Stimpzilla's Renaissance Dress Blog

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934658.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

Well the new review is out in Variety for Elizabeth: The Golden Age. A sequel to the movie Elizabeth.

There's one costume picture, with Elizabeth wearing a charming blue gown. More pictures can be found on the net. No matter what is said I know I'll be watching it when it comes out. I laughed when it was suggested that Elizabeth at 54 might not be a hot girl. I know I expect to be.

Well we are not dead, sleeping or vacationing. Though there has been a bad bout of the Pox going around. We have still electing to stay in town and work. We have been making many more gowns and seem to have grown continuously busier. Though with John Percy's work as of late we aren't sure if there is more work because he has been once again visiting his family. Sir Henessey has been taking very good care of Lucky The Alpaca. We enjoy seeing the bond they have formed. Though not as much as we have recently enjoyed several good games of cards with Raleigh.

We managed to win several thousand pearls. That is why we have had to little time to write. We have been so busy gambling and winning. So we do not mean to be rude. It's just that pearls are ALWAYS our priority. We have more pictures to show but here is one tonight.

Well OK I've lost patience uploading the picture so I'll try again tomorrow or later. Here'sthe link to the page about the doublet gown to give you more information.
http://www.stimpzillasumptuarylaw.com/BDG.html

Young John Percy helped with the slashing of the fabric for the doublet and sleeves, and we only

Well we have been working on many gowns the last few months, so many in fact we have had little time for cards. But the most important event is the growing of Lucky the Alpaca's fur. Lord Michael Hennessey has been correctly feeding and tending to Lucky's every whim. This is apparently no small task. Apparently Lucky is eating us out of house and home, and if we were not currently working on gowns for The Queen we would be in a rather sorry state.

We have tried to spare Young Percy as much as possible to keep Lord Michael entertained, as we are well aware of the potential importance Lucky's woolen like fur. Lord Michael has not complained one bit, and we think he rather enjoys Lucky's exotic behavior, being so different from attending the Queen's horses. While we think that Lord Michael is rather relived to be away from court duties for the time being, we are happy that Percy's ability to imitate some of the more striking court figures will keep Lord Hennessey from growing bored.

It would seem that Lord Michael has become quite attached to Lucky. He seems to spend rather a lot of time grooming the Alpaca, and the results look wonderful. Once winter is through, we think it will be time to see if the wool woven from Lucky will be wonderful as it seems.

We have also charged Percy with the small it of fur taken from Lucky to have spun and the results are as luxurious as expected. We are most excited.

Lord Hennessey has also had his childern come and play with Lucky and they seemed to enjoy being around Lucky very much. While we are not in favor of childern in general, we are aware that they are very nice ones and sometimes enjoy the distraction. What is good for Lucky is good for Queen and Country.

Well we have been working hard at making a variety of renaissance gowns. And last week we had the stomach flu. We just kept working though and actually managed to make an entire outfit with out bleeding on any part! We are soooo very proud of oursleves!

Here is a picture of Cynthia's renaissance gown. The gown is made of silk brocades, gold trim, with black pearls and carnelian stones.

We have not stopped working and working on gowns. And we must admit we are liking the gowns we are making so we have no complaints. Touching fabulous silks all day is something we adore.

Here a two pictures of Mary, Queen Of Scots wearing a gown we have recently made. We certainly admire Mary's posture, and her red hair!

We've been working so hard and so long now that all we can think of is spending twenty minutes laying in the sun. In the last four weeks we have worked 12 to 16 hour days, with the exception of running to the fabric shops, FedEx, and one whole day off to spend with our family.

We keep pretending there is an end in sight, but we just keep sewing gowns. Lots of gowns. And it would seem each one becomes more detailed and dramatic. We should have some pictures to post soon. We love pictures! We love renaissance gowns! And we had better because they are our whole life right now.

Today we spent thirteen hours working on sleeves underskirts and beading Cynthia's gown, which she shall be wearing to the Maryland faire. We wish we were going to be there with her, but do not know if our schedule will allow such traveling.

So far we are very pleased as we have not, as of yet, bled anywhere on her beautiful white silk gown. We are being very, very careful!

Well that's it for now, our hands are little claws, and our eyes are red and tired.

We have been so busy. It would seem the entire court has requested outfits, and we have such little time to make them! Our fingers are worked to the bone and we have to be careful not to bleed on the gowns. We have been upon our work for weeks and fear we must continue our 12-16 hour days.

We are so happy to be working with such wonderful fabrics and have been getting delivery after delivery of the finest silks, trims, and threads.

Lucky the Alpaca is still doing fine and we are looking forward to his first batch of wool.

We have not finished work on our gillyflower doublet yet but we recently found a lovely silk to line it with. We will be most pleased when things wind down a bit and we can sit and play cards with Raleigh, Dudley and Hatton again! We hope we can wear the new doublet for luck.

We have been working the last to weeks on a reverse leather applique doublet. We have aching hands but we are very pleased how well it is coming out. We are making a diary of it's progerss in our Renaissance Dress Dairy . We will have to stop working on it as soon as the copper brocade fabric arrives, but until then we will keep cutting away on the doublet.

Last evening we saw many of our Faire friends. Everyone was dressed and looking so lovely. And Ty sang wonderfuly. All were having great fun and we are so happy that we had the oppertunity to get to get to know some of them better.

Sir Michael has been taking such good care of Lucky! Lucky's hair is growing soft and long. And John Percy is happy to be back full time in the studio. We too are glad as we will now be able to find our scissors quickly now, as everything is much more organized.

Well it seems we have been most terrible with writing here. We have been absent for so long one might assume that we are no longer interested in this adventure, but this is far from the truth. We have been extraordinarily busy juggling schedules and keeping up with brides and their wedding gowns.

We have also been doing quite a bit of research and will shortly be starting a new section of our diaries, as we will be somewhat recreating the doublet of Sir Richad Cotton from Janet Arnold's book. The dairies will start in the next few days as we have a couple of computer hardware issues first.

The other situation that has kept us busy is we have a new member of our Stimpzilla family! Since we have been gifted Lucky the Alpaca from Raleigh, we have had quite a time of it. Taking care of Lucky was very difficult for John Percy, as he has no experience or talent for livestock. So we were most overjoyed when Christopher Hatton discussed the matter with The Queen. The end result much to our surprise was that Her Highness and Christopher plotted together and as a birthday gift, they have put into my employ Sir Michael Hennessey, previously Keeper Of The Hounds for The Queen! What a surprise! How endearing could such a gesture be?

We are so thrilled. And Sir Michael does not seem to mind at all. He was tired of the rigors of the hounds. Apparently the dogs came with a terrible set of young men all trying to get the Queen's eye. Hennessey was rather sick of the young men's antics, and so seems glad to have been awarded to Lucky's keep. We realize that some might think this new position is beneath Hennessey's station, but the possible importance of Alpaca wool from Lucky for the economy of England should not be easily dismissed.

Well we are full of delight right now as Sir Drake has brought us the most amusing present one could imagine! In truth it is so delightful and novel that we believe that we could not have conjured this up thing up in our wildest dreams. Not even if we had been drinking for days could we have imagined such a thing!

Sir Drake has brought us an Alpaca! Yes, and his name is Lucky. What on earth is an Alpaca you might ask. It is a creature with four legs, a very furry wool like coat, smaller than a horse and much bigger than a sheep. It's coat is long and furry, with tight curls of the safest wool one has ever felt. And Lucky has the most amazing disposition! He is not at all shy, but still somewhat gentle in nature. he at some hay right out of my hand with no biting.

Sir Francis says that Lucky is from the New World and was once owned by an Incan Prince. Some how Sir Francis acquired him while out at sea. We are so grateful to him for bringing Lucky to us. We have already set young John Percy to finding out how to get the fur spun into fabric for a beautiful gown we already have in mind. As long as the fur dyes well, we think Percy will be able to find a good spinner. The softness of Lucky's fur is so wonderful, we can not wait. And it is just the season for a good clipping so that Lucky does not become stifled by the heat of summer.

We arre so happy we can not belive that we have been given such an exciting present. We will have to throw a little party to show Lucky to all our friends!.

Well there is no good excuse for not writing here in so long. We have been working hard, but not unusually so. We simply have been spending too much time gambling and drinking, and not enough time writing. Hatton has been in town and we so love playing cards with him. It would also be fair to add that he has brought us back some glorious silks from his most recent trip. We couldn't be any happier. Green brocades with lovely beasties on them! What a surprise!

We have also finally completed the Suit Of Pearls for The King Of France! We are expecting to see a portrait of him wearing the suit, as soon as the artist completes his commission. We hope that The King is pleased with our work!

Our apprentice John Percy has been working very hard and we have rewarded him with some time to work on his own creations. Naturally we have given him some less expensive fabrics to work with, but we think he may finally be able to move up in the world. He is usually diligent and when he's not he accepts his punishment well. So we think he will be careful with some of our lesser silks.

Ahhhhh...It was fun, it was beautiful, and we already miss our friends......Six glorious weekends!

Here's a picture of us on Celtic Weekend as we dressed the niece and nephew. They can eat four ice creams each in about an hour! LOL This is Bonnie's or Lady Eleanor's first gown with a hoop. She choose pinks for her gown. Gage otherwise knownas Sir William decided he did not want to be an English nobleman, as the English we very mean to the Scottish, so he decided on a kilt. And Lord Jim wanted to show off those fine legs of his!

We are still working on the suit of pearls for Henry, King Of France. This has caused something of a scandle as I have had to keep this secret from the English court. The present mood towards France is not very good. As a result we have bee taking part in our usual social life but have had to hide late at night, in order to work on the garments. This is making us a bit less than beautiful as our beauty sleep has been disrupted. However we are perfectly willing to take our temper out on John Percy, who has had his ears boxed now on a regular basis.

We are nearly done but still have about 350 more pearls to sew on. They are lovely to look at. The sleeves have already been assembled, and we will have the doublet put together by the end of the week.

So we have been sewing non stop till our fingers hurt. In fact we have even managed to bleed on silk. We have had to cut and re-sew some fabric due to the amount of pins that have made tiny holes in our fingers. But the task of making clothing for the King Of France can not be left to John Percy.

This afternoon we managed to collect the rest of the black pearls for the doublet and tomorrow we shall start sewing them onto the panels. Until then we shall resist gamboling them away and just hold them in our hands. We have purchased 1,000 pearls thus far and that should be enough.

Well we all froze today. It was very cold for us and the tempertures did not get to the 60's. No one here has long undies. Even with cloaks we were cold cold cold! The icey strong wind slipped up our hoops, crept into our doublets, and made the coffee vendor the hit of today's events. Here's a couple more pictures of Norfolk who apparently decided on furs.....Even the people visting from up north were cold.

There were also other very exciting events which we will tell you about soon.

The Faire started today! I was a beautiful day, a bit windy but didn't get much past the 80's. It was so wonderful to see old friends. Here's a few pictures! More to come.

We are inconsolable missing our Muse. She has not even left yet, and we want to wear mourning colours. But the Renaissance Faire starts tomorrow and it should prove to be a good distraction. Even Poor John Percy is worried that our Muse she be missing. He is anticipating we will be in a vile mood and take it out on him. Though, I think he will truly miss her, for her own sake.

We have no idea what to wear tomorrow as we are not sure if there will be some rain. If it rains we should not wear what we were planning on as it will become ruined. So we shall have to wait and see. Perhaps the alchemist will know something more in the morning. We have the blush gown ready to wear and our lovely green gown, though not new, the silks are able to stand the weather very well. Already we are distracted!

What a night last evening! Raleigh managed to invite a few people from the country to play cards. There was quite a large amount of delicious food and drink, all laid out with a Grecian theme. We all wore togas with wreaths in our hair, and sandals. We had a large fire going so we wouldn't freeze. It was a party in honor of our Muse, who is going on a log trip so far away we are not even certain that there are maps for these strange lands.

We are not certain what we shall do without our Muse for so long, but we do know she did very well playing cards and even managed to win may pearls and some jewels from the other players. We came out about even but are thrilled that our Muse will have extra money to buy fabrics in these far off lands. We are very sad that she is leaving for so long, but thrilled that she will have so many adventures to entertain us with when she gets back.

Well Faire is coming soon! We are so excited to see old friends and make new ones. We have two new gowns to wear, and have also made a gown for our niece Bonnie. A new doublet and shirt for our husband, and a new shirt and kilt for our nephew. We are ready with the exception of new gloves which we feel we need in several colours. Our new shoes are being made, and perhaps we need new stocking to set of the shoes. Humm...We may also need a new fan, and drinking glass, and perhaps anther sweet bag. Oh and perhaps more pearls...we always need more pearls!

We are also working still on Henry IV's suit. We are just beginning to prep all the fabrics, and have sent a mock-up to Him. We are certain everyone will be tired of hearing about His suit as we are planning on spending over a month on the project. we also have a few gowns for renaissance weddings to make soon. And we are happy to report that most have made their fabric choices.

This evening we have taken a bit of a break and have had a hand or two of cards. We played with Christopher Hatton, Raleigh and few others. We were somewhat successful, but were more glad for the entertainment and diversion from our busy studio. Poor John Percy is complaining of over work and at this moment we can only agree. Once Henry IV's suit is fully underway we shall give Percy a day or two to himself. We know we usually spend or time boxing his ears, but at this moment we think he is an asset.

We purchased a new serger today. Machines are great, really good machines are even greater. Best of all, we did not cut off any of our fingers.....Yet. However, we would very much like to know why it does not come with a perfectly handsome young man to thread it. We also expect, that for as much as we paid for the machine, the same young man who should accompany the machine, should also be ready at all times to peel grapes for us and delicately place them with in our mouth.

While young John Percy is a wonderful apprentice, we still feel that another young man to work for us would not be so terrible. And perhaps the competition would do John Percy some good. So we say, that all sergers should come with young men, handsome young men, who can sew period renaissance clothing, all by hand, so we can return the machine and keep the boy!

Today we received yards and yards of silk and trims all for Henry IV, King of France. We are most excited to be tailoring such a marvelous garment. It will be a wondrous creation! We know this because, while He has been most gracious to us, we have also witnessed him suggest "rigorous floggings", when He deemed necessary. And we must admit we are a bit concerned that Our Good Queen, may have a flogging in mind for us for taking such a commission. Hopefully the matching pearls we have picked for Her next gown, will delight Her enough that she might "forget" our transgressions.

We are planning a doublet and slops of the finest silks, and will be covering them in black pearls. Certainly Henry IV, shall shine both in the light of day, and by candles. We are very happy, and have young John Percy preparing the studio late this evening in preparation.

Well we now have a giant ironing board. It is enormous. Eighteen inches wide! We love new equipment. While we are still feeling a bit ill, we are very much better.

We are awaiting pictures from Laren who wore her gown a whole week ago. It's blue silk shot with purple, trimmed in black and silver lace guimp. There are great sleeves lined in black and the most beautiful gold Scalamandre underskirt with love birds and crowns.

This past week we have finished a purple velvet doublet in the Italian style. It's entirely cartridge pleated! Perhaps a moment of madness, to make such a garment. The sleeves are quilted and billowing on the top, with cartridge pleated cuffs. It is lined in raspberry linen.

We are also ordering fabrics for two wedding gowns, researching a leather doublet, working on the design for a man's suit in red and black, and we will be starting Mitch's suit of pearls sometime this week once the fabric arrives. Until the fabric shows up we should have just enough time to finish a pink gown for our niece, who will accompany us to Faire next month.

So we have been a bit busy and it looks like no let up in sight for late evenings gambling with Raliegh. On the other hand, he has been on something of a winning streak so perhpas we are better off.

Sorry that we have not posted in a very long time. We have been working like crazy, even on New Years trying to get everything done. And we were ill.

Well first we caught a cold, while we were speedily racing to finish two gowns. We worked in a stupor till our hands were cramped into little claw like shapes, while practically hold Kleenex to our nose with our toes.

Then we got better for about a week and a half and we caught the flu! No more public kissing for us! If we see you in public do not expect us to kiss you, anywhere! We have had enough of other people's germs. During this bout with the flu, our temperature reached 103. During this time we began to say thinks like "truck", or "dance". Things that just came out of our mouth having nothing what so ever to do with anything going on in our lives. We suppose this is better than other types of fever induced sayings, and we are glad we didn't by anything off the Home Shopping Network, but it was not good. We did manage to sew ourselves several times though to the velvet doublet we were working on.

Fortunately we are feeling much, much better now. Which is good because the gown we are working on now has to be sent no later than Tuesday. It's a beautiful blue silk shot with purple, with a lovely gold foreskirt out of Scalamandre fabric. It's for Lauren who will be wearing it for formal SCA events. We have to go back to work on it tonight, but it's coming out so nicely we do not mind!

We promise to become better at posting, as long as out hands don't fall off! LOL

Well we have been working our behind off! So much clothing, so little time.

But we have more pictures of Rachel to share with you so here goes...

It's been far to long since we have last posted. We've been working very hard on nearly impossible deadlines and were sick for a bit of that time. We will catch up soon. But in the mean time here is a picture from Rachel's wedding. The photo is of Rachel walking down the aisle, escorted by her Father.

Yikes! And now we are ill. We thought it was allergies from faire this past weekend but instead it turned into a cold. Do we share the details? Do you really want to know how much fun it is to have to be constantly wiping our nose while sewing? Probably not.

The wedding gown we are working on so far is safe from all bodily fluids and is coming along slower than we would have liked. However some how we got it into our head that a gown that should take two weeks would only take one. We knew from the beginning if we had taken the time out to consider this, we would have known. So late nights with itchy eyes seems to be the way to go. So far the sleeves are nearly done. The bodice should be ready to put together tomorrow, so the overskirt may not get done till next week, as long as we can avoid stabbing ourselves with needles on a frequent basis.

Yes! We actually have electricity! Yippee! Happy Dance!

The saga included such fun as, the power man showed up at about 7 at night. He shined his flashlight and Jim noticed it out back. We ran outside not believing still that anything would get done. But the power man said he was on it.

Then came the bad part, some people's cars were parked in a way that blocked him from reaching the transformer. The dozen or so of us outside were not daunted. The Power Man said he would come back before midnight! We magically tracked down the owners of the cars and they moved them. Parking is scarce here so they were very nice. We were happy because we did not want to have the cars towed and thereby cost the owners money.

Then we built a little barricade and blocked the spaces with our bodies. We sat and drank sodas and waited. Q drove around on his scooter trying to find the Power Man again. Low and behold about two and one half hours later, the Power Man arrived in his glorious chariot. He jumped into the back and rose up into the air like Apollo ascending to Mount Olympus and replaced the transformer! There was a flash of light, most likely a tree branch singing and we were lit!

We all performed the FPL (Florida Power and Light) cheer that we made up several hurricanes back. Then we bowed down to his great power. Then went home and turned on lights, TV and computers. Life is good!

We forgot to add that IF you emailed us and did not get a reply there were server problems due presumably to the storm. So, please email back!

Thanks for you understanding!

YIKES!!!!!!!!

Well we still do not have any electricity..........We may not have it for weeks......BUT the gowns are all safe, the silk is safe, the machines are safe, and we should have another place to sew soon. We will need gas to get there though so that should be avalible in a couple of days. There is gas now but i would run out of gas trying to get more...I didn't fill up before the storm because of a ratty looking fan belt, I figured it would break any second but it really wasn't that bad and I should have. Anyway......No windows blew out. It only took three days to clean up the yard, and the air is still cool enough to make sleeping possible. The roof is intact. We were very lucky....

Trees have fallen everywhere, cars are crushed, glass is everywhere. Most people's dogs are happy becasue there is nothing to do but walk your dog. We don't have a dog, so we sit outside petting everyone's dog. Oh and we stepped in some dog poop which was not fun.

A very special thanks to My Muse , Queen Of the Silk Whores, for posting information. And thanks for all your emails asking how we are.

Also John Percy, who is in fact not imaginary is doing well also. Though he did hide in the closet when the winds really picked up. He is spending his days fetching ice and water. Though he is now relieved of his water duties as if today, as we no longer have to "boil water" for safe drinking.

Appologies for bad spelling. There is no spell check here, the key board saw better days in 1982 and it's sticky as heck. Also the monitor is wiggling about, but at least it's something usable! I just don't have the patience to try and re-read everything becasue the monitor is making us sea sick.

Another thing is that we have been forced to eat everything we and out neighbours had in their freezer. So we have severly pigged out, and intend to for the next few days, weeks, whatever it takes.

To the people whose clothing we are sewing, everything is safe, and we are working on the hand sewing portions. We expect everything will still be on time so no need to worry.

I'll keep trying to check in to the email every day or so and the phone is still avalible. I can get the battery charged now as lots of other people have electricty.

Stimpzilla's Muse is happy to report that our beloved Stimpzilla and her imaginary assistant, John Percy, are alive and well, but without electricity. And we are happy to report that none of our beloved silks were damaged either (which we all know is equally as important)! WHEW!!! ;D

Due to the fact that Wilma literally tore apart the area where Stimpzilla lives, she does not have access to the internet or her e-mail and has limited telephone service. During this time, she has asked me to let her faithful minions know that she will be able to access her cell phone briefly once daily. Please be patient if you are trying to reach her. If you are desperate for updates (which her muse will provide periodically here) you can reach me at ryanpattyxf@yahoo.com and I will try to get a message to her for you.

Thank goodness Horace, King of the Possums, scared the bad storm away! More later....