Throwback Thursday: Blue corset with flocked scrolls

Blue flocked overbust corset (with flash)

I’m calling this a Throwback Thursday because this is actually a corset I made a while ago (so I don’t have any work-in-progress photos either). I made this to sell, back when I was hoping to get commissions for custom work (I’m not looking to do custom work anymore).

A bit about this corset:

This is a lightweight modern Victorian design corset with a sheer blue fabric over pink cotton. The blue fabric has black flocking and silver glitter. The pink fabric shows through the blue sheer fabric, creating a colour-changing or shot effect. (This is most visible in the photos taken with flash.) 

Golden Byzantine Accessories

Selfie in my new green silk block printed Byzantine gown with golden silk accessories.

In my previous post about my new (Pretty printed prancing period Persian ponies) Byzantine gown, I mentioned also making new accessories to wear with it – namely the collar (Superhumeral) and hanging panel.

Pretty printed prancing period Persian ponies

Painting in some of the details on the silk

For an A&S night (a SCA evening where we practice Arts & Sciences) one of the local artisans taught  a workshop on block-printing, and let me borrow two of her fabulous wooden blocks – winged horses based of an extant Persian fabric. While the original is woven, the blocks make great look-similar-from-a-distance printed fabric!

(Check out her page “Adventures in Block Printing” on Facebook here, and her original inspiration for this block here.)

More dyeing with indigo

Silk dyed with madder and indigo

In my earlier post about Dyeing with Indigo, I showed off some of the photos and videos of the handspun wool yarn dyeing and the results. Now I’ll show off fabric instead!

Our hostess had some resist block-printed silk to test out (mostly testing out the historically-informed resist rather than the dye itself) while one guest brought a strip of cotton to dye for a trim, another brought some silk from a salvaged wedding dress, while I brought some linen, as did another guest.

As I mentioned in an earlier post about the madder pot, I started my linen in the madder vat, but didn’t like the pale coral colour, so I popped it into the indigo vat.

CoBloWriMo – August 11 – Favourite Fabric

Assorted tables of fabric at the Helsinki EuroKangas

A few days ago I was chatting with a friend online about fabrics… I mentioned some wool gauze I picked up in Iceland a few years ago, and how I just wanted to pet it. There’s also been times when I’ve bought meters and meters of silk, and just piled it around my on the couch like a little fort of luxury.

I don’t feel the same way about cotton.. or linen… and certainly not polyester. (Don’t even get me started about rayon…)