Design your own Tudor England dresses

DollDivine.com is one of the coolest sites out there. It has several really nice dollmakers with some truly fantastic options. As a designer I've had more fun on that site than any interactive game could ever give me. 

Last night I logged on and discovered that they'd added a new doll maker. "The Tudors Scene Maker." Little story here. It was my love of Tudor England that got me into costuming ten years ago. Out of all of history, Tudor clothing still remains my favorite. 

Does this dollmaker do it justice? Heck yeah! It's gorgeous, versatile, has the most options of any dollmaker I've seen, and best of all is historically accurate. 

Below are just a few of the dresses I designed last night: 

Halloween Ideas

Heads up, costumers! It's that time of the year when our skills are in heavy demand! But what do you do when you don't have time to make costumes for all the kids, yourself, significant other, and nine of your friends?

Use the ideas from this site! http://takebackhalloween.org/

They've got some really great historical suggestions, and many of their ideas can translate into other genres as well. Plus they link you to every article they suggest for their ensembles, so it's invaluable! And their suggestions are quite historically accurate too, so check it out!

(Thanks to Bowman for sending the link my way!)

Original Sewing Machine Design

It's hard to imagine a world without sewing machines. Can you imagine if we had to hand sew everything we wore? I honestly don't know how our ancestors did it.

Thankfully 150 years ago Elias Howe developed a design for the sewing machine -- a device which went on to revolutionize how and what we wear.

A few weeks ago I got a link in my comments directing me to a picture of the original sewing machine designs. I've been meaning to share it with all of you, but real life craziness kept getting in the way.

Anyhow, for those of you who are sewing nerds, check this out: http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=910#2011

Pan Am Costume Article

Remember how I was raving about the costumes on Pan Am? Well now you can read about the show's costuming process in this interview with the designer!

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Pan-Am-Stewardess-Costume-1038550.aspx

I don't know about you, but those stockings sound like a nightmare! And I'm so thankful we don't have to wear all of that intense underwear anymore.

If you haven't checked the show out yet, I highly recommended. It's well written, fairly clean, engaging, intriguing, and (of course) beautifully costumed. It airs on Sunday night, but if you don't catch it then, you can always watch it later in the week on Hulu.com

Why I've been silent...

Oh my poor neglected blog! I'm so sorry. I've been working myself up to post some pretty difficult news.

Despite all of our hard work, my health has continued to be debilitating. It finally became clear that there was no way I was going to be able to make school work, so I made the decision to withdraw from college.

It was a hard decision, but I've had a lot of peace and calm about it. Just as I knew I was meant to go to NDSU, I also know that withdrawing was what had to happen. All the whys and hows aren't clear, but I'm able to believe that God has a plan (something that I definitely struggled with for awhile).

And surprisingly enough, things have been going pretty well despite being very sick. My family has been absolutely incredible. They all deserve medals for being so supportive. My friends have been pretty amazing too. And God has brought some other kind of lovely things into my life as well.

Anyhow, it's been a really insane and totally unexpected turn of events and I appreciate all of you being patient as my attention was drawn away by all of this.

Also, I promise that I will still maintain this blog! I still am a seamstress and will always be a student of fashion, style and costume with plenty of new things to share.