frualeydis | Entries tagged with fantasy costumes

So, since nothing makes me feel so pretty as taking photos with hubby - and we haven't really had a fantasy photo shoot since May - I made him go with me to take photos for the Instagram challenge "Fall For Costume"'s last day: All Hallow's Eve. I had, as usual tried out some clothing and headwear before, but hadn't been bothered to do make-up. I don't really have good make-up for these kind of jobs, but I think that the photos turned otu very good anyway.

These are probably my favourites, but you can see more over at my DeviantArt account.

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When we took these the sun had come out, and after we had had lunch we went to a very beautiful, small nature reserve, enjoying blooming meadows, a water fall, the view over the lake, and sunny weather.

This was the first time I wore my new Regency spencer, and it definitely looks better when you have the right type of underwear. But still, if you take many photos some are bound to come out good.

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On Wednesday before Rickard went to work I also got some phots of me wearign the spencer the way it was intended to: over my Regency ballgown, that I made in December last year.

The curls are fake clip-on bangs from eBay - I love them.

When I did my green fairy queen photos last spring I hadn't made the wire crown to go with that element - I only started making wire crowns in July, So I needed more green fairy queen photos. I decided not to have the same clothes, partly because the Venetian gown is a little bit too small now, partly because it's more fun to do something new.

Friday night we tried more dark photos, well, in the dark. They were not perfect, but it was a trial, and I now know what to do different next time.

On Saturday before lunch Rickard took photos of me in two different outfits, here are some of the ones where I'm wearing my 12th century gown.

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I have edited the photos in my camicia and sleeveless spencer too, but this post is image heavy as it is, so that will come later.

Tonight Rickard is gettign his first COvid-19 vaccine shot. The timing isn't ideal, since we have booke da cabin by lake Vänern, and he has to drive for a couple of hours on Friday, but you take the vaccine opportunities you get. And hopefully he doesn't get more side effects than I did.

The plan for the weekend, except just walking in nature, burning wood in the fireplace and drinking beer is to make a photo shoot with my green elf wire crown. I did a quick make-up trial a week or so ago, and took some photos with a selfie stick, crouching by a nearby shrubbery and perplexing the passersby.

But I will probably be wearing my green wool 12th century gown from last summer instead for the photos.

I have packed both that blouse, my 16th century Venetian covered with leaves and flowers taht I used for a fairy queen shoot last spring (photos here), and also a my wedding camicia and a new short sleeveless c. 1800 spencer, but I don't know how much time we want to spend on this particular part of our activities.

All depending on whether Rickard gets serious side effects or not, of course. I hope he gets Moderna like me, because it seems the side effects from Pfizer is worse, but you don't get to choose, it depends on what is delivered to the vaccine station.

In the sewing world I made a toile from my saya encordata yesterday and if I have the energy I will cut it out tonight and start the hand sewing.

While I am here I realize that I promised photos of the fire crown and fire fairy outfit when I had done them in my September post. Well, these were taken in October.
The undergown is made from an old sunbleached saree. The overgown is heavily influenced by the works of Mariano Fortuny, as you probably all can see, and is made from two brocade table cloths that I found at a thrift store, pluts some velvet remnants.

I tend to get enthusiastic over craft techniques and make a lot from teh same techniques - as my friend Annas says: Like chronical illnesses crafting has flares
And in August I made one crown from wire and glass beads, for a specific project. And then I got all enthusiastic and ordered lots of aluminium wire, and other wire and started on more crowns.

The first one was fire themed, and doesnt' have any points in front, because I ran out of wire. I still like it. This is how it looks:

And then I decided to make corwns for the other elements too.

This is the Earth element crown, green like plants and trees. It is also the one that is most ME.

Then I made a Water crown. After that i got busy makign a blue 1930s gown to bring with me to take Water Elf photos by the lake, when Rickard and I rented a cabin last weekend.

From the photo shoot:

Some more of the photos, and a rather cool video (if you ask me) can be seen here.

I have now also made an Air crown, though I will probably add som prisms in the points later. Maybe today, I just bought them. And I am also makign a more ornate Fire crown.

All of these will be featured in fantasy themed photos shoot eventually, but it will take some time.

Yesterday when I was on my way home from my mammogram, but decided to check on a blackthorn bramble that I like to track the progress of spring on, I noticed that while the wild blackthorn hadn't started blossoming yet, there were trees of a domesticated variety that were in full bloom.

This put a fire under me, since I wanted to take photos among the blooming trees, and that is a very short period. It should also ideally be sunny, or at least not rainy weather. So I asked Rickard if we could take the photos today, and started stitching felt leaves and fake flowers on my gown. The flowers I got from Wish, and I have ordered greenery from there too, but with COVID-19 and everything it isn's surprising that it hasn't arrived. But I had felt!

I finished the gown yesterday evening, before I went to the nature reserve to celebrate full moon on my own. And as soon as Rickard got home from work today we went and took the photos. I am very grateful that he does this for me, especially since he was very tired today.

I think we took maybe 70 photos, and at least 30 of them were really good, so it was really hard to choose. Especially since we took photos where I was wearing my leaf capelet, and without it, with a wreath, and with my coronet. Anyway, I put a bunch of them on Flickr..

Here are two of my favourites:

I got so inspired by the Venetian 1560s fairy queen costume that I decided to make another fantasy costume. Or, I decided to make a coprset and wear it with a skirt that I bought last month.
It was also an opportunity to try and get a pattern for a 16th century corset/supportive bodice that fits my current size and shape. It's basically an effigy corset with lots of painted felt leaves glued on.
The pattern needs some tweaking: It needs to be a little higher at the top and smaller at teh waist, but other than that I am happy with it. Which means that whenever i feel the inspiration to make a new supportive kirtle from my lovely linsey-wolsey fabric I have a working pattern.

But currently I am more inspired to put on fantasy costumes and drag Rickard to the forest to take photos of me. And that's what we did yesterday. We also walked in the forest just ot enjoy it of course. This time we took the car, but I can actually walk to that forest, it's about 3,5 kilometres to the forest and then the same distance to my favourite part of the forest. So it's definitely doable, I did it on Thursday. But I prefer not doing it in corset and make-up :)

Anyway, here are some of the photos that we took. I wish I knew photoshop so I could make some cool effects, but I think they work fine as they are, without filters.

Yeah, climbing a pine tree :)

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More of these will be posted on my instagram account. There you will also see lots of photos from my walks. We are not in lockdown in Sweden. Assemblies with over 50 people are forbidden, and in general people stay away from other people. Almost all events are cancelled and hotels and restaurant have lost 90 % of their business. Since I belong to a risk group I am even more cautious, and avoid public transport, and even meeting friends. So my physical social life is my family, which suits me just fine right now, since I am trying to recover from exhaustion.

The local burlesque club, which I haven't attended for ten years, was going to have a party themed "Spring awakening", and for the first time for ages I got really enthusiastic. To avoid getting burnt out by a costume project I decided to use my 1560s Venetian gown , but to make a shift in a green sheer fabric. I did have a look in the local fabric stores, but didn't find any fabric that really spoke to me. Then I remembered that I had a cotton voile scarf that I had bought second hand. It was a litte bluer in colour than I liked, so I tried some tea dyieng. If that is what made the colour better, or if it's the fact that it bled like whoa, I don't know, but it was sufficient.
So I made a simple shift from my peasant blouse pattern, except that I slit the sleeves to make hanging sleeves.
Since several years I also had this Indian lace with white flowers, that I bought just because it was so pretty. I cut it into smaller pieces to shape it and zigzagged along the stems, and in the centre of the flowers. Then I put seed beads in green, yellow, white or bronze, in the middle of the flowers.
When I wear it, whenever that may be I will also have added fabric flowers and various greenery from fabric to the gown, bu stitching them on by hand, but since most of the ones that I ordered haven't arrived yet, and I'm not in a hurry this is not a problem.
I have also bought a artificial ivy wine with led lights in it, to make a wreath. I am going to paint the lights green, to give a sort of eerie light, because I am going to be a not-quite-safe faerie queen. But not yet, because i am trying very hard not to overdo things and to take care of myself in this time of stress from corona, so I mostly take long walks and don't produce much.
Enough talking, some photos from when I tried it on.