Italy Conquered

Well it's done. Finished! Finis! Vini Vidi Vicci. Now I'm just finishing up Jen's black wool cloak to keep her nice and warm and toasty on Estrella nights. I'd say all in all the dress turned out wonderful. And I have the bleeding fingers to prove it ;)

I attached the underskirt and made it a full skirt so if wind should blow up the over skirt there won't be any embarrasing leg/sweats/underwear showing :) Plus it makes the gown very heavy and hopefully warm. The back is a lace up and a skirt hook of course at the waist. I also made the sleeves reversible so that it can be worn with either the red up or the gold up, depending on Jen's mood and the color of the chemise she's wearing underneath.

The Gold of Italy

I can honestly say I am almost done with the Italian Ren. I still have the sleeves to put together and the underskit to hem and attach but I have to say it's turning out beautiful. Sorry Jen, I had already cut the gold when you posted! ;)

Needless to say with the red highlights I am adding (ie. trim and sleeves) it looks stunning. I just hope the finally fitting fits! The good news is that there is plenty of the gold fabric left to remake the bodice with if it doesn't. The skirts are adjustable enough to not need re-sizing and or cutting.

Once the dress is done I can move on to the cloak, which is considerably less time consuming believe it or not. I have lining to do on my buddy Tom's cloak still and to cut, line and sew my friend Beverly's cloak in addition to Jen's. I think I am going to be taking tomorro and Monday off from work too. Too much sewing to do! :)

Italian Renaissance

In my costuming frenzy for Estrella I'm actually working on an Italian Renaissance dress that I would love to be making for myself. Unfortunately my friend Jen is the very fortunate person to be able to not only afford the fabric I was lusting after at Hancock's but also asked me to make her a dress with it.

The picture really doesn't do the color justice, it is a gorgeous shade of garnet red with gold embroidery on it and the coordinating fabric is just perfect. The photo really doesn't do it justice at all. I'm making her a dress based off of Simplicity pattern number 8735. Specifically the one shown in the claret velvet. Though I haven't decided which fabric will be the outer gown and which one should be the inner gown. The garnet one is simply gorgeous and I am half tempted to make it the outer gown just to showcase it, but I'm afraid of it being too much. I have til Saturday to finish it so I'll have to decide VERY soon.

Norwegian Traditions

This year my husband and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. No small feat considering more than half of marriages these days end up in divorce. So to celebrate such a wonderful milestone we decided some years ago that we would renew our vows.

Having had a beautiful and traditional wedding gown the first go round, I decided that I would attempt to have a more Norwegian traditional dress for our renewal.

My husband's family on his mother's side is from Norway and I'm a little (okay a LOT) viking/scandinavian obsessed so I'm more than willing to make the attempt.

From the research that I've done thus far, brides who seek a traditional folk wedding in Norway wear what's called a bunad, or folk dress. It's specific to the region where their family is from. My husband's family is from the Bergen area and so I was able to find what that bunad looks like thanks to some helpful info from the Husfliden website. This is a picture of it. Klaus is still up in the air on whether he wants me to make him the male version of the traditional dress.

Once I'm past all this Estrella War sewing frenzy and my Designing A Galaxy craziness I should be able to focus on making my Norwegian wedding dress!