Imogen's Journal

imogen_quinn @ 2008-01-13T21:26:00

2008-01-14T03:23:51Z

Westminster Cathedral....

The first pic. is going over Tower Bridge--had to stand up for that one-the 2nd is the HMS Belfast, which is a battleship museum, it's supposed to take 5 or 6 hours to go through it all. The last one is Her Majesty's Theater (home of the Phantom of the Opera:-)

Home of the BAFTA Awards, and the London Dungeon, with 90 minutes of London's scariest history and 2 scary rides!! (I didn't actually go in:-)

The London Eye, framing Big Ben.

This next group is taken from the Thames river...

The Tower of London and Tower Bridge going up...

The Globe Theater, and Tate Modern is also in the first one.

Cleopatra's Needle and The London Eye. The guide said that weddings can be performed in the London Eye--they last maybe 30 minutes and the "I do's" are said at the top. The 3rd pic. is a Victorian train station--I'm pretty sure they said that the station had been added on to.

Two Victorian railway bridges....

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament....I really like how both of these came out.

Me on London Bridge with the London Eye...with an ice cream cone in 40degree weather. The 2nd pic. is where Star Wars the Exhibition was held--there were banners and stormtroopers out front. It says 'Aquarium' on the front, but Star Wars was held in the County Hall. Next post will be pics. from Star Was....:-)

imogen_quinn @ 2008-01-13T21:26:00

2008-01-14T03:21:11Z

   I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years'. We visited family for New Years for about a week, and got back on Friday the 4th. I haven't had much time to do any sewing, but I've been redecorating my sewing room. It's been moved to the other side of the room, and I painted the walls rose pink. No pics. yet, but it's almost finished, I just need to find some better under-desk-storage things. Anyway, for Christmas my mom gave me a book called '18th C. Embroidery Technique', which shows examples of 18th C. embroidery, and some directions. I'm looking forward to trying some of the things in there.
   Here are some pics. that I took of London. My grandmother and spent 3 days there, we took a bus tour (that was fun, we saw a lot of the major sights.) went to the Victoria and Albert museum, the Globe Theater...and Star Wars the Exhibition, which was bags and loads of fun, especially since we didn't plan for it, and I hadn't realized it was there:-)

The duty-free at London Gatwick airport, and a poster of Phantom.

Westminster Cathedral....

The first pic. is going over Tower Bridge--had to stand up for that one-the 2nd is the HMS Belfast, which is a battleship museum, it's supposed to take 5 or 6 hours to go through it all. The last one is Her Majesty's Theater (home of the Phantom of the Opera:-)

Home of the BAFTA Awards, and the London Dungeon, with 90 minutes of London's scariest history and 2 scary rides!! (I didn't actually go in:-)

The London Eye, framing Big Ben.

This next group is taken from the Thames river...

The Tower of London and Tower Bridge going up...

The Globe Theater, and Tate Modern is also in the first one.

Cleopatra's Needle and The London Eye. The guide said that weddings can be performed in the London Eye--they last maybe 30 minutes and the "I do's" are said at the top. The 3rd pic. is a Victorian train station--I'm pretty sure they said that the station had been added on to.

Two Victorian railway bridges....

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament....I really like how both of these came out.

Me on London Bridge with the London Eye...with an ice cream cone in 40degree weather. The 2nd pic. is where Star Wars the Exhibition was held--there were banners and stormtroopers out front. It says 'Aquarium' on the front, but Star Wars was held in the County Hall. Next post will be pics. from Star Was....:-)

Barcelona Textile Museum pics

2007-11-22T02:30:15Z

Here are all my pics. from the Textile Museum in Barcelona. We went there twice--the first time I didn't know that that was where we were going, and I walked out of the house without my sketchbook:-)
Anyway, to get to the museum we took the bus, and then walked through several back streets:-) The Textile museum is located across the street from the Picasso museum. The costume collection had Renaissance church vestments, all the way up to 20th century party dresses.

(I forgot to write down the exact dates for everything, but they're being posted in chronological order)

I thought this one had a really strange front....
These four weren't in smaller display cases, they were in a larger room that was closed off with windows, so some things were harder to photograph than others.

Two fabric examples, I really like the pattern on the green one.

A pretty fan and accessories:-)

Regency dresses...my two fav.'s are the brown satin one with elbow-length sleeves, and the white one with puffy sleeves and train.

Regency tiara and hair pins....

Romantic era wedding gown, and two more dresses. I like the plaid one, if it were me, I'd use the same fabric with a solid colored trim.

Garters and pretty stockings....

A lace and pearl fan with samples of lace, and the second pic. is a mantilla (chapel veil). And not all of the veil is shown either, part of it is rolled up to the left.

The first dress I liked because of the 'cape' around the neckline--I couldn't get a good pic. of the front because of it's angle. And the second dress is my favorite, I loved the skirt shape, and the sleeves on the evening bodice:-)

If I remember correctly, the first yellow one is a Worth dress, and the grey/black dress is 1880's.

Turn of the c. camisole, petticoat and corset. There's an 'N' initial on the petticoat and camisole. And the corset only has the two rows of lacing in front--none in back.

Victorian fashion dolls:-)

1920's dresses (with lots of beading!), the lime green one is 50's, and I'm pretty sure the last one is 60's.

*whew* Lotsa pics....:-)

I'm Back...

2007-11-20T20:54:09Z

A lot has been going on in the last couple months--I got back from Europe on September 28, but wasn't able to get home for about 10 days, so I stayed in Florida with family. While I was there, I took on another sewing project:-) Two of my little cousins were receiving their First Communions at the same time, and I made the dress for one of the girls. I finished most of it while I was down there, but had to take it home to finish the sash, lining and hem. (I watched about 2 seasons' worth of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' while working, so I was a little Trekked--out:-) Here are some pics.--it's all been mailed off.

   It's made out of white eyelet with a border around the skirt. The sash gets tied in a big pouffy bow, and it's ends have a border also. I piped the collar edge and both edges of the sleeve band. There's a Celtic cross embroidered on the front in chain stitch and split stitch, with pearl seed beads to accent.
   The bodice fastens up the back with pearl buttons, and there are embroidery-floss loops on the sides for the sash, which is usually done on heirloom dresses. The lining has a ruffle on it, so I didn't have to make a separate petticoat.

   Anyway the trip was bags and loads of fun! My grandmother and I stayed with my aunt in Spain for a week. Getting there was an adventure--we flew from Florida to Raleigh, NC. and then to London for a 12 hour layover (at 2:00am Eastern time....). From London we flew to Barcelona, and arrived there around 10:00pm their time--but we had a little trouble finding our luggage, so getting out of the airport took a while:-) A 36 hour travel day was quite an experience....
   Barcelona was a lot of fun--we walked and took the bus everywhere.

These two are from when we went shopping--a store window and a sign:-) I went into this really neat accessory shop--in addition to little hair clips and things, they also carried zippers, thread, ribbons, sewing notion type things.

These are from walking around the city. The first is a market, and then a Star Wars themed window display. My aunt said the last one is a Spanish version of the Triumph Arch.

These are from when we went to Guell Park. The park was built and designed by the architect Gaudi. It's full of walkways, paths, steps, bridges--you could spend hours walking around there. We went in the back way, the first pic. is on top of the hill before going in, the second pic. is inside the park.

These are 4 more from Guell Park. The first is looking down on the mosaic seats, the second is of the Salamander fountain, below and in front of the seats. The third is of the gift shop, taken from beside the fountain, and the last one is a parrot:-)

Okay, these last three are from the Port, Mare Magnum--when we went down the first time, a cruise ship was there in the port. The first pic. is of the walkway leading out, it's kinda far away, but on top of that column is the statue of Columbus pointing out to sea. The second picture is looking out to the Mediterranean, and the last one is with one of the lions that are around the base of the Columbus statue.

Barcelona also had a Textile museum, with a fantastic costume collection--I took lots of pictures and did some drawing there--I'll post those pictures tomorrow:-) I'll also post the pictures from England and Ireland too.

imogen_quinn @ 2007-09-04T10:34:00

2007-09-04T15:34:33Z

I've started a new project. Two, actually:-)

I'm going with my grandmother to Europe (leaving on Thursday-Spain, England and Ireland) for 3 weeks this month. My mom was looking at a website for Bath, England and found this--(click here) So I have a ticket, and I've been talked into bringing my polka-dot Regency dress for the promenade, which looks like a lot of fun:-) Anyway, this means that I need accessories, so I've started a blackberry reticule and a scarf. I'm going to try and get the reticule finished or mostly finished before leaving so I can work on the scarf on the plane.

Blackberry reticule--I've got some black cotton velvet that I'm going to use for the outside, and yesterday I found silk fat quarters, so I bought a 'changeable' one that goes from dark green to black, which I'm going to use for the leaves, and maybe the lining too. Since blackberries are made up of the little round things with seeds, I decided that I'm going the put a layer of batting in between the velvet and the lining, and then quilt the little circle shapes. I'm going to highlight the circle things with some black iridescent seed beads.

Scarf--bought a yard of white cotton voile yesterday at an heirloom sewing shop, enough for a large-ish scarf that I can fold over diagonally. I'm going to hem it, and I think a Greek key design in white around the edge would be nice. A copy of "Emma" at my library has a similar scarf on the front, which is where I got the idea.

imogen_quinn @ 2007-09-01T10:55:00

2007-09-01T18:25:18Z

I've been really busy the last couple months. I was working at three county fairs during the summer, and in July we saw 'Phantom of the Opera'! The U.S. tour was in Washington, at the Kennedy Center, so my mom, sister, cousin, friend and I went. The show was fantastic, seeing it on stage is an entirely new experience. Oh, and 3 of Carlotta's dresses were on display outside the theater--from "Notes", "Il Muto" and "Point of No Return" :-)

And I've gotten a lot done on the Think of Me dress. (This write up here was really helpful!) The neckline trimming is all done, and the sleeves are on. I had wanted to take pics. before the tulle was over the rhinestones on the neckline, and before the sleeves were assembled, but the camera was broken. All that needs to be done now on the bodice is the sleeve edges need to be finished, and I need to make the eyelets in back.

The skirt hasn't been put together, but I pinned it to the dress form under the bodice to see how it looks:-)The skirt pattern is from Patterns of Fashion 2, "An Evening Dress, 1861-64".

imogen_quinn @ 2007-07-05T16:23:00

2007-07-05T20:59:54Z

This afternoon I took 4 sewing entries to a local tri-county fair. I'm entering the bronze formal dress and it's matching purse, (pics. below) a Regency day dress, and my white silk skirt with chevrons. I'm pretty sure they're judging everything either tomorrow or Saturday....

Here's the handbag:

The handbag measures about 5" by 7". The outer layer is the same silk as the dress, and the top edge is gathered to fit an ungathered lining. The metallic piping on the top edge is the same as that on the dress top. I used copper/bronze/silver/gold seed beads for the little flower.

imogen_quinn @ 2007-07-03T12:26:00

2007-07-03T16:51:22Z

I listed my white Regency dress w/ matching petticoat on eBay!!!

Here are a couple pics. of it.....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=015&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=250136969897&rd=1&rd=1
Here's the item number is: 250136969897

And I listed my Masquerade Elf Cape and mask....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=015&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=250138324391&rd=1&rd=1

The item number is: 250138324391

New Costume books!!

2007-06-28T15:11:19Z

My aunt sent me two fantastic Costuming books--"Costume in detail" by Nancy Bradfield and "Reconstruction Era Fashions" by Frances Grimble.

"Costume in Detail" covers 1730-1930. What it has is just over 380 pages of drawings, construction detail, embroidery patterns, notes, etc. on dresses from in between those years. The drawings are really nice, and the construction detail is very helpful. There are also notes on fabrics and trimmings, as well as hairstyles and accessories, which are great for putting an outfit together. Another fun thing is that some of the same garments in here are also in Janet Arnold's "Patterns of Fashion", so now there's even more info.:-)

"Reconstruction Era Fashion" covers 1867-1868, immediately following the Civil War. It's 529 pages long, and has reprints of fashion journals from that time, so it's very detailed. The book has 350 patterns, and not only for sewing--some are for crochet, knitting, embroidery and millinery. (There's even a bit on decorating parasols:-) In the back there's a great section on period dressmaking and sewing, and 2 indexes. And even just thumbing through and reading it is fun, BC the engravings are lovely, and the writing is so different from modern writing when talking about fashion:-)

Progress....

2007-06-28T14:22:21Z

I know I haven't updated in a while, but I've been trying to get over a bad cold. But I have made progress on the peasant blouse:

I finished all the horizontal rows, and started the first vertical one. (Since I took these I've finished the vertical row and started another.)

The pastel row in between the last black horizontal and the vertical rows is made up of light yellow 'X's with a row of light blue stitches on either side. These are going to be in between all the black vertical rows.

And I made a new icon to match:-) The sleeve in the pic. is the movie version.

imogen_quinn @ 2007-05-31T09:39:00

2007-05-31T14:00:53Z

The Star Trek rank pips I ordered for my formal dress came!!

The 4 bronze ones are for Captain....the pic. is a little dark.

And I ordered a Voyager Comm. Badge too...:-) It's 1 3/4" wide by 2" and fastens behind the gold bar with 2 clutch-back pins.

The "Evolving Formal Gown"....

2007-05-03T02:04:16Z

....started out as being based on this one from "The Illusionist". Then after many adventures and design changes it became this:

First off, patterns--the skirt is Butterick 3418, and the top is Simplicity 5098, view 'D' (the solid light pink one.) The skirt front and sides are a flat 'A' line (using the front and side pieces from view 'B') and the back is a tiny bit more full. I used the center back panels from view 'C', which are more full, and took up the extra fabric with 2 pleats that meet in the center back over the zipper. So the skirt has clean lines, but is still Victorian enough. I took 2" off the length all the way around, it's just above floor length in front, and hangs a tiny bit in back. Which is really fun when walking:-)

First change was the skirt color. I found a 54" wide (!) bronze-to-green changeable silk dupioni on eBay that I really liked, so I ordered 4 yards.

This pic. is pretty close to the real color, thought you can't really see the green. It's more noticeable in the detail shots below.

Now, how the tops changed. After finishing the skirt, I got pretty far along in making the ivory one I had first planned on, the silk base was all finished and I was getting started on the cotton net. The adventures started when I went to dye the snow white net to match the off-white in the above pic. I bought taupe RIT dye, thinking that it would work if I only used a very small, diluted amount. The net came out very brown. So I tried bleaching it. It came out a funny, light orange.

By now I only had 3 days to finish a matching top (looming deadline), but fortunately I had started thinking of something to do with the left-over pieces of bronze silk (a perpetual state of planning?), so the Asian top idea was already in mind. I lengthened the top by an inch, and did a different sleeve. Several weeks ago I had noticed something in "Threads" magazine (issue 130) about drafting a lotus petal wrap sleeve, which looked really pretty and I think works with the Mandarin collar. So I used those sleeves, and piped them, the collar, and the decorative closure on the side front in a gold fabric that my mom let me use. (Piping is a lot of fun, it looks nice, and it can fall into place easily.)

There are supposed to be buttons or frogs over the piped bit on the front, so that got me thinking, what if I were to put Star Trek rank pips there instead? So I ordered a set today:-) They're gold colored, so I think they should match.
http://store.roddenberry.com/browse.cfm?viewitem=true&categoryID=11421&pageID=1&productGroup=109590

(I've worn the dress once so far, for my Confirmation last week. It was comfortable and the very-slightly-trained-skirt was fun:-)

imogen_quinn @ 2007-04-17T21:36:00

2007-04-18T02:26:23Z

I realized the other day that I needed Summer skirts. So I decided to try drafting a gored pattern, and it came out really well! I started out with directions from an article in "Threads" (issue 120) on making a skirt with out a pattern and winged it from there.

The first one...6 panels with godets in each seam.

And the velvet ribbon around the hem....I had to put it one by hand to ease it onto the rounded space.

The 2nd one is leftover fabric from the "Think of Me" dress....6 panels and no godets.

And the trim...off white ribbon in chevron pattern and pink embroidered daisies.

Pockets

2007-04-06T14:02:37Z

This is really nifty....I love the little doll:-)

http://www.museumofcostume.co.uk/index.cfm?alias=pockets

And this one too....

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion/pockets/index.html

A few things...

2007-03-30T01:39:54Z

I took pics. yesterday of a few things....

Thing 1: I started the 4th vertical row on the peasant blouse sleeve...

Thing 2: The 'Think of Me' dress bodice is almost done...The ribbons hanging down the back are a drawstring to keep the shoulders in place. The center front and center back have thin strips of boning running down the seams (or edges in back) to keep the outside looking neat and wrinkle free. :-) I plan to put together a write-up on the bodice once it's finished.

(My Chase dress was on the dressform....)

Thing 3: I found the greatest container for beads, buttons, snaps, etc.! Yesterday I stumbled across a spinning spice rack (we call it a "spinney"), complete with 16 glass jars, so now it's on my desk, full of tiny things that usually get lost easily. I got the idea from an issue of "Threads" magazine, published by Taunton Press.

Spring Cleaning

2007-03-27T13:31:18Z

I know pictures of what I'm working on are a little overdue, but yesterday mom and I cleaned and re-arranged my sewing room, which really needed to be done.

What you see while approaching. My machine goes on the little desk out of the way, and I can cut things out on the big table. My patterns go in the rolling white 3-drawer thing.

The little rack on the small shelf unit is for fabric or trims that I'm going to use immediately or in the very near future.

My Star Trek captain's chair...;-)

Working hard or hardly working?

imogen_quinn @ 2007-03-25T20:20:00

2007-03-26T00:42:33Z

I'm posting a write-up on my Chase sleeves at the request of someone who is also making the Chase dress...I hope this helps!

For the sleeves I altered the shape of the upper sleeves some. A big help with this was this line drawing/diagram from the LOTR costume research page: http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Elf/Arwen/Chase/sleevepattern_RhiJ.jpg
On the upper sleeve, I started out with a straight sleeve pattern that was long enough to hit just below my elbow in back. From there, I made a little triangle extension that would come off of the back of the sleeve if the pattern is lying flat. The triangle extension is about 3 inches high and slightly longer than 1/2 the sleeve width. On the front part of the sleeve a triangle shaped piece the same size as the extension should be taken out, then add a 1/4 inch seam allowance to that lower edge of the sleeve, and on top of the extension. The upper sleeve pattern is done.
The lower sleeve is basically a big "U" shape. You want the bottom of the U shape to fall about knee length in back. When making this pattern piece, it's best to start out with the top bit that will be sewn to the upper sleeve. Measure the bottom edge of the upper sleeve, from the lowest point that will be behind your elbow to the front edge of the pattern piece (Measurement A) and again from the lowest point to the tip of the extension point (Measurement B). Make a U shape out of the 2 measurements, and mark where the lowest point on the upper sleeve is going to match up. From that point, measure down whatever the distance from the back of your elbow to the back of your knee is. Next, imagine a line that comes straight out horizontally from the match-up point. It should be about the lenght from one's elbow to mid lower arm on both sides. Matching up these 2 points, and the lower, knee-length point, make a big "U" shape. The lower sleeve pattern is done.
Before cutting the sleeves out, you'll need to do the swirly design on the upper sleeve, I painted mine using a small brush and metallic silver fabric paint. Here's a pic....Depending on the angle the sleeve is facing, the design can be really clear, or almost invisible.

Now for the construction--I stitched the upper sleeve to the bottom sleeve while both were still flat, using a 1/4" seam allowance, and then hemmed the top edge of the triangle extension on the upper sleeve. (I flat-lined the upper sleeves with a cotton muslin, as I did with the bodice.)If you're using a fabric that needs to have the edges finished in some way, you'l want to finish the edges of the lower sleeves--I used a narrow hem. Next sew up the side seams of the upper sleeve. This next part can be a little confusing, but if you've got the sleeve in front of you it'll make sense. Hem stitch by hand the top (hemmed) edge of the extension on the inside of the sleeve along the seam that connects the upper and lower sleeves together until you reach the point of the extension. All done!!

My finished sleeve. Since the fabric for the lower under sleeves is so fragile (80% metal) I attached them by making the lower under sleeve, and stitching it to a narrow band that's about 1/2" wide, which is then fastened with 4 snaps to the grey dress.

Update

2007-03-16T21:30:38Z

   I've been busy lately...
   Thing 1: My 'Think of Me' bodice is coming really nicely, though I can't do anything more on it until I get the little rhinestones that I need for the small starbursts at the neck and the dots on the sleeves. It's currently on my dress form, so I have to take pics. When I post those I'll get into more detail.
   Thing 2: I've finished the 3rd horizontal row on the peasant blouse sleeve, and started the 4th and last horizontal (The rest of the sleeve rows are vertical.) The 4th row is really only a 3rd of a row, like this:

Thing 3: I have a llama show tomorrow, which I'm looking forward to. Though I'm getting up at 4:30, so I have to get to bed early:-) And there's snow falling outside now, so if it starts to pile up I don't know how that's going to affect things...

Thing 4: I made a new userpic:-)

Trip to Washington....

2007-03-06T15:53:59Z

Yesterday we took a trip to the National Gallery of Art in D.C. I took lots of pics....

After taking the Metro in to The Smithsonian Station, we walked to the Gallery and passed the Sculpture Garden:

Quaint little house...
~~~~~~~~~~~
At the Gallery we saw:

Pretty Garden with fountain...
~~~~~~~~~~~

The Azalea collection...
The photos don't do the gardens and water features justice, you go in there and see the flowers and hear the water falling, it's all a really nice experience.
~~~~~~~~~~

'Lady Playing a Lute'

Dress detail of the above. The dress she's wearing is a kirtle, can see some of the straps, and good detail of how it laces up the side back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

St. Cecilia....I liked this one a lot, but it came out a little fuzzy. I think she's wearing a kirtle too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While walking back to the metro station, we passed the Capitol...sort of. See what a pretty day it was.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
We passed the Washington Monument, but not really...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And when we left the gallery I bought a t-shirt from a kiosk...

It's a dummy pic. Get it? Get it? :-)

A few things...

2007-03-01T15:08:00Z

Thing 1: My black floss came in the mail a couple days ago--a dozen skeins--so I can work on my blouse again. I'm 2/3rds of the way done with the second row on the sleeve.

Thing 2: I've been wanting to make Christine's "Think of Me" dress from "Phantom of the Opera" for some time now. So last week I ordered 7 yards of white dupioni, and it came on Monday:-) I cut out the skirt yesterday afternoon/evening, using the skirt from An Evening Gown, c. 1861-1864 in "Patterns of Fashion 2". It's perfect because it's gored, flat in front and full in back, and was originally designed to go over a hoopskirt that is just the size I need. The only alteration I made was lengthening the front 2 inches.

Thing 3: I have a dress form! My Chase dress is on it right now, but I plan to take pics. later.

Pics!!

2007-02-26T15:04:12Z

I finished the 18th c. pocket!!

Full front...

Embroidery close-up...

   Fabric is a lightweight linen, backed with the slightly heavier linen that I had left-over from my peasant blouse. The ties are polyester tapes.
   Pattern and embroidery designs are based on the pocket in "Patterns of Fashion1" by Janet Arnold.
~Embroidery~
   Embroidery is done with 2 strands of linen floss. The green vines, swirlies, and vase handles/outline are chain stitch. The filler on the vase is a trellis/grid which is done by criss-crossing long stitches over the space to be filled, and then tacking them down at the points where they intersect. The leaves and flowers are all satin stitch.
   Unfortunately I had cut everything out before embroidering, so it was a hassle to hoop it around the edges. Must remember not to do that again...

Quick Update...

2007-02-23T15:23:37Z

Well, I've not been able to work anymore on my peasant blouse because I ran out of black linen floss. More is on the way from Herrschner's. I made sure to order extra this time, because once I've finished the cross-stitch, there's the insertion stitches to do when I sew all the pieces together, and the smocking at the neckline.
In the meantime, I've started embroidering an 18th c. hanging pocket. I'm using off-white Irish linen, and linen floss. I was going to use the pattern from "Patterns of Fashion 1", but the piece of fabric I had wasn't long enough, so I used it as a base. The embroidery design I'm doing is similar to that one too.

And I made a new userpic. :-)

Doll dresses

2007-02-22T02:04:38Z

I've been working on a 16" doll version of Arwen's Mourning gown, and a burgundy 18th c. doll's dress.

~Mourning Dress~
   For a pattern, I started out with a base from "The Dolls' Dressmaker" by Venus A. Dodge. I fitted it to the doll, made princess seams in it, and added the skirts. The skirts are a full circle overall.
   The dark blue velvet was originally from a blue velvet curtain hanging in my room (I think it's rayon, which I'm okay with because it's fiber-based.)
   So far I've not finished the trim, I've put the red base on the neckline, and gold braid on top of the base. I think I'm going to see if I can add little beads to that. The buttons down the front are gold seed beads.

The doll is a Tyler Wentworth Manhattan Sparks by Robert Tonner.

~Burgundy and Ivory 18th c. dress~
   I did the pattern the same way I did it for the Mourning dress--fitted my base to the doll, only this time the neckline is different, and there's darts in the back. I'm still in the process of attaching the skirt on to the bodice, it's half on.
   The main dress is a burgundy home-decor fabric with a swirly pattern in it. It might have been a little too heavy for what I'm using it for, but it looks nice and the skirt holds it's shape.
The stomacher is off white satin, and the underskirt, which I haven't done yet, is going to be off white too.

The doll is a Brenda Starr Shanghai Secret by Robert Tonner. I took the pic. from the side because it's missing the underskirt:-)

Update and "The Illusionist"

2007-02-20T02:02:47Z

I've started the embroidery on the first sleeve, finished one horizontal row and started a second...

In other news, I saw "The Illusionist" over the weekend. I really liked it! Good acting, really good costumes, and it was interesting. Admittedly, I had spoiled the end for myself before seeing it, but I was still wanting to see how it would all happen. Not for young children, but a good movie.

Quick Update...

2007-02-15T14:26:54Z

   Last night I finished all the embroidery on the front of the peasant blouse, I've ironed the whole piece and it looks really nice. Will take pics. later...

   I started marking the design on one of the sleeves. I cheated on the cross stitch--instead of following a graph while embroidering I marked little dots where the stitches go. Much faster...:-)