Wednesday, July 16, 2014

The Three Hose

On Sunday I attended the annual Abbey Medieval Festival with my re-enactment group RIFF. We again attended as a group of 15th Century fabric and clothing merchants under the banner "The Three Hose". My group was there for the entire weekend, however I only had costume enough to attend one day. As it is, I was unable to wear my flat front kirtle as it seems to have shrunk in my wardrobe. Thankfully my Burgundian robe is loose fitting and my earlier period kirtle still fit. I got to wear my horned headdress again, and this time I remembered to bring along my hemmed veil. I also bought a lovely 15th Century style necklace to finish off my ensemble. 

It was quite the relaxing day. We were set up and ready for when the public arrived, before lining up for the opening parade ceremony. I stayed busy for the day by practicing my finger looping (a medieval method for creating lacing cords). I only know the one design (a 5 loop design), but at least it is pretty and in the end I end up with a pretty lacing cord that is actually useful for my costumes and stands the test of time. As for out encampment...

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Jasmine's painting

Earlier this month I was asked to attend the princess party for a very lucky 3-year-old. I was asked to dress up as princess Jasmine and face paint. It's been a long time since I last did any face painting (probably around 8 years), but everyone seemed happy with the painting. The party was a big success and the Birthday girl loved being painted. I'm glad I was able to help provide the atmosphere for a great birthday.

And while I was too busy to get many photos, I did take a couple once I got home. Out of costume, back aching and tired beyond belief (as I had just driven 13hours from Mackay to Brisbane the previous day).

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

ScFi the night away

On Saturday night, I hosted a SciFi Trivia Night for the Australian Costumers Guild at my place. I had prepared a number of rounds each one with a different theme (time travel, alien encounters, robots, music and general knowledge). Each participant brought along a plate of food to share, so we had quite the range of goodies, though we did end up with three different sorts of sausage rolls *face palm*. At any rate, I think we all had a pretty good time, and my winners loved their "space gun" prizes. 

For the occasion, I had decided to remake my Padme Packing gown. This particular costume was one that I had made as one of my very first character costumes. It had been done in about 2 days and it wasn't fantastic. Over the years I had tried to make it again a bit better but was never completely happy with it. That combined with the fact that I had found better photos of how the original was constructed prompted me to have another crack at it, and this time I am so happy with it. The only existing pieces I used was the embroidered panel (about the third one I have done overall) and the small pieces of jewellery I already had (though I would like to make some adjustments, I just ran out of time). I also used my existing Victorian corset for the foundation undergarment and one of my historical petticoats for skirt pouf. 
All in all though, I love how it turned out. Keep an eye out in the next week and I will put up a post about all the layers that go into it, but for now, the event photos. Unfortunately I was feeling a little off, so I have pinched my cousin's photos to share a few. I loaned my Stargate Uniform to my Dad for the night and my mum got some pieces from my Princess Leia Endor Trooper.