I've been working on two new Medieval gowns the past while. They have been going slowly since most of the work needs to be done by hand, and I have to pace myself so as not to aggravate my wrist.  The gowns are for two new Iple FID ladies I ordered during their recent Holiday Event. I ordered Grace in Special Real Skin, and Yur in Normal. Both with faceups.  It's been over two months now, so I can be getting a shipping notice any day now. Which means I need to have the two gowns ready.

The first one is made from a purple and rust sari from Value Village, with a cream and beige brocade under-dress. It's in the style of the Italian Renaissance gowns I've made for my bigger ladies, with a higher waist, and hanging sleeves.....

The second gown will be all in gold and cream. The gold brocade is from an old blouse from Value Village, and the underdress is from two similar cream brocades. I didn't have enough of either one, so used the fabric I had the most of for the bodice and skirt front. The back of the skirt is from another cream brocade.  I'm also going to use the pale tricot hanging sleeves that were rejected by that last green gown I made. In fact I'm planning a double set of hanging sleeves.

The machine sewing is fast enough, but then it's all hand-sewing from there. I gave up on making sleeves so narrow that I have to remove the hands to get the gown on and off. That got old really fast.  So I'm back to having an opening in the bottoms of the sleeves, that close with snaps.  The thing is, to hide the bulk of the snaps, it's best to have the sleeve seam up the back of the sleeve, and not lined up with the bodice underarm seams.  Which means sewing everything in by hand.

And I forgot that the under sleeves belonged on the underdress, having planned to make them part of the overdress.  But all those layers of sleeves would have made the shoulders of the over-dress bodice way too thick, so the under sleeves had to go on the underdress after all.  And of course, the underdress armholes were already nicely finished.  So I had to fold in the sleeve and lining fabrics at the top of the sleeve to finish the top edges before I can sew the sleeves into the armholes - by hand again. One sleeve is finished, but the other still needs a lot of embellishment work....

Then there's the hanging sleeves. The thin tricot sleeve edges are getting beaded, so I don't think I will be beading the gold brocade ones.  Maybe the embroidered edging will be enough.  

I prefer to finish each one completely before sewing it into the dress bodice. The two little oblong cream pieces are the little shoulder puffs, which need to be sewn onto the tops of the oversleeves before they can be sewn into the bodice....

Just a few photos of recent photo set-ups.....

First, outside the Bake Shop, looking in....

...and the Castle interior....

Back at the Medieval Gala, it was finally time for dessert...

The table was piled high with all kinds of delectable pastries....

These are fantastic.  Did you try one?"

"It does look delicious..."

But before she could take one, Rex pulled out a rose.....

"Happy Birthday!"

"Thank you for making this my best birthday ever..."

With dinner over, everyone gathered round, as Leona opened the boxes....

"Wow, look at all those delicious desserts!"

"It's so hard to choose...."

But, choose one they did...

"This one is your favourite, right Mom?"

"Back in the store she said this one was her favourite..."

"You are both right....they are both my favourite."

"Well, my favourites are these cheesecakes..."

Later that evening, after Holly and Coco had gone to bed, Owen and Leona could finally relax and spend some time together.....

​"Thank you for a lovely day..."

"That was so sweet of you to bring the kids to the Bake Shop today..."

"I thought it would be fun....  
Here, have another chocolate.   This shop makes the best ones in town.."

Leona finally arrived at home, with a big box of Owen's favourite chocolates.
​  "It sure smells good in here!"

Owen and the kids came to greet her.   "This is for you...Happy Valentine's Day!"

"We got something for you, Mom!!"

"You bought those for me?!?!  That's so sweet of you! I wonder what's in them?""

"Oh Mom!!  You know!!  You put them into the boxes for us yourself!!
​They are all your favourites!"

"That's right!  But your Dad has dinner ready right now, so I'd like to save them for dessert. Then we'll open the boxes and everyone can choose their favourite one..."

I needed some big posters for the walls of the Village Bake Shop for my Valentine story.  I did do a google search, but didn't see anything I liked, so decided I was best off to just shoot some pictures of my Valentine goodies myself, and print those out. After all, what better way to a advertise baked goods in a bakery, but to showcase the very items available there....

Valentine's Day was one of Leona's busiest days in the Bake Shop, so Owen picked up the kids from school. They wanted to visit their Mom at the Bakery, and buy a few special things....

"Now remember, you can't say anything...."

"We know Dad! We know how to keep a secret!"

So they went in....
"The kids wanted to say 'Hi', and get some Valentine goodies..."

"Everything looks so yummy!  It's so hard to choose.....
​Which ones are your favourite, Mom?"

 "I'd like some of those pink eclairs then....please..."

Then Leona got another box for the ones Coco wanted...
​"I'd like some of those big cream puffs you said are so delicious..."

Owen was still trying to decide...

Coco wanted to get a balloon as well, and Holly chose a pink rose.
​Everything was packed up and paid for....

"I'll have dinner ready when you get home, and then we can have a nice evening together..."

'Bye!!"

"Do you think she suspects that we bought all these things for her??"

"No, I don't think so.    And we got all her favourites too..."

With the cellphone gone, Rosie decided it was finally time to light the candles.  

Bianca was no longer distracted....

They were only focused on each other....

...and it was finally starting to look like the romantic Medieval evening Rex had been hoping for....

I've not been inspired to take new doll photos since I shot the Medieval Gala story a while back. Too many stressful things going on.  So I've been working on two new gowns, and making lots more doll food.  

I used up the last of the salt dough to make some more interesting eclairs, and I still had a bunch of small wooden blocks, which I covered with polymer clay and made into tiny cakes.  The 'cream' fillings and toppings are drywall compound mixed with glue, and coloured with a bit of paint, and squirted with a pastry bag. The leftovers were squirted into more macaroons.....

I also decided that future Medieval feasts needed something 'fresh', so researched 'heirloom apples' to see what kinds they might have had centuries ago.

The apples are polymer clay over small balls of aluminum foil.  I mixed all kinds of different colours of clay for the apple's base colour, then blushed them afterwards with paint.  Their tiny stems are cut from the end of the stems of the compound leaves of our wisteria.  Jan drilled tiny holes in the apples so I could glue them in. Then a couple of coats of satin varnish gave them a sheen...

Bianca started getting calls from friends and family wishing her a Happy Birthday....

When Rosie arrived with another entree.....

This was not turning out to be the evening Rex had had in mind....

"Sweetie, you know, that phone is ruining the 'Medieval' atmosphere."

"Here, I'll take it...."

Bianca reluctantly passed it to Rex, who offered it to Rosie.
"Could you take this, and put it in the coat check with my cloak, please?"

But Bianca interrupted...
​"Could you please just take one more photo of the two of us before you bring it away?"

Rosie was only too happy to oblige, and finally get the phone out of the room....

"There you go."