Back From War!

Sore, tired, swollen, scraped, and sunburnt!  AHHH.

Sir John photobombing a pic of me and my friend Elena  :)

More to come; including war projects, how I won the Shopping War Point for Ansteorra, and what's next for this gal over the coming months!


.

Goin' To Gulf Wars, BRB

Another Mask

Another $2 plastic mask, in fact, for the masked ball Wednesday night at Gulf War:

The black and gold floral design is the way it came from the store;  I filled in around the designs with gold nail polish on the gold side, and highlighted the black curls in a deep red polish;  then did the same on the black side with teal sparkle nail polish, lol.   Glued some rhinestones here and there (blue on the black side and red on the gold side), and then a forest green ribbon all the way around (during which process I proceeded to get hot glue EVERYWHERE and burn nearly all of my fingertips), and a green ribbon to tie it around my head.

.

15th Century French Cigarette Case?

Step One:  Before  

Mine was black with skulls all over it.
It was pretty cool, but it was also worn around the edges and really faded. 

Step two: Inspiration

French manuscript case, 4x3", early 1500s
Tortoise shell and ivory
Metropolitan Museum

Step Three: supplies already on hand

Et Voila:  

Sorry for the blurriness - I'm back to phone pics until I can figure out wtf picasa is smoking these days.

1 plastic cig case
black spray paint
3 plastic buttons, spray painted almond
gold paint marker
7 "pewter" plastic beads
embroidery floss, 6-strand braided cord (and yes, the box slides up and down on the cord, and opens properly).

Not bad for a bunch of plastic crap.


.




.

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!


.

Look Ma, No Hands!

Well, at least not as many.  Lookee what I made:

Stamps! I paint so many lions on all my Caerleon stuff - and for other company members, too - that I finally just up and made a stamp to save myself some work.  These don't produce a finished product by any means, but they're a quick and easy way to give myself identical outlines to work with on a project with multiple lion charges (and there are always at least three).

Testing out the 2" size on a piece of scrap linen/rayon blend.

Vasilii's Russian Caerleon tunic, with two sets of three stamped lions.  This was the reason I finally made stamps, actually - I did NOT want to try to sketch out or stencil all those little bitty lions (2" high).  This took one stamp, one "second coat" of paint, and then just detailing with the red and black.  Done!


.

SNOOOOOOOOOOD!!!

I can't help it, I just have to say it like that.  SNOOOOOOOD.

I made one:

This is a big deal for me, because I've tried this four times before and never could get it right.  I kept trying to crochet one in the round - and I make a LOT of hats that way, and they come out just fine, but for some reason I just could not make a snood in the round without screwing it completely up.

This one's a square. :D   It's just a 16-row square (16x16 rows), on an F hook, size 5 cotton/metallic crochet thread.  Took about four hours.

It's hard to tell in the picture of the finished snood, but you can see it a bit here:  this "natural" colored thread (kind of a newspaper-cream) has a shot of thin gold metallic thread woven through it.

It's all sparkly and stuff.  <3




Yes, this is the snood I wore at the event last weekend with the new Italian.  Red velvet with cream cheese icing!  :)




.

Allons Bourguignonne! O no?

Remember that red velvet Burgundian I inherited?

yes, this one. 

Well, in December, I got it all torn apart and ready to be made over.  I took the sleeves off to alter them, lowered and widened the neckline in the front, removed the collar and cuffs and even cut out a new collar and cuffs from some white faux fur I had lying around.

Carlo Crivelli1470

And then one day a couple of weeks ago, it went all Italian on me.

I blame the painting at right.  Many moons ago, I loved it for the amazing detail and pattern on the sleeves (click to visit pinterest, and a larger image).  Every time I ran across this painting, I thought mournfully of the pomegranate sleeves that were never to be.

Then I happened across it again while I was idly and half-heartedly sketching out some changes to the red velvet Burgundian...and I thought....wait...

It was already torn apart.  I made an Excel spreadsheet comparing the changes and amount of work needed to finish it as a Burgundian or turn it into an Italian gamurra (because I'm a dork like that), and realized that not only would it be LESS work than the Burgundian, I wouldn't need to also build a hat at the last minute before the tournament last weekend, but I also had some fantastic jewelry already made that I can wear with it!

And, of course, the pomegranate sleeves - which I did eventually cut out and sew together, but I had never finished them (I couldn't find the right buttons).

Permettetemi di presentarvi Maddelina della Sarta.  

I love this so much. :) 

So what'd I do?  I removed the sleeves from the Burgundian, and faced the arm holes and neckline with red linen.  I cut the top of the bodice , took in the sides and the back to fit. then pleated the top edge of the skirt and stuck it back on.  I also made a privacy panel to pin inside the front under the lacings, to make it look like there are more layers going on here than there really are.  

So how many layers are going on here?  In this picture the only thing underneath it is my fitted chemise.  I have that fluffy camicia that I made somewhere - but I'll be damned if I can find it lately.  I'm hoping it turns up before this weekend, since I was planning to wear this at court!

The silver lacing rings on the front are plain ol' aluminum "chain maille" rings from the jewelry section at the hobby store (because they were cheap and not crappy-looking);  after I took the picture I replaced the black ribbon on the front with silver, and tied the sleeves on with silver ribbons to match.  Here I am at the event over the weekend, Bjornsborg's Tournament of the Smitten Heart:

with my pointy almost-period tent in the background, with silver lacings
and sleeve ties instead, and all my pins and favors from the event. :) 

I had so much fun wearing this, and it was so comfortable, and I felt so nice wearing it, and got soooo many compliments, that I've decided that Italian Ren is my new love.  I can't wait to make some from the ground up!

.

.