Isabella's Project Diary

I really love the side lacing early 1500's Italian gowns. I really, truly do. The reason is not only because the gowns themselves fit like a sports bra with a skirt but because I can have pockets beneath the gown! The side lacing lends itself perfectly to pockets so I don't have to carry a stupid bag. Grr. I hate purses, no matter their form.

The pink dress is 100% hand sewn. I stitched the sides of the skirt together yesterday (herringbone at the bottom but whip stitch the rest of the way up), gathered the top of the skirt, attached it the bodice, and then stitched the bodice closed. I just finished the eyelets today. I'm thinking maybe for Coronation? I might make something else for that...

I totally heart everyone over at laceandflora. Most of them are saying exactly what I would post on the subject. (Hence why I haven't said much)

Anyway, working on my Venetian for tomorrow out of the black taffeta. The bodice is done and looks pretty good. The skirt just needs to be pleated and attached. I'd like to add the bows too and sew up the overskirt but I don't think I have the time right now. I'll do that later, I think.

So, very heavily medicated. Advil is good. Antibiotics are good. Now, to go back to sewing and watch ghost stories on the TV.

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.

I have a few pictures up. The dress embroidery/couching is done, thank God. It's not perfect but I don't think it looks bad either.

The front of the dress I haven't finished adding pearls to the partlet and I haven't added the eyelets to the back of the dress either. I should have the pearls added by the end of the week, hopefully. I'm starting on the sleeves tomorrow.

Back of dress Like I said, I haven't put the eyelets in so hence major gaping and ripples. I was more focused on getting the couching done then worrying about eyelets (which I can probably sew in the dark. in the night. with no one else around. not for miles....).

There are couple more pictures up on my flickr account if you want to take a look. Please, comments/suggestions/ect are really helpful. I'm still willing to take things apart to get this dress looking correct!

I put up my old pink bodice if anyone is interested. If you are going to Sapphire and want any of the items up, just tell me and I can bring 'em.

I saw that ebay has changed the way they calculate feedback now. I don't like it. I think the old way, feedback only counting for a each seller rather than from each item, was a lot better. And then there is the whole sellers can't leave negs thing...umm...yeah. Bad. Just bad. I think people are slowly trickling out of ebay finally.

I did work on the partlet last night. I had to go to Plan B part one 1a though. Michael's didn't have any of the gold woven ribbon but they did have a different gold woven ribbon...and tons of it. So I bought up every roll they had (3 rolls with 15 yards each) plus some more of the blue ribbon. I sewed the blue ribbon to the gold ribbon last night. I'll finish putting the ribbon on the partlet tonight and then start working on the dress again.

I also bought "button" fresh water pearls to go on the partlet since all I have are potato and round fresh water pearls. They are a bit bigger than I wanted (8 mm) but they go with the partlet so well.

Now to go to work and write up the handouts inbetween beta testing and meetings! :-)

The dress back. The reason it looks THAT pink a lot of photos is because it's changeable silk. The threads going one way are that pink, the threads going the other way are silver. It makes the dress overall look like a very nice carnation pink.
Anyway, I've done the borders for the couching/embroidery. I changed the trim which helped a lot. This trim doesn't fray (okay, all trim frays but this kind is easily stopped).

The front. My original plan was to make the borders come to a u-shape in the front and just continue around back. However, I went back and looked at other 1540's/1550's portraits and all the portraits show the trim/embroidery just going straight down and terminating at the sides of the waist. They don't join together.

Jeannie's veil. Actually, it's just the nice big circle I cut out and the trim laid out around it to make sure I have enough. Jeannie is very lucky. I thought I only had a little over 3 yards. After looking through all my trim (I have a suitcase and a box full of trim.), I found another yard. I only have 6 inches to spare but that's plenty to go around the edge of the veil. This was trim I bought YEARS ago for my Ever After Just Breathe gown but I didn't like it for that dress. :-) So, Jeannie gets it.

Before and After. It looks a bit better but it's still bugging me.

[Poll #1187971]

I managed to go through the sewing room. It's clean now. The living room isn't. It has all the stuff I want to sell on Saturday in it. If you like fabric, you'll want to be at this yard sale. I have a brocade, corduroy, silk organza, lining fabric, crinkle cotton, and a ton of scraps for quilting. I also have some old garb. Some of this stuff is total renn faire. I think you might be able to get away with one or two pieces at the SCA but the vast majority? Renn Faire. Even then I think the pink princess Italian gown might get laughed at. Hey, I bought it almost 10 years ago now! It's the reason I started sewing my own garb!

I did work on the Eleanor pink gown. The skirt is properly pleated and attached. I need to sew up the inside. I had to cut 2" off either side of the front at the lacing point. It was way too big. It's now down to where I can wear it properly. It looks so much better now. I'll post pictures after I get the inside sewn and the eyelets in so everyone can see the actual shape.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jubileel/2472817504/

The above is a link to a close up of the pinking along the bodice edge. I had sewn it on to one side and then flipped it and pinned it to the other to see how it looked/what corrections I need to make. Honestly, it looks okay to my eyes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jubileel/2471994087/in/photostream/

The bodice before the bias trim was added.

So, tommorrow, finish up sewing on the bias trim, sew the eyelets, and then add the skirt. Then to do the embroidery....

Cut out the bodice, skirt, and sleeves from the pink silk. I decided to go with a sleeve pattern similar to the sleeves of the Woman's Kirtle in Patterns of Fashion (pg 110). I cut it into the four panels. I'll cut the lining, cotton/linen, tomorrow. (BTW, all linens and blends are on sale at Joanns right now. I got some lovely heavier weight Linen/Rayon in a pretty pink for a waistcoat for the Priscella the Pretty Pirate outfit. It was $4 a yard.)

I have just enough fabric left to do some bias tape for the sides and the neckline. I'm using regular old duck cloth for the inner lining.

In other news, I took apart the watermarked silk 1500's Italian. I ironed the skirt to get a better idea of how bad the watermarks were...and they are bad. Luckily, I think I can cut the skirt in such a way no one will see the watermarks. The fabric is just too pretty to through away!