Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in c_isabella's LiveJournal:

Sunday, September 12th, 2004
9:37 pm	Another day at the faire!! I got a chance to wear my new dress again, and anticipated that it might (hope, hope) be cool enough to wear my new cape/cloak. Nope, very warm, and VERRY muggy. Was supposed to rain in the morning and never did. Instead, it just hung in the air. Given what other people are going through in the south, I am not complaining, but, wearing the cape is out of the question. I did want to take some more "final pics". So, here is the dress minus the lower sleeves. Much more comfortable to wear on a really hot day. We also took a couple of shots of the dark green cape (from my backyard). I couldn't resist trying it on, especially since I am not always fortunate to have someone to manage the camera. Ignore the chain link fence. And one final view with the hood up: I should add a couple of notes about the cape. I think I mentioned that I had this cut out before I knew I was making a venetian style dress. I used an off-the-shelf pattern for this and really, the embellishments were the fun part. Because of that, I decided not to provide detail on construction. If anyone wants more info, I am happy to provide. Anyway, I am pleased to report that I did find examples of capes in the Vecellio woodcut book, so I am not terribly OFF. I don't know that the women used hoods, practical as they seem, but they are very helpful here in Minnesota so I have exercised some creative license once again. Veils seem very common for out of doors, but not very wind and rain proof. Gosh, I sound so practical. Which is really ironic given the kind of clothing I am spending most of my weekend in... I think I am done fussing with this for now. I still have a partlet to make, and 2 weeks left of Faire this year. Having said that, I will be out of the country for the next couple of months and alot of things to get organized before then.. so I think I will focus on the partlet and second pair of sleeves when I return. Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 8th, 2004
9:49 am	Accessories update I have a few new pictures to post... First, I made a waist girdle for my dress in gold cut glass beads, bronzy gold tone filligree beads, gold heshi, and some green glass beads that appear more "hand blown". Overall I think the effect is nice with the dress. Here is a pic: I used medium weight Tiger Tail cord which is very strong and should hold up to the swishing about when I walk.. I also took a pic of my clogs-aka-chopines. I picked these up last winter at TJ Maxx becuase they looked rather rustic, the base is wood, and the golden suede suits both of my venetian dresses. After seeing some more examples of chopines, I think perhaps the real ones were satin and much more elaborate, but considering I need to be able to walk in these for 8-10 hours in dust and sometimes mud, I think rustic is OK. At least my gait is suitably hobbly and I am at least 3 inches taller. Makes walking with a full glass of wine, a fan, a bag for my wallet, and Chloe on a leash a real challenge. Last weekend we got alot of rain so the faire grounds were quite wet and I considered the chopines a blessing for keeping my feet dry and NOT ruining my shoes nor the hem of my dress. I have also started my cloak/cape. I have not found many examples of capes for women in Italy, and am concluding that perhaps they wore a "loose gown" possibly lined in fur when it was cold, or maybe over the top of the dress... or they stayed in during foul weather. I am going to go with a "fancy cape" for practical reasons... also because I already had one cut out. It is a very dark green cotton velvet with a matching dark green satin lining, a full hood, and some really pretty bronze soutache trim. I purchased these bronze appliques on ebay last winter thinking they would be a nice edging around a mens cape, or down the front opening edges of a elizabethan dress... but I purchased so many of them I can spare a few for this project. Plus, the bronze color coordinates well with the trim on the dress. I needed to find a good way to attach them. Option 1, sew by hand. Option 2, sew around them by machine. Option 3. Attach with some kind of iron on applique adhesive. I tried option 2 and option 3 to see what would happen, and decided on option 3. I do have a rationale, this is not pure laziness. The adhesive seemed to add some stiffening which is needed for the front opening edge and will keep the trim facing outward. Here is a photo of the appliques applied to the front edges of the cape. I liked the effect so much I was even thinking about triming the entire bottom edge, but am deciding against this now. It would give the edge a nice full sweep, but it would also collect twigs, leaves, etc. which would not be terribly attractive. I made a dress a few years ago which had looped braid around the bottom. At the end of the day I looked like a dust mop... trailing debris whereever I went.. so I will save the rest of the trim for another day.. (Comment on this)
Monday, August 30th, 2004
5:07 pm	Debut dress outing I got a chance to wear my new dress this past weekend. The weather was perfect on Saturday, not too hot, not rainy, not cold... perfect for the first wearing of a dress. My dear friend came over to help me dress and do my hair that morning. It really helps to have someone assist with lacing and straightening chemise, etc. especially when it is the first time you wear something. I seem to get more proficient if I have had the opportunity to put it on once or twice. Side back lacing is challenging. My friend had a bit of trouble tying the spiral lacing at the bottom. I need to look that up again to find out what kind of bow or knot is recommended. We also put my hair up with a false braid on top. I really loved the hair in "Dangerous Beauty" with the some up some down look and the pearls laced into the braid. I realize it is not a totally documented hairdo, but it has some of the important elements anyway. I am not willing to part with my bangs right now... just don't recognize myself without them.. but I did thin them out a bit. We should have taken a pic of the back of my hair. She did a great job. Lots of cool tiny braids looping from the large one. I made a pair of earrings and a waist girdle.. if that is what you call it. I will post a close up pic of the jewelry next time also. Upon wearing this the only other "thing I would do differently" is put another layer of fabric between the dress and the heavy boned canvas. It isn't that visible but I can sometimes detect the outline of the steel bones in front. I also realized that we did not take a back view photo. I will do that next time.. I forgot that I have some design elements back there.. Next, I need to make a "purse" or bag of some sort to carry my camera, wallet, and lipstick. I also have some dark green velvet to make a cape.. and I still need my parlet.. almost forgot. So there is more to come after-all. Oh, I almost forgot... I was going to mention this for those readers who feel as technically challenged as I do. I did not realize that when you re-size an image, it takes some time to update the diary. That would explain why I have a postage sized venetian woodcut picture in my earlier copy. No, she is not a pygmy. She started out as a giant, and I kept making it smaller and smaller to no effect. Then the next day, PING. She is tiny. I had a very good chuckle over that one. I decided not to fix it because I thought it was such good humor. (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 26th, 2004
10:58 am	Sleeve and hem progress I am hoping to be able to wear my dress this weekend to the faire, so I am focused on the finishing touches. It is supposed to be mid 70's on Saturday, which is perfect temp. for this dress. I think finished sleeves would be nice. I have dark green velvet for a cape to go with this, but I think that is far too ambitious for this week. I admit, I have not had the whole thing on since the hem marking a week ago, but I have the dress hemmed. I did a hand stitch hem for the brocade and a machine hem for the linen lining since that will be covered up by the silk border. I had enough fabric of my green silk to make a 13 inch deep panel to sew over the linen at the bottom. I don't know if that makes sense, but I have a rather poor picture to illustrate. It looks like I wiggled but I made 3 attempts to photo and decided the camera just doesn't like this pic for some reason. Yep, blame an inannimate object to save pride. Now, regarding my sleeve delemma. I decided to stick to a matching sleeve bottom to go with my puff for the first sleeve option. The Venetian Lady drawing I am using as a reference appears to have either piping or cording running down her sleeve. I liked the idea of dressing up the lower sleeve so it fits with the more elaborate puff. I had some heavier bronzy cord which I stitched down the length here: Unfortunately, if I decided I really liked this look I need to run to the store for more. I am about 1 yard short to make both sleeves. So, I brainstormed some more and thought maybe it would look cool to have some dark green carrying the line down the sleeve. I had purchased some green and gold ribbon for the purpose of fancy ties for the sleeves and, wow, I had enough. I think I like it. By the way, I piped the cuff edge and added some beaded trim at the cuff to finish the bottom. Then I lined it with the same gold Thai silk. The top edge is just turned in and stitched by machine since no one will see it. I also added the scallop trim to the bottom of the puff to create a lace edge transition. I have seen that in several venetian sleeve illustrations. Here is what it looks like with the sleeve puff, and with the camicia. I am camera happy now.. I need to attach the puff and the lower sleeve, with hooks and eyes I think. Then create my eyelets for the sleeve heads and I am on the home stretch. Only a few more hours of productive time left. (Comment on this)
Friday, August 20th, 2004
11:22 am	updated prior entries and more news I have updated my prior entries with better photos, where they belong with the text. I have also been working on the skirt and sleeve puffs so here is my update. My fabric is 54 inches wide and I have 3 skirt panels, each about 1.25 yards long. I matched the pattern for each and sewed them together. I have 60 inch green medium weight linen as the skirt lining. I decided not to underline this skirt since it has more body than my gold silk brocade dress. I hope I don't regret this. I cut 3 panels of the linen, then cut down to same width as the dress fabric. I felt that not having each section match up was preferable so I don't have double seams in the same spots.. important when I get to the cartridge pleating. Now I have the issue of grading the skirt and lining up a back side opening in the skirt to correspond with the bodice since I know I will need hip or shoulder room to get into the dress. I calculated the total skirt width (160) and the measurement of the bodice seam edge and divided it out. I now have a skirt to bodice ratio of 5.25 inches. So now I know how many skirt inches will be distributed to the back bodice. I mark this and cut slits down about 6 inches for both sides. Then I do the same with the linen lining. Now, I sew the right sides of lining and dress together to finish the edges. So far, I have the skirt and lining attached to each other only at the slashed back openings. Next, I have to grade the skirt edge because I have a front and back V. I assume the sides are at waistline. The front is dipped by about 4 inches. The back is about 2 inches. Incidently, I don't know if that perportion is verifiably right. It looked right to me. Anyway, I mark the center front and center back(deepest dip) and calcuate where the grading begins by using my ratio of 5.25 inches of skirt to bodice again. Then I draw a straight line from my deepest point to the place where the grading begins and mark with tailors chalk. I use that as my cutting line. This should keep the pattern level, I hope.... seemed to work on the gold dress. Now I am ready to attach the lining to the skirt at the top edge. Again, right sides together, I sew both sections along the top edge. Flip and press. I am using cartridge pleats. I really gave it some thought but the venetian dresses appear more like gathers than pleats.. would love to try pleating sometime... SO, I mark with a red pen on the back (linen side) a mark every 1/2 inch. I use that as my guide in running my long gathering stitch. Made 3 rows of gathering thread. I gathered them up and stitched by hand into the dress. I am getting much more skilled with all this handwork. Went to see my Mom, and got her help with marking the hems. Here are the new pictures. My original idea was to sew a strip of the dark green silk to the bottom edge of the linen lining as a sort of underskirt/petticoat embellishment. I need to calculate how wide I can make them since I have only 2 yards of fabric. Then I am ready to finish the hems. I am using the dark green silk for the inside of the sleeve puffs and perhaps as an alternative lower sleeve. I am having much debate about what is time-period appropriate vs what I personally find asthetically pleasing to my eye. I made up a sleeve puff using the "elizabethan pattern" method because I liked the idea of the dark green showing through the brocade, and also becuase my camicia is softer and would not hold a firm puff under the weight of the sleeve bands. Each of the sleeve tabs are lined in the gold silk and piped with a green and gold piping. I added some delicate burnished gold trim to go along with the trim at the edge of the bodice neckline. The under sleeve is cut out of the lining and the dark green silk and then assembled. They seem to puff nicely. Are they too big or too little??? They are close in size to the example of the venetian lady drawings and my favorite green florentine lady painting, so I think OK. I put a band around the bottom. At the last minute, I decided to keep my options open on what to do with the bottom half of the sleeve. I pinned it on so you can see what it looks like with the bodice. Now, I am thinking: Can I have a dark green lower slashed sleeve???? Like the earlier rose venetian lady painting or the Titian lady painting? It would be so fun, and would look so beautiful with bronze outlined slashes.. Yummm. They are earlier examples and don't have the pointed front and back bodice which I think occurs later. I do have about 1.5 yards left of my brocade so I can make a detachable matching lower sleeve and a contrasting one just for fun...When in doubt have options???img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/c_isabella/florentinelady.jpg"> Best get cracking on my skirt hem and continue the contemplation. Current Mood: creative (Comment on this)
8:08 am	More photos Here is a photo of the camicia I am so happy with. Great draping. I set the ruffles at the neckline with a bronzey lace braid to hold them in place. I laid the pattern out so the selvage edges were at the neckline so I did not have to hand roll the edges. I have not finished the sleeves or the bottom hem yet. I think I will add sleeve cuffs and a self ruffle at the bottom. I think it makes it much easier to manage and keep neat inside a sleeve. (from personal experience) I also like that it is quite easy to position the neckline into a square to follow the lines of the bodice. Once laced in, it stays put. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 18th, 2004
11:00 am	Further comments and progress I finally have a finished bodice. I liked the fit of the ladder laced dress better, and am a bit challenged with getting into a side laced bodice. I decided to add "modesty" panels behind the side back lacings just in case I need more breathing room. I think that is reasonable, although I have not seen or heard of this so far with other costumers. I used gromets for the holes and will embroider over them. Someone else mentioned doing this and my own test sample did not yield a hole large enough to easily lace through. I also piped the neckline with a basic solid green piping to reinforce the square neckline and keep it firm. I will have a shoulder seam on this because it is one of the areas I have had the most dificulty fitting right; angle and length. As narrow as the shoulder pieces are, they need to be right to keep from sliding off. I do not have square shoulders so commonly have trouble keeping my dress on. (I have thought of using stick on velcro to my skin to try to combat this problem in other dresses in the past) I believe "Realm of Venus" mentioned a pattern from the Milanese Tailor's handbook which had the solution, but I have not been able to find it.. I didn't get a good picture of this step, sorry. Need to figure out how to take my own photo while in the dress. Patience, I will learn yet. I have some gold thai silk for the bodice lining, which I have cut out, and sewn by machine around the neckline and armholes where I wanted a very straight strong line. The rest I put in by hand. Spent most of Sunday doing handwork. Sunday I also beaded my bronzey lace and attached 2 strips of lace together. This wider lace will be used to trim the neckline and over the shoulders. I have had this lace for a couple of years. I purchased it at JoAnne's on clearance. When I bought it, I liked the more rustic finish. (Comment on this)
10:30 am	Photos to view About my camicia fabric. It is a creamy embroidered silk. I went with it because after showing several friends my white linen camicia with the dress fabric they all said it was too harsh... so, a creamy tint seemed much more harmoneous. I don't know that it would be accurate, but I found this silk and it drapes so beautifully, and the embroidered pattern is very similar to the dress fabric, plus it was on sale.. I bought what was left on the bolt.. It will only really be viewable as a fine ruffle at the neck and sleeves, but I love wearing it. I finished it first, using the on-line instructions many others have used... with the underarm gussets. This is my third camicia using this pattern and it fits great. (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 8th, 2004
7:34 pm	new thoughts about green venetian dress First trial fitting suggested that my bodice is too small. Seems I am not as squishable as my template pattern ( and generally acceptable renaissance fitting guidance) suggests. 4 inches off the bodice piece?? My version is without side seams because of the interruption in pattern,but I am rethinking it. If i can't get it right a second time I am tempted to cut another 2 pieces. So, I am recutting the back bodice piece and making new boning channels. Well, at least bigger can be made smaller, whereas smaller does not generally grow. It would sure help if my dress dummy was about 10 pounds lighter and similar in size to yours truely. I made it in college some 20 years ago, and at that time it was supposed to be an exact match. Time has altered me at least so now DDMY is bigger. Fitting things alone is a real pain, not to mention a total guessing game when fitting back bodice pieces. (Comment on this)
Monday, August 2nd, 2004
12:27 pm	Creating my own diary!!! I have been following dress diaries for about a year, and fantasizing about creating my own. Thanks to Festive Attire site, I am going to give this a whirl. Please be patient with my computer abilities## I have a few pics of the planning stages of my new dress. I recently made a lace up the front venetian dress as a warm-up exercise. Reasonably finished in time for my annual trip to Bristol.. Now my goal, to complete another dress for the Shakopee/MN Ren Faire, and take pictures of the steps and dilemma's along the way. By the way, unlike many of the costumers on line, I do not have a sewing kitty. I do have a sewing "papillon". Chloe is pure mischief, so periodically sneaks off with notions, material, and other distractions for a good chew. Her favorite place to lounge is laying on a gastly piece of metallic brocade. She may make future photo appearances since she is frequently getting underfoot. Planning for my dress includes a drawing on basic silhouette. Resources include the green brocade dress of a florentine noblewoman in 1535, and some references to venetian dresses.. The basic design elements include the lower square neck (front and back) and a v'd waist in both front and back. The thing I liked about my ladder laced dress was that I boned the dress so I could eliminate the corset layer. It has 17 quarter inch spring steel bones in it, but I only have to get myself into one top rather than 2, which is a plus since I am usually dressing myself, and it is very hot during most of my Faire days. My fabric includes green and gold patterned silk brocade, medium weight linen for lining, a creamy color embroidered silk camica, and some quilted and embroidered solid dark green silk for sleeves? and border of petticoat. I have some bronze metallic trim in my stash which I will bead for accents. Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)