Chinese Lady - side view

My daughter's doll, Lillian Jean, is the model for all these dresses.  She owns this one and only wears it on special occasions. The edges are trimmed with gold bias binding.

Chinese Lady

It is always a little bit difficult to find fabric to scale for small clothing project.  I had some fabric that my son picked up in S. Korea for me and I decided to put one of them to good use. This brocaded jacquard frays easily and has to be handled carefully, especially doing small seams.

Pink Party Dress with Matching accessories

This pink confection has 2 layers of bridal illusion tulle cut in different lengths. The fully lined bodice has a sheer ribbon waistband. A ribbon rose with cascading ribbons is attached at the waitline. A rose and ribbon bow adorn each sleeve. The back of the bodice is closed with 3 snaps.

She wears a matching sheer ribbon headband which is embellished with a rose and cascading ribbons. On her wrist, she has a matching corsage.
This dress can be seen also at etsy.com and can be part of your doll's outfit.  I can make one for you in a different color. 

Ren Faire Dress

The Finished Product

This dress is the same as the blue one, except I'm wearing a farthingale.  I'm not wearing the bun roll, it was a little bit uncomfortable to wear.

Making of the French Hood

I didn't document how I got to this stage in the construction of the crescent.  It was with a lot of trial and error to get the correct shape and looking at a lot of portraits and information.  Instead of using buckram, I used super heavy pellon that is adhesive on one side.  I cut 3 pieces for added strength.  It is very lightweight so that's not an issue.  My husband purchased #18 gauge wire and with that I wired the outside of the crescent and held it in place by sewing it to the form with heavy duty thread.

French hood

This is what it looks like after the wire has been attached to the crescent.

french Hood

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

As you can tell in this picture, the fabric has been cut and stitched.  Notice the extra fabric on the lower edge.  this part will be handstitched closed.

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 

This page shows detailed information about the hood.  I took a shortcut.  Instead of wearing a coif, hood and crescent, I deleted the coif as mentioned earlier, then I attached the hood to the crescent, making it one piece instead of two.  Since I have short hair, placing bobby pins to hold the French Hood in place didn't work out.

Billament added

The billament was extremely easy to make.  I found some thin wire in my basket and after my return trip from Michaels and Joann's, I was able to come up with a beaded trim.  Try and get a close up look and you'll then be able to see the detailling.  I used gold thread to sew it on the upper edge of the crescent.                                                            In this photograph, the hood is already in place.  To hold the French Hood on my head, I sewed a piece of black elastic at both corners.  I can either  wear it with the strap under my chin or behind and under my hair.

Tudor Lady

This dress was fun to put together.  I did have a hard time finding the pleated fabric, and the color goes so well with the teal corduroy.  I still have the same fabric left over and can make one for you. It's a one piece dress and comes with a petticoat and the French Hood.  contact me for pricing.

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.

Cinderella 1

This is one of the first Cinderella dress that I made for a customer.   The bodice is lined and is closed with 3 snaps. The dress also includes a tulle petticoat.

Cinderella 1

The bodice is made of gold lame fabric.  The skirt is light blue satin with an overskirt of chiffon painted with gold stars.
The neckline and the front of the overskirt is trimmed with a gold/irredescent trim. 
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sleeve detail

Tudor Princess

The front opening of the gown and along the hemline is embellished with fancy stitching and beaded embroidery.  The same embellishment is found on the hood and the sleeves.  The hood is finished with a gold mesh veil.

Tudor Princess

This Tudor Princess was made especially for my daughter's American Girl doll.  It  consist of a long sleeved blouse, taffeta skirt, a laced overgown and a French hood.