Purple Silk Venetian Gown

A while ago, I posted some progress on a purple silk Venetian gown. It's done now! I wore this to Coronation recently and got some photos. The silk is actually hot pink shot with blue, so it appears purple.

The bodice is fully supported with canvas interlining and steel boning. The gown is also worn over a corset and camicia, as well as a taffeta underskirt. The front insert is made from a small piece of silk brocade - a scrap - that I inherited. The bodice is hand beaded, and I also made a new girdle / belt and a linen partlet. The sleeves are re-used from my last Venetian gown because I love them and they match!

I made this one regular height - no chopines for me! I love my chopines, but man, I'm too clutzy to stand around in them all day!

More photos here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/purple-silk-venetian-gown/

Venetian Gown Progress

I've been working on a new Venetian gown! How did this come to be, you may ask? Well, a while back, I came upon this fabulous dupioni silk. It's hot pink shot with blue, so it appears different shades of purple-ish depending on the light and angle. I got a deal on the remainder from the bolt and set it aside, wondering what should I make it into. A wonderful fantasy gown for my collection, perhaps? A fabulous fanciful historical gown for myself? Finally, fanciful Venetian gown won! I don't have a portrait of anyone wearing this color, but it makes me really happy. I have seen mention of shot fabrics in period, and they did have pinks and blues. And, yes, various qualities of silk did exist, not only smooth silk. Smooth silk, however, would have been preferred, as it was (and is!) more costly and higher class ish.

Enough of my rambling. The gown is a basic bodice pattern with an open V in front. The ladder lacing goes through some lacing rings I stitched to the inside. I wear a corset underneath, but I still added boning to the bodice to maintain the shape. The skirt is cartridge pleated, which I did in the library one day! I reinforce my cartridge pleats, when the fabric is so thin, with a satin ribbon. I did some hand beading on the bodice, and the insert is silk lined in linen with an interlining, the same as the bodice itself. The insert will be pinned to my camicia when worn.

It's almost done! I actually just need to make a petticoat! I'm going to wear my old cutwork sleeves for now - or go sleeveless when it's warm.

Teal Kampfrau Dress

I don't believe I shared this dress on my blog yet. This is a 16th century German style, also seen amongst the Swiss. These ladies are now known as kampfrau or trossfrau, and they followed the Landsknecht soldiers.

This dress began as an underskirt for my other kampfrau dress, my first year in the SCA. I later made the bodice and turned it into a new dress. I mean, when you have such fun colors, it's hard to just hide them!
The hat, known as a wulsthaube, was a pretty recent project. It's made from a sort of padded roll structure sewn to a thick headband piece, and the veil is tied on top.

More photos here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/teal-german-kampfrau/

Sideless Surcote and Gothic Fitted Gown in Progress

I have several projects in progress right now. Since I have photos of these, I thought I'd share! These are both 14th/15th c. I have a couple of late 16th c. projects going too, but I need to photograph them before I can share!

The first one is a wool gothic fitted gown, lined in linen. I already had both fabrics at home, and I thought it would be nice for cold weather. It gets much colder in CA than where I grew up, so now I'm always bundling up in lots of layers that may or may not match, and this will really help!

The second one is a sideless surcote to accompany a late 15th century transition gown - also made, just not pictured. I used non-bias binding since I really only have evidence for non-bias and I wanted to try it out. I've worked with tons of bias binding in my life, and I was a bit worried about going around all these curves without bias, but it worked out really nicely! It's still pinned down on the backside in the photo, hence all those little pinned spots.

My Old Green Kirtle

This is my old green kirtle, made in early 2007 to wear underneath my Burgundian over gown. This dress is a pretty ubiquitous 15th century style. I have newer and better kirtles now, but Jocelyne makes this one look so good, so I thought I'd share! She's also wearing my velvet belt and my linen coif, both of which were made sometime around 2011-2012.

http://www.faerie-queen.com/green-kirtle/

1490s Italian Renaissance Dress

I love the Italian Renaissance, especially 1490s fashion, but I'm sad to say I haven't done much costuming from that era. Well, let me just fix that! I was particularly inspired by the Girl With Cherries painting by Ambrogio di Predis from c.1491-5. As per my usual methods, I was not interested in making a direct copy of the dress in the painting but rather using it as my primary inspiration, with supporting evidence from other various period sources and other similar dresses.

I purchased nothing new for this dress! It was meant to be a quick fun project to use up some of my materials on hand and give me a new dress I can wear on an everyday basis that's not another gothic fitted gown. The outer gown is made of rough dupioni silk and lined in hemp. The under gown is actually a false gown! It's just a bodice and sleeves. It's a clever solution to many layers when you live in a hot climate. The under gown is made of green cotton velveteen and lined in linen. I already had a camicia! All of the eyelet holes were done by hand. I grumble about all the time it takes, but really, I just do them while catching up on tv shows at night, so it's not such a big deal!

More images are here on my website: http://www.faerie-queen.com/silk-and-velvet-italian-renaissance-dress/

Green and Brown Cotehardie

I made this cotehardie for my boyfriend. It's green and brown linen, fully lined. The fabric is all linen. The buttons and button holes are all done by hand. He's also wearing a coif and tights I made for him.

I have more images here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/early-15th-century-male-cotehardie/

16th Century Venetian Man Garb

I finally have nice photos to share of our late 16th c. Venetian garb! We rarely wear this stuff because my boyfriend and I both prefer running-around / working - friendly garb at SCA events. This post is dedicated to his ensemble, and I shall post mine next.

This is based on fashion from late 16th century Venice, ~1570s. (I mixed and matched inspiration images, as one of my very favorite things about making clothing is the whole design aspect.)
The undershirt is made of white linen and was actually already in his wardrobe.
The doublet is made of red silk with detachable tie-on brocade sleeves.
The hat is black velvet with ostrich feathers.
The pants are black linen, made in the Venetian style.
The coat, or loose gown, is made of silk/rayon blend velvet and lined in black. The slashes in the sleeves show a blue brocade underlayer.

You can see more images here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/venetian-male-ensemble/

Blue Renaissance Dress

I made this dress for my friend, Lady Cecilia. She wore it for the first time to Great Western War, so yay, pictures! This is a pretty versatile 16th century Renaissance dress, or kirtle, worn throughout Europe. It is a single (lined) layer, worn over a chemise that she made and embroidered herself. The single layer helps the dress to be climate-appropriate for southern California summers - and springs and falls. In addition, I built some support into the bodice so Cecilia does not need to wear her corset, once again cutting down on layers and making it easy to get dressed!

You can see more on my website: http://www.faerie-queen.com/blue-renaissance-dress/

Sideless Surcote

I recently made my first sideless surcote. This is patterned velvet with a skirt of black silk/rayon blend. It was pretty simple to make, and I would love to do more in the future. This style is based on late 14th century French sources.
In these pictures, I am wearing my surcote over a brocade/jacquard kirtle, with a horned veil headdress, all of which I also made, of course!

More pictures here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/black-sideless-surcote/
And you can see the kirtle here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/15th-century-brocade-kirtle/

Green Summer Cotte

I made a very lightweight 14th century cotte for my boyfriend for summertime. This is single layer linen. It's pretty simple, the most painstaking aspect being the fit, which I've already worked on with him in the past. This one is slightly less fitted than some of his other cotehardies/cottes, in consideration of warm summer weather.
He is also wearing tights I made for him, along with a black linen embroidered coif.

You can see more images here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/green-cotte/

Green Silk Bliaut

A couple years ago, I made this bliaut, a 12th century court gown. I used emerald green raw silk, which I love! The lining is pink silk, and the trim was chosen to be period-esque. The undergown is also made with period construction, all rectangles and triangles, and the brooch is one I found in the fabric district at some point. This is one of my fancy outfits, and I feel so pretty when I wear it!

You can see more photos here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/green-bliaut/

Black Houppelande

A while ago, I made this 15th century houppelande for my boyfriend. I recently took new photos when he wore it with his fancy bejeweled chain. It is made of black dupioni silk and fully lined.

You can see more photos, including his original Yule garland decor, here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/black-houppelande/

Steampunk Faerie

My friend and model/muse Jocelyne got to be my steampunk faerie! I am into the fantasy side of steampunk, and though I'm normally into bright jewel tone colors, I wanted to try something more muted this time.
I made the wings out of copper wire, organza, and resin coating.
The model is Jocelyne Watts. The costume, photos, and makeup were all done by me.

You can see more photos here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/steampunk-faerie/

Light Blue Cotehardies and Wool Cloaks

As promised, I do indeed have fancy photos of our new light blue cotehardies, along with red wool cloak and hood and my boyfriend's brown wool cloak. This was inspired by Red Riding Hood and pre-Raphaelites and early 15th c. European fashion. The kirtle and cotehardie are patterned according to period documentation, as is the hood. The cloak has a small modification that adds significant practicality. Period cloaks, from my experience, appear to have been semi-circular. Also in my experience, this means they are very annoying to wear. I cut shoulders into my cloak pattern, and bam, works like a charm! I've been told that attached hoods are not period, but I have sources that prove they did exist, just more rarely than unattached hoods.

You can see more photos here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/

Purple Velvet Cotehardie

This is a dress I made last year. I realized it was before I started this blog, and I wanted to share anyway. Plus, I only recently took fancy photos for my website. I wear it occasionally to court-like events, but I am choosing to share the fancy photos rather than the plain old event photos.
This is a cotehardie, late 14th century French style. It is made of velvet and fully lined in silk with matching silk sleeves, belt, and tressour crispinette (the hat). The buttons and button holes were all done by hand, and all the beading and trim was also applied by hand. I made the necklace too. Lots of work, totally worth it!

More images are here on my site: http://www.faerie-queen.com/purple-velvet-cotehardie/

Blue Damask Tunic

I recently made this tunic and coif for my pottery teacher, Master Hroar. The coif is white linen with black decorative stitching. The tunic is made of blue damask fabric that he had stashed away. The construction is true to Viking period patterning. He is a well-to-do merchant and would have had access to brocades, though this particular pattern is slightly anachronistic for that specific period. I added some blue linen and white/gold trim to the edges. I think the color is perfect for him!

I have more pictures on my website here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/blue-damask-tunic/

Medb's Estrella Wardrobe

I wanted to share my wardrobe from Estrella War this year. This really shows how one can embody a multitude of eras and cultures in the SCA.
Estrella War takes place in Arizona. Historically, it is held during a very cold part of the year, but it was moved to a new time and site this year, so I got to wear some warm weather clothes!
1. late 14th / early 15th c. French
2. Minoan
3. 16th c. German
4. early Greek (taken at the thrown weapons range - got 2nd place in the War tournament!)
5. 14th c. French

All of these costumes are shown in more detail on my website, in case you want to see more pictures: http://www.faerie-queen.com/historical/

Al-Savalley Anniversary

Two of the Shires near my area had a joint anniversary celebration. My boyfriend and I wore our new blue cotehardies, as you can see below. I went for a very whimsical feeling on these. While staying within the realm of historical accuracy, I sort of Pre-Raphaelite-d it up, as I so enjoy doing. Yay, fun! At the event, we did thrown weapons during most of the day, and I ran a competition.

Pink Faerie

In the spirit of the lovely blossoming sakura trees, I decided to do a pink sakura faerie photoshoot. The dress was pulled from my 2012 collection for Daisy Viktoria Fashion, and I made the wings too. The wings are organza attached to a wire frame and coated in resin, which makes them strong and durable. I plan to use these wings in fashion shows in the future, so I wanted them to be able to take a light beating.

I have some more photos on my website too: http://www.faerie-queen.com/pink-sakura-faerie/