Announcing: American Duchess’s 18th Century Dyeable Silk Shoes – the not-quite-yet-Saturday-shoe!

Fed up of boring shoes?  Looking for the ideal 18th century footwear for a Lady of Fashion?  Want to bring a bit of elegance to 21st century footwear? Now you can!  I am rather excited at the prospect of American Duchess’s Georgiana shoes – today pre-orders open for these pretties: (And, no, it’s not an [...]

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The Birthday Masquerade – at long last!

Yes, that’s right – photos of my Birthday Masquerade, finally! (And, of course, I was clearly far too optimistic in my last post – if anyone ever tries to tell you that being a teacher is easy, please give them a slap from me.  I’ve never been so exhausted in my life.  I’m loving it, [...]

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In Which I Curse Vivienne Westwood…

… for her 18th century inspired jewellery!  I’ve mentioned the legendary VW previously on this blog – she really is one of the (very) few fashion designers I have any interest in or desire to own the creations of.  And what creations!  I made the mistake of looking at her jewellery collection (silly me!) and [...]

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Decisions and Deadlines

Hmm… so, the problem is that I’m a bit behind schedule on my three projects: the PoP: Tamina costume for the Historical Costume Inspiration Festival; my Birthday Masquerade outfit (AKA, Lady Luck Pierrot outfit); and a waistcoat for my young man (for work and for his steampunk outfit for my Birthday Masquerade Party). Prince of [...]

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Stays, Now With Eyelets!

Yep, that’s right – all those pesky little hand-sewn eyelets are done and the straps are attached: Though they started off a little shaky: The bottom one that you can’t see very well was my first effort – it’s probably just as well it’s not very clear on the photo as it looks awful!!  I [...]

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Competition Alert: Hyaline Prosaic will make you a shift/shirt

Hello hello my dears!  More apologies for my current slowness in posting – I’m still working away on ‘things’ and will endeavour to take some photos of my stays progress post haste! In the meantime, though, it would be quite remiss of me not to inform you of a wonderful giveaway from the lovely, the [...]

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Deliveries

I’ve mentioned bits and pieces that I’ve ordered and a something special for the Lady Luck Outfit, and at last it’s time for show and tell, with some things less exciting than others: Fray-stop glue (wooo, exciiiiitiiiiing  ;P  ) and spray-on fabric stiffener – that’s a little more exciting as you can build up the [...]

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Birthday Masquerade Costume: Inspiration Board

I may or may not have spent most of today messing around on a new toy: Scrapblog*. The other day I realised that the reason I couldn’t find a picture of the 1780s outfit I had seen in my dream because it didn’t exist!   My unconscious mind must have put together elements of different outfits [...]

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Birthday Masquerade Costume: Question For You – Lucky Symbols?

So, the Birthday Masquerade Party outfit is taking shape in my mind, but for now all I’ll say is that there will be self-covered buttons.  They will be embroidered.  With lucky symbols.  I’m quite a big fan of luck symbolism, whether I believe in it or not (one of my main MA projects was on [...]

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Birthday Masquerade: Necessary Things

Being the Listophile that I am, I’ve been thinking about the items I need for my masquerade party costume – that is, essentials for a late 18th century pierrot outfit: Shift – I have one that just needs hemming. Stays – I have a half-finished pair, which I’m going to get back to work on [...]

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