Copper Silk Gown Pictures

Here's the pictures of my three day copper silk dress. I am really happy about the way it turned out and how comfortable it turned out to be. I decided to ditch the low on the shoulder straps this time and aim for a venetian that was mostly comfortable. As a result I can actually raise my arms completely above my head in the dress! The only problem I have is that I think I made the waist a little too high. Anyway, here's the pictures;

Groom's Get-Up

Yesterday was picture day. Zach and I finally got ready to have our engagement pictures taken. We had his mom take about 60 before we finally settled on one that we all like. Neither of us enjoy have pictures taken, but we had a good time...and since we were sort of in the spirit of picture taking, I got Zach to dress in his wedding garb so I could take pictures of that too.  So here they are;

It is a five piece ensemble. There's the linen embroidered shirt, and the short pants (unsure of the name due to lack of research, but I've seen these in some portrait somewhere....) The silk and linen doublet, including the sleeves which lace on. The loose jerkin (also very little research here; this is men's garb!), which is made of velveteen and lined in a silk/cotton blend. There are two threadworked buttons at the waist. I will probably do more going all the way up the openings. There is also the velveteen hat.

There's a few little things to finish. I need to hem the pants and add hook and eye or buttons at the cuffs on the shirt. I may also do some black velvet applique on the doublet with vines and scallops so that it kinda matches my wedding dress. That is dependant on how much time I have leftover when everything else for the wedding in sewn however. I have less than three months to go!!

I'm Still Alive..really

I am currently in the middle of making six sets of court garb for my wedding....and too busy and disorganised to get pictures of any of them of course. I have less than three months to go and yet I'm staying confidant that at least all the sewing will get done....not sure about music selection or much of an elaborate ceremony but at least the whole wedding party will be in garb. Sometimes I wonder if my priorities are a little twisted.

Anyway, three of those sets of garb are almost done, and as they are completed I do want to put up pictures. Things are turning out really good so far.  The other three are in varying stages of having the bodice cut out to having all the pieces more or less assembled they just need to be put together.

AND (here's the worst of it) as a productivity reward to myself I decided to whip myself up a dress based off of Titian's 'Portrait of a Lady in White'. I've had some beautiful copper silk and rust coloured velvet bouncing around in my stash for a while with this project in mind......my excuse for rationalising this? I don't have any garb that I really really want to wear for the engagement pics that have to be taken this week, and I want something new to where to Schola in a few weekends....The dress in the portrait really is quite simple, as there isn't much in the way of trim. So yesterday afternoon I whipped up the sleeves and the bodice minus any means of fastening, and I have the skirt ready to be pleated. I would like to add some pearls to the joins in the sleeves and maybe around the top of the bodice, but that might wait. I just need to get it to a wearable state so I can wear it on Wednesday and then I need to put it aside and wait to further the embellishments until AFTER the wedding.

Final Pictures are Sent!

I just sent in the final pictures for the Challenge.  Happy to be done with one thing and free to move on. I have started with mylord's wedding garb. He picked the portrait Moretto da Brescia's   'Portrait of a Man' 1526, and so I am planning on following all those details as closely as possible in everything except colour and that hat.

I've started by making a linen shirt with blackwork in dark forest green floss on the collar and cuffs, and most of the seams worked in herringbone sitch in the same dark green. The embroidery is done, and the main body is done, with the collar attactched.  There are four briaded cords at the collar for fastening. I tried something new with the collar. I usually make collars with the inside piece, outside piece and one additional 'interfacing' layer. I still end up with a big lump at the top and bottom where the ruffle and shirt body are sewn into the collar. This time I made a narrow strip of four layers of linen basted together and set that inside the 'gap' created by the seam allowances on top and bottom. It seems to have worked pretty good so far. It creates a much cleaner line, however the collar may be a little too stiff....we'll have to see when he tries is on. Here's a picture of the inside collar construction;

Bella Nani Dress Pics

This is one of the bridesmaids dresses for my wedding. These are the trial fitting pics, so no hair or makeup, not all the final jewelry and underthings (thus the funky closure in front) and without the last few little 'things' to fix. All in all though we got this dress done in about a week and we are very very happy with how it turned out and how close to the original portrait we got it to look.

Ok...so no pictures...

I've been procrastinating pictures....I am sorry. I've never liked uploading stuff from my camara cause it is always such a pain, that and my computer hasn't had much internet access for the past few weeks.....so it hasn't happened.  I'm thinking tomorrow I ought to be able to make myself do it. I have one more update to send in to the IRCC, and then after that I shall have time to work on the final pictures and writ up /documentation.

Brighter news! My dress is finished!! After having to take all the applique off the first sleeve due to to much bulk and having lost the pattern i drew up for the second sleeve, I finally got both sleeves done and attatched to the gown. My mother pinned the hem for me last week and a few nights ago I sat and hemmed my dress. It's looking great and I am very excited about it.

Today I started a few more accessories. I made a little tasseled beaded pouch, using the same pattern I used below for my mother's pouch. I made the tassels by hand out of my gold embroidery floss. The handle/strap thing is beaded silk ribbon. I used white velveteen on the outside, and scraps of gold silk dupioni on the inside. I am very happy with it.

I also started on a handkerchief. I was just going to hem a square of linen and call that good, but then it wanted to be embroidered, and after that....it wanted lace.....so I am practicing my novice skill of Armenian lacemaking around the edge, using purple and gold floss....Its gonna be one decked out hanky.

It's been fun!! But I am glad the challenge is almost over though, so I  can turn my focus to other things I need to do for the wedding.

Update

So I've been pretty busy...but not much done on my challenge dress. I got to a little standstill, being in the middle of moving and having lost the pattern for the trim for the shoulder.  So I have one sleeve fnished and tied onto the dress. The other sleeve is cut out, and the wrist trim is finished...but I have yet to find the trim pattern and I am not feeling brave enough yet to just re draw it.

I also have my skirt pleated and sewn to the bodice. It has yet to be hemmed. I'm hoping one of my mum will be able to help me this week with pinning where the hem needs to be. I also decided to cheat with my girdle....I put a row of beads along the bottom edge of the bodice. The beads stop at the front openings though leaving about a three inch gap, and if I want to do anything dangly in the front or to hang my fan off of I have yet to figure out how I want to do that.

I have also been working on the doublet for one of the groomsmen. Its a lovely wine/burgundy brocade. I'm doing a fine line of slashing along the edges of the tabs on the skirt, center front, and collar. The collar and tabs and armscyes are all edged in a slashed piping. There aren't going to be sleeves, as we are planning a velvet overcoat with a wide fur collar and are so short on time (only three and a half months until the wedding and still so much to sew!!) I need to handstitch the lining to the armholes, finishe slashing the piping and do the button holes. I hope to be able to do most of that on the ride back to Cody today.

I have also been working on one of my bridesmaids dresses.  Its based of off the 'Bella Nani' by Paolo Caliari.  I ordered five yards of the medium blue velveteen from Renaissance Fabrics (my favorite online fabric store) and one yard of vintage bobbin lace off ebay from France for those fancy cuffs. I've spent the last few days working on the cutwork for the sleeve. I first drew up the pattern and then traced it onto wonder under...so on and so forth. I did not handsew around all the edges though. I cheated and done it by machine. Shame on me. But the pile of the velveteen more or less hides the stitching so it doesn't look too bad. I also worked on the partlet to go with the dress, using some white cotton voile. It is a gathered/ pleated type partlet. I don't have a specific portrait I based that off of, but it looks pretty good, just got to sew a line of silk ribbon over all the rows of gathering and itll be finsihed.  I hope to kidnap Emily for a while sometime this week so I can work on fitting her bodice.

Anyway I hope to take pictures once I get to Cody and hopefully I'll get around to posting them soon.