A not so brief update
Oct. 9th, 2007 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
green_marthaI intended to post a short note before leaving for work today but hey, I'd much rather write a loooong one. And besides, I was running just as late as usual. No matter when I get up, I always end up doing this or that in the morning and therefore rushing out of the apartment 5 minutes after the time I originally planned to leave.
From![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jennylafeur
1. I'm always impressed with your English skills (my French, never good is practically non-existent now) - how long have you studied English?
English is actually the second foreign language I've learned in school, I started with it two years after german. I had 5 years of it in school, then 2 years at the university. Which is not that much if you consider most of them sucked. In fact, all of the teachers and teaching plans sucked but one (a brilliant lady whom I own the discovery of Shakespeare, hah !). I made my way through language classes in England over the summer, night classes at university, two Cambridge exams, movies and books in the original version and LJ-land. It's quite possible that I'm now more fluent in English than in German, due to the amount of English I'm exposed to.
Apparently, I sometimes tend to have a german accent when I speak English.
2. What is your favorite costume that you have made to date ?
I'm torn between Demeter and the striped pierrot. I think Demeter, though, the fit is better and the late bustle era is still my favorite.
3. Any chance you'll make it over to this side of the pond someday?
I SO want to ! I've never set foot in the States and I'd sooo like to visit your country someday. Not even speaking of how much I jealous your living history events and Costume College. We're still very far from setting up our own CC this side of the Atlantic, and we're quite poor in terms of living history groups in the areas that I like, such as 18th century and mundane 19th century. Emphasis on mundane vs. military, I really don't care for replaying Napoleon's battles. There are some groups who do historical dances, with somewhat funky accuracy, they're far from home and the HG does not like dance much, except rock'n'roll and samba. *end of whine*
Someday, when we're no longer saving all we can for a house, I'll cram my suitcases with costumes and I'll go have fun with you gals !
4. What is your favorite period of costume?
Victorian victorian victorian. And late victorian. And also late victorian. Not that I don't love other eras - I even admit a very twisted craving for the 1830's -, it's just that I always come back to late bustle and the 1890's. I guess I've been heavily influenced by some of my first encounters with historical costuming, which werelady_darkstone's first LARP (set in 1893) and this german forum I discovered when looking for pattern sources for corsets for another LARP. There's a weird infectious disease going round there called "bustle-virus" that's pretty catchy.
The fact that I absolutely ADORE the look of the period fashion plates doesn't help either. I just love them, as well as fashion magazines (that's just more porn packed into more pages), and must refrain form buying more and more and yet more when I see them coming up on eBay.
5. What is the story behind your user name?
It's a contraction from an old reputation of mine of being an alien - and aliens are green, right ? - and a character I played in our last LARP, named Marthe Maupin-Pawlick. A french socialist, married to a polish trunk-maker living in Berlin, who spends her leisure fighting of big nasty tentacle-monsters from other dimensions. Actually, I have two LARP characters named Marthe, this crazy lady and a spinster called Marthe Montillard, for a LARP that's still in project. This one is merely a distant offspring from an exiled fairy. And a friend of the aunt of Peter Pan's daughter, but don't tell the players, they don't know it yet !
Who wants to play with me ?
In the meantime, on the sewing front, I noticed I had sewed the front half of the Pillow Flower's waistband upside down, so that the pattern that was supposed to match (or not mismatch too much) did not. Luckily, ripping it apart and stitching it back in place did not take much time.
I had a major case of discouragment over Provence yesterday, but thanks tophilcostumes's help (you're just made of awesome !) and to a little bit of WWKKD I'm now better.
I have taken out Demeter's bodice, copied the pattern from it by laying fabrics scraps over it and drawing on the seamlines. Which in itself is quite funny, or ironic; because Demeter was built to be worn over a corset, whereas this gown is not. There's almost no difference in the way it looks on me with or without the corset :)
The second mock-up was way better in terms of side wrinkles, though not perfect. From what I can deduct, I'm too square a girl for the original curvy lines of the avant-garde pattern. My underarm seam is an almost straight line, not a fish-shaped darty thing.
I kept the back of the Demeter bodice, however I did not want the seams running up to the neck in the front, so I mixed the front panel with the avant-garde front, and ended up with enough wiggle room over my boobs to carry an orange on each side. Not good. I know there was often some excess fabric there, but certainly not THAT much ! So on to the dummy it went, I did some intensive redraping. Now I'm going to take it apart again, cut out the new side back and front pieces and check the fit. Keep your fingers crossed ! If this gets too frustrating, I'll just start playing around with the hat.
Pictures to come !
From
jennylafeur1. I'm always impressed with your English skills (my French, never good is practically non-existent now) - how long have you studied English?
English is actually the second foreign language I've learned in school, I started with it two years after german. I had 5 years of it in school, then 2 years at the university. Which is not that much if you consider most of them sucked. In fact, all of the teachers and teaching plans sucked but one (a brilliant lady whom I own the discovery of Shakespeare, hah !). I made my way through language classes in England over the summer, night classes at university, two Cambridge exams, movies and books in the original version and LJ-land. It's quite possible that I'm now more fluent in English than in German, due to the amount of English I'm exposed to.
Apparently, I sometimes tend to have a german accent when I speak English.
2. What is your favorite costume that you have made to date ?
I'm torn between Demeter and the striped pierrot. I think Demeter, though, the fit is better and the late bustle era is still my favorite.
3. Any chance you'll make it over to this side of the pond someday?
I SO want to ! I've never set foot in the States and I'd sooo like to visit your country someday. Not even speaking of how much I jealous your living history events and Costume College. We're still very far from setting up our own CC this side of the Atlantic, and we're quite poor in terms of living history groups in the areas that I like, such as 18th century and mundane 19th century. Emphasis on mundane vs. military, I really don't care for replaying Napoleon's battles. There are some groups who do historical dances, with somewhat funky accuracy, they're far from home and the HG does not like dance much, except rock'n'roll and samba. *end of whine*
Someday, when we're no longer saving all we can for a house, I'll cram my suitcases with costumes and I'll go have fun with you gals !
4. What is your favorite period of costume?
Victorian victorian victorian. And late victorian. And also late victorian. Not that I don't love other eras - I even admit a very twisted craving for the 1830's -, it's just that I always come back to late bustle and the 1890's. I guess I've been heavily influenced by some of my first encounters with historical costuming, which were
lady_darkstone's first LARP (set in 1893) and this german forum I discovered when looking for pattern sources for corsets for another LARP. There's a weird infectious disease going round there called "bustle-virus" that's pretty catchy.The fact that I absolutely ADORE the look of the period fashion plates doesn't help either. I just love them, as well as fashion magazines (that's just more porn packed into more pages), and must refrain form buying more and more and yet more when I see them coming up on eBay.
5. What is the story behind your user name?
It's a contraction from an old reputation of mine of being an alien - and aliens are green, right ? - and a character I played in our last LARP, named Marthe Maupin-Pawlick. A french socialist, married to a polish trunk-maker living in Berlin, who spends her leisure fighting of big nasty tentacle-monsters from other dimensions. Actually, I have two LARP characters named Marthe, this crazy lady and a spinster called Marthe Montillard, for a LARP that's still in project. This one is merely a distant offspring from an exiled fairy. And a friend of the aunt of Peter Pan's daughter, but don't tell the players, they don't know it yet !
Who wants to play with me ?
In the meantime, on the sewing front, I noticed I had sewed the front half of the Pillow Flower's waistband upside down, so that the pattern that was supposed to match (or not mismatch too much) did not. Luckily, ripping it apart and stitching it back in place did not take much time.
I had a major case of discouragment over Provence yesterday, but thanks to
philcostumes's help (you're just made of awesome !) and to a little bit of WWKKD I'm now better.I have taken out Demeter's bodice, copied the pattern from it by laying fabrics scraps over it and drawing on the seamlines. Which in itself is quite funny, or ironic; because Demeter was built to be worn over a corset, whereas this gown is not. There's almost no difference in the way it looks on me with or without the corset :)
The second mock-up was way better in terms of side wrinkles, though not perfect. From what I can deduct, I'm too square a girl for the original curvy lines of the avant-garde pattern. My underarm seam is an almost straight line, not a fish-shaped darty thing.
I kept the back of the Demeter bodice, however I did not want the seams running up to the neck in the front, so I mixed the front panel with the avant-garde front, and ended up with enough wiggle room over my boobs to carry an orange on each side. Not good. I know there was often some excess fabric there, but certainly not THAT much ! So on to the dummy it went, I did some intensive redraping. Now I'm going to take it apart again, cut out the new side back and front pieces and check the fit. Keep your fingers crossed ! If this gets too frustrating, I'll just start playing around with the hat.
Pictures to come !
