Julie's Dress Diaries

Herein lie my attempts at both blogging and creating period clothing for various locations and times of the Renaissance. Enjoy

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Oops

Okay, I said I'd write on this main page whenever I've updated my others. Sorry, but I didn't keep to my promise, did I? Anyway, I've since updated the flemish gown with some adventures in linen stockings, and posted some new pics of my orange venetian, which you've no-doubt already seen if you keep up with Jen Thompson's site.

I promise (again) to update this page along with my others, so those of you with a blogline subscription don't have to sign up for all my frivolous pages. ;) I really am starting this new tradition. Right now. I swear.

Oh, and since I don't know where to put this:
I got the MOTHERLODE of fabric swatches (110 of em) last night from my kindly neighborhood FedEx man. He braved the raging thunderstorm to hand me a soaking wet envelope full of (thankfully wrapped in plastic and dry) fabric swatches from Silk Connection.

There are some absolutely wonderful fabric in the set (also some ones that could NEVER be used in period clothing hehe). They really only sell white (and a few black), so the fabrics are for those who don't mind white clothes or dyeing fabric. I'm up for dyeing, though dyeing silk seems a bit scary. I think/hope I can handle it. Already I'm eyeing some of the swatches for projects that are so far into my future its ridiculous to think about. Ain't that always the way. I love planning. I can do that fast. Its the execution that takes a while. ;-)

I sprung $14 for the whole set, cuz well, its only $14, and really i may find this incredibly useful now and in the future. I could return it for a full refund after picking what I want (which was the original intention). But what if i want other fabrics later? Nah, best to just keep them all and ogle my little squares of silky goodness.

Anyway, I hate going to the post office.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Problem Solved

Hubby to the rescue. I knew marrying a web designer would come in handy. ;)
He has kindly altered my blogger template to include thumbnails and links to my past and current projects. What a clever boy he is! Thank you, love!

So, here is the deal, if you wanna look at any of my projects, they're right there up top. I will keep this particular page around as both a directory to my others (since people already know this address) and as a fun little commentary that may or may not be costume related, and will most likely mention if any of my diaries have been updated.

To that end, I've updated the orange courtesan and green venetian diaries with wrap-up posts. And I've updated hubby's site with some new designs and blackwork sketches. And I got some design concepts down on the flemish peasant diary.

That's all for now. Whew, glad that's all arranged and in order. Now I only have to worry about sewing and taking pics. ;-)

Pardon My Dust

I has occurred to me that I have NO idea how to organize my dress diaries. I had originally intended the Venetian to be a stand alone sort of project. Only now, I've found that costuming is more addictive than expected. My list of costuming to-do's has grown exponentially--I've got

1) a flemish peasant in the works,
2) new duds for my hubby on hold,
3) a spanish gown appetite,
4) a surcoat fantasy (thank you janet arnold),
5) a dreamed-of reproduction of a portrait that I just drool over at every opportunity,
6) a german cranach lust,
7) an elizabethan urge, and
8) a tudor curiosity.

Oy! I fear we've created a monster.

That said, I think I need to create a more reader-and-user-friendly method of blogging. I'm too chicken to move from blogger--I'm completely html illiterate (okay, except for making tables, which hubby had to teach me no fewer and perhaps more than 6 times before i remembered correctly), and don't like change. But I also don't like the idea of my green and orange gowns getting lost in the far away historical archives of my fated-to-last-forever blog.

So, blogger it is. The plan is to have "oodles" of seperate diaries, and use this page as my mission control, so to speak, since people already know this address. From now on, this page will link to my other diaries--completed and/or in progress, and will most likely say when something has last been updated. This way people have a way of finding me, and finding their way to my current and past projects without having to learn a bunch of new website addresses or wade through the archives of this ever-growing page. Hope this works...