A long, long time ago, Maryanne mentioned that no-one ever made her wearable items as gifts.  Now, as a rule, I never make anyone wearable items as gifts (with the notable exception of the occasional wedding dress and stuff for my mother), but Maryanne is pretty special, and I thought it was high time someone did. So, a long time ago (confession: this project was meant to be done for Flora & Fauna) I had a voucher for fabric from The Fabric Store, and they had just gotten some luscious silk velvets in, and I offered to make Maryanne a version of my 1930s Capelet in the silk velvet of her choice.  She chose a glorious chocolate brown.  Thich was quite fun for me, as I love chocolate brown but it really doesn’t love me.   I offered to supply the lining as well, but she already had a beautiful silk dupion embroidered with Poiret roses in her stash that she wanted me to use, and no wonder: it’s AMAZING. So I started making the …

I’m feeling a little panicked about the HSF, because I’m still behind on my #17 Robes & Robing challenge, and I have a big entry to the #18 Re-Make challenge still to enter (though I did enter two little items), and I’m behind on the 1860s elliptical hoopskirt I’m making for the #19 Wood, Metal, Bone challenge. So, to mollify myself I whipped up two super simple little items that qualify for ‘Wood, Metal, Bone’:   The first, in metal, is a portrait brooch inspired by 18th century portrait brooches and bracelets.   I printed out Ramsay’s Portrait of a Lady on parchment paper and cropped the face to the right dimensions.  I really liked that she was an un-named woman, so that her face didn’t have any connotations other than sweet and appealing. Then I lacquered the paper to finish and preserve it, and when it was dry, inserted it into an old brooch back with extra layers of cardstock to further protect it. The brooch looked to plain as it was, so I …