Well, this may be a record...two posts in less than a week!

I'm getting ready for Costume College - or trying to anyway. In addition to getting stuff ready for those fun classes that I'm taking, I figure I'd better get my accessories ready NOW!

Here's the first of the pieces that I made for last year. I cut it from the Simplicity version of the Sense & Sensibility pattern, using the S & S instructions to try to make it a little nicer than what the Simplicity pattern instructions would have produced. I made the stays from the same pattern. For this dress the stays worked ok. Now I need to figure out the shoes and whatever else it's going to take to complete this outfit. Hair will be the biggest challenge I suspect.



This is the second gown from the same pattern, but with the lower neckline, no drawstring. The blue band is just bias-cut cotton and is only pinned in place, not stitched yet. The stays for the green dress did not work at all for this one. I need to either make another pair from the same pattern, altered slightly, or try another pattern for stays. Again, accessories and hair remain to be determined.

Then there's the issue of shoes. I looked a lot last summer and bought some, but never wore any of them. They all need a little something to make them a reasonable substitute for period footwear.

The first pair, a jazz dance boot, came in white and black so I have two pairs. I did not figure out what to do with them last summer, but really need to get them wearable this year!



This next pair, is a flat, but very shiny.



Then we have the stripes, cut-outs and partly-metallic gold. Any hope of making any of these period substitutes? Sheesh...well, maybe with fabric paints? Black magic?





Right now, I'm at least partly stumped, maybe even totally. I'm wide open to suggestions though, so fire away!



This last pair has nothing to do with the others, nor with Costume College and anything else that I might wear there. I just found these on etsy.com and thought they looked like a nice option for SCA events, sort of period-looking and pretty comfy. Ok, so the zipper up the back is not period, but other than that, these are cute and I know that they will see plenty of wear.

As for other things...

Yes, all those other things, like the mid-1700's gown, and the 1857 walking dress, and the 1903 outfit...well...

This summer as gone totally NOT the way I'd hoped for and those things have not even been started. DRAT!

However, I am going to Costume College in August, and am taking two all-day workshops - the Victorian corset workshop, and the Elizabethan corsetry workshop. Since the walking dress and the 1903 outfit both require corsets, I'll have to see how my class project works out for one or the other of those. The Elizabethan class won't produce something for my mid-1700's outfit, but it will be something to wear with other outfits still in the early planning stages.

So, for this summer and Costume College, I'm going to work on accessories and hair for the outfits that I made for CoCo last year, but was to chicken to wear. Well, after all, they didn't have accessories so how could I wear them? Both are 1795-1805 or so, and discussed elsewhere on my blog. I'll try to get some pics of the finished dresses up, and will be seeking advice on those accessories as well as on what on earth I can possibly do with my hair for this period.

I may also take and wear my newly built Viking apron dress outfit, though it needs a better undergown first. It's fun to wear though and very comfortable. At least I do have some options for dressing up at CoCo this year.

And between now and then, I suppose I can go ahead and build my chemises and petticoats for those other outfits, so my corsets can be properly fitted during the workshop! Off to sew!

Changing directions...

The family's foray into SCA activities has given a recharge to my costume activities. However, since we pretty much jumped in head-first, we seem to need garb in a larger quantity that what I could produce on my own. For our first event, we worked with a combination of loaner garb and a few pieces that I had managed to finish. Since then, I've managed to acquire some second-hand garb, several pieces actually, that are pretty close to my own size. With some alterations (nothing major!) and a couple more pieces of my own making, I should actually be able to handle a fairly long event. I'll still be working on pieces for me that I know I want, as well as pieces for the guys, but getting this garb seems like a pretty good thing.

However, I'm not entirely sure what I need to make to fill in the gaps in this collection. There are a couple of pieces that I suspect I could probably do without and others that I can't wear until I figure out what they need to make complete outfits. Period accuracy is not real strong in these pieces, but I want to alter them, and supplement them, to be at least reasonable at most events. Here's what I've got and what I'm thinking about each piece.

Note: the dressform is my personal form, but she and I are not the same size at the moment. While the garb is pretty much my size, just a little loose and a lot long, on the form it does look TOO big. Trust me that it all fits me fairly well for having not been made for me.

This is a cream on red plaid, front lacing. The shoulders also lace but I've temporarily sewn them shut as I need to do some alteration to get a better fit out of this one. I also hemmed it up, but need to let it back down and re-hem it longer and neater. I wore it over a Ren Faire chemise, crinkled white cotton, that I already own, along with a petticoat that I threw together in a hurry. The petticoat is a home-dec fabric in a shade of red that goes quite well with the plaid. It's not a bad start on a possibly decent outfit, but needs a little work and I think that I've got it under control.




This bodice is a faux suede-like fabric, lined, laced up the front. Again, it fits fairly well, but could use some minor tweaking. My big problem will be figuring out what to wear it with. For this bodice, as with some of the others, I would think that I'd want both a chemise and a gown of some sorts. I don't really want to do the Ren Faire look, much less the Ren Faire wench look, so it seems like a chemise without a gown would just not be sufficient.





Now here's a piece that will have to become the basis for an outfit that I might never have gotten around to otherwise. Fitting issue: Straps are set too wide, and when laced the upper back is too loose and wants to overlap. To bring the straps in, and allow room for lacing, I took 2 darts from the neckline down in front and again in back. It's not a perfect solution, but I suspect that most people will not notice the extra stitched lines and it will fit pretty nice! So, I just have to figure out how to build around it! Figuring out the approximate period date for this one will be the start to the project.




This bodice is a ruby red velvet, though the camera did not like my lighting and really messed up the color. It's a good fit, little alteration needed; it just needs to be part of an outfit. The previous owner wore it over a dark blue, cotton gauze gown with long, medieval-looking sleeves. I think it might need more than that, but once more, I have to figure out what that would be.





This gown is a faux suede in dark blue, with black fur trim. I think that I want to take the fur trim off, fit and rebuild it and then put the fur back on. With a chemise and some accessories, this is pretty much good to go then, though the synthetic faux suede is far from period and only wearable in pretty chilly weather - like Estrella War!




This is a lovely shade of red, in spite of what the camera shows, in a thick wool, possibly felted from washing. The front trim on the skirt is a bit ripply, and I think that if I remove the trim, steam the front good and re-apply the trim, it will hang well. It fits well in front, but gaps at the CB neckline, so a minor alteration there. The shoulder straps fit well otherwise. Besides a chemise, I think it needs something else, so a bit more research ahead.





This is the one piece that I'm not so sure about. It's basically a chemise, and may have been worn under the red wool (just above). It's a poly-cotton blend, kind of stiff (probably a bit heavy on the poly), in a faded black or charcoal gray. Aside from needing to replace the cord with a smaller, more flexible drawstring, I'm just not sure that I see me wearing this one. Have to think about it a while.




There are two more pieces which I did not photograph. One is a dark blue gown in what feels like a cotton flannel. It has an embroidered trim around the neck. It will need fitting, but hopefully nothing major. There is also an off-white, slightly loosely-woven cotton tunic - knee length or so, with loose sleeves at 3/4 length or so. Not sure what I'll do with it.

There are other pieces on the Garb rack, but these are the ones that I need to work on. As for something that needs no work, here's one of which I am now the happy new owner:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/27399184/award-winning-gown-1330s-manesse-codex

Just have to hem it and it's wearable!