That time I made a henrician gown

I have an amazing book called The Tudor Tailor 

by Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies. 

If you want to make one of these yourself, get that book! It's chalf full of the most delicious morsels of insight on the ins and outs of recreating a range of men's and women's tudor dress, including under garments and headwear.

Buy it here. It's worth every penny.

For some reason I neglected to document most of the process in photos.

The top garment is an elaborate overgown, here made of a heavy velvet-like upholstery fabric. There are a good 7 yards of fabric in this alone and it weighs a ton.

The beaded front of the bodice is sewn to the garment along one side and attaches with hook and eye closures along the other. It covers where the overgown laces up the center.

Under the heavy overgown is a sleeveless kirtle, which has a reed stiffened bodice and up under one arm. It provides all the necessary body shaping so a corset it not needed.

Below the kirtle is a farthingale - a hoop skirt - also stiffened with reed stays. To shape the hoops, I measured the diameter needed for each hoop tier, cut and secured each hoop separately, and then threw them in my pool to soak for a good 30 minutes before pulling them out to dry in the sun. Fun fact, they float!

I selected to forego turning back the sleeves on the overgown and adding the historically correct foresleeves. I just don't dig the way they look and long billowing sleeves are just more fun.

A pearl bead belt and a painstakingly hand crafted french hood round out the look. By the end of the process, which must have taken the better part of two months in my spare time, even my dog was exhausted. 

Somewhere around here is the finished look being paraded at the Renaissance Festival held outside Phoenix each year. I'll locate and post it eventually!

Orla

Faerieworlds 2013 I set out to channel a queen of the Fae. 

I'd just moved the the Arizona desert and took my colour pallet inspiration from the sunset red rocks under the relentless blue sky.

Bodice pieced together

Psyche likes to help select fabric

Ice Queen Costume

Spectacular Bex Blanchard and myself.

For the last five years I've been designing and creating fantasy gowns for the fabulous festival that is Faerieworlds. 

For the 2014 event I wanted to do something icy and imperious. Go for the drama and lean toward the old school faerie tale queen look.

I rummaged through the vintage Scottish buffet in which I keep a goodly amount of my fabrics and decided on a cross-grained blue/violet taffeta and a green/black taffeta. I also utilized a gorgeous blue/green raw silk I'd previously used as curtains but which, after years in a south facing window, had begun to crack and frey in spots.

I did a little bit of preliminary sketches but eventually decided to start draping and see where inspiration took me.

Hand-sewing eyelets is a pain, but it gets the best results.

mid-production fitting session

Standing collar is attached along with the addition of an integrated crinoline underskirt and bead embellishments.

Lastly, I constructed the crown based on a tudor french hood pattern. 

Lavender in a Lightening Storm

This evening, as the storm rolled in and the thunder rumbled above, I grabbed the dress and my camera and a very handsome photographer and ran out to my front yard just in time to totally miss the spectacular golden hour light, and to catch the first fat drops of rain. But as I was already out there we did a sixty second photo shoot anyway.

Ears, Make-Up Tests, and Headdresses

My elf and faun ears were in my mail box when I arrived home yesterday evening.
Many thanks to http://www.aradanicostumes.com/ for getting those to me so quickly. 
They shipped on Monday the 16th and arrived on the 18th. Much appreciated!
And of course, being me, I had to try them out.


A little spirit gum and strategically arranged strands of hair, plus a little ear jewelry goes a long way. Squee!

I was a little dubious about getting the fawn ears. being a pale skinned lady I was concerned that they'd make me look a bit more ovine than cervidae-y but I think they're gonna work out nicely. They compliment my antlers and make me feel a bit more other worldy.


I'm not sure what I want to do make-up wise with this look. I'm open to ideas. Maybe faun spots? The dress this goes with is a deep, rich, green velvet so I want to choose colours that compliment the green rather than emulate it.


A bit of detail on the scarab headdress and matching choker.


Apologies for the soft focus on these. My phone's camera does not take sharp pics when you use the self facing setting. And it really seems to hate halogen lights. Go fig.

Lavender Inspiration

 This one was just about finished here. The skirt was only pinned at the waistband when I took these on Sunday but as of last night the gown was complete right down to its eyelets and corrected hemline (my mom is short and this one's for her to wear to the festival. Though....I may have to steal for one of the days. 





I intend to have some action shots of this one up shortly - just as soon as I can locate either a model or a camera holder.

Plaid is the New Black

Of course it isn't but I really like it and plaid + taffeta is always a win in my book.


This is in progress but fits really nicely. It's intended as either a rather risque (that bodice is skimpy, folks) party dress on it own, or to be worn with a matching plaid asymmetrical over coat.

Inspiration here is totally McQueen's windows of culloden ensemble.


The over coat is one of the next projects on my list.