Anne of Cleves gown progress :)

This gown has really stressed every problem solution option I have! I mostly chose modern options if there was an external issue, or period for internal.

So the lining is salvaged from a badly made skirt and left over length. The grain is all over the place inside the skirt so I overhanded all the seam allowances to help stabilise them  then there is tiny piecing of the lining at the hem so as to make sure the hem guard is nice and stable.

The skirt is still very full, with the flatter front and fuller back that defines this region so well.

 

This is where my modern sensibilities went nope! I am not using a similar but not same piece of brocade for this I took the back of the skirt in by 12cm instead.

The skirt really is fine as can be seen from the above and I may have a nice strip of silk now for other elements of this gown 🙂

 

Today I get to press the border in place.

 

Unfortunately my disease is triggered by physical stress on joints so I absolutely cannot hand sew this hem the same way I did the bodice (nearly fully hand sewn) . I use steroids to settle the infmammation and disease itself but that has been at levels used in trauma. So that is not really going to do anything good for my heat and liver and everything really.

 

I don’t tend to hypersensitivity but because I have signs of it with pin pricks (the only pain I know full well is OTT- I can breath through injections but random scrapes from sewing? It’s hypersensitive for sure.

But we have decided to try to block pain signals- and it has made a big difference today 🙂 I do though know it’s blocked signals so I have to make sure to not do something I know will cause har.

 

So back to the border! It has been fused to heat n bond. I am using light which should just hold this together long enough for me to easily manipulate it under a machine.

If anyone is all “omg that’s too modern!” I’d point out that I do not have a workshop full of apprentices to do all this 😉 Tailors did not do this, their apprentices did. And I’d like to point out there are traces of glues and waxes found inside garments some used for stiffening some appear to be to hold pieces for working.

 

If you like pretend I’m using feather light, the stuff that dissolves away on second pressing 😉

I will need to do all this on my padded table, the pressing and careful fine work to tidy the top edges of the widest braid.

quiet

I’ve been quiet here as it’s the year anniversary of my Boo passing. Feelings of guilt and sadness and everything you’d expect to hit, hit hard.

It’s also be hot, very hot for Auckland which tends towards humid, and I’ve variously hurt my hands (requiring a lot of steroids) and got some sort of bug that just is there. Just a slight fever.

But today has been a day or starting to reclaim a bit of my normal life again.

Right now I’m uploading photos of my Maleficent horns to create a 3D model. I may plump for some extra space to make best use of the opportunity. But I need to add texture in Sculptris anyway so this should work out. So it took an hour to get those photos.

Also uploading my uploads folder from pre-website attack. I did take the time though to remove all the thumbnails created and that took a while. For some reason the search function in Win10 wouldn’t find all of them in one go but sorted it is. Once the files are back in the right places I’ll be able to regenerate thumbnails.

Also been trying to import instagram photos here for super fast and easy updates, but the plugin needs updating to basically slow the number of requests. So fingers crossed.

what was that about not handsewing

Yeah, well I tried by machine. It was actually much harder and the result was just not okay. I either had really obvious stitches or had to break out my craft blade to unpick very carefully.

The light heat n bond is kind of perfect though. It is too light to work on its own but works really well to stabilise the brocade. It both retains the curve I managed to pressed it into as well as stick to the silk. But the fabric is much too heavy, so it absorbs the stuff!

Also if anyone has been watching my instagram they’ll have seen the progress of the centrepiece of my stickelchen. My Boo, he is made from embossed copper with silver leaf so is quite fragile. I was going to make his body from pearls but I think I may want to preserve the feeling of softness by either embroidery or more embossing. I have silver thread but nothing to couch.

And yes, I still need to tidy the couched braid as it is a bit wobbly from stretching.

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