French Lace

This is a beautiful design for a lace bolero, it is simply devine! I've always had a soft spot of boleros and lace, but then my favourite period costumes come from Edwardian and Victorian where both these things are common place in high fashion.

I'd love to have a go at copying this design myself, perhaps in a cream for the brother in-laws wedding this summer? But then I have so much dress making I'm not sure I could fit anything new in! Just thought I would share this little treasure with anyone who fancies it : )

Frankintiens bride & Igor

This year I started planning for Halloween early, we are having a party and David is away for 6 weeks before hand so I wanted to get most of the planning done before he left. I've ordered supplies, made shopping lists and menus, I have even got most of the decorations sorted.

I wanted to invite my friends for a dinner party, make a very fancy formal invite and then when they arrived up it would be a ghost house with cobwebs and a graveyard : D We are still doing that but now that David is going to be home early we have made it to a full blown party with cocktails canepes and 25 guests.

I had an idea of 16th century dress in silver and talc in my hair to make me look like a ghostly lady of the court and I did buy a dress pattern but money was the main issue, not to mention a lack of sewing machine. Last week David and I were in a new charity shop in Saffron Walden and I got this perfect bridal gown at a steal for only £5! Its home made so its all frayed and the roses are perfect, I hardly needs modifying, only pulling in the train and taking in the waist so I am very happy : ) I found some hair crimpers at a car boot but I still need to find someone to help to put my hair into a beehive though >_>

I have drawn up plans for Davids hunch back costume, I'm going to use brown cotton sheets to make a sack cloth type tunic with thick straw colour embroidery thread and a pillow strappe to his back underneath for the hunch back. A pair of old trousers/jeans with the bottoms rolled up and some drawn on scars/stitches will finish it of : ) He is in Canada at the moment and they have lots of Halloween things much like they do in the US so he might pick up some treats like a wig or eye piece.

Time for the Faire Completed

And Volia, after several changes (good job I am flexible) it is finished. You can see Part one and part two here :)



I am glad to have finally finished my delightful wench-esk costume. It took roughly 6 hours to complete and has a few modifications from the original plan.



Here is a final picture of me at the Medieval Faire with my brother : ) We went to St Georges Day Joust at Cressing temple. I didn't have my hair covered (very uncouth - but to be fair I was hardly historically accurate) as my bright white mobcap did not match and doesn't look that great either! I'll definitely make a bonnet for next time. (To be honest I ran out of time)

During the day the waist clincher got crumpled so I will definitely reinforce it for future wear, maybe go the whole hog and make it into a corset with some boning. I also plan make a matching apron and bonnet to wear without the over skirt for a more common look. I also want to make a proper lace up vest, as it is more authentic but think that I will either have to get some serious help or pay someone to do it for me as the pattern is really complicated!

It was a great day and I saw several brilliant leather purses I wanted as well as several other pouches and accessories including cutlery, scissors (there were awesome!) and tankards. Not to mention several swords ; ) But we resisted and kept from spending any money. Well...Dave did buy a bottle of mead but I don't think refreshments count ; )