We Have Progress…

Hello Dear Friends and Readers, I hope you are enjoying your week thus far. Aaron and I have been on vacation, well Aaron is on Spring Break and I took time off from work to be with him. Anyway, we have had a lovely and relaxing week and I can’t believe it’s already Friday. Time really does fly when you are having fun.

I have finally had some good sewing time. The jacket is coming along nicely and I’m about halfway finished with it. Here are the pictures so far. Have a great week and God Bless!

 

Here is the front, unlined and pinned to my dress form.

The side so you an see the peplum in the back. I’m quite happy with the way the peplum lays.

The back.

The front with lace tucked into the collar so you can get an idea of how the finished product will look.

I still need to sew in the lining, finished the center closure, and make the sleeves.  I will keep you posted as it progresses.

 

Love Lauren

1790’s Jacket Progress

I finally had some time to start on my 1795ish spencer. I spent about two hours pinning and unpinning the pattern to my dress form. I used the JP Ryan Robe l’Anglais bodice pattern as a base. I cut it out of muslin, as is, and pinned it to my dress form. I adjusted the fit, marked the lines so I could make it a high waist spencer, and redrafted the pattern. The hardest part, which wasn’t too bad, was creating the peplum and centering the pleats on each piece of the pattern. Now I need to decide if I want long sleeves or three quartered sleeves. I think I will play with both and see which will look better. Here are the pictures of the progress thus far.

Research, inspiration, and my sketch of the final product.

The fabric and lace. I’m planning on using the gold for the skirt and the blue for the bodice/ spencer.

The original pattern cut out of muslin.

The original pattern on my form (back side). You can see my short stays through the fabric. I used them as a guide to know how and were to alter the original.

The front as it is originally designed.

My alterations to the back, before I added the peplum. I decided to take the back neckline down a bit to fit the later style.

The front with my alterations. I added a dart to one side so I could transfer the markings to my tracing paper pattern.

I added the peplum to one side of the jacket, to keep things symmetrical when I draft the pattern onto paper.

The side view with the peplum added. I’m thinking I might need a small pad underneath the peplum to give it shape. I’ll wait until the skirt is finished before I decide.

The final pattern with the peplum. I’m quite happy with the results thus far. We’ll see how the finished product turns out.

Have a great weekend, everyone. God Bless!

Love Lauren

Aaron’s Frock Coat

I finally have pics of Aaron in his new coat. I’m pretty happy with the results, but as usual, there are things i will do differently next time around. Anyway, here it is…

It looks much better in his full gharb, but for quick pics, the jeans and t-shirt will do.

The Many Friends of Birdie Boy…

My little parrot loves to chatter, of course when no one is around. He’s tends to be a bit of a singing frog. Anyway, he has developed a desire to “talk” to various inanimate objects around the house. He chatters to them in his bird talk and throws in the occasional “Hi baby,” or “Whatcha doin?’, or “poop”, yes he says “poop”. It’s pretty hilarious. Well, after a while, he decides that new said object needs to be ordered around. Now, Gico is trained to step on my finger when I say “step up.” It’s also used as a “punishment”, which isn’t the best word, when he’s misbehaving. With parrots, making them step-up is showing that you are the head of the pecking order. It’s kind of like establishing yourself as pack leader with a dog. Anyway, in his little bird way, he thinks that if he tells something to “step-up”, which he says quite clearly, it will do something. His latest attempt  to control the refrigerator by telling it to “step-up” ending in a mad little parrot. Once said object disobeys Gico, he hisses at it and moves on to the next object. The other day he was walking around on the kitchen floor talking to the stove, the refrigerator, the cabinets, and finally the bookshelf. It’s pretty hilarious and almost impossible to capture on film. I haven’t managed that one yet. As soon as he sees the camera he stops talking and chattering immediately. I did manage to get a few pictures of him sitting on his favorite lamp and plant. He doesn’t usually talk to the lamp, but he loves the plant and loves to carry on long conversations with it.

Well, enough of my gratuitous pet post :-) Have a great weekend and God Bless!

 

Life and Goings On...

Hello friends and readers. I hope your week is going well. Mine has been weird. I started the week out with a nasty, nasty cold and spent Tuesday at home in bed with a little birdy who didn't exactly want to let me rest. It was not fun, but I am thankfully on the mend and starting to feel like a human being again.

In all of the years I have been sewing, I have never purchased fabric online. I have been wanting to for a while, I just haven't had the courage to do so. Well, last night, I decided to take the plunge and buy a lovely linen/ cotton blend online. I ordered it from Dharma Trading Co and it should be here sometime next week. I'll let you know what I think when it gets here. I'm hoping to use it for a few chemises and a shirt or two for Aaron.

The Fabric...

So, due to nasty aforementioned cold, I have not done a stitch of sewing this week. Thankfully, Aaron's Spring break starts this coming week and I am taking some time off to be with him. I plan to start on my jacket/ gown from the previous post tomorrow. Anyway, hopefully I will have something sewing related to show you soon.

Life has just been crazy lately and a little upside down. Hopefully, if all goes as planned, after July, I should have plenty of time to sew again and more blogging will hopefully abound. Have a wonderful weekend, dear friends. God Bless!

Love Lauren

Busy, Busy...

Happy Spring to you all. I hope you had a wonderful week and are enjoying your weekend, thus far. Aaron and I have been just plain busy lately. I feel like I have had so little time for costuming, blogging, and even keeping my home in shape. Things are going very well in the job department for Aaron. I still can't spill the details yet, but I promise to share all as soon as things are finalized. We have also been busy preparing for Aaron's graduation and my departure from the working field. Yes, you read that right... I hope to be retiring this July. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. Again, this is linked to said job for Aaron that I can't talk about yet :-) Anyway, we have both had a number of late nights and meetings as of late. So, my happy 18th century world has been suffering a bit.

I did manage to finally finish Aaron's frock coat. I used the Wingeo pattern, which was okay but not my favorite pattern by far. I'm pretty happy with the results, but as always, I am my worst critic and there are things I would change. I hope to get some pictures posted this weekend. We'll see if I can entice Aaron into dressing up for blog pics ;-)

Now, it's time to make some clothes for me. I fell in love with a painting and gown that Isis, from Isis Wardrobe, made. I think I'm going to have to use it as inspiration. I have some blue silk and some yellow silk in my stash that just needs to become a late 18th century jacket and petticoat. I'm also debating whether I should add some of the wide lace I bought at the fabric expo to the collar and cuffs. I'm not 100% sure yet.

Anyway, that is what is going on in our neck of the woods. Hopefully, I will be able to post more often and start sewing more often as well. God Bless and have a great weekend.

I'm loving the gown on the right. I'm thinking the salmon jacket needs to be blue and the petticoat needs to be yellow. I'd love to hear your opinions :-)

Love Lauren 

St. Patty’s Day and More

I hope you are all doing well and having a wonderful week. We have been just plain busy. I know, I have been horrible in the blogging department. Hopefully today’s posts will help remedy my lack of blogging :-)

Anywhoo, Aaron and I joined our dear friends at a local tavern for a little St. Patty’s festivities. It also ended up being a celebration for my 26th birthday, which was a very lovely surprise. We had a lovely rustic Irish breakfast, well it was more of a brunch due to the hour, and a little libation. Then we headed back over to Tara and Xian’s home and discussed our new reenacting group, Le Bon Ton. You can read more about it at our group’s blog, Le Bon Ton.  Anyway, it was a lovely day full of good food and good friends. Here are the pictures. God Bless!

Tara’s mum and dad

Theodosia Rowan de Valois (Aka Tara)

Lieutenant Colonel Etienne de Valois (Aka Xian, Tara’s hubby)

Captain Edmond Cartwright and Lady Abigail Cartwright (aka Brand and Angel)

Elizabeth Marie Devereux (Aka Connie)

Yours Truly, now known and Lord Thomas Francis Sully and Lady Georgiana Elizabeth Sully

Have a wonderful rest of your week.

Love Lauren

Friends and Fabrics…

There is nothing better than spending a day with friends, but spending the day fabric shopping with friends makes the time that much sweeter. On Sunday, Lissa, from a Fair Prospect, invited Connie, Angel, Tara, and me to the Fabric Expo in Washington. Sadly, Tara wasn’t able to join us, hopefully next year, we sure did miss her. Anyway, Connie, Angel, and I left my house at 7:30 Sunday morning and made our way up to fabric heaven. Talk about a fun trip. We met Lissa at the Expo and happily spent our allowance monies on some awesome finds. The highlight of the day was finding some incredible laces that are hard to come by. Anyway, we had a lovely time, and we hope to go again next year. Here are some pictures of my finds.

More Voile. Can I really have too many Chemise Dresses ;-)

I fell in love with this print. I think it’s going to become this lovely dress…

Can one have too many buckles? I think not.

 

Yummy lace, 100% cotton….

This gorgeous lace was a steal and I can’t wait to use it. It’s about 6” wide and is also 100% cotton.

Have a wonderful rest of you week. God Bless!!!

Love Lauren

Aaron’s Cane

I wanted to post pictures of the cane Aaron made for reenacting. Muhahahah, I have officially brought him to the dark side :-) He is really getting into reenacting. Plus, he is starting to develop a personae. Soon we will have a Dr. and a gentleman :-)

 

A Birthday Gathering

Hi All,

This post is shamefully overdue, I know. I feel as though my blogging life has been overrun by real life, lately. We have been sooo busy with things I can’t elaborate on at this time. Everything has to do with  the dentist in the aforementioned posts. Just know that things are progressing. As soon as I am able, I promise I will tell all :-)

Anyway, I finally have some pictures form our ORS President’s Birthday Gathering. I don’t have a lot to say about the event, except that it was extremely rustic and it was a very good thing it was not raining. Anyway, I’ll let you read Lt. Armstrong’s review of the event, I’ll Fathom the Bowl.

My Lord and me in front of the “Ye Ol’ 18th Century Rock Climbing Wall”

Dear Friends (L to R: Steph, our Birthday Girl, Aaron, me, Angel, Brad, Guy, Ryan, Tara, and Connie)

Mike, Connie, Angel, and Me

This is what happens when my friends come and play at my house. I end up dressing them :-) Angel is wearing my chemise a la reine, robe a la turque, and the smaller of my hair pieces.

Here we are at a boat house on the grounds. We tromped through a dimly lit path with a candle to get here. Thank goodness it was dry or this lady would have been a muddy and grumpy lady.

Our beloved Guy… I love this picture of him.

This is what happens when you take a picture in nearly pitch dark. Aaron looks as though he’s about to lop someone’s head off ;-)

Well, that’s all for now folks.

Lady Lauren

Valentines’ Tea

I know this post is very overdue…..

We had a wonderful Tea on Sunday. Connie and Mike graciously opened their Victorian home and allowed us to host the tea there. We had tons of yummy food, great entertainment in the form of a Regency Magic Show, and lots of card playing. I hope your week is going well. God Bless!

Danny and Me during the Magic Show

Danny and Tara during the Magic Show

Us

Lissa (from a Fair Prospect) and Me

Angel, Christian, and Me working in the kitchen.

Connie, Angel, and Brad working away…

Have a wonderful rest of the week.

Love Lauren

P.S. We met with the dentist on Monday…. Things are looking very, very, very good. I can’t go into detail, but know that we are excited ;-) I promise to give details once everything is finalized.

Goings On…

I feel like I just haven’t had much to blog about lately. Things have, well, just been crazy around here. Aaron is working hard in school preparing for graduation and I have had a lot of late night meetings and other things with work. It seems like the past few weeks have been filled with normal life stuff, instead of my fun 18th century world.

However, I hope to remedy that this weekend. We have a Valentine’s Tea on Sunday and a Ball next Saturday. So, I should have some reenacting posts coming, I promise.

I will also ask that you keep us in your prayers. Aaron and I are meeting with a dentist on Monday to discuss a possible job opportunity. I’m really excited, but also very nervous. I know that God has everything worked out according to His will. However, it will be nice when He shares what His plans are with us :-) I am ever so patient, LOL!

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I hope to have some more interesting posts in the near future :-)

I will leave you with a picture that two of my friends have sent me. Both say it’s Aaron’s twin… I’ll let you be the judge.

God Bless!!!

Love Lauren

Congratulations!!!

Our good friends, John and Crystal, had their baby boy this morning. Simon was delivered safely and both mom and baby are doing well. Congratulations and we love you guys!!!

John and Crystal, with Simon still inside cooking… We don’t have pics of the munchkin yet :-)

A Very Nice Visit

Dear Friends and Readers, I hope you all had a very nice weekend.  Aaron and I had a quiet weekend spent mainly at home relaxing and enjoying company. Our dear friends, Cheryl and Tim, came to see us Saturday night for dinner. They, of course, brought their 3 month old boy, James, too. It was the first time our animals have seen a baby. They were soooooo well behaved and sweet to him. James wasn’t quite sure what to think of the dogs, but he really enjoyed watching the bird. We didn’t let Gico near James, but he could still see him. It was a very nice evening. It was wonderful to see our friends and have a baby in our house :-)

The star of the show, James and his momma, Cheryl.

He was watching the bird in this shot.

That’s all for now. Have a great rest of your week.

Love Lauren