The Lady of the Lake

Last month I started cutting and sewing a houppelande. I had never made one and I thought it would be more complicated than it seemed. Pattern wise, it's not really complex, but the small details make it look correct. This was a project made out of 'already owned' materials, since I can't afford buying fabrics these days, so not everything is period correct as I would love. However, since I wanted to make this for a fantasy themed photo shoot, I'm not too bothered.

I really loved this kind of sleeves, but I didn't have enough fabric to line mine, so I had to finish them with bias tape made out of the same fabric. I made inner tight sleeves, a belt and a collar out of some golden taffeta I had though (would have loved lining the outer sleeves with the same taffeta too, but it wasn't enough). 

Since blue is a recurrent colour in Medieval depictions I chose some royal blue upholstery damask I had to make mine, of course, not a natural fabric, but as I said, all I used were materials I already owned. 

For the pictures, I left the hem unfinished. We (the boyfriend and me) went to the mountains where the terrain is rough and I got into a small waterfall! The place was perfect. So if the skirt was damaged with water and/or rocks, I had some spare centimetres to cut and sew the hem correctly. I just need to remember that for the next time I'm wearing it. 

As you can see my inspiration for this is the Lady of the Lake legend, I also had had this Medieval forged sword with me for some years and barely used it! So I simply had to use it for something. I also made the hairstyle myself, since it's not too complicated either... And put LOTS of glitter on my face to look more magical but it's completely unseen in the pictures *sigh*

This is one of the final shots I chose, which you can see on our Facebook page too (I will be uploading some more). I really like the result and this was such a fun little trip to make! Now, on to finish my next project... I'm really excited for that too!