Gown Photoshoots!

I found this lovely photographer named Az, the genius behind LemonTree Photography (http://lemontree-photography.co.uk/). One cold spring morning earlier this year he and I wnet out to the hill behind the town I'm in and took these photos (and a lot more).


This photo made me want to put fur (faux) on one of my next gowns....



Italian Renaissance gown, Ophelia style



The first proper gown I made, I made this during my
16th year, mostly on the school bus, and during
classes, choir (while singing), maths, English, and
occasional science classes :-)




My 'Mary of Scots' gown, amazing what fabric does for the
overall look of a gown

Life, Divorce, Drama, School, and Work. Not to mention children.

Yep, I have been occupied offline with 'other things'. See title of post. I may or may not be going to school in the UK, and I will be moving in the next few months. Which means, all my sewing kit is in boxes, and my usual fall/winter flurry of dressmaking activity has been suspended. BUT, I do have some snapshots of finished gowns sent in from customers taken 'right out of the box'.





I sold my first ever Elizabethan gown to this girl for her first faire,
I must say, her hat is much cooler than mine was!
She's wearing it off the shoulder and with the ruff loose,
but hey, it still looks cool!





This is Di's gown, she just took it out of the box and popped it on,
no underlayers or ironing so it's a bit loose (as requested) and sadly, wrinkly...
I really wish I'd gotten time to take more pics of the detail..

WHEE! Nearly there!

Di's gown is almost done! I have cartridge pleated the skirt, finished the bodice etc. All that remains to be done is to put the boning along the zipper in the bodice, hem it, put the hooks and eyes on the forepart and skirt, and add the trim, most of which will be done today. Muriel's gown has the lining done, boning put in, underskirt finished, all I have to do is piece together the outside of the gown, attach it to the lining, put on the zipper and trim, and voila! HOI's gown is cut out, minus the bodice as I still have to wait for her to get the mockup, and is one of the simplest so far due to really easy fabric to work with. At this rate the first two gowns should be shipped out by early next week, and the third by the middle of the month! Photos will come later, I am too busy to upload now!

Yargh, January is not my month.

I am going to simply re-do the slashed sleeves, with some beads on the ends, but with smaller slashes, and no ribbon trim for Di's gown. It will look a LOT better. For Muriel's gown, I am going to use the current polyester habotai skirt I have as a removeable (maybe) underskirt only. I have purchased 100% real silk habotai, and will be using that for her gown instead. One good thing though, for the third and final gown order I've had so far, I managed to make a mint green fabric, look like a lovely sage colour! It did take 2 baths of Dylon Olive green, but, SUCCESS!! It is a shade darker than her original colour sample, but VERY close to her final choice of fabric (which was sold out. I should be the only person allowed to sop at my local fabric store. such hassle of finding replacements!). I finally found a childminder, now I just need a little more time on my own, WHE I'm awake, and I'll be able to FINALLY finish them! Having a toddler who won't watch TV on her wn nstead wnting to ''help'' mama, is an adorable, but nearly impossible to work around distraction. Tonight, I crack down on the gowns. Coffeepot, here I come!

Spanish Style Slashed sleeves

As you probably may know from my earlier posts, Di wants to have Spanish style sleeves with her gown, with slashes, and a hanging oversleeve. I have never done this before. Annnd...the fabric we have for the undersleeve isn't exactly fray-proof...so..here goes...


As the sleeves in the photo are made of 2 fabrics, I laid my 2 fabrics out like this under the pattern,
leaving about 1/2 inch for seams, and pinning everything well in place.

I then ironed on my extremely period-accurate fusible interfacing
(ok, they used other stuff, but this is easier, and won't be visible!)
then went a little slash-happy with my x-acto blade. I made the cuts slashes
 rather than 'pinks' like Isabel's portrait due to the frayable nature of this fabric.



I cut rectangles of my second type of silk (the silk haj) and gathered
them at the ends and basted them in place all the way around the slash



I hand sewed the white trim, and then added tiny baby blue seed
beads just for an aditional effect if anyone looks up close.

The inspiration....

Third gown order!

Whee! So, I am just about done with Muriel's skirt (as in, I'm taking  coffee break then it'll be done!), am cutting out Di's as well which will be together by tomorrow, both bodice mockups fit pretty well, adjustments noted and are on their way back, which means..THE FUN PART STARTS NOW!!! Oh I SO want a tailor's dummy....
Also, I have one new gown order in! She also wants the Queen Mary style gown (as I've taken to calling it) and she's chosen a lovely sage green fabric (middle), with a lining in a berry red satin (left), with berry red trim as well. GORGEOUS! Happy days, now, back to work!

Just a note.......

I am NEVER working with synthetic silk/habutae again. EVER. Muriel's gown is going to be gorgeous, and the skirt will flow beautifully, but it took me THREE hours to piece together her skirt, measure and pin the hem, and sew 2 feet of it. And that's only the first seam. As I'm doing French seams, after I stitch the hem up, I have to go back and sew each of the panels again. Normally, not a problem. But with lightweight slippery fabric that wants to do it's own thing? It's a pain in the butt. And some of the seams aren't straight so I'll be going over those again. I am NOT looking forward to the bodice, but perhaps due to it being lined and stiffened with several layers of fabric, it will be easier than working with the habutae on it's own. Anyways, After I managed to piece together the skirt, trim the seams, measure and pin the hem (using Di's measurements accidentally), then measure it again (this time using the correct ones) then starch and iron it on the lowest possible setting, then pin some more, then trim said hem, then FINALLY begin to sew it, a tiny piece of thread got stuck in the bobbin of my machine and jammed it so I had to open it up, and used this as an excuse to take it apart, clean and oil it, put it back together, and then broke my needle. LOL. I have more needles. Somewhere. I have organized and can no longer find anything! Anyways, Muriel, if you're reading this, I blame me for offering false silk habutae as a fabric option. PLEASE don't ask for it agan if you order anything else from me? I'm begging you!! Other fabrics (aside from acetate satin and polyester organdi/organza) are sooo much easier to work with!) Linen perhaps? Cotton velvet? Duchess satin? Brocade? Wool? SO much more preferable haha. Anyways, I WILL win. End of story. Once I am finally done fighting with the skirt, and have won the battle (and oh I will dammit), have hemmed it and finished the seams, then I'll be making Di's skirt, which should go a little quicker due to the cotton vevet having a tendency NOT to slip everywhere.

Acres and acres of skirt! And that's not all of it folks...