What Do You Do With a Drunken Tailor?

Colonial Project - The Christmas Run

2009-12-06T21:40:00.001-05:00

Entry for the barn's winter costume contest. I cheated a bit on this, one too - I already owned the puffy white dress (another Goodwill goody), though I accented the sleeves and bodice with red and green ribbons. The bonnet was machine-stitched from a pair of circles, threaded with eleastic, and decorated with the same ribbons. The red cloak visible in a few of the pictures is in fact a homemade costume piece, but I'm not the one responsible it - it was made for me probably fifteen years ago by a friend's mum.

The theme was originally going to be "The Half-Assed Pseudo-Victorian Night Before Christmas," and I'd brought along a number of accessories to that end - a teddy bear, a blanket, a stocking, and a plate of Play-Doh gingerbread men. When I walked into the barn and saw how a friend was prepping her horse for the party's cart rides, though, we realized we had to put the two together and we ended up with this instead:

This particular horse is In My Father's Eyes (also known as 'Joey'), and he's yet another American Saddlebred. I can't remember his age right offhand, but he's fairly young still - seven, eight or so.

Steampunk Project - Professor H and the Clockwork Horse

2009-06-27T21:21:00.003-04:00

Entry for the barn's summer costume contest. I admit it, I cheated terribly on this one - my original idea fell through, so I had to scrounge up a last-minute replacement. All the actual items of clothing were purchased ready-made - the majority from Goodwill. The hat and watch came from Wal-Mart, and the belt-keys were picked up at Lowe's.

My goggles were hand-crafted using plumbing connections, acorn nuts, and a leather jacket I no longer wore. The connectors were prepped with Testor's Dullcote, painted with FolkArt gold acrylic, and sealed with an interior/exterior craft gloss. The lenses are simply circles cut from a green plastic bottle and popped into the connectors before the straps were glued in. My hair's been braided and tucked up under the hat.

The horse is once again Scrap Iron. His goggles came straight out of the swim department and were hastily painted with black and gold acrylic. I was afraid at first that said paid was neither going to go on nor dry, but eventually, it did. The original straps were removed - they're tied directly onto his browband with pleather laces. The band of sensors was made from canning jar rings and lids, printed-out clock and gauge faces, and a few strips of pleather hastily cut and cemented together at ten pm the night before the show.

As always, click to embiggen! For the full photoshoot, including many, many more pictures from both ringside and around the barn, go here.

Medieval Project - Viking Woman I

2008-12-15T16:29:00.003-05:00

Entry for the barn's winter costume contest. Both fabrics are cotton flannel. Not period, but, eh. When has that ever stopped me?

I've been wanting to do this costume for years, even since I first laid eyes on that little dun pony. The style approximated is early medieval and would have been worn by women in Scandanavia.

The undergown is floor-length and uses the same basic cut as the winter smock from 2005. The sleeves have been narrowed, with range of motion provided by underarm gussets, and gores have been added to the front and back as well as the sides.

The overgown is what's generally known as an 'apron dress'. After perusing the available layouts, I opted to cut two panels, each slightly larger than half the circumferance of my bust + the allowance for the undergown, and added gores at either side. The top of the dress sits just above my bust, while the hem falls to mid-calf or so. The straps are simply tubes turned inside-out and stitched to the back - once the dress is on, I pull them over my shoulders and pin them to the front. Like Blue Cotehardie I, the 'neckline' has been spruced up with metallic-threaded trim. The materials are all still wrong, but there's at least some evidence for the use of trims on Viking clothes.

The accessories are of the 'quick-and-dirty' style - my brooches are two halves of a compact that have been painted gold and had pinbacks taped to the underside, and the connecting chain is a bracelet with large jump rings to add needed length. The coif, a folded rectangle with the topmost point rounded off, is cut from the same fabric as the undergown. That's my real hair, for once.

My favourite horse in the world, Jens, is a Norwegian Fjord. The breed is documented at least to the Early Middle Ages (and probably existed even before - they're very similar to the primitive 'steppe' type of horse best known from the Przewalskis of Mongolia) and has been found in excavations of Viking burial sites - so it's possible he's the most period thing in the pictures! The silly little horns are most definitely not period (and I was told by one of the 'barn dads' that Jens should have bitten me for them XD) - I just tacked them on for fun. They're tinfoil over paper cones and are taped to the browband.

This outfit is super comfy and warm - granted, it wasn't freezing out during party hours, but I ended up leaving it on even after the costume class and going for a ride! I did pop my jeans on under it to comply with barn rules, but I could have managed fine without them as long as the skirts were tucked under me. I've taken to using the underdress as another winter nightgown.

Fantasy Project - The Wood Faery

2008-06-21T20:01:00.003-04:00

Entry for the barn's summer costume contest. The fabric for both corset and skirt came from - you guessed it - the dollar table!

The corset pattern was created using the generator at ElizabethanCostume.net and modified to close in the front rather than the back. In order to make the edges meet, I added two inches to my original measurements, compensating for the two taken off during generation. Both layers are cut from the same fabric, a sturdy poly-blend probably meant for upholstery. The edges are bound with satin blanket tape. My 'boning' is plastic-coated wire from Lowe's - I can't remember the exact gague right now, but it's in the vicinity of a quarter-inch wide and works spectacularly for the amount of stiffness I need - it actually holds its shape fairly well and can be manipulated back into position if it bends out (unlike, say, the cheap plastic boning that's in my Hot Topic stuff).

The grommets are Wal-Mart brand - I've heard they shouldn't be counted on for projects with any real pull, but fortunately, this is effectively a fashion item. I tried punching the fabric with a standard hole punch, but the results were huge and I ended up snipping very carefuly with scissors instead. No fancy setter here; just a rubber mallet and one of those little metal setter pieces. There are eight on either side, laced with 1/8" ribbons in green and brown.

I couldn't even begin to tell you what the skirt is made out of - it's some sort of filmy synthetic. I whipped up some homemade fray-check with white glue and water, outlined my 'pattern' with it, and cut two zigzagged layers, one longer than the other. They're simply gathered and stitched into a waistband of the same blanket binding I used on the corset.

The shirt is store-bought. The ribbons in both my hair and the horse's mane are the same as those lacing the corset - in my case, they're attached to barettes that already had tiny roses glued to them, and in Scrap's, to bobby pins and flowers picked in the stableyard. I'm also wearing two pairs of neutrally-coloured hose to protect my legs from the stirrup leathers, as they tend to pinch.

(Embiggen they do!)

The horse is Scrap Iron ('Scrappy'). Like Val, he's an American Saddlebred approximately seventeen years old.

Older Projects - 18th Century Men's Suit I

2008-04-11T15:45:00.006-04:00

Circa December 2007 - This was my entry for the barn's winter costume contest. The black fabric is once again off the dollar table - contents are of unknown origin, but it has a good amount of weight to it.

The vest and breeches were modified from the now-discontinued Simplicity 5958 pattern that included costumes for George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Davy Crockett type characters, as well as a pilgrim. I removed the excess seam from the front of the justaucorps and combined it with the vest to produce a sleeveless garment without the gaping and draping issues that would have been present had I simply left the sleeves off the coat. The breeches have button strips at the fly and knee, though no pockets - I also need to modify the top to fit my figure so that the button portion of the fly won't be at my bloody hip (the pattern is intended for men, and I am a very dainty female - so I had to attach the buttons well off to the side, and pull the buttonhole flap across to meet it).

I've previously made a justaucorps (your standard 'pirate coat') using the same pattern. It came out well, but there are some inaccuracies I'd like to correct the next time around - it needs side slits and skirt pleats at the very least, and properly ought to have some sort of strange little insets in the back. It's still a nice coat (so nice, in fact, that I'm afraid to wear it most of the time - it's red velveteen lined with red satin, and has thirty bucks invested in buttons alone), and I thought about wearing it as well, but it covered up a lot of the work I'd put into the rest. Technically, a gentleman was indecent without his coat, but I'm a cross-dressing pirate and no part of that term applies to me. -g-

The shirt, of unbleached muslin, was pulled from an earlier-period costume and isn't altogether accurate for the eighteenth century - the main issue is that it doesn't have a standing collar and therefore nothing to attach a stock to.

The 'stockings' are two pairs of white ladies' knee-highs - I didn't realize that the breeches wouldn't be quite long enough to meet the boots once I folded the latter down, so they were a last-minute addition (literally - we stopped at Wal-Mart on the way to the party). The sash is a wrap that came with one of my formal gowns, the head covering is a scarf tied bandana-style, and the hair jingles are beads and craft-department coins strung on six-strand embroidery thread. I aged the map - a piece of scribbled-on printer paper - with tea and crumpling.

All buttons are functional.

(As always, click to embiggen!)

The horse's name is CSF Dixie Silk ('Val'), and he's an American Saddlebred somewhere around seventeen years old. It didn't occur to me until too late that I should have made a flag to drape from the saddle, so I told everyone that his part of the costume was that I'd stolen him. ^.~ He's the getaway horse!

Older Projects - Blue Cotehardie I

2008-04-04T15:20:00.003-04:00

Circa 2005 - Second attempt at 14th Century garmenture, this time in blue broadcloth. The cutting and construction are the same as with the red polyblend.

The neck and sleeves are trimmed with a patterned strip that includes metallic thread - this is probably not a period practice (and certainly not in synthetic materials), but it makes the gown a little less bland.

For the event this was worn at, I coiled the braids over my ears (yep, Princess Leia style) and added a second anchoring band to the veil. It was half an experiment in style, and half a desperate attempt to keep my ears from getting frostbite. How well it worked is questionable - I still have my ears, but it was so cold at that event I probably wouldn't have noticed if they had fallen off because I'd already gone numb. ^^;

(Click to embiggen!)

Older Projects - Red Cotehardie I

2008-03-28T00:30:00.006-04:00

Circa 2005 - Another dollar-table project. The fabric is a poly blend of otherwise unknown origin. It has a fair amount of weight and there's a subtle roughness to it.

The style approximates fashion of the early 14th Century - by and large, 'patterns' still take the form of geometric panels for best use of fabric. However, basic shaping has begun to come into play as well - panels may be fitted to the body during construction, and sleeves are set into a proper armscye. While the looseness of previous styles meant that most garments could simply be pulled on and off, late medieval clothing requires the use of buttons or lacing.

This particular garment repeats the four-panel construction used in the smock. The panels have been left unfitted. There are triangular gores in the side seams, but not the front or back. The sleeves are just wide enough to pull on without being buttoned, laced, or sewn shut after donning. As I don't have a lady-in-waiting to do me up, I chose to go with a front-closing body, faced with self fabric and spiral-laced.

The veil is cotton broadcloth, and is pinned to a combination of a forehead band and wrapped braids. Because my hair is baby-fine, I've added extensions to it - it's possible that medieval women did this as well.

(Click to embiggen!)

Older Projects - Generic Medieval Smock I

2008-03-13T10:50:00.002-04:00

Circa 2005 - Quick-and-dirty project using flannel cotton from the dollar table. The basic style should be suitable for most early to early-middle medieval garments. This particular item is meant to be a cold-weather undergown, but I've also worn it around the house as a winter nightgown. The cut uses no pattern - it's simply rectangular panels, four for the body and two for the sleeves, with the leftover triangles set into the sides as gores. Because I'm fairly small and the sleeves are comparativly wide, I got away without underarm gussets. The neckline was more-or-less guesswork - I'm surprised it came out as well as it did, because I haven't been able to do it properly since.

(Click to embiggen!)

Oncet more, Lucy! Just oncet more!

2008-03-13T10:20:00.001-04:00

Break a bottle o'rum over the prow, maties; it's the grand re-re-launch of the Drunken Tailor Dress Diary! This is probably the third time I've made an attempt a this - the first was meant to be an actual dress diary that I planned on keeping up via my website, but that was a pain in the arse and I gave up after an outfit or two. The second was just a gallery on the same site, but that ended up falling by the wayside, too. Maybe the third time'll be the charm.

My primary areas of historic interest are women's clothes in the fourteenth century, also called the 'Age of the Cotehardie', and both men's and women's garb during the eighteenth. I also have passing affairs with Elizabethan and Victorian costume, as well as ventures that are purely fantasy. I ride horses, and enjoy including my mounts in the fun as well.

My sewing skills aren't the best, but I can usually make do with patterns that aren't overly complicated. I make some of my patterns from scratch, and some by tweaking those that come ready-made. Others I leave as they are. I try to stick to historic trappings when possible - though I do generally machine-sew as I have medical conditions that flare up when I spend too long frustrated, stressed out, or just bent over concentrating too hard - but I'm not an absolute stickler for accuracy and don't mind modifying my methods or supplies if it will give me what I need without being painfully obvious or inappropriate for the setting.