Finished all my projects just in time...

So i am slightly in disbelief that i actually managed to finish the Tangled Dress commission and made myself a medieval style dress. All in one week! Madness! When i say its a medieval style dress i use that term loosely, its just got the long panels with no waistline effect that medieval dresses have, its not particularly historically accurate. Just pretty :) Anyway, without further a do, here's a photograph of the finished Tangled dress,

And here are a few shots of the medieval-y style dress

For more pictures, go to my deviant art gallery here xxx

Tangled Commission

So i have been working on the 'Tangled' Dress the last few days and have got a fair bit done :) Excuse the crappy Dummy that its on, shes so tiny (only 25" waist!) that it didn't fit on my good dummy, in fact it still barely fits this one! I used this dummy for an art project that involved newspaper dresses so that's strips of newspaper that i couldn't get off it that's showing at the top.

The Bodice just needs the eyelets up the front for the lacing up the front, and then i am going to remake the stomacher so its a bit longer because currently if it really doesn't lace up that much the stomacher bit will be pretty low.

I am pretty happy with the shape of the skirt from the back. I found the front a bit difficult because on the tangled dress the back is quite flared and full but its quite straight and doesnt fold much, but i think i have got it just about right. It would look good if it was worn with petticoats underneath i reckon.

Instead of the stripes of pink that are on the original costume ( i did think about stitching down stripes of ribbon but it didnt really work) i sewed stripes of decoative stitching which i think works quite well, if it is a bit more subtle than the one in the film.

A closeup of the braid that i have used on the skirt. This goes all the way down the skirt and then all the way around the hem of the skirt. I think the braid works really niccely :) The front panel is made from a patterned cotton. I wanted the front to be a more similar colour to the rest of the skirt like it is in 'Tangled' but there wasnt any available that matched it well enough. Instead i went for this fabric which contasts with it and has a nice flowery pattern which i think works on Rapunzels Dress. Not much else to do, just the underskirt mainly and then a few finishing touches here and there. Yay :) Rachael xxx P.S, as a fan of Disney, if anyone else would like a disney characters dress made for them i would be happy to. Especially Merida from the new Brave film, i fancy making one of them :)

'Tangled' Toile

So i have started on the commission to make a 'Tangled' inspired dress, making the pattern and the toile.

Now the skirt on the real thing will be more flared and have more volume but this shows the basic idea. I am going to buy the fabric today i think and will get started on it mid week. I will keep updated on progress :) I also kind of fancy making a medievally kind of dress for myself, but not sure if that will be a go-er, probably dont have time :( boo I go back to uni in a week and a bit. Even just typing it i reailse how unrealistic it is to think i will get 2 costumes finished in the next week and a half... ah well, i can but dream :) Rachael xxx

Rapunzel Dress

I finally have a commission! yay! So i have been asked to create a dress for a renaissance fair based on the dress from the Disney Film Tangled

This is just a quick sketch to show my general idea, its basically the same, but with a more corsetted bodice and a slightly fuller skirt. At the minute i am planning on having the skirt ankle length, but i am waiting to hear back if she wants it to be full length. Please excuse the pretty crappy sketch, i couldnt find any of my water colours or anything. v

I am going on holiday for a week tomorrow, so i will probably start the toile when i get back and then buy all the fabric and stuff. I will post any progess :) Rachael xxx

How to: Curl your hair without heat...

So i have been curling my hair this way since Christmas time and thought i would share with you, through pictures, how to do it. I try to avoid using heat on my hair as much as possible to preserve its condition, and this is the best way that i have found to produce long lasting curls that usually stay in until the end of the day. I had just washed my hair earlier in the day, but it works just as well no matter how recently its been washed. Before you start, i would run a wet hairbrush through you hair just to dampen it ever so slightly, this helps the curls stay in and makes your hair a bit easier to work with. Begin by taking a circular headband and placing it over you head, and over all your hair, not underneath like you normally would.

Then, take small sections of your hair, beginning at the front next to your ears and loop it over and under the headband. I find that the smaller the sections the tighter curls it makes.

Continue taking similar sized sections and working it around the headband further and further around your head. Repeat on both sides until you reach the back of you head.

If you like me and have quite a lot of hair, you will probably reach the back and still have quite a bit of hair, but that's okay just keep wrapping it around and around the final bit until all the hair is tucked into place

Now I don't know about you, but i think that with the right headband this hairstyle could look quite pretty for during the day as well, or even worn with a costume seen as it has a slightly old fashioned look.

Now you can sleep with your hair like this and it should all stay in place as long as its tucked in properly. A plus with this way of curling is that, unlike wearing foam curlers or rags in your hair overnight, this is extremely comfortable to sleep in. Okay now, when you wake up and take it out it quite often looks slightly out of control and sticks out a bit where the headband was, like this...

But don't despair! This is where you could use a little bit of heat if you want, or just a hairbrush, hairspray or whatever hair styling products you prefer. Because of the headband flattening down my fringe i usually use straighteners on it to curve it up a bit and blend it into the curls better. I am not sure how this looks without a fringe, but i imagine a bit of brushing and styling using water or straighteners or whatever to calm it down a bit at the front will work just as well :) Here are the final results of the overnight headband curling method

I hope that's helpful to anyone looking for a quick and easy way to curl hair without heat. I might be doing some more of these kind of tutorials for how to do things with your hair (braiding etc) especially for hairstyles that i like to do to wear with my costumes. Rachael xxx

Tudor/Renaissance bodice

Coming soon... here's a sneak peak of the Tudor/ Renaissance bodice that will be up for sale soon...

New Item for Sale

New Item Up for sale, you might recognise this from last year

So the yellow pair of stays that were originally made to fit my friend esther have been reworked a bit to make them sellable. When i say reworked i mean i redid some of the hand stitching that i rushed last time haha. Visit this item here; Yellow Stays And visit my shop here; Shop