Saturday, August 8, 2015

Lots on the books

I’ve been a busy little bee of late. It hasn’t shown much in the lack of costume events that I have attended (which is odd for me at this time of year), but I have been sewing up a storm and shopping up supplies for some of my upcoming projects for the remainder of the year. There is quite the number of costumes planned:

  • Pirate jacket and wig for my dad to complete his ensemble
  • 1850s ballgown for my mum (finishing off)
  • Disney cosplay of Sadness from Inside Out
  • Disney cosplay of Periwinkle from Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings
  • Disney cosplay of Fairy Mary from Tinkerbell for my mum
  • Disney cosplay of Anastasia from the 2015 Cinderella
(bit of a theme going on here)
And then if I get time and haven’t shot myself beyond that, I’d like to try and make a historical swimming costume and finish my Princess Leia before the new Star Wars movie airs in December. Just so that I can show up in costume.

At the moment though, I’m focusing on the pirate and the ballgown. I can’t work out who’s stupid idea it was to sew 8 metres of trim in designs on the pirate jacket. One of those “oh this will look wonderful” moments followed by lots of cursing and neck cramping when you actually try to get it done in a timely fashion. Thankfully I don’t have much left to do on the jacket and I don’t need the pirate and ballgown finished until the end of August. I do like to stay ahead when I can though. And as soon as they are finished, it’s onto the next one.

And in all this time, I am going to be working hard to trim up a bit for the summer cosplay run of costumes. I’ll be wearing my Jeannie costume in November and stomach baring costumes require sit-ups so that you see more ab and less flab, and yet here I am sitting down with a can of coke. Go me!

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Abbey Medieval Fair 2015

A few weekends ago, I made the annual trip out to the Abbey Medieval Festival with my re-enactment group RIFF (Re-enacting Independently For Fun). Due to other commitments I was only able to make it for one day of the event, but I had a great time at any rate. We were set up in a bit of different spot this year than in the past, however still part of a 15th Century village set up. We didn’t get as many people stopping by as we expected mainly because we were outside of previous grounds, tucked along beside the road. I don’t think people even realised that we were there.

But we certainly tried to provide the ambience of the period. Aside from our encampment and costumes, we provided talks on dressing a 15th Century woman, dressing a 15th Century man and dressing a 15th Century soldier. I also spent a lot of my day working on various forms of women’s handiwork including fingerlooping and lucite braiding to make lacing cord for my costumes. We also put on quite the spread at lunchtime where we all provided a dish to share. My contribution was mini pies – I made pork and veal pies and apple pies. They certainly went down rather well.

And for the event, I made myself a new kirtle. My old one no longer fits thanks to cake, so I really needed a new one. And this time, I changed it up by adding short sleeves. I have always loved the short sleeve kirtle look so it was a nice change to my flat front kirtle. If you’re looking for a pattern, mine is drafted up from the Medieval Tailor’s Assistant. It is very comfortable and supportive through the bust as it is designed to be tightly laced at the underarm. And I had learnt from my previous gown and changed up the lacing direction to make it a bit easier to get on and off. Unfortunately I didn’t quite get it finished and had to resort to machine stitched eyelets, but that will be rectified in time for next year. I of course topped it off with my Burgundian robe and horned headdress. I’d love to make a new Burgundian out of a silk brocade and trimmed in fur but I just couldn’t afford the fabric this year. Maybe I can aim towards making that component for next year.