Back when I first conceived my Dandelion quilt, I mentioned before that I have long loved this haiku by Teiji:

名を聞いて
また見直すや
草の花

na wo kiite
mata minaosu ya
kusa no hana

When I first read it, the translation given was "Hearing its name / I look at it anew / this flowering weed".  However, some translations give us "wayside flower" instead, and the literal translation of 草の花 is "grass flower" because 草 is "grass".

Continuing work on my Jacobean jacket.  The pattern is picked, the godets sewn in.  Now it's time to embellish the body of the jacket before sewing it together.  My goal is to put enough embroidery on the yellow twill to give it a historic look and make the black and white linen look less jarringly different.  The Elizabethan aesthetic (which is my inspiration for this project) is unabashedly cluttered, but still harmonious. 

The occasion of a costume-party wedding finally gives me an opportunity to wear and photograph the short stays I made to wear under my Regency dresses.  So prepare yourself for awkward self-photography in historical underwear! 

This project is from 2015.  I was working on a Regency wardrobe because I wanted to participate in Oregon Regency Society events. 

Today I'll talk about the next stage of my modern Elizabethan ensemble!  I make a partlet and embroider it with Elizabethan-inspired blackwork, using modern embroidery floss and all-purpose thread, and my own designs.  This'll be a long post, encompassing the draping of the partlet pattern, sewing it, designing the embroidery pattern, and embroidering it. 

A note about pictures in this post: if you click a pic and it takes you to an enlarged version, it's my picture.  If you click it and it takes you to a Wikimedia Commons page, it's not mine, but I'm using it under a creative commons license or Fair Use clause.  Basically: the historical portraits are not mine; click them to see where they come from. 

The next UFO checked off my list!  A friend whom I described this project to waxed poetic about it, trying to decide if it was a "melusine dress" or "ondine gown".  "Mermaid rag, haddock frock," I quipped back.  Though it's watery, fishy, and beautiful, there are no sprites or fairies on this garment, so "fish dress" is fine by me.  My poetry is in the dress, not the name.