The Finished Gown

As promised, I have pictures of the finished gown....along with a few others!

I'd love to see you all out at the Chippewa Valley Renaissance Faire!

The hat is called and attifet and is historically correct for the time period.  I'll try to get more posted on how it's made.  These pictures were taken at the Memorial Day parade 2011. 

Elf Shoes!

Our jetster needs shoes!  He really want's the swirly toed ones and I've made a different pair for him before, so I got out the pattern and went to work on new ones that are made of the yellow velvet to match his hat.

Start with the pattern.  You can get the pattern here...
http://sewing.about.com/od/hallowee1/ss/elfshoes.htm
I enlarged it as his tennis shoes will be inside.  I had to enlarge the sole and the uppers.  But being talented like I am, that wasn't too much of a challenge.

For the soles, I used two pieces of velvet to make sure they wore good.  Worse case scenerio, if the soles wear through, he will have to go back to his others. 
I stitched the two sole pieces together and then the uppers following the instructions on the link I gave you.

I highly recommend using a walking foot on your machine for anything that has a deep nap like velvet and furs.  Speaking of fur...keep an eye out for one of my next posts....

Once the uppers and soles were stitched, it was time to pin them together and stitch them up.  This is the tricky part, as you need to make sure that you match the center of the back of the sole to the back seam of the upper, or it won't fit right.  You also have to make sure that you adjust the fabric when sewing so it continues to lay right and not get bunched up and leave you with wrinkles.



Once they are completely stitched together, you have to turn them.  Now, I've never had to trim these seams as they turn fine without.  If you make these and find that the soles don't lay the way you want, you may need to turn them again, trim your seams and see if that works.

The final step I did is to stitch down the edges around the top.  In the instructions on the link (which, if you've read ANY of my other posts, you will remember that I never follow instrutions to a tee) it states the tops lay open and hang down.  I don't want these to do that.  So I folded over the front and back sides and stitched them down, and then folded the top edges and stitched them down.  I'm going to either put buttons or snaps on them to close them up, but that will have to wait until the jester gets here and lets me know what he prefers.

Final product!

Pictures

I've finally gotten some pictures to show you of the work that I've been doing.  I told you that I would get some up.  Unfortunately, I have no pictures yet of my completed gown.
:( but I do have a few of the sleeves and will post them.

So, onto pictures!!

This is my friend Jane and the corset that I made for her.  This pic was taken at one of our rehearsals and the reason she has on hat and horns is she came from the anime convention that was in town.  Lookin' great Jane!

This is Aaron, our court jester.  The hat and jinglies were made a couple of years ago, but the shirt (which is hard to see right now) is new.  I'm finishing up the pants that match.







Jane in her complete outfit.  The underskirt is separate from the forepart and the overshirt is also separate from the bodice.  You can see that the sleeves lace on and are open to keep her cool on our hot days at faire.  She has a doublet that matches and that can be worn separate from the bodice.  Green looks very good on her.  What is hard to see is the green is a jacquard and a lighterweight upholstery fabric.  It's swirly.

This will give you an idea of the sleeves.  I'm hoping to get a full picture today of the complete gown on the form.  I'll let you know!

What a crazy month!!

I haven't forgotten my blog.  I'm just so swamped with getting ready for season that this is the last thing I update. 

I do have my gown done....well, for the most part.  Needless to say, if you've every undertaken a project like this, you know that it's never REALLY done.  I'm hoping to have pics uploaded this weekend after rehearsal so you all can see what it looks like on.  I still have to make a hat and I'm debating on whether or not I want to put on a wire whisk ruff.  It would be real cool and would really set me off as 'the main dame'!  LOL!  Well, after the queen that is....

Rehearsals have been going great.  I've gotten a lot of compliments on my gown and on the one I made for another gal ( I want to upload those pics too).  I love my role and the 'attitude' I have.  Kind of like me!  We have less than three weeks to opening day and I'm nervous and excited!  Nervous because I have so much to finish before then and excited because I really get to play!

On the lines of what needs to be finished...
One jester shirt and pants.  The shirt is almost complete and should be by tomorrow.  It's going to look great on him!  It's a bright yellow and orange and will go very well with the collar, wrist cuffs, ankle cuffs, waistband and hat that I've already made for him.  The pants are going to be a cinch to make.  Simple he said.  I can do simple.

One pair of faun pants.  These are going to be a dark brown fur that I've already cut out.  The trick will be putting in the butt cheeks (yes, they are NOT real) and figuring out a way to secure the legs.  The faun is going to be on digi-stilts so it's going to be tricky...

One bodice that is reversable.  This is almost complete as I'm mentoring the gal who is doing it and it is for her.  However, with time running out, I may just pick it up and get it finished.

One doublet.  This goes with the outfit for the gal who has the other gown.  It will compliment the gown and be an additional thing she can wear should she want the additional.

Hem up the cape.  Yes, I still haven't finished that. That won't take long...but it's still something that needs to be finished.

Hat...mine.  Not an easy undertaking, but should be able to have it finished by opening day.  This will be the last thing I do.  I always seem to put me off..oh well.  Here's a pic of what I really want to do hat wise.

If not that, then it will be this..

I'll try to get pictures uploaded after this weekend.