The Elizabethan Gown, as is.

This will need to be short, as I am also short on time, but here is the doll gown I have been working on and posting about. Please let it be noted that the entire gown is tied onto her. There is absolutely no snaps, buttons, zippers, or velcro.

What remains to be completed is the hem, the overskirt, the beaded over sleeves, the wig, and any accessories befitting a lady. Oh, and the shoes... wish me luck on that.

May your stitches be straight and may your thread never tangle.

Cleaning can lighten your load.

I have found that if you don't clean out your craft space frequently, there are so many projects that can be lost to the darkness. So this is a focus on the lightening of a craft space (really, just how I clean my own craft space) and a subsequent list of the projects I will be juggling (this will be a separate post, I think).  But first for some tips on what to do and not do while cleaning.

First: DO make a total mess. Unless you're the anxious type who could never manage such a thing. This shows you everything that you have, dump it all on the floor. I would strongly suggest that you wear close toed, hard soled shoes for this. Craft spaces can be fraught with pins and needles!

Next begin to sort. I like using grocery bags and piles. The variety of the piles and bags will depend on what types of crafts you favor. If you knit or crochet alot, you probably already have a designated yarn bag or box or bin. If you prefer quilting, the squares might already be grouped together somehow. So spread out and put these groups together.

Then look at your craft space, and I really do mean to give it an honest look. Is it small? Is it lacking some storage? Assess the space and keep the order of your crafts in mind while you think of how you're going to put everything back. What I mean by the order of your crafts is simply that you should make a time line.

You can organize your timeline in whatever way suits you the best. I have found that keeping "due dates" (birthdays, events, gift giving get togethers I'm making something for) in my daily planner to remind me of when a certain project needs to be done by is helpful. The order of everything else depends on how you craft. Do you want the large projects out of the way first? The small ones? Do you never have multiple going on at the same time? Make a list that helps you organize these priorities, and then stick to it.

This list can then be used when putting things back into your space, with the projects that aren't going to be worked on in a while being put the furthest from reach. After this you can start placing the rest of your supplies in designated places. If you find that you need some extra bins or bags to place these sorted supplies into, DO NOT rush off to an expensive store.

Instead go to the dollar store. They often have a plastics isle of bins. A large variety of bins in different styles and colors. With this you can color code and if you would still like to label the bins you can go over to the school supply isle and look there.

Also, while you are cleaning and purging the craft space:
DO NOT start a new craft or let yourself be side tracked to working on one you havent seen in a while.
DO NOT give it all up for lost. You will get through this.
DO go slowly. You really need to think critically about these things. If you're anything like me, you need to ask yourself "Is this scrap too small to keep?" If you're not making a scrap quilt, and all its good for is a Barbie size cuff, the answer is yes.
DO take small breaks. Remember to not push yourself too hard.

So that is all for now. Some in's and out's of cleaning that should help you stay organized.

May your stitches be straight and may your thread  never tangle.

Little White Flowers

With the top stitching done, and a method of lacing being slightly elusive, one is left to wonder how this is all going to actually lace on? The answer is lots and lots of eyelets. Right bellow is all of the eyelets in their proper spots. But whats a bodice without decoration?  So after rummaging through the glory of my scrap drawrs, through generations of inherited items, I found a chain of small daisy lace and chose to attatch it with the steel blue beads. It ended up looking really delicate, but really lovely.

Since the last entry, i have deconstructed the outer skirt and thought out how to reassemble it. This has now come to include a new way of pleating and a lining. Thanks and praise be to the great thrift store, provider of the mcgyvered crafts! Technically I'm using an old nightgown thats only a little off white, but some bleach can fix it right up.

This is almost a completed project, so here is actually where things slow down a bit. For some reason, the prospect of completion is one that makes some crafters slow down. I'm not too sure why, but it happens. I think its a type of procraftination. But i do still need to design a bead pattern for two other aspects of the ensemble. First will be the bead and or embroidery pattern for the overskirt. It just wouldnt feel right if it were not just a bit more over the top. With some research this should be easy. The second item would be a set of beaded over sleeves. Remember in a prior post about the layers? This is just another one of those sleeve layers, and it is going to be nothing but bead netting. That will be difficult.

But this wont be impossible to get done. Soon it will be time for the overlock machine before rolling the hems and finishing the hand work.

So untill then, may your stitches be straight and may your thread never tangle.

Lavender and Blue

This gown that I have been working on has decided to become a bit more complex than I initially thought.

First, the images of the dress in progress do not do the colors justice so here I have two samples that come as close to the actual colors as I have been able to find.

The lavender is serving as the underskirt as well as the undershirt.  Since I plan on being able to use these simple items in multiple outfits, I want them to be as flexible as possible.  That means making them into two separate pieces. The fabric is a very light weight, poly-blend crepe.

The light steel blue is serving as everything else.  It is the bodice, the over-skirt, the over-sleeves, the hip ruffle, the stomacher, and the cuffs.  The over-sleeves, hip ruffle, and cuffs have been lined with white satin while the other items are either lined with another layer of the blue or, in the case of the over-skirt, left unlined.  This blue fabric is actually some weight of upholstery fabric/blue on blue brocade.  I'm not quite sure what this fabric can be classified as, since it was a remnant I was lucky enough to inherit.

Just as a note, the white satin and lavender crepe were also inherited remnants.  Women in my family on both sides have been sewing for generations, and any of the "left over" fabric simply gets handed down.  I consider myself fortunate.

These are the pieces for the bodice.  The cuffs are the small rectangles on either side, the two half circles are the shoulder straps, the one long piece is the bodice, and the shield-like piece is the stomacher.  This picture was taken before any of the lace, beads, or eyes could be attached.  Since I am trying to be as accurate as possible, the entire dress is assembled by tying it onto the doll - hence the eyes. (that's the loop part of a hook and eye, just to clarify)  The stomacher is entirely reversible, and at its center is a medium weight card board.  Since I needed this piece to hold it's shape to lend visual structure to the dress, it is very stiff and bends only slightly.

To the right is the over-skirt.  I did mention before something about a lot of ruffles, didn't I?  It still needs to be hemmed and decorated, but it should give you an idea of the direction this is going.  The split will be centered in the front, putting the lavender underskirt on display.  It is possible that this piece will end up lined if any of the decoration needs the extra support.  On the left is the ruffle, lined, un-decorated, and not yet gathered.  The blue has a seem-line in it while the white satin does not.

The over-sleeve is a large and otherwise bulky item (honestly the skirt is more bulky, but that is to be expected).  The issue it presented was that while the blue could be cut as one large piece, the lining had to be cut as two.  I had no desire to have the seem-line show, so I had to pause the project and go looking for materials.  After a trip to Jo-Ann's I came home with yards of spooled ribbon and laces, as well as a number of other delicious remnants which can be made into yet another Elizabethan inspired gown!  The floral ribbon I ended up using to weave in and out of the lace is actually grey, not blue, but with the darker steel blue beads holding it all in place it's hard to tell.  Plus, it covers up that seem-line perfectly.

This is the last image of this entry.  It is of my doll in the lavender under-skirt and shirt.  Like the over-skirt, I still need to hem everything and add on the eyes to be able to properly tie it all onto her.  There are some points that I will end up fixing along the way, such as the collar - or lack thereof. I'm not going to be going for the large lace ruff, just a simple lavender on gold ribbon with beads.  The waist band will also be changed so it doesn't add as much bulk as it does now.  What this image does not show is the white satin underskirt to help with the shape and the bum roll that will help the under-skirt hold some proper form.

May your stitches be straight, and your thread never tangle.

A quick run-through of Elizabethan Fashion

Since I am making a gown based off of images of Elizabeth I (Good Queen Bess) I thought it would be a good idea to do a brief history lesson so those viewing the gown will not be completely lost.  Let us begin with some basics.

Elizabeth Tudor was born on September 7th, 1533 at Greenwich Palace to King Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn.  Her nicknames have come to include: Good Queen Bess, The Virgin Queen, and the childless Elizabeth.  She was also the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. Aside from the fame these nicknames have given her over the centuries, and all that they imply, she is also very well known for her eccentric sense of fashion.

It's got to be something about being a monarch that makes people go for all those fancy clothes.  Something about the wealth goes straight to their heads. But I digress.

Thanks to her, the fashion of the 1500's changed.  Many of the undergarments remained as well as the general shape, but the other intricacies changed. Her early clothes were still very much in the Tudor style with a farthingale (early hoop-skirt) over a shift, followed by the kirtle - which was a form of an under-dress with supports built into it, so there was no need for a corset.  After that you had the gown, which is the main part of the dress, and it would tie up the back.

During a more transitional phase between a distinctly Tudor fashion and what would become common place in Elizabeth's time was the use of a bum roll. Some people would put it over the farthingale, or under it, or later under the wheel drum.  Some who were not as wealthy as other court ladies would wear just the bum roll to simply give the skirts a little extra lift.  All a bum roll is is a stuffed tube that ties around the waist and helps to hold up the heavy skirt layers.


 Elizabeth I would end up keeping the upper portion of the dress similar, but the skirts would be changed dramatically.  There was the introduction of the wheel drum, a type of hoop-skirt that allowed the skirts to project from the body and then drop dramatically.  At one point it was still fashionable to have the front of this skirt split open, allowing the rest of court to view a contrasting underskirt. However, this would slowly change from year to year depending on the queen's mood.

Later on the sleeves would change into a three-layered (in some cases more) effect.  While you would maintain your chemise sleeves, often showing their expensive and lacy cuffs, you would also have the sleeves of your gown and then an additional set of sleeves that would tie onto your bodice.  See, the over gown now came in two parts - a top and a bottom - and often had multiple, interchangeable sleeves.  You could tie on one set of "over-sleeves" that would drape nearly to the floor and then also have a set of shoulder cuffs aside from your other two, basic sleeves.  That is a total of four "sleeves"!

So there is a quick history lesson before I begin to post about the dress itself.

May your stitches be straight, and may your thread never tangle.

Christmas Goodies

I know it is no where close to Christmas time, and that I should have stayed away from this post, but I could not resist.  A friend of mine finally opened her Christmas gift!  And since I haven't seen what I made her since it was finished...  Well I figured it was time for some pictures.

Here she is wearing it, a simple yet elegant blue scarf.  It is made up of a simple grid pattern which can be achieved by alternating knit and pearl stitches to create a square.  These I believe were done in a 5x5 pattern on size 3 needles.  I don't quite remember.  Then I put a fold in it, stitched the ends together (making it an elliptic scarf) and proceeded to the bead work.  This aspect took a lot of pre-planning.

I had to make sure I had enough squares to be able to have the leapfrog like pattern woven together, and I had to also make sure that when I put the fold in the scarf the ends would not be identical.  Much math later I had the number ready, adjusted the knitted length accordingly and then put it all together.  Reading this you may think that this was an easy thing to do, but really it is not.  As this friend put it: "You never stop amazing me."  But this is what I do.

The beads are for the most part glass and the pearls are not real.  Most of the fancy beads came from deconstructed samples of upholstery and curtain fringe - the kind you expect to find in snooty custom homes.  Even though it all looks very delicate, it is relatively heavy, which allows it to hang the way a scarf should.  This is important, because sometimes even if you get the gauge right for the weight of the yarn, the total weight of the piece might not be enough to complete the effect you wanted.

Soon there will be an update concerning another WIP besides the blue and lavender dress, so until then:

May your stitches be straight, and may your thread never tangle.

Why are you doing that?

This is a question that was posed to me when an acquaintance of mine found out that one of my newest projects is the constructing of a historically accurate (as accurate as scale will allow) Elizabethan court gown for my 16 inch tall BJD (Ball Joint Doll) complete with underclothes, three skirts, and no zippers, snaps, or Velcro.  And NO use of a machine, save for overclocking the hem lines before turning them by hand. They asked if it was because I hated myself, since they knew exactly how complex those gowns can be.

So here is my answer:

I am doing this because I want to.  I know I can, and so I will.

My inspiration really began years ago, growing up going to Renaissance Faires.  But for simpler terms, let's begin with Google Images.  A quick search later, and I pulled two images to serve as my inspiration.  First: one of the best known images of Queen Elizabeth I. She was well known for her extravagant gowns, many of which would feature in her portraits.  This one in particular was the first image I ever saw of her, and it has stuck with me ever since.  So from this image I decided to do my best at imitating the shape of the skirt, the over ruffle, the hanging sleeves, and the general idea of the stomacher.  The puffy shoulders also feature in the scaled dress.  One modification to the dress comes with the second inspiration image.

The image to the left contains a still from the movie The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) and the gown, as far as I have been able to tell, is either the dress from the movie, or the dress that inspired the one in the movie.  I'm still not too sure because I have never watched it.  But I loved the shape of the shoulders, the split skirt, and the point that the bust is fully covered.

Now, in the version I am making, I have taken some liberties given that I'm working with a stiff brocade and a few other light-weight fabric remnants.  Due to the scale and the fact that my doll is a hard resin I have had to make some adjustments just to make sure it would fit properly while still coming as close as possible to the look I wanted.

This has been achieved through the use of a bum role, a satin underskirt, some cardboard, and lots of ruffles and top stitching. Did I mention the ruffles? And the top stitching?  Just to make sure I do mention them, there is heavy use of ruffles and top stitching.  Got that? Ruffles and top stitching? Good.

Once more materials are gathered this weekend, there will be another post to show the progress of the individual pieces.

May your stitches be straight, and may your thread never tangle.

Something current, for once.

So my friend, who has inspired my adventurous side, admired my work, and who was the sole reason behind one of my previous entries (please see "Hey, do you know how to...), is soon moving off to the next chapter in her life.  So what better way to show you care, than to make something?  Said friend has already received a sweater (Christmas) and a pair of mix-matched socks (college graduation).  So now it's time for a scarf!

I took her to the student show at the Tin Thimble (excellent place) and while wandering around the shop, found material that she instantly fell in love with.  To quote her "But it's so soft".  Referring to raw mohair.  The conversation that followed went something like this:

Me: "What are you doing?"
Friend: "It's soft. And fluffy."
Me: "Are you petting it?"
Friend: "But it's so soft."
Me: "Would you like it?"
Friend: "What am I going to do with it?"
Me: "Would you like me to make you something?"
Friend: "But I don't like felting."
Me: "You know you can spin that, right?"
(By here I realized I just said something I maybe shouldn't have)
Friend: "I'm going to assume you can spin?"
Me: "You're really asking?"
Friend: "Of course you do." (gives some thought) "Please?"

I am now spinning mohair into thick and thin yarn, in different colors, and after that step is done I will end up weaving them into a scarf.  Spinning mohair is not that hard, in all actuality.  That is, for a truly advanced spinner with a wheel.  I am neither an advanced spinner nor do I have a wheel.  But I do LOVE a good challenge.

So how does one spin mohair with a drop spindle?  I'm glad you asked.

(Time-laps of about a week)

The problem with mohair is that it is both fine and fuzzy, so unless you have good tension and a base, it is not going to want to keep it's shape.  I was fortunate enough to have a spool of very fine, black yarn that I could use as my base.  So between that and using two cat hair brushes as my carting pallets (since I do not spin enough to actually own the proper tools, but it's the same basic principle), all of the spinning got done, despite the point that I had never spun mohair before and that it had been a long time since I had used my drop spindle.  Then came the point for me to make it all into two ply yarn, which means taking two lengths of the yarn and twisting them in the opposite direction.


I have mentioned before that I tend to MacGyver a majority of my tools, and this project was no different.  To hold the one ply yarn I used: a darning egg, a kubaton, and a coffee cup sleeve from Starbucks as well as a paper clip and an extra-small claw clip.  At one point an empty tea tin, small quilting frame, and brass hour-glass were also involved. Thankfully my classmates have been interested in what I'm doing and were willing enough to help me by holding the two "spools" of single ply as I used something else to twist them together.  The hallways on campus tend to be my impromptu craft space.

As for the weaving, it didn't work out quite the way I wanted it to.  One side held shape perfectly, but as I started to turn the project, it just got thinner and more misshapen. I did my due diligence and finished it, took it off of the loom (really, this was the small quilting frame with yarn just wrapped around it. I do not really own a loom.) and looked at it with unease.

Perhaps this makes me an artist, but I was so displeased with the work that I refused to put my label on it or even show my friend.  So I took it all apart, wound the yarn into skeins since it would now hold its shape, and selected a pair of gauge 13 knitting needles.  Within one weekend I had finished twisting the yarn, woven it all, unwoven it, and knitted a scarf.

This past Tuesday, aforementioned friend tries it on.  It looked like a turtle neck sweater minus the sweater - just the neck.  So back to the drawing board. I took the scarf apart, yet again, and re-knitted the whole thing 3 stitched thinner and in so doing, made it a bit longer.  Now the damn thing actually looks the way it is supposed to and she is very happy with it.

To me it was a labor of love as well as a challenge, both things I enjoy immensely.

May your stitches be straight, and may your thread never tangle.