Had a wonderful opening weekend of Middlefaire in Hillsboro.  It was good to see that there were quite a few new permanent buildings.  I snapped a few pictures, and uploaded them to my flickr account for your viewing pleasure. ^^

Middlefaire 2009, September 20th

After almost a week of nothing but embroidery, I feel like I haven't even made a dent in the green gown.  I'm making detachable pansied sleeves for this gown, with each pane having a line of embroidery down the centre.  Unfortunately, there are to be a total of 12 panes, the embroidery pattern is repeated four times on each pane, and it takes about 3 hours to complete a section.  Therefore, I'm only getting one pane embroidered every day.  It's slow, tedious work, and I feel like I could set myself on autopilot, go to sleep, and still keep embroidering.  I have 3 3/4 panes finished as of right now, and I'm aiming to have six finished by the end of the weekend.
I'm glad the bodice embroidery is finished, and all I have to do is reinforce it with canvas and line it.   I still have to dig out the skirt and flatline it with muslin or something to give it a bit more weight and body.  I'm thinking of cartridge pleating the skirt into the waistband...I've never done it on any of my gowns before, and I really love the look of it.  In all likelihood, I'm going to continue the embroidery down either side of the overskirt, just in a slightly larger size so it doesn't get lost in the skirt folds. 
As far as final touches, I've decided to make a Medici collar with a wire supportasse.  There was this beautiful wire supportasse on a costuming blog somewhere that was very ornate and I just fell in love with it, so I think I'll try my hand at it.  Originally, there was a 'pocket' in the back neckline of a bodice that the supportasse slipped into, which was then stitched closed.  That way the weight of the frame was supported by the torso.  I don't know if I'm going to go that route or not...I'm thinking I may sew some ribbons on the inside of the back neckline that I could use to tie the supportasse to the bodice, but I don't know if that would be secure enough. 
The forepart...well...I have no idea what I'm going to do.  I was thinking about a black forepart to offset the bright green of the gown, but I have no idea how to embellish it.  Guess I'll just have to keep flipping through old portraits until I find what I want.
No pictures yet, but I'll have some by Monday.