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

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.

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.

Ren Faire Dress

french Hood

I laid my finished form onto the fabric and cut around it, leaving enough for a seam

This is what it looks like after all the stitching has been done.              Now the fun begins!

This is from one of my favorite book.  full of Information. I was able to cut the hood according to the directions that I found here.

I decided not to make a coif.  The decorations would have been sewn framing the face.  Instead, I decided to add them to the crescent.  It is really not authentic, but wearing 3 items on the head was a bit too much for me.

I found some gold ribbon 1-1/2" wide and carefully  pleated it manually by machine.  I couldn't use my pleater, the ribbon was too fragile.  In my stash of antique jewelry, I found this gold necklace with a string of pearl attached.  Perfect!  It was also the correct length.  It was handstitched at the lower edge of the crescent  above the pleated ribbon.

This shows the gold chain woven with  pearls.  Just the perfect item for the inner edge of the crescent 

Celtic Wedding Dress

This Medieval wedding dress was made for a friend of mine. Her dress is made of satin in two different colors.  The velvet bodice and the skirt front is trimmed with rhinestones.  The sleeves are lined and trimmed with silver lace.
This dress was a challenge to make because of all the eyelets

Both sides of the bodice, the back and the armhole, including the skirt, required about 80 eyelets to be inserted.  This pictures shows the side of the bodice.  The upper part of the picture shows the eyelets for the attachment of the sleeves. I used silver cord and covered all the ends with aiglets.

This dress is worn by the lead soprano in "la Boheme" from the Kitsap Opera. Unfortunately, there wasn't much light in the tiny hallway.  The fabric is medium weight cotton with a tiny print.  There is satin trim around her neckline, sleeves and the edge of her skirt.  She is not wearing her lacy bonnet.

This is a close up picture of the crown for the Sea Goddess fantasy costume.  It is made of real shells, fake pearls and jewels.

Oh My Goth!

This dress was custom ordered for a Halloween party. The sleeves end at the elbows, but the lace overlay attached at the elbow reaches almost down to the floor. The dress is made of crushed velvet and bridal lace.

Costumes! Ah, what fun!!

Halloween Night!! What a perfect day to talk about costumes. I just don't enjoy making and designing costumes for others, but I also enjoy dressing up myself. This is one of my designs that I truly enjoyed putting together for a Fantasy Fair. I also wore it for Halloween Night passing candy at the local mall.  The children loved it!