Quick update.

Not a lot of posting last week, but mind you, not because of idleness, just because I didn't have a proper internet connection where I was staying. But now I'm back to our home and I will tell you some new stuff about what I've been doing.

I've practically finished the Elizabethan gown, pics coming soon. We didn't take the sewing machine with us so I just did minor stuff by hand. Everything is prepared to be sewn during the next few days so, as said before, pics coming soon.

I also started a new project because I had the time; again, just things done by hand. I'm in love with the outfit Laure Richis (from Perfume) wears during the garden scene, so I decided to make an 18th century outfit inspired by the one in the film:

It's this light teal jacket with a cream skirt. These are the fabrics I'm using (both taffeta):

The lace is for the sleeves and the ribbons as a decoration.

And this is how the pocket hoops look with a petticoat made of the same fabric as the skirt you are seeing in the pic. I still have to rearrange the pleats, it's not sewn yet! But I'm very happy with the result so far.

Official Regency Day!

Hi guys! I've written several times here we were going to have a Regency meeting in August; well then, the meeting was last weekend. We had some pics sent to us but I wanted to wait till I had all of them (including the ones in evening gown, because all of you have seen our day dresses by now).

We locals showed our jewel, the castle, to the visitors from the mainland: the Bellver Castle. It's one of the few Gothic castles with a round floor. We had a great time over there, despite the heat. In the above pic you can see some of us about to take flight with the keep tower in the background. And as promised, no more day dress pics, let's move on.

Aww, I love this picture! We had dinner in a wonderfully decorated restaurant, as you can see. And oh, we couldn't dance because, as always, we lacked gentlemen :(

And what a coincidence! Lady Ayden's dress and mine were very similar! Love the picture too, the photographer was astonishing. I was wearing pearls in my hair and she had flowers on hers, lovely.

Oh, and I'm so happy I finally have a pic with my Spencer jacket! I didn't get to wear it because of the heat (it's VELVET!), just took it with me to have some pics and also I knew there would be air conditioning at the restaurant :P It's still very plain, maybe I'll add some decorations in winter, when I can wear it.

These are the shoes I wore with the evening dress, all matched. I've been a lot into shoes lately :) Hope I have more news for you in a few days.

All the pics except the one of my shoes are by Roberto Llull, thanks!

Progress of the Elizabethan dress.

Order from chaos!

Yes, you've guessed it: The Seamstress of Rohan and I had a sewing day and it got pretty crazy. We're working on an Elizabethan dress, the red one is hers and the blue one is mine. So today I'm here to show you the progress.

The bodice ended up like this, and there's that trim to which I sewed some pearls, I love how it looks!

The petticoat with the brocade panel.

This is how it looks with the actual skirt on it.

None of the pieces are sewn yet, just cut the pieces and pleated (A LOT!). I still have to mark and cut the sleeves which are double and I need to think a bit about the space and fabric that remains. So excited about this project, you'll see what we've thought about doing in a few weeks or so I think!

Wannabe shoes.

If you don't have enough money to buy period shoes that are made using extant shoes as models, you also can sort of adapt modern shoes to look like them. Today I'm going to show you how to decorate shoes as 18th century mules.

This is a pair of second hand 70s or so shoes.  They have pretty much the same shape as 18th century mules, though the heel won't be accurate. If you want to try and alter it, that's up to you, I won't because I've had bad experiences trying to do so. As you can see, these shoes had straps and I cut them.

First, pleat some ribbon.

And glue it; I chose glue because the shoes' fabric is too thick to sew on it.

Add a bow maybe?

These shoes fabrics were brocade fabrics normally, but these tend to be expensive. If you want to save money I recommend glueing or ironing these flowery decorations that may not be brocade but add some texture to the smooth shoe.