It's Here It's Here It's Here!

My belt buckle and strap end set from Armour & Castings!  It's here!

Isn't that GORGEOUS?  I heart it like burning.  Hand-cast brass copies of an extant early 15th century English design.  I'm not exactly sure what this design is called, but it looked pomegranate-y enough for my purposes that I'm calling it my pomegranate belt set.  (My device has pomegranates in it. I'll post the design when it passes final registration).

There's another version on the website with red glass "jewels" in the empty spaces:

It was ten dollars extra for the glass, and red was the only option available - which is * beautiful*, don't get me wrong - but I wanted other colors.   I'm going to get some mirror-backed glass jewels from the hobby store (where they sell a package of like a million for four dollars), and customize this with red, blue, and green gems in the empty spaces, and a clear one right in the center of the strap end.

Later this week, that is.  For right now, I have to go work on some armor. More on that later this week, too. :)


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Another Friend Outfit, Another Blue Outfit

A  short men's houppelande with embattled/dagged sleeves, for Sir John to wear to a 14th century pas d'armes tournament:

The lion (and embattled chief) on the front are 16" across.  If you've ever appliquéd anything, you know that's quite a lot of appliqué!   And all the twists and turns, yikes!  It was HARD.  I love hard.  I've been sewing since I was 9..."hard" is FUN.  :)

The lion was traced from a blown-up computer printout, and then inked
with india ink from my calligraphy set:  it's permanent, dark, and waterproof.
Creating this thing, from start to finish, took me four hours. 

I dyed the tongue red using a mixture of acrylic paint and fabric medium.
Before cutting out the lion, I put a heavy adhesive interfacing backing on
it so that it would be stiff enough to prevent all the little claws and hairs
from curling and shifting as it was sewn down. 

figuring out placement

satin-stitching around the chief...before I remembered that
I needed to do this in black!  Whoops.

This was my solution, rather than removing ALL that blue thread.
Came out pretty dang spiffy, too.  

Back view, during the tournament.



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Contents: One Finished Bliaut

Wanna see some really crappy photographs of a really cool dress?

 

My camera takes really good pictures.  In a mirror, though, in a badly-lit room, of a dark navy-blue dress?  Not so much.   Sorry.

Front neckline, trim, and visible "cotehardie" underneath (which is all rumpled for some reason, and I didn't notice it until just now, hehe).   

Don't recognize the blue cotehardie?  That's because it's new, too - and actually, it isn't a cotehardie: 

Have I mentioned how flippin' HOT it is here in central Ansteorra?  We're talking 115º last Summer - and that's without the heat index.  And it's already hitting 100-103º here at the beginning of June.  Oy.  So, rather than wear *four* layers in this heat  - braies, chemise, under-dress, over-dress -  I'm leaving out the chemise entirely for the summer, and now have only two layers:  this crop-top fake cotehardie and a pair of braies,  and my over-dress - in this case, the navy bliaut. (Or, best case scenario: just the braies and a full cotehardie).  The crop-cote gives me sleeves and a neckline to show underneath an over-dress, but not an extra layer of fabric from shoulders to ankles.  Whew. 

And actually, I have another heat-buster idea, but that'll be its own blog post. 

Meanwhile:  blunt upholstery needle FTW.  This is how I lace myself into my laced cotes - this thing slides right through eyelets and buttonholes, without catching the fabric or stitching.  I've tried aglets on the ends of my laces, and I have yet to have them last more than one wearing - they pull off the lace, they bend, they tear out stitching around the eyelet or buttonhole, and they poke and scratch my skin when I tuck the lace-ends inside my dress.  No thank you. 

I'm wearing the bliaut to Dance Revel tonight; hopefully I can persuade someone to take better pictures of me in it.  :) 

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Progress, Albeit Slow Progress

The neckline on the bliaut is done!

I still have to finish the last two inside seams that aren't finished, and them hem the bottom, and it's done!

Then there's some underwear stuff that needs to happen.

TTFN

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Halfway through the year already?!

May In Review


Projects: 

• little red cape for Clothiers' Guild A&S Entry
• began navy linen bliaut

Events:

• Stargate-Loch Sollier co-baronial

Working on/upcoming:

• finish the navy linen bliaut (almost there!)
• an A&S project gift
• cheater underclothing 

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