Ren Faire Costume and Other Musings.

So, I went to a Renaissance Faire this weekend. I’ve been attending for 7 years now. I love it! There are so many great activites and wonderful people. My favorite part is dressing up. I made my own costume this year. (My mother had made my previous two.) I only got half of it finished, however. I made the outer shell, but the underdress came from a second hand store. I’m planning on wearing this costume for Halloween as well, but need to finish the underdress.

This is the pattern that I started with. There was much altering that needed to be done to get it to look the way I had pictured in my mind.

I used view A and left off the sleeves because I mostly didn’t want them, but also because I didn’t have enough fabric. I also did not have the trim go all the way down the front of the dress. I didn’t really care about the trim, but before I read through the entire pattern to see how it was constructed, I wasn’t able to easily go back and fix the raw edges that the trim covers. So, here is what the finished dress ended up like.

This isn’t the best picture of me. . .but when I took my camera with me, I neglected to make sure there was an SD card in it. 😦 I had a little internal memory, and was able to take a few pictures, however I cannot find my camera cable to extract said photos. Once I find that, I will post a few better pictures of the costume. But all in all, you get the main idea. *UPDATE* I have found my cord and this IS the updated picture. . .well, better than nothing I suppose. ^_^*

I have also recently been knitting on Ysolda’s Snapdragon Tam. It’s GORGEOUS! I love the pattern and the color. I decided to use Malabrigo Worsted in Sunset. I adore this yarn, and the Tam looks great with it!

The background in this picture is the quilt that I recently put together. It’s a collection of Anna Maria Horner and Tina Givens fabrics. I just did giant 14″ blocks, alternating light and darks. I had four fabrics total and have plenty left over for some accent pillows, (if I ever get around to them . . .). I quilted it on my mother’s longarm with a pantograph and teal-blue thread. It’s so pretty! ^_^

And now it is laying happily upon my bed. Though there is not enough drape on the sides, there is plenty of length. It almost touches the floor at the foot of my bed and still has enough for a tuck! I have a Queen size bed and this quilt measures approximately 80×108. I should have added at least one more row on the width, but it’s lovely just the same.

And then, just when I thought I couldn’t cram any more onto my Ashford Joy’s bobbin, I go and cram a little more. Poor wheel. I work this thing to death, but it still shows me love. This was some blue faced leceister that I wanted to get spun up. It’s so soft and scrumptious. I love it.

My boyfriend is gone for three months to train for a new position he is taking. If all goes well, we will be moving to the ‘big city’ to be close to his work. While he’s away, I have been trying to find things to keep myself busy. (Like that is hard to do. . . ^_^) So I’ve been finishing up on some of these projects, as well as starting way too many new ones. On the books for the coming few weeks, I will be attending Oregon Flock and Fiber in Canby. This will be year 3. Can’t wait to find some fibery goodness to feed the addiction. I have a few classes to teach at the quilt shop, and some store samples to get through. I have three bags and a long jacket to do. As soon as I can get myself a little better organized, I will be posting some, hopefully, regular updates on my progress.