Went down to La-La land today and ordered my new throne.  They had the standard lion-headed arm thrones; you know, the one almost everyone has... LOL... but I got a new design where they are going to replace all of the lions and eagles with ROSES!!!  It will be ready by Palm Springs. I can't wait!( image heavy )

My birthday was Thursday.  Yay me.  I have never been one for birthdays.  I have only had a handful of memorable ones in my entire life, and most of those were because of friends and/or events.

( Birthday memories... )We have begun work on the late period gowns for the French court.  ( Garb notes... )

Well, I found another reference for the wide portrait collar that was favoured by French women in the late 16th century.  Interestingly enough, the collar is a completely different style than those worn in England, and seem to almost fit seamlessly into the shape of the upper part of the bodice -
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Lots to ponder.  Lots to work with.  Oy!

So yeah, rennwench sent me her copy of Tudor Tailor on a long-term loan with the proviso that I send her pictures of the finished product.

Guess what?  Just as I told April that I have the borrowed copy now, she went over to the bookshelf and pulled my copy of said book right off the shelf where the costuming books are kept stacked.

I swear to all I hold dear and to the God/dess him/herself that I searched high and low for this book for a freakin' week!!!  Charlie and Greg even helped me.  It just freakin' figures that it would turn up *magically* when I finally get another copy to use.

Frakkin' Faeries... or brownies... or whatever little brat-like beastie that hid it from me!

For those of you who know, I lost my last cellphone at work, and recently got it replaced. 

Guess what?  The new one stopped working entirely last night.

::::grrr:::: I now have to drive all the way out to Rancho Cucamonga to get a new one.

While I am irritated at that fact, I am still in a good mood because I have a copy of Tudor Tailor for help!!!

...just mailed me her copy of Tudor Tailor, [replacing mine] which seems to have gone missing the abyss of my house somewhere.  I was actually going to start working on the gowns today without the book, working from paintings and woodcuts, but I now have a semi-live reference for my work.  

Sarah, you are a gem!!!  Thank you soooooo much!!!!

OH MY GODDESS IS IT GOING TO HURT!!!
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Of course this is just a rendering, but it is close to what I want... ouchy...

...when I have so much to do.  I really have a lot of things I could be doing right now, but I am choosing to sit here on my ass writing in this journal, which even then sounded like too much work.  :::sigh:::

I did get a fabulous new book though.  It's called "Elizabethan Pageantry" and was originally published in 1936.  It's got tons of historical contemporary commentary on the clothing of the time.  It's really a fabulous find - the glossary itself is worth the price of the book.  From it I have documented contemporary evidence that hoops were worn with Tudors (especially after Catherine of Aragon became Queen) and large bumrolls were used with vertugales (an almost horizontal hoop skirt where all of the bones are parallel to one another) to create the French wheel farthingale in France (not necessarily England).

I also discovered that I really do hate Dream of Mirror Online. AKA DOMO.  It's an insepid RPG that everyone in my house plays but me.  I guess I am not wired to allow a video game to liquify my brain.  It's almost as bad as WoW.  What's worse is that people in my house actually pay real money for sh*t in this game!  It's utterly insane to me - I much prefer something tangible for my money thanks!!!

Anyhow, I think I will go back to being bored now.  :::sigh:::

So this is a bit of an update where things stand with my effigy corsets and French farthingales.

Haven't started them.

Why you ask?

The task seems incredibly daunting, and I just have not had the courage to face my fear :::sniffle:::
( Call the wah-bulance... )

Lots of other things have been going on in my life lately, and I am beyond overwhelmed with it all, so I am taking it day-by-day. 

However, the purpose of this post is that I need help with costuming.  I cannot find my copy of Tudor Tailor, and cannot afford right now to purchase another copy :::sigh::: so I am LOST on how to get the measurements correct for the wheel/French farthingale.  I have an idea how to do it, but I want to make sure that it is right.  Through my research I also found that it was period correct for a woman to wear an extra large bumroll in lieu of this... I however much prefer the look of the other.

I also want to know how a person does the bodice while still leaving room for front lacing and reavers without having to install additional panels or show stitch marks. 

Also, here is a portrait of Queen Margot - how in the fark did they do this?!?



Look at that collar!  SCREAMS DRAMA!!! Can't you just imagine the looks of envy from the other ladies if my wife or any of the other girls in my group were to wear this?!?

I do believe however I have cracked the mystery of the pansied slops/hip roll shown in a lot of later Elizabethan and French paintings.  I ran out of pattern paper, and had to use Christmas/Yule wrap... LOL.  I am going to work on a muslin today just to be sure.

I did however manage to get some LOVELY fabrics from Stacey at Corona, aka the Viking Lady Ioreth.  She gave me ten yards of luscious red and gold chenille floral brocade, four yards of black chenille velvet, four yards of a yummy maple leaf tapestry, and 2.5 yards of green leafy chenille brocade for only $40.00!!!!!!!  The red and gold is going for April's late period Margot gown, the tapestry is for Greg, the green for Roe, and the black I am going to use on my Henrician city coat (I think).

Yay me.  Work, work, work... LOL.