Renaissance Fantasy Faire, Enunclaw, WA - August 14, 2011

Elf and Medieval French Queen (Mother and daughter)

More info to come

Renaissance Fantasy Faire, Enunclaw, WA - August 14, 2011

Trelayna posing with a Pirate.  She was asked about her outstanding outfit and the inspiration for the design.  She's an Elf, of course!

Trelayna found this picture of Link.  We used this to create her costume.

Her full outfit, including view of the shield.  The boots we also found at Goodwill for $3.  That was a good buy.  That little dog on her right is Dexter, a toy Pom.  He goes everywhere with Trelayna

This is Trelayna, my youngest daughter.  We attended a fantasy faire in Gig Harbor, WA about 2 years ago.  I designed her costume of Link, from Zelda video game.  She had purchased the shield ( a bit too heavy to carry around all day, and her famous sword).  The majority of the costume was made by her [with my help, of course]  I did do the lacing and embroidery around the edges of the tunic.  Trelayna made the pouches on her belt.  The belts were purchased at Goodwill and some of them were also made to hold her sword strapped to her back.  Anyone noticed her elfin ears yet??

Barnes & Nobles American Girl Demo

The costume I'm wearing represents the 1896 time frame, near the Gibson Girl era.  As you can see on my earliest entry, I mention this outfit and the event that it was made for. 

At the barnes & Nobles event, I dressed up my 5 dolls in different outfits.  This is my most favorite, the Medieval Traveling outfit.  You can see additional pictures of this outfit under the American girl doll label.

This outfit for the doll was inspired, Ohh, do you see the similarity?....it was inspired by my outfit.  My doll is also wearing a Gibson Girl outfit made with the same fabric as mine.  I'll post her outfit next time so that you might see the details a little bit better.  Since I just finished her outfit that morning, I wasn't able to include a not made up hat and fan. You can see the other dolls behind me, from left to right - Elizabethean outfit (my creation), Tinkerbell, Felicity's day dress [worn by Elizabeth] with matching purse [the object of the demo]

Here I am showing my audience how to make the stitches in the fabric

and helping them out with any questions,

The girls loved to ask questions.  We talked about the time period of these outfits, colors and fabrics, designing and the process of putting it all together.

It was a lot of work putting all this together, but, I must say, I truly enjoyed this short time interacting with them, the interest and the wanting to learn, and especially, the end result:  "I really did do this all by myself!". 

I want to give thanks to Anna, the Barnes & Noble children supervisor at the Silverdale Mall, for helping and especially for providing a fun program for the American Girl Club throughtout the year.

Barnes & Nobles American Girl Demo

I started with 3x8 inches of cotton fabric,

made channels at either ends with the sewing machine.  Then I had the little girls sew the side edges with yarn and a blunt end large needle.  I was amazed that a young girl of 4 was able to do quite a good job.  I cut twenty five of these for the girls to sew by themselves.  then I went to extra mile........

I cut an additonal  25 of these and sewed them up, placed som decorations on the front, as seen on both of these.  then I proceeded to insert narrow satin ribbon, as can be seen on the left side of the top picture.....

The finished product.  I gave each of the girls one of these to take home as a job well done.  They were quite excited about them.  and they all chose the same fabric purse as the one they had been working on.  I had an hour for the demonstration. 

1896 Outfit for the Chula Vista Historical Homes Tour April 30, 2011

These lovely ladies are part of the San Diego Costume Guild and I was honored to have been invited to have our picture taken as a group.

By the way, the temperature  on that day was 86 degrees. 

This is my almost finished version of  1896 time period.  I am missing a hat, parasol and gloves.  Unfortunately, this photo doesn't show the bottom of the skirt which is edged with trim and lace.

1896 Outfit for the Chula Vista Historic Homes Tour

I started with this blouse that I found at Goodwill for a couple of dollars.  I love the details on the front of the blouse with all the pintucks, the cuffs and 6 shell buttons and matching buttons down the front. 

To make it period, I folded down the pointed collar on the inside and sewed it in place.  For inspiration, I looked through several books on my shelves, especially this one:"Harper's Bazaar, Victorian Fashions & costumes from 1867 - 1898" by Stella Blum.  I added narrow lace to the pintucks to soften the effect.  Added bouffant upper sleeves  and edged the bottom of the seam with white cotton lace.  I applied lace in the inside of the cuffs and edged the outside with the same cotton lace as the upper sleeves.  Small note:  the same cotton lace, but in black adorns the bottom of the skirt.

1896 Blouse for the Historical Home Tour

This is the finished version of the blouse. Notice the detail below the full upper sleeves and the cuffs. On the last picture at the bottom, I am wearing a ruffled lace front attached to the blouse with a lovely antique cameo.

Creating the 1896 Outfit

I used the skirt pattern from Simplicity 4156

The skirt in it's almost finished stage. The waistband needs to be finished and the length of the skirt measured and hemmed.  I had yet to decide how I was going to trim the front and bottom of the skirt.  Normally, I let things sit for a little while till I come up with a design that I really like and then proceed.

This was taken at the Craigdarrock Castle in Victoria, BC.  Craigdarroch was built between 1887-1890 for Robert Dunsmuir, a Scottish immigrant who made his fortune from Vancouver Island coal. This legendary Victorian mansion, built on a hill overlooking the City of Victoria (Craigdarroch means "rocky, oak place" in Gaelic) announced to the world that Robert Dunsmuir was the richest and most important man in Western Canada. He died in 1889 leaving his entire estate to his wife Joan who lived in the Castle until her death in 1908. The immense fortune of the Dunsmuir family is reflected in the four floors of exquisite stained glass windows, intricate woodwork and fabulous Victorian era furnishings.

One of the rooms in the Castle

Craigdarrock Castle, Victoria, BC

Another gown from the Castle. I couldn't get a better photo. There wasn't enough lighting.

Here Comes Santa!!!

Yes, his beard is real!!  This is a co-worker who needed a Santa's outfit.  The outfit has the coat, pants, hat and sack. It was an easy outfit to make except for the trim.  The trim was purchased as a band trim instead of a fabric cut.  The collar is cut on a curve.  I had to piece the trim to show the least amount of seams.  My co-worker was happy with the results and so was I.

Traveling Outfit in Royal Blue

The fabric I used is Microsuede.  It is a wonderful fabric to sew with.  Since I only bought one and a half yard of this fabric, I was able to make three outfits with this material.  One is the skating outfit and the other is also a Renaissance outfit

Traveling Outfit

A close up view of the front. The edges of the bonnet, tabs and peplum are embroidered with silver thread in a scroll design.
The bodice has silver eyelets and is closed with matching blue suede.

Another Traveling Outfit in Royal Blue

This shows the side view and the marabou feathers on her bonnet.  You can also see some of the detailing on the tabs and peplum of the vest and the edge of her skirt

Traveling Outfit

The Traveling Outfit in a purple color with black trim

Renaissance Traveling Outfit

This is one of my favorite patterns. The outfit includes a white long sleeve blouse, skirt, peplumed vest and bonnet. 
Thanks to my younger daughter, I have enough fabric to make quite a few outfits for the dolls.  This outfit is made out of olive green microsuede.  My daughter needed a cloak for a Renaissance Faire.  I provided the 50% coupon for $12.99 yard fabric in exchange for the leftovers.  Great deal!

I machine embroidered a design with silver thread and it came out beautifully.  I enjoy sewing on microsuede.  It doesn't fray, easy to cut, works well.  Just a reminder, cut the fabric in the same direction.  It will show if you don't.

Renaissance Traveling Outfit

This is the back view of the vest and hat.  The color of the fabric is more like an olive color, quite a bit darker than the picture shows.  The feathers are olive and black which goes quite well with the outfit.  Notice the embroidery along the brim of the bonnet and the tabs.

Renaissance Traveling Outfit

This is the inside of the vest.  It is completely lined and could have been worn reversed if it had a different lining.

Lady Lillian

Doesn't she just look lovely!  She's all dressed up and ready to go to the Faire with the other maidens in the Castle. Her dress is made of rich green satin, completely lined and held closed in the back with 3 snaps.  I could have laced the back of the dress but I wanted a little girl to enjoy this outfit. Lady Lillian wears a circlet made of the same fabric and trimmed with irredescent ribbon. Her long sleeves and neck scarf is made of embellished  sheer fabric.  A braided belt made of the fabrics from her dress encircle her waist and ends in a single braid down the front.

Lady Lillian

This is the back view of the dress.  All of the dresses I have made so far have included snaps in the back,  It's extra work but I just don't like velcro.  Little girls need to learn dexterity and what better way than to include snaps..!

Lady Lillian

Her dress is completely lined.  She almost could wear this dress inside out.