Drawstring Pouch

My awesome hubby has not been feeling very awesome.  In fact, he's been very sick for some time.  So when he had a bad spell Friday night, I cancelled my plans to attend Defenders Tourney in Loch Salann, and instead stayed home in case he needed me, but largely just spent time crafty/sewing.

I have a rather long task list in the land of artsy craftsy, but nothing was calling out to me, and my brain was just frazzled enough that I didn't want to start something I couldn't finish in the same day.  So enter the circular drawstring pouch.  I was sorting and organizing some of my remnants and found a sizeable piece of butter damask left over from my sottana, and decided to make a pouch out of it.  I lined it in a scrap of white linen - I swear my linen stash multiplies itself!

The drawstring is a length of double faced satin ribbon left over from my "spiral" silk sleeve tie-ons, and a couple of aiglets from the stash.

The pouch has a separate round bottom, allowing it to stand somewhat on its own, while also providing a huge amount of interior space.

See?  It's big enough to house Oinklett, my piggy shaped tailoring ham.

But not quite tall enough to hide my water bottle.  You get the picture.

I'm thinking that the next one I make will have pockets within the lining, to keep certain things separate and easy to find without having to dig through a jumble of giant pouchyness.  Like keys.  Possibly also a big pocket for my phone.

If there's interest, I might be convinced to do a tutorial on how to make these fellas.  Comment your thoughts.  As a side note, they make excellent dice bags, for those with epic amounts of dice.  (You know who you are...)

Eggplant Veste

Giovanni Battista Moroni, Portrait of a Lady

Lavinia Fontana, Laura Gonzaga in Green

 Since the Artemisian Costuming Challenge, I have been plotting a silk veste, whose beautiful silk taffeta has languished in my stash these last several years. It is a strange berry silk, shot with brown that comes across as mauveish/purple/eggplant depending on the light.  It hates to be photographed as well, so the colors in these photos may look strange.

A veste is a fitted overgown, sometimes with simple shoulder treatments (barragoni), sometimes with lavish ones.  Sometimes they had sleeves, sometimes not.  Sometimes it was worn over a sottana (under-gown), sometimes over a doublet and skirt or forepart.  It's a relatively simple way to add a layer of warmth and completely change the look of a gown.

I started with a fitted doublet-ish shaped bodice.  I say "ish" because it is not a standard doublet shape.  The front angles out, and will never close up toward the neck, across my chest, as it is designed to be worn open and show the under layers below.  Some vestes could have been closed to the neck - I chose not to.  I added thread-wrapped buttons down the front.

I then drafted a collar, made of two layers of canvas and one layer of wool felt, and pad stitched it to give it some form and direction.  I ended up having to do this twice due to poor measuring - the first collar was too short to fit in the neckline.  This was then covered in silk and hand-stitched into place.

I cartridge pleated the silk skirt and attached it to the bodice by hand.  Last, but not least, I hand sewed, stitched, and gathered puffed shoulder treatments, enhanced with a thread-covered button.

I wore the silk veste over my butter yellow damask sottana and spiral/chevronesque silk sleeves from the Artemisian Costuming Challenge.  After this first voyage, I find I need to stiffen the hem a bit, or grade the split in the front, so you can get a peak of the yellow gown beneath.

Below pictures all taken by my amazing husband, JJM (also often referred to as Sven). 

Noelle/Serafina, this picture is for you!  Goats!

Special thanks goes to my awesome husband who took the portraits for me!