A Happy One Year Anniversary

Our Baytree universe has grown! It has reached its one year anniversary, of which the rapidness is truly surprising.. Time has flown!

To sum up this amazing – insightful – creative – inspiring and heartwarming year:

  • Finished 5 costume pieces
  • Posted 22 posts, keeping a minimum of 1 post per month
  • 7,932 total views from 3,543 visitors from more than 54 different countries (I am mesmerised every day by seeing countries visiting my blog from places all over the world and from some small countries I didn’t even know existed)
  • October 28th was the most booming stat day with 253 views, a day which I still very much remember 🙂
  • I have received 68 likes overall on this blog from awesome people and 9 – all memorable and heartwarming – comments, where there are even more over on Pinterest

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Make fur | Tutorial: Make Jon Snow’s costume fur under €25

I am literally so excited to share this tutorial with you – since this is a struggle so “easily” solved! I loved the process a lot, it doesn’t take a lot of time, doesn’t hurt any animals, doesn’t cost too much money and the result is just amazing.

Let’s celebrate easter with a new tutorial!
Make your own Jon Snow fur, viking fur, a rug or even a fashionable shawl within one day.

Jon Snow’s imposing coat and characteristic fur hide – Courtesy of HBO

On the internet, a few things became very clear about Jon Snow costumes and cosplays. Most of the time, the costumes are absolutely amazing and beautifully tailored, – You can hear it coming – But.. A lot of people tend to get stuck on the fur-part. Mostly because real fur is too expensive or because the fake fur is not realistic and big, fluffy and imposing enough. I made my Jon Snow costume alongside my Ygritte costume which tutorial you can find here, which is some time ago now. As you can see from the title, this is not going to be a full Jon Snow tutorial – yet. Ygritte’s costume was a big project, but oh boy, Jon Snow’s was even bigger! It is a very “mathematical” and precise project, and even though my work is half done, it is still not near as close as I want it to be. Alongside that is the fact that season 6 is already on the doorstep (april!) and from photos, we can see that Jon’s costumes will dramatically change next season. I’ll have to see whether the hype around Jon’s older costume is going to change, because if it does, I might not finish the costume..

Collage Wool

But – why the tutorial on the fur? You can’t possibly make your own “real fur” now can you? …Can you? Continue reading

Wearing the Great Kilt – A Retrospective

It has been a while since I posted my “How to make an Outlander costume – Part 1” article. It covered all the basics of Great Kilt folding and Arisaid folding, and it was just so much fun to make, to fold and to write.

But here’s the catch: I never really finished the section of Kilt Types! The slightly irritating “will soon be updated” marred the decor that the Great Kilts flair had created. Soon became months quite quickly.. But hey – yes yes – it has been updated at last! Quickly visit the article and find out what new Kilt and Arisaid types have arrived in Baytree land.

Fun

Don’t mind me…

Since every photoshoot process takes about six to more than ten hours to do, to process and to touch up, it is always a shame when great photos are not good enough to be shown in the main article. And because some are just to precious or to cool to leave behind, I thought I would make a little behind the scenes article to give you an impression of the entire process behind a photoshoot like that. And just as this garments is awesome to alter and to re-create, it is also as much fun behind the scenes to wear and to mess around with, which sometimes results in quirky and funny photos. Continue reading

2015 in review

Perhaps a little late – but I found this jewel in my mailbox and I really wanted to share with you – and relive – the excitement of 2015.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for my blog.. It amazes me that people actually read what I write and find joy in my projects. It makes my day, everyday!

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,200 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Cheers!

TV Show phenomena

I thought I’d make this little post to balance all the costuming out a bit ;).

I am very interested in seeing that TV shows are getting more appreciation over the years. Everybody is watching them! I bet that if you ask someone if they watch one, the chance is bigger that they watch more than two then none. What is it that makes TV shows awesome?

Jamie Fraser and Claire Beauchamp in Starz’ Outlander

For me, it really is the chance to get involved in a world that is not of real existence. It is weird to comprehend how a piece of imagination can become such a phenomenon across the world. Take for instance Outlander, books written by Diana Gabaldon. In her mind she has created this world that everyone can visit through reading her words. And now even an entire group of people are taking her scenes and characters and bringing them to life in already a second season on Starz.

The coming together of creation, fantasy, history, reality and above all the length in which it comes is what, for me, makes TV shows such an addictive perception. You don’t have to stop wandering around that world after an hour, but the story just keeps coming. Of course the unhealthy part is the binge watching, but that has to do with a little responsibility ;).

Now I would love to know what your favourite shows are..! Why do you like them? What genre makes the top of your list?

As you guys know by now, the combination of reality and fantasy is the best it can get, and thus I, someday, would love to walk around a film set once. Just seeing all that creation come together – It’s awesome.

I’ll talk to you soon! Have a good one.

Happy New Year!

I wish you all the most creative, happy, healthy and enlightened new year full of new ideas, chances and new stories to tell.

This year has been so exciting for me. I have made costumes I am most proud of, I have expanded my horizon by starting my own Youtube channel and above all I have had the most fun as Ava Baytree.

So here is to a new – amazing – year.

Welcome Baytree Costumes and Ava Baytree to 2016!

Love, Ava

Merry Christmas

Hello everyone,

Have a lovely, lovely christmas! If you are with friends, family, just the two of you and even if you are alone: make it cosy and a day to never forget. Do whatever you want!!

To give you a little impression of my first Christmas day (yes we have two in the Netherlands, lucky us 😉 ), I thought I’d show you what my perfect Christmas looks like:

Our first Baytree Christmas! How exciting!

Merry Christmas to all my fellow WordPressers, sewers and crafters as well as everyone else reading this little post and watching the video.

Love you and thank you for reading! ❤

Ps. Little peek behind the post: this 30 second video took more than an hour to render, aahh

Ava Baytree: Trailer!

After hard, hard work I can finally show to you the piece I’ve been working on for the last few weeks.

And this time it is not a costume or a DIY! It is a video! See it for yourself:

Tell me what you think of the Baytree Costumes trailer <3!

If you could be bothered drop a like over on Youtube and if you really like the content: subscribe to my new channel!

I love you all,
Ava

Ps. It also gives away a new project I’ve been working on!

How to make Ygritte’s costume from Game of Thrones

Perhaps too late for Halloween this year, but certainly not less inspirational! Let’s celebrate creativity with this new tutorial. This time we’ll discover the costuming world of Game of Thrones.

After a long period of trying to keep this exciting project silent (just to give myself a little less stress), I can now finally come with all the details. And they are plenty!

If you have been following my blog, you know that I am always inspired by a variation of TV series and films. From period drama to fantasy, the cinematic scenery and images always speak to my imagination and from there to creativity. I have been working very hard on two amazing pieces from the enormous TV series Game of Thrones. I wanted to make a twin piece, and what immediately came to mind: Ygritte and Jon! (Pre season 6: Have you seen this picture already?). Click here to see my article on how to make Jon Snow’s fur, ecologically! And click here to see my Youtube video on this costume!

I based my design on this version from the show

I like that guy on the right haha!

The process was long and hard, as always, but again very insightful and the new fabrics and techniques were so exciting. I always enjoy learning something new (said the proud autodidact).

Ygritte 2

This is the result. If you have seen my last (and first) project inspired by the TV series from Outlander, you know how much I can meddle with one particular project. The most irritating thing always being the pattern (argh). Continue reading