It is the heart and not the brain
That to the highest doth attain,
And he who followeth Love’s behest
Far excelleth all the rest.
~~~~HENRY W. LONGFELLOW
I hope you will stop in at the TDIPT Mercantile tomorrow, 7pm MST~ BB, Pyotr and I would love to hear from you, and I will also have 4 sets of my glass glittered candy heartes available for your special Valentine~
Ahhh the end of the year festivities! I wish you all happy & safe soirees and festivities, if you should partake. I would also like to thank each and every one of you who stop by my blog to read my little bits and bobs....and all of my kindred spirits who email me and keep up with the goings on here, and of coarse, all the Angels who have given my dollys a home. I wish you all a Blessed New Year...and offer you a challenge, to do something you have never done before, but always wanted to. Stop waiting, just do it already!
To celebrate the end of this 2010, I offer a 25% off discount on anything and everything in my ETSY store~ just enter coupon code YND2010 at your checkout. This offer is good from now until the first of January, 2011.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a Blessed Holiday~ whatever it is! The dollys and I are settling in for our long Winter hibernation.....we love to just sit and gaze at the tree with all the pretty lights, all the while remembering Christmases past and all our favorite memories. A sip of our favorite Constant Comment tea, and a softly crackling fireplace~ what a gift in itself to enjoy this time with each other! With all the hustle and bustle now, I hope you all make time for a quite evening with family and all your favorite memories~ and perhaps make a new one! Merry Christmas! xoxoxo rachael
I couldn't be more please with how these came out! As soon as I am finished with Marguarite's Smock, I will post a picture of her wearing them. Until then, I think you will enjoy these. Finished, her bodies measure 6.5" across the shoulder, and 12" at center front from bust to busk point
I used the last of my matching hand dyed silk ribbon for the points, and since I don't have miniature metal aglets, I made my own
Each ribbon point is wrapped in copper wire, and then dipped several times in beeswax....and yes... bees wax from our own bees :)
I used a precious scrap of handspun tow to tie the shoulder straps together in a permanent knot
The tabbed skirts flare out quite gracefully
back view
Back is laced with a single ribbon in the proper 17th c fashion. All in all, I had an absolutely fun and wonderful time stitching these, and of coarse, I kept track of every minute, writing down the time I started stitching in my journal, and again when I finished to get up for anything.... for a total stitching time of 64 hours, 1 minute.
Here you can see that I have finished back stitching the silk binding, right sides together, to the bottom of Marguarite's pair of bodies. This was extremely slow to stitch, about 6 hours for this one step if I remember right. You can see the 'skirts', or tabs, pointing up and away there. I actually used a double thickness of silk on my binding here, as I didnt want the ends of the bamboo working their way thru it, and its so thin, I just felt the bottom needed more. After the binding was on, I again trimmed the linings. NOTE: The center busk pocket. I wanted to leave an open pocket so it could be removed, so the binding only goes thru the upper layer of lining, not thru all layers here.
After the linings are trimmed, I brought the silk to the back and whipped it down, just like on the top edge. It looks right spiffy now! 
Here is my busk pocket opening....cause, well, one never knows when they will fall in love, and need to give their busk to their departing beau to carve while he is out Whaling...... If you want to have a pocket like this so your busk is removable, here is a tip~ make sure to cut all your pieces so this opening is the salvage edge! There is no bulk, and its nice and tidy. 
And finish the last of the brass grommets~ there are two at the bottom back opening, and then four more each side for the ribbon points (ties used for attaching a farthingale).
