6 days to go...

Originally the plan for 12th night was going to be matching Andalusian coats for my boyfriend and I, with super pretty gold snake applique on them. I even ordered 20 yards of a cotton/silk blend dupioni (yeah.. um.. my boyfriend is *hard* on fabric so 100% silk made me cringe.)

Meanwhile, the lovely proto-Baroness of our Barony asked me to be a Lady in Waiting for her. Its a cool gig for a person I like, and as Khalid is a little older than before, I'm willing to serve her. Thankfully, she understood my concerns though and as such I'm a special  different  LiW ... okay I have a different sort of assignment. While I will still serve when I can at events with attending and standing court, my main duty shall be to actually serve as the Baronial Scribe. 

I love love love LOVE this job, and since it seems I'm becoming more of a scribal apprentice than a garb apprentice it will actually be a perfect vehicle to continue to improve my craft.


ANYWHO...

The pattern is my sottana, the green cord
will be the zimarra, and the velvets and
trim are going to be layered
and pearled.

Its time to start thinking about garb. Their nexcellencies are going to be doing late period (Tudor for her.. and.. late for him??), and their impressive garb is being made by the Lovely Maestra Serephina, so you just know it's gonna be full on awesome, dripping with more awesome and probably stuffed with, you guessed it, AWESOME!!!! 

My plans thusly changed. We were not specifically asked, but still dressing late period to match would help with someones investiture dream and I'm willing to help that out.

I think its going to be bias tape of
chocolate velvet, then the fawn
velveteen, then the trim.
All pearled :D

Originally I was going to make a new sottana and Veste, but changed my mind and am going for a sottana and a zimarra. I have my fabrics already and pulled them out of my stash. 



And in very Superwhy fashion (ask my kids) what do we do when we need an answer? We look in a book!! Out comes Moda a Firenze and I start tabbing pages. 

Florentine School, Eleonora of
Toledo, Bronzino

The green one, during
fitting

I want a pretty basic dress, because I have some stunning fabric, and I want a zimarra to rival my green one.

I started pouring thru the book and found MORE than enough pictures. I also got out all the sources I've had on this subject for a while. While a fitted veste is something I've wanted for a while, a looser zimarra will be easier in the short turn around I have to make this outfit. 


I do have a couple of things I want to change/add of course.. because its like.. Mine.

 Janet Arnold Pg. 111 Patterns of Fashion 1560 - 1620

1. Short capped sleeves - sleeves, according to my book are as wide and varied as any other dress/coat in this time period. The ones I really really want are shown the best from Patterns of Fashion. 

I do want to split them and use some of that lovely gold silk in it though, so its going to be a hodge podge of sleeve ideas, then the bad around the forearm is going to be my layered trims, and scallops.. Yeah.. SCALLOPS!! (and of course the portrait that shows the scallops can't be found on google at the moment, so I'll scan my book later.

Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici (detail):
Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo), c. 1555-1565
(Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence) 

1. High collar - I want a high collar.. I think they are lovely and it means YES I will have to make a new partlet (see first partlet that actually fits and works) but I think its a nice touch..  There are actually lots of examples of the high collar, and on the looser fitting zimarra as well, not just vestes.

   

   Alessandro Allori, Eleonora of Toledo,
   c 1572 Florence

   
   Probably the  most famous one is the portrait of Eleonora of Toledo by Allori. Seriously, you probably don't do late period Italian and not know this painting.

1. More fitted thru the waist. There is one example of it being more fitted thru the waist. Not as much as a veste of course but it does have an obvious waistline which I like. The trim placement is fun as well. Though I'm starting to think its more goldwork and less trim. I'm crazy, but not *that* crazy.
   Granted its Giovanna of Austria but its still a good example of the tailoring I want and the sleeves are awesome, allbeit a little small. 

So I have a lot of art to look at. I have fabric. I even have a working pattern for both sottana and zimarra.

But I sit here an blog.

I think I'm scared.

Oh well, I only have 6 days to make this happen.

Time to get a move on.

(Btw. the whole point of really blogging this is so I can *hopefully* enter it as a Realm of Venus Showcase. It'll be my first one ever so we'll see how this all goes.. 

Challenges or how Maysun likes to goad us into doing stuffs..

Me, alllll me.

I'm a procrastinator..

No really I am.
As evidenced by this blog (which is woefully just not written in enough) I have a hard time following thru on stuff. Call it what you want, but I call it I'm lazy. 

I wish I could tell you its something else like babies, work, babies, boyfriend, babies, video games, babies or even just... the babies. But truthfully I spend oodles of time sitting here doing this.. surfing facebook, dicking around with my phone or just watching aimless hours of not really good TV.

I usually lament about this very thing in marathon FB chats with Hastings  and Andrea. Generally its the same thing with them (though I swear to Gawd Hastings has craft/fabric magic in spades).

The biggest problem is my motivation. So after another chat with Andrea, where we complained about lack of motivation and lack of branching out, VOILA!! Her Maysun's challenges were born. 

The rules were simple, on the first of every month she would issue a challenge. You participated or you didn't. Sometimes you had to have documentation.. some you didn't. I made a loose goal to attempt every month and so far, I've only missed 2.

This writing is going to be about my Maysun challenges.


May’12 – Head Frosting Challenge
Create a head covering from time time period and country of your choice. Please provide basic documentation (a picture or description from the time).

I give you the Lyvy hood o'doom. I even blogged about it, including process/progress pictures and some documentation. I was actually pretty happy with the hood, not that I'm viking, but she looked effin' stinking CUTE wearing it. Once we get it on her, she doesn't like taking it off.

Also, I entered the construction and embroidery into our Baronies Arts and Sciences competition and received ... outstanding? Whatever the highest rank is.. on both. I'm pretty happy with it and love the fact that my daughter loves it..

The fact that the runes say "Be careful, my daddy carries a big sword" just makes it even better for me!

My queen size rope bed, complete with
brother testing it.

June’12 – Enchantment in Your Encampment
Improve your encampment in any way you want. Chair coverings, cooler covers, a shade tent. Anything you can think of to make your encampment look more correct.


So I love my camp bed. It worked SO well. Just being off the ground was a HUGE success to my comfort level. Even when I stumbled back to bed all groggy and drunk and didn't get much sleep, what I did get was restful and complete. This one piece of camping equipment is SO worth it..
Now, truthfully I'm going to make a second one, a BETTER one, and I think that one is going to be a slat bed. :D 


Oh.. and I made two easy ups as well.. 
I learned a bunch from them as well.. Like the canvas drop cloths aren't bad, but I'll probably just fork over the money for sunforger at some point.. 

Add caption

July’12 – Paint it Good Now!
Create an awards scroll or scroll blank for the kingdom, your Barony, or a non-awards scroll to display in your home or encampment.

Matching A's. More contemporary
but the micography is fun.

Okay this one was super duper easy for me to achieve. Why you ask? Because I was the lucky (see "sucker") Scribe to serve their (then) Majesties, Sean and Nissa as their Royal Scribe. All jesting aside it was an honor and I learned SO much doing it. 

August: Underthere! Underwear!

I made strophium, or the Greek/Roman version of a bra/breast binding. I haven't taken pictures of my own yet, but I did show Maysun when I wore it to coronation.. Funny enough I made it because I needed something that was more period, that I could wear under my Roman, that would allow me to breast feed Khalid easier.

And its SOOOO damn comfortable!!

September: When a fiber comes along, you must weave it!

This was kind of a cheat challenge for me. All I did was finish lucet in kingdom colors for award cords. I got a pack of the pre-cut wrapped threads from Mistress Casamira months and months back and finished mine pretty quick. Aelia Sophia, however, HATED lucet and gave back my spare lucet and her unfinished bag. 
So, easy peasy.. another one in the bag.


October: Unweave My Heart.
 Your challenge is to create an item using cutwork, pullwork, or any other method you can think of that creates an effect by removing sections of fabric. 

This is one of 2 that I didn't participate in.. not sure why, since I've always wanted to do some drawnwork, and I used to be one of 5 people skilled in Hardanger in the state of Utah. 

November:Tasty Treats. 
You must make any food or drink you choose from a SCA period recipe. Please provide basic documentation, including the recipe, time period, and country.

I made a very simple soft camp cheese that was DELICIOUS! 

I used half vinegar and half lemon to make my cheese and would do it again, just probably not wring it out so much. I wanted it to be more on the creamy-ness of cream cheese.

I also made honey coated walnuts. Both were pretty simple and fun to make.



The last challange for December, is to make a kids period toy. I don't think I'll actually finish this one either, but ya never know, I still have a few days to try.

How am I going to continue this momentum in 2013? Hastings blogged about The Dreamstress Historical Sew Fortnightly.  26 themed challenges and you can pick and choose what you want to participate in.  There's a bonus challenge starting now.  #0 is to start simple with a due date of New Year's Eve.  Make something quick or something you've done before.

So on this bandwagon I'm jumping. Hopefully it'll help me stay motivated to get things done.. 
I might actually follow thru with my list of things to do..

I'll start that list tomorrow :D

Diapering and not the baby kind..

I'll probably write more at some point..
But here is some more since the fabulous Sun in Splendor scroll sorta got me all going..

Cheval  D'or

Golden Pillar

Award of Arms

Versal for a Golden Maple leaf