The GIANT update post
I guess it has been a few months since I posted anything remotely useful. I think parts of me took a mental holiday after 12th Night and I haven't re-routed power to those areas yet. So here is a major download:
The blue wool dress is serving me well for a warmer dress, but I decided along the way I wanted to do some silk kirtle like dresses. Sleeveless for ease of summer wear but in German Ren construction. These will mostly be silk since its nice and light and cuts the wind. I picked up some brown silk noil for cheap a few months back and cat_cetera and I found some red silk noil at Value Village for cheap shortly after. I also was looking for a silk store in the NE called Batiahs' and found somewhere else instead where I got a ton of silk broadcloth cheap. There will be a green silk dress made from that with orange silk trim. I have some gold silk broadcloth currently in the form of a chiton which will become a gown as well. All in all, I have enough material for 3 silk gowns with linen lining. I have material for another set of underwear (hemd and braies) and a set of hose. Now to make it all!
I did start with the brown and red silk noil gown with the hopes of having it done for Winter War. It was sleeveless with a square neck and one guard on the bottom. 5m 18" wide of the base colour did the trick with pieced, cartridge pleated skirting and no sleeves. 1m of trim colour for the neckline and the bottom guard left me with a bit left over for trimming a hat later. Cat_cetera helped me re-fit the bodice pattern from my blue wool gown since I have lost some weight since last fall when we did the pattern. I have a small addiction which got in the way of the construction of this gown though.... it ended up being ALL handsewen, long invisible seams and all. othelianna helped with the final bits of trimming the bottom guard in the car on the way to the event (and then more finishing of the trim in the hall over drinks the night before the war started! Thank you again Othelianna!!!)
I had decided to put lacing rings set back from the front seams for closures. Sadly I am a little too busty for the type of rings I used which makes me sad. Cat_cetera ended up sewing me into the gown for the war, which made for an interesting situation when I was getting ready to go to bed and had to cut myself out in front of everyone who was sleeping at the hall and still awake at 4am. It fit splendidly though closure failures aside. I did need to go home and apply a liberal amount of steam and ironing to make the seams less bunchy though. I also took off the rings and replaced them with hooks and eyes since I KNOW they will work for me. Once I had all the seams sitting nice and flat and all the hooks and eyes sewn in, I tried the damn thing on to find that the steaming/ironing had caused the bust to become MUCH pointier then before. FAIL!!! The only way I can figure to remedy this is to take the trim off and cut back the bust curve and re-trim it. This also means removing the hooks and eyes and re-attaching them.
Can I PLEASE PLEASE make a dress that doesn't need to have the closures removed and replaced 2-3 times before its done?! Mother of all thats Good help me out here!!!!
Next is going to be the Green Silk gown. I was hoping to have it done for May Crown or Beltane, but I suspect that isn't going to happen. I have managed to make some braies though, or at least braie like articles. The cut of the braies in the Medieval Tailor's Assistant looks damn uncomfortable for my shape and the Janet Arnold PoF 4 patterns are not for people with asses! Holy hell trying to size those up into something wearable just wasn't happening. I ended up cutting up a pair of comfortable PJ bottoms and patterning from those. I will be pleating the waist and the leg cuffs and putting ties in them. I think I will forgo the black work trimming I have been working on for the waistband and cuffs for now and finishing them with plain linen. I can make the 2nd pair pretty and trimmed up once I know these work.
I am going to be on a speed sewing mission this weekend. I need to put together a Tellerbarret as the A&S prize for Beltane (*cough* 2 weeks away with May Crown in the middle! *cough*). Thankfully that shouldn't be too long or fiddly. Black wool and ... Hrm, maybe pink wool slashing? Fushia silk? Yellow linen?
Somewhere along the way I decided that we needed more local exposure to increase our membership. Montengarde needs new blood! To this end, I have organized a Baroness' Picnic in the park for May 16. Apparently its too much work for our heavy fighter population (all 5? of them?) to come out to a park for practices, they get lost easy the poor souls! So I have been promoting and pushing for attendance at a picnic instead. I figure if at least 5 people show up who aren't my family, the event will have been a success. It looks like we are going to have a decent turn out so thats all well and good. We have a few medieval goodies for people to sample.
Cat-Cetera and I are also autocratting Beltaine on May 29, with a visit to WA in between now and then for May Crown, hot DOG I am gonna be busy!
The weekend after Beltaine is June Coronet. I am all authorized as Sr. Ground Crew for equestrian so more for me to do at that event as well. Hope the weather holds out better then last years June Coronet!
There are a million other things on my brain I want to post, but I am gonna finish it off here. Maybe I will post again soon with the rest of the SCA-y/Costumey stuff floating around my brainpan.
The blue wool dress is serving me well for a warmer dress, but I decided along the way I wanted to do some silk kirtle like dresses. Sleeveless for ease of summer wear but in German Ren construction. These will mostly be silk since its nice and light and cuts the wind. I picked up some brown silk noil for cheap a few months back and cat_cetera and I found some red silk noil at Value Village for cheap shortly after. I also was looking for a silk store in the NE called Batiahs' and found somewhere else instead where I got a ton of silk broadcloth cheap. There will be a green silk dress made from that with orange silk trim. I have some gold silk broadcloth currently in the form of a chiton which will become a gown as well. All in all, I have enough material for 3 silk gowns with linen lining. I have material for another set of underwear (hemd and braies) and a set of hose. Now to make it all!
I did start with the brown and red silk noil gown with the hopes of having it done for Winter War. It was sleeveless with a square neck and one guard on the bottom. 5m 18" wide of the base colour did the trick with pieced, cartridge pleated skirting and no sleeves. 1m of trim colour for the neckline and the bottom guard left me with a bit left over for trimming a hat later. Cat_cetera helped me re-fit the bodice pattern from my blue wool gown since I have lost some weight since last fall when we did the pattern. I have a small addiction which got in the way of the construction of this gown though.... it ended up being ALL handsewen, long invisible seams and all. othelianna helped with the final bits of trimming the bottom guard in the car on the way to the event (and then more finishing of the trim in the hall over drinks the night before the war started! Thank you again Othelianna!!!)
I had decided to put lacing rings set back from the front seams for closures. Sadly I am a little too busty for the type of rings I used which makes me sad. Cat_cetera ended up sewing me into the gown for the war, which made for an interesting situation when I was getting ready to go to bed and had to cut myself out in front of everyone who was sleeping at the hall and still awake at 4am. It fit splendidly though closure failures aside. I did need to go home and apply a liberal amount of steam and ironing to make the seams less bunchy though. I also took off the rings and replaced them with hooks and eyes since I KNOW they will work for me. Once I had all the seams sitting nice and flat and all the hooks and eyes sewn in, I tried the damn thing on to find that the steaming/ironing had caused the bust to become MUCH pointier then before. FAIL!!! The only way I can figure to remedy this is to take the trim off and cut back the bust curve and re-trim it. This also means removing the hooks and eyes and re-attaching them.
Can I PLEASE PLEASE make a dress that doesn't need to have the closures removed and replaced 2-3 times before its done?! Mother of all thats Good help me out here!!!!
Next is going to be the Green Silk gown. I was hoping to have it done for May Crown or Beltane, but I suspect that isn't going to happen. I have managed to make some braies though, or at least braie like articles. The cut of the braies in the Medieval Tailor's Assistant looks damn uncomfortable for my shape and the Janet Arnold PoF 4 patterns are not for people with asses! Holy hell trying to size those up into something wearable just wasn't happening. I ended up cutting up a pair of comfortable PJ bottoms and patterning from those. I will be pleating the waist and the leg cuffs and putting ties in them. I think I will forgo the black work trimming I have been working on for the waistband and cuffs for now and finishing them with plain linen. I can make the 2nd pair pretty and trimmed up once I know these work.
I am going to be on a speed sewing mission this weekend. I need to put together a Tellerbarret as the A&S prize for Beltane (*cough* 2 weeks away with May Crown in the middle! *cough*). Thankfully that shouldn't be too long or fiddly. Black wool and ... Hrm, maybe pink wool slashing? Fushia silk? Yellow linen?
Somewhere along the way I decided that we needed more local exposure to increase our membership. Montengarde needs new blood! To this end, I have organized a Baroness' Picnic in the park for May 16. Apparently its too much work for our heavy fighter population (all 5? of them?) to come out to a park for practices, they get lost easy the poor souls! So I have been promoting and pushing for attendance at a picnic instead. I figure if at least 5 people show up who aren't my family, the event will have been a success. It looks like we are going to have a decent turn out so thats all well and good. We have a few medieval goodies for people to sample.
Cat-Cetera and I are also autocratting Beltaine on May 29, with a visit to WA in between now and then for May Crown, hot DOG I am gonna be busy!
The weekend after Beltaine is June Coronet. I am all authorized as Sr. Ground Crew for equestrian so more for me to do at that event as well. Hope the weather holds out better then last years June Coronet!
There are a million other things on my brain I want to post, but I am gonna finish it off here. Maybe I will post again soon with the rest of the SCA-y/Costumey stuff floating around my brainpan.