Closed for Re-Construction

Yesterday afternoon Derek broke up with me.

Subsequently I am taking a short break from the blog to piece myself back together.

Short answers:

I'm OK

No I don't know what I'm going to do (ie move back etc)

No I don't really want to talk - I am OK though.

Phone calls, emails and texts are appreciated but please understand if I don't respond, answer etc

I can't say what happened, I'm still deciphering it myself.

So for a short while, bye.

Dez's Banner

Some how I forgot to add the finished pic of Dez's banner

Festival Crush and Productivity

So I've surprised myself. Here it is 6.40pm and I'm packing for Festival with only a few small hand sewing jobs to be done which I can do in the car and at site!

Banners in a weekend. I'm nuts, I decided to make a silk banner for Dez but discovered the silk I had was quite wide so it would be appropriate to make 2 smaller banners than 1 large. So UI made one for Cairnfell too.

I made them with silk paint (iron setting). I traced Dez's design on and had a device on acetate which I projected onto the silk at work before I finishes on Friday. I'd spoken with Art and took on her safety pin and rubber band stretching technique.

I guttered up the lot and got painting. Dez's design is quite simple and was done in a flash. It' looks great and he's now sewn on his tokens and tassles he's won (he's so cute like that!


Then I got started on the Cairnfell one, infinitely more complex, infinitely more opportunity to f**k it up... which I did.





Looks pretty good I hear you say... Well, I neede to make the gutta thicker in some places. Also I need to use some smaller, skinnier brushes and to remove stray
bristles earlier!










So you can see there's some serious bleeding from green to yellow. I think the yellow was still a little damp when I did the green so it bled a lot more. I waited longer before doing the black and it didn't bleed nearly as much.

Lessons learned: More gutta, more waiting between colours, iron fixing is goood!

Also today I made a fighting shirt for Dez with padding at the kidneys and elbow (lots of swearing at that one), 2 coifs for Dez, and I made a red surcoat for me to wear which will match him. No pics as the camera's packed already.

Still need to hand stitch the necklines of 2 underdresses... actually I could just go sewing machine them now, and their cuffs. Also hand stitch the tops of the over sleeves for the blue dress of disasters. Then I think I'm done.

Better go do it all! See you all at Festival

Nope, Can't Do It

Well not on my own anyway.

To summarise what I've been up to:

Mostly finished, as best I can, Dez's cloak. I do need to fold over the neck and stitch it down so it's not just a raw zig zagged edge.

Had many major screaming fits at the sewing machine. Only after days of frustration, late nights and giving up (repeatedly) did I notice the thread had jumped of the uppy downy bit of the sewing machine. Also I had loosened the tension on the bobbin when I should have tightened it. But hell, I can't even comprehend getting the tension right on my $10 sewing machine so why should I care

Whipped up 2 very basic under dresses/ shift type things out of some white fabric I had.

Big chat to Art about the disaster that is my sleeves on the blue dress of disasters. She suggested I hadn't rotated them enough when attaching them. So I unpicked the hours of hand stitching I had used to attach them :( and tacked them on rotated. They sit better now but I still have minimal movement. I tried moving them up so there's less curve in the top of the shoulder (another of Art's fab suggestions) and tried letting the back of the dress out a bit. I can't let it out too much in some parts as I've already cut away some of the seam allowance (as I'd stitched it all down nicely believing that was a smart plan). Plus if I let it out too much it won't hold my boobs up.

So tonight, after some fiddling, I gave up and took the damn things off. I can't do sleeves. Well, I can't do fitted sleeves. So I will make some over sleeves (essentially big trapazoids) and pin them on instead of having sewn on sleeves. It'll do plus this picture seems to suggest I'm allowed to.


I have also been making Baldrics for Cairnfell which are mostly finished. I learned how to have a crisp ironed fold in fabric (so as not to lose width when a tube is turned inside out and ironed flat) which was good. cheated somewhat on the badges. I printed up some transparencies of the Canton's device and Rich cut them out quite well. Rosie and I stenciled the design on to the badges, Rosie was far more patient and attentive to this than I was and some of mine had blotchy roots (well when you're painting trees with fiddly roots who really cares if their perfect right? Plus I used Vleisofex (?) to iron them on instead of stitching them. If people want them stitched, they can do it themselves. I have vague plans of couching the edges of my one... may while at Festival...

But sadly tonight I have come to remember how much I dislike sewing. How impatient I am with my lack of skill and how difficult this whole sewing thing is. I think I need to not sew impressive things when I can't go over to someone's house and say "Oh god what have I done, why am I so stupid?'

And don't say I'm not stupid. Tonight (on a fabric pattern thankfully) I started cutting out the over sleeve without any seam allowance.

I have also had the stupid idea (oh yea, it is stupid) to make myself an outfit to match Dez on the field for his Combat of the Thirty entry. I'm only planning to make a red surcoat and pop on a white badge with his black eagle on it, but I plan to do this in time for Festival? MAD!

Oh and the other things I was planning to do before Festival? Paint him a banner, bought the silk paint at spotlight yesterday... already have the silk... yeah, we'll see how that goes...

Also, I forgot to mention in my last post some other plans/ goals. I'm going to give Oil Painting a go. I think I would be more adept at painting as I have done much painting in the past. Plus Mum's an oil painter so I plan to visit and go through all the 'what I need to know's' of it all. And if I get my shit together I'll have a drawing or at least a sketch of my planned painting to go over with her. I want to make it a Flemish painting (as they're mainly in oil and is very appropriate) so I've told Miss D that she will be my subject, I just have to get a good pic of her in her Hollandish outfits to work off. I'm quite excited about that project, I just have to start it. It will be a long project I'm sure.

Oh well, time for bed... perhaps sewing should be put off to days and nights when I'm not working in the morning. Or maybe I just shouldn't sew at night after working all day... yeah, I might be on to something there.

Alrighty... Projects time

So, since this is my SCA A&S Blog, I had better identify the projects I either have on the boil or in the grand plan bucket.

1. Finish the Blue Dress of Disasters
The lovely Miss D patterened me for the bodice of this dress before I left Sydney for the fabulously isolated from useful people - Bendigo. I put the dress together pretty quickly.

First there was the "MonoBoob" issue. Yup, one large boob coming to a point - not particularly flattering.

Then I discovered it was too big. So I unpicked all the lovely hand stich finished seams and took it in. I thought this might solve the monoboob issue. It didn't.

After a second conslut with Miss D (while on a flying trip to Syd) she suggested just pushing the pointy bit back in on itself and hand stitching it into place thus making the curve less point. That worked.

Now, on to sleeves. I patterned them. I pinned them on and it all worked. Until I cut out the fabric and hand stitched the damn things in place... tight around the shoulders and can't sew up the seams.

I think I need to reshape the curve on the top of the sleeves... maybe?






And the sleeves have hardly any seam space to stich up. And since it's all a little tight and hard to cross my arms, something tells me forcing the seams closed would be a bad idea.

So I'll probably add a panel once I sort the top bit out... Or I might just make a new pattern and cut new sleeves.
Once the sleeves are on (and in working order) I just need to make oversleeves *phew* I'm tired thinking about it.


2. Dez's Red and Black Cloak
Actually this one is mostly done. He bought some thick red wool wanting to make a big cloak. Then he also bought some thinner black wool which he decided needed to go with the Red (there wasn't enough?) Anyway, paper patterns, washed wool which shrank - Dez was very surprised - some revised patterns, some making pattern big and cutting out wool and we have a 7/8 Cloak which falls to around his knees.

I just need to line it. I have the fabric, have cut and sewn it together, now I just have to sew the lining and the cloak together and finish it.

3. Hollandish
I have the fabric, just not the instructions on how to make it.
Will pester Miss D at Festival (ok more likely after Festival) and work on it after Festival crush

4. Dez's Tunic's/ Shirts
Again, have fabric but no real pattern. But he needs them for Festival so might have to get a wriggle on on that one.

5. Venetian Mask
For the Midwinter ball A&S comp in June. I have some leather and might investigate making a Commedia Mask... or maybe just some pretty mask and a basic costume... again, that's an after Festival crush project

6. Narrow Wares Kingdom A&S Entry
The plan is to try a couple of techniques and submit the lot with what/how/why I did it etc.
I'm thinking Lucet 9some vague it's kinda period doco), Fingerlooping, Nalbinging (if that's included), not sure I can think of any others... not keen on tablet weaving but maybe I need to 'try' it. Again, for May so shoudl do some now and some after Festival... or at Festival! Oh! I forgot to mention the attempt to spin my own yarn and THEN Fingerloop or Lucet it into a finished product... I've started the spinning, but not really good at it yet.

So there they are... yikes! 6!
Well, fingers crossed.

Coming Soon

Yep, I've done it... a third blog. This one will be all my A&S projects I'm working on. I have a cunning plan that I could enter blog entries as documentation... we'll see how that one pans out.

There'll be photos and blog soon. Warning, it will mostly be whinging as I constantly come up against barriers, hurdles, problems and other sewing related things that piss me off.