Curse your buttons sir!

I hate finish work.
It's one of the reasons I still use lacing rings instead of hand bound eyelets, why I rarely have sleeves and all my hems are machine sewn. I get impatient towards the end and want to just wear my pretty new frock dammit.
This is the same reason why I rarely go back and finish something. The lovely green dress of twelfth night sits in a pile. No pearls, hem untacked, bodice undone to fix straps. The work on the sleeves ground to a halt. I love that dress, and it *almost* rivaled the taffeta V in compliments. But I haven't come back to it. Might be an emotional thing though.

Anywho...

I went to Pocatello a few weekends back to teach some people some simple Persian esque stuff. Nothing entirely completely accurate (see client choice). But it also resulted in some small sewing and construction method lessons.
The wife of my good friend made herself and her husband some really rather nice matchey matchey coats. For a novice seamstress she really put a lot of effort and love into these coats and hey they are really nice looking.

Along came the buttons. I got his coat at war, all assembled, just needing closures, a handful of buttons and  a 'I like your loops better'.

*gulp*

Thankfully wife isn't the big upset type, laughed it off, and admitted she liked my loops better (she sewed her loops out of cord). With a promise to teach her how I make mine i took button less coat and ran.

Two weeks later.
I hate these buttons.
I loathe them.
They have come off three times now. There were nine all together but he doesn't button all the way down because of his white knights belt and they just pop off anyways.

They wouldn't lay straight in a row.
They wouldn't lay in the same direction.
The spacing looked dumb.
The spacing looked worse.
Too close to the edge.
Too far from the edge.

:-\

Unhappy me.
Finally in a fit of 'WTF is the problem they are just stupid buttons' I got out my chalk and lined out a grid to get them on. A somewhat success and I was able to get buttons and loops on. Almost completely straight to appease my OCD.

And that's why I hate rogers buttons.

Finished but bad light 

The green dress saga

So remember the plan of awesome? It *sorta* happened for 12th night. I'm still working on the sleeves and fixing some stuff but it kinda happened. Here's the lay down. The first thing I did (after some ironing, gathering interlinings and the  like) was cut out my pattern ala Noelle from Adventures of a Wannabe Seamstress. Noelle always gets this awesome fit on her dresses, and has fit a lot of different body types so last spring I took a jaunt to her house and begged for a bodice pattern. She of course, in gracious fashion obliged. 

Here's where it gets kinda odd. The straps from the back. Which was working my nerves. Of all the blogs, tutorials and the like that I've poured over during my years of Italian, I have never, to my recollection, recall seeing a bodice with straps coming completely from the back. It just.. didn't make sense to me, not to have them finished and pretty, right?? RIGHT?!?!?! I mean I know she's a laurel and she has like this amazing bodice-fu that makes them all look gorgeous, and I'm sure she knows what shes doing but but but but...

But time was of the essence so I started getting that pattern cut, and meanwhile sewed some boning channels into my interlining and my felt/flannel padding. I spend a good good part of an entire day/afternoon working on it (home sick with a kiddo)and voila. I have this bodice. This AMAZINGLY well fit bodice.. forget my fatness, forget my uncertainty, I have a BODICE!! It's smooth, it fits well, the straps are amazing and OMG, look at how smooth and unwrinkled it is!!

I sew on some rings (yeah the eyelet part is something I'm gonna have to work on, cause the boning was in the way on one side, and blah blah blah blah.. I used rings.. sue me) take a few shots to send over to the Bestie Hastings because Provo is too far a drive to just "Pop in" (though we do) and TADA!!

 Next up its time to do something I've never even attempted on my own before.. Hello cartridge pleats. First problem however, is that my skirt is not as wide as preferred. I normally have at least 3 full panels of fabric to make up my skirt. Because I didn't buy this fabric, it was gifted down to me, its not as much as I would buy, couple that with the fact that it has a pattern and I try to match up as much as possible and we have wasted fabric that can't go into a skirt. So I think in the end I had like 120 inches or so of skirt. That's not all together a small figure I know.. But when your waist is in the upper 40's... it makes for a not so full skirt. Either way, I got out a marker, started making dots on my plaid flannel as a guide and started stitching.

Front, much better

Back, kinda loose

My pleats aren't as tightly packed int he back as I would prefer but still.. I DID it! I have a cartridge pleated skirt and man am I happy I did it.. I know a few things I'll change next time (like the finishing of it and more panels) but its a LOVELY way to attach a skirt and once I got going, it really was not difficult in the least bit.

Hemmed up the skirt (which is too long by about 10 full inches dammit) and this is where our saga ends for 12th night.  I wish I could tell you I had the presence of mind to have the boyfriend  ex (sigh) take pictures of me in my fabulous dress that day, but I didn't. There isn't even a good picture of me full front. What I have is this.. I wore my green zimarra over it for some reason, and ended up taking it off when I was hanging out. Can you see that hem!! Lord..

 Fast forward to the end of February and I have decided to finish the dress to wear to Coronation next weekend. I worked some on the sleeves a few times during the last month and sorta got a pattern I think would work. The best thing I can say about these sleeves is that the seam is actually in the back, so completely correct. Also, their lattern sleeves, with a CUT pane instead of strips made and attached. It took a little doing but I got the pattern made. So I took my normal sleeve pattern and put some cuts into it right where i figured I'd want the slashes, then I spread those out a bit and cut my lining and fashion fabric from that, just for a little extra in the shoulder for the splits. Is this correct? No idea. Did I do it this way because I was trying something out, you sure betcha. 
Then I started attaching some pleated sections of my silk batiste to the lining very loosely so I had enough fabric to pull thru. Truth is, I don't really care for that, and the puffs aren't as big as I'd prefer so now I'm going back and just going to baste sections in place for the slashes. 
I'd been working on pearling my trim for a bit, I had this idea of how to add it and now looking at it i think it looks okay but I'm not sure if I want to take the time to actually put it on -- since then I've actually added a few pearls to my sleeves and might just leave the trim off.. though ya never know. 

In any case I need to fix the hem, and a small issue with the straps, and the sleeves before this Friday. We'll see how it happens. 

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

Chocolate is a great motivator

So the two amigos and I have a problem getting motivated. Which is horrible since we all have small kids that need garb and need it like.. NOW.
As I was chatting with Hastings we decided to  motivate each other and had Andrea jump in when she got online.

The challenge:
Do make as much headway on your kids garb during "school hours" (they are both pretty close to stay at home moms but I work in the evening). The winner would be gifted chocolate by the other two.

Lyvy in her Skjold hood

And we were off!!

I patterned Lyvys Skjold hood and worked out some of the kinks, its all ready to be cut out of my now raspberry ish wool flannel which fulled very very nicely but still isn't as super soft as I'd prefer so it will get a lining most likely, though very very small amounts of it will actually touch her skin, so we'll see..

So far she kept it on for the most part but we'll see how the finished project goes.

After I got that all patterned, I moved on to a tunic, crossover coat and pair of salwar. I made calculation error while getting her crossover coat made up, but I think I can fix it with some snaps which of course will help out even more for when it comes to her being active toddler type.

In the end all three of us did about the same amount of work and so we're going to exchange chocolate on our next get together.

Sometimes its just a little friendly competition to get us going, especially with the thought of reward.

My Idle hands submission...

 

An Italian Flag fan for Alyvia - or How to distract your infant during court!

Item:
A silk embroidered linen flag fan on wooden handle with tassels
Embroidery pattern based on a embroidered stomacher from "La Vera Perfezione del Disegno per Punti e Ricami" found by the lovely Hastings S! It has a flamey heart!
Stem, van dyke, chain, blanket and satin stitches used.

I started my Idle hands project late in the game (October 16th!) but I had been planning loosely what I wanted to do as soon the challenge was announced on Facebook. I did some initial planning and my pal Praks found the PERFECT pattern for me! Excited, I started my embroidery.

Enter in miss Alyvia who was 10 months when I started and into EVERYTHING!! Which of course made it difficult to actually get some quality embroidery in. Then suddenly Lyvy started stealing my project! She kept running her little baby hands  over the stitching. it was cute and endearing, and the sweetest moment was when I found her rubbing the raised embroidery on her cheek. Lyvy claimed the embroidery for her own, but this was my project! I was finally going to add another item to my garb closet. However, what Miss Lyvy wants, she gets (within reason of course).

It suddenly occurred to me. As a mom, we constantly hand our kids anything to occupy them during quiet moments. Lyvy has played with my normal sandalwood fan, the end of my girdle belt, assorted jewelry and anything else I can find in my basket. I highly doubt that children during my time period in Italy were the utterly well behaved little minions we'd all like. I'm sure mothers thru the ages have handed their children something from their person to entertain them during restless moments. A plan was formed! I would make Lyvy her very own mini flag fan, complete with tassels, bells, ribbons and anything else that might distract when necessary.

Traveling for work took me away from home on the 31st, but I was able to finish my embroidery, get the wood stained before I left and put it all together. I haven't stiffened it yet because I'm going to be using a fun "kid friendly" fabric for the other side, and I didn't bring it with me.

The handle is made from some pre-cut dowels and end caps, stained with a store bought stain in a stick (which worked better than I thought it would) for a different project. The finished fan (as much as it has been finished) has been hand sewn to the dowel.
The lilac and dark purple twisted lines are a combination of a van dyke (a different version of the viking chain stitch) and outlined with a stem stitch. The rest of the embroidery is satin stitched with stem and chain stitching. Blanket stitching was used on the edge for detail.
The heart and flames in the center have been heavily layered in messy sort of style to give it depth and detail. I'm going to put a piece of cellophane into the fan to give it a fun kid sound!
The gold tassels are store bought and the mini bells are from an SCA merchant.

What I learned:
I <3 this type of unstructured silk embroidery. Blackwork drives me insane but this is actually fun for me. I read an article about kids in the SCA and someone suggested that to keep your kids entertained with their toys at events, make sure they are different than their everyday at home toys. This fan will be for Alyvia at events just for fun :)

Not quite cleaned all the way up, but you get the point :D

Lyvy loves her new flag fan, and was unhappy when I put it back in my basket for events..

Things I forgot..

Rule no 1 -do not make a new pattern for your sottana the day before you intend to wear it...
No 2 - you are as good a seamstress as you want to be. Cutting corners may save you five minutes now, but it will irritate the hell out of you when you have to go back and fix it later.
No 3- you will run out if bobbin thread at the most unadvantageous moment -- wind two..
No 4- show me where its written you must use matching thread at all times. Whoever wrote that obviously doesnt have to unpick seams very often. White, black, and cream work perfectly fine.
No 5- if you are a big girl, dont think for a moment that heavy interlining alone will give you a picture perfect smooth conical shape. Sorry honey, gravity works both down and out.
No 6- all day sewing marathons are great. Stop to eat.
No 7- give the nine month old your tape measure if she wants it. You have six more.
No 8- procrastination is the mother of creativity in a pinch, but what can go wrong, will. Better have a back up plan...
No 9- ironing, pinning, lining, basting, clipping, and tacking are annoying. But it makes the job sooooooooooooooooo much easier.
No 10- measure twice. Measure again. Double check your figures. measure again. Cut once. Save yourself the headache of fixing bad measuring.
No 11- if the fabric will rip evenly, RIP!!
No 12- there is no such thing as checking facebook fast. Just leave it alone when you are crunched for time.
No 13- background noise is good, but make sure it's a movie you have seen plenty before.
No 14- going to the store for needed supplies on the middle us a pain.
No 15- if you want it bad enough, you'll figure out how to go on less than the hours sleep.

Sewy Time with the gals

I love Garb Gals!! Yeah its a page I started on FB for all of those attempting garb on the Wasatch Front of Northern Utah.

Originally it was just supposed to be a regional thing, if someone was going to be spending all day doing said crafty item, and they didn't mind having people over to craft with them, post it as an event on Garb Gals and VOILA! Instant sew buddies.
It  came about because, in case you have noticed already, I'm a bit of a procrastinator. I know I know-- you'd have no idea if I hadn't told you right?!?! :D
After Alyvia was born we went to our first event which was Twelfth night, held in January, and I had garb all ready for it. I noticed how relaxed and calm I was that day with no sewing to do the night before, hoe much fun I had at the event. I know most people have played for EONS and have a metric butt ton of stuff to choose from when they attend events, or some people just super layer outfits that they can mix and match like a pro, and yet others just don't give a hoot about what they wear.

I am not one of these people.

So I have to have fancy stuff, but as I mentioned I seriously wait until the last possible moment which was getting seriously tiresome. In an effort to help curtail that I decided to start Garb gals.

A few months later we're now at 59 members, I keep waiting for number 60. I'm also looking for little G tokens to give to each of the garb gals :) I know we're not a real guild or a club or anything, but I do like the idea of giving something to everyone who participates on the list :)
In any case, yesterday was Sewy Day. Andrea/Maysun hosts it at her house once a month and I LOVE GOING. Even if I don't get crapola done (which is more often the case) I just enjoy the time away from home, with ladies (and her super awesome husband Dennis!) who have common interests with me, who talk like me and are awesome all in their own right.

It was at sewy time yesterday though that I noticed my first pattern repeat is off on my second drawers :(


dammit.