Belated Event Follow-Up

The good news is that I DID find my box of 14th-century stuff, so I did not go to Lions naked. The event was fabulously fun, exciting, and beautiful, though a bit on the chilly side at night.  My poor tent, which was brand new in January, caught in a tornado in March, and has been breaking down bit by bit ever since that event, finally gave up the ghost when I tried to set it up at the event, so I slept in my friend's car the first night we were there.  As much as we wanted to stick around for the post-court party the next night, we opted to drive the hour-and-a-half home and luxuriate in hot showers and warm beds instead of weathering another frigid night outdoors.

me and my shabby parasol

Since then, I've been hard at work whipping my new fixer-upper house into shape.  I'm pleased to report that I have - mostly - got the sewing room together, although it's not remotely decorated or even within earshot of "done".  But I can work in it, which is fortunate, because I have a commission coming up in the next week or so (more Caerleon company livery, nothing terribly out of the ordinary - which is good. I don't think I could handle anything majorly complicated right now, with all the other work I still have to do). Updates on both the room and the commission coming soon.

In Which Our Heroine Awakens From Her Post-War Nap

It's been a few weeks, but I finally feel rested.  It always helps me, after an event - especially one I've been working full-time preparing for - to center myself with non-SCA stuff when I get back.  So, I've been gardening, and riding my bike, and sewing some mundane clothing. 

I have a bunch of pics from war this year, and I'm working on getting them all into a Flickr album (or something) that I can share here.  Here are a very few, for now:

Sunday night, after a day of camp setup, I
helped serve feast! I'd never done that before;
and it was SO MUCH FUN.

AND I BURNED THE LIVING CRAP OUT OF MY ARM
ON ONE OF THE OVENS! I took really good care of it all
week, and ever since, and thankfully, it's already mostly
healed, and it looks like there won't even be much of a scar.

So here's a thing: 

I FINALLY got some pictures of the flag ropeline around our campsite, you guys!! You've seen the flags in a couple of posts before. They're made of heavy-weight cotton (originally Ikea RITVA curtain panels, purchased second-hand from my old dance studio when it went out of business a few years ago).  They're each 9x12", double-sided, serged closed on the edges, with a rod-pocket in the top to slip over the ropes.  The fence stakes started life as 8' long 1x2" sleepers from the hardware store - $1.50 each; each cut in half, cut to a point on one end, sanded smooth, and stained/sealed.  There's a 1/2" copper tube strap (5pk/$2 at the hardware store, in the plumbing section) attached to the top of each stake for the rope to go through.  So far the entire fenceline has cost me a whopping $30; and I've got plenty more materials on hand to expand as our camp gets bigger. 

The entrance to our camp.  We often use the ropeline as traffic
control; this year we used it for safety, too, by placing it in
front of a tent-rope trap that kept tripping pople before
we got the whole camp set up.

Looking down the outside of camp, with the silk banners we
all helped to paint in 2012. 

A painted cotton banner I made in 2011.

From the opening ceremonies on Tuesday mornings, all kingdoms lining up to begin negotiating the war treaty. 
This is the most SCA picture ever. 

Me carrying the banner in the procession
to the castle (with my dress falling off my
shoulders and the surcote too low in the
front, because by the time I got to war,
they were too big already! ARGH!)

Caerleon

Just Vikin' around. 

Sadly, I did not manage to get pics of me in that purple men's Viking outfit. I promise you some, though, because...well, because I promised you some, and the entire ensemble looks pretty damned spiffy, if I do say so myself.  (In fact, a friend of mine liked it so much he's commissioned one for himself!) I didn't get to wear most of my cotehardies, because they were all too big again by the time I got to war (ARGH!); nor any of my pretty, fancy court things, because all the fancy court-type stuff was called on account of ...

 

After that was overwith, Caerleon bugged out to a hotel for the night...because hot showers, and because WALLS, y'all.  I admit to being thoroughly unhinged for most of that evening. I've been through several tornadic events in my life - this was actually the least severe of them all, but it brought back some pretty terrible memories, and I was kind of having some epic disaster-flashback issues that evening.   We came back the next morning to clean up and break camp.  I stayed until Saturday to help out the folks I rode with who were working at the merchants' offices.  Friday and Saturday I spent walking around in jeans and a hoodie, because all of my clothes and things were soaked and had been hurriedly crammed into bags into a trailer during a downpour on Friday. I had to laugh - I've made a mask every year for three years now, intending to get to a masked ball at war or some other event, and I never end up making it.  This year I DID make it to the masque at the Known World Party Friday night (which was held inside Beade Hall with donated food and booze from many, many generous people who had such things survive Thursday) - and I showed up wearing jeans, a hoodie, and a generous helping of embarrassment and disappointment.  Oh, well.  Next year?

A flooded pond on site, taken as we GTFO'd on Saturday.
Goodbye, Mississippi.  Please be nicer to us next year.

So, all of that being said, 

I had a FANTASTIC WAR.  Before the tornado I got out and participated in the event in ways I'd never done before.  I met a ton of new people, made some new friends, stepped out of my comfort zone in a constructive way, and had a fabulous time exploring parts of the event I'd always wanted to explore but hadn't.  My health was REALLY nice to me this time around, too, and the freedom was an absolute joy.  I took a HILARIOUS class on ancient-Roman-style swearing that was really interesting and educational as well as lewd and fun - I lost the teacher's card, but if any of you were at the event and know who it was, send me a link to her page! 

Life was really scary and chaotic Thursday; but Friday and Saturday I saw 3,000+ of my fellow SCAdians banding together to help one another in the aftermath of the storms.  Some people lost everything they had, but every single one of us that I could see pitched in to spend the last two days of the event cleaning up, helping each other break down camp and get cars out of the mud in the parking area and on the saturated roads, and make sure that everyone had shelter and food and a way off site.  Everywhere I went those two days, people were full of care and concern for people they didn't even know - and many of us got to know each other through swapping stories of how we all fared during the worst of the storm (shout-out to some of Calontir's heralds, whose names escape me, but whose stories of holding their main pavilion that evening, and whose tale of "How John the Tall Saved the Children" at another event, really made my day on Friday!) 

This is the reason I love the SCA, even when the occasional drama and politics get me down - our love of this game makes us family, and when the chips are down, we are all there for each other, whether we know each other or not.  And whether you, Dear Reader, were at the event or not, I want to say thank you to each and every one of you for being family to me and to each other.  If you were there, or if you've had an event that went similarly (I hear Lilies War gets pretty interesting), thank you for caring and helping each other.  Thank you so much.

Gulf Wars!

Only four days left before Gulf Wars, you guys!  And guess what?  I finally got to quit my night job!!!  *DANCES AROUND IN CIRCLES**   I've had time to actually get all of my chores and prep for war done on time, and I'll be taking commissions again once we all get home.  YAY!  So excited.  (In case you couldn't tell).

Completed in the last two weeks:

1.  A man's Viking tunic, embroidered.  There are pants and cloth winingas to go with it;  I'll have pics of the finished outfit after war.

2.  A new Caerleon company surcote, which I made from a black linen cotehardie that I made back in 2012 (I don't have pics of it, sorry).  I closed up the front and cut out the sides, over-dyed the whole thing with a fresh coat of black to spruce up the color; then added the gold binding at the top (cut from some lightweight damask from my scrap pile), the white faux-fur on the sides, and three appliqué'd lions down the front of the skirt.

3.  HOLY CRAP I FIT INTO THIS DRESS FROM 2012 AGAIN:

4.  Seven new flags for the Caerleon campsite ropeline (five pictured) and a new canvas banner/flag to hang outside of my tent (that's the big one on the left):

5.  More canvas bags, this time made from a blue, heavy cotton with a decorative weave and stitch, from which I removed a TON of orange thread in January:

L-R:  finished bag; fabric before thread removal; fabric after

6.  Fixed up this mask for the  Known World Party next Friday night - this year's theme is that of a Venetian-style masque:

L: finished, painted with teal/black nail polish, with dark flowers, star-shaped
spangles, and "raven" feathers (dyed turkey feathers from the craft store);
R:  The mask as purchased in NOLA before Gulf Wars (aside from a bit of nail
polish on the nose - I almost forgot to take a "before" picture), where a few of
us spent a day before heading to the war last year.

I've also done a million small alterations on my older cotehardies; the green Burgundian dress which I made last summer and then never wore; re-painted a small wooden chest I made last that had a horrible finish on it; and completed a Sekrit!Projekt! about which I'll post after I'm back from war.

I'll have pics of everything when I'm back. This week I've got to run a thousand errands, and finish packing - which just seems a Danaidean task, at this point, but I'll get there - and then I'm on the road Friday afternoon. Whee!

TO WAR!   

S'mo Viking

I've finally finished ALL of the items in the Great Big Viking Project! 

These are the things I've finished since LPT last month:

Here's the coat I've been working in fits and snorts for several months.  I made the gray shell in 2012 for the Battle of Ethandune event; I've just recently added the blue trim, and the burnt-orange lining. 

It's reversible!

Another Skjoldehamn-style hood, this one in Caerleon company colors. The lion appliqué down the center front was embroidered by Simona, on her fancy-schmancy embroidery machine.

A red dress that started out as another plain under dress like my black one, but which scope-crept itself into a lace-fronted loose gown, with seam and edge embroidery and hand-stitched eyelets.

My original apron dress (also from 2012), which was dyed to refresh the faded color, and then embroidered along the seams and straps.

Next on the blog: last-minute event stress (aka Wednesday). 

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A Very Wrinkly Bliaut

Another commission finished, yay! 

Another bliaut, for the same client as the blue and magenta one, and the viking coat.

click to embiggen

• Gold linen with black linen trim, lining, and applied neckline and upper sleeve contrast bands.  
• Same pattern as the blue and magenta one, with a different neckline. 
• Caerleon livery, yay! 
• Side-laced, with hand-sewn eyelets.
• Lions (7) hand-embroidered (*fingers fall off*) 

Yes, I could have ironed this before I photographed it.  But...I didn't.  :P 

Closeup of the embroidered lions.  I'd originally planned to appliqué these,  but they're only about an inch and a half high - way too small to appliqué on the machine without it becoming a huge mess.  I decided to stitch them down by hand instead; but seeing that the white embroidery thread I was using to edge them was a completely different white than the linen I cut the lions out of, I decided to just embroider the entire thing(s) instead.

I finished the lions on the neckline facing before attaching it to the body of the dress, then ran the lining in last, so that all of the seams were enclosed within the lining and the back of the embroidery would be fully hidden/protected. 

I'm rather pleased with the way these little guys came out. 










The gold stripe along the edges of all the black pieces is a couched cord of embroidery floss.









Whew!

I have one commission piece to do in September, but first I have to make it to/through LPT without spontaneously combusting from stress.  :D

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ROMA VIDA

Okay, okay, one last thing.

Because I had a minute today, and because after all the work I've done making sure I won't freeze to death at war the weather forecast now predicts warm temps and sun for most of the week, and because I had a couple of yards of linen that was once the victim of a horrible dye accident* and has since had no purpose in life, I made myself a simple Roman chiton.  It's a tube-style, with seams in the center front and back, like the cotton gauze one I made for myself a few months ago (and which has since gone missing, for whatever reason. House gnomes. I have no clue).

I'd seen this on Pinterest in recent months, and thought, hm, I could put nifty little cloak clasps at the shoulders just like this!

(actually a fibula pin and chain set)

But I didn't have any cloak clasps.  And I couldn't find any I liked.  While I was tooling around the sewing room looking for something to do next (to avoid what I should be doing, even now, which is packing), I found a pair of lion's head drawer pulls with a screw back.

HMM.  

Lion drawer pulls, and some velcro (the fuzzy side). 

Poking a hole in the fabric with a knitting needle.
Holes made in velcro with a leather punch. 

There's a piece of velcro between the screw and the
fabric, and between the fabric and the hardware on
the other side, with the fuzzy side of the velcro
against the fabric to prevent pulling and fraying. 

The front of the dress is sewn to the
ring with a couple of loops of embroidery
floss tied around the middle to secure them. 

And, of course, all of my Roman
jewelry is green, except for my
angelite bead necklace. LOL. 

* By the way, the horrible dye accident?  Was this one.  After that horrendous failure, I bleached out the fabric and hit it with another dyebath of blue to even the color out, which it kinda did, but then I washed it with some red after that and ended up with a really, spectacularly awful Barney-purple, which I then rinsed out with a dye remover, and it ended up being the magenta shade you see here.  In November I very nearly made it into a Hello Kitty pilgrim bag for a friend as a prank, but didn't get time.  

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A Quick Pre-War Update

HOO BOY have I been nose-to-the-grindstone-sewing-machine lately.  Today I pulled ten hours straight!  I'm happy to say that I'm on schedule and moving right along.  I'm a bit apprehensive of this weekend; I'm taking the weekend off to attend a local event (after having spent last Saturday at regional war practice, and most of Sunday at a workshop day at a friend's house (at which I got many things done, actually)  - so I'll lose a day and a half of work time, but I definitely need the mental break!

So I have looooots of things to show you, mostly having to do with client sewing - but I forgot to take pictures of the two gowns I finished for said client last week before I delivered them, so I'll be getting with her soon to take some pics.

Some of the things going on lately: 

1.  A new LBGFD for me (Little Black [Gothic Fitted] Dress).  I'm happy to say that after upsizing and re-drafting the whole thing last year, last week I had to start sizing it down again, and adjusting some of the curves.  I made a second one from the new pattern today, and I'll have pics for you next week after the event coming up.

at war practice last weekend

2.  I finally got around to stripping down Violet and re-fitting her to look exactly like me.  At first I thought, "Wow, do I really look like a Russian Nesting Doll??"  but I'm actually pretty happy with my fitness progress of late. :) 

bewbs

3.  I've been dyeing a whole bunch of fabric: 

Forgot the gloves again. Typing this post with murder hands. 

4.  Painting lots of fabric, too: 

Rory likes to help. 

more heraldic flags for the campsite ropeline! 

Next Up

Tomorrow I'll be cleaning out the garage (because I can't even GET to my camping stuff as of right now, and I'll need it this weekend as well as for war, obviously). 

After that, I have some woodworking projects, which I'll show you; as well as a stack of client projects, and a couple of last things for me.  ONLY TWO WEEKS TO GO UNTIL WAR!  *breathes into a paper bag*  @_@

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A Quick Camp Makeover

Remember the fold-up camping cot I  bought in November?

Yes, this one: 

I took a page from Pinterest (at which no one was suprised), and made a pillow-mat for it, with a gathered skirt to hide the legs:

That's a bed sheet, a shower curtain, and a couple of bottles of Rit dye, baby.  Can't beat free. ;)

The back is split and edged with some blanket binding ribbon I had lying around; the pillows just pop right out so the cover can be washed.

At BAM in November I threw a sheet over this thing and set it up under the big, company pavilion, and people really enjoyed having a lounge space.  Now they have a comfier and and more attractive one. :)

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Company Table Linens for Feast

A quick fabric-painting project to spiff up company dinners:

One 96x48" white, cotton, Ikea RITVA curtain panel (linen-weave, cotton fiber), with 8" black linen border, painted with eight trios of Caerleon lions;  two 12x48" gold linen table runners with linen borders, Ansteorran star and Caerleon company motto (ut simus invicti: "together we are undefeated").  

The lions and star were first stamped, then painted in and detailed by hand.  The motto was written by hand with a large, flat paintbrush, over a chalk grid drawn in the center of each table runner.  (And no, I don't know what hand/font the text is.  I'm not a calligrapher or a scribe, hehe. This is the hand I know how to do. ☺ ) 

Paints are all artist's acrylics mixed 1:1 with fabric glue, and kept fluid by painting with a wet brush.  (I like working with regular acrylics much better than pre-fab fabric paints. The glue keeps the paint elastic and prevents cracking with wear, the glue and the water both make the paint soft and liquid enough to soak into the fabric on the first coat, rather than just sitting on top of the fabric where it might chip and peel with age).  

All pieces were finished with a silicone water-repellant spray treatment to protect the paint and to give the fabric some stain resistance. 

(Pic taken on my cutting table in the sewing room, with all of my feast gear, since I'm not at all certain of being able to take pics of the feast table at Candlemas this weekend - feast is usually lit by candlelight only, so, any pics of feast will likely be a big dark blur with a bunch of flames floating in it, hehe. (Well, fake flames, this year - the event site doesn't allowe open flames, which: booo!  But we'll make due).  

Tada! 

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Heraldic Flags For Camp

This is a catch-up post from BAM - from November.  I promise, I'm trying to be better about posting follow-ups and finished project pictures. :)

So, we at Caerleon have been trying to figure out some camp-fencing ideas.  Nobody wants to keep people out, but you don't really want people just randomly walking through your campsite at events, either, you know?  Rather than going to the expense and trouble of building an actual fence, and having to pack, tote, assemble, and disassemble it at every event; or putting together a sheet wall, which IS useful if you're camped by a roadside, for controlling dust and traffic noise,  but walls you off from the rest of the world pretty effectively, I put a ropeline together to stake out around the camp.

First, I took a couple of white, cotton curtains, cut them into 12x14" blocks and painted the heraldic devices of some of our members onto them:

I used the same fabric-painting method I use for my other linen and cotton projects: a 3:1 mixture of acrylic craft paint and craft or fabric glue, with a few drops of water mixed in to make the paint flow and soak into the fabric better.  

I sewed each one to a blank backing of the same fabric, and left a rod pocket at the top of each one, like a curtain panel.  I also made up a bunch of plain flags in other colors.  All of them were then strung onto a plain hemp rope, which was strung from 36" wire plant stakes (spray painted gold) around our campsite at BAM: 

Yay, most of us! :D 

It was a pretty decent trial-run of the idea, and people liked the way it looked. It's definitely not a completed project, though: 

1. 36" stakes are WAY too short, considering that nearly a foot of each stake is pushed into the ground, leaving not much to work with.  The ropeline ended up so low that it was almost more of a trip-hazard than anything.  The wire stakes were a stopgap measure, though - all of them will be replaced with taller, sturdier, wooden stakes before we go to Gulf Wars this year. 
2. I only managed to get about a third of our devices painted onto flags by the time BAM rolled around.  By Gulf Wars I intend to have ALL of our devices going, as well as some bearing the actual Caerleon company device, to space in between each personal device. 

I'll be talking more about Gulf Wars preparations in the next couple of months.  I have a LOT of plans for the company campsite, some of them are even already in progress.  

Just have to get through Candlemas first.  :) 

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Caerleon Over-sleeves

By request, the Caerleon over-sleeves I showed you the other day, with the Swiss kirtle:

Black linen shell, with a gold linen lining.  No interlining.  

Gold linen buttons. 

The Caerleon company motto is painted on the inside of the sleeve cuff, so that when I have the cuffs turned up, they face away from me (see top picture).  The motto is Ut simus invicti:  "together we are undefeated." 

There's an Ansteorran star painted inside the top of the sleeve, so that I can turn the top down over where I have the sleeves pinned onto my dress to show the star, if I want.  

The motto, star, and the three white lion heads (which are the device of the company, though properly they're shown vertically on a black field), were all painted in plain old craft store acrylic craft paints, mixed with a little fabric glue and water, to help the paint soak into the fabric and resist cracking.  

I mix the paint with a tiny bit of water, and some fabric glue or Tacky glue (at a ratio of about 3:1 paint:glue, with just a few drops of water).  The water helps the paint-blue mixture flow on a brush; the glue basically turns acrylic paint into fabric paint, allowing it to soak into the material rather than forming a crust on top which could flake off, and it also makes the dried paint flexible to help prevent cracking.  (Eventually, yes, the paint will crack and flake; but this mixture lasts a long, long time.  I have a banner I made many years ago for another group I belonged to, which hung in a tree by my campsite for about four years in a row, and it never showed any damage from the elements).  

Previously...

The sleeves above are my first set of sleeves.  There's an introductory period to membership in my company, and certain conditions that you have to meet to be fully inducted and to earn the right to wear the lions.  Before that, you can wear the motto and colors only.  So my firs set of Caerleon sleeves were simpler: 

Gold linen with black borders at the top and bottom of the sleeves, and the motto painted in the same way, with the paint-glue-water mixture. 

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