The mists of Avalon

One of the movie I like is The mists of Avalon with Julianna Margulies and Angelica Huston.The movie is base on the book of Marion Zimmler-Bradley.I like the way the story is presente with a touch of magic and religious believes.There is so many beautiful dress in it , it's quite impossible to not be inspired by it.Some costumes are simple other are so colorfull.

I made this dress at my beginning as a sewer.My godmother offer a sewing machine ( Kenmore)and I did start enjoy doing things alone without help.This sewing machine was for real beginner , it can do 10 differents points and can't sew anything heavy .
The dress is made with mccall 3663 and is inspired by the one wear by the character of Ygerne when she go to the court at the begining of the movie when she met Uther Pendragon.The fabric is suede , which is hot , the trim is from Calontir trim.The dress have no zipper or lacing so as you can imagine , it's not very adjust.

With the dress I also made a sleeveless coat which is made from mccall 4340 , the same pattern I use for doing my harry potter coat.The fabric is very heavy , reversible (fur /suede) and let me tell you it's not all sewing machine that can handle that.My little Kenmore can't , the industrial machine of my mom can do it but she broke a needle or two .It wasn't easy.

The idea behind the coat is I wish to have something that will looks like or help to give some richness to the dress.

If you didn't see seams on the side of the coat , it's because there are none on the side or on the back.The only seams are at the shoulder.It was difficult to sew , adding a lining will surely not help .So I thought I should find a way to have less seams or if I could possibly make it in a single piece .The fabric was large enough .I put the piece of the pattern on it and realize it was possible to do it like this.I choose to not add anything to close it and show a little of the inside.
A classical mistake of the beginner I was , an horrible seam inside the sleeve which is visible when I wear it.I think it's worst because I didn't have an overlock machine at the time .When I realize how bad it looks , I did not have any extra fabric to make new sleeve .I can possibly add a lining .

The fact is the adjustment of the dress is not well and I have decided to transform it to make it more confortable and look better.Don't be surprise to find it in the transformation section before the end of the year.

The fenice dress

I made this dress a few years ago because I saw a similar one but I do not like the fabric and thought I could pay less if I did it myself.

The pattern is mccall 3663 , princess line looks good on me.The fabric is linen for the pale and suede for the darker.I put metal eyelet at the wrist , mostly for the look , and on the side to try to get some kind of adjustment.

I always saw myself bigger then I am in reality so the dress was a little too large , so the "possible adjustment" with the eyelet on the side change nothing in it.Another problem with this dress is the neckline , too much low.If I try to pick up something on the floor , some people may be able to see what I lady do not show to everybody.

It doesn't matter if this dress have many defects it was, I guess ,one of the three first costume I ever made and I'm proud of it.One of the many defect it have , I do not have an overlock machine on that time , all the seam are terrible to look.

Lord of the rings , part 1

Like many people in this world , I do enjoy seeing Lord of the ring become a movie .I have to admit that my favorite character is Eowyn , probably because at some point , I found something in her that is close to me. The first picture is the " refugee outfit " we saw in the two towers.I made this 3 years ago or very close of that.For the underdress , I choose indian cotton which is not expensive and very light.I had use mccall 8937(probably the first pattern I ever buy).There is silver metal eyelet at the wrist with little white cord.

The overdress is made of a mix of linen and was made with mccall3653.The side is lace and I'm pretty satisfy of the look it gave which is for me close of what we saw in the movie.The only thing I will suggest if you use this pattern is the neckline , mine was too much low so I add a small piece to correct that.It's not too bad at all but this mistake could be avoid.

From the house of healing (LOTR 3 The return of the king)the white dress wear by Eowyn.I had use a satin suede (very soft on the skin)and use a princess line pattern , the old good mccall 3663.The back is longer and touch the floor.Well there is nothing special about it but it make me feel like a princess in a pyjama.

This dress is a shame.I probably like it when I did it , but now I must admit I will probably not wear it .I have use mccall 3663 but simplicity have create a pattern that will probably easier and closer to the dress.The gold fabric is chinese brocade , panned velvet and satin with a floral design fo the lining inside the sleeve and the false skirt.To create the illusion of a skirt , a made a second front piece in the satin and open the first at the belly.So when you walk the illusion is good.

Why I can put that in the shamefully section , many reasons.1-It's too much shiny . 2-The fabric for the collar is too far of the original (from my point of view now). 3-It will be probably better to do a real skirt under the dress. 4-Did you saw this horrible seam in the sleeve ?I hate that so much.I was a beginner when I did that but if by a miracle someone had told me how to avoid this I will probably not hate that dress so much now.

some old project

When I was talking of shamefully costume , here are 2 goods exemples of mistakes I did as a beginner .

The blue shirt at right was made of some kind of linen(I do not remember the exact type).This is the perfect exemple of shirt you can buy in medieval store and pay 100$ and more.The making price of this one is + - 20$.It have metal eyelet and is wear with a belt.

So what is shamefully in that?I had use a white thread to do the assembly with the overlock machine.Unfortunatelly I did not have the overlock since a long time and I do not use it properly.At some place , you can sew the white sew because the overlock did not do the sew enough tight.

At left we have a sleeveless shirt of a very light black linen.The red band is some kind of cotton and have a small yellow pattern.The shamefully part of it is the red band at the bottom are sew in the wrong side.The pattern of the fabric are not in the same direction .This is a very silly mistake.

For both of them , I had use mccall 3789.