My other hobby

This post is to respond to a request from my secret pal. I sew (from patterns) medieval faire costumes for my mom and her friends (and myself when I'm so motivated). I haven't been great about keeping pictures handy, so please forgive the poor quality of some of these. There's on picture I couldn't get loaded of my dress from the first year. But you aren't missing much, since I made it WAY too big and I didn't really like it. I ended up giving it to mom...whom I'm sure will be asking me to alter it in some fashion at some point. :o)

This was the first year...the first dresses for mom. I cursed her and called her all sorts of names for choosing these materials. Silky and slippery...sewn on an old Singer sewing machine without bells and whistles. I'm surprised I did more after these, quite honestly. What a nightmare. But I was so excited to actually have someone wear something I'd sewn that I stayed up all night the night before the faire opened so I could finish it.



This was the next year. I had just given birth to Sam and needed to escape the house. So I made myself a costume and hung out at the booth with mom. I've since had to alter the dress to compensate for the non-breastfeeding breasts.



This is me and mom in that second year. I made her overdress and she bought an underdress. It has since been altered to provide less train and easier maneuverability in the muddy woods.



Here's a close up of mom's dress pre-alteration.



Here's mom's mystical dress that lasted on wash. Neither of us knew that the star chiffon would snag like a bitch in the wash. I think it was really the drier that was the ultimate demise, but who knows. Either way, I had to take it apart and replace the sleeves with a blue satin. It was also an opportunity to shorten up the sleeves, as mom discovered that long flowing sleeves are not necessarily a good idea in a stained glass booth.



This is Heather. I made an entire outfit, but the shirt had sleeves long enough for a chimp, so Heather had to substitute this blouse underneath. This was my first bodice with boning and I was quite nervous about it. It's easier than the pattern looks. As you can see, Heather had gained a bit of weight since I'd measured her. She since lost it and looks fabulous in this outfit (if I do say so myself).



I did the skirt and the sash here for Celtic weekend. I'm not sure the pattern is anyone's real tartan...but it's cute nonetheless.



This is the costume on the way for our friend Lori. It's in the process of alteration because I didn't make the armholes big enough and I made the length too long for poor short Lori.



A close up. I sewed the store-bought frogs on by hand. Isn't the material great...stained glass-ish, no? $1/yd at WalMart.



And this year's enterprise...except with several changes. The red will be dark gray satiny material. The inset will be white with silver thread embroidery. And I'm not sure we'll get the collar done...but we're going to give it the old college try.