We’ve been a bit out of touch lately with all the work on the film Billy the Kid by Michael Feifer– remote locations, no WiFi, 12-hour plus days, etc. have really been a major strain but we’ve finally been able to sort out some pictures and video from the production. To start things out, here’s a few views of our lead actress, Brianna Young:
Leavimg early in the am for three weeks at No. 11 for work, adventure, and sewing. Adam is joining us on the 20th, but until then…there will be chick food, Christmas movies, and hopefully a new bodice for me.
We just want to apologize in advance for the somewhat intermittent nature of maintaining our blog but sometimes things get a bit more hectic in life that one would expect. Back in October we worked on The Seamstress, a sort of supernatural horror-Western set in Tombstone. During that time, we got another job for a Western, Billy the Kid: Blood & Vengeance which starts shooting on November 10. So basically it was leave Tombstone on October 29, head back to LA, rest briefly, prep for Billy- doing script break-downs and pulling wardrobe on November 4, and then off again to Arizona on November 7. Yep, it’s turn and burn time here at Lily Absinthe! 😁😜
Not that we’re complaining here… 😉 it’s all good. Two different types of films, two very different sets of wardrobe (mostly). The nice thing is that we worked with a lot of the same people on the last production so we know all their sizes. Adam will be manning the office back in LA and then joining me later on to help with the production and help wrap out. Then it’s back to LA…we won’t be cooking Thanksgiving this year but we’ll be ordering a mean from a wonderful store so it’s all good. More later!
P.S. The above picture just shows the contrast in places that our work has take us to in the past eight years… 😁 😎
In a previous post, we looked at a paisley house dress/tea gown from the mid-1890s and noted that the paisley shawls that were a staple of 1850s-60s fashion would up being re-purposed into dresses during the 1870s, 80s, and even 90s. Here’s one such example with this c. 1885-89 tea gown.
Tea Gown, c. 1885-1889; Kent State University Museum; 1995.017.0016
Although the design makes it look like there’s a robe over a separate under-dress, it’s really all a one-piece construction.
And the back is pretty incredible:
Of course, without physically inspecting it, it’s difficult to tell how exactly the paisley shawl might have been incorporated (or if a shawl was actually used versus yardage) but it is somewhat logical given the extensive use of a solid color as an underlayer. The investigation continues… 😎
Fall is definitely here, even in Southern California and that means the heat has backed off, the days are growing shorter, and the light is definitely different. It also means that we’re working on more projects (no swimming pool to distract us). For me, I’ve been going back and forth between a Mid-1880s dress and a men’s suit. I’ve been pretty bad with the progress pictures but here’s a couple from my work on the suit pants.
Chalking out some lining pieces…
And finished the right and left pocket layouts…they’re quire elaborate. Now to mount them to the right and left front pant pieces… 🙂 And here’s some pictures of the work I did on the vest…
The vest lapels. Lots of pad stitching going on and it will only get worse with the coat. The outcome is really nice but it really takes a toll on my fingers.
Right front side of the vest. There’s more to follow and I’ll try to get some more pictures so everything is a but more coherent. 🙂