A Herd of Boxen

At the aforementioned Yule Revel last weekend, we had a Largesse Competition, wherein each contestant made or otherwise provided a set of five things.  They could be five of the same thing, five related, or completely un-related things.  The person who's set was chosen as the winning entry got to choose an item from the entire table as her/his prize, and all the rest of the items went to fill the Barony's coffers, to be given out  by the Baron and Baroness as largesse and gifts to members of the populace in the coming year.

What a cool idea!

And, hey, guess what?  I won! :D  For my prize I chose a gorgeous pair of earrings made by a friend for the competition, in serpentine and pearls. :)

And, of course, I forgot to take a picture of them on the table at the event, so all I have are pics of them on my kitchen counter.

They're just $2-3 wooden boxes from the craft store, stained and painted with plain ol' furniture stain, acrylic craft paints, a Sharpie marker, a gold paint pen, a stain touch-up pen, and a can of matte-finish spray-sealant.

done, on my kitchen counter last week

the insides, painted

my favorite one, stain-penned border & sharpie/paint vines

second-favorite, design inspired by this 

gold paint marker + sharpie

stain pen wood tones

And of course, one had to be the Star of Ansteorra  :o) 

P.S. - Interested in seeing a video of the choral and musical performance I was a part of at the event?  It's on the blog I keep for the Choral Guild: http://bryngwlad-choir.blogspot.com/2011/12/yule-revel-performance-video.html

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More Underwear!

I love underwear. I really do.  This week it was a long-sleeved, front-laced chemise.  And it bugs me to no end that after searching for HOURS online, I can't seem to find the single painting from the 15th century that depicts this thing that I made from memory of the painting.  (Read: "I have documentation, I just don't have it with me, Officer").  I thought I bookmarked that thing!!

Anyhoo.

You can see why I'm trying to find at least the one picture I know of that shows an example of this style of chemise or under-gown. I've found plenty that depict a tightly fitted [sleeveless] chemise, but I can't find the *one* picture I know I've seen where one had a short lacing placket down the front like this, as well as the long sleeves.  It's out there somewhere. Laughing at me.

It's looser in the skirt than most, and longer; the sleeves are long and fitted; and the front is laced tight under and across the bust.  Not as supportive and constricting as a côtehardie, but enough to, well, help, and it fits nicely and smoothly under a buttoned côte.

I'm not sure if there's a better term than "under-gown", but that's it's function.  I have a plain, sleeveless chemise that works just fine for what it is, but I wanted one that could double as a true foundation layer and not just a layer of fabric between my dress and me.




And guess what?  Also this:

WHAT  A  PAIN  IN  THE   BUTT!  I decided to try hand-stitching eyelets on this thing, one, because I hadn't ever done it before, and two, because I'm thinking of lacing an actual kirtle with hand-stitched eyelets on a future gown...and now I'm seriously re-thinking that.  Pain. In. Thebutt.

The chemise is a soft, lightweight cotton...a sheet from a thrift store, actually.  It's not really sheer, but you can see in the shoulder seams and the edging around the neckline that it's not entirely opaque, either.

I put a boring ol' lettuce edge along the end of the sleeve cuffs, so that when it does show, it's decorative, though simple, without adding a bulky cuff hem underneath another sleeve worn over it.









I've learned two things from this project:

1. I want more period underwear. 
2. I think I'm going to have to have a white côtehardie one day.  I wonder if I could actually wear one for any length of time without spilling stuff on it. 

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OHNOES.

The fabric I was waiting for showed up over the weekend!  It's gorgeous. It's a heavy, upholstery-grade woven linen, and it's SO soft and supple and silky.

It's also the wrong color.

The fabric I ordered, I thought, was a cranberry-pink-gold-brown design on a white or off-white background.  The website description called the background "wheat"...but all the pictures looked off-white to me, except for one, which I thought was just a photo exposure thing.  Because I'm an idiot.

Turns out that the yellow-y picture was the only one with the correct color:  the background of the fabric is a lovely, golden-brown, cafe-latté ...wheat...sort of shade, which, don't get me wrong, is absolutely gorgeous...but it's also horrible for my skin tone.

Which honestly wouldn't matter--because I do like it just the way it is--except that it was for a pair of sleeves.  Will they be close enough to my face/shoulders to make my skin look horrible, as I suspect they will?  Or will the shoulder and neckline of the gown they're to go with be enough distance to keep this "wheat" color from making me look transparent and jaundiced??

And if it's the second thing, and it doesn't work, what will I use it for?  And what will I do for sleeves for this dress, if this fabric doesn't work??

Drumroll, please...

Pics or It Didn't Happen

Though I haven't had time to take pics and make actual blog posts this week, I am actually getting things done.  (It didn't help that I was deathly ill most of the week, which required a lot of video game playing).

Done!

• red dress for Yule
• brown linen liripipe hood, also for Yule

Next Up

• A friend of mine gave me the most gorgeous white silk, tissue-fine, to use for veil stuff. 
• I picked up a really nice, soft, white cotton sheet at a thrift store recently that I plan to use for a proper chemise/undergown/scooting around camp dress/nightgown. 
• Another thrift store score:  a white linen blouse with a pretty embroidered edge that I plan to make into a coif.
• A couple of period-ish gift items I'm making, which I'll write about here after they're no longer a surprise. :) 

The Big Next Thing

• The next big event is a big one - our baronial Candlemas event, which is a pretty serious deal.  It's also my SCA-a-versary--one whole year! I'm so excited about the outfit I have planned, and I have nearly all the materials and bits to make it ready to go.  Just need to sit my butt down and get to work. 

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Meanwhile, somewhere in the land of lost packages...

So, I ordered some awesome fabric...a while ago.  It hasn't come in yet.  It's not cause for serious alarm or off-pissedness or anything just yet, but I am a bit concerned.  I emailed the company last week to ask for the FedEx tracking number so I could check with FedUp about it, but I haven't gotten an email response.  And granted, last week was Thanksgiving week, and it IS entirely possible that the company was shut down for the whole week.  So we'll see how it turns out.

FedEx is currently standing between me and a fabulous dress.  We wants it, Precioussss.

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Because hoodies are cool.

I'm currently making myself a liripipe hood!  It goes a little something like this: 

The Medieval Taylor

Is that not awesome?  I love it!  I've wanted one forever, but it's only now getting to be the time of year (here) where I might need some extra warmth at events. 

The liripipe on mine is going to be loooong - I fully intend to be able to tuck this baby into my belt, wrap it around my head or my neck, or maybe put marbles into the end and smack people.  Maybe. 

Kat's Hats

  I recently learned that this wonderful weirdness evolved out of the liripipe hood.  There's a way you can roll up the "face" part and leave the shoulder cape hanging off to one side and the 'pipe sticking out the top, and it looks like this. Apparently folks loved it so much they started building a look-alike on a big puffy stuffed roll - because even in the 14th century, your hat had to be more epic than everyone else's, hehe. 




Incidentally, while there is a proper name for this hat, I can never seem remember it in conversation, for whatever reason (it's chaperon, I looked).  Maybe there's a hole in that part of my brain, and it falls out, the way things do when I put them in the left side of my crappy old purse.  I have a friend who rocks a really fabulous hat like this.  I call it his Pile-of-Laundry Hat, because it makes him laugh. :o)

Mine's brown linen on the outside, leftover from a dress I made in January for my very first Serious Event (Candlemas, and no you can't have a picture, it was hideous).  


The innards are a light, muted blue with a bit of a jacquard weave, from an old set of sheets I had a piece of just big enough to make a hood with.  


I'm going to button up the front, but I haven't decided yet what kind of buttons to use.  At some point I reached the stage where I have approximately two frillion côtehardie buttons just sitting around left over from projects, so I'll probably end up using some of them.  Maybe the silver ones from my gray linen côte. 


Who knows?




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Red Côte for Yule

Tada.  *yawn*  I'm getting a bit tired of cranking these out, though they're awfully nice to wear.  Easy, comfy, warm when they need to be, cool when they don't.

Plain red...mostly.

The neckline and sleeves are trimmed in navy blue.  There was originally going to be a wide band of the same color around the bottom of the dress, until I started putting it together and discovered that I'd neglected to cut out *one* of the trim pieces, and was out of fabric.  Fail.

It's hard to see in this picture (phone + mirror = not a great combo), but the buttons are arranged in groups of three. In between each set is a hidden hook & eye.

Navy trim.

This is going to be my outfit for Yule Revel.

If I get time between now and then, I'm going to make myself a liripipe hood to wear with this.

These are the buttons.  From BrazenButton.com










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[Insert Stupid Pun Here]

Not much to post about lately - nothing terribly exciting, that is.  I'm working on a plain*, red cotehardie for Yule Revel + the choral performance, and plans for lots and lots of other things, including gifts, woodcrafts, and some spiffy jewelry.   Also a gown I plan to make, done after a Van Der Weyden painting, that I think is going to be quite the bomb-diggity.  I have to finish the Yule dress first, and all the other little things that are going to be happening over the next month.

* "plain," but with fabulous buttons, of course. ;)

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