So where do we begin?

This post really doesn't apply to my adventures & dress diaries of what I've created but since this museum exhibit relates to the creativity of costume design as a whole and it provides endless amounts of inspiration, I thought I'd share anyway. Since I am going to convey the breadth of the exhibit and some of my thoughts and opinions, I've decided to break this up into several parts. Alas, no photography was allowed, so if I found correlating images from the internet, I attempted to include as many as I found.

The “20^th Annual Art if Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition” at the FIDM Museum was excellent. My only compliant was I wanted to know more specifics like fabrics and other materials used, if items were recycled vintage items or custom made. Of course I was wondering through the exhibit hall making notes and when I was finishing up the security guard pointed me to a decent size hand out that I thought may have some of the answers I was searching for. Nope... well, sorta.

Unexpectedly there was a small display of some historical clothing worn by various Crowns of Europe. Sadly a dress worn by Queen Victoria was taken off display. (I forget what the sign said as to why.) That small display will be a journal page unto itself and I'm not sure I could find any images. Some of the dresses were before the regular use of photography.

So bare with me as I write these pages, I have images to find first and a bit of reading to do from the handout available at the Exhibition.

Long, long time!

I didn't realize it's been about 16 months since I last posted about a project to this journal. And honestly, I haven't had any inspiration since then. I have done some sewing but nothing that has really caught my fancy.

Well after attending my first event in Caid in over 10 years, I'm hell-bent on making a new Gothic fitted dress (commonly referred to as a cotehardie) in a personal heraldic style. I plan to have it done by March 1, since I plan to wear it March 3rd at Caidan Crown.

My proposed design is parti-colored red and black with white crescents sewn near the hem line.

I have two styles I'm contemplating.

1. Side-laced with bell sleeves (lined in alternate colors), maybe additional crescents around the neck or bell cuff.
2. Long fitted sleeve with button closures on bodice and sleeves with white tippets to match the crescents

The choice is hard to make. All the GFDs I own are the front button type, so I think I may do the side-lace one for it's cleaner lines and difference in style. It also gives me a chance to learn hand-sewn eyelets.

I plan to buy the linen from fabrics-store.com which is conveniently 45 mins away so I don't have to pay shipping. I'm also going to line it to give it extra stability. I haven't lined my GDFs recently because I usually wear them in the summer for the hot Calontir events.

The white for the crescents, I hope to find something at the fabric district. A heavy weight cotton brocade would be ideal. Nothing with the shiny of polyester blends.

Next thought.... head covering..... no clue and need to research.

Plans and Execution

Alright.... train of thought:

From the woodcut, it appears that the slashing on the wams are not separate bands (umleg) like with a woman's dress, however it stands to reason that the same process could have been used for a man's wams. So with that as theory, I need to decide what colour combination I want to do. The blue linen is a bit of a coarser weave, and a bit tougher to keep from fraying even with tight hand sewing. (That reminds me, I'll do the hand sewing with linen thread, I really do prefer it much more than modern thread.) The base of the wams will be blue with blue lining, black umleg and black sleeves, not sure whether or not to self-line the sleeves or use the blue. There will be a white inner false sleeve for the puffing and the man's version of the brusttuch will be a black garment fabric with a faint gold diamond weave. If I'm inclined or have time, I might stud the brusttuch.

I'll be making the hemd (shirt) this week & mock-up for fitting this weekend.

I have a ton more to write but it's taken me over an hour to get through this with measuring, researching and phone calls, so that's it for tonight.