I've recently discovered the existence of a organizational accessory called an etui. While they apparently can be made of anything to house anything, there seems to be a tradition of making them specifically for needlework and quite often of needlework.

"An “etui” is a small ornamented case that is used to hold needlework tools (needles, scissors ( Read more... )

While, due to fabric choice, this may potentially be one of the most god-awful ugly objects I have ever seen (much less made) this was also one of the easiest and most satisfying random projects I have ever done ( Read more... )

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Not a lot of detail here because I didn't write this up as a project precisely
I bought a Turkish style bra and belt on eBay for a fairly low price based on its "project" status.

In short I:-removed all of the fringe and put all the shorter fringe back on in different places ( Read more... )

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I'm thinking I may finally tackle the Spanish overgown I've been wanting to do for a while. I want something new and spiff for St Andrews but I don't want to spent every waking moment of the next month working on it.

I'll be making it to wear over my Venetian style kirtles, but I've only found one example (Anonymous Brescian Artist, c 1570: ( Read more... )

I was asked to do some mead for an event in May '10 so the watchword for this batch will be quick aging ( Read more... )

I have just ordered a swatch set from a company that sells things like silk/wool and lin/cot for less then $15/yard (half that in some cases).

In stuff what I been doing news:
I just finished up a short cloak for littlemike and once again cannot be happier with the product I used from Hamilton Dry Goods, in this case a really soft coat weight black wool ( Read more... )

Decided sort of last minute to do some brewing last night.
After a late dinner we ran out to stupormarket and picked up juice (blueberry/pomegranate blend) and bottled water and then did two 2.5 gallon batches of mead (mostly on my own but with some slight help from draxius and company from misterrigelI did one large batch of unflavored must with 15lb of clover ( Read more... )

Violet syrup arrived today, based on the suggested 1-2 tsp/cup dilution suggestions I could find on the net (the bottle is in Italian and what I managed to translate via Babel seemed focused more on what you could add it to rather then how much to use) the 250 ml bottle I got should be about perfect for 2.5 to 3 gallons of mead at that dilution ( Read more... )