cleves leaves progress

I don’t know how I got this energy- well I do and it has everything to do with my therapy and being able to actually do stuff and then build up on that to do more stuff 🙂 Had a day of sleep at one stage though 🙂

So the frame is apparently the perfect cat shape as he makes a bee line for it no matter where I set up!

These leaves are the same as my Krantz, and in order to make sure they sew in place I had to hammer out holes from the pointy end. (I have found there are indeed flitter haube from further west, it makes sense with the influence from Nurnberg but it’s not close enough to Kleve!)

It’s very bright. Like blinding in bright light!

And how it looks as of just shy of the end of my birthday 🙂 So yay! That is a very good birthday present to have 🙂

(Subtle laurel is not at all subtle, though might have to get less subtle in the back.

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perlenmutzer

Progress from 2006:

Progress 2016 after stripping all the fire damaged bezants and sequins:

New pearls on the upper right, the same pattern was repeated on the upper left and a matching overlapping design added to the lower part.

Yes, it looks very wobbly. This is part of how the fabric was eased over the original support. I’ll be clipping the cotton tulle to let it ease as well.

Stash of pearls used for the update. There are a good number left to be able to use over the seam once assembled.

I am about to add the leaves again, these are different, they are what I used on my Krantz for my laurelling, so these are very apt 🙂

Again the pearls look wibbly, I don’t want to stretch the stitches once I put this back on the support so am having to live with it until then. Once on the support these will have heavier thread passed through to support the curves.

So happy to get this progress. I am doing eat therapy on my hands every couple of hours, 10mins at a time.

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Cards on table: current costume obsessions

I’ve been looking through my stash of fabrics with a calculating eye and have finally settled on a few absolutely desperate to make right now projects. Most of which use my stash in some way or another 🙂 This is all locked in and I have plans for what occasion each will be for 🙂

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Freya from Hunstman: Winter’s War (robes and armour) & Norma Shearer from Upstage

The armour can be from my stash (so lucky!) so can Norma’s gown. It’s the robes that is currently making my brain itch because I need to calculate and create my patterns precisely.

But that slinky velvet. Obsessed. There is a preview that has survived and it’s at the NZ film archive! The skirt front of the gown isn’t so exciting but the rest is. And I have many options to adapt the front of the skirt. And a lot of research as slinky gowns abound in the 1920s.

mantuamol 76c655368e1abea996bf521c24afb1a3 kjole

An early mantua. 

These are illustrative only, I am trying to debate between my stash options of black ribbed silk or a shot pale blue polyester. 9m of each!

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Sheer 1870s

I have about 12m of cotton net. Now that I have my fluffy Robe de Style in lace I can put it all towards a fashion style that has had a dedicated folder for over a decade!

 

These are “new” projects. I am still working on my wall of things but these are mostly stash busting so really just a shifting around in my workroom 🙂

 

 

To finish:

Marie Antoinette: thought I’d forgeotten? AHAHAHAHAH! All my trims are here so time to start patterning and washing sizing out of trims 🙂

Cleves red velvet: this is long term hand sewing. And fiddly. But everything is put aside.

Valois: the skirt needs hemming and I am worried I have been rushing the stitches. Also the silk is insanely difficult to work with. I have scrap silk that is less difficult to try!

Silver Spanish: it’s lining, so much lining. I also took out some extra weight from the skirt to make it wearable.

Princess de Cleves: You’d think a doublet would be easy. Nope. But I figure I can couch some braid over the existing braid for some extra texture!

 

Hannibal gown: reassembly!

Phantom wedding gown: in storage with the Hannibal gear, no rush, but it is silly to leave it this long!

Mina: I have to make the lining absolutely perfect as the silk has zero stretch and all my bodices have had some stretch. I now have the same ripstop cotton as for the bustle so it will be done!!! For my birthday? Maybe…

Worth Sunburst: on hold, I did just find my 9m length of pale aqua silk chiffon so I may wind up with my own interpretation of the gown seeing as there are two extant versions already. Also I have glass pearls set aside and that is more of the Kyoto style than Met style 🙂

 

Ahsoka: lost a bit of steam on this. Still want to finish her 🙂

Mothma: my dress shrank :/ I’m thinking of passing on the fabric parts to just reset.

Darth Talon: New bikini is fantastic! ANd I do need new lekku. My 2nd set are just too heavy 🙂

Ashara: potentially be remade into my own SWTOR jedi knight Neimhaille 🙂

Nyreen: With Andromeda coming out and more female turians running around I dug out my robes for her that were about to be thrown out. So resizing them 🙂

Leia: my senatorial robes have just gone into the wash, I got new photos for my tutorial, and finally found a pair of soles that work! SHe has no heel, her shoes are made with that really gummy rubber and there are so many cool seams in her boots anyway.

Draenei: slightly on the back burner again. I have a habit of wanting to figure out how then figuring it out and then not really wanting to finish 😉

 

So at the heart of it I love patterning, and figuring stuff out, not so much the final stages. Ah well 😉

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Library demo

Yesterday was lovely 🙂 I  do enjoy displays for kids so long as the theme is very particular. So we were teaching history.

I generally don’t have that sort of hook in recreation costumes, so it winds up being a better opportunity to do activities such as read.

It was also lovely getting interesting questions from kids and parents.

So happy to hear there were people interested in the dressing a lady part 🙂 The worry is that after a full display of gothic plate makes everything else pale in comparison! So it was a relief- I really wanted the Spanish ensemble because I could have talked about the differences between male and female dress and how very similar they are in places.

But I do now have all the patterns to go through and work out a generic layer of paddings and facings.

So, I need to keep hunting for sliver lace for my Marie Antoinette- I am seriously going to look at sarees, it’s rare to find two the same but I need about 20m of lace and close to that in scrolling appliques.

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