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

Shop Open!!

So FINALLY i have opened my etsy shop, there's currently only 5 items up on there but there are a few more in the works that should be completed relatively soon. Here is the link to my Etsy Shop So my first items for sale are;

Cream damask 18th century stays, with decoative false button front and gatthered chiffon stomacher, here

Floral Tapestry 18th centuy stays with front and back lacing here

With entirely hand stitched binding...

Blue Silk 18th century stays with diamond front opening and chiffon stomacher, here

Dusty Pink Tudor/renaissance Bodice, here

And Finally a purple cotton velvet Caraco/jacket. Similar to the green hooded Caraco but with a lace up front and no stomacher. Here So i am quite excited to be finally selling some of my stuff (well hopefully anyway :-/) and looking forward to making some more garments to put on there Rachael xxx

Sneak Peak

So i have just about finished some of the things i am planning on selling on Etsy (hopefully at the start of July kind of time) I have a few things in the works for selling, about 5 pairs of 18th century stays are nea completion, that Tudor Bodice and a couple of hooded caracos. I just wanted to show you a couple of picture of the 2 most completed items, 2 pairs of 18th century stays.

18th century stays made from a tapestry fabric with openfont lacing.

Cream 18th century stays, the same pattern that i made for the blue stays previously. In cream it looks quite bridal to me, especially with the cream skirt on the mannequin, i would get married in it anyway! haha Rachael xxx

Tudor(ish) Bodice

Today i finally took the photographs of the tudor bodice that I have been working on. They arent exactly how i wanted them (I have such a problem giving other people control of my camera :-/) but i think they turned out okay :) I absolutley love this bodice, the fabric is beautiful, although i am not sure how wel you can see that in these photographs. I really like how the sleeves turned out aswell :) So heres a taster of the pictures, i will be uploading the rest of them onto my flickr so head on over and check them out here

So this bodice will be up for sale along with the five 18th century stays i have been working on and are close to completion, and two hooded caracos ( the green one from earlier this summer and a new purple velvet one that i am making)
Hope you like it :)

Rachael
xxx

The Magic Of Colour B4

So a non-costume related post here, just wanted to tell everyone how impressed i was by Colou B4 hair colour correction, and highly reccomend it. As you may know i have had pretty bight red hair for over a year now and i recently decided i wanted to try going back to blonde. So i saw this advertised on TV and thought i would gie it a try so i bought it from my local Superdrug for around £10, but i think you can get it in boots and most other pharmacy shops. So me and my mum finall got round to applying it this morning, following the instructions exactly (i had read online that it only worked if you really followed the instructions) My mum applied it to my hair relativley easily, although i will point out it REALLY smells, we wrapped my hai in clingfilm as it says to in the instructions and then covered it with a towel. It said that for extra stong results to leave it in for 60 minutes so thats what i did, then proceeded to rinse it out, using the buffering gel stuff after ten minutes. Already while rinsing i could see a result... So i started off like this... As you can see it was A pretty dark red After the application of colour before it became this, a very obvious change from before. However, the colour was still slightly gingery and had a copper tone to it so i decided to add a colour over it to try and bring it closer to my natural colou. I use Loreal Casting creme gloss Sweet Honey, as that looked the same as how my hair used to be. After my hair had been dyed with the sweet honey it was a more natural blonde colour, not quite the colour it was naturally but getting there. I am going to leave it like this for a while and then maybe experiment a bit more once my hair has had a rest haha. Hope this is useful to anyone thinking of changing their hair colour or using Colour B4. Rachael xxx EDIT: Also, Tudor bodice is finished, i think i will be doing the photographs on wednesday hopefully so they should be up by thursday :)

project Update

Heey everyone, just a quick update on my current projects. So the tudorish dress is pretty much assembled just need to finish the sleeves and add eyelets and then it will be ready to be worn :) I am also very much working on creating a few 18th century stays to put on sale hopefully sometime in June/July. I have cut out the fabric for about 5 pairs so far and i am hoping to make approximately ten to be put initially on sale. I am making a range of sizes between a size 10-14/16 (UK sizes, thats american sizes 8-12/14) They wont be made fitted to an exact person, but i find that these average sizes work well as a basis, just lace tighter or looser ;-) Anyhoo thats my quick update just to show i am working on stuff, its just my summer holidays have just started and are mainly being taken up by lounging around doing nothing and getting used to relaxing again haha wont last long though. I am excited to stat this new endeavor and i hope its not a complete failure, there must be people out there looking for handmade 18th century stays right? ;) Rachael xxx

Tudor Bodice Toile

Just a quick peek at a toile i have been working on for a new costume. I went to see Anne Boleyen at the Festival Theatre the other night and i liked the style of the costumes, some of them wee slightly ill fitting but i guess thats what happens when its a touring play and different people might play the same peron over time. Anyway, I liked the overall aesthetic of the costumes and it inspired me to make a Tudor-esque dress. I have this fabric that i have been saving for a while for something to make with it and i think this might finally be the project for it :)

The fabric is a embossed moleskin type fabric, but quite lightweight. Its really pretty :)

Green Hooded Caraco

I made this green hooded caraco over the summer but didnt quite finish it off or take photos of it, so this weekend i took my dog to the wood and had a photo session,

here he is peeking out from behind my skirts haha Unfortunately i didn't notice until after we had packed up and gone home that in all of the photographs the back of my skirt is all crumpled, darn! But yeah, i really like the shape of the skirt and the hood, except i think i maybe made it a slighty wrong size as it fit on my head a bit funny. I actually needed the hood in the end as it started raining while we were taking photographs. In case you hadn't noticed, i dyed my hair red this year haha, i don't think i have actually taken any costume photos since my hair was red, as last summer i think i just made the three dresses for my friends.

In the Company of Wolves; Costume Study.

Last Night i watched the film 'In the Company of Wolves' which is based on an Angela Carter Book and is basically a re-telling of the story of little red riding hood. I really liked the costumes in this film, she only really had two full costumes but throughout the film they were worn in different combinations to create a variety of outfits. While i was watching i did some quick costume sketches which i later coloured on my computer.
I really like her second costume, with the red floral skirt, black velvet bodice and traditional red cloak, i think if i get chance over the summer i might try and make at least one of these costumes for myself.


I will also take this opportunity to tell you all about the online shop i am planning on opening. I am thinking over the summer trying to sell some costumes of mine, specifically 18th century stays. I will make a variety of styles of stays to a variety of standard sizes (eg size 10, 12, 14 etc).

an example of some 18th century stays that i made in the past.