But first, a short bulletin on the Cathedral dress. My wonderful wide black eyelash lace arrived from China OOOH! For some reason, it came in three pieces of about 3m each. No idea why they do that, and fortunately, it won’t matter. I keep finding more images of Victorian dresses which use this colour … Continue reading A pocketful of posers…
Warning- long post…and 5th of 5 Between fittings: oh boy, so much hand sewing! Shell top I adjusted the pattern again, and cut out the gorgeous, but very slippery charmeuse lining. Because the lame was a bit scratchy against the skin, I didn’t want any facings on the inside, but applied the lining by hand … Continue reading Wedding #5: Jackie in the box!
4 of 5, bear with me! Between fittings: I cut out the skirt, did some more maths to calculate the size of the godets, pondered on the best way to insert them, and got cracking. I’d done some eBaying, and found a gorgeous vintage petersham in turquoise, some turquoise cord [more on that later] and … Continue reading Wedding #4: Jacketing
3 of 5 First fitting. After much consideration, and some careful measuring, I decided to have a go at draping the shell top directly onto Jackie. Eeek! She’d taken my advice and bought a very well-fitting bra, and also remembered to wear it to each fitting [I’d have biffed her if she hadn’t lol] She … Continue reading Wedding #3:
Post 2 of 5 I then said we needed to get cracking on the fabric shopping. Setting a date for this was tricky, life always gets in the way, but eventually Jackie was able to join me and my cronies on a fabric shopping expedition into Birmingham. I can’t recall the date, but it must … Continue reading Wedding #2: Jacking it up
First part of FIVE, I warned you! Backstory- Ten years ago, I hooked up with my lovely missus [we’d met many times, her parents lived next door to me for 25 years] on a night out at Scruffy Murphy’s, a rock bar in Birmingham. She’d been listening to my tales of woe over a cup … Continue reading Wedding #1: Hi Jack!
Yesterday we went to a steampunk meet-up at Chatsworth House. The intention was to have a lovely picnic in the grounds, and also to see the current exhibition of costume that’s on, called ‘House Style’. From the site information: House Style demonstrates the power of fashion and brings to life the captivating individuals from the … Continue reading Chatsworth House Style
Most cities in the UK are not as great for fabric buying as Birmingham. We still have a very extensive market area, selling fresh fruit &veg, fish [apparently fresher than you can buy on the coast], meat, spices and snacks. There are knick-knacks, toys, hardware, toiletries…and fabric. Lots and lots and lots of fabric. And … Continue reading CoBloWriMo #24-Unexpected Source
Other people’s blogs? Apart from the very few books that I already recommended in an earlier post, I really don’t do that sort of research. I’m not an academic, I’m not a historian, I’m a maths teacher who likes making costumes! I love reading everyone else’s accounts of their fascinatingly precise research, and I like … Continue reading CoBloWriMo #17-Written Source
I wasn’t going to buy anything…but I slipped! We never even got as far as Barry’s this time, we had a Market Virgin with us, and things took a loooong time lol A smallish group of 6, but we flexed and fluctuated, came and went, all day…except when happily ensconced noshing noodles at Mount Fuji. … Continue reading Rag Market at Easter
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