Look Ma, No Hands!

Well, at least not as many.  Lookee what I made:

Stamps! I paint so many lions on all my Caerleon stuff - and for other company members, too - that I finally just up and made a stamp to save myself some work.  These don't produce a finished product by any means, but they're a quick and easy way to give myself identical outlines to work with on a project with multiple lion charges (and there are always at least three).

Testing out the 2" size on a piece of scrap linen/rayon blend.

Vasilii's Russian Caerleon tunic, with two sets of three stamped lions.  This was the reason I finally made stamps, actually - I did NOT want to try to sketch out or stencil all those little bitty lions (2" high).  This took one stamp, one "second coat" of paint, and then just detailing with the red and black.  Done!


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The Dragonfly Process

Because the first question people ask me when they've seen the new Japanese outfit I made for Takuan (you remember Takuan) is "did you make these?  wait - how did you do that??"  I figured I'd make a blog entry about it, since I've spent all week working on these.

In place of the six lions down the lapels of his jin-baori, as with the yellow and gold Caerleon outfit linked above, I did six mon, the circular embroidered designs (patches, in this case) running down the front of the garment, which bear a form of his SCA device.

All of these images can be enlarged by clicking on them.

I started with a red silk fabric with gold-colored dragonflies already woven into it.  This circle was cut so that it had one fly already in it, to save myself a bit of work.  I ironed a scrap of lightweight interfacing onto the back, and satin-stitched around the design to make it look appliquéd on the way the others will be.

All six of them are done, here.

you can see I've also run a loose zigzag around the edge of the circle, to keep it from unraveling.  This is some seriously unravely fabric.

Sometimes my camera is really badass.

The rest of the flies - all twelve of them - had to be cut from the fabric and ironed onto an interfacing backing...

...  and then cut free of the surrounding fabric, leaving a small border of red around each fly to carry the satin-stitching yet to come...

...which is what's happening here.

I have to say, at this point, that this new sewing machine is CRAZY AWESOME.  It's fast, it's quiet, it's smooth - seriously, these things went together in about twenty minutes apiece, once all the prep was out of the way (interfacing, making the circles, etc.).  On my old machine they took an hour EACH.

Also, I didn't notice until I saw this picture that I'd forgotten to put on the special foot I'm supposed to use when I'm satin-stitching. Oops!

Finally!   Obviously the circle isn't really straight, but I can't trim it just yet.

First I had to clip all the loose threads.  Next was to iron a circle of heavier interfacing onto the back, since, as you can see, the fabric is kinda wibbly.

Before I did that, I should have gone over the front and clipped off all the little hairy fabric bits that stuck out of the satin-stitching, but I can still go back and do that when I straighten out the circles before I put them on the garment.


And what are these going onto?

Well, this, for one thing.  Or rather, something like it.

The set of patches featured here are actually the second set - the ones for this black and red outfit were the first.  the second set went a lot more smoothly, since the first set was the proverbial $4M ashtray (West Wing reference; r&d and experimentation are the hard part.  Now I know what I'm doing).

The black and red outfit was done in August of this year.  It was a bit of a surprise, so I hadn't posted about it yet.  But here you go.  It's basically the same thing as the Caerleon samurai outfit (linked at the beginning of this post), but with sleeves...and...obviously...a different color.  The helmet, armor, and weaponry were all made by Takuan himself.




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As We Don the Sleeves of Gold

Sir John's 11thC Norman

Bad Sting reference, no no!  Sorry.  I didn't get much sleep last night.  I spent several hours finishing the secret surprise A&S project that I can't tell you about, and did a bit of sewing - but mostly it's because after that I stayed up too late de-compressing with video games, lol.  I can never get to bed after working on something creative without some brainless downtime in between, otherwise my head spins and I can't sleep.  So staying up past two racing little radio-controlled cars on the Playstation is better, right?  Glad you're coming with me on that one.

Takuan's 14thC Samurai

ANYWAY.  I made a pair of pin-on sleeves last night:  yellow-gold trimmed with black.  Why?  If you guessed "kingdom colors" you're close, but no cigar.  I joined up with Caerleon (fighting company/household) earlier this year - just as event season was drawing to a close, so I never got to wear a company uniform.  Each member creates a unique uniform for him/herself based on their own persona guidelines, but in Caerleon colors and with the Caerleon insignia on it.  It looks pretty cool when we're all together. :)

standard cote + sleeves + veil

Being your standard, run-of-the-mill mid-15thC Englishwoman, my options are pretty wide open.  I have several ideas about my uniform, but I'm in the process of putting together a sort of "starter uniform" first.  While anyone in the company may display the company motto on their clothing (bottom hem of Sir John's picture, above), you actually have to earn your lions, by fighting with or supporting the company through three or more melee-based events.  Since I joined at the end of event season, I haven't had the chance yet, so, no lions for me.  Which gives me time to decide what I want to wear. :)

LBD = little black dress

For the time being, I made a pair of gold sleeves to wear with my "LBD" cotehardie.    I was thinking of making a matching gold cloth belt with the motto painted or stitched along the length of it, until I remembered that yellow belts are for Pelicans.  D'oh!  I think I might paint the motto around the black band at the top of the sleeves instead.

I've also ordered myself a pretty yellow-gold crocheted snood from Etsy, to wear with the outfit.  

All this babbling is to say that I'm SUPER excited about getting to wear my very own Caerleon colors for the first time in a couple of weeks.  Yay!

The beginning of my first Caerleon uniform.  <3 

A Very Small Project

Anybody getting tired of Sir John yet?  ;)

This is an honor shield I painted for him last night.  They hang these things to announce tournament pairings for some tournaments (and I wish they'd do it for all of them. It's a really nifty practice, and one of those Little Things that really adds to the overall mood at an event!)

6" across at the top.  acrylics on plywood

I printed out the lion badge and traced it onto the primed wood with
sewing tracing paper! 

the chalk lines from the paper brushed right off - once the black
outlines were done, that is.  

four coats of blue paint later...   I painted the white chief and badge as well, so
that the paint finish would match (and not just leave the white primer
showing through).   The back is painted solid blue; and the whole thing
is sealed with spray-on polycrylic.   

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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Another Sneak Preview

IT'S ALIVE!!!   A bit sniffly still, but alive.  And done with a HUGE project that I've been working on for nearly three weeks (give or take a few sick days).   I don't have "real" pics of it yet, because the person I made it for isn't going to be wearing it until this coming weekend; but in the meantime...

what's this? 

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Another One For A Friend

Speaking of stuff I've done recently but neglected to blog about:

Here's an English/Norman surcote I did for another friend of mine, back in the September 2011.

This is Sir John of Severn, leader of the fighting company I mentioned in that post about the Japanese jin-baori.  Every member of the unit has at least one outfit done in company and kingdom colors, but in the style of their persona, be it English, Japanese, German, etc.

The whole thing is heavy linen, and unlined.  It's also quarter-charged (divided quarterly, as opposed to having a gold half and a black half).  I sewed the surcote and the appliqés (stars and lions);  another friend of his painted the company's motto around the bottom (Ut simus invicti:  "together we are invincible").

There's more coming, too, on this front, in future posts.
Stay tuned. :)





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Queen's Champion

Vasilii and I at Queen's champion this past weekend:

• his decorated plain shirt
• spiffy new blue belt from Gulf Wars

• my new, plain, quick black dress
• and a totally derpy look on my face, lol.  

Oops, forgot to get a decent pic of the jewelry, sorry.  Will do soon. 

:o)

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And Now For Something Completely Different

As I mentioned in the recent month-in-review post, in February I got the opportunity to create part of a Japanese outfit for a friend of mine, for Gulf Wars.   His persona is that of a 14th-century (Ashikaga period) Samurai warrior.  He's also a member of a fighting company/household whose colors had to be taken into account, and a Centurion (an Ansteorran grant-level fighting order), the insignia for which also needed to be worked into the garment.  Whew!

The piece I made is called a jin-baori, which later evolved into the kataginu. It's a sort of loose, sleeveless vest, tied in the front and split at either the back or the sides, which Japanese men wore over their kimonos, with thier hakama (the big "Samurai pants").

In this picture, instead of the kimono underneath, he's wearing a padded armor shirt that he made himself.  (He also created the black leather armor with red lacings that's visible through the front of the jin-baori, and the helmet in the second picture!)  The hakama were made by another friend of his.

The black panels down the front are a wide lapel which is turned back to reveal, in this case, the black lining in the garment, which is appliqué'd with six white lion heads, which are the symbol of his fighting company.

Black and gold are also part of the company's colors - and also the colors of our kingdom.  The 10-pointed star on the back of the jin-baori is also the kingdom badge.

The red displayed eagle on the lower right of the back, with another black 10-pointed star in the center of it, is the badge of the Centurions.  Their usual livery includes a red cloak with a gold eagle and black star; it would have been a bit much to wear the full Japanese kit with the Romanesque Centurion cloak, so we incorporated the Centurion badge into the jin-baori, and reversed the color scheme.


This was SO much fun to work on.  I believe there are going to be one or two more of these coming up this year, for this same person.  I can't wait to work on it again. :)



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*WHEW*

Well, I'm back from my very first Gulf Wars!  It was EPIC.  I didn't get to any of the classes I wanted to attend, didn't get to watch the horses, or the dogs, or the jousting - but I danced a bunch, walked with my baroness in the opening ceremonies procession, single-handedly won the shopping war point for Ansteorra (lol), met a ton of cool folks, had a blast at camp and at some parties, and took a LOT of pictures.

I'll put up a link to a full album this week (as soon as I get all the pics sorted and edited properly), but for starters, here are a few of my favorites:

Vasilii in his baronial war company
tabbard and his Russian stuff - and a new hat! 

me in my new blue linen, at the opening ceremonies

Azaleas everywhere in Mississippi! 

the site was *gorgeous*

as was the entire state of Louisiana.  I seriously wish I lived here. 

More later, when I get alllllllll the war laundry and unpacking done!


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*omg*

True to form, I f*d up and forgot to ask someone to take pics of Vasilii and I in our court gear (green opashen, blue velvet transitional gown), after realizing that my camera's battery was dead.  FAIL.

I do, however have this picture:

That would be Vasilii and I getting our AOAs together...at the event which marks our 1-year anniversary in the SCA, from a K&Q whom we both absolutely adore and admire!

If pics of either one of us in our outfits surface online today from the event, I'll share them here.



*

I found one!  Isn't he hot?  Nom nom.

Meanwhile, bardic was awesome, although I displayed without competing because I'd forgotten my spoken piece...except I found it later in the afternoon in my music folder. D'oh!  Guess it just wasn't meant to be.  The Candlemas Candle Dance performance went swimmingly, feast was amazing, I got my arms registered, I had tons of fun sitting gate in the morning, I made new friends, I dance my ass off in the evening before court, and I got to entourage for the B&B during court for the first time, which was really neat.  And then, you know...AOA.

Squee!!   :o) 

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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.

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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Более Россия вещи (More Russian Stuff)

With my outfit for Candlemas halfway finished, it's time to start working on Vasilii's as well.

You remember Vasillii...

We're slowly but surely cranking out more stuff for him for the upcoming war in the spring.  We're both going to need plenty of clothing for the week-long event.  He's up to here with shirts, and we're getting there on pants.

This red shuba, though, is his *only* court wear!   That's no good at all.

Radzivill Chronicle - 15th Century, via Sofya la Rus' website 

So, we're working on an opashen, which is a long (calf- or ankle-length) coat.  It buttons up the front, and the sleeves are nearly as long as the coat itself, and slit in the front so you can put your arms through the slits.  Opasheni were also worn without the arms in the sleeves at all, sort of like a cloak.

via Anglesey's online photo gallery

Here's a picture of one in the SCA, worn by then-king Vladimir of Atlantia...which I find utterly hilarious, considering how much he and Vasilii resemble each other.  I really hope they meet at war in the Spring, and that I'm there to see it.  "Hey!! You can't be the big blonde Russian,  *I'm* the big blonde Russian!"   And then the universe would implode. LOL.







Vasilii's opashen is going to be a soft, olive green "wool"  (it's actually a somewhat loose and fuzzy microfiber, which looks and feels like wool, but without the price, the itchiness (I'm allergic), the weight, or the heat).  I'm going to be using the brown faux-fur on it that I used on his shuba, as well as a gorgeous gold-and-black lightweight brocade we found that looks just smashing with the olive green "wool", in the trim and other little decorative accents.  I'd like to try to find some really pretty, high-relief braid to use for the button loops and bars down the front, and I found some really GREAT buttons to go with the outfit, with the Russian double-eagle on them!

 ♫  fabulous ♫

I also have a surprise for him, but since he reads this blog....


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