Regency: The Pineapple Reticule

Here is the silliest thing I've ever made: a pineapple reticule! 

A few weeks ago I learned that pineapple reticules were a thing - at least one of them, that I know of. This knit pineapple purse is housed in the Kyoto Costume Institute’s 1800-1810 collection (as featured on JaneAusten.co.uk) 

The extant purse is knit in silk, in several shades of yellow and green.  The blog linked above states that pineapples and other tropical fruit were very much en vogue during the early regency, but sadly, I cannot find any other examples of period fruit-like knit or fabric objects online. But this one example is enough for me! 

There are lots of patterns for similar knit reticules on Ravelry and Etsy. I am not a knitter - I crochet (crocodile stitch, maybe?), but I didn’t happen to have any yellow or green yarn sitting around. What I did have was a three yard length of 6” wide yellow poly satin fabric that I wasn’t doing anything with, so I decided to sew a little pineapple bag. 

For the body, I sewed four 6" wide strips of satin together to make a large rectangle, then pintucked the whole thing on the bias, and sewed the result into a tube. The lining is yellow cotton from an old sheet I had sitting around to make mock-ups with. 

The  “leaves” are big triangles attached to the top edge of the tube, and I ran a drawstring (pale gold ribbon) around the top of the bag just beneath the leaves on the inside of the bag so that they'd stand up when the bag is closed.  I didn’t have anything green to use for the leaves, so I cut off part of the yellow piece and dyed it green with Rit’s Dyemore for synthetics in “peacock green,” which yielded this lovely leaf green color: 

The leaves being put together, and the yellow cotton lining: 

And here's the round, flat bottom of the bag, also green. The little covered button on the bottom is just for fun, and just because I love covered buttons:

Y'all, I CANNOT stop giggling at this thing.  It's so silly!  This is officially the silliest thing I've ever made, and it pleases my heart.  HEE HEE HEE.  

SCA: Candlemas 2024: Green 1490s Italian - the Accessories

A week ago I posted about the 1490s Florentine outfit I made for Candlemas in February - today’s post is about all the accessories that went into the outfit: 

Hair/Headgear

I’ll talk about my hair first, since it was a lot of fun - I used fake hair for the first time ever for this outfit! It was given to me by a friend several months ago, and I finally fixed it up and wore some of it for this outfit. It was really neat - it’s been two years since I cut all my hair off in order to grow out my gray (and I’m growing it back as fast as I can!) - and it felt soooo good to at least have the feel and weight of long hair again. I miss my hair! 

Anyway, I clipped two long silvery-gray extensions into my hair, then braided it all into a single braid down my back. The front of my hair was parted in the middle and smoothed down over my ears, and I curled the bits that were too short to be included in the braid. I wrapped the braid in gold ribbon, wider at the top and end to hide the elastic bands which contained the braid, with thin gold ribbon spiraled around the length of the braid. 

My inspiration for the hairstyle and headgear were from several paintings, like these: 

La Bella Principessa, Leonardo DaVinci

fragment from a painting of Lodovica
Tuornabuoni, Domenico Ghirlandaio

La Belle Feronniere, DaVinci

I created a reta - a netted skullcap like you see in the first two paintings - using a base of cotton needlepoint mesh canvas.   Once I had the shape figured out, I sewed/knotted the mesh pieces together, and then spray-painted the piece gold, which stiffened the mesh so that it held its shape better. Then I sewed gold metallic braided trim over the seam to hide it, and around the edges, and then attached a long gold ribbon to the corners to tie under my chin. 

Over the top of it all is a feronniere - mine is a long thin black velvet ribbon, onto which I threaded three gold beads spaced out along the front. 

The whole look goes something like this: 

The hair needs work - I like the false hairpiece, but my own hair in the front/side is very flyaway and frizzy looking.  Gotta figure out what to do about that.  

Jewelry

The necklace that I made to wear with this outfit is one of those kits where you press an acrylic cabochon (over a picture or flower petals or what-have-you) into the [pewter] setting - I’ve used these kits for Regency jewelry in the past. For this pendant, I painted the back of the cab with blueish iridescent nail polish, and the effect is sort of labradorite-ish, and I love the way it looks, and the way the color looks with the green and aqua/gold colors in the outfit.  

The pendant is hung on am 16" gold chain; and worn with a second much longer chain which is tucked into the neckline of my gamurra. 

I opted not to wear earrings with this outfit, since my hair covers my ears anyway. 

Purse

I wanted a new purse/pouch to go with this outfit, since my other SCA pouches are all blue and red. I used scraps of the sleeve fabric, cut into orange-wedge-shaped pieces, and lined the bag with some spare blue cotton sheeting I had lying around.  I couched a thin gold cord along each seam line on the outside, added a little fabric-covered button to the bottom to hide the joint between all the seams, and laced the top with a gold satin ribbon.  

Tada! I did a practice run on the whole costume today - doing my hair and getting completely dressed took me about forty minutes! SHEESH. I need a lady’s maid.  Everything is finally finished, though, and now I just have to sit back and wait until the event.  In three weeks.  I guess I'll go crochet something, hehe.  

Regency: A Green Recticule

 While I loved my pink reticule, it is really too small to do me any good.  I mean, not that I have anywhere to wear all this Regency stuff, but if I ever did, I'd want a purse big enough to carry my things; and the pink reticule wasn't.  

So I made a new one, from stash fabric scraps: 

This one is about 10" tall, plus the ruffle around the top, and is big enough to carry my phone, wallt, keys and whatever else I put in there.  It's a poly-taffeta lined with blue linen, with a poly satin ribbon to close it, and tassels made from cotton embroidery floss. 

There's nothing here for scale, sadly, but this is on my ironing board - it covers the entire width, and I can fit my outstretched hand inside the wide part of the pieces.  PLENTY big enough.  

Fun fact:  making tassels is for the birds.  

Two More Purses

Well, this past weekend was Gulf War Prep weekend.  I kid you not, I sewed for eleven hours on Saturday (with a two hour lunch break), and another eight on Sunday, after which I spent about three more hours painting things.

I have a LOT of finished projects to show you; the first of which are both of the embroidered purses I started several months ago.

The Pomegranate Purse

From September:

Three shades of red, green; lined with red linen, and finished with gold tassels and tie, through a simple casing and buttonholes at the front. 

The Blue Velvet Purse

From November:

Blue velvet (actual just uncut corduroy), lined with light blue linen;  gold stars, green leaves, red flowers, and a pomegranete in the center on each side;  blue lattice to match the fabric, and finished with a turquoise ribbon tie and turquoise tassels.  There's also a a hidden cellphone pocket inside this one.

Woo!


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I Suck At Embroidery, But I Enjoy Every Minute Of It

I made a wee needle case to tuck into my sewing kit, to replace the plastic packages I was carrying them in before, and to negate the need for toting my gigantic pincushion around in my SCA sewing kit with me.

red velvet scrap, various "gold" (yellow) embroidery thread

interlined with cotton scrap, and lined with a fuzzy furry scrap.
Gold braided ties to close. 

I embroidered the vines on my sewing machine (I'm not
completely insane), then did the leaves, knots, and of course,
a wee pomegranate, my device. :) 

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Yea, and A Purse To Put It Into

If you've been reading, you know I'm [still] in the middle of embroidering two purses for myself.  There's no deadline there;  they're my "sitting around at an event and need something to do with my hands" projects.

But I DID need a new purse.  The one I had was just a big circle with a drawstring, made out of a scrap of red polyester microfiber.  I loved the shape and size, and ease of use.  I did not love that it was falling apart, because I carry it everywhere.

So, last night, after altering *two* dresses to fit, and finishing a third (more on all three later this week), I replaced my worn red circle-pouch with a new one:

This one's BRIGHT RED cotton velveteen, given to me by a friend, with a plain white cord drawstring, and machine embroidered, just for a little extra sumpn-sumpn.

That took a long.    freaking.    time.


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As I said, I'll have clothing updates soon.   Also, this weekend is the Tournament of the Smitten Heart, in Bjornsborg.  Will I remember to take pictures this time?  ***drumroll***



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More Accessories

Remember waaaaay back November of last year, when I was going to do this for Candlemas 2012, and the project shat itself and failed in every possible way?

Well, not in every way - the green linen gown part actually worked really well, just not the sleeve fabric, the timing, the accessories, or the entire look as a whole.  SIGH.

Well, the pomegranate fabric rides again, as it turns out.  In two ways.  The first of which is a pouch I cut out waaaay back in like January of this year, and have been embroidering off and on all year long (because I keep losing the pieces, because I'm THAT organized).





My progress so far:

All I'm doing is outlining the print that's already there.  I thought it would be a nice serious embroidery project for a beginner - lots of work, but only a few, simple stitches, on a paint-by-numbers sort of background.  Good practice.

It's certainly working, too.  Since I keep losing the pieces and not working on them for a few weeks (or months) at a time, I can really see the difference between my early work and my recent work.

The front and back are interchangeable at this point.  Just trying to decide which I like better.  I think this one for the front.

I have to say, I understand now why I misunderstood the color of this fabric when I ordered it from the website.  It looked off-white with a red/pink design on the screen, but when I got it, it was decidedly a wheaty yellow in person, and I could NOT figure out why it was such a huge difference.  Can't people take good photos?!

Holy CRAP this stuff is hard to photograph and color-correct, though!  If I get the reds right, the background looks white.  If I get the background right, the reds look either dull and dark, or over-saturated and in-your-face, depending on the lighting!

I learned how to do French Knots this week!!!  :D

This is a good shot of the three different reds I'm using so far:  a dark Mulberry, a medium Pomegranate-y color, and a bright Strawberry color.  I love the depth.

There's going to be green, and possibly some gold, in the design, too, by the time I'm done with it.

This loopy business, which is basically just a variety of chain stitch, is just about my favorite part so far.  I love the way it looks and feels.  And it's period!  I'm trying to keep all my stitches as period as possible.

The French Knots are stretching that a bit, but they're pretty, so :P

Those chain loops were often used to fill in blocks of color in period embroidery.  It was usually more nicely done than I've accomplished, though, LOL.  I'm new.

This is a great example of why it's bad that I keep losing this projects and finding it again.  I did this to the one single leaf on the "back" of the pouch;  turns out there are TWO of them on the "front", and now I either have to do it all over again - twice! - or unpick this one and try something else.  Yeesh.

This is probably the closest these pictures get to the true colors in the fabric and thread.

I love these little flowers so much. :)

Some of the color variation, and some finished and unfinished parts.

This X or cross fill inside the centers of these opening buds - while lopsidedly and inexpertly executed - were inspired by this easy, period, all-over fill stitch that I found via Pinterest.  I really wish I had made the Xs smaller and more numerous.  Considering taking them out and doing them over...except I've done *five* of these buds, which are 2" across each!

I'm not really in a hurry to finish this, because it's a GREAT project to sit around doing at events when I need some handsbusy.   But when it's done, it'll be a belt pouch.  I have a red linen lining for it, some red tassels and gold beads to affix to the bottom corners and center point, but that's about as far as I've gotten.

And, dangnabbit, for such a self-proclaimed hater of embroidery, this is REALLY FUN!  And it has me wanting to make a second one when this is done, on plain white fabric, with my own design.  Because I'm insane.

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A Pomegranate Project

The fancy, wonderful, beautiful fabric that I ordered - the one that turned out to be a completely different color than I anticipated (because, as it turns out, I read the website wrong), is seeing some action after all.

It's gorgeous, and it feels so silky and soft.  It's linen, the design painted originally, and printed on the bolt. The pattern, as it turns out, is also quite a bit larger than I'd anticipated...again, because I read the website wrong.  Those were inches, not centimeters.  Far too large a print to use for sleeves, and have them make sense once they were all made up.
Oops.


However, I've carefully extracted a small sample from the main piece, and am making myself a new purse. The giant pattern lends itself really well (I think) to a very small piece like this, since it highlights some of the fine details that may be lost on a larger project, when looking at the entire design as a whole.

vaguely purse-shaped (this is the back)

highlighting the major lines

This embroidery is relevant to Sweet Pea's interests. 

Some of the interior portions will be gold, and green.

And beaded, too, although I haven't decided
exactly how and where just yet. 

The best thing about period embroidery stitches, I've learned, is that they're all very easy and simple...which are the only kind I can actually *do*.  Heh.

More news as the situation develops.

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