Bodice completed, and a new kitty

Hi there lovelies! Here's little update :) So, first of all, I finally finished my Young Victoria bodice! Can I get a WOOHOO!! Yeah, I'm pretty happy, that project is taking forever. 

Hete it is, with the bertha sewn on and everything. 

And on top of that I have a new kitten! Isn't she adorable? I was so sad after tragically losing my beloved Caline, I decided to get a new cat. This one is called Flora, and she will be seven weeks old tomorrow. She's a little ball of fire, and a lot of fun. I also decided to make her food myself, cause commercial pet food is total crap and I wanted to give her the best. So it's home prepared meals for her. If you're interested, here is the website where I got all the info and recipes from: http://www.catnutrition.org. So far it's a success, it only took two days for her to adopt her new food!

Here she is sleeping on my legs while I'm on the computer. She loves to nap on me or in my arms, and she always comes to snuggle and sleep next to me at night. What a cutie! The only big challenge is to teach her that everything is not a toy, and especially that my satin bodice is not something to plunge your claws into... Well, I'm sure she'll calm down someday, and until then I keep my things on high shelves. 

Have a nice day!

Sissi's Dresses

Hi! I spent last Christmas in Vienna, and just remembered I forgot to post about it until now. It was a lovely christmas, but the best part was getting to see some of Empress Elisabeth (Sissi)'s dresses up close. She was a truly beautiful woman, and an icon of fashion back then. Here are a few pictures:

First of all, It's not a proper visit in Vienna without cakes at the Café Central! My gosh they were delicious!, and look at that place, isn,t it the most beautiful café you've ever seen? And you can see a portrait of Sissi in the back.

My sister and I on the steps at Schonbrönn Palace, on Christmas Day. There was a lovely christmas market rignt in front of the palace, with a giant christmas tree. We had some delicious hot wine and carried on with our visit. Sadly we couldn't take pictures inside. 

The next few pictures were taken in another museum. I don't recall the name, but they had three different exhiitions about Sissi and he Imperial family at that time. 

A lovely lace shawl, and a belt. You read that right, that little black thing is a belt... imagine how small her waist was!

I love that dress. She wore it in Corfu. I think it's from the late 1880's

An evening gown

These nex few dress pictures were taken from the web, but I did visit the Sissi Museum at the Hoffburg where they are displayed. We weren't allowed to take pictures. 

Here are a few portraits of the empress herself:

This one is probably her most famous portrait. 

I leave you with this lovely (HUGE) gingerbread house. This was at the Café Central. 

Have a nice day!

Sleeves, sweet vintage finds and a double birthday

Hi there! I've been working some more on my Young Victoria gown and the bodice is getting there. I will still need to make the skirt, bustle and pantaloons (and eventually a cape)  but I'm getting there. I finished setting in the sleeves yesterday and am quite pleased with the result.
Here is what it looks like now:

At first I wanted to make straight sleeves with the lace ruffles, but My pattern didn't come out that good, so I decided to gather them. I'm quite pleased with the result. 

Back

Close-up on the sleeve

That's the bertha. It isn't pinned on or anything, I just laid it over the bodice to get an idea of the look. The only ting I like less with it is that it covers a part of the cute gathered sleeves. There will also be some blue tabs in the middle and on the sides to fix it in place and finish the look. 

Here is the lace I used for the sleeves. It is really quite beautiful and was pretty expensive (10$/m!!), but worth it. I bought a lenght of double sided lace, and cut it to have the two layers, one longer, and one shorter in widht. Then I sewed them on top of one another and gathered it all in the sleeves. 

Also, last week I went to a wonderful antiques store near Quebec City and bought these: The gloves are made from a wonderful soft leather, and the two baby bonnets are just darling. I think the one on the left is from the 50's or 60's and was originally part of a christening ensemble. The one on the right is most likely from the 40's. I might make some modern reproductions and sell them in my etsy shop. 

And finally, today is may 24th of may. Not only it marks Queen Victoria's 194th's birthday, it also marks the first birthday of the first baby I helped being born as a doula. I'm told this sweet girl is thriving, happy and growing well. Happy Birthday!

Queen (or actually Princess) Victoria as a baby

Have a nice day!

1840's bodice comig together nicely, and a succesful attempt at dollmaking

Hi! Sorry again I've been so boring lately. Good news is I finally managed to pick up my Young Victoria costume and work some more on it. The piping is done, the top edge has been turned down, and the hooks back closure is on. I had some issues with the back closure, though. I purchased a hook and eye pre-made band (you just have to sew it on, instead of sewing all the hooks and eyes separately) the only problem is that it's white, and my costume is royal blue. I thought the overlapping fabric would hide it, but the white still showed. In the end, I sewed some press studs all along the overlapping part, kinda like in a winter coat. Not period accurate at all, and we still see a little bit of white when I move, but it will do.  Next thing will be the sleeves and the bertha. I haven't decided on the sleeve style yet. Any suggestions or ideas?

Here are a few pictures:

Front- The color is more of a deep royal blue in reality. 

Back

Back closure. As you can see, it's a very weird system, but it will do. I'm way too lazy to rip out everything and start over.

Apart from that I'm still working on all my doula and birth stuff, and working an some prenatal classes and workshops for kids in schools. In order to explain birth to the kids without having to show some videos to the younger ones, I decided to make a cloth birthing and breastfeediing doll to explain the process (since I don't have the funds to buy some of the really expensive ones on the market). It was a lot of work, but I'm pretty happy with how it came out!

Pretty cool huh? She's all handmade, with natural fibers (cotton interlock for the skin, wool for the stuffing and wool yarn for the hair) and her face and the baby's face and hair are hand embroidered. She's also got a wire skeleton, so I can post her in any position I want.  And she's pretty tall too, about 21 inches high. She can nurse her baby with strategically placed press studs, and the little cord also detaches at the umbilicus with a press stud. I know some of you may find this weird, but please keep in mind that this doll is intended for educationnal purpose, so no nasty comments, please. I still haven't decided on a name for her, she reminds me too much of Snow White (which was unintentionnal). A friend of mine suggestes Blanche because Snow White in french is ''Blanche-Neige'', we'll see if it sticks. 

Apart from that I'm working hard on my vegetable garden. It's still too soon to plant everything outside (I live in Canada, remember), but my seedlings are doing really well, and maybe I'll be able to transplant/plant the kale, carrots, green beans and lettuce this week. I'll have to wait another few weeks for the cucumbers, peppers, beets, tomatoes, melons and all the various squashes. I'm also going to make a mandala vegetable garden, and it's gradually taking shape! I just need to finish putting the rocks around all the sections, and add some soil. The circle in the middle will be full of sunflowers. I'll be posting some pictures soon, it's all rainy out today so I can't take the camera out. 

My beloved seedings. They're all pretty eager to get out, don't you think?

Have a nice day!

I want a pair of those!

Hello! Look at these awesome new shoes by American Duchess

They look awesome don't you think? Honestly, I haven't bought shoes anywhere elase lately...

Here are the links if you want some more information:  www.AmericanDuchess.com

and her blog here. 

A few pictures of what I've been up to lately

Hi, so here's what I've been up to lately. Unfortunately I haven't been able to resume my historical costume sewing, but I will soon. Or at least I hope to. 

This is a little sailor collar sweater I made from a 1916 pattern. You can find it here: Child's Middy Jumper. It really is super easy to knit, just time consuming. 

 I also knitted a placenta. Yep, you read right, PLACENTA. As in after-birth. Personnaly, I think it is a most fascinating organ. I knitted it for educationnal purposes, tu use in my childbirth classes. It's even got a little amniotic membrane, and snaps to fasten the cord on my teaching baby. I figured out the pattern myself after looking at a few others.

Finally but most importantly. Isn't this the most beautiful cat you,ve ever seen? Her name was Caline, she was the most lovely cat ever. She has been missing for a few days, and I happened to find her this morning while looking for her in the woods. There wasn't much left of her, some wild animal had killed and eaten her. It wasn't a pretty sight. So you can imagine I'm devastated. After three days of looking through the window and calling her every 5 minutes, and treks in the woods to find her. I buried the remains in the snow. She was really young, and I was sure she would be my companion for many years to come. May she rest in peace. 

Have a nice day, cause I know I won't