Friar Ben, the Paduan Hobbit

Again last Thursday I discovered that I'd lost my mind and procrastinated working on a monk's robe similar to the Friar Dave for Dave's friend Ben. I cut out the fabric Thursday night, telling myself the whole time that either A. it would be easy as pie because I'd already made one and Ben is not as tall as Dave or B. Ben was a forgiving soul and wouldn't hate me if I didn't get it done.

Seems I had a combo of A and B. I got the robe done...I sat down at the machine at 8am and finished it around 11:30, tabard and all...so it was easy, yes. I barely had to look at the instructions except for some dicey bits like sleeves and hoods. Thank goodness Ben is a forgiving soul, though. The robe somehow came out to be about 5 inches too short and the hood was skewed to the right too far. The tabard was about 10 inches too LONG. But sweet man that he is, Ben wore it anyway.

I will have pictures once he emails them to me. No More Monk's Robes. I'm going to focus back on Miranda in the hopes that I will have it done by CRF in the fall.

The Friar Dave Robe (or McShane's Sundress)

Man...there is still work to be done on this, as there is with the FanGirl gown, but it will do for this weekend I think. I decided to go ahead with the raw edges, as I think it gives a hint of piety to the garb. I still need to add a band of black fabric around the bottom to lengthen the robe, I hemmed it too short.

The almost finished robe:




The robe with tabard:




Close up on the tabard applique:



Now to add the black to the bottom and I should be done with it until I have time to make a lining for the tabard...

McShane's Sundress...with Sleeves

Never mind the title. I'm about halfway done with the Friar Dave robe...I have the hood to attach still, the neckline and bottom to hem, and the tabard to work on. I'm thinking of going a little rugged with the tabard to make it look well worn and leaving the edges raw, but I'm afraid that cotton would fray itself into a ball of string by the end of the day.

I was worried about the height...what you can't see in this picture is that the bottom of the robe is resting on the floor and that I'm extending my arms up over my head to hold it! I think it will be okay.



Note also the Daily Show on the TV in the background...Man do I love some John Stewart for keeping me sane when I'm up sewing at this hour...

Friar Dave in Fast Forward

I'm starting today on a costume that will be WORN on Saturday if I don't lose my mind. Fabric is washed and dried, pattern is cut out and has been properly walked about upon by the hounds, and I'm ready to start pinning tissue to fabric and cutting. This is the "Friar Dave" costume for my brother in law to wear to the GA renn fest this Saturday. I'll post pictures later as it comes together.

My biggest concern is that it won't fit him. Dave is VERY tall and I'm not sure that this pattern is as tall as he is. In cutting out the pieces, I've left extra space around them just so that I can have room to play when I put it together. I may just not hem it and take my machine with me tomorrow night to their house and try hemming it there, because there is no way for me to judge length on someone that much taller than I am. Thank goodness Kalyne is about my height so the FanGirl gown could be hemmed without her physically here.

The Fangirl Gown

The Fangirl Gown was created for Kalyne to wear in her debut with the Hounds of East Fairhaven at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. It still needs some work, but I think it is to the point that she can wear it and feel good about wearing it this coming weekend. The name comes from what female fans of the Lost Boys call themselves..."Fangirls."

The fabric is a cotton blend with a black background and a smattering of teal hearts all over it. The contrasting color that Kalyne chose was, of course, black, since the Lost Boys colors are teal and black.

Bodice:


Bodice and overskirt with my black underskirt:



The black underskirt is a four panel drawstring skirt, very simple. It's made of a lightweight cotton so it shouldn't be too awfully hot for her. The overskirt has some pleating issues that I want to straigthen out after GARF. I think that I'm going to make the pleats themselves smaller because to me the overskirt hangs funny the way it is.

She's going to wear my black snood on her head for GARF, but along with lined bell sleeves for the fall I'm going to try to make her either a french hood or get a piratey-type hat and make her a hatband from the dress fabric.

Miranda on the Backburner

I've scrapped the Miranda project for now as I have to get two costumes ready for the Georgia Renaissance Festival in April. The first is a straightforward gown for our newest HoEF member, Kalyne. Tudor lines on the bodice, two piece gown, tie in sleeves that she will get for CRF but not by GARF...will be too hot for them anyhow. If I have fabric left over I might make her some gauntlets though...would look good with the sleeves in the fall.

The second is a monk's robe for my brother in law. 6"4' he is!!! This should be interesting. I haven't even bought the fabric for his yet but I will post pictures of Kalyne's gown, tentatively called "The FanGirl Gown" as I start putting it together.

Pattern I'm using for my Miranda

McCallPattern - M3663 - MISSES' MEDIEVAL COSTUMES - 3663

I'm going to use the A/B dress. The only difference between A and B that I've found is that B has the bell sleeves. The next challenge will be not having a zipper in the dress like in the pattern design. I'm thinking that I should be able to just pull it over my head and not have to replace the zipper with lacing, though I'd thought of doing that on the sides...but I'm getting ahead of myself, the fabric hasn't even been washed yet.

Project the First: Miranda

This project started out to be a sideless surcoat to wear this Friday evening to a Medieval festival in Simpsonville, but it has become much more. When I arrived home and looked at the pattern I'd bought to modify, it occured to me how much it looked like the style of the dress in a painting I've been dying to reproduce:


J.W. Waterhouse's Miranda: The Tempest. This has to be one of my all time FAVORITE Waterhouse paintings, and the dress seems relatively simple to construct. The main challenge, I think, will be the inset red sleeves. Since I can't see the dress from the front, I'm having to imagine what the front looks like. Although...I have some ideas from JWW himself... Behold, what I think to be the same basic dress, on Ophelia this time:


A bit more ornate in trim, but the same design. I like the slightly more rounded appearance of the neckline on Miranda, and will not be adding quite so much decoration to my gown.

I was worried about the sleeves, but then I found a third incarnation of the same basic dress, this time worn by Fair Rosamund.


You can see there the bands around the upper arm that should conceal the seam in between the blue and red sleeve, as well as the flowing nature of the blue sleeves. I have the blue fabric and some red...we'll see what happens...