On other things

Not much has been happening here for quite some time. Not surprising really... But in the last month and a bit I have undertaken some Non-SCA sewing. Long story short, was introduced to a guy who runs a number of bands and was asked to make some shirts for the band.

This was actually harder than I really thought and expected, but I managed to complete 6 shirts from scratch for their New Years Eve gig. I also whipped up some collar and cuff/facing detail on some existing shirts in time for the gig too. Hopefully I'll get some photos up here soon.

I still have another two sets of 6 shirts to complete before March so I really need to do all of that first seeing as I'm being paid for it (which is helping fund my trip to NZ).

On the SCA list of things to do with the thousand dollars* worth of fabric I have under my bed:
1. Hollandish
2. Venetian
3. Silk painted banner for Andre (which I promised by this Festival)
* I guesstimated the price and I did not spend that much on the fabric

Also I need to finish the armholes on the Blue Dress of Disasters, which I ended up making oversleeves for.

I'm sure there's other things I'll need to sort out but the paying job is first.

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.