12th Night 2008 Photos of me in my Ropa and CJ in his ‘Bethan
12-20-05 Sleeves are finally done…mostly anyway.
I really wanted to wear this to Wassail which was on 12-16-05 (which I did, see photo at Haberman Fabrics). I’m wearing an old hoop skirt I got at a yard sale with an old prom dress to use for playing dress-up. It’s my smallest hoop without being a tea length. I’m wearing a linen square necked smock with long sleeves, and cotton lace around the collar and cuffs (I need a partlet with ruff). I’m also wearing my green corset which I’ve had for a long time, it was my 2nd corset to make, I have about 10 now in different styles and periods. The kirtle is made of a green linen-cotton blend. The forepart and sleeves are a cotton base with wool crewel work (see description of construction below). The forepart is hand beaded with very lightly dyed freshwater pearls. The sleeve cuffs are bound by hand with a pink silk satin ribbon. I plan to do the same at the top edge and cover the grommets (which are used to lace the sleeves to the kirtle) in the sleeves and kirtle with embroidery floss. The surcoat is a cotton velvet that was wrapped too tightly on the roll and when it arrived in our store, the pile was flattened in places and we had to sell it at a lower cost because it was damaged. It’s actually a really deep brown, the black was too stark against the pink. At the collar and cuffs of the ropa is real rabbit fur trim. On my head I wear a machine decorative stitched cap with false pearls. I made my necklace and earrings with rather large natural colored freshwater pearls and a gold bead in between each pearl except on the earrings. Again, the kirtle, sleeves and ropa were from the pattern: Reconstructing History RH204 Elizabethan Closed-Front Loose Gown, Loose Kirtle, and Sleeves.
I would like to add ribbons for closings at the front, and possibly a border around the bottom edge of the surcoat. I need to re-make my farthingale, with the same hooping wire, and without the lace flounces. I also need to make a partlet with small ruff to wear with this and other outfits. I also need to get my tall hat done which would look fabulous with this outfit.
3-12-05 Sleeves, the insanity…
Ok, so I didn’t just want to make sleeves with this stuff, I wanted to make them so the crewel work wouldn’t be wasted…
There are 2 seams on each sleeve (basically), and the top sleeve only has one seam done, the bottom has one seam done, one in progress.
As you can see from the top sleeve, I’ve marked the sleeve shapes and cut them out, but followed the embroidery pattern out a little ways when cutting the seam. When I put the two pieces, right sides together, I baste it together, and then I figure out which pieces are going to stick out over top and I trim down to the basting, remove part of the basting to slip it through.
Then I take the embroidery pieces which are left on top and I stitch them down all around the edges so they lay flat.
When it’s all done, the seam is less noticeable and you see more of the embroidery work instead of the seam lines. Yes, it has to be all done by hand. No, I don’t wear glasses, or reading glasses… yet.
And no, Chris still does not have his sleeves.
3-1-05 More snow, working on forepart & sleeves…
Snow warnings out woke me up this morning… much digging to get car into driveway off of street… 
Working on a forepart and sleeves from the fabric I dyed. I’m using the Reconstructing History RH204 Elizabethan Closed-Front Loose Gown, Loose Kirtle, and Sleeves.
And Bella just fell off my lap while trying to climb onto my chest while I’m typing…she forgets that I don’t have a stable shelf to climb onto when I’m not wearing a corset.
2-23-05 Dying…Again
2nd Dye, I got a darker color, much nicer, not so light pink. More of a rose now. Here it is and here it is with a piece that I didn’t dye. It’s in the dryer right not to try to get some of the fuzzies off. I think it turned out nice and it looks very rich. I like rich looking.
2-21-05 Dying…
I’ve been dying some fabric to use for a forepart and sleeves for fair season.
I used the Dylon Permanent Fabric Dye, and I used 2 packs of Burgundy, in the washer, I went back to get more to over-dye it again, but they only had one pack of the burgundy so I’m going to use one pack of burgundy and one pack of the poppy red and see how it turns out… it’ dyed the cotton background, but the wool embroidered crewel work wasn’t phased almost at all.
