I've gone and done it. I finally roached Tag's mane. there was a definite majority in the poll, so I felt it was time to go ahead & roach his mane. I think drafts look awesome with shaved manes. Look at that beautiful, thick, cresty neck! So I did it. Not four hours ago. Well, more accurately, another lady at the barn did it for me because she had these mega, heavy-duty clippers. Tag's mane is in the blue bin (some pieces braided up and in my tack locker. I think he looks AMAZING. One of the guys there said I had shaved off his manhood, and I said "No, I shaved off his flowy Hippie mane and turned him into a marine."
I had another fall on Thursday night. Tag panicked as I was mounting him; fearing another horse, a tiny Paint named Spirit was going to kick him. I was on him, and didn't realize Spirit was stamping his feet and swishing his tail at the time, and kept preventing Tag from moving out of the kicking radius, getting upset that he wouldn't sit still. He freaked out, backed up and smashed into the side wall then into another wall, and then into Spirit... he ended up hitting the barn gate, and then fell back, sitting down like a dog. I slid out of my saddle, over his croupe and was deposited with a thump on my bum sitting on the hayloft ramp. I now have a horizontal bruise on my backside. Yay. I got on him right away, and made sure I rode him until he'd run his beans out. He's been really frisky and energetic these past few weeks; spring will do that to these guys.
He needs some more exposure to life, this poor sheltered boy. I wonder how a horse that weighs around 1400lbs can be such a big giant chicken. Seriously! He's scared of a 15 hand Paint that he could probably snap like a twig if he wanted to. You'd *think* a horse his size would be lazy and slow... but no such luck. Tag is 'hot' as they call it, a spirited dancer. He's eager to please, but he also fights me on occasion. It's the greenest horse I've ever owned, so we're both learning.
Anyway, I spent Saturday feeling REEAALLLY sore. Today we spent the early afternoon with him. He's so beautiful, I still cannot believe that I got this amazing creature for FREE. I look at him and I just feel so damned lucky. He's playful, sweet, gentle, energetic, graceful ... I just love him so much. And Dan loves him too. We made these movies today... he chases Dan around like a dog. LOL. Enjoy.
NEW UPDATE: June 22, 2013 --I have created a pattern for this gown (finally) which is available for sale. The pattern is $8.50 -- it can be downloaded and printed at a local Kinko's for about three dollars. Download includes the large-format pattern, plus instruction sheets on normal 8.5x11 paper. You can download it from the margin widgets to the right, or scroll down to the bottom of this page where the widget has been added.
Happy Friday all! I noticed I tend to keep most of my Regency, millinery and sewing posts limited to the Oregon Regency Society's blogspot page or the RSA Community Board. So today, I thought I'd just post my ode to the Regency Bib-Front gown on my own blog today. It's a happy Friday, and I posted a HUGE post on men's Regency costume on the ORS blog yesterday anyway.
I digress...
I am a great fan of the regency bib-front gown (sometimes called stomacher gown, drop-front, or fall-front gown). I find myself often making gowns last-minute for friends; and invariably, because of time constraints and trying to size something to someone who isn’t present, I opt for the bib-front. It's usually a situation where I can't have that person standing around for a fitting, so I make the gown that will most likely mold itself to fit her.
Additionally, the beauty of the Regency bib-front is that if you are not overly-endowed in the breast-department, and your gown and bib is sturdily made, you do not need to wear any **confining underpinnings of the period to obtain the proper Regency silhouette. The reason why, is because the gown has a drawstring that goes around the empire waistline, and is held in place by two loops on the back. The bib then lifts up your girls, and if it's pinned or buttoned and shaped right, it will hold them comfortably in place. I don't think this will work well with anyone larger than a C cup, but all of the ladies below are wearing standard push-up bras underneath their gowns and that's it. WARNING: If you are C-cup or over, you will very likely need a set of Regency period stays/corset. There are no two ways about it. I will post this embarrasing photo of myself this summer when I decided to wear a gown without stays: Here it is, I am on the left. ::facepalm:: It was necessary to post this humiliating picture to show you the pitfalls of not wearing proper underpinnings. My gown looks like a tent and I am just drooping horribly in it. As a contrast, Stephanie II on the right is wearing her transitional stays and she looks perfectly fine. Both gowns are bib-fronts.**follow the 'confining underpinnings' link for a summary of the period stays and patterns. UPDATE: 3/23/11: Also, for a detail on regency undergarments click here. This will give you an idea of what you're supposed to be wearing underneath your bib-front.
As you can see, the back closes in front like a little jacket. The bib and front skirt panel are then tied to hide the jacket closures.
Creating two loops at the base of the back, on each seam helps keep the ties in place.
ends should be tied in a bow, and tucked under the skirt front panel
I have a couple of purchased bib-front patterns, but I barely use them except for when I want to vary the sleeves or I have to change sizes. Instead, I have a home-made Frankenstein pattern I have made from the Janet Arnold regency gown back (which I love for its narrowness) and a manually-adjusted side-front piece cut from one bad pattern, and then altered from my muslin to become the piece I use in general. It’s from this bodice—
I drew my adjustments directly on it and then cut the muslin itself to act as the new piece. Here is a video I made back then about it. That very drawn-on piece of the side front is what I use today.
This pattern of mine is comprised of three pieces; a short sleeve that I often use and customized from a longer one, the back and the side front muslin piece. Those are the only things I cut from the pattern… the rest I improvise.
Of course, I am sort of limited in sizing, because I have no knowledge of upsizing or downsizing patterns, however I have added a little width to the back, and a little length to the arm piece to go up a size but that’s about it.
The beauty of this gown is that there is only one crucial fit, and that is the back width—and if your armseyes are good, and your front panels can be tightened, and if your wearer can put on the bodice like a jacket somewhat comfortably, then it will fit them. The bib front allows for A LOT of flexibility when it comes to breast-size and the variation in chest-circumference. The one dress pattern I have fits from about size 6-10. But what’s also amazing is that I used the same size for Sherry’s dress and for Tessa; Sherry has about a moderate B cup. Tessa is at least a D. Look how differently both girls are shaped… and then look how well the dress fits them.
Seriously. It’s an amazing gown. I make it CONSTANTLY and I’ve pared down construction time to ~ four hours depending on how intricate it is. MIND YOU, these are not historically accurate pieces because I cut corners and machine sew everything, but it is pretty and authentic looking and very practical. I don’t bother to cover the waist seam inside by whip-stitching the lining over it or such things… but you could if you wanted to. I did with my very first bib-front project; my green gown, which I draped entirely on my duct-tape mannequin. I used no pattern on this one, but made my own.
Updated image (I've lost weight in this picture),
the gown fits just fine in spite of going down 2 sizes.
Construction of the bodice. The back piece was designed after an
extant gown.
What’s really great is that if this gown is made in white muslin, it can be used for day or evening; washed, bleached and trimmed to your liking. Sick of a white gown? Just dye it. You can make overlays for it out of net or silk or velvet… pelisses, spencers, half robes and robes… or use the same pattern to make sheer gown overlays. It truly is the essential ‘little white dress’ of a regency wardrobe. I tell those who I make gowns for to get me 7-8 yards of muslin (yes, I cram at LEAST six yards of fabric into that skirt… but it’s not necessary. 5 yards total would probably suffice. I knife-pleat a most of it into the back to create that beautiful volume. If you saw it move and flare, you’d understand.
See?
Because the bib is so non-crucial to the fit, I can really play around with it creatively—I even created a crossover front on one (see pics). All I do is cut two sets of each piece (2 backs, four side-fronts—only 2 sleeves, I don’t line the sleeve). I sew each set into a separate bodice, then lay them good-sides together, sew the whole neckline, from the bottom of one front flap to the other. I turn it inside out, press and then proceed to add on the sleeves of my choice. Then I just start attaching the skirt. I don’t ever bother to cut shaped skirts. I’m a great fan of the basic ‘round gown’, which is basically wide tube of fabric pleated up to the back of the gown. You can work in a train pretty easily with a simple ‘slow’ angle cut.
The skirt is an exercise in simplicity. Open up the fabric to its full width, sew the short ends together and make a big tube. First thing you do is fold it so the seam is on one of the ends; and that becomes the skirt back. For the length of the skirt, you measure from the chest line (under the breasts) to the top of the foot, and then cut your tube to the desired length; making sure the bottom is an uncut selvage if possible (so you don’t have to hem! Genius (or lazy?)!). Or, if you have to hem, do it before you close the fabric into a tube; you won’t have to worry about it later. Any variations you make to the length, train etc, happens at the top of the skirt.
Then while still folded and after you’ve done your length cut, I cut an 18” slit to about 6-8” in from the top front edge of skirt to create front flap panel. I turn in the edges on the slit and sew them down. I then attach a 3-yard length of white twill to the top edge of the panel—making sure I add in two symmetrical box-pleats to add some give and interest to the front of the skirt/bib-panel.
[Update, 2-15-2012]: It was requested that I explain in better detail how the skirts are pleated onto the bodice, and until I actually have the ability to make a decent video of my efforts, I decided to do a paper mock-up to show you how I do the skirts. So there are these silly little movies. Maybe they'll help you better visualize what I do when I'm making a simple round-gown.
Then you cut your bib on the bias… make it pretty, make it plain… play with the shape, give it a V neck… whatever. Add buttonholes to the top corners and then center it on the front skirt panel, sew it on and lo and behold… your front is done.
Some ideas for your bib or stomacher.
The back is the most challenging bit. You start by pinning the other edge of the slit to the bodice front panels; starting at least 6” in (depending your size… you will have to try on your bodice and figure out what works best on you… you want the side of the gown to hang just below your breast. You start pinning it down the bodice all the way around to the seam of back piece. Then comes the intensive process of pinning your knife-pleats. It’s also a treacherous sew on your machine; so have extra needles on hand!. Once you’ve done that… attach a couple of loops on the outside of the gown just at the bottom of the back seams where the skirt meets the bodice so you can thread your drawstrings through (or you can also sew a channel to the inside to lace your twill drawstrings through if you want to hide the ties) and voila… You’ve got a gown. Trim away. Most of the ladies I’ve made these for have opted to keep these gowns simple and to trim with a coloured ribbon at the waistline. I’ve done some marginal decoration on the bibs, but you can really glitz up a gown like this very easily.
Any regency gown pattern can be modified into a bib; the ‘mock bib gown’ in the Mode Bagatelle pattern takes very little modification to turn it into a real one. You just cut your backs on the fold so there’s no opening, and then cut the neckline wider, and split the front to make the ‘jacket’ part of your bib gown. It’s pretty easy and makes for a really versatile gown. I don’t think I would ever go with a back closing gown again.
Update 11/12/13 - Here are some pictures of my bib-front pattern being used to make a round-gown, an easy conversion. The sleeve pattern is not used in this example because I draped the sleeve, I wanted a full-length sleeve in sheer to enhance it. Also, I added a 2" strip of sheer around the neckline with a drawstring to add some interest to the gown. It's a simple pattern, but makes for a beautiful, dramatic gown. Instructions for the round gown are included with the patter (if the instructions aren't clear enough, let me know).
RECOMMENDED FABRICS & QUANTITIES
For any regency gown, I always say go natural and go light. Also, go classy, NO huge prints, no victorian flower extravaganzas, lines in tasteful pattern.
For a day gown, look for: solids, small-print, roll print, small-dotted or subtle plaid cottons, white or solid coloured muslin. Sheer fabrics (above mentioned types) should be worn over a white cotton petticoat for opacity or doubled up with a coloured underdress. Fabric types: muslin (thick or sheer), lawn, batiste, cotton. I do not recommend synthetics with high-sheen or slippy, strange texture. Linen is fine as well, and even a light wool for a wintry gown.
Evening wear: Silk with decorated embellishments, voile or cotton sheers over coloured bases, subtle textures like embroidered dots or flowers. Some vegans don't use silk (although the pollution of the manufacture of synthetics could arguably be worse than the death of silk-worms, but it's all relative)... anyway, you can find some tastefully synthetic fabrics (non-shiny taffetas, other faux-silks).
Possible addition of a robe in velvet or silk to enhance a white sheer gown.
Yardage: As I said before, you can go with as little as five yards, or you can go crazy and put eight into your gown. But a nice, short-sleeved gown with a tiny bodice and reasonably nice skirts can easily be accomplished up to size 22 with five yards minimum.
Update: 3/2011 ~ I've been meaning to add in Katherine's little video on how to put on a bib-front. She is tying the ties INSIDE the gown, but that's how she chooses to do it--it doesn't pin down the waistline as well that way, but she's so skinny it doesn't matter. :) This video is precious, as is she.
The Drawstring V-Neck gown (Tutorial Link Below)
Update: September 14, 2011
I've also added a tutorial on how to do the draw-string V-neck gown that I wore for the July 2011 Pittock Mansion Picnic. You can read about it on this post.
Guess what? It’s Friday. Weeee! Tomorrow is the Portland Vampire Masquerade Ball. I have about as much enthusiasm for a costumed event right now as I would feel for having my fingers gnawed off by rats… however, since my old school friend Kaia is going, I cannot NOT go. She lives in Seattle, and she is one of the very few people from my strange and bleak youth whose friendship was worth renewing. Ah the beauty of Facebook. I didn’t make a lot of school-friends in the DOD school days… so I value very much that Kaia hunted me down and made the effort to attend the 12th night supper on January 9th. Now she is on the hunt for corsets and tulle for this vampire thing. She even got teeth. I *may* get fake eyelashes… or not. ::shrug:: Meh.
I will recycle the costume I wore for the Transylvanian Ball last year; but likely do something different with my hair, I’m not sure. I'm not sure if my little blackbird will make a reappearance (yes, I stuck a fake raven in my hair). I will also have to figure out how to secure the evil falling skirts that caused the costume malfunction last time. I also need to bind the bottom of the corset because by the end of the night, the boning was falling out. I have to do all this before tomorrow evening.
I will post a pic or two if there are any worth posting. It’s a strange event full of really interesting people. I look forward to seeing some familiar faces in addition to Kaia, so it won’t be too bad I hope.
Anyway… They’re back again. The ducks have begun to return to the little food pile and blue bucket outside my window. I’ve been keeping it well supplied in order to encourage the lady duck to bring her brood of fuzzy babies when she does hatch them out. I don’t recall if we got any ducklings last year at all.
There hasn’t been a flurry of duck-violence as there has been in the past years… Mr. Mallard has only had to fend off the odd crow so far, and one other mallard that gave up very easily. Maybe there’s a glut of fertile, genetically superior duck babes for the boys to choose from this year.. I dunno. The spring of 2007 was Gang-rape-ville… seriously. One little she-duck had nearly a bare head from all the having all the feathers torn from it by the beaks of her attackers. Gangs of five or six mallards would take turns distracting her chosen mate while others attacked her. It was horrific. I am still emotionally scarred by that year; even though it did bring a bumper crop of moms and ducklings (which were subsequently hunted down to dwindling numbers by crows and various other predators… quite depressing). This is a yearly drama that I call “As the Creek Flows”.
So naturally, today’s Friday Office Special is all about les canards. ;) Have a peachy weekend.
I learned about cow-tipping from an Admiral’s son. Young Mr. Hogg… worked for a summer at our horse stable, helping clean stalls and feed horses and huck hay and straw. His dad showed up one day to the stable, elegant in his Navy whites, not even wincing when I walked up to him covered in hay-dust and dirt—he shook my hand and said: “good, hard, dirty work improves the soul…” He arranged with my mother for his son to work for us for the summer.
He spent the summer among my entourage of townie friends—teaching us all college drinking games, like quarters and a game that involved beer in ice-cube trays, straws and a race to each end… Our riding club had a bar with beers bottled and on tap. We were all regular imbibers of beer; Belgium is all about beer… hundreds of varieties; it was and still is the best thirst-killing beverage on hot summer days when you’re out throwing bales. My tolerance for drinking has faded a lot since those days, but back then, it was part of our lives, it was a large bottle of table beer during dinner, it was a pils between giving riding lessons… even though most of us were in our mid-to-late teens, we drank a lot. American kids though, they’d find themselves suddenly free beyond their dreams, and often got in trouble over-indulging in the lax drinking laws. With 20 Frank (25cent) beers being served at the town sport hall weekend parties, it was old hat for us. However, Jim had many of us drunker than we’d ever been—just because he introduced stupid games, and encouraged us to drink far in excess to what we would normally do. He was college frat boy in so many senses… something I’d never experienced until he came along.
Two of our friends had decided to go to a club a couple of miles from the stable rather than tip cows. On our way back from our cow-tipping adventure, we ran into those two. They were staggering side by side up the street towards the stable dragging a street-sign complete with concrete ball still on the end. We put the street sign inside the stable gates, and then all piled into Johnny’s car (a tremendous feat) and drove to Leuven to have mussels at an all-night restaurant. All of those guys are on my mind today. Jim, of course… Johnny, Lekkes, Kristof, Bastin, Alain, Kurt, Cacahouette, Veerle… What fun we had together; a ragtag bunch of aimless crazy farmer kids with visions of tipping cows like Americans do. LOL.
[Illustration/Office Special = Don't know what inspired this little thing today. I used a sharpie and and ball-point pen. Mommy monster has a bottle of "Rarr Human Repellent" ostensibly to chase away the thing that is terrorizing the poor frightened baby monstie. Who knows. It's random as usual... that's how I roll. ;)
My diatribe aside, I am cannot help but be lifted by the sunshine and the knowledge that today is Friday. I just finished this office special. The Napoleonic Lion. :) I scanned it in black and white as opposed to greyscale, so it came out pixely. I will perhaps play with the original someday to get my smoothened pen lines back.
I have a developmentally disabled brother. His name is John, and he is two years my junior. My mother had rubella when she was pregnant with him. I helped with his care until I was 27. When we were kids in Belgium, the system there was amazing; and John had a great school to go to, and was cared for by professional people with specific training and expertise in how to deal with him. John is now 37 years old; but his brain is eternally two years old. Two, deaf, and because of medication, or frustration, or whatever other reason, he is also prone to the occasional bout of violent behaviour. It was not easy taking care of him—and when we moved back to the US, the system here is not even remotely as welcoming to a developmentally disabled adult, and so John stayed home. My mother, as usual, checked out and skipped off to do her own thing, and I spent most of my twenties filling in. John and I would lock horns just to get him dressed sometimes, and mealtime often involved plates being broken and ketchup on the ceiling (yes, every home we’ve ever lived in was left with the permanent mark of Heinz 57).
You tend to develop a sense of humour that is more… strange than others when you grow up in a household like ours. I won’t lie; we had a very hard childhood. Our parents were not very happily married, always fighting, my father had trouble controlling his temper, and my mother had/has an array of issues that makes her, without sugar-coating it; not a very nice person. Add John, flying plates and holes in the sheetrock from his tantrums, and it spells chaos. We never were allowed to value or treasure anything we owned as children; John often ruined things, tore them up, broke them, and we were always told: “oh, Jesus… it’s just stuff,” or “oh, just give it to him…”
But what I think affected me most was how people reacted to my brother. Today, he’s a big guy, swarthy, and even as a kid, he is very striking and has a strong presence. He also has no concept of the noises that come out of his mouth—he was born deaf, and his mental retardation hindered any efforts to make him understand verbal communication. His noises are raw and primal… they express his feelings like no other vocalization from a person I’ve ever heard. When he’s frustrated or angry, his voice will leave you in no doubt of it; when he is sorrowful, his cry is as plaintive as anything can be, and it will tear out your heart. There is no imbedded social buffer in his expressions as we all have… When he is happy, his laugh is like that of a little child, exuberant and joyful. And when he’s calm, he sometimes makes just a simple noise of calm, a sort of hum through his nose. I imagine if all of humanity lost their ability to make or hear speech, we’d all sound like that.
Taking him anywhere has always been an exercise in control for me. Because, at the risk of being offensive; people are jerks. They see him running in his unique way and they laugh. They hear his noises and they laugh and call him names right in front of us. I’ve had to spend my whole childhood biting back the urge to punch people in the head for mocking someone who has no idea that he’s a joke to them; who in truth, has no idea people are laughing at him. He is not hurt by it, but it bothers me to no end. For some reason, the idea of someone being unable to defend themselves against that sort of thing being subjected to it just fills my stomach with icy/flaming ire. It’s such a cowardly thing… to mock those who are ignorant of it, unprepared for it. It makes me think of bullies or cowards. Right now, there are burning tears in my eyes as I type this because it still just makes me so mad.
I am a brat, yes. I pick on people constantly. But I do not mock anyone who can’t give it right back to me. But I would NEVER intentionally attack someone, mock them to the point of humiliation or feign sincerity with a look of revulsion or disgust on my face simply for my own amusement. It sickens me that there are people like that in this world. I cannot abide mean people. At all. The kind of mean people that intentionally find ways to make themselves superior to others, the kind of mean people who belittle the efforts of others, who kick down people who are kind, who are gentle, who are well-meaning, and who have no idea they are in some way, attracting ridicule. I cannot stomach those who disparage the work of those who are at least trying.
This prejudice I have for that kind of people bleeds into every aspect of my life. Work or play… I cannot abide by deliberate meanness to others. I can joke privately, and tease and even be brash, but I would never stand in someone’s face and make fun of them in a malicious way, no matter how ridiculous they can be—or passive-aggressively make fun of someone in front of them. It’s unseemly, and really, inhuman. We are not amoebas—we have the ability to reason and the capacity for understanding—great gifts that are far too often ignored and sullied by some personal desire to make them feel better or above others.
Empathy is a gift not all of us have. We are all children of our experience, and those of us who’ve lived sheltered lives without adversity, as opoosed to those who are experienced with things like mental retardation, with physical and sexual child abuse, with domestic abuse, with suicide, with deliberate human cruelty and unkindness might not have any basis of understanding. Sheltered people often have a lot of delusions about the world, and self-absorbed ideas that they are somehow above these things, but they are not. Everyone is one step away from the adversity--whether they care to know it or not. Nobody is insulated from life, it happens. I’m going to be frank, I have experienced all of the above—and I could have gone either way in life, but instead of turning to the darkness some people turn to with that sort of childhood, I chose to be understanding as a human being, to be empathic, and kind, and as generous as I can be to people who deserve it (and sometimes those who don’t—to my detriment).
I rate kindness above anything else. Because there’s nothing more important in life than to treat people with dignity; not material items, not one’s beliefs, not one’s knowledge or skills on a particular subject or work. There is no justification for people being jerks to other people just to build their sorry egos. I will call people out on it, and invoke all manner of fights and discord about it without a second thought because I believe this so strongly. I make no apologies for pointing out the innate stupidity in the way people behave towards others and put themselves above others. I don’t care if they are family or not. There is no place for that sort of behaviour. Pointing it out often brings a lot of people to their defenses, because unfortunately many of us are guilty of it. But this post is not about anyone in particular… it’s about the state of humanity as I see it today as I think about my brother.
I’ve had my say.
Serious post over. Sorry. :(
[UPDATE DUE TO TROLLING] As a fresh reminder to the small people who get their self-worth by trolling; this blog is my little autocracy and I have no problem with deletions... Free speech here is relative. If you're planning to go through the comment process simply to prove that yes, you are an ass-monkey like the ones I described in the above post, I recommend you don't bother--I will delete it quickly and soundly and think nothing further of it--likely faster than it will take for other blog visitors to see it. Don't waste your time. Perhaps you should instead try and find some meaning in your life, besides being an ass-monkey. Have a lovely weekend. HC
First and foremost, I'd like to say this... Is it good to reward bad behaviour? In my case, yes. It is. :)
The Hungarican Chick blog received its first blog award today. Imagine that! Not only in spite of my bi-polar rantings... but actually, because of them! The lovely Christine H says:
"There is so much to love here - She is witty and has lots of photos of her beautiful horse." I agree.. photos of my beautiful horse are award-worthy. Thanks Christine. ;)
Sunny is not exactly the best word to use when describing yours truly. But hey, I'll take whatever positive reinforcement I can get.
ANYWAYS....
Today I am waxing nostalgic. I heard someone say Ulysses today. The name Ulysses, thanks to a cheese-filled childhood cartoon series, is forever ruined for me. I instantly start singing "Ulysses.. Ulysseeees, soaring through all the galaxeeeeee, in search of earth... flying into the niiiiight..." Why? Well, I will reveal this in the first little movie below . I have decided to post some of the things I watched on television as a wee one... Just so you can further understand exactly what contributed to my questionable sanity levels (the whole Hungarian/Puerto Rican thing aside).
Ulysses--yes... a space version of the story. Telemachus is a stupid kid and there's a robot named Nono. Seriously. And yes, I watched this (this is the English version that was aired I *think* on BBC2 but I don't remember).
I've gone and done it. I finally roached Tag's mane. there was a definite majority in the poll, so I felt it was time to go ahead & roach his mane. I think drafts look awesome with shaved manes. Look at that beautiful, thick, cresty neck! So I did it. Not four hours ago. Well, more accurately, another lady at the barn did it for me because she had these mega, heavy-duty clippers. Tag's mane is in the blue bin (some pieces braided up and in my tack locker. I think he looks AMAZING. One of the guys there said I had shaved off his manhood, and I said "No, I shaved off his flowy Hippie mane and turned him into a marine."
Happy Friday all! I noticed I tend to keep most of my Regency, millinery and sewing posts limited to the 
I have a couple of purchased bib-front patterns, but I barely use them except for when I want to vary the sleeves or I have to change sizes. Instead, I have a home-made Frankenstein pattern I have made from the 
The back is the most challenging bit. You start by pinning the other edge of the slit to the bodice front panels; starting at least 6” in (depending your size… you will have to try on your bodice and figure out what works best on you… you want the side of the gown to hang just below your breast. You start pinning it down the bodice all the way around to the seam of back piece. Then comes the intensive process of pinning your knife-pleats. It’s also a treacherous sew on your machine; so have extra needles on hand!. Once you’ve done that… attach a couple of loops on the outside of the gown just at the bottom of the back seams where the skirt meets the bodice so you can thread your drawstrings through (or you can also sew a channel to the inside to lace your twill drawstrings through if you want to hide the ties) and voila… You’ve got a gown. Trim away. Most of the ladies I’ve made these for have opted to keep these gowns simple and to trim with a coloured ribbon at the waistline. I’ve done some marginal decoration on the bibs, but you can really glitz up a gown like this very easily.
