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Greetings from 2023!

By Elizabeth M.
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  Hello, Venturers! I have developed a newfound interest in this strange blog of mine, and I have decided to make some changes around here to keep it updated with my unstable personality.  The first change will be the font that I use. That swirly “dancing script” crap is impossible to read and everyone knows it, so I have changed to this. It may still be hard to read and Blogger might continue its attack against me with formatting issues, but at least it’s beautiful to look at.  Next I have levelled up my sewing skills. I’ve switched to almost entirely hand-sewing as it produces a much cleaner result and is more satisfying. I am also putting more effort into patience and research. Silly “shortcuts” (looking at you, mustard cotehardie!) are now looked down upon and when I do decide to make things that I know will not end well, I won’t be posting a long, rambling essay on it.  I have also given up my rants on all things HA and the miniaturing hobby. This will mean no more cringey posts a
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Sewist vs Polyester Silk: 1920’s Party Attire

By Elizabeth M.
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  Dear Venturers, I have decided to embark on my third 1920’s dress. I hadn’t planned to make another 20’s outfit since my second project went so well, (despite the maraschino incident…) but I found myself with suitable fabric and so here we are.  “How did you come across this fabric,” you ask? Well the thrift store which I usually frequent happened to have *four* curtain panels of this very pretty green flowered silky stuff. Mind you, curtains are generally lined with white cotton, so double the fabric! This amounts to about 20 yards of “silk” and 20 yards of cotton… all for about 10 dollars. Steal! Thrift stores are my go-to for fabric, especially when I’m not making formal wear. Side note- formal wear sucks because fancy fabrics suck and draping sucks and beadwork sucks.  Anyways…  like a crow, I took my new treasure to my fellow costuming friends to show it off and brag about how much yardage I got for so little money. One of them (the experienced one who is a fountain of informati
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American Duchess and the Great Lappet Adventure

By Elizabeth M.
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Dear Venturers, I have started my third ever 100% hand-sewn project and it is… drumroll please… a cap! The 1745 “Lappet Lite” cap from the American Duchess 18th Century Dressmaking book to be exact.  Now following instructions is not something I’m used to with sewing. Generally I’m the trial and error type, so naturally I had intended to use the pattern shapes from the graph in the book and just ignore the rest, but I’ve actually found the instructions to be quite useful. They even specify which stitches to use and where! It almost feels like cheating!  Part I: Drafting  I started out by transferring the little picture on the page to a big picture on my white cotton (argue all you want about what the material should be, but this cotton just so happened to be free and available) with an authentic 1700’s ballpoint pen. I then discovered that the dimensions the book gives do not fit my head and so I had to add about 1.5 inches all around to make it the desired size and allow for some pouf
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A Grey Italian Robe à l'anglaise

By Elizabeth M.
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Dear Venturers, This post is more of a photo collection than a tutorial because I’ve made other posts on making 18th century gowns. I really just wanted to show off what I consider to be my best project yet. This gown, though it is machine sewn, took one evening and an afternoon to complete and is complete with lining, double pleats, simple sleeves, a center front pin closure, and finally, my favorite, the squared-off trim on the back neckline. It fits well, the pleats are perfect, and I’ve had not one but two breakthroughs in dress construction in the process, not to mention how glorious the grey cotton flannel is. I also finally have a decent pair of stays and hip roll, both of which definitely help with silhouette. Not to brag, but I am in love! 😊 Now for the pictures… 
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How I made my 16th Century Kirtle

By Elizabeth M.
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 Dear venturers, This post is long overdue, but still fitting since I seem to be on a medieval kick recently.  So let’s get right to it!   I hope to post a hair and cap tutorial at some point  Here’s my inspiration… I started by making a pattern mock up  using the basic shapes from my 18th century bodice pattern. The bodice is only 3 panels total.  The first two pieces are the front, and the top one is the back piece.  I then cut the same pieces from white lining fabric and sewed the bodice together.  I folded the brown over the white to hem the lining into the bodice. I left the bottom open. After the bodice was all sewed up, I formed the skirt from a rectangle of the brown linen and attached it to the bodice. This was the tricky part though. You want the seam on the skirt to be at the center back. This means that the slit on the front where it all laces up will have to be cut.  So not like this  Here’s how it should look (ignore how it’s pinned together in the front… it should be lac
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(Mis)Adventures With the Mustard Cotehardie

By Elizabeth M.
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Dear Venturers, I don’t always venture into the unknown world of medieval-y stuff, but when I do, I make the most extravagant mess of it!   So I made the mistake of looking at Jo Anne’s linen section and I saw mustard and maroon colored linen sitting side by side. I might have been watching too much Secrets of the Castle (a must-watch on Amazon Prime), but together  the two colors looked so 13th century that I couldn’t pass them by! And so, after getting as little yardage as possible, I went home to start work on my new gown. Everything was going so splendidly… one might even describe it as a dreamy, movie-scene style montage… *cue record scratch*  …until I realized that I just spent a good deal of money on linen and I know nothing about the 13th century, excepting Ruth Goodman’s glorious dress.  So I did some research *opens Pinterest* and ditched the Ruth idea and decided to go with a style known as the Cotehardie. A style picked by it’s unique short sleeves (ie. I didn’t have enough
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