Monday 16th January: A proper update and some revamping
I've decided to give the site a little spruce up since I've not been on it for so long! I've decided to start a livejournal to use for more general/smaller updates and other not so costumey ramblings. I'll still try to update the site regularly, but that will be more of a running journal, etc. I'm new to LJ, so if you're interested feel free to friend me! The renovations are still sort of...imcomplete, so forgive the patchy design & hopefully it'll be looking a little more together soon.
In other new (hem, hem) I've started on a Victorian corset (and will hopefully have picture up soon) and am making myself finish on some of my current projects before leaping into anything new, and believe me, there are so many new things I want to leap into!
Wednesday 4th January - Hooooooraaaaaay!
Am finally able to update! It's been a crazy process involving a horrid, horrid computer crash, followed by much recovery time and then a ridiculous fight with dreamweaver to enter FTP details, but I've done it! Proper update will be along soon!
Saturday 5th November: Meae vestum multae picturae sunt!
The Ghirlandaio gown is finished! and I thought I'd celebrate with a little latin translation. There is a new page in the gallery with pictures, and details of the last agonising steps in the dress diary.
I have also spent today rescuing our goldfish from a rusty doom and enjoying the beautiful summery weather.
Tuesday 1st November: Red, Red, Red!
Today is Melbourne Cup Day - and one of my favourite things about Australia in general, and Melbourne in particular is that we are able to declare a public holiday all because of a horse race! I have spent majority of today dyeing my hair with henna, which means I spent a couple of hours with my head covered in a muddy solution and cling film, and now I have lovely shiny red hair! What fun!
It's been the madness of the end of semester as well, which is my explanation for the appaling lack of updates for the last month, but now all the essays are written and the exams sat and I have a whole summer stretching before me. Although I'll be working quite a bit, I also hope to get lots of sewing done. Updates today on the Ghirlandaio Gown, which is progressing at a ridiculously slow pace because all I have to do now are the fiddly little finishing jobs. Humph!
Thursday 29th September - Hems and necklines
The end is in sight! I was up until 2.30am this morning working on the undergown for the Ghirlandaio gown - not because I had to, but just because I started late in the afternoon and couldn't seem to stop. I occasionally get a penchant for doing late-night things - late-night cooking, late-night sewing, anything that seems like a slightly impractical project to start at 10pm :)
Anyway, the upshot of it all is that the pattern for the undergown bodice is drafted and the bodice constructed, the skirt assembled and attached. This means there are only the following jobs between me and a finished project:
- Finish hemming the undergown
- Finish shoulder straps on undergown
- Find and purchase lacing rings; attach lacing rings
- Finish hemming the overgown
- Attach neckband to camica
- Finish fiddly bits on the sleeves
- Consider such fun things as jewelry and hats!
Can you tell I'm not keen on hemming? On the up side, it means a quite hour sitting in my window seat and at the end a lot of neat edges!
Sunday 25th September
What a week! Lots and lots of updates today...and lots of pictures.
It was my 21st birthday on Wednesday and my wonderful parents gave me the best present a sewing obsessed costumer could want: a dressmaker's dummy! I was thrilled, danced around the house for ten minutes and then rushed off to dress her up in something. She has been named Dolly, and my family think I'm probably the only 21 year-old who asked for a dolly for her birthday. I also received this beautiful book:
To top it off, just as I wanted nothing but to sew, I had to finish a 2500 word essay on Victorian newspapers. But it is now finally finished and I'm on holidays all week and have promised myself lots and lots of sewing time!
Updates today include:
- A new page on the Dreaded Farthingale
- Some more updates to the Ghirlandaio Gown
- Photos on the Regency gown page
- A revamp of the Elizabethan Corset page...with more new photos!
Saturday 10th September
I've been sewing hard over the past few days and have added a new dress diary - The Ghirlandaio Gown.
Sunday 21st August,
Yet again I'm taking a break from something I should be doing (Latin translation!) to update my diaries. The Doublet diary has been updated with details about prawns, and I've also put up a couple of pics of some non-historic sewing.
Sunday 14th August,
Ah, I should be writing a small paper on the significance of immortality in relation to gods and heroes in Homer's Iliad, but what am I doing? I'm updating my dress diaries! A few more refinements, a few more photos (yay!) and the site is actually slowly coming together. There are many more photos that need to be taken, but hopefully they will be along soon. And hopefully once this week is over, I'll have a little time for some sewing - I'm on a quest to get a few things finished, as I seem to have umpty-umpt unfinished projects...and I wanna start some new ones!
Updated pages include:
Wednesday 11th May,
Well, the web site is finally up! What a relief! I've been mucking around with this for the last few months and it's great to finally have got it semi-together. Tomorrow is a glorious day as all my classes have been deemed 'reading time' and so I can stay home and sew all day! I'm very keen to get into some doublet construction. Click here to read the diary for this project
Monday 21st March 2005- Much excitement!
Over the weekend I took my life in my hands and my heart in my mouth and ventured to Rose Chong's annual garage sale. Rose Chong owns a voluminous costume hire shop in Fitzroy, Melbourne, and every year has a sale of all her retired garments. These include numerous everyday clothes as well as more unusual items. I had been told that it was an event not for the faint hearted - and such it turned out to be. However, despite nearly being impaled on a coat hanger, I escaped with a rather funky coat in blue-purple material which I think a rather hip regency girl could get away with wearing, and a lovely cloak in which I intend to play at being a Bronte and dying theatrically from consumption!