Fall Ball* Projects

At the event over the weekend I took a *fabulous* calligraphy class taught by a really nice man, and I used an inkwell pen for the very first time.  Where has this BEEN all my life??  It's so much easier, and nicer to write with than those stupid felt-tip calligraphy markers I've been "practicing" with.  I'm never using those again!  Really cool class.

The shire had a fabric and book sale fundraiser going on for a while outside the hall, and I picked up:

10y ltwt white cotton blend for $9!   Book for $2!  :D

pretty little textural details; the fabric is
semi-sheer and soooo soft

And there was a free scrap with purchase, too!  I grabbed a pretty pomegranate-red bit of cotton, and, since I happened onto the sale table just as I was out of things to do for the next couple of hours, I sat right now and made a little bag for my new camera, entirely by hand.  (This is actually the first project in the SCA I've ever done entirely by hand).

first period buttonhole ever - MAN these things are easy! 

* Yes, in January. Long story.

Event Pics: Shadowlands' Ball

Pics from this past weekend's "Fall Ball In A Small Hall" (yes, in January - long story), in the Shire of the Shadowlands (which is a day event with games, classes, tournaments, and an honest-to-goodness BALL at the end, which I danced my butt off!  Yay, dancing! 

aubergine linen, burgundy tapestry/green linen hood

ball: favorite silk veil + favorite amethyst necklace :) 

the new feast gear rocked!  forgot the actual plates, had to
eat off the chargers, LOL.  fail.

Next post:  projects from the event...

Sleeve Porn

buttons & loops

2 finished sleeves, yay! 

better pic of the silver/pearl buttons

pearl necklace for the outfit - still needs a pretty pendant

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Sleeve Babble

I managed to get one sleeve done for my blue velvet dress.  One.  Somehow it didn't exactly turned out as planned.  I altered and futzed and bitched, but I just couldn't get them working the way I wanted to.  And I didn't have enough fabric to cut new sleeves!  I could have pieced new ones, but...ugh, all those seams?  I hate doing that.

fu, sleeves!

But just in case, I checked my velvet leftovers, and it turns out I DID have enough fabric.  Whew!  I cut new ones, in a different shape/design, and new linings out of the old linings (so I won't have to paint the little gold dots on them all over again), and they're going to work perfectly.  YAY OMG!

This post brought to you by Very Little Sleep, a subsidiary of OMGWTFBBQ THUNDERSTORM and One Sick Dog, Inc.   Zzzzzzz. 

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Meanwhile, In the Land of Me

I alternate sewing for Vasilii and myself, especially with War coming up in just over two months.  It terrifies me.  It shouldn't:  really, all we need is more stuff for him to fight in - couple more shirts, pairs of pants, etc. I have what I need, and we have all the camping stuff we could possibly want.*  All stuff I can bang out in an hour or three any time I have a minute.  But I won't be calm about it until it's all done and I can fret over the extras, hehe.

Anyway, now that the opashen is finished, I'm working on the blue velvet gown.  I cut it out tonight last night, and painted the sleeve linings.  Remember this?

Green with gold dots.  What I actually had was a lightweight silk-cotton blend suit lining fabric with NO dots...

I ended up going with the pearl button on the bottom, by the way.  They came in a couple of weeks ago, and they're lovely and sparkly. :)

...and some gold paint markers.  :o)


I'm disappointed that the velvet looks blackish here - it really sucks up light! It's not as dark as this, but not as bright as the sample picture above, either.


And, while I'm sitting here babbling into my blog, I'm...not sewing.  I'd better go get at least the sleeves put together.  But I will say this: I decided on the style/pattern, and ended up going later-period that I usually do, because I've fallen in love with late 1400s-early 1500s "transitional" gowns - not quite getting into Tudor-era stuff, but just before:

Dig the chick in purple throwing the gang signs for the photo. 

* All the camping stuff...except for the period tent I was planning to make, due to a tax refund FAIL of epic proportions.  I guess our first War will have to be in neon-green rip-stop nylon after all.  Sigh.


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Тада!

The opashen is finished!  And it looks fabulous with a  Far Side t-shirt and camo shorts, don't you think?  LOL.



Yay, yay, yay.  It fits wonderfully, and came out exactly as I'd planned, and Vasilii loves it.  The front edge still needs to be pressed flat, but it's done!


This is definitely court-only or outdoor-cold-weather clothing. It was 80º today. In January.  

Opasheni were worn with the arms through the sleeve-slits, as shown above, usually when the garment was buttoned up; or just draped over the shoulders like this second picture. \


I should have taken a picture of him walking around in it, with all that fabric catching a breeze and rippling out all around him.  Very Darth Vader-y.  :)

oooh, shiny. 

Olive-green microfiber "wool", a metallic jacquard fabric trim, gold flat braid, black gimp bars on the front, and Russian double eagle crest buttons.

Opashen [---------------------------90%------]

The opashen for Vasilii is almost done!

This is where it stood as of Saturday.  It's actually completely finished now, except for the collar, which I'll do tonight.  Yay!

And, just because I forgot to post it before, here's a shot of the hand-stitched lacing eyelets on the front of that green linen gown.  26 of them, oy!  It looks and works great, though. Love it love it.

Mischief Managed

"like I don't have enough crap to  do right now" blue

Seriously, if you haven't signed up for fabric-store.com's mailing list, you need to.

I can has sale prices.














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Ха!

Take THAT, opashen sleeves!

I kept putting the trim around the slits inside-out.  Derp. 

The body of the thing is now sewn together, the hem is leveled, and the sleeve slits are trimmed have the first layer of trim on.

Whew!  Stupid sleeve slits. I swear. A lot.

That black and gold trim  is going to go around the bottom of the sleeves, and the hem of the coat, too, but first:  THE COLLAR.

**DRAMATIC DANGER MUSIC**

Actually, everything from here on out is cake.  Cake, and a lot of hand-stitching, once I get to the final bits, but, that's a story for another day.  

Meanwhile, it took me an hour and a half tonight to get those slits done and the body sewn together.  So I'm going to bed.  

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Feastnesses

Work on Vasilii's opashen proceeds apace.  And by "apace" I mean I'm about to burn the damned sleeves. But that's okay.

LOOK FEAST GEAR.

Before: 

A set of things I threw together out of stuff I already had lying around the house. Except for the wooden bowl (of which there are two).  Not bad for a random box of stuff.


After:

New set largely courtesy of World Market, which is just about my favorite store, hehe.  Their Rajasthani tablecloth and red napkins, and a pair of $1 spoons I found there on clearance the other day.  (Yes, the tablecloth is Indian.  Vasilii lives in the southeast of Russia, and ...brought it back from his travels. Yeah, that's it!)

there is, in fact, a spoon. two of them. 

Gold chargers (thrift store), the same silver candlesticks, and different goblets (thrift store).  And a red glass footed bowl and decanter, which I got from Etsy - it's Avon's "1895 Cape Cod" collection from 1982.  Totally not period.  But pretty, sparkly, and RED, which is what I wanted.  I heart them like burning.

plain glass water goblets, until I find something I adore

I do need new candles, though - that one in the picture is my only one left, LOL.  Also, with the terrible drought we had this year (the worst in 100 years!), and the resulting burn ban, we couldn't have candles at most event sites all year.  While certain situations call for real wax and flame, I've seen some really lovely battery-powered fakes this year during the burn ban. I'm thinking about getting some of those, too.

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Event Pics Yay.

Paparazzi-Madylyne at Crown Tourney over the weekend:

Green linen gown (with the raglan-style shoulder seams that I experimented with in December), white under-gown, and white silk veil made from the fabric I got from a friend in October.

The whole shebang was really comfy and easy to wear.  I'm pleased.  You can't tell in this picture, but the skirt is split up the sides so that I can (a) wear something neat underneath that shows, and (b) pin it up if I want to - I had one side of it pinned up with a pretty "amethyst" cloak pin (since I didn't wear my cloak OR the fancy new hood I made for myself at the last minute, since, true to form for Texas weather, it was actually hot in January!)

Also pictured:  NEW CAMERA!  No more cruddy phone-cam pics for this blog!  

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Anyhow, I'll be wearing this green dress  at Candlemas over the aubergine gown with the pomegranate sleeves.   I'm working on a set of net cauls for my hair to wear with it, under this silk veil.  IF I get time, I may throw together something else for court that evening...but only if I get time.  If not I'll likely just wear the purple and green all day, or maybe just the purple during the day.  I haven't decided.

First, though, I'm working on that opashen for Vasilii, which I managed to get "halfway" done with in about two hours yesterday afternoon (cut out, body seamed together - the rest is just hems and trim and alllll the other finishing details).


More to come...



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More Hoodie Goodness

I whipped this up last night with the tapestry fabric I found in September, and the leftover green linen from the over-gown I'm working on for Candlemas.  I altered the aubergine gown to fit better the night before last; I'm planning on wearing this hood with it, and probably Kress' gray microfiber cloak, to Ansteorra's Crown Tourney this weekend in Seawinds (Corpus Christi).  It's supposed to be in the low 60s, which you might not balk at, but I freeze below 70º (and I get really bitchy when I'm cold, LOL).

mmm, sparkly.   buttons removed from blue paisley
half-sleeves, since they're too small anymore

no pincushion at work + bunch of stuffed rats from Ikea on
my desk = rat pincushion.   Hee. :) 

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It's the Little Things

Well, I never found my costume sketchbook.  Finally grabbed a new one the last time I was at Ikea:

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The Aubergine Linen Gown, Take I

Over the weekend I attended 12th Night at the Barony of the Steppes, which was a fun, and fine event.  During the day my friend who traveled with me and I sat in on the final round of Eistedfodd, the kingdom Bardic competition. It was amazing to watch, and so much fun!

My Bff:  "Idk, how DO you solve a problem like Maria?"

This is me there (at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, where the event was held), in the aubergine linen under-gown that I made to go with the rest of what I'm putting together for Candlemas.  It works great as a stand-alone gown, and it was very comfortable.

Aside, that is, from the fact that it was a bit loose, and therefore kind of gappy and saggy in the bust - because I've apparently lost nearly two inches around the middle in the past month, since I sized it and cut it out!  That's a great reason for an alteration, but, it left me self-conscious about my appearance, and now I have to fix it. Argh!

I got several compliments on the "hat", which surprised and pleased me.  This was a last-minute contraption based on a nifty headdress I saw in a painting of Christine de Pizan recently.  The hat she's always pictured as wearing is an attor de gibet; this is nowhere near that - not tall and pointy, but wide and lumpy, and *easy to throw together* and not my normal veil situation, and it was a fun experiment.

In fact, it wasn't a "hat" at all, though everyone who remarked on it called it that.  I simply put my hair up in two buns with big plastic claw clips, wrapped my long turban around the entire thing (which on its own somewhat resembles the double straw hat thing in the construction pages on this page), and then layered and folded a large veil on top of it.  It's not anywhere near as pointy as a proper attor, but I liked the square and gently-cornered shape; and it was very comfortable and light to wear.  I'll definitely be doing it again, but I think I'll work on making it more pointy.

But first: the gown needs to be altered; and I have to finish the other half of the ensemble for Candlemas (I cut it out and got the back finished last night).

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They See Me Scrollin' (Part II)

o, 'm still absolutely in love with painting scrolls (as I believe I mentioned), and I've been enjoying the heck out of learning about the art of illumination.   I'm picking up some more blank charters next Tuesday from one of our scribes, to paint and turn back in.  Medieval coloring for grownups.  Love it.  :)

Meanwhile, the original scroll competition that I mentioned is...tomorrow!  Eek!  I've been done with mine for about a week; and the longer I wait and think about it, the more nervous I am.  I don't know why I should be - I'm a beginner, and it's not like people won't understand that.  

My calligraphy basically sucks - but I've only been doing this a month, so, I'll get better.  Theoretically. (Honestly, I had no idea calligraphy involved quite so much cussing and ripping up pages and throwing pencils).   But in the meantime, I really love drawing these designs - I've been sketching out a bunch this week for practice, and to get ideas flowing.  

Here's the actual contest entry, uncolored so that it can be copied if it's one of the ones chosen to be used, as requested.  (The line and weird smushing effect in the center is because the page was too large for my scanner, and I had to scan each half and then put them together on the computer; sorry about that).

Tada.

And here's a colored example - on which the calligraphy is out of alignment, misspelled in a couple of places, and outside the text box in places.  Fail!  But I'm including as an example of the coloring, which is suggested though not mandatory for the entry.  And because I think it's pretty all colored in. :)

Inspiration piece.  I heart this.  And I got to learn quite a bit about Uttrecht illumination in the process, which is, I think, probably the thing that interests me the most about all of this.  (Not this specific style, but the "art history" aspect).











I have no illusions about even placing in this contest - I know I won't - but I'm excited at the prospect of entering anyway, just for the fun of it, the experience, the travel opportunity (the event is 2.5 hours away), and the chance to see some folks from the area who I haven't seen in months.  And the fact that I'm travelling with a good friend of mine, who's also been working on a scroll for this competition - I've had so much fun talking with her about all of it (and, as usual, she has some books on the subject I envy so much!  Hee).

Anyway, I'm off to go make a couple corrections to my documentation page and get it printed up for the trip tomorrow.

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Blue Velvet

wait...

You know how long I've been lusting over a blue velvet gown, yes?  Well, GUESS WHAT!  Last time I was at Ikea, I happened across a pair of their SANELA curtains, in the as-is fabric bin...for twenty bucks.  Yes, that would be two blue cotton velvet curtain panels, 55x118" each, in perfect shape (aside from being a tad dusty from having been on display).

Can you say...

"Mariana" by John Everett Millais, 1850.

I thought you could!

And, actually, in the week since I got the curtains, I've been fleshing out the half-assed design I've had floating around ever since I got the idea:

...and I've changed like eight things since I posted this.

Blue velvet, olive-green silk lining with a gold printed design (sleeves, neckline), a gold (a) band around the bottom *or* (b) underskirt (or faux-underskirt), with bright silver buttons - I'm thinking with pearls or glass crystals, but I haven't decided yet.

At this particular moment, I'm thinking my sheer silk veil (which has yet to be hemmed, actually), and cauls...or not.  I'd have to make a set of cauls, and while it'd be easy and probably pretty fast, I really have enough on my plate right now.

Buttons...?

I like all three.  Hm. 

*squee*


But when, and....?  Hmm.


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