The Elizabethan Costume Project

And so it's started.  A new project.

I do love the start of a new project!

This year's project; ok, technically next year's project, the 2012 project, is Elizabethan.  Actually, to be entirely accurate, it's a Tudor Costume, more Henry than Elizabeth.  Mid 1550s to be precise. That said, there is a beautiful picture of Elizabeth 1, from approx. 1546, in which she wears a gown just like the one I would like to make... though I doubt that I will manage to make anything anywhere near as beautiful!

If dated accurately, she's only 13 in the portrait and she is already magnificent; and, as it links my timeframe back to her, the project can still be called an Elizabethan Costume.

And so I've started one of my most favourite parts of any project, the research.  I love to research costume history, particularly to see how far and how well other people have pieced the past back together again.

There are some wonderful sources for Tudor costume recreation, particularly the Elizabethan Costume site, which has a wealth of information available.  Also of note, are the Margo Anderson patterns, one of which I have ultimately chosen to use.

I had started off thinking that I would use a Simplicity pattern, which looks rather like the dress above.  It is a simplistic (no pun intended!) version of the costume, but outwardly looked good enough.  This would be a far less intensive project than the Victorian one had been; less sewing, more other stuff... that sort of thing.  But, I couldn't quite bring myself to hit the buy button, it was too cheap a pattern (£4-odd), readily available on eBay.. just all too easy; I had one last Google.  One quick search later and there appeared Margo's site.  I have decided on the Tudor Lady's Wardrobe but it's taken a lot of self-persuasion to tear myself away from the Elizabethan patterns which are a wealth of bodice styles, sleeve options, multiple possibilities when it comes to my underpinnings... and all accompanied by 100+ page guides.  I am a good pattern junkie, and a total sucker for an accompanying guide!  It's ten times more expensive, not including postage, but you so know it will be worth every penny :)

My last decision is whether or not to also buy Margo's Underpinnings patterns, or whether I should instead delve deeper into the Elizabethan Costume website and make my own.  The Tudor Lady patterns include a smock, I would just need to make my own corset, bum roll (still makes me smile) and farthingale.  With option B, I can enter whole new worlds, including the myriad interpretations of the Alcega Farthingale pattern from 1589; more later no doubt.  The fact that it is even possible to access and interpret a pattern that is 422 (soon to be 423) years old is too good an experience to miss.  Just as the Simplicity pattern felt like a cop out, I think pre-drawn underpinnings will feel a little like one too.  I just have to make sure I can make sense of the instructions first!

For now, I'm going to continue reading; will more than likely buy a copy Janet Arnold's Vol.3 (quickly followed by Vols 1,2 and 4 no doubt!) as her books are mentioned on every site I've visited; buy my TLW pattern; and then wait impatiently for it's arrival!  As for colours, fabrics, trimmings... apart for thinking of greens and that textures might be good, I'm clueless.   I think I need to sort my patterns first.

The Boyf's Advent Calendar

Now that it's all done and dusted, I can show you the boyf's advent calendar:

I think he liked it :o)

and, for good measure, I made him a card as well...

What I love about Christmas

Belated Christmas greetings everyone, I hope you have all enjoyed the last few days.   The 10yr old, the boyf and I started ours with a party on Christmas Eve with the lovely B's and S's.  Thanks to a lack of boyf to rein me in (he worked so hard on the run up to the holidays), simple present swapping and sausage rolls (ok, maybe not the sausage rolls) turned into three courses of vegan/veggie fabulousness, thanks in huge part to the gorgeous Mrs B who found herself cooking the starter and saved the sprouts after I'd just thrown them all over the floor!  We gave Mr S his vintage Atari 2600 and I wish I'd had my camera when he opened it up... we also discovered that Mr B has serious Atari talents, and that Mrs B is slightly addicted to Friendship Bracelet makers!

Christmas morning was the usual chaos of paper and dobe and squeals of delight, particularly from yours truly who is typing this on her brand new (first time ever) laptop, thanks to her utterly delicious boyf!  The 10yr old was as pleased with her books and pj's as she was with her Kindle; Megs chewed everything she unwrapped and is now inseparable from her new bff Puss Cat, and whilst the boyf will have to wait for warmer weather to enjoy his main pressie, he has been sat reading his Bear Grylls, pretty much constantly since unwrapping it.

Since then we've all stopped waking up in time with our silenced alarm clocks and are catching up on our sleep,  have enjoyed a random mix of "spring" cleaning inside and out (I have finally got rid of my tape collection (yes I know!), all of our music and movies are now on one new storage drive and the chooks are happy in their spruced up run), Mission Impossible 4 (very good fun), gardening, painting the dog run (long overdue), odd jobs (the wobbly worktop in the kitchen is fixed, only 18 months after moving in!), cooking, walking, sitting, talking and simply enjoying, and, for me at least, slowly, oh so slowly, sorting through the junk on my old laptop and moving what's worth moving, to the new one.

Oh, and my first commission is finished... no more black twill for me for a while!  And sadly, no photos until the show in February.

It has, in all, been a lovely Christmas.  That perfect match of spoilt, but not too spoilt, good food, friends, family and proper relaxation, the kind that is active and fun, but restorative too.  New treasures have new homes and, in the process, our life is a little bit neater and certainly our house a little bit tidier!  I think that we all feel clearer, calmer, loved, happy and well in ourselves... what more could you want from Christmas.

Meet Fryda

...finally!  All done, dressed (!) and looking as quirkily beautiful as ever.

This is what I love about dolls, despite everything that's not gone quite as I expected or hoped it would, she has her own style and personality and has come into her own.  I would love to tell you how I made her clothes, certainly I started using the American Doll patterns (particularly for the jacket) but, in truth, I can't.  Like everything else with this doll, the best laid plans quickly fell apart and so I just sewed.  

Trying to make Fryda more "pretty doll like" didn't last long: the original blue or green dress idea quickly didn't suit, and in a rummage of the scrap box I found this pin-stripe dark grey wool.  Fryda and I embraced her Gothic inclinations!  The jacket is more-or-less as the pattern would suggest, except that Fryda's measurements were radically different.  So, using the tailoring skills I learnt on the Victorian jacket, I tailored it to fit, except for the sleeves, which I liked oversized and loose.  I also left the edges unfinished to gently fray.  The wool does not fray easily, so it won't damage the jacket, and I liked the contrast of shabby with such a structured jacket.  It would make a good pattern to scale up and make in my own size... and another project is born!  

The skirt was nothing more than a leftover strip of faux silk, which I cut into three and shaped onto her.  Long definitely didn't work, so we went for mid-length and a net underskirt with a little gathered detailing as suited.  The buttons I have had for years and were a good size, I also liked the splash of colour, which softens all the black.  And finally her hair is twisted with ribbons and a clear bead/ribbon concoction, which came off an overly fussy pair of slippers.

Now that she's all done, Fryda is not going anywhere; I may be far too old for such things, but she's mine :)  I have no idea where she is going to gently rest out her days, Megs has taken a great liking to her, so it will have to be out of reach, and I don't think sitting is the best way to display her: she's certainly not an elegant doll, sitting with her legs crossed at the ankles is the best she can manage.  For now, she can enjoy Christmas from the sideboard, in the New Year I will have to think of a good and suitable place to keep my quirky little Fryda.

23 metres of black cotton drill

I have my first commission!  It's not the most artistic of sewing jobs; a series of display case covers for some machines going to a trade show, but it's certainly interesting.  It's not often that I sew in metres instead of inches, have to draw patterns with a metre stick and have a pile of fabric so heavy I can barely move it - lifting it onto the table, I looked like I was lugging a dead body about!  And, whilst not the most exciting sewing, my work will be seen by thousands (tens of thousands?) of people at the exhibition; that's definitely a first :o)

It's also a little last minute, they have to be shipped on the 3rd January, so I am wasting no time and this evening has been spent sewing the first two of the five covers.  I picked the smallest ones and three hours and over 10 metres of sewing later they may be done but I'm going to be seeing way too much black cotton drill for Christmas week, next time I'm going for festive red!