SCA: Blue Velveteen Florentine Bodice

 I’m stopped on my A&S project for the time being until I can purchase some new fabric for part of it - which I would be doing today but for some unforseen automotive repairs that cropped up. Soon, though. 

Meanwhile, work proceeds apace on the 1520s aqua velveteen Florentine gown: 

I’ve got the bodice almost done now, and it fits, yay! I had to alter an old pattern to make this and I was not at all sure about the resizing I was doing, but apparently I did it correctly.  

The side back openings are safety pinned together for the time being so I can put it on without the lacings for fitting purposes; the next step is to trim up the bottom to the right length and then close it up. 

I laid the gold and teal trim over the bodice today for the first time to see how they look together - I think this is going to be beautiful! I have some gold lacing rings coming to me via SCA Express (a friend is bringing me some from her stash), and then I’ll be able to finish this thing and get started on the skirts and sleeves. 

Woohoo! 

SCA: Summer Project, Part II - Display Stand

Part of my next big A&S project is going to be displayed on my dressmakers dummy, but part of it needs its own stand. I thought briefly about purchasing a second dummy, or a mannequin torso or something, but then I realized that I had an 8’ long 2x4 in the garage that I could use to build a stand for free. 

Tada! Okay, so it’s very basic and it’s not going to win any beauty pageants.  But it’ll do what I need it to do.  

The stand is 20” wide at the shoulders - my shoulder measurement - and 25” tall, which is a little shorter than my waist-to-hip measurement. It should fit a jacket or shirt or something just fine. 

Here it is with the hood on it that I’ve been playing with since February: 

I’ve now finished the pleated serk (which I posted about here) and this stand - that’s two pieces of a five-piece project. I’m halfway through the third part of the project but it’s not going well - I’m considering scrapping the whole thing and starting over with different fabric, to be honest. 

More on that soon, I hope. 

SCA: Stuff and Things

I'm hard at work on my Kingdom A&S project, but it's going r e a l l y  s l o w l y so I don't have much to show for myself on part 2 just yet.  The wool material that I bought for it turned out to be much thicker than I was expecting, which is making sewing it much more difficult and lots slower than usual. I wish I had a lighter weight fabric, but it's paid for, so I'm pushing forward with what I've got.  Slowly. 

 

Meanwhile, I took a break to go to Queen's Champion this past weekend to help my friend Cris in the kitchen (he was in charge of doing the luncheon for the event).  I was craving an SCA event to go to, so I threw on my new blue tunic dress and hopped in the car to go help.  It was a lot of hard work, but it was fun, and the food was awesome. 

That’s me in the front/right slicing bread (photo by Mistress Osanna van der Linden)

Because I'm somehow not busy enough with my current A&S project, and because I'm a crazy person, I went ahead and started something new just for fun;  a new 1520s Florentine gown to wear to the next Italian shindig that happens.  I had a huge box of aqua-blue cotton velveteen Ikea curtains in my closet, and I decided to use it for this project - all I would need is a couple of yards of contrast fabric for some parts, and a selection of laces and trims and stuff that I could get for cheap from Etsy.  So far I've got a mock-up made and a new pattern drafted  to my satisfaction, but I haven't started the actual dress yet.  More on that soon…

I did already make the jewelry for it, because I was excited about the project and couldn't wait.  I do this a lot with jewelry - usually because while I'm waiting for costume parts to come in the mail, I just happen to already have the jewelry supplies on hand.  This time I made some new mother-of-pearl earrings, and a pearl chain necklace with freshwater pearls and a blue stone (I think it's just dyed calcite) in the center pendant:  

Hopefully I'll have more about that Italian gown and my A&S project for you in the next couple of weeks.  Ta!