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A veteran creator many Elizabethan stays, I thought I’d try my hand at what was billed as a Civil War period corset.  I happened to be at a local fabric store when the Simplicity patterns were on sale. So for 99 cents I snatched this pattern up.

The end product didn’t exactly match the cover art, but I was pleased with the results.

What I should have known from previous experience sewing from store bought patterns was that:

1. the size I measure for is always too big

2. the pattern pieces don’t always fit together

3. i don’t like store bought patterns.

The good news is after some adjustments I ended up with a garment that fits me fairly well. I changed up the front a bit as I couldn’t find a busk anywhere in town and was under the gun to finish it up. So I improvised and put in grommets. But instead of lacing the front and back, I then added silver buttons up both sides of the front opening. The silver buttons were attached (by sewing through the grommet holes) to plain buttons on the inside of the bodice. Run a thin ribbon around the buttons and the corset is closed.

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Halloween is my second favorite holiday (right after my birthday of course – yes I am stuck on me). And I do so adore getting all dressed up. There’s just something about getting dressed up that let’s me be a little more outrageous than usual. And how better to be even more over the top than putting on a HUGE dress made with yards and yards of fabric and tons of pearls. Just don’t ask me to count how many specifically, I’m trying to not focus on it right now.

Imagine the look on the bellman’s face when he saw our luggage as we checked in. The poor man finally he just asked what the heck the hoop was for. I guess not everyone shows up with their own farthingale any more. My how times have changed.

Not ones to be wallflowers, our merry group paraded through the Greenbrier, led on by Uncle Sam. You have no idea how amused some of the guests were…and the other half seemed to be quite confused. Earlier in the day while on the elevator one of the guests looked at Chad, Kris & I and said, “You’re the first people I’ve seen without grey hair.” Which would probably explain the confusion we caused in the dining room.

I was pretty happy with the inagural wearing of my dress, it fit, it stayed assembled and it was comfortable.  And as far as I could tell, I didn’t lose any of the pearls or assorted beads from it. I’d call that a clear victory! The green dress fit Kris almost as if I had made it for her, instead of my sister-in-law. The wig though, well after the parade I declared it unfit and chucked it.

After our circuitious route through the hotel, we headed back to the Florida House and indulged in food, drink and general frivolity that is the hallmark of Halloween! Who says this holiday is for kids? Please…

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Quite some time ago I decided to make an Italian renaissance style dress. I’d fallen head over heels in love with pictures of a dress I’d seen online and thought I’d go ahead and give it a shot. It was a big departure from my standard Elizabethan gowns.

I was happy with the results and surprised how fast it went together. Part of that had to do with serious lack of embellishments. I’m used to spending significant amounts of time in the  evening curled up  on the sofa surrounded by piles of embroidery thread, beads, ribbons and other miscellaneous stuff that eventually gets stuck under the cushions. Not so in this case. The only embellishments were around the waistline and I even cheated with that. All those nice little beads on the trim? Well I glued them. Yes, you read right. I used glue instead of sewing. How out of character is that?

But still, I was pleased with the effect and since this dress was intended solely for the office Christmas party I didn’t feel that usual self-inflicted pressure to go all out.  And since the dress I was more or less copying didn’t have a lot of embellishments why bother?  Things being what they are, of course I didn’t have any photos taken at the party when my hair was all nicely fixed and I wasn’t sweating. Nope, I waited until August to do the photo shoot. And that was only out of desperation because I needed the sage brocade for a new dress I was working on.

As pretty as it was, the dress was just taking up space in my costuming closet. I’d worn it twice and that was pretty much it. There was enough of the sage brocade to make into an Elizabethan gown and I was getting the itch to start on something elaborate.  The under dress is still completely in tact to this day. The brocade still hasn’t been made into a finished dress though. Not surprising, that’s how my costuming generally goes.

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finally makes an appearance.

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This is about the third or fourth incarnation of my wedding dress. The original has pretty much disappeared under layers of tweaking and additions of new parts. I have several different sleeves that also go with this dress. It is by far my favorite Elizabethan dress.