Child's Coat...

I made a coat for my daughter. It's been a long time work in progress. Partly because it was packed forever due to moving. But now I have mostly finished it. While it needs a little tweaking, it is ready for her to wear to school tomorrow. My little girl is going to look so cool in her stylish coat. I will take a photo of it on her to post, in the afternoon after she gets home. I'm so excited and I know she will love it. She's been waiting to wear it.

Now that the coat is finished, I can take the time to tweak the Italian dress and once that's finished, it's on to embroidery. YAY!

Italian Renaissance Pt. 7...

So I wore the "finished" dress to the event this weekend. I need to restitch the bodice for extra support and I seriously need to trim down the skirt. It was WAY too long, even taking pregnancy growth into account. But the rest I am pleased with. Now I just need to cut and stitch the cioppa. I really can't think of any way I'd like to embellish the bodice and sleeves, as there is no pattern to work off of, so I may have to pass and keep it simple. Also, the emergency fabric for lining the skirt came in, but it was advised I wait until after the baby is born to line the skirt. So it's fine for now and less work.

Italian Renaissance Pt. 6...

YAY! The sleeves are finished! I also attached the bodice to the skirt. It's a little bit of a challenge getting in and out of, but it works. Worse case, I can readjust the front of the bodice a little bit and loosen it if I need to. Otherwise, it fits pretty well. Since I have to leave later than planned today for the event, I will have time after packing, to sit and sew some eyelets. Michael made me some emergency lacing last night. He likes to make rope and he made some out of pearl cotton. So I'm using what's essentially a very thin rope for lacing. The white cotton lacing is just a temporary fix, as I have no time to fingerloop anything out of silver silk right now. But it was a quick and good fix. The skirt is far longer than I realized and I'll have to hem about 8 inches to the skirt. But that too is temporary, as the skirt will need to lengthen as my pregnancy grows.

I hope to get a photo or two at the event this weekend. The skirt won't be as full as I want since it doesn't have the lining yet. The cioppa isn't done yet. The bodice and sleeves aren't embellished yet. But it will be a picture of the dress in progress. And we're supposed to make masks for a ball, so I'm hoping that will help make it look a little better.

On the more modern side, I won a couple things off of eBay that are pretty nice. A cute little rabbit fur muff and hat for Aveline and a red velvet turban for me. I'm looking at a rabbit fur trimmed, wide brimmed hat right now that's going cheap. All from the 50s.

Italian Renaissance Pt. 5...

One sleeve down and one to go. I'm so pleased. After I finish stitching the layers of the sleeve, I have to attach the bodice to the skirt and then I just need to make a bunch of eyelets. I don't think the cioppa will be done in time for the event this weekend and I'll already be hemming the skirt at the event. But at least the main part of the dress will be finished. And the cioppa won't be so complicated.

On a weird side note, I had ordered 10 meters of green silk that was supposed to take 2-3 weeks to come in and 5 yards of brown silk that shouldn't take too long. The brown silk being for the lining of the skirt of the dress. Well, the brown silk has yet to arrive and the green silk only took a week to arrive. YEESH!

Italian Renaissance Dress Pt. 4...

Well, today wasn't such a busy sewing day after all. It ended up being a baking day. But I finally got the sleeves cut out and am working on them while I watch a Ginger Rogers movies, "Heartbeat". I also managed to take a couple pictures. I finally didn't forget. So here is the finished bodice and the sleeves just cut. On the bodice you can see the silver shell with the brown silk lining. On the sleeves, the brown linen interlining is on top of the pile.
As for the cioppa, it has gone back to the pinkish brocade. My Fella was all for using the pinkish for a doublet until I pointed out it was pinkish. I was not trying to discourage him, but I was surprised he wanted it. He had made a comment before about someone else's pink doublet and how he didn't like it and would not wear a pink one. He hemmed and hawed and finally decided he didn't want the pink brocade. He prefers the green. I shall give him one last chance to decide, before I cut into it, but it looks like I'll have a pinkish cioppa again.

Italian Renaissance Dress Pt. 3...

Well, the evil cartridge pleating for the skirt is finished. A long and tedious process to be certain. But now it is late at night and I am exhausted. Tomorrow I shall endeavor to sew the shell of the skirt to the bodice. This will have to do until I get in the extra silk for the lining. Of course, yesterday I started emptying boxes and organizing my craft room. AFTER I had used what brown silk I had for the lining, I found 10 meters of a blue-green silk. Figures I had enough somewhere. But as I hope to make this dress reversible, I shall have to wait for the brown silk to come in. I won't have a mismatched piece. After I attach the bodice to the shell of the skirt tomorrow, I plan to finally make the sleeves.

A plus though, was what else I found while organizing the craft room. I had planned to use a pinkish brocade for the cioppa. But I found a similar brocade in dark green. It really caught my eye and I asked my Fella which he thought would be better. He also preferred the dark green. Granted, the night before he was eying the pinkish brocade for a doublet for him. So he may have been a bit biased. None the less, I shall turn the green into a cioppa and he can have the pinkish. Also, I remember buying something like 10 yards of the green, so there should be plenty left over for something cool.

Italian Renaissance Pt. 2...

I know I said I'd get some pictures up, but I need to find the camera again. My Fella has too many and I don't know which is which. I should just dig out my simple one.

The bodice is all finished, whipstitched arm holes and all. I also finished the shell of the skirt. Unfortunately the silk I have for the lining is not quite enough. So I emergency ordered some more. It will not be here in time for the Masquerade Ball though. So I plan to attach just the shell of the skirt and line it for Crown Tourney. If I get the cioppa done, it shouldn't be too noticeable. But the skirt took a long time to stitch and I'm tired of it for the moment. So rather than attach it today, I shall work on the sleeves and attach the skirt later this weekend or early next week.

I'm still not certain how I want to embellish the bodice and sleeves. I'm short on pearls at the moment and I think they would blend in too much with the silver silk anyhow. I'm looking through paintings, but nothing really stands out just yet.

Then after this dress is done, I can speedwork the embroidery. YAY!

Italian Renaissance...

Well, it has been quite a while since I made my first post. Life has been in flux and it took us a while to move to our new home. Which is great by the way. But I'm slowly getting my craft room into order and working on new projects.

I have to wait on the 14th Century Cotehardie. I'm pregnant now and it seems a little pointless to try and fit the Cotehardie for a pregnant stomach, only to refit it later. So I'm switching to late 15th Century Florentine gowns. The Cioppa and Gamurra are fitted with a high waist that will be perfect for pregnancy. The only thing I will have to take up later on, is the hem of the skirts. That's workable.

I also have a few embroidery projects going. I am working on a favour for a friend, when he fights in Crown Tourney in October. I am using a piece of gold silk scrap as the ground. This works out perfectly, as the ground for our Kingdom arms is gold. This is being worked up so that my friend can tie it around his shield arm. On one side of his upper arm will show the counterchanged spears from his arms, surrounded by a St. Catherine's wheel from my arms. The other side of his upper arm will show the dragon and red pine trees from our kingdom arms. That's for god luck. :-) I am using linen floss and working in klosterstitch and couching.

I'm also working on a Baronial and a Shire arms for a wallhanging, headed by our lovely Racaire. Those are being worked in silk thread on linen fabric.

As for the Florentine gown, the gamurra has a silver silk dupioni shell, brown silk dupioni lining and brown linen interlining. The bodice is almost finished and I plan to have photos soon. I'm using a silver Gutterman silk thread. When I get to it, the cioppa is a light red, almost pinkish brocade. I have no clue yet how I will embellish the gamurra. I plan to have it finished for the Masquerade Ball held in Polderslot later this month, but I want it also embellished by the 8th of October for Crown Tourney if I can. At least in the case of embellishment, I only have to work on the bodice and sleeves and not the skirt as well.

This month, every Tuesday I have a pottery class at the Arts & Crafts store I work at. I started this past Tuesday. We're learning how to throw on the wheel. It's lots of fun. My first night I made a slightly lopsided salt cellar. I am going to look through the photos my man took of Italian Renaissance pottery and plates to see what else I want to make. Once I'm finished with the class I have free reign to play in our store's pottery room. (There are definitely some advantages to working in an Arts & Crafts store.)