead of the blue.

I worked on the dress and the partlet last night. I need a lot more gold ribbon for the partlet so I'm going to Michael's. The scary Joann's didn't have any. I might try Wally World as well. I need food anyway and that's the only place that sells the 100 calorie Reeses' snacks. :-)

Anyone else watch NCIS last night?!?

It looks better! That photo shows the pink being about 10 times more pink than the dress really is. This is the back of the dress. I've only done the inner border mainly because it's late and I just took the old stuff off. I'll have more done tomorrow, I promise.

All nice and tucked in now. Night!