Noodling (clothes. I'm thinking about clothes.)
Christmas for me was an embarrasment of riches, mostly because Bob and I cannot give each other just one present. I scored big time, most especially with some Thai silk patterned velvet, which will be appearing soon at an event near you (but not before I get a supportasse and a new standing lace collar finished for 12th Night). It's very soft and floppy silk, so I'm gonna hafta interline the sucker, probably with something awsome and period, like coarse linen.
(Or fusible intefacing. I am evil that way, and I don't care who knows it. But for all practical "teaching the next generation" purposes, I'm using linen.)
(As far as YOU know.)
I still have some gorgeous Dupioni silks I got on sale before Christmas, and I have to do stuff with that - maybe a doublet and petticoat that I can wear under my black velvet doublet. That one will have to be hand sewn, I think (and doesn't count towards my 50-Stash set, because I bought the silk after the challenge, but the supportasse totally counts, as does the lace collar). Another piece of Dupioni (it's a cross between lime green and gold, and it's astoundingly lovely) will become a pair of bodies and sleeves, and the third piece will probably be lining for something. One should (to be period) at the very least face the edges of one's stuff in a nice fabric, and line entirely in something nice if possible.
...which, of course, means that I have a butt-load of outfits to re-line. If I'm going to be more period. Which I'm trying to be. *sigh*
But! I also have a neat striped wool for a petticoat, since I'm getting tired of wearing the same old red wool petticoat all the time. Yes, I have a couple of other wool petticoats, but I need more. and this one is white with a thin red woven stripe. It's awesome (and counts towards the 50-Stash).
Hmmm, what else? I have some really gorgeous purple wool for a Jamestown outfit for Bob, and a smashing red and black brocade for a smarter doublet and breeches for him (do people think I should make him a pair of the really high "pumpkin" style pants for that outfit? He has great legs. Opinions?) , since he doesn't have as many outfits as I do, and he gets tired of wearing the green and gold all the time (though I have to put him in it again for something, since I don't actually have a picture of him in it for the web page). Yes, he has the black velvet, and of course, the applique doublet, but what can I say? The man deserves some new outfits - he looks so good in them.
(I am well aware of how lucky I am to have a husband that not only looks good in Elizabethan, he wears it well, and likes to dress up. It's like my own full-size Ken doll, but with better... *ahem* accessories.)
(Oh, great, now I have "Detachable Penis" playing in my head. That went downhill fast, didn't it?)
(Who am I kidding? I go downhill so quickly they need to put double black diamonds on all my posts.)
On to other things! Quickly! I have realized that I have a huge stain down the front of my green wool embroidered loose gown that needs attending to. I actually know what it's from - someone spilled cider on me years ago at Pennsic, and I thought I'd cleaned it all up, but it takes a while for sugar to turn brown and stain. I now see that I got barely any of it cleaned up, and there is some work I need to do to get it out. Some of the buttons may need replacing, and the whole thing cannot be washed (and I don't trust a dry-cleaner to 1. Get thestain out, and 2. Not shrink it. I've had that shrinking thing happen before, and it's ghastly), so it's going to be me, some mild household cleansers, and an afternoon of patting in circles.
Hey, if I ruin the coat, I'll just make a new one, right?
Right.
I probably need to go over all our stuff and see what needs patching. There's an outfit of Bob's that is rapidly disintegrating, and needs patches for the gunpowder burns, and the whole lining needs to be ripped out and replaced. Why bother? He loves it, and it's made from a heavy linen that I've never found again.
Of course, there's the whole new shirts and shifts thing that always needs to be done. I hate making shirts. I don't know why - I just do. But it needs to be done, and I'm fussy about how they're made, so I kind of have to make them myself.
Is anyone else like that? The whole "I know what I want, and if I get it from anyone else, it won't be quite right, so I have to make it myself" feeling? It's so snotty, but I've rarely had good results when I've bought from someone else (my readers excepted, of course, or else I wouldn't be saying this here). This is also why I rarely make anything for anyone else - the terror that I'm going to screw it up and it won't fit is too much for my poor heart to handle.
But anyway - I have clothes to make. Thanks for listening to me noodle out loud.