The Radclyffe

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Sundry Radclyffe projects in time for Bristol

So I had this chemise... got it from a friend who had made it and it was beautiful with really long full sleeves and it was this light soft silk with a gathered neckline that I took to wearing Italian squarneck style. I wore it all last season at Bristol, through the sweat and the dirt and the dust and the rain.

RPFS killed it in one day.

I'm not sure if it was the super fine dust that played sandpaper anywhere the chemise came into contact with ANYTHING, or something else entirely, but by day two of my SoCal Romp it had gaping holes in the back, the front, the sleeves, the drawstring casing, the hem, the seams... well you get the idea. Unfortunately it was the only chemise I could wear my open ruffs with because of the neckline so I had to throw together a square-neck camicia if I wanted to wear my pretty pretty ruff.

I didn't have enough fabric to make the sleeves long enough in one piece so I had to add a chunk but since the sleeves will be under other sleeves 99.9% of the time (the .1% taking place while dressing/undressing) I don't care! And once I find beautiful light soft silk again I'm going to remake the original chemise and use that one probably.

Then, thinking about my open ruff, this one here,

I always wanted to make a set of cuffs to match but just never got around to it. So I threw together the start on the machine and took them with me on a couple flights and got all the tedious hand stitching the serpentines together done on trips. So now I have these too:

Then I decided to make a hat!
I wanted something I could wear with my current rig and also with my next dress. There's the same burgundy in both so I went with that. And kind of made schtuff up as I went. Played with the attifet shape combined with a fancy biggins cap. I also had bought this scrapbooking paper that was all cutout prettyness and I wanted to use it as a stencil so I experimented with different materials and different colors and made my own silver leaf painted silk in the end!

Gold leaf on white organza

Gold leaf on burgundy organza

Gold leaf on burgundy silk

And finally the winner, silver on burgundy silk

The painted pieces of the the big gins cap. I cut away the front of a simple biggins pattern so it shapes around my rats and behind my ears.

side views showing painted cap

Front and top view sans rats.

I'm not 100% sure I like it yet. I think I have to see it with full rats and ruffs and makeup and jewelry... If I wear it this weekend I will try to post pictures of it so you can decide for yourself. If I hate it on then you won't see it again >:^(

That is all.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Gresham: Alterations edition

Wow. So going by the feedback, I should make more sexy elf stuff! Unfortunately I don't have any more such projects on the docket for now.

After delivering the Gresham suit via proxy, I got a final fitting via proxy and had to do some small fit fixes.

Had to cut the neckline a little deeper in the back and take the shoulder seam in a tad at the neck.

Have to take the piping off, open up and resew the shoulder seams, restitch the piping on the shoulders, cut down the neck, resew the collar on, restitch the piping, and restitch the collar lining closed.

Had to take in the doublet at those side-back curve seams by a couple inches at the top tapering down to the original waistline.

Again, must peel off the piping and redo the seams, redo the same seams on the lining, restore the armhole that got a little mucked up from that, and restitch the piping.

Replaced and repositioned the store-bought grosgrain lacing ribbon with more stable grommeted lacing strips (this is to help get the fitted well supported look of the garment as well as aid in ease of buttoning.).

Had to shorten the doublet in the back tapering around to the front.

Remove the piping, take off the skirting pieces in the affected zones, cut down the back tapering the new line around to the front, replace the skirting pieces, restitch the piping down, trim down and restore the lining.

To ensure everything fits and sits where it should I'm adding points at the waist for the slops to tie into the doublet.

Cut silk strips, sew, turn, press

Finish ends and decorate with little ends. Punch grommets into waistband of slops and along corresponding points on doublet (have to put slops and doublet on client to mark appropriate spots first).

Hopefully the next Gresham pics I put up are action shots! Opening weekend is just over a week away!

Mystery Project Revealed: Sexy LOTR Elf Goddess!

So what happens when you combine me being inspired by someone else's character/costume, coming across a fabric while organizing that you think "hey this is so LOTR elven fabric", just completing a project with no other pressing project at hand, a few days off of work, and the silly desire to pretend to be a contestant on project runway??

This!

(please excuse the poor photography and the vapid lifeless expressions on my face as I try to work the self-photo/timer function/ pose in frame aspects of my camera)

So what brought this all on? Well. First I saw this picture of my good friend Jane the Phoole with a friend/phooligan I have yet to meet:

(Photo by Lady Ann Beck)

I highly suspect that this gentleman broke into my old high school LOTR induced wet-dreams to get his look. You're laughing, but I'm serious. Well seeing that brought back memories of day-dreaming of being an elven princess and looking like this:

And then it hit me! All these years later I finally have the ability to make myself an elf after all! I've spent all these years on the futsy period stuff and forgot about that fantasy all together. Then as I was organizing my fabrics I found some remnants of a silky green velvet that struck me as totally elf-goddess worthy. Then in Sacramento I found these fabrics:

I had just finished the Gresham Suit and didn't really have a project that needed attending to urgently. I had 3 days off upcoming and didn't want to spend weeks on a project that was really just a fantastical whim. Then I thought "Hey, Self! What if we did a project-runway style challenge and gave yourself a super tight deadline and worked all the way through the day throwing this together?" I liked it. I always wanted to get a sense of what that kind of project runway day would be like and here was a great opportunity to challenge myself.

And so I began! Now, the best part of this was that I had no constraints, no judges, no periodness, and no style restrictions at all! I didn't even care if it followed the LOTR movie style much. It was just a starting point and I let myself do whatever I wanted! I think I needed that kind of creative free-for-all after working on such specific projects for so long.

Initially my design was much more contemporary to the LOTR style:

Then I let this fashion ad inspire me:

Which brought to mind the looks of Elven armor such as this:

And then the design became this:

(also played with hair-styles since my hair is currently too short for flowing elven locks)

Then the rest just swept into a whole day from 10am-12am of working non-stop. I didn't get it all done in that "project runway" day. But it was a good shot at it. I finished it between the next morning and the following evening and I still technically have to hem the red organza shoulder flares.

That's pretty much the story, so here are some more (bad) photos!

Now if only I could find my old Elvish-English dictionary...

Saturday, June 16, 2012

If You Find Yourself In: Sacramento -

I'm in Sacramento today! It's 104 degrees out!!! Whewieee is it hot. Even the ten minute walks will beat you down in that kind of heat. As it was, there weren't too many great stores that I could make it to on my layover, and luckily for me, unluckily for anyone else, I found a fabric store that was closing that particular location!

At Beverly's Yards of Fabric, they had upholstery fabrics at 75% off, other fabrics at 50% off, and 30% absolutely everything! It looks like most of the stock has been pretty picked over but I found some good stuff.

Always good to grab some trims:

And about 4 yards of this fabric for $2

Same deal with this fabric

And got some perfect fabrics for upcoming mystery project...

The other place I went to was Home Fabrics & Rugs, by the Barnes & Noble (not on the Hooters side of the street!). They didn't have a huge stock, most of it was a bit too modern for period work, but if you're looking for home dec they have very good prices: 6.99-12.99/yard for almost everything I saw there. I may have found the fabric to reupholster my new sofa in...

Well that's all I was able to get to from where I'm staying, maybe next time I'll try to adventure further out if there's anything to find...

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Presenting Sir Thomas Gresham!

ALLL DONE!

Officially done with this project. Was lucky to get a fitting done last week and had a good deal of things to redo before I could finish, including remaking the hat and the sleeves to be bigger. Yuck! But it's done at last. Here ya go!

The whole kit & caboodle!