Naergi's Costuming Site

What are & how to make „Quadruples“ of pearls „Quadruples“ on the gown, „Cinques“ on the necklace and headdress For the decoration of bodice, sleeves and skirt of my ‚Pelican‘ gown, I needed „Quadruples“. I’m calling them by this name because the „usual“ Elizabethan decoration are „Cinques“ (which are – in the Pelican Portrait – […]

Navigation for this part of the page: [catlist categorypage=yes]   Note: Another method of casting metal-like items without having to heat up real metal is described in my „Cold cast metal“ tutorial. It’s definitely MUCH safer for at-home-casting! Casting jewelry from pewter is not as difficult as you might think. It’s just important to do […]

I hope you will enjoy the following tutorials. How to make a cage crinoline Sew first, then dye  Fabric dyeing Burning out silk velvet Puffed trims Faking ermine fur Pearl / Caps decorations Quadruples Paint Tudor Roses Glueing Rhinestones Cast pewter jewelry Enlarging patterns 100% reproductions? How to make a tricorn hat Working with Drum […]

Navigation for this part of the page: [catlist categorypage=yes]   How to glue rhinestones to fabric Unless you’re one of the lucky people to own something like a King tool, which will allow you to hotfix rhinestones, you will have to glue them. But if you don’t know how to do that correctly, you can […]

Navigation for this part of the page: [catlist categorypage=yes]   Here are various tips for dyeing fabrics. I will add more over time. Dyeing white fabrics ivory – Dyeing silk satin Tip for dyeing white fabrics ivory: Don’t make the mistake to use a small amount of *yellow* dye. Instead, use a *very* small amount […]

How to fake ermine fur First, it’s helpful if you have read this note on ermine fur in Elizabethan paintings. Materials needed for this tutorial: Depending if you’re choosing the ‚easy, but fake looking‘ or ‚difficult, but correct looking‘ method‘: Easy, but fake looking Difficult, but correct looking white fake fur, hair length not longer […]

How to enlarge original patterns I am certain that most people who own books that contain original patterns which are resized, meaning smaller than the original patterns – such as the „Patterns of Fashion“ books, which contain all patterns in a scale of 1:8 – at some point of time have to take the task […]

How to construct a Cage Crinoline Note: These instructions are just for round cage crinolines. It’s practically impossible to ‚calculate‘ an elliptical cage crinoline this way. Materials you will need: First, a good image of an existing crinoline. Doesn’t have to be a cage. A graphics program (I’m using PhotoImpact in this tutorial). Or a […]

Burning out silk velvet How does ‚burning out‘ work? Just because I think that they are necessary – some explanations first. The burning out process (which, in some cases, is called by its french name – „Dévoré“) works with a special, chemical fluid, which is applied to the back of the velvet and are ironed […]