The Good, The Bad and the Ug... well, kinda cute actually
Just some odds and ends about this weekend.
I'll start with the bad... David's uncle passed away Saturday morning. About two weeks ago he went into the doctors because he was having some back pain. It turned out that he had cancer of the bones, lungs, brain and liver. He went downhill very fast. It was so shocking and out of the blue, but at least he didn't suffer long. This was David's father's brother. David's father passed away over 10 years ago. His mom isn't really able to travel to the funeral because David's nana couldn't handle the trip and she can't be left alone. David's brother is going to go represent the family. We talked about David flying over for the funeral, but it really isn't feasible. First, he would have had to fly out this morning in order to get to the funeral tomorrow. His bosses don't work the weekend so he would have had no way to contact them to let them know. Plus, he is taking vacation in 3 weeks for 2 weeks. It would have been weird. Oh... and the last minute plane ticket would be $2200. That is in the cheap seats too.
Now for the good... We went to see the Harry Potter movie this weekend. Yes, I know.. it has been out forever. I enjoyed all of the movies, but I think this one is my favorite out of all of them. Not sure why... maybe all of the pink. ;-) We also discovered some soup at Tesco which is DELICIOUS! I am sometimes iffy about canned soup... other than the staples like tomato soup. We tried cumberland sausage and veggies, smoky bacon leek and potatoes, and lobster bisque. YUM!! And it has been a bit rainy (I know, a shocker, right?) so a nice bowl of soup really hits the spot.
Now for the ugly cute... I started David's black cotehardie/underdoublet this weekend. I am pleased that my tailoring skills seem to be getting better. It only took one fitting and one mock up for me to get the fit right on him. I have the body pretty much done. I need to finish topstitching around the edges and put in the eyelets in the front and the ones for his chausses. This will never be seen as it will be worn under other clothing, but I still did the "no visible machine stitching" thing. Yay me! The outer fabric is black medium weight linen. I made the lining out of white light weight linen. I decided that the color wouldn't matter as no one will actually see the garment and I felt as this would be worn over a shirt and under a cotte, that the slight difference in weight might help. Also, I thought it might keep the shirt underneath from getting black so quickly. Plus, I have a crapload of the white (the main reason for its choice). I am not going to start the sleeves until after crown, most likely. The cotte being worn over it has bag sleeves so the sleeves won't be seen. If I have time, I'll make them, but I am fairly confident I will run out of time. Not sure how I am going to place the eyelets on the front. He isn't very familiar with spiral lacing so I may do it in the x style he knows. Not sure. Given the time it takes for some of my outfits/hair etc, he will probably have to dress himself.
I made a cote/underdoublet with tie on sleeves for a few reasons. First, on a hot day, he can leave them off if they won't show (like with the bag sleeved cotte). Second, he can use the same one with Gaston Phebus style stuff and with italian giorneas by just changing the sleeves. One pair wil button to the elbow and the other will lace up like the sleeves of a farsetto. I'm trying to make it as simple as possible for David while still giving him options.
I've also done the first draft pattern for the bag sleeved cotte but haven't done the first mock up yet. Hoping to get to that tonight, but work is piled high. In fact, I should probably get back to it.