My project seemed incomplete, so I added some more!
Goldwork
I took a class at Costume College on Goldwork Embroidery, taught by the lovely Lady Detalle. Fortunately I went straight to vacation after CoCo, so I am actually finishing the piece we started in class! I’m loving this technique, and very excited to start a project for myself that involves this embroidery. What to make….what to make….😁
Labyrinth 2017
So my best friend convinced me to go with her to Labyrinth this year, and it turned out to be really fun! I don’t have a ton of good pictures of other people, but we got some good ones of us. They had all kinds of shows to go watch, including goblins and acrobats. It was kind of overwhelming, and there wasn’t a schedule to tell us when the different shows were, but maybe that’s part of the fun of Labyrinth!
Getting ready, night one!
This knight on his dragon was pretty cool. Gretchen had to have a picture with it!
Brunch the next morning was ahmazing!
Night two!
The delicious tea party! All you can drink of a bunch of different brews. So tasty!
One of the shows had a giant bird that was worn and performed like a Chinese lion dance. Pretty neat!
Silver and gold!
And that’s all folks!
Behind the Scenes…
Several months ago, one of the ladies I work with (Hi Zan! *waves*) approached me about doing a photo shoot with some of the work I’ve done for Riley’s Farm. Her husband is a professional photographer, and he was looking to expand his portfolio. I’ve never had professional photos of my work, so of course I was in!! Here are some behind the scenes shots by me, with the pro shots coming soon!
Hair and makeup by Peggy Johnson
Costumes by me, for Riley’s Farm (mostly, the yellow jumps are by Blossom Bingaman)
Project management by Alexandra Trefrey
Photography to come by Chris Trefrey
The photos in the post are by me, you can’t blame those on Chris!!
Fair Wrap Up
On the last day of fair (no Masquerade, so much easier to prep for!!!) I told my kids they could come with me if they dressed up. After some initial whining they agreed (even though my son thought he should be allowed to dress like a cowboy!).
As you can see, the day started out with Mulberries! They were amazing! I left my kids with a friend at another tent and went to help finish setting up ours, and when I found them again my daughter was in a tree, and looked like she murdered someone! Luke was off doing archery and exploring the fair with Sebastian.
LIzzy enjoyed making a sweet bag, after she smelled every single thing (of course!).
When I caught up with Luke again they wanted to make candles.
They came out a little lumpy!!
Lizzy did archery and threw Tomahawks and had a wonderful time! Luke did also, but I didn’t get any pictures of him.
They both had an absolute ball in the kitchen, and spent quite a bit of time there. Luke ended up staying in there for a couple of hours!
After another trip to the mulberry tree, I went to check on Luke.
He was now helping the guests! Explaining things and showing them how to do it. Having worked tour for 9 years, I was so proud!! It was so fun to see him engage and share and watch his mind expand.
My little outdoor girl ended up at the pond and caught two little frogs (they were safely returned to the wild after a lot of convincing!!).
Where did Lizzy end up? In the pond of course!
She wasn’t happy when I made her get out of the pond…
But she was when I reminder her she got to go in to start with!
End of the day wrap up pics!
It was a wonderful day, and so nice to see them engaging and having fun without technology! They also agreed to do it again if I make them their own clothes (a in my book!).
And the mulberry covered dress actually came clean (in case you were wondering!)!
Masquerade Prep part 2
So….we got the gown made!
And considering how quickly we had to get it done, I’m very pleased! I think our guest was too!
I definitely need to adjust the shoulders and the sleeves, but it was workable and comfortable for the evening and everyone was able to enjoy themselves!
Gown prep for Masquerade
I was reviewing my size sheets for this week, and realized I hadn’t noticed a particular size. A size we don’t currently have in stock. A size which I have never made before. So….here is a new challenge!
The first thing I did was email her for more measurements, because we were doing a custom gown and set of jumps for her. She was very quick to respond (yay!), so I was able to make the pattern yesterday.
I started by padding out one of my dress forms to suit her measurments as closely as possible.
Using hip pads and rumps didn’t work so well though….just super lumpy….I don’t have any batting in the shop right now (now on the list!!!), so I used some foam and some quilted lengths of fabric that had batting in them.
This worked much better! I tied the twill tape where her measurments indicated the waist line was.
I loosely used Larkin and Smith’s pattern shapes for this gown, we wanted to use a stomacher for more flexibility. Their pattern didn’t go up to this size, so I fudged ( a lot!). This is the first try.
And here is the second and final draft of this pattern. I really hope I set the sleeve right! We’ll see tomorrow night, when it gets worn!
Fair!
Well, I was doing pretty well there for a while, but Fair Prep and Masquerade hit me like a hurricane and I was finishing a coat commission (FINALLY finished it TODAY!!) and I’m helping my husband open a gym…and I kind of forgot to post! I haven’t even been good about taking pictures. Oh well… Here is what I have for the last couple weeks. Oh, and we threw a birthday party for my son!
Anyway….
Here is me getting ready for fair on Tuesday. I needed to powder my hair some more before I did it, and my hair powder was at work….so I used my handkerchief to cover the mess while I was getting ready. I should wear my hair like that more often though, I forgot how cute it is!
Here are a couple of the lovely ladies working the costume tent with me. Funny thing is, we aren’t really sewing much! In this corner we have Miss Johnson doing 18th century hair or just powdering (using the awesome stuff Alicia makes over at Little Bits on Esty…including the really fun blue and pink hair powders!). Miss Darling is assisting with the cosmetics and the mouches.
Mrs. Trefrey is helping someone ‘buckle a shoe’ and is standing next to our textile display and fashion plates.
We were also block printing fans with wood block prints and making sweet bags.
This is at the end of the day…we made it!
Now…after fair on Tuesday….we started pulling all the costumes needed for Masquerade. We started out with stuff EVERYWHERE! The only thing I got through on Monday before fair was all the laundry from the previous Masquerade, and getting all the bags labeled for this Masquerade.
Yup…it was a disaster!
All the gowns and jackets pulled out….
And Yes….we do put everyone in stays!
We have a record breaking number of people to costume tomorrow night, so hopefully I’ll have time to get more fair pictures and some of Masquerade to post next week!
Nelly finally gets a new gown!
My apprentice Blossom made a new ensemble for our retail manager last week. She has been waiting so patiently! We have fair opening on Saturday(!), so we were happy to get it done in time!
Redcoat renewed?
Our redcoats are used 5 days a week all through the school year, and understandably get quite faded. They get retired before they are worn out due to the color change…they’re more like pinkish redcoats by the time we replace them.
Our Sgt. sashes also get quite faded, but the fringe more then the rest, as it’s exposed quite a bit more. Lockton said that someone told him to use fabric spray paint on it to renew the color ( I had never heard of fabric spray paint, but it’s a thing!).
Worked pretty well! So…I decided to try it on a recently retired redcoat that was in good shape except for the fading. We taped them all up to cover the lacing and buttons (and we’ll be more particular if we do it again!), and I went to town with the spray paint.
You can see how bad the fading is from the opened up cuffs and lapels where its not faded at all.
Here’s how it looks half done….looking good!
Looks so much better! It does change the feel of the wool a little bit and it’s almost a bit tacky. It’s not uncomfortable to wear (although I dont know how it will breath yet). It may have come out this way due to my impatience, and if I try it again (likely) I’ll follow the directions more closely (do one light coat, let it dry, repeat!), and I think the results will be much better. But all in all, $15 to renew a $600 coat for a couple more seasons is totally worth it (just don’t touch the stiff coat!)!
You've Been Robed! 