First Up: Not Remotely SCA-Related

Yesterday I made a dress for a 1950s-themed July 4th garden party for next weekend.  I made the pattern myself, based off of similar dresses from the 50s I've seen online.  I wish I'd been able to make the skirt fuller, but I botched the top  (the entire top is all one piece) and had to re-cut it. I still have accessories to put together and a hat to trim up;  pics of it after the party.

Here's the muslin that I draped up on my mannequin while developing the pattern, pinned together and covered with Sharpie notes. I did this back in March; when I made the dress yesterday, I actually had to bring both dress and mannequin down by two whole sizes, yay!

More sewing from Mundania:  

I needed new clothing for my new workplace:  my last job was jeans-and-t-shirts casual, and after five years, I had NO nice, office-y clothes to wear.  I'd also been thinking for more than a year about making some of my old batik sarongs into cute tops, so I put the two ideas together and made some blouses for work at the beginning of June:

A simple peasant blouse with elastic neck
and cuffs, made with my medieval chemise pattern 

A brown leafy tunic with flutter sleeves, adapted from
Simplicity 2690

A little skirt, using the fringe edge of the
sarong for the hem and patch pockets. 

A drawstring "pillowcase" top (not
for work), made in the same way I made
 the top of this set of PJs back in March, from
a pair of old wrap pants. 

In other news: 

I am also a redhead now.  My hair [was] nearly black, naturally, but I started going gray in my TEENS.  It's been many varieties of dark auburn over the years, as well as cherry red, navy blue,  and several purples;  I decided to start growing out my gray - because I've always wanted, since I was a kid, to have loooong, white hair when I'm an old lady (because of the fairy godmother character in the book The Princess and the Goblin).  Since it's easier to maintain root color updates on lighter hair, and also to blend gray/white in with lighter colors, I decided why not go balls-out ginger for a while before finally fading/growing it out?  :) 

OH DEAR GOD WHAT

ACK.  Sorry for the long absence, folks!  I had been working steadily through nearly the end of May, but then I FINALLY GOT A FREAKING JOB, and all of my energy has been spent in hitting the ground running at my new nine-to-five, and in all the emotional and mental processing which accompanies such a huge life change.  I haven't gotten a lot of work done this month, but I'm back at it after nearly four weeks, and I'll have updates soon, I promise. 

Meanwhile, NEW JOB YAY!!  *falls down zzzzzz* 


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Embroidery Experiments

Cranking out the commission work, pics of all soon.  Meanwhile, in between projects, I've been experimenting with some hand-embroidered accents on some of the new Viking pieces I've been making for myself...

A plain, black underdress, now with blue and green layers of chain stitching and a thread-covered wooden bead button.
This is my very first thread-covered button! :D 

Hand-stitched accents on a blue "apron dress" to go over the black (and yes, this is all the same dress. The camera really
dislikes this color. The bottom left is fairly close to the real color of the fabric).

...and on one of my commission pieces:

An applique' cut from a piece of patterened fabric, painted and then applied to a neckline outer facing, and then
edge-stitched with a plain chain stitch to accent the facing a bit.

I've been trying to remember to clock various elements of my projects - sewing seams, setting sleeves and gores, finishing hems, all sorts of things, just for my own records.  The embroidery on the black dress, while I didn't remember to set my phone's stopwatch, took me all of Guardians of the Galaxy and  The Incredible Hulk to make, LOL.  The blue apron dress took about six hours, start to finish, or approximately both Thors and half of Captain America (I did actually time that one, and it worked out to nearly exactly six hours).  The applique' on the green dress took about half an hour to paint, not including drying time; about half an hour to machine-sew to the dress, and then all the embroidery took about three hours.  I think I binge-watched old episodes of Forensic Files for that one.  I may not be making very good headway with the actual stopwatch, but at least now I know if I'm going to embroider clothing I'd better have a stack of stuff on the DVR lined up, LOL.  ;) 

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An Almost-Quarterly Project Management Update

After meeting with a couple of my fellow SCA seamstresses recently to discuss projects, project management, and goals, I thought I'd come here and share some thoughts on my personal process and how its revision has been going.

Last September I wrote my first "mission statement" post, mostly stemming from the feeling that costuming was sucking the life out of me and knowing that it was because I was pretty thoroughly sucking at managing my time and work effectively.  In December I posted an update, after a self-review surprised me by revealing that I was achieving my goals fairly well.  (You can see both of those posts here, or by clicking the "mission statement" tag on this post or the sidebar).

In the most recent five months, I've made progress, and I've also fallen off the wagon a little bit.  Most of the latter has happened since Gulf Wars - because I had a spectacularly awful war because I was ill the entire time I was there, and then cut short my trip because one of my pets was dying, the emotional fallout has sidelined me for a good two months.  But I'm back on track now and being truly productive again, and I've been re-thinking my process, refining some of my ideas, and discussing it with friends who have given me some excellent insights and new information to consider.

Goals From 2014 That I've Met and Good Habits Established: 

1. Become better familiar with the number and scope of commissioned projects I can take on at a time so that I can make my work and delivery more reliable, without overloading myself or biting off more than I can chew. 
2. Become better at establishing with new clients project parameters and delivery expectations
3. Learn to "divide and conquer" my project loads to ensure that no one thing falls by the wayside and so that every project receives an equal amount of attention to quality
4. Develop better workspace management habits (keep my room clean so I can work in it effectively)
5. Develop and grow my skills and knowledge, and the quality of my output
6. Learning to take the same care and put the same attention and quality into work for myself that I do into work for my clients.  

Goals I've Not Yet Met: 

1. Blog-related project delivery.  I've done better this year than last year, but I'm still awful at things like: posting finished project pictures of ALL of my projects, and posting pictures of finished costumes ON my clients
2. Participation in A&S: my A&S goals are stretched out over the course of this year, so it's not that I haven't done a good job, it's just that I'm only barely past the first marker.  I'm completely satisfied with my performance at Candlemas (the red Habsburg gown); I had fun, got over some fears, and learned a lot from the process that I think will help me in the future.  My next A&S checkpoint will be at Laurel's Prize Tourney in September of this year - I've got plenty of time to develop my project for that event and to develop my documentation skills, presentation, and confidence.  And trust me, I WILL be letting you know how all of that turns out. :) 

What's Next? 

I've been talking with friends recently about the more business-oriented aspects of being a seamstress.  I have no plans at present to develop my hobby sewing into anything like an actual business, but the more I learn about business and project management in the professional sense, the more I realize that much of it applies to casual, "sure, I'll make that for you" projects, and is VERY useful for learning to manage my productivity and quality in a more effective way.  

With the attention and development my commission projects and my personal wardrobe have been receiving, I'm noticing that more and more people are coming to me for advice, help with costuming, and actual commissions than ever before.  My work is improving consistently, and I feel I'm beginning to look the part of a person who actually knows what she's doing (in the past, I've focused 99% of my attention on commissions and then half-assed my own wardrobe in a mad dash the day before an event, which meant that while my "work" was well-received, *I* was still walking around events looking like a dump truck).  I'm beginning to receive more commission requests from outside of my circle of close friends, recently, as well. 

While I'm in no way resolving to stop doing the things that are working well for me (i.e. more effective project management, attention to detail, improving my "customer service", development of skill and quality), I have some new goals to add to my growing list of self-improvement strategies: 

• I'd like to develop a more comprehensive set of project parameters to establish with clients, especially clients who I don't know well to begin with.  It's one thing to sew for a buddy with whom you already have a relationship and see all the time, where mutual understanding and communication aren't at issue; but it's another animal entirely working with someone you don't know.
• While I've always known that I undervalue my work (and what maker or artist doesn't, really?), I've recently done some research into my past work and discovered that the extent to which I'm selling myself short, in MANY areas, is just staggering in proportion.  I'm not just talking about pricing, either - I fall short in areas of confidence, pride in my work, and in fear of judgment resulting in a dysfunctional sense of false humility. 
• Because I anticipate one day doing a lot more work on a semi-professional level, I'd like to spend some time really tracking my costs, time, and labor on various projects, so that in the future I can have a better idea of what it is that I'm doing, so that I can more accurately predict for clients how long a project will take, what it involves, and what to expect overall.  
• On the organizational front, I'd like to create a couple of notebooks to keep around:  a portfolio of my work, both for A&S purposes and to show to clients during design consultations; a working notebook in which to keep client information, measurements, and history, for my own use; and an SCA "resume" type of document or book, in which to keep track of both my project history and achievements. 
• I'd like to develop my own wardrobe even further.  In my first few years in the SCA, I was excited by every new thing I discovered, and had a "one of everything" wardrobe, but because I jumped around so often, not one of my outfits was ever fully developed where things like jewelry and accessories were concerned.  I've been sticking with a time period/culture for longer periods of time in the past two years - I now have a [more or less] fully-developed 15th century Florentine wardrobe, my 14th-15th century English wardrobe is doing fairly well, and my Viking wardrobe is well on its way.  However, I still feel that each of those collections could use a little more depth.  The devil is in the details, as they say.  I met a man at Queen's Champion last week who was a paragon of periodicity.  I've seen people with very nice kits before, even epic kits, but this guy blew them all out of the water.  There was a level of detail and effort in his presentation that went far beyond having done a good job - you looked at this man, and it was like seeing someone from the 1100s actually, physically come to life before your eyes.  I want my own look to be working on THAT level! 

I'm a couple of weeks overdue on posting some finished stuff, so I'll get to that in the next few days (I just have to go through my camera and get pics ready for the blog), and in the next few days I'll also be talking about the next round of commissions and personal projects that I have lined up.  

See you soon! 

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S'mo Italian Stuff

Just in time for the 14-15thC Italian-themed Queen's Champion event this weekend:

1.  Green damask giornea top layer for the brown linen gamurra I fixed up last month:

$7 thrift store holiday tablecloth FTW

2.  Blue silk cioppa (over-layer dress, sometimes worn over a gamurra, which is closed in the front, sometimes worn alone) with pieced sleeves:

Event pics, with sleeves, next week!

4.  A new necklace for no reason at all, with graduated, faceted carnelian beads given to me by a client, alternated with 4mm amber-colored glass seed beads:

5.  A blue linen sleeveless underdress, made for a friend to wear while working in the event kitchen and/or bumming around camp:

This was based (loosely) on the following excerpt.  I lowered the top yoke considerably, and left off the trim and shoulder ties.  This is meant to be sort of a sundress that she can wear for SCA work days - casual, plain, and cool in the Ansteorra heat.

from Triumph of Death, Lorenzo Costa
 (right panel)

Also finished since  my last post:  two Roman dresses, and two Viking apron dresses, for another client, as well as two pairs of Phrygian caps for two other people, all to be delivered this weekend at Queen's Champion.  Hopefully I'll have pics of everything for you next week!

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Can't Stay Away For Too Long

In the past month-or-so since war, I've taken some time off.  I've sewn mundane garments.  I've cleaned up the house.  I've been spray painting shelves, moving furniture around the house, helping to plan surprise birthday parties, learning to cook new things, and spending a LOT of time in the garden.

And yes, I've been gearing up to hit the SCA sewing.  The longer I put it off, the more excited I am about it!  And it's about time to get down to business.  I have a mountain of alterations and new projects for clients - some regular and some new.  There'll be a lot to show you in the next few months.

The first thing on my schedule was to refit a few things from my Italian wardrobe.

To Wit: 

I started by replacing the neckline on my old, white, cotton camicia with a drawstring neckline instead of the flat one it had (because it was ripped on one side, and stained, I think with coffee).

Next, I dug out my old, brown, linen gamurra for some repairs and alterations:

• re-attached one of the ribbons at the shoulders that tie the sleeves onto the dress
• re-attached a couple of button loops on the sleeves that had torn loose; and reinforced the rest of them to prevent that happening in the future
• changed the sleeve buttons
• replaced the hand-stitched lacing rings on the front of the gamurra with a strip of eye tape (the eye side of hook-and-eye tape by the yard) for a more even and professional-looking front closure on the dress
• Removed the skirt, which had always been a couple of inches too long, and rather than shortening it, shortened the bodice on the dress to move the look from a more mid-1400s natural waistline to a midriff-length high waistline seen in paintings of the 1480s-90s, which is the look I prefer (I intended this dress to have a higher waistline to begin with - which was why the skirt was too long - but I'm very long-waisted, and in the habit of adding length to the waistline of anything I sew, sometimes without thinking about it.  I realized recently that this was actually why that dress never fit me correctly in the bust!)  

Finished, front and back with sleeves

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Before - April 2013. The front was sloppy, the bodice
lumpy because it was too long, and the sleeves were
too loose (I fixed that last fall but forgot to mention it). 

L-R:   opening up the brown linen shell,  opening up the lining and interlining and sizing the piece I removed from the lower
edge of the bodice, finished insert - and noticing that I twisted the front when I put it back together, resulting in a twisted
strap - I had to take the strap apart and flip it and sew it back together, LOL.  Oops.  

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Not my favorite part of making a gamurra.  However, since it was essentially
pre-pleated from just having been removed from the dress, it was far
easier than pleating "from scratch."  

Eye tape inside the front opening of the dress, and 1/8"
cotton twill tape lacing.  Also the new drawstring casing
on the camicia.

Post-War Projects

I kind of mentally swore to myself that I wouldn't touch an SCA project for one month after I got back from war.  I'll be back, don't worry, but I have lots of other things to get done around here, and I needed a break.  Here's what I'm working on right now:

Gardening! 

A friend and I spent the afternoon yesterday at one of my favorite garden nurseries in town, It's About Thyme.  For a few hours before that, and several afterward, I worked my butt off in the backyard:  mowing, pruning, digging, planting, mulching, filling the compost pile, moving rocks and cobblestones, and generally just rebooting my garden from - if you'll pardon the pun - from the ground up.  There's more here at my garden blog.

Bathrobing! 

No kidding, I've had this purple jersey knit fabric sitting in a bag for _over a year_ waiting for me to "just be done with this one project" before I'd start it.  Meanwhile, the knit bathrobe I made for myself in 2008 was literally full of holes (puppy) and falling apart at the seams.  So I made this one to replace it.  The pattern is the same as the Japanese clothing I've made in the past for Sir Takuan, and also the one I used for my short, silk robe/cover-up last year.

Vacationing! (Some More)

www.kingwaterpark.com 

Some friends of mine and I are spending next weekend at King Spa & Waterpark in Dallas.  WHEEE!!!  I can't wait.


More soon.  :)

BWAHAHA Oops.

You know, I was looking over my blog(s) the other day, and realized that I never actually posted finished pics of the new craft room (aka "Room of Requirement")!

Okay, so, you've seen the old version:

Which is now my bedroom:  

And my old bedroom, which in this picture is filled with stuff from the old sewing room, during the room swap. I haven't been a "hang out in my room" person since I was a teenager, and really, who needs all this room to just sleep?

At first, Sylvan and I thought we'd put our work tables in the center of the room, like this: 

Before she'd even moved in, I realized how very, very much that was NOT going to work.  My sewing machine vibrated both tables so much that she'd never have been able to work like that; and also, since all my sewing stuff was jammed up against the wall behind me, but my cutting table was on the opposite side of the room, I kept having to get up and walk around while I was working.  

So we drew up a new floor plan that worked better for both of us, with each of us with a work table against a wall, storage around, and my cutting table in the center, which is easier for me to get to without having to stand up if I don't need to, and also so that we can BOTH use the cutting table as a large, open work surface if needed: 

(made with Icovia Floor Planner) 

And here is the finished Room of Requirement, and folks, this is about as tidy as it gets.

CAUTION:  WOMEN AT WORK!

It works great.  We both love it, and we're both enjoying spending time in there crafting together.  When she moved in, we put her TV in the living room, and put my [smaller] one in the craft room, so we frequently have a movie on in the background while we work (usually a Disney animated flick; though my go-to when I'm working alone is Pride and Prejudice, in case you're wondering.  When it's just me and just music, I listen to a lot of Chinese flute, for some reason. It's calming).  

Also, in case anyone cares, and because I love paint, the colors in these rooms are: 

• Old sewing room:  Glidden's "Pale Red Dust"
• New bedroom:  Sherwin Williams' "Distance"
• Room of Requirement: Sherwin Williams' "Palladian Blue" 
• All the ceilings are Sherwin Williams' "White Clay" 

This post is also up on my house-stuff blog, which is here, if you're interested.  I've been going hell-bent-for-leather on SCA stuff for several months running now, though, so there isn't much going on over there lately.  But now that war is over, there'll be a LOT of house and garden stuff going on! 

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