Thursday 11 November 2010

And now for something completely different:

... a sewing project! Next month I am attending a ball, SCA-style. I only have one set of court garb, and it needs a complete refit before I can wear it, which means that I am also garb-making this month. I shall be starting by cutting up my wedding dress!

Well, not completely. See, there's this book called The Tudor Tailor, containing many patterns for making (shockingly) clothing from the Tudor period. One of the gowns is a late Henrician-period French gown, with a fancy petticoat and lots of trim. I've admired it many times, but haven't attempted it because boning and lacing and complicated fittings are not doable on oneself. I realized, however, that the shape of the dress was very familiar, and I eventually twigged that it was the same shape as my wedding dress*. My dress has funky swoopy ren-faire sleeves instead of proper fitted ones, but apart from that, I think they might even be from the same template.

So, I'm going to take the sleeves off my dress, cut out proper ones, reattach the sleeves and sew on a load of trim. I'm also going to acquire some fancy brocade to do a stomacher and petticoat. And I need to make a hat, which will require pearls and more thread. I can totally do this by the first weekend of December. Sure I can. Maybe.

I'd better get sewing.

*I have two wedding dresses from two ceremonies, since we've got family in multiple countries and had a wedding in each. This dress is deep blue velvet and was bought with the intention of eventually using it for reenactment purposes.

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