Baron's War

Baron's War was pretty awesome. I spent a chunk of the day working as exchequer, but escaped for a bit to visit Serafina at her vigil and sample some of the amazing food she had there. I wore the chocolate kirtle and newly completed sleeves - pictoral evidence!

From Baron's War 2011

My beautiful coral bead jewelery was made by the lovely and talented Aine, whose jewelery and zibillino are gaining world-renown. You can even buy one at her Sable Greyhound site!

From Baron's War 2011

Yes, it was incredibly bright outside. You can click through and see more pictures from the event. I do not have pictures of Serafina's laurel ceremony as I was part of it. Sadness. :( But you can take my word that it was lovely - so many people shared so many beautiful truths about her. She also looked amazing (as usual).

Chocolate Kirtle - Sleeves

Guess who now has two completed fully reversible black/chocolate sleeves?

My green silk ribbons arrived in a timely manner, but I was stalled on the project while I painted. I'm pleased to now declare them done. I still have to add lacing rings in the chocolate kirtle itself, but this shouldn't take much time. If I manage that in time, pictures at Baron's War will ensue.

Silk Ribbons, or Why Crystal Fails at Math

Remember the green silk ribbons I bought to use as sleeve ties?

I'm eight inches short. I miscalculated how long to cut them, and now have to order more. Learn to count, noob. :(

I can't finish the linen sleeves (or rather, one of them), until I get more ribbon. Because I'm making these to be fully reversible, I sewed the ribbons down inside the sleeve when they were right-sides together, rather than tacking them on afterward. I took some steps to ensure that they won't pull out from strain (I hope).

The good news is that I got the scroll from Bethany and can spend my time painting until the ribbon arrives in the mail.

Sleeve Updates & Lists

Despite the break in blog etiquette, I'm posting without pictures.

Last night I worked on my sleeves, and I now have four sleeve-shaped tubeish things that need to be assembled into sleeves with linings. That shouldn't take too long, provided I am careful and don't sew the wrong pieces together/inside out. Been there, done that.

Last night Bethany also delivered a certain scroll-in-progress to me for me to do my contributions. This particular piece is super special to my heart, and already has the brilliant work of one amazing Duchess on it. So no messing up for me! I must work quickly in order to get it back to Bethany for her to finish.

So, my projects that are currently a priority are:
1. Scroll
2. Finish sleeves
3. Partlet for chocolate kirtle
4. Sew lacing rings into chocolate kirtle for sleeves
5. Finalize plan for ACC

Other, less projecty, but equally important tasks are:
1. Find dress to wear to Astrid's wedding
2. Beg/borrow/steal garb for Mark to wear to Baron's War (Sven's garb is going to be too large, and he doesn't have many tunics to spare anyway)
3. Decide whether to camp at Baron's War or not

Sleeves

Wednesday and Thursday evenings were spent hiding in my basement, as the temperature is a few degrees cooler than upstairs. The window air conditioner unit is a lifesaver, but the air doesn't circulate particularly well, and I don't do well in the heat. The benefit of becoming a basement hermit is that my studio is in the basement.

I drafted a fitted curved sleeve pattern, largely based on the fitted sleeves in various commercial patterns such as Margo Anderson and Reconstructing History. This was an adventure in frustration as I have very bulky (fat batwings!) upper arms, but my arm length is ridiculously short. Remind me to install a mirror in my studio as well.

I figured I'd pin down the curved sleeve documentation a little later, as it's so accepted... and I've been a bit frustrated in trying to do so. I'll have to pull out my Janet Arnold library later to verify things... but all I've found so far is the use of curved sleeves in Alcega's men's doublet pattern. So yeah, the men did it... did the women really do it too? Probably, but I'd like proof. Regardless, I have my pattern, curved and all, and have cut out one layer in black linen. The other layer will be chocolate linen, and these will be reversible, with sewn-in green silk ribbons for tying them on. These ribbons are actually more olive/less minty than the picture shows.

I got my silk ribbons from Wm. Booth Draper, and I can't say how much I love this shop. Last year I bought their bone bodkin, embroidery waxer, and rosewood needlecase, and I *heart* them.

Quest Recap

Quest for the Holy Lands started out rocky due to some issues with my office of the exchequer property (which has yet to be solved, but I'm confident that it will be soon) which left me without a table for Troll, Shade to sit under, and chairs to sit in. After some creativity and borrowing, we had Troll set up and running, and I had a bunch of volunteers to help me, which made my life so much wonderful, I can hardly express it. I am so deeply grateful for all those who helped me out all weekend.

I wore my new chocolate kirtle on Saturday! Of course, I waited until I'd been sitting/slouching in it all day before taking a picture so it's all rumpled and the nice smooth bodice...isn't. Le sigh. Ah well, I did get numerous compliments on it, and that pleases me.

Saturday evening it began raining, and by the time I left site (day tripped), my dress and petticoat had soaked up about 8 inches of water. The next morning as we were headed back to site, I got the phone call that site had received snow, and that both my troll shade and my personal shade were tragic victims of the wet snow's destructive power. Yay? I'm told they went down before most people even knew it was snowing.

After some cleanup, and a deep sigh of relief that Sven chose to come home with me rather than sleep in the pop-up as he wanted, we headed home, as the event was basically called quits due to inclement weather.

We still have T-shirts for sale though. I highly recommend them!

Chocolate Kirtle

I was very tempted to make the Ultramarine blue kirtle first, but alas I needed to get started before the fabric was done being pre-shrunk. So in the end, the decision was dictated by my washing machine.

Friday night I cut two layers of cotton canvas interlining for the bodice, drafted and sewed boning channels, cut and filed boning, and watched the conclusion of Downton Abbey and all of Wuthering Heights. My boning is simple cable ties for this gown, as I didn't feel like dealing with spring steel for this project.

Saturday, after many trials and tribulations involving a marathon blocking my exit from the city, I finally arrived at Serafina's house to keep her company and keep us both focused on our projects. She was a machine zipping through curtains like mad while I worked on completing my bodice, including hand-worked eyelets... why is it that the first few eyelets of every project are complete crap? Oh well, they are serviceable. I am disappointed in myself that I didn't quite count right and I have an extra hole in my bodice for spiral lacing. Oops. Yes, I did extra eyelets for no reason. *facepalm*

Yesterday I cut out my skirts, graded the front of the waistline to account for the dip, pleated and attached said skirts to my spanky new bodice. These pictures are complete crap as I don't have a dress form to speak of (in the works though!), and are taken in my poorly lit bedroom. I am pleased with how the pleating ended up in the back. I don't love the front. I used three panels, with only one in the front so I could use the existing seams for the side lacing. There isn't enough pleating in the front, in my opinion, but I don't hate it enough to re-do it.

The Kitty was far too interested in my lacing cords for her own good. Next up, hemming the skirts.

Chocolate Kirtle - Partlets!

One of the key ways I intend to make the Chocolate Kirtle change from look to look, is by adding several different partlets. Partlets can save my fair skin from the evil sun and make my dress more period-appropriate at the same time. The beauty of historical costuming is in the details, and partlets are not used nearly enough, in my humble opinion. Below is a montage o' partlets that I find particularly beautiful... i.e. I'll probably die if I don't make them one day. The won't all be appropriate with a simple linen kirtle, but the overall shape and look can be used with numerous materials to achieve nothing short of greatness.

Chocolate Kirtle - Flemish Syle

After a long day of work yesterday, I arrived home, cooked some amazing pork souvlaki for dinner, and then had to head to Officer's Meeting, as I'm currently the Exchequer of the Barony of Gryphon's Lair. This meant my evening was pretty shot as far as starting on my kirtle goes, particularly since the lightbulbs in my studio require replacing and cutting fabric in the dark isn't really an option. Well, that and discovering that Season five of Doctor Who is now available on Netflix...

So I have nothing new to report on progress, but I can share more details on the different looks I intend to obtain by using this chocolate kirtle as a base gown. I'm not sharing these looks in order of my intent to finish them... I will likely finish whatever is fastest first, since the camping season is upon me.

The painting Market Woman by Pieter Aertsen shows a Flemish working class dress that I've been lusting after for many, many years. What can I say? I'm a procrastinator. By adding a front-lacing overgown, partlet, sleeves, and an awesome hat to my chocolate kirtle, I will finally have my Flemish dress.

Project: Kirtle

For quite some time I've been planning to make a chocolate brown linen kirtle, side back-lacing, like this beauty, painted by Orazio Gentileschi:

I Plan to use this versatile garment in a number of different ways by dressing it up with different accessories. A variety of parlets, sleeves, jackets and overgowns will make this a staple in my wardrobe. I have two or three different fabrics that will make splendid camicias and/or partlets with little hand-work involved. These will be ideal for the camping season, where nature can be detrimental and disastrous to certain labors at times. I would hate to spend dozens of hours hand-couching a partlet only to have it destroyed by a stain while camping.

I spent time yesterday with Serafina, who helped drape a pattern for me (one of these days, I really will get a dress form so I can do such things on my own, but for now this is an excellent excuse to go visit my lovely friend). So, with bodice pattern in hand, now I can start the process of garbing myself for the summer.