Medieval Dress for Herstmonceux

Hello again everyone!
Have I bored you enough with my holiday stories and pictures? LOL, nah come on admit it, you loved a free trip to France! :)

This time I was prepared and pre-blogged a lot before going away for our bank holiday weekend to Herstmonceux Castle for the medieval weekend. Do you remember the festival pics from last year? Well it was great as always :)

You may remember my WIP when I showed you these:

These were the buttons for my 15th century cotehardie.

After dragging the dress to France and not getting anywhere with it in the meantime, I was working every night last week to get it finished. Hemming by hand takes a lot more time than on the machine I can tell you that!

Sadly enough, by Friday evening the dress was hemmed and the buttons had been sewn on but I still had 9 button holes to finish! You guessed it, this also had to be done by hand... So on Saturday I wore my winter kit (it was a bit chilly anyway) and was allowed to sit in front of a friend's stall to finish the dress. 4 hours later it was done, at last! There might be a photo of this somewhere but they haven't been uploaded yet by the organisation.

The next day the weather was much better and I finally got to wear my shiny new dress.

Taadaa!! This was taken just as a gush of wind came up but it kind of adds to the picture. LOL. I had made proper medieval squares in the arms as well but had put them in way too low so in the end I got so annoyed that I cut them out and sewed the whole thing back up again. WITHOUT trying the dress... which is why it doesnt really close anymore, woops! Oh well, I got to be a 'loose woman' for a few days LOL. I might take it out again but not right now. It might still stretch a bit ;)

Close up of the handstitched hemming on the sleeves and the neckline

And the bottom hem too of course

Posing with the bf outside the castle, you can tell we're out of the city, all relaaaxed!

Someone offered to take a proper picture which prompted some of the other archers to join in. Love this picture :)

Finally the dress was done, now only 2 more costumes for EFF Arcen and a LOT of small projects... Better get started!

Comments

  1. Jill1 September 2011 at 03:22

    Another fabulous dress! and great photos too!

    Those buttons look amazing! And to make all the buttonholes by hand? Rather you than me!:)

    Jill @ Creating my way to Success
    http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michelle L.3 September 2011 at 15:34

    So cool! I actually really love the way it is open at the top - very wench chic!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Christine13 September 2011 at 04:07

    How fun! Your costume looks great! I cannot believe all that work you did. For us, the Norcal Renaissance Faire is coming up this weekend. My costume is ready :-)

    ReplyDelete

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