Work In Progress: Renaissance/Elizabethan Costume for Bristol Ren Faire

The original goal was to get this costume finished before we went to Bristol Renaissance Faire in July.   Didn't happen.  My machine hated the bodice inner fabric, so I spent probably 100 hours hand sewing every channel, reinforcing stress points, and stitching boning into place.  I ran out of boning and boning caps on top of going through a bit of disappointment-fueled sewing burnout.

So, I barely touched the costume for a week.... which turned into two weeks.  I sewed briefly that following weekend, but it was a busy one, and I was too tired to stay up into the wee hours to work on it.

This weekend I decided to jump back into it.  Enough is enough!  I won't let this costume, that I've put sooooo much effort into, go unfinished.  Saturday, my husband was tolerant of my begging to go to Vogue Fabrics in Evanston to pick up bias tape, boning, and more boning caps.  I was hoping to pick up some trim for the hem of the skirt too, but they didn't have enough of the trim I was in love with.  A little disappointment there, but I did manage to buy the boning and bias tape (the caps needed to be ordered from the warehouse).

Away I go again!  I hope to have this finished before Labor Day weekend.  Wish me luck :)