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Debuting new garb at a festival is always frought with what-ifs. Is the length ok? Will the bodice ride up or down? What about the weight of the garment? After repeatedly stressing over how hot we were going to be in our new multi-layer linen dresses, the weather turned out cool enough to warrant extra layers. And the fit of the dress turned out just fine.  What you can't see is the long underwear on my legs.  I wanted to match the blue the princess was wearing. She's on the far left. But, everyone agreed we turned out looking awesome! (Kate here) I was actually a little sorry we ended up wearing the full outfit all day. I hope in following years, we get to show off the dresses underneath more. And, while the dresses were great, I have to add that we seemed to have found the limit of our cheap hoop skirts. Both of us were popping hoops by the end. For Ryan's new doublet, I literally traced over his most recent one - the green and brown doublet from the fall before - and added a few inches where necessary. The diagonal design comes from a costumed festival goer we had encountered in KC the season before, but the pants are being re used from another outfit.
I know, I know. I should have taken progress pictures of Ryan's doublet and the baby outfit. I ran out of time/inspiration. Ryan's sleeves were from an earlier pattern as well, and I just replaced the centers with strips of ribbon. The underarm is still out of blue linen. The whole doublet is lined in the same stuff as the frock coat. And I ordered buttons to cover with blue linen, which Ryan thought was very close to magic. The baby shift is secretly traced from a button up shirt I had for Easter, which will be in a few weeks. Almost every other baby shirt I could have traced was knit, which wouldn't do well if there was a sudden growth spurt. And in learning a lesson from my last baby outfit, I made knit side vents, which turned out to be unnecessary in this case.  (Kate again) We always seem to add things to our garb from the faire. This time, I found blue leather rabbit-trimmed fingerless gloves, and Rachel found tan velvet pouches that we strung from our bodice lacing. Perfect for hiding those modern things that you want to keep hidden but close to you, like a cell phone and wallet. Most importantly for tired feet, we added walking sticks. You'll have to imagine all these things until we can get a good picture up that includes these!
As a whole, the ensemble was a hit at the Festival! We ended up wearing the costumes both days, instead of switching out like we planned. I truly do not have any new outfits for myself planned for the Wichita Ren Fest this fall, but if time opens up this summer I may finish some costumes that have portions that have literally been in the making for around for 15 years.
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And now we finally come to what inspired the creation of this whole costume: the coat. Or, as Kate has dubbed it, the frock. For a previous project I sourced a copy of Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 3, and was quite taken with her illustration of a loose kirtle. It looked comfortable. And I hadn't ventured into the English style in years. I had a bolt of fabric picked out in a blue and light grey color - it was a polyester brocade and I found it on clearance years before and saved it for a special project. The first fabric I ordered to go with it was the blue linen that would become the base dress. But I was having problems matching the silvery color, plus the tan background wasn't khaki, or sand, or really tan, but a lighter version of taupe. It was worse than trying to match a red tone.  It a fit of desperation I actually went through the tubs and stacks of fabric and found the stuff pictured above. It was linen! It was already embroidered! Kate had a small issue with the actual fabric design, and she was right. As it was the embroidered design would lend an Italian flair to the dresses. After browsing English fabric styles of the day we agreed that putting a geometric pattern on top would tone down the Italian feel. It took longer than one might think to mark everything with a yardstick.  We were limited on the fabric available, and it was already cut into two pieces. At the time of purchase I had gotten several yards, and Kate separately purchased what was left on the bolt. Good thing I was drafting my own pattern, right? That sounds impressive, but I was using a shirt yoke pattern to start with, and from there it was an angled line to the floor. Sleeve openings were taken from the mirror of the sleeves I'd already made. The neckline would be turned out to help form the collar. The back and sides would have pleats. I was used to working in miniature, so drafting wasn't that bad. I wasn't concerned with down-to-the-inch accuracy. Matching the pattern and direction of fabric was the hard part. But, in the end I had a little extra to use for Ryan and Xander's outfit!
You'll notice above the ribbon embroidery isn't in place yet. I got a little excited to see if my pattern would work. Kate and I agreed we were using Ina Garten as inspiration for the collar. The lining of the coat was done all in a low quality Dupioni silk I found at a retailer online. I ordered the general off white color, which turned out very nice.
After I got the ribbon sewn on, but before I ironed the garment Kate saw it and said it looked like a quilted bedspread. She wasn't wrong. I'm glad the iron helped. Construction of a fully lined coat isn't too much different than a lined vest, and as a sewist who started in the '90s I was familiar with those!
Stay tuned for posts about the coif, hat, and finally everything all together! Time for another installment! I figured the wait until New Year's Eve with Kate visiting was as good a time as any to actually get started on our Blue Bees dress. And the first step is designing. I had the dress design in my head, but contrary to popular belief Kate and I don't actually share a brain and she wanted a sketch. Fair enough. I used a website that specializes in real bodies for fashion sketches to aid my poor art skills.  Kate poses for the camera - We had a bodice pattern traced on paper at this point. There are more bodice pattern generators online than you might think. Our heritage has betrayed us in the past though, as the German bodice worked best, followed by Italian. But this was our attempt at an English dress, so I went with a pattern generator I'd used before with mixed results.  Paper pattern generated and modified! I have pinned a possible overdress neckline on one half. In true Sound of Music fashion, the fabric mock up was made of old curtains. Honestly, I was just happy I got the sleeve pattern generator to work for the fitted sleeves I had planed for later. The V-front design has been modified for our rounder torsos, and the lacing was planned for the front sides.  Kachel the dress dummy wore this bodice for several weeks until we moved on to the second step... |
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