ACC - Muff Update

My last few days have been spent cleaning up from Midge Marsh Melee (the event in which I neglected to get photos of Sven in his new red tunic... D'oh!). We went to Thrown Weapons practice on Tuesday, and yesterday had to run errands to get supplies to fix a giant hole in our garden hose which is preventing us from watering the lawn. One week without watering in this weather = dead grass. My landlady would not be too happy.

I did steal a few minutes to start disassembling the faux fur lined coat to get pieces to use in my muff.

I have learned that pulling apart old coats is nasty business. Dusty, musty, and the outer fabric is a gross plasticy vinyl that is icky to the touch. Little furry bits fly everywhere.  I did have some success though, and have enough fur from pulling the sleeves apart to line my muff. It will have to be pieced to get the right shape - the sleeves were several pieces of tapered fur, much to my dismay. C'est la vie.

ACC - Muff

Wherein my brain gave birth to an idea for a muff...

Muffs became fashionable in Italy during the early 1570’s, and from there it spread pretty much everywhere. Harrison, as quoted by Janet Arnold, records that “Women’s Maskes, Buskes, Muffs, Fanns, Perewigs, and Bodkins, were first devised and used in Italy by Curtezans, and from thence brought into France and there received of the best sort for gallant ornaments, & from thence they came into England about the time of the Massacar in Paris.” (St. Bartholomew’s Day, 24 August, 1572).

Cesare Vecellio, in the second edition of his fashion book Habiti antichi, et moderni di tutto il Mondu, published in 1598, shows a woodcut entitled "Winter Costume of Venetian noblewomen and wealthy ladies."

There are no extant muffs that I am aware of, but there are quite a few pictorial images of muffs, and documents referring to them.

According to Andre Blum, in his volume "The Last Valois," it is reported that King Henri III of France was fond of "perfumes and cosmetics, ear-rings, velvet or satin muffs lined with fur -- in fact, a whole range of modes formerly reserved for the use of women." Another reference to Parisian fashion for wearing muffs appears in Janet Arnold’s "Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (QEWU)": “Amyas Paulet was also instructed to get Elizabeth [Queen] a muff or ‘countenance (so they call it here)’ in Paris in 1579. He sent one, ‘the best I can find at this time thinking it better to send this as it is when there is some cold stirring, than to wait for a better till the cold be clean gone. I have caused this countenance to be furred as well as it can be done in this town, but have not perfumed it because I do not know what Perfume will be the most agreeable to her Majesty.”

Venetian costume of noblewomen and wealthy ladies. c. 1598.

Eleanor Verney, Mrls. William Palmer. c. 1590.  William Segar. 

Detail from an embroidered valance, c. 1588-90.  Victoria and Albert Museum, London

 Illuminated miniature of Queen Elizabeth carrying a muff.  c. 1586. Bodleian Library, Oxford.

I've had this black gold worked trim for about seven years - there's only about a yard or so of it, which isn't enough to do much, but after measuring a few things out, is long enough to act as bands on the edges of a muff. The edges of the trim is not even though, as it appears that it was worked on stiffened velvet and then cut into strips. After digging into my stash though, I found this creamy braid that goes smashingly with my pale yellow tufted brocade. I will use this as vertical bands on the edges of a muff.

I have purchased a faux fur lined coat at a thrift store which I intend to disassemble and use the fur to line the muff, as well as add fur trim to my mantelline when the time comes. It is a dark brown mink-ish looking fur. I will use some buttons from my stash as well.

Bibliography:

1. Donald King and Santina Levey, The Victoria and Albert Museum’s Textile Collection: Embroidery in Britain from 1200 to 1750, V&A Publications, 1993, 160 Brompton Road, London SW3 IHW.

2. Santina M. Levey, An Elizabethan Inheritance: The Hardwick Hall Textiles, 1998, National Trust Enterprises, Ltd, Great Britain.

3. Cesare Vecellio, Vecellio’s Renaissance Costume Book. Dover Publications, Inc., N.Y.

4 Blum, André, The Last Valois 1515-90, George G. Harrap & Co, LTD. London, England.

5. Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d, 1988, Great Britain, W.S. Maney & Son, LTD, Hudson Road, Leeds.

6. http://www.houseffg.org/belphoebe/Research/Muff/Index.htm

7. http://katerina.purplefiles.net/garb/diaries/FL_Manichino_Muff_1.html

8. http://renaissanceitaly.net/mygarb/muff.htm

ACC - Fabric Choices

My silk coming in a completely different shade than expected caused a problem. This problem:

I hate the way the plum dragonfly brocade looks next to the silk. Maybe I'm being picky, but color is very important to me. In anything I make, be it painting or sewing, my color choices are deliberate. Thusly, I have raided my stash and have come up with the following possibilities:

Here's what I'm thinking:
Sottana - yellow damask
Veste - eggplant silk
Mantelline - Navy velvet
Accent fabrics and possibly mantelline lining - brocade

Right now I'm leaning towards option #3 because the brocade pulls the mauve from the silk really well, matches the navy velvet, and has touches of gold to match the damask. The down side to this option is that I have VERY little fabric. I would probably have to tear apart a Persian coat I made out of it to get what I need. Honestly though? I wouldn't mind over-much. It was a poorly made coat - a rushed job that I never even lined. That Persian also has some awesome buttons on it, IIRC, that would look smashing on a muff. I have used the other two brocades as forepart and sleeves on Elizabethan gowns.

Thoughts?

Halloween 2012

Mark your calendars, folks! There WILL be a Victorian Fancy Dress party in October 2012. Date to be determined (I'm thinking the Friday or Saturday before Halloween).

All interested parties are welcome. Leave me a comment or send me a message at cobaltdragonfly (at) gmail.com so I can keep you in the loop for proper invitations.

Victorian fancy dress or other Victorian inspired dress (including steampunk) is highly encouraged. I'm looking to possibly rent a venue appropriate to the theme, because that would be more fun than crowding in my tiny living room (which would hold two bustle gowns, max); so location is not set, but will be in the Salt Lake/Ogden area.

If you're interested in helping me organize this little soiree, let me know.

Now, go start looking at fashion plates:
Old Rags (all Victorian)
Old Rags (Fancy Dress)

These are nice places to start, but there are loads of fashion plates all over. Go forth and drool!

Eggplant-ish Silk

I purchased some eggplant silk taffeta from Bangkok Thai Silks (and was pleasantly surprised to have it in record speed). I was less than pleased with the color.

On their website, the color was exactly what I wanted, and though I am aware that monitors make colors vary, I was sure it would be great.

I pulled it out of the packaging to find something closer to a maroon/mauve than the eggplant/aubergine that I wanted. Slightly annoyed, I took it to my special art lamps to see it under better lights. Still slighty annoyed, I took pictures, and discovered that this squirrely fabric hates to be photographed, and I'm not surprised it's not true to the web photo.

Mind you, my camera phone automatically adjusts lighting, but here it is against yellow fabric, looking almost grape(!!):

And here we are with no background colors, which is sort of a light reddish eggplant:

In reality it is pretty close to the medium/dark shades in the second photo. Now that I'm over my initial color shock, I'm not sure how bummed I truly am. It is still a lovely color, even though it's not what I expected, and the silk quality is very nice - good and thick, with a beautiful sheen and stiffness.

So now I'm to decide whether to go ahead and make a zimarre or veste to go with the ACC sottana (but not as part of the ACC) as planned, or to stash it for now.

And Now for Something Completely Different

I recently came across this fashion plate, La Mode Illustree, France 1887, via http://oldrags.tumblr.com/:

If I had an occasion to make a Victorian Fancy Dress... I'd totally make the dragonfly dress. I do love the game one too, but you know me. Anyone up for a Victorian Halloween party in 2012 or 2013?

Weekend Progress

For the ACC, I decided to try my hand at making my own lucet cords to lace my Sottana. I thought I was doing pretty well until I made a mistake and attempted to correct it - but failed at in my attempt. It looked good at first, until I put pressure on it as though trying to pull it tight for lacing - portions of it stretched out.

Ah well, more learning to do, I suppose. This is my first attempt at lucet weaving longer than three inches. I understand that there are also issues with the document-ability of lucet in this period, so I may not go with this after all - but it's a nice skill to have even if it's not 100% accurate for my period.


In other news, I worked on Sven's brick red tunic! He chose and purchased the trim. I had some black linen left over from other projects, so I decided to do the neck facing in black for added interest and contrast.

I measured and cut (in most cases ripped, actually - I love rectangular construction done in fabrics you can rip), and began assembling the tunic. I attached the underarm gussets and then flat-felled the seams by hand.

I usually try to do this using an invisible stitch, but I back-stitched the flat fell instead, using threads of linen drawn from scraps of leftover fabric. I need to work on keeping my stitches a more even length, but I'm pretty pleased with how straight they are looking, on the whole.

I attached the sleeves, side gores, and neck facing, and am now in the process of felling all seams by hand. I will sew the trim down by hand around the neck facing. Then I'll have to sew the sides up, and hem the sleeves and bottom. I might do a guard in black linen around the bottom hem... maybe.

Silk!

I asked Serafina to spread the word (werd, yo) about Bangkok Thai Silks, whom you can now buy directly from (used to be via e-bay only), and their prices are pretty darn good for silk taffeta. But I neglected to mention it myself. Until now. Their same silk is going for $19.99/yd on e-bay, but there are significant discounts buying directly ($9.99-$16.99). Note that you will need a paypal account to buy from them.

This is, by the way, the vendor I used to purchase the "cobalt-green" shot silk for my elevation gown:

The silk hoarder in me would love to keep it a secret, but I love you all too much not to share.

Enjoy! (and I'm sorry)

Laurel/Apprentice Relationships

My lovely and dear friend Mistress Bethany took a new apprentice on Saturday at Baron's War. You can click here to view an album of pics which includes this event.

I was standing next to the lovely and talented Fiametta da Trastavere, who was explaining to someone standing nearby what an important step this is for an artist, and what a memorable moment it is for those involved. I remember turning and nodding in complete agreement and noting that I often feel jealous because I never got that. Fia pointed at my laurel medallion saying, "but you got that." Have I mentioned that I sometimes have a tendency to be socially awkward?

This got me thinking about the journey I chose and how I can help other artists more than I have been. I chose not to ask for apprenticeship of a laurel, so if I feel jealous that I didn't have "that" relationship, it's my own fault. I made this choice for very personal reasons including my mundane situation, and my own goals. I wanted to work on my craft for my own personal satisfaction, and if it led to something bigger, then so be it. Another reason, though small when added to the hat of reasons, was that I'm obscenely shy (no, really), and asking someone would likely have given me a heart attack.

I fully support and admire Laurel/Apprentice relationships, and would love to nurture them now that I'm in different circumstances. That said, I have some thoughts on the matter.

1. I will teach anyone who wishes to learn; an official relationship is a personal choice and something to consider on a case-by-case basis. One does not have to be an apprentice to ask me questions and learn.
2. I will probably not seek out apprentices; I will not make broad presumptions and ask others. That said, I am open to those approaching me - consider this an invitation to ask me.
3. Being an apprentice does not mean you will become a Laurel. That is a personal journey to which I can help guide and advise, but there are no guarantees.
4. I am a scribal arts Laurel, who does some dabbling in costuming and embroidery.  How much I can teach you will be very limited unless your areas of interest somewhat match my own. (Though I am willing to help match you to those who are masters of their craft in your area of interest.)
5. In the SCA, you will get out of it what you put into it.  
6. If you're not enjoying yourself, you're doing it wrong.

Serafina's Laurel Scroll

Serafina's Scroll was a collaboration between Duchess Caryn von Katzenberg, Mistress Bethany of Windermere, and myself, at the request of Serafina. Bethany was Serafina's Laurel, and Caryn was Bethany's Laurel, so it was sort of a family affair... except I'm just a crazy fangirl, not family. Needless to say I was surprised and thrilled to be asked to be a part of this process.

The three of us conversed via e-mail, and I uploaded some very poor quality images of inspiration ideas for us to consider. We then met to discuss things in person at Quest and decided on this beauty.


Biblia di Borso d'Este c. 1455-1461
Codices Illustres, page 333

Duchess Caryn did the calligraphy and Mistress Bethany sketched the basic layout and her section of acanthus and passed it on to me. I sketched in my portions of acanthus and spent what seems like forever mixing the perfect shade of lavender to replace the pink from the original piece. Purple/lavender is one of Serafina's favorite colors, which is why we decided to do this. I then began to lay paint.



I quickly discovered that to get the soft shading needed to replicate the look of the original piece, a lot of blending was needed. This became a time-consuming process of laying more and more paint, and I began to worry about the time-frame for completion. I knew that Bethany had a ton of work to do after I was done, so I needed to finish my portion as quickly as possible to give her the time she would need.

Below you can see the scroll as it progresses over the course of one week.






More images can be seen over here in my album:

From Serafina's Scroll

Once my portions were complete, I passed it on to Bethany who did all the miniatures, gold leaf (the gold you see on my portions are a fabulous gold gouache), and the rest of the acanthus. I do not have closeups of the final "done" version, but you can see a picture over at Serafina's Blog (scroll down to the bottom to see the award scroll, but pause to look at the other parts of her vigil and ceremony stuff).

I am deeply honored to have been able to be a part of this process - to have my work on the same paper as these two phenomenal women, to award yet another amazing woman.