Success!

As I promised myself at the beginning of the month, I hit the ground running as soon as I got back from my cruise (after I slept for two days).  Last night I finished a HUGE project that I've had in the works for a couple of months now, which I can now deliver this weekend.  I have another small projects to finish by the first of the month for someone else, and I'll be free to dive head-first into sewing for Gulf Wars, which is in March.

It never stops, does it?

Anyhow, in the next three weeks, if all goes well, you can expect to see:

1. Some new underwear
2. Completion of the overhaul on the red velvet Burgundian hand-me-down
3. a flag
4. pictures from Candlemas, which is on Feb 2nd, which will include several outfits I've made for people for that event that I can't post about yet. :) 
5. A pavilion cover
6. Lots of small odds and ends for Gulf Wars

Here goes nothin'.  

Illustrations by Victor Ambrus, from "Tales of King
Arthur" by J. Riordan, Hamlyn Publishing, 1982

Cruisin'

Whew!  Okay, for a first cruise, that was pretty awesome.  We had a fabulous time both on the ship and in Cozumel.  I very nearly did not come back.  ;)

Now.  Back to business...

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A Quantity of Buckram

Reading through the blog Centuries Sewing, which is awesome, and which I found through Pinterest, I realized a couple of things:

1.  I never have gotten around to experimenting with later-period kirtles, kirtles with waist seams, two-piece kirtles with detached sleeves and stiffened bodices, although I've always wanted to do so.

2.  I have a crap-ton of buckram in my stash.  I'd completely forgotten about it until the other night when I cleaned up my craft room a bit (craft items and other things tend to drift into piles in the corners, like snow or sand - does that happen to you?), and found (among other long-lost things) a pretty good sized stack of buckram, recieved from a friend at a de-stash gathering some months ago.  It's old.  Old enough to have yellowed around the corners.  But most of it is in good, usable shape, and would be perfect for interlining a bodice, be it boned or not.

And besides, what better excuse to buy more velvet?  Nah...too heavy.  A lightweight wool would be perfect, but I'm allergic to wool.  So it's either a synthetic alternative, or linen again.  Some more.  (Don't get me wrong, I love linen, but it's not perfect for everything, yanno?)

Anyhow, I have WAY too much to do between now and Gulf War in mid-March to even consider starting a new outfit project right now.  I have underwear to sew, and chair covers, and a small shade pavilion cover!  I'll show you.

After I get back from my CRUISE.  MWAHAHAHA.


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*peek*

Yup, still here.  I'm been up to my ears in mundane holiday junk, family stuff, and preparations for Candlemas - for other people - so I haven't had much to post.  But today I do!

Actually, this is an ongoing Thing....two ongoing Things, actually.


1.   Crown Tournament is this coming Saturday.  Normally that's not something I'd be very excited over - as much as I think that event should be a big deal to the entire populace, it's ...just a tournament.  Whackings and smackings happen, and then everyone goes home.  But this time, they're making a day-long shindig out of it!  During the day there are classes and A&S workshops, a luncheon, the tournament itself, a potluck dinner, court after, and then a masked ball!

I only had a few days to throw this together (yes, I've had over a month to prepare, why do you ask?), and hardly any funds at all.  Except for the mask base itself, everything else that went into this project I already had lying around.

Exhibit A. 

$2.99, yo.

• plastic football fan mask (??), three bucks
• plain white craft glue - for the raised relief vines and leaves
• Gold metallic spray paint
• Liquid Leaf gold leafing paint
• Red nail polish (the left eye, and the wee pomegranate in the design on the left (gold) side)

no shit: glue

• Lightweight gold drapery fabric scraps, left over from another project, for the ruffle
• Gold metallic braid, also left over from another project
• Hot glue
• broken plastic button as a centerpiece
• ribbon for the sides, to tie around the back of my head

Here's the one I made for Vasilii - muuuuuch simpler!  It looks a bit luchador to me, but the border design was actually inspired by a Russian shield (for which I have no documentation, but hey, it's a plastic football mask)!  A sharpie marker, a gold paint pen, and some spray-clear.  

For some reason, I've had songs from Phantom of the Opera stuck in my head all week. 

ANYWAY.   I will have pictures from the event and the ball!  I'll even try to get them up the next day, but if I don't, it'll be over a week until I do, because...

2.   I'm going on my cruise next week!  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Tippet Good!

Yes, that was a Devo reference.  You're welcome.

tippets + the newly be-purpled Ikea cotehardie

I finally got around to making myself a pair of white tippets!  Took me about 20 minutes altogether - and I even remembered to copy the prototype to a paper pattern so that I can make these again without starting from scratch.

tippet prototype:  a simple rectangle of cotton, pinned to fit my upper arm
and then trimmed to a pleasing, slightly-curved shape long its length. 

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Chicken Butt (The Latest Blue Dress)

In answer to the first post about my new court outfit for BAM...here it is:

navy blue cotton denim velveteen, red linen
sleeve linings, red microfiber half-sleeves
gold drapery tapestry fabric trim.  The overall
look was inspired in part by this. 

the deep-V back, which I am trying out here
for the first time, and which I adore; and the
long train, which I forgot to arrange nicely
for this picture, lol.  

sleeve layers

probably my favorite hair ever, for look and ease of wear
(although it was done in a hurry for these pics and looks
a bit slapdash).  Two braids crossed over my forehead
and tucked into my snood, topped by my circlet and then
my silk veil (which is usally worn much farther forward
than this; but I pulled it back so you could see the snood)

Tada!  I have GOT to start making sure someone photographs me at events.  I swear.  Maybe nobody likes me.  ;0)


I ended up using some "gold" and "crystal" (both plastic) buttons that I pulled off a pair of fancy half-sleeves, for this dress.  As soon as I find something for this dress I like better (and can afford.  Holy cow, buttons are expensive now that my discount place closed down!), these crystal buttons are going back onto the sleeves, because I like them better there.

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The Ikea Cotehardie: Finished!

A short recap:  the Ikea Cotehardie was great, but it didn't fit anymore, and I wasn't loving the look of it anymore.

Before

So I tore it apart, added gussets to the side seams and the back of the arms to give myself more bicep- and boob-room,  painstakingly picked out all the black decorative stitching (what I was I thinking!), and put the thing back together.

During...

And finally, I removed the buttons and replaced them with cloth ball buttons made of the same fabric, and then I DYED IT PURPLE!!!

 After! 

Purple!!  Truthfully, I was going for a soft, heather-y, faded, muted plum...and that's the color I got the first time I dyed this dress.  The problem is, I dyed it in a beer cooler, like I usually do when I dye things, which turned out not to be enough room to keep this big, heavy dress agitated as much as it needed - it settled and wrinkled and came out all patchy.  Seriously, it looked like purple camouflage!  I may or may not have actually screamed.  On a second dyeing - in the washing machine this time - the dye job came out beautifully smooth and rich...and waaaaay more purple than I'd originally intended.  Which is NOT to say that I don't love it, because I do. 

I mean, seriously. That's just an awesome color.
Cloth buttons, and here you can see the tapestry stuff on the
inside of the sleeve that dyed beautifully as well (look back at the
first picture).  Yay! 

I'll be wearing this to a demo with my household this coming weekend;  hopefully I'll have pictures for you of this dress all tarted up and accessorized.  You know how I am about pictures, though.  No promises.  ;) 

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It Took Me Twelve Months...

...but I'm finally posting one of these on time!

November In Review

• made a shiny new fancy court outfit - not that I have any pictures.  Because I suck.
• started another embroidered pouch, because I haven't finished the first one yet
• Event:  Bordermarch Autumn Melees (BAM), of which I have exactly 0 pictures. :( 
• new file cabinet + sewing patterns = a more organized craft room
• started refurbishing my gray Ikea linen cotehardie (to be continued)

I won't even promise you pictures of stuff from here on out.  But I will promise to try to be better at it.  

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