Pleater needles are here!

I got a Read pleater last August at a garage sale and it has been sitting in a box since then because there were no needles.  Pleater needles are not the cheapest items around so I kept putting off buying them.  Then, one of the prizes for the IRCC (did I ever actually mention I won?) was a pleated and smocked camicia that I really, really, really wanted.  As it was pre-made I knew that there was no way it would possibly fit me as I am most definitely not a one-size-fits-most sort of person.  It did inspire me to want to make my own, however.  The prize I received as part of the IRCC was a chunk of money meant to purchase fabric donated by Lorna at The Tailor's Apprentice.  I wasn't sure what fabric I wanted right now as I have the fabric for my next few projects already, but Lorna was kind enough to tell me to buy "whatever makes your heart sing."  The only stipulation was that it not go for bills.  I decided pleater needles and a new fluffy smocked camicia would be fun so I went for it.  The rest of the money went to buying a melting pot for pewter so I can improve my casting of dress accessories, and some threads to start embroidering some drawers.  All in all, I'm over the moon about my prize.

I have to laugh a little, however, because the money was sent in Australian dollars, converted to US, and then became Australian again since that's where I had to order from.  They got here very quickly and the packaging was lovely, with some enclosed English steel handsewing needles in a variety of sizes as an extra.

They arrived this afternoon and I spent about an hour hunting for good pictures to explain how to change needles.  Then I put them in, threaded the thing up and held my breath.  IT WORKED!  I've got a random piece of linen in beautiful pleats now.  When my husband saw it he immediately put in a request for pleated cuffs on a new shirt.  Since the man never wants garb, as he rarely goes to events, I guess my next project is a smocked shirt.

And it is done!

I 

The "Cliff's Notes" of the outfit

Layers
A) Linen camicia with lace insertion. Handsewn insertions, handpleated
B) Orange silk and red canvas full petticoat bodies. Machine stitched boning channels hand bound in red pigskin with handworked eyelets. Machine sewn lined petticoat with handworked eyelets and cartridge pleated waist and hand applied ribbon trim.
C) Open bodiced Venetian dress of gold cotton brocade.  Machine sewn long seams with hand applied ribbon trim.and padded cartridge pleats. Sleeves with beaded rosettes.
D) Cappotto and matching bonnet with feathers.  Handbraided frogs and threadworked buttons. Hand couched gold cord along hand applied bias trim.  Cartridge pleated wool lined hat.

Extra accessories

Papier mache tourney shield. Hand sculpted and painted.
Gold cotton windowpane veil with handmade tassels.
Fur lined muff with leather cutwork applique and threadworked buttons
Paper flag fan with drawn and painted pear with calligraphy poem
Sculpted feather fan
Painted parasol with sculpted apres finial and handsewn tassels
Zibellino with sculpted head and beaded girdle drop
2 sets of hairpins, filed, assembled, and painted
Strung blue jasper and gold necklace
Strung pearl necklace with acorns and maple leaf pendant
Assembled chandelier pearl earrings with silk bows
Signet ring with carved intaglio gem
Set of bracelets in half-Persian weave
Beaded girdle belt
Sash with interlaced herringbone embroidery, tassels, and beading
Beaded rosary with hand tied tassel
Lace sweetbag sewing set with buttonhole tassels, interlocked braid and threadworked buttons. Scissor keep, needle case, needlebook, stiletto sheath and pincushion
Handkerchief with pearled needlelace edging
Lace stomacher
Lace cuffs
Linen apron with handsewn insertions of lace and pleated top
Machine sewn cotton undercamicia
Machine sewn silk garters with handsewn applique of lace
Handsewn linen stockings with hand applied purchased lace and trim
Cutwork lachet shoes
Blockprinted machine sewn drawers with hand done eyelets
Suit of silk organza and lace shoulder and neck ruffs. Cartridge pleated into linen bands
Handsewn organza ruffled partlet with beading
Blockprinted and painted machine sewn soccaccia
Braided and beaded hairpieces

Venetian horns and hairpieces

Remember when I said I was trying to figure out how to adapt Victory roll retro hair into the Venetian style?  Well, my friend Tabitha (Hare de Luna) was willing to give it a go.  She's a fabulous hair braider and our local seneschal so she definitely "gets" what I was going for.  She's also recently become fascinated with retro hair, so I was in good hands.

I hit the beauty supply and picked up some sponge forms used for buns to use as rats for front height as well as some kankelon braid to make the back bun.  My hair is waist length.  It is even relatively thick, but it just isn't enough to pull off the big height in front and large bun in back.

 
Construction is pretty basic.  I just cut a piece of buckram or net into a large circle and then cut a slit into the circle so I could shape it into a conelike shape that would curve over my regular bun. Then I braided the hair and coiled it, tacking it into place.  For the pearls, the pearls were twisted around the braid before it was stitched into place.  The gold cord in the other one was stitched in later.

I've got some toupe clips stitched to the big bun cover, but the smaller one is stitched on a large scale net and bobby pins into place so far.  I might add clips later.

Tabitha did a part at about the middle of my ear pulling the back into a bun and putting the bun cover on.  We decided to use the larger hair piece (that I made for the ACC) which has a center bun as well as additional loose braids that I usually wear over the top of my head. In this case she just pinned them around the center bun making a gigantic braided bun.

She sectioned the front into 3 sections, ratting the sides and then smoothing them back over the purchased rats.  The center front was curled under into a roll and pinned into place. She teased and poked the rolls into a sort of pointy shape and smoothed out the transitions between sections.  I poked a few of my new hairpins into place and it was done.  I'm more than thrilled.  It really made the entire outfit come together and look "right."  Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to bribe her with in order to get her to do it again for Solstice in December.


Edit.  Just adding a couple of links to the portraits used for inspiration. (At Angela Bacci's sitem which seems so ofter the case. :) )
I think we came pretty close to this one http://starlightmasquerade.com/PortraitGallery/Ladder-Laced-Venetian/inspiration-pages/openbodice68.htm

 That same Montemezzano that keeps popping up with a double roll http://starlightmasquerade.com/PortraitGallery/Ladder-Laced-Venetian/inspiration-pages/openbodice18.htm 

3 different women with the same arched roll http://starlightmasquerade.com/PortraitGallery/Ladder-Laced-Venetian/inspiration-pages/openbodice110.htm

Tabby rolled the middle down and the sides back since rolling the center back gave me more of an English look and lost the definition of the arches on either side. 

Grand plans don't come to fruition, but I still have stockings and a sash.

 I know I talked about doing a sprang poste back at the beginning of this endeavor.  It still is on my list of things to try but I never settled into it and got going with the experiment.  The dress still needed the option of that splash of color at the waist to tie together the color in the sleeves and trim.  I still wanted to make something pretty and not just a strip of silk.  I considered doing pewter mounts like I'd done on my last poste/sash.  I didn't want to just pour more of my heart mold though and never came up with something nifty to carve a new mold of so it kept getting delayed.  I figured I'd better make something before time completely ran out.  So, here it is. Rather boring, but I did learn a new stitch.  The sash is actually 3 lengths of silk held together by an interlaced herringbone insertion stitch.  It's done in a blue bamboo rayon thread that matches the dupioni silk of the sash.  The tassels are the same thread.  The herringbone is interlaced in gold cord.  It is a bit too heavy to work properly so next time I will use a lighter contrasting thread.  I stitched on a few pearl and gold beads and ta-da.  Not my grand planned piece, but it does the job and the tassels and beads weigh down the bottom nicely.

These are quite obviously not my blue knitted Eleonora stockings.  I WILL get those made.  Eventually.  I'm going to give it another go in January I think.  I hope.  In the meantime, I made these since you can never have enough socks.  I just used the same pattern I draped last year for linen hose and cut and stitched them.  There's a bit of lace trim and a blue and orange woven ribbon to top it off and firm up the upper edge.

Partlet and ruffs

Ruffs didn't cooperate as much as I would have hoped, but they still totally finish off the outfit. 

I decided I really loved the metal bezants that were along the edge of many of the late Venetian partlets and I needed some.  I had a bunch of little gold findings that are a 5 lobed flowers made of hearts that I decided fit the bill, and I topped each with a glass pearl.

The partlet itself is just a basic mostly rectangular shape cut off my body block.  I used an embroidered organza that already had a shaped edge and cut the front to use that for the inside edge.  I gathered a simple ruffle into the neck and finished it off with ribbon ties under the arms.

The ruffs are organza as well, which may have been a mistake.  I wanted to do an authentic construction, cartridge pleating the edge into the linen neckband and then setting it with starch later.  I used Noel Geileghem's excellent tutorial  The organza didn't want to cooperate, however, even when I used hair spray rather than starch as was recommended.  I went back in an put a thin line of 32 gauge wire in in order to shape them, but it still doesn't give the look I want.  I'm going to need to play a bit more with the main ruff before Solstice in December when I want to wear these.  A rubatto or suportasse may be needed. I certainly need to practice my settes.  I totally understand why a good laundress was prized in the 16th century.

Playing catch up so I can do my wrap-up

I just realized how much stuff I don't have reported to Bella, in addition to all the items I haven't shown pictures of here.  So much for keeping on top of things. . .

So, I guess we'll start with the most recent thing (because I'm most excited by it) and work backwards.  My sweetbag!  I have wanted a 16th century sweetbag for a very long time, but the time commitment required for the embroidery has continually put it on the backburner. Then I found this!  The Metropolitan Museum has several Italian drawstring bags with the unique style of tassels that get them grouped with sweetbags.  The other two are embroidered, and they are all listed as 17th century, but the first one that caught my eye is listed as macrame or punto a groppo.  Knotted lace is much more my style, not to mention more easily done with materials I had to hand.  I was lucky enough to snag 3 yards of a beautiful thick reticella border/trim on ebay a while back, and wanted a way to display it, since it seemed too lovely to just use it on the edge of a random clothing item. 

There are a couple of extant sweetbag sets with a knife sheath and pincushion all matching the main piece.  I was particularly interested in the one in the Manchester Gallery. (I'm having some trouble with their site right now and it doesn't want to link.)  I decided to go for a full blown sewing kit with some pieces based on the extant ones and a few more modern takes on the theme.  I decided to adapt the knife sheath into a holder for my stiletto, go ahead with the pincushion and main bag, add a needlecase with sliding cap sort of based on the Italian one I talked about here, do an additional more modern needlebook, and a modern style scissor keep.  I've also got some gold shell threadwinders I intend to add to the set.  When it hangs the pincushion, the needlecase, the stiletto case and the bag will show, and the more modern pieces will be hidden inside the sweetbag.

I tacked the reticella into place on a gold wool fabric, and lined things in a peacock color silk.  The pincushion is stuffed with wool stuffing, the needlebook has wool felt pages. I rubbed a little gold enamel paint onto the pewter badge I got for completing the Artemisian Costuming Challenge so that it would blend with the gold of the set, but still show the amazing detail Mistress Giliana Attewatyr included on the pewter piece. The part that was both most time consuming and the most fun was doing the tassels and beads and all the buttonhole rings to attach everything.  I hope to eventually find smaller wooden core beads and do the tiny beads/buttons in silk more in keeping with the extant types, but I wanted to at least do the right shape and style of tassel since that seems to be the identifying factor for sweetbags.   Thirty-three buttons, thirty-one tassels, fifty-two loops, and a couple of yards of interlooped trim later, it is done.

That was surprisingly easy

And there is the pear.  I'm afraid I didn't get crazy and carve a wood block and print it.  Just a pencil sketch I inked in and a bit of color.  Lace is leftover from my ruffs and the ribbon is the vintage silk one I'm using on the dress.  I had bigger more exciting plans for this, but then the boys shredded my painted filigree fan I made for the ACC earlier this week and I decided I didn't want to give them something I poured blood and sweat into to destroy.  As I posted last time, these were often sort of a disposable thing on occasion as opposed to the investment of a feather fan.

What I'm pretty thrilled by and want to brag about is my clever handle.  It is a cafe curtain rod I bought for under $3.  They slide into two pieces and each end has a finial.  There is also a slit where the metal is rolled.  I took out the bottom section of the rod and kept it for a second fan.  This one has a little ridge on the bottom of the rod that sort of finishes it off, but I will need to figure out something to finish the second one.  I could have just epoxied the second part of the rod into place and had finials on both ends, but I didn't want the weight.  I drew and painted my pear and poem on a thick piece of watercolor paper, glued on the lace, and then pulled off the finial and pried the opening of the curled metal open a bit and slid it into place.  Then I popped the finial back on, crimped the metal back closed with a pair of pliers, and ta-da. Instant and inexpensive handle.  At under $3 is was cheaper than a dowel and a couple of wood finials and I didn't have to paint it.  And this way, when my boys inevitably destroy it, I have an extra handle waiting and plenty of paper to draw something else.  You just have to love a project where the research and decision of what to do take three times as long as the execution.

Waffling about some of the details,but the ruff is done

Trying something new this time. Rather than losing the camera, I've just misplaced the memory card and card reader, so new pictures will have to wait a bit. In the meantime, I realized I never posted this necklace here, although I did include it in an update.  Pearls and gold acorn beads that basically follow the pattern of Montemezzano's Lady with a squirrel. The central pendant is not part of the original, but I wanted to wear my Golden Maple Leaf (Artemisia's AoA level reward) and the jump ring kept separating when I wore it with my other set of pearls, so I decided to integrate it more fully into a necklace.

So, that's the old news. In new news, my big standing ruff is complete, just needs to be set.  This is my first try at doing a ruff according to authentic methods rather than theatrical and I was pleasantly surprised.  I'm in the midst of cartridge pleating the matching shoulder ruffs to complete the suit of ruffs. I finished the accompanying partlet yesterday. It has a bit of a neck ruffle itself and is made from embroidered organza and I attached little plaques/bezants down the front as in this and several other portraits. (Just to insert thanks in here, I've spent hours at Angela Bacci's site, Starlight Masquerade lately.  Her collection of late period inspiration portraits is wonderful. ) The ruffs are also organza, with linen neckbands.

Still far too much left to do, and yet I find myself not managing time well.  I'm having a hard time buckling down into the teeny finishing details, as evidenced by the fact that the cappotto STILL isn't complete.  Ah well, at least I have a wearable dress at this point. Hopefully, I'll finish the shoulder ruffs tomorrow and perhaps stitch the eyelets on the sleeves that are keeping me from declaring the dress done.  Or maybe I'll spend another day looking at hairstyles as I did today, trying to figure out how to adapt Victory Roll tutorials into Venetian horns.

Drawnwork and pearls handkerchief

I wish I could say I did the drawnwork on this, but that was just shopping luck. I had the linen puchased and set aside to do a drawnwork handkerchief. I was going to do a braided interlace hem like the one I did for Maestra Seraphina's Laureling towel last year since it is my favorite stitch to do. Then I found this linen hankie on ebay for less that $5 (and that includes shipping.) I couldn't resist the blue since it is an exact match to the feathers of my fan. I did, however, do the pearl and needlelace edging. It was what I intended to do on the veil, but it just looked wrong. Obviously still needs some ironing and blocking, but one more detail is done.

Still working on the cappotto so here's a view of the veil

I'm in day two of the "I will finish this dang thing" push to finish up the Dutch cloak after spending an entire day looking for the frogs and buttons I'd made for it. Right now the lining is in the body, the picadils are attached to the sleeves, and I have the frogs and buttons and hand finishing done on one of the sleeves. I still need to do the handwork on the collar lining, finish the cuff on the lther sleeve and attach 12 more buttons and frog sets. Hoping to finish it today and then I'll just have the mask to finish for the "cold weather traveling look" of my outer layer.

In the mean time,I figured I'd show off my veil just for the purposes of documenting all the pieces. I've spent months looking for a white silk with a gold stripe for my veil. The one I found on ebay was sold out by the time I went to buy it, and everything else I found was synthetic and I just didn't like the feel of them.  I finally settled on this embroidered golden cream cotton. It has a lattice work on it rather than stripes and little eyelets where the squares meet. I cut a plain rectangular veil with dimensions of 60x72 inches. With the front folded back it hangs about fingertip length. I had planned to do a blue edging with pearl picots. I tried it and it just didn't look good. It may have been the thread, I'm not sure. It is a bamboo rayon selected for the fact that it was the best match for the silk trim on the dress. I tried two other edgings and nothing seemed to add to the veil. I finally just hemmed it and used the rayon as tassels in the four corners. Not the most exciting thing ever, but the tassels weight the veil and it looks great pinned into my hair, which is the point.

Still fussing with it, but it is a dress at this point.

The skirt has been on for a few days now, so I technically have a dress, and I've been trying it on and fussing with fit and the way the train drapes. Today's project is to take off about two inches from the top of the shoulder strap. While it technically fits if I stand very, very straight, I think trimming them will be more comfortable in the long run. The straps are individually finished and then whip stitched together, so it shouldn't be a big deal to make the adjustment.

I'm also considering another row of trim on the bodice both for looks and to further anchor the lacing strips.

The biggest issue is the drape of the train. I don't know if the petticoat is not full enough or the hem isn't stiff enough, or what the issue is, but the train just seems a little blah. The skirt is basically the shaped layout of the Eleonora Pisa dress (Thanks once again to Katerina de Brescia for all her fabulous online information at Purple Files so I didn't have to take sketches from Moda di Firenze and figure it out myself.)  I knew I wanted more fullness, so my panels are larger to allow for deep pleats. There is about 7 yards of 60 wide fabric in the skirt.  Which is why I can't figure out why it feels so skimpy.  I'm going to add a bit more stiffening to the hem and perhaps try a farthingale/bumroll.  I know what you're thinking, "Italians didn't use them." Not true actually.  Vecellio mentions them in use in 1590. While they weren't in use earlier, in this late style I could utilize one.  I feel like I'm already wearing tons of individual pieces though and already plan to add partlet, ruff, and shoulder ruffs, so I'm hoping a little more stiffening will get me what I'm hoping for.

Girdle is done

Jewelry always looks so much better in person than in my pictures. I should have taken some close ups. This girdle belt  is made of glass pearls, textured goldtone chandelier findings with amber crystals, and blue glass beads with gilding. One thing it doesn't have is a jumpring. They are my nemesis. I can never keep the things closed, even when I solder them. I've spent more time maintaining my last two girdles than wearing them. Except the pearl one. That one has stayed together wonderfully since it is entirely strung on wire.  This one is a combination of wire lengths and head pins. I'm hoping it will stay in one piece.

There's a frame on the end that I hope to eventually put a miniature of my husband in.  Just as soon as I get around to painting it.

Undercamicia

Not very exciting, but this is the picture to prove I made it because, unlike Oonagh in her discussion of "The Elusive Smock," I won't be wearing this by itself for pictures. I wanted to try the bodies both under and over the camicia to see where I stand on the various theories regarding the Venetian V bodice. I've got the stomacher, a boned bodice that can be worn without bodies if necessary, a pair of heavily boned bodies, and the camicia, so this is the sleeveless under camicia or smock to give me the full gamut of possibilities.  While it does have a bit of lace for straps and across the top, I also thought it would make a reasonable intima for wearing as an underlayer with my Roman in the super heat of the summer since it won't be visible. It's just a couple of rectangles with triangular gores in need of an iron, but it exists and I'm sure I'll get a great deal of functional use out of it.

Much gaudier gauds

Can I just say that this is a huge improvement on my past rosary attempts?  My first one made of rose petals was very sentimental with the roses and help from my children making the beads, but was not very authentic.The gauds were far too small and the beads made of rose petals not remotely documentable.  The second gold one was reasonably close to some of the extant types, but even with loads of gold beads it just didn't have any oomph. I'm super happy with the new one, and I think it has something to do with the extreme contrast between the jasper ave beads and the big goldtone gauds.  Because of the late date of the dress, it comes after a papal bull issued by Pope Pius V, Consueverunt Romani Pontificies.  Issued in September of 1569, the bull standardizes the use of the rosary to the 15 decade Dominican version.  The 5 decade rosary with the 3 antiphone beads in the dangle became the norm for rosaries that weren't used by the clergy.  I loosely based mine on an emerald rosary in Munich dated 1600 featured on Chris Laning's  Paternoster blog. Her supposition is that it is Spanish because of the materials. I wanted to try the cross made of beads, but couldn't get a bead to drill cleanly to make the center so I settled for a tassel instead. And yes, I do realize that this ensemble has bunches and bunches of tassels.  What can I say? I like them.

Another lace camicia

I really did intend to make a different sort of camicia this year.  Honest.  I just truly love wearing the one I made last year with the lace inserts. I made a plain one this winter and I never wear it, opting instead for the lace. I was really impressed with all of the embroidery and such on so many of  the other competitor's camicie but nothing spoke to me as much as crazy amounts of lace (I used about 50 yards.) I did do an integrated ruffle and cuffs on this one rather than using the twill tape and mounting lace on that. It also has a more tightly pleated neckline so it is smaller and doesn't have the problem of going down my arms like last year's was doing in the pictures of the corset and petticoat. Those are about the only differences other than my use of a different lace pattern.  Oh, and this one is linen/cotton blend rather than the cotton batiste of last year's/

Maybe they're pianelles?

I have hearts on my toes!

There are a few things I can already tell I want to fix in the next incarnation, but they fit and they're fun. A little wider that I would prefer,the lining didn't work, and the openings are a little bit lower on my (total lack of) arch than they could be, but on the whole I'm happy for a first try. You can't really see the smaller cuts, but the center is actually an angular heart pattern taken from Ostaus' Perfection in Design. The vinyl just doesn't want to play nice. I'm sure it will look much cleared in leather. On the plus side the issues with the cuts and pinks spreading I was worried about don't seem to really be an issue, which makes me think the weight of leather I used for my previous pairs of slippers has been too light. I'm also considering a weld so the edge turns better. It would bring me closer to real turnshoe construction. I'm hoping to eventually step up to lasted type construction, when I've got a bit of cash to throw at it,  but that will be awhile. For now I'm moderately happy with making soft slippers to match my different gowns.

I put some scrap linen in to the shoes to take a picture and it convinced me the plain white stockings I had cut will have to wait while I make some light orange ones. Much more exciting. They should also work with both my blue drawers and the red and orange petticoat and tie all my color whimsy together.

Sorry for the long silence

I've been freaking out a bit about the dress and the other pile of stuff I've got to get done for family obligations.  Dropping out of the IRCC has occurred to me several times and I've been rather whiney, which I'm sure y'all don't need to hear.  But, I'm back in a better mood and we'll spend some time playing catch-up since. I need to show off my garters, the apron, and the stomacher from the last update,so lets start there. 

So, there they are.  Silk garters with blue fabric left over from my Lotto/ACC dress. The reticella stomacher made from the recycled table runner, and my new apron, which also includes vintage lace.  I feel like I should talk more, but the construction on all of those pieces was pretty straight forward and I've obsessed about the research previously, so there's not too much to say really.

Regarding current progress.  I need to rescue my camera from kids again and I'll get to documenting what I've done in the last two-ish weeks.  As of this morning the dress is done, as are the sleeves. I just need to decide how I'm attaching them. The girdle is done, as is the veil, and the sleeveless undersmock.  The camicia is about half smocked. Stockings are cut out. I still have buttons and frogs to attach to the cappotto and need to finish the sleeves up.

The biggest projects left to go are the ruffs, the jerkin, gloves, and shoes. The ruffs have me utterly terrified so I need to get to those soon. Gloves are just a matter of doing them when my hands feel reasonably good since I have a well fitted pattern and mock-up. I want to try something a bit different with shoes and try a latchet style so that needs to be drafted still. I may work on the jerkin today or tomorrow depending on how quickly the stockings come together.

My keyboard works! My keyboard works! (oh yeah, I also painted a parasol)

In their ongoing efforts to make certain I don't have access to the outside world, my kids lost my phone and pried off the keys from my keyboard. That shouldn't have been a big deal, but they somehow or another shorted it out as well so it put a slash mark after every space and I couldn't use the z, b, 6, or shift keys. New keyboard arrived this afternoon and I'm pretty thrilled.

I sent in an update to Bella with the 5 or 6 projects I got done since the last one and really want to say something other than what I said there, but I'm not sure what else to babble about. I'm starting with the parasol as it was a Mother's Day gift from my kids and I'm trying to remember how much of a joy children are and how much I love my kids-- even if they do have destructive tendencies.

Just for size reference, the frame this thing is balanced on is the floor frame I use for large embroidery and was made to hold a baby sized quilt (36x45" or so.) My kids usually have it covered in a blanket and it makes a pretty nifty fort.  We shop for my Mother's Day presents at the Ren Faire, so this is a canvas and bamboo parasol that is intended to be embellished. I thought that would mean it would go faster than the one I covered in silk last year. Nope. Painting it took more time than just swapping out covers. I do like the ability to customize for my heraldry though. My heraldry is an Apres with a ring of the seeblatter around it. The ring (orle) of inverted seeblatter works with the parasol fine, but I knew trying to put the bull in the center with the ruffly topper and the wooden finial wasn't going to go so well. Since I've been doing to much sculpting lately, the idea of making the bull three dimensional hit. He's done in blue polymer clay with gold horns and a ring of gold seeblatts around his neck. He is actually supposed to be vair (blue and silver or white with a patchwork effect) but my oldest son swiped the clay before I could use it and mixed the two colors together so my attempts to make a cane didn't happen. Instead there is a slight marbling/swirling effect, but mostly the two colors mixed and I got a lighter color cow than planned. To add some of the interest back I gave him his garland. I rather like it.

There was a great deal of empty space between the seeblatter and the apres needed something, so I added my impresa motto. I then edged it with some gold trim and a few tassels. They seem a bit spotty and kind of wimpy so I am going to look for some more fringe or possibly add more tassels or some larger ones.

Zibellino in blue

Another one of those instances where I really wish I could take a decent picture because this little boy is so much better looking in person. The blues are Swarovski crystals and the sparkle is pretty serious. He's a stone marten upcycled from a vintage stole and the fur is wonderfully soft. I did a beaded drop to attach to the girdle, but may have to attach him up at the waist since he's rather long. 

 I used Primo this time rather than regular Sculpy and I don't really like it. It is softer than Sculpy and I was fighting that. The ears kept drooping and the clay kept mashing on to the tin foil form I was using to support the head shape. I ended up having to remove it in bits after the head was baked instead of it just providing support and being easily removed.e

I had planned to do 2 matching heads in order to make a piece to be worn at the neck, but after I got the first one sculpted I decided I didn't want to try to make a second to match. I still to try that type down the road, but the right design idea hasn't hit me. I've got quite a few more stone marten, however, if inspiration does set in at some point soon.

Bodice patterned and mocked up

I've been moving slowly with the cappotto, trying to finish my outer layer before I started on the dress. I feel so far behind everyone else right at this minute after seeing that several people have finished their dresses already, however, so panic has set in.  I'm hoping if I get at least the bodice done my dread will calm down and I'll stop freaking out about the deadline. I swear it feels like I've got nothing accomplished. I better switch in to high gear, I guess.

In between festivities and taking the kids places for the 4th, I patterned the bodice. It's my first time patterning something worn over a corset by myself and getting in and out of the corset to try on the pattern is a total pain. I'm pretty pleased with the result though-- even if the mockup is made from the ugliest fabric ever. It's a vintage 1970's canvas. I got a 3 yard piece for a dollar a few years ago and I honestly cannot give a good reason for why I bought it or why it is still in my stash.  But hey, it matches the rest of the project-- technically. It might even find its way in as interlining. Just as soon as I decide how many bones I want in the dress.