Pictures of the Housebook...

So I just realized it's been over a week, and I never posted the "finished" photos.  Oops... I have a few snagged off Facebook from various people, and somewhere in the realms of her camera are the photos my lovely wifey took of us posing and other silliness.  Those will surface eventually.

M. Amber Bayles hoc fecit

The photos that have shown up so far are mostly from M. Amber Bayles, and are of the dancing.  I had the whole skirt kilted up to dance, and look at how pretty the folds are on the front.  The skirt is about 6ish inches past the floor on the front in order to puddle properly when released from the belt, like in some of the seated images.  The back of the skirt had a lovely little train that I happily dragged allover the site, and every time I stopped to talk to someone, or merely to stand still, I'd turn just a half step so as to properly drape the train out behind me.  (And then I would look down and giggle like an idiot about my train.)  I never got around to lacing the sleeves closed though I put in 16 handmade eyelets the night before.  My excuse was the event was in 70+ degree weather, and I was in wool, but really I was just being lazy.  I appreciated having my hair braided, and sewn up for the warmth of the day, and there are several photos of the dancing wherein I'm bareheaded due to shucking the warm woolen hat.

M. Amber Bayles hoc fecit

I think the back turned out nice enough, though I'm not sure about the sleeves.  They gave me SO much trouble, and I still don't understand why.  I'm pretty sure I understand exactly how they work, but for the life of me, I couldn't get them to work right for me.  There are a few tweaks to the overall dress I'm thinking about doing before Midwinter's in January.  I'm not pleased with how narrow the front of the neckline seems to be.  I'm considering taking off the "silver" lacing pieces, cutting the neckline wider and reattaching them after.  All the images seem to have very wide necklines, without appearing to fall off the shoulders.  If I go ahead and change the neckline I'm tempted to reset the sleeves, and cut the armscyes just a little deeper in the fronts.  I have plenty of sleeve to go around a larger armscye, and had plenty of trouble trying to ease the sleeves in in the first place, so it might even go easier the second time around.  The other alteration I'm considering is picking out the hand stitching in the pleats on the front, and lowering the height of them.  I wouldn't cut anything off, but refold the height down so the pleats don't bend under my bust as can be seen in the last photo.  The extra fabric in the pleat would also pad the rolled pleats a little better, which was one of the original plans, but I didn't have enough fabric left over to pad the pleats!

John P Van Domelen hoc fecit

 I love the red hats that inspired this challenge.  I had to show documentation to some friends to prove that they were in fact a historical style, they looked too much like modern ski hats to believe me.  Unfortunately, the fringed hat style doesn't go with the 3/4 sleeves, and when I get the time, I'm making a Wulsthaube to go with it.  I would also love, love, love to find a decent fabric to make a checky petticoat or underdress for it.  Though on that one I should probably do a little research to see which item is the appropriate under... thing  for the style.