2022 costuming/crafting in review

This is kinda why I wanted to start back up a blog again. I post in a lot of places on social media when I'm done with a project, but I struggle when it's time to think about what I did all year. Because I haven't been to any events since 2019, it feels like I'm not really  accomplishing anything (and to be honest, there's been a lot of started projects that never get finished).

So let's review!

January

Starting off the year with UFO of the Ghirlandaio dress. Had the fabric since last summer (or was it summer of 2020?) but I had put it down when the bodice wasn't cooperating despite 3 mock-ups. First time I've ever put a train on a dress (usually because the fabric is too expensive to buy more than shoulder to hem lengths). It's just a little sweep, but I'm excited to have it. Used the ugly "dirt" dupioni from Silkbaron to line the train hem (so decadent lining in silk).

February

Used my Bootstrap Fashion pattern for my body double and my a mini 1/2 size model. Plan was to make small mock up versions (or maybe just costume that instead since I never seem to finish any of my costumes).

March

No crafting, all the focus was on school or the school play. 15th anniversary trip to Monterrey. My gift to Jon was renting a '69 Cougar convertible for him to drive me around the peninsula in. It was honestly really cool and nice to do an excursion. Jon came down with Covid right after that. Luckily no one else in the family got it.

April

While March was pretty much devoid of crafting me-time, in April I completed my first major digitizing project with the embroidery machine. I digitized the blackwork for sleeves and neckline of this English smock. I am especially proud of how exact I got my neckline bands to line up. 

I also got the set finished for the performances of the first school play since BC (before Covid). Kids had been rehearsing since early February. We did 4 performances (3 evening and 1 matinee) of a melodrama (The Pony Expresso - or The Villain Comes to a Grinding Halt). They were really terrific and I have a couple who have loads of talent.

May

I finally succumbed to Covid. 2 weeks before the school year ended. At least no one else got it in the family.

June

School's out so I can get some long haul sewing time in (or play on my phone all day I guess). Finally worked up the courage to cut my silk and to embroider the oak leaves. The gironea is a peachy and gold silk brocade from a dealer in India and now for the life of me I can't remember who which is a shame because their prices were great. The leaves were embroidered on "muse" silk taffeta from Silkbaron.

 

Just before heading to San Diego for a conference, I got a wild bug up my but to do another Italian camicia. Chose to do insertion stitch seams.

Part 2 coming soon.

What have I to say that's important enough?

It's been a forever since I posted anything. Honestly, I feared this blog might have been taken over by Russian bots of something by this point. I vaguely remembered I even had it.

I wanted to start up again mostly to just track some of my sewing/crafting; a year in review maybe.

Also I wanted a gratitude journal (since I'm more likely to post something if I can do it from a mobile app on the fly while I'm thinking about it. The last time I logged in here, blogger didn't even have a mobile app.

But when faced with a blank page and the opportunity to post something...I froze. What do I have to say that's important enough?

100 Day Art Challenge 2017 - First 5 Days

Flirting with my Muse.

The Objective: 
Do 100 Days of Art in any preferred medium(s). This does NOT mean back-to-back days. Document your art "process" by taking/posting pics of each project and posting a little info about it (the process, any challenges, any pitfalls, etc.) in at least the West Kingdom A&S and your Principality A&S Facebook pages. This INCLUDES research/writing/documentation or what I call "falling down the rabbit hole". Talk about that part of the process too.

The Timeline:
Begin March Crown, end October Crown. This is a comfortable 6 month timeline. No pressure deadlines unless you set them for yourself. You are accountable to no-one but yourself on this. But posting helps keep you accountable to yourself.

Day 1:

I finished the block on the chessboard with the squares. I then did a whole block with the 8-point stars (that was a super fast piece). Began work on a Greek Key pattern.

I also decided this challenge would be the perfect time to focus on the 16th century doublet I started for Hubster last summer. I found it in the mess of sewing stuff since we moved. I tried it on him again to gauge some things. We decided that the back was, indeed, too short. Consult with my Laurel and my Laurel proxy (her fiance) via text message determined that it is located at the proper waist location for Hubster, but I will go ahead and increase the back length a little since he's not comfortable with it where it is. Then I took the whole thing apart. This required finding my seam ripper. Why do I never have a seam ripper when I need one?

Day 2: 
Went to A&S night and spent 90 minutes working only on the Greek Key pattern block. Sometimes the chessboard blocks take a little time. Sometimes they take a long time. This was one of those blocks. You'd think I'd get a block that was already started finished during this time. And yes I did socialize, but I didn't really budge from my spot on the couch next to the good light. I just kept stitching while others were bitching (kibitzing, gossiping, whatevs). I decided I needed to remind people about the scale of my work that I'm doing. So I included a dime.

The I decided the dime wasn't quite conveying the tiny tiny intricate work I'm doing on these chessboard sampler blocks. So I got out Hubster's sliding gauge. Would you look at that?! Each arch in the Greek Key pattern is 2 mm tall. 2 mother-f***ing millimeters!!! Please respect the work that goes into hand embroidery. Or I will hunt you down! And I will destroy you...2 mm at a time!

Day 3 - no pictures, just lots of research
Today was spent in researching a sewing technique that is essential to the fit of the doublet. Pad Stitch. I spent a couple of hours reading, rereading, watching videos, image looking. I can't quite wrap my brains around the pad stitch. Will most likely have to suck it up and just try on some scrap fabrics once I cut the doublet out of the canvas, wool, and linen. In the mean time, here are some of my research links:
Sempstress
Rory Duffy
This lady on YouTube
Mathew Gnagy (whose book The Modern Maker is what I'm following along with to make the doublet)

Day 4:
I went to JoAnn Fabrics to pick up the wool felt I needed for the padding in the doublet. Awesomeness was purchasing online for in-store pick up. There was a line, but when Micheila came up to help at the register, she let me cut the whole line since I wasn't buying anything more than the fabric I ordered and already paid for. The little old biddies who were complaining about the long wait were all chagrined when I got to cut the line. Nya nya.

Finished the Greek Key pattern block on the blackwork sampler. Did a block that looked rather like a stained glass window. Started a snail block. Love the snails. They're super cute. They will eventually be alternating direction.

 Also, laid out the pieces of Hubster's doublet and prepped for cutting out. But you turn your back for one second and "helpers" come and help. Not helping Poppy!!! Got all the pieces cut from the linen outer fabric and from the canvas interlining. Also cut the wool felt for the should padding on the front and back pieces.

Day 5:
I spent a little bit of time trying to work pad stitching. It's actually kind of amazing how the shape forms from the stitches. The nice thing about the pad stitched pieces I was working is that they are not on the outer fashion fabric so I didn't have to worry about how small the stitches were on the back. All parts of my stitching will be covered by the outer fabric and inner lining.
Hopefully this video links.

https://www.facebook.com/jontheartguy/videos/10155182649324138/

I also started some thread wrapped buttons (which I'll be teaching a class on soon for Shire A&S night) and did some more work on the snail block.

100 Day Art Challenge 2017 - the lead up

A few of my friends did a 100 Day Art Challenge toward the end of last year in response to a fighter challenge called 100 Century Drill (wherein the fighters do 100 consecutive days of century drills - hitting 100 strikes on a training pell). For the artists, they posted on the various SCA artisan groups/their own pages the kinds of ways they were "arting and crafting."

I'm currently a Queen's Artisan for Her Western Majesty, Queen Zanobia. I've not really felt like I'm doing a "good job" as an artisan. I haven't been doing any research on anything new. I've not really been doing any of my art. I've not been teaching. I couldn't get to March Crown (or even send with someone else) my current projects to display for the populace. The only thing I've been working on is the blackwork sampler chessboard for the Publick House. Literally. I'm still working on game boards for the project that was meant to be a birthday gift last October. I'm sucking at this gift giving thing.

Now, the only other time I've been a royal artisan was during the last Cynaguan reign, for Princess Sylvie. Sylvie was recently made a Laurel right before her husband won the coronet of Cynagua. So she had a lot of ideas for her artisans in order to help promote the arts in the principality. We had a checklist of thing to do. . . I think I got them all done. Maybe I didn't succeed with "make something for yourself" because I usually do make most of my stuff for myself. I'm either crafting for largesse coffers of making garb for me. I did start on, but not finish, the doublet for Jon. That's something new.

So back to Queen's artisan. I was feeling a serious lack of direction and like I was being not a good artisan. I'm not doing anything of note really. Just working on the chessboard. I was also feeling really bummed about missing March Crown and about my place in SCA in general. Sort of sad-sack. My tenure as seneschal is coming to an end and I don't feel like I've done a very good job in running the shire; there's been many times when I think I've done more harm than good and just barely kept the thing together despite my best intentions. (There was a moment when I got an email from kingdom exchequer saying my shire -I'm- the reason we can't use paypal for transactions.) Long sob story short, I really feel like I'm just not present, not doing a good job, not being recognized for anything I do do.

So I wrote to my Laurel Counselor (who just happens to have been my Laurel's Laurel - so she's like my grandlaurel). The reason for this is two-fold. She's the Laurel Counselor for this reign and it's her duty to guide us artisans along our paths. My Laurel has also not been in the game as of late; she's often saying how she's just not feeling the SCA thing anymore and pulling away from the game (so when your own guide is lost, you don't ask them for direction).

"Grandmother,

"I'm very sorry to say that I don't think I've been a very good Queen's Artisan. I've done very little research or creation. I don't have a real direction with any art. I've not done any teaching nor have I even been to our local A&S nights and discussed art. My muse seems to be gone. I spend little time doing any artistic pursuits. And then I add to all of this the inability to get to events; I am lost.

"Do you have any advice for me or suggestions on what I might be able to do? What do I need to do to be able to really be a Queen's artisan?

"Thank you,

Margaret"

"Is real life being overwhelming? Work, family, other stuff? That can often chase away the muse. If that's the case, real life comes first. Find ways to deal with that or hang on and ride out whatever the crisis may be.

"I will often find my inspiration by immersing myself in art ... anything from pinterest to a museum. Another thing that works for me is picking something I've never done and giving it a try. I'm going to attempt the Kingdom A&S Championship (with the new format) this year and I'm doing all the entries outside my comfort zone (i.e. no food). Learning  a new skill, even if you may only use it once, can stretch and re-awaken the muse.

"Never let creativity become a chore. Her Majesty chose you to encourage you, not to scare or pressure you. We are all makers, it is part of what distinguishes humans from other animals. Your muse will return when you are ready for her. If that doesn't come until after Beltane, that's OK.

"I hope some of this is helpful. Please feel free to talk to me about this or anything else as much as you need.

Juana Isabella"

This was very much what I needed to hear at the time. You see, for those keeping track at home, it's hard for me to ask for help or to appear fallible. Even though I'm still a learner and unfinished. Which brings us back to the purpose of the post. Almost immediately afterward, my friend (and mega-artisan) Tusya decided to restart a 100 Day Art Challenge - a version 2.0 so to speak. She wants the artists and artisans of the Kingdom to just keep plying their crafts. And part of her initiative is that we even post the days when the craft goes wrong, or all we do is research, or maybe all we work on is boring stuff. She just asked that we work on our art for 100 days between March Crown and October Crown. It doesn't even have to be 100 consecutive days. We'll actually have about 6 months to get it completed.

So I took up the challenge.

Garbing baby - the beginning

SCA garb.

Vittorio (my fighter) and his wife are expecting their first baby. She doesn't play very much, but she's come to events a few times, especially our local ones. A couple of weeks ago, the first announcements of their baby shower started to be floated around on Facebook. They hadn't registerred for baby goods anywhere yet and when I pestered them for ideas, Vittorio asked for baby garb - little late period Italian baby garb specifically. Gillian (the wife) then chimed in that she wanted Welsh garb for their baby girl. Italian baby clothes will be so adorable because SQUEE! The Welsh clothes will be a little harder to make up because...well...the Welsh don't really have anything in the way of garb. So I think I might do some more Norse/Saxon type clothes for her.

This is going to be a place to put my ideas for the baby clothes. She's (because you've probably figured out baby is a girl by now) is due at the end of March/beginning of April. I bought some great red & gold fabric for the Italians. Also I got a green linen blend.

Some links I'm looking at:

http://www.lelandra.com/SCA/Anachronist.htm

http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/baby/sewing.html

http://www.elizabethancostume.net/ - love this page, using this for their articles on children this time but I used the smock/chemise pattern generator for my most recent chemise made in super sheer cotton gauze

Handy dandy charts on avg children's measurments

and of course, I'll ask the EC Bees on Facebook if they can share pics of babies in garb with me. And always, there's Pinterest and google searches.

Stupid weight loss (and the lack thereof)

I'm at a totally irritating weight plateau. I've lost and gained the same 5 lbs for the last 2 months. It makes me grumpy about weighing in. I have sworn I'm gonna redouble my loss efforts over the holiday season. I know I can do it. When I started Weight Watchers back in 2013, Mom & I started the first weekend in December. And I lost 8 pounds between then and Valentine's Day. So I know it's possible to lose over the holiday season. So, plan is now work really hard at making good food choices and getting exercise for the next 5 weeks (just starting right after I finish this cookie dough while sitting on the couch and blogging about how annoying not losing weight when I'm half-assing it is).
Another thing that's making me really grumpy about weight loss and going to meetings is not getting any props at my WW meetings. I lost almost 15 lbs between the beginning of August and mid-October. Did I get any 5 lb star stickers? NO! Not a stupid single sticker. Meanwhile there's a couple of women who get a ribbon's worth of 5 lb stickers every time they weigh in because they've lost "yet another 5 lbs" so our leader starts counting off 5, 10, 15, 20 . . . up to 60. UGH! Why is my little accumulated 14 lbs (a whole STONE I might add - I've lost an entire unit of weight measurement in England) not worth 2 stickers? This makes me grumpy. Why are my milestones not as important just because I haven't lost 60 lbs yet? Ya know, I think a big part of it is my leader and then staff at this particular WW. No one even made a big deal when I got through my booklet (and only missed 1 week out of the 16). I went to a meeting every single week for 4 months straight and no one noticed. Kind of like how I'm feeling about a lot of things in my life right now.
Now I'm sad. Stupid weight loss.

The napkins for the King & Queen

Finally getting around to posting on this. Previous mention of the napkins here. I had the napkins ready to go by the time of the Coronation at Purgatorio. However, I didn't get them into anyone's hands soon enough to get to the site in time (in my defense, school had just started about 2 weeks earlier). I was able to bring them to the October Crown tournament and deliver them in person.
So for my napkins for Alfar & Eilis, I took elements from their personal devices and embroidered them onto the blocks. I also learned a couple of new stitches for them. I mentioned this to Her Majesty when I presented them, but she seems to not really care very much about them. I got a brief "thank you" and I think I saw the napkins get put aside rather quickly. She gave me a rose for the effort though. That's nice.

His Majesty's device: for this a put one portcullis in the corner of the napkin. I worked it in Bayeux stitch with chain stitch for the chains. After finishing it, I fully realize that Bayeux stitch was the wrong one. The lines are just not big enough. I learned that Bayeux is better for covering larger areas. I also put the cross-gurgity in the other three corners, one in each color from his device. For these, I learned ladder stitch. This was nice because the ladders make a nice border edge that you don't need to do a stem or outline stitch for.

Unfortunately I can't find my pics of the crosses at this moment.

Her Majesty's device: for this I did the knot-work in the Hungarian braid stitch. It takes forever because it's fiddly, but I like the slightly raised line it makes. I put one of these in every corner of the napkin. Then I took her purple rose and worked that in Bayeux stitch. This looked a lot better than the portcullis on Alfar's napkin.

I entered the napkins in the Wreath of Athena competition at Crown. I have no idea how well I did. It's a populace vote competition and I find embroidery often doesn't "cut the mustard" since I think a lot of people think "oh I can do that." But the truth is, they don't and they won't put the time into it either. So meh. Sometimes people suck when it comes to crafting.

Here's a couple more pictures of me from the event. I spent the majority of the day hanging out in the salon with the needleworkers guild. it was nice to have an on the eric view of the tournament but stay in the shade. At one point the Youth Point kids came through. They were "pillaging" the different camps as part of their studies on the Vikings that weekend.

Heidi working on some gorgeous blacckwork.

Don't let that last pic fool you. I spent the day of Crown busily working on my own emboidery. I was working on blackwork sampler and some Hungarian braid stitch for the great game board project.

Dress for Dickens Faire (unders)

Dickens Fair is set in the early years of the reign of Queen Victoria. The fair specifically focuses on 1840s - 1860s. Last year I decided I would try to dress up and go for a day, but alas. There were a few issues with the underpinnings that put a halt to things (and then I went on to work on the Magpie Dress for last year's 12th Night Coronation).
I spent hours working on a new corset. I bought this sweet charming nursery print calico from JoAnn Fabrics and tirelessly pieced the whole thing together so that it was carrying the motif around the body of the corset. I was actually very pleased with the results. This is it just before binding the edges (with satin bias binding).

Then I started researching corded petticoats for the support structure of the skirt. After looking at several people's work on the Internet I decided to do the method of sandwiching the cording between two layers of muslin and spiral the cording up and around. This method was tiresome and infuriating. I promptly put the corded petticoat into the UFO pile to think about what it had done wrong. It sat in the corner for a very long time. In fact, I didn't get it out again until about 3 weeks ago and even then I took the whole damn thing apart. I decided to not do the spiral and instead did straight lines across the two panels (that I then sewed together with the serger because...workhorse). Even this took flippin' forever and I still had to do a lot of fiddly working to get the cotton cording to nestle up against the previous row of stitching. I was just about ready to die of frustration and embarrassment when I thought I'd give the double needle a try. This went so quickly that I declared loudly on Facebook "I HATE LEARNING" because [sigh]. Then I starched it with Sta-Flo and made a quick petticoat out of a full sheet.

Just prior to starting the petticoat this year, I made a new chemise. I bought some of the lightest weight sheer cotton tissue this summer with the exact purpose of either a new chemise or a new veil. Or maybe both. I think there might be enough. And while the chemise pattern is not the most accurate for 19th century (I used the free pattern generator from Elizabethan Costume Net), it works just fine. That pattern goes together super quickly and is sized for your measurements. I just put in a shorter sleeve length into the generator. I chose to flat fell all the seams to both enclose the raw edges and to give them a little bit more strength. When I say sheer, this fabric is SHEER!!! No shots of the front unless I'm in my corset...it's that sheer.

I taught a class (yeah yeah, I know I do that all the time)

I'm back. I've been focused on doing several things lately that have kept me from posting on the blog. Mainly, I've been adjusting to the new school site and teaching 3 classes I've never taught before. It's a bit terrifying to teach English when you've never taught it before and there's no real curriculum for you to go by. The drama class is going well. The ancient history class is what it is. 6th grade is the first time most students get any kind of history at all and I can teach my way out of a history curriculum wet paper bag in my sleep backwards (confident in that one). Must be doing something right though because I got my employment status changed from "temporary" to "permanent" last week. Oh yeah, I accepted that offer.

So back to the subject of the post. I've been continuing to do medievally things all these months. I even have a couple of posts partially written. Couldn't post them right when I began typing them up because they're for "sooper seekrit" projects that I was waiting to post to the general public until gifts were given to their recipients. Then I just stopped posting. But last weekend, I taught a class! Should be no big deal, right. It's what I do for a living. But this was at Collegium. It's an SCA event where we get together for a day and do lots and lots and lots of learning. I've been to a couple of them before (also the Arts & Sciences Tournament in the early summer which is a similar type of event) and I LOVE THIS EVENT. I love it because it's full of the people who I feel are serious about recreating the past. And since I'm an apprentice to a Laurel and part of that perrage's job is to teach and educate the populace about medieval stuff, I need to start thinking about these things - this teaching to other medievally people is real.

I was pretty much required to teach at this event. Now, first off, know that the SCA is a volunteer organization. No one was actually forcing me to teach at Collegium. But I'm a Princess's artisan to Her Highness of Cynagua and one of the things she asked us to do was to teach a class at an event and then discuss it with the other artisans afterward. Another reason was my Laurel basically gave me the imperative. I seem to remember the words falling from her mouth being "so collegium...we're not going to be at the event but you are teaching something." This was very matter-of-fact. The sky is blue, you are 37 years old, you are teaching at Collegium this year.

I taught the latchet shoe class. In fact, my handout was just a slightly less snarky version of the blog post. I wanted the class to be a make-and-take though so that people could leave with a pair of practical and fake footwear that give an illusion of the Renaissance. Too many times I see folks walking around in their running sneakers under their beautiful garb. While I was setting up, a couple of gentlemen came. I missed their names, but I gathered one was already an experienced leather-worker. They mentioned that they were interested in putting shoes on the feet of children. This is such a great idea! I even bought a couple of smallish sized shoes for the class (although not quite small enough - next year when we're at the height of summer season there will be more sizes available). Then as I was beginning, in walked a few of my friends from the Mists. I know that Cyn came because she had already expressed that she wasn't really into any of the classes happening that afternoon. I was grateful for the friendly face. Also, two more friendly faces, Elena and Cathyn tagged along. Now, Elena is already well-known for her gorgeous work in 16th century costuming. She already has gorgeous shoes. She doesn't need my fake latchet shoes made from canvas sneakers. And then Cilean came in too. So I had lots of people who are very 16th century enthusiasts enjoying the class and kibitzing with me. (I think one or two may have come as spies as well, but I'm glad for it - they're friendly spies so I hope they saw good things in my class). My points that I couldn't stress enough:

1. the practicality of the shoes in the types of terrain we often find ourselves at for events (come to think about it, I didn't even mention the new permanent site but I bet it's muddy, lumpy ground too) 
2.  the ease of how fast and inexpensive you can put someone into a period-esque shoe and ease the problem of bad footwear
3. that it's a modern shoe and therefore supports your body in a way you're more comfortable with and can handle things like orthopedic insoles for better comfort
4. more people need to wear 16th century garb

The best part. . . ! Elena, Cynthia, and Cathyn all made shoes!!! Cilean tried, but due to recent foot injury, my shoes didn't quite fit her comfortably on Saturday but she's excited to do so for this spring when we get back to tourney season again. (I will also point out that while I've seen gorgeous appropriate shoes on their feet before, both Cyn and Elena were wearing modern "period-looking" shoes because the weather was crappy and wet on Saturday and they didn't want to ruin their very expensive shoes - see PRACTICAL APPLICATION!). Then another gentleman came in while we were making shoes and he was wearing knee-breeches, hosen, and a nice pair of suede Vans shoes just like the ones we were converting. I convinced him to take scissors and seam ripper to his shoes and he left with a much more appropriate-looking shoe on his feet. See, a random guy came into my class and left looking more medievally than when he arrived. I've done a small favor for the kingdom I guess.

I still feel inadequacies when it comes to sharing my studies of costuming (and embroidery for that matter). I feel like there's nothing innovative or new that I can bring to the table. I'm learning, just like everyone else. There are so many more who know so much more than I. I'm not specialized. I'm not special. I've been reminded by many that everyone starts somewhere new; that I am probably "amazing and know so much" to someone who doesn't know at all. But why would those folks come to me when there are many more better sewists and costumers than I wandering about the kingdom. This is a hill I'm going to have to get over. Sooner rather than later I hope.

Coming up...the chat I had with two laurels about the path to the peerage.

Napkins for Royals

The West Kingdom Needle Workers' Guild has members embroider a set of napkins to give each set of napkins (one for each) when they step up to reign as king & queen. The napkins can't have crowns on them but can have the kingdom populace badge or something reminiscent of the personae of the royals. I took up the responsibility back at October Crown tournament last year but I waited to start planning them until I learned who won in June (to step up at Purgatorio coronation later this month).

The victor was Count Sir Alfar Utherson for Duchess Eilis O'Boirne. I decided to try a bit from both of their personal devices to decorate the corners of the napkins.

Another little monogrammed handerchief

I was supposed to be getting started on the napkins for Kingdom of the West's Purgatory coronation event that's coming up later this month. I stepped up to design the work for the napkins and realized I wasn't very inspired at the moment to make napkins. I was, however, inspired to make a surprise handkerchief for a friend of a friend. Viscountess Syele, aka Songbird, of the West Kingdom is probably the bestest friend of my Laurel and (well, honestly I'm a little jealous of their friendship because damn I wish I had a bestest friend at all) she's had a rather difficult year. I was at the heralds' meeting when we approved her badge of a songbird standing on top of a cage (not inside it, which actually brought up a lot of discussion about "is it really a birdcage if the bird isn't IN the cage as they appeared in historic examples?). Her badge was approved not just by the kingdom heralds but also by the Laurel College and as such is an official badge of hers now.

I like to monogram hankies for people, especially for shits & giggles. I did the same thing the day Tullia asked me to be her apprentice (had it ready to go and gift to her, wasn't expecting to even be asked something so awesome by a person I idolize). Last summer I embroidered hankies on Vittorio (my fighter), Vyncent, and Violet (notice something. . . I was practicing the letter V). I made one as a thank you for autocratting this year's Crosston Ball for Jacques de Sion. Last year, when Miles & Ariela stepped up as King and Queen of the West, Ariela had requested handkerchiefs with the letter A on them to give to the weepers in court. I completed two of those. Man, I wish I knew who had gotten them.

For Syele's handkerchief, I drew up a pretty little S in one corner. It's about the size of a quarter coin. I did it in my favorite scarlet red and trimmed it in a little silver thread. Split stitch and stem stitch to outline.

For the opposite corner, I simply copied the badge as it was submitted to the college of heralds. A gold cage worked in harvest gold thread with the Hungarian braid stitch and the outlined in that silver thread done in stem stitch. Atop the cage is a little songbird in the same scarlet color with silver outline as the S on the opposite corner; split stitch and stem.

I was so excited to give it to her when I finished that dropped it off with Tullia to give to her. I was also so excited that in my rush to drop it off in the South Bay, I completely forgot to snap pics of my work for my portfolio work. Syele got it today and it made her super happy. She also took photos and posted one on Facebook and tagged me in it so all the SCA world got to see a bit of my work. Yay!

She graciously included her engagement ring for scale. 

Selfie of the lovely Songbird with her badge.

Sewing for Royalty

Saturday was the Investiture ceremony for the newest Prince and Princess of Cynagua (the area of the Society for Creative Anachronisms that encompasses interior Northern California and most of Nevada). My new friend Sylvie became our princess and last month she asked me to make her coat for her stepping-up!!! Wha?! A new laurel and now royalty asked ME to sew something for her!!! I'm shocked and tickled pink. This was the first time I've sewn for royalty that have actually enlisted my services. Last year's summer investiture featured the stepping down prince and princess in garb sewn by me, but I was helping with the task as people had had sudden cases of life and I was available to tap in and help out. But this. . . this was the first time the royalty asked me to do something and I'm very very honored.


***
Here's Sylvie's write up on her own blog of the whole ensemble. She looked so great! Research Dumping Grounds - Kentish Step Up

The Great Game Board Project

Plan: Create a set of fabric napkin game boards for my dear friend (and laurel's fiance) Master Vyncent who generally runs the West Kingdom Publick House as a birthday present. The game boards will be on heavy linen fabric, made up into napkins/table cloths and will be embroidered by me using period stitches. This should be simple enough because most of the game boards are just lines that one uses markers for.

Some planned games:
Nine Mans Morris - completed
Glukhaus (added) - completed
Checkerboard (in blackwork) - in progress
Game of Goose - still in planning stages

12/31/16 ETA: I finally gifted 2 of the game boards to Master Vyncent as a Christmas gift. I gave him the Nine Mans Morris board and Glukhaus.

4/1/2017 ETA: still woring on the damned chessboard. I'm almost done. Almost. This will be the death of me.

Meeting neighbors

We officially funded the loan on our house and the title got transferred last Wednesday. Granted, we've been living here since the 1st of the month, but it's really and truly ours. And we've already started to put our stamp on it.
The first couple of days we were here, I met our neighbor to the south, Jennifer, who is a widow and has lived in her house for a little over 20 years. She's in real estate I think. I have also seen some 20-somethings at her place recently. I think it might be her son home from college (I'm only assuming). Later in the first week, I met Jeanine who lives across the street. She's been in her house since it was built in the 1960s. About 2 weeks ago, I met Jeanine's husband (but his name is totally escaping me right now) when he came over to help Hubster and I with my mom's car.

Well, I just met our next door neighbor to the north. Sandy's been here since '66. "I've known all 4 owners of your house. It's a good house." And she brought us grapes from her own vines and apologized for potentially waking us up because she and her husband get up around 3am. So now I've met everyone except the guy who lives behind us (who I've heard is pretty nice too).

It's a nice sense of pride when we move into a neighborhood like this. When these people hear that our kids are going to the local school, that husband works there and I am teaching at the junior high up the street, you can see in their eyes and smiles that they know we're bringing goodness back into the neighborhood; not that it's bad, but that there has been a transition in the neighborhood in the last few years. All these people have had their kids grow up and move away. There are not a lot of children in the actual neighborhood around the elementary school here anymore. In fact, on our street, I think there is only our family and the single-mom with her kids about 3 houses up the street. Everyone else is grandparents. You can see it in their smiles though; they're happy to have us here.

Helping others make patterns

Several weeks ago, I was asked to help Safiya do a toile so that she can make a pattern for a kirtle and then a pattern for her Burgundian dress. Part of me was really wanting to help her because I love the idea of bringing people into wearing later period garb in the SCA. But a very large part of me was terrified at the idea because I feel like I'm not very good at patterning for myself and helping someone else is SCARY! So I was honestly looking for plenty of excuses to get out of it. I also was down at the weekly Crosston dance practice in San Jose and staying overnight at my laurel's. So honestly, because Safiya lives in Vacaville (on my way home), I should not have been trying to get out of it.

Ok, so I sucked it up and showed up at her house at the appointed time. I didn't have any of my sewing stuff with me (that was another one of my potential excuses) but she had more than enough of what she needed. I followed the steps for patterning that I learned at a recent class taught by Master Charles de Bourbon from up in An Tir. (clicky linky). I draped her toile, explained to her how this was going to be a copy of her body that we will make future patterns out of. We drafted a sleeve that didn't turn out too bad either. (sleeves are evil) Had to message for help from my laurel when I was drapping the armscye, but it came out great.It took about 5 hours but we were chatting and dealing with her kids and husband (oh poor guy came back from the dentist with a bad wisdom tooth and lots of pain meds - suck!). I felt pretty good with how it went. Honestly, I did almost all of the work (it's pretty darn hard, afterall, to dape yourself). But our other friend Edith will probably be wanting to drape a toile soon and that time I think I'll take the teaching to the next level, making Safiya do the work on Edith while I walk her through it.

Quiet sewing in the midst of chaos

I've gotten to spend some time sewing for Sylvie's step-up coat. I went to her house last Tuesday and got the main body of the coat lining and one sleeve sewn together. She's concerned that I won't have enough time finish it because of the move and all the packing. Well, our paperwork is still stalled out and the escrow stretches onward. Hubster has taken the majority of our things movable to storage or the garage of the new house. I went to weekly dance practice in San Jose on Wednesday evening. It's a long drive and I took the coat pieces to work on in my laurel's basement if there was a chance. The chance did present itself. She had writing to do for one of her blogs. The fiance hadn't been feeling well and so stayed home but was working from the dining table. I holed up in the basement sweat shop and sewed for three uninterrupted hours in silence (only because I had forgotten my charger for my phone and couldn't stream music). It was very pleasant regardless of the headache I started to develop from an allergy/cold I felt coming on. I don't often get a chance to sew so completely left alone. And when I do usually hide away in my sewing room, I'm often made to feel guilty like I'm abandoning my family when I really am quite available to help out. But I managed to finish the rest of the lining and sew the coat together. I even got two hours into the work before I needed a seam ripper (which is A) nearly unheard of and B) something I had to scrounge for because I apparently packed all of mine and not a single one made it into my bag of stuff*).

I am very grateful I got the chance to sew last week and very sad that my sewing room is mostly packed. I have for decades now used sewing as my escape from responsibility. With the house buying process going so utterly sideways, there are many things I should be doing, but all I really want to do sew.

* - I did have to go buy a seam ripper yesterday morning in a fit of frustration with a sewing mistake, frustration with children already crabby at 10 am, and an odyssey of traffic in town and F-ed up Walmart-ness that would try a saint's patience. But I conquered an oddity of sewing/lining garments that I'll post on later. Just know that I should have gotten a cookie for the damned getting a seam ripper sojourn I went on yesterday. 

Extroversion?

Had a very introverted reaction to today. Was helping "sew all the things" at a Sylvie's house but there were just so. many. people.

Normally I love a busy household and the chance to have multiple opportunities to converse with a variety of folks. But the crowd, the noise (made a gazillion times worse by my own squealing serger in want of oiling again), trying to process cutting diagrams in the busy atmosphere (when I want to do a really really really good job and not f*** it up since it's for royalty so I'm under pressure). . . it all just led me to feeling completely mentally exhausted. Drained. So strange for me when I'm normally energized by the opportunity.

I guess my mind was just on other things today; honestly there was someplace else I would rather have been. When I think about it, spending the day in bed feels like it would have been the most enjoyable activity I could have chosen. Like I said, a very introverted reaction which I'm not used to. And I'm not sad I went. I'm just overwhelmed I think. Need a bit of quiet reflection time (which is also not happening because I got home to one grumpy child and then my mom coming over to help pack/toss stuff for the upcoming move.

And the house? Still haven't gotten word on closing status yet. Lender mentioned on Friday we wouldn't hear anything until Monday (tomorrow). Job interview from Friday? Went pretty good and the principal really liked me (I left feeling like they would be a great group to work with), but he can't actually give me the job. HR has to do their work and then offer me employment. What were they doing on Friday? Oh the district office is closed on Fridays so I won't here anything until at least tomorrow.

See, my mind is definitely other places and being around so many people was exhausting.

Because...love (or how we combat hurt feelings by being kind to others)

On Monday night, I got out of the shower after driving for hours to take care of loan stuff. The Hubster was awesome. He's been so positive about the house purchase and staying optimistic. Me? Not so much. Anyway, he had packed several boxes while I was gone and had made a delicious dinner, had wine ready, and even bought me a pint of ice cream. But while getting showered off last night I had a distinct sadness come over me.

quick mid-June update

And this is how I find myself a bad blogger who doesn't regularly update. I haven't been doing any projects and I feel like no one really wants to hear about other events so I haven't posted since the 6th.

The house purchasing problems continue to plague us. We're at 2 weeks until we have to be out of our current home and we still haven't closed escrow on the home we're buying. Argh. That being said, a lot of my sewing room has been packed away. No progress on the list. Progress on the house purchase is that yesterday I made an unscheduled drive to Santa Rose to get signatures on the initial loan disclosures from our cosigners (my brother-in-law and his wife). They hadn't consented to e-sign documents and so that meant all the docs have to be signed the old-fashioned way and we were looking at maybe only getting keys on the 27th of this month. But Haley, you said you had to be out in two weeks. Yes, I did. You see the dilemma. That literally gives us 2 days to move out and turn around on the house. So driving out and getting their signatures so I could drop the loan paperwork off to my loan officer in hand yesterday evening? Well that moves the timeline up to the 23rd for keys. That gives us a week (including a weekend so we might get some moving help from friends).

It was suggested that my $10 Latchet shoes might make a good class (thank you Hubster - you're smart and encouraging). I like the idea of teaching a class that is very hands on and that you can leave with something period-oid for SCA as soon as you leave the class. I will definitely consider it.

The fabric for Hubster's doublet arrived this morning in the mail. Part of me wants to dive dive dive into this project immediately. See aforementioned issue with having half of my sewing packed for move. Frankly it should all be packed at this point.2 WEEKS PEOPLE!!! We have to be gone in two weeks!!! But it's a 7.1 oz linen from Fabrics Store in cobalt which is a lovely dark, but not quite navy, blue. He loves blue. It will be very nice for the doublet. Yes I know there are no real examples of linen doublets. But I'm gambling with my husband even wanting to wear it. And it gets hot here in the Sacramento/Nor Cal events. He's one of those guys that thinks one must wash every article of clothing after a single use (which to be honest is kinda necessary because boys are cute - but smelly) and I just can't do that with wool. So this will be a very simple, very "easy-going" doublet. And I'll feel better about doing it in linen anyway as it's my first time and if I royally screw up, well I didn't spend $20+ per yard on it. Plus, he's getting the striped mock-up as the lining and that just rocks.

We made a snap decision to go to June Crown tournament in Tres Pinos. It was our first time at that site. I had a really great time. I wasn't committed to doing anything "responsible" except for one shift of trotting along behind the Lady of the Swan (our soon to be Princess of Cynagua) and attending to her needs. I didn't go to any meetings. I didn't take any classes. Vittorio wasn't fighting for me so I didn't need to consort for him. I actually spent a large part of my time in the Publick House gambling with borrowed monies and drinking. And it was relaxing and fun to be so low-key. Shhhh I didn't even go to Court in the evening. And I never skip court. By the way, the awesome news is that my new friend Sylvie (go check out her blog - she's one of the ones I follow along with) is the Lady of the Swan. Her husband, Fearghus, and she will be stepping up as Prince and Princess of our area in July and they've asked me to be on their court. I am very excited. I like to be on court a lot. I declined the offer during this most recent reign for two reasons; I was worn out after serving on the last 3 consecutive courts and the most recent one I had been on had felt very stressful and socially awkward. But that worked well because I instead got to know the current Princess, Katherine, socially and in a crafting way. I got to just hang out with her. That was nice.

Okay, now I'm totally digressing on the point about Sylvie and Fearghus...this weekend at Crown, Her Excellency asked if I would serve as a Princesses Artisan! What?! Holycow!!! And she totally did it in the best way too. She's already cleared it with my Laurel (and my grand-Laurel happened to be standing right there waiting to talk to her about artisans too) AND she told me to only consider it if I didn't have too much on my plate with the house-moving and the no job thing. I've asked to at least wait until I've signed my home loan paperwork to consider, but I'm totally totally honored. This is the first time anyone in Cynagua has considered me worthy of being an artisan. Dah schucks [scrapes toe in the dirt]. I still have to think long and hard about it though because there are a lot of steps/tasks that we are being asked to do as part of the position and I know me. . . I want to do them perfectly and completely. And I don't want to take on a job that I know I'm only gonna half-ass.

Anyway, tonight is business meeting for my Shire and since I'm the one in charge of that circus, I better have some notes to talk to my monkeys about. Right now, the Shire is a huge source of anxiety with me. More on that later (or not at all because I don't know how comfortable you are with hearing about my mental issues). The quick update ended up being a little longer than I expected. But that's a good thing I guess.

$10 latchet shoes

Yes, period-oid passable 16th century shoes for $10 (or less!).

So, in case you haven't noticed, in the SCA I tend to hang with the late-period folks. Some of them are particular sticklers for HA (historical accuracy)*. One of them is a stickler for shoes. I knew he was a shoe guy before I really got to know him, because that's what he was laureled for. (In the SCA a Laurel is a person who has done tremendous work in the arts and sciences of medieval studies. It's an equivalent learning/study/teaching level to being a Knight. In the modern world, have you ever heard the phrase "rest on one's laurels"? Yeah, some people have put in near PhD level work on their medieval studies so they're really good and knowledgeable on this stuff...bu I'm digressing from my point about the shoes).

I know that a particular peeve for many reenactors can be the wrong shoes. This doesn't just hold to SCA folks. It can be the CivWar folks, the living history museums, lots of folks really. But I'm not a leather worker and I don't have gobs of cash to spend on accurate footwear made by someone else. This also makes me sad because who wouldn't like to have gobs of cash to spend on fabulous shoes. Have you seen my shoes in real life? I'm not a purse gal, I'm a shoe gal. But I also have to be practical when it comes to buying shoes. I wear mine to work. I have to get MILEAGE out of them. (funfact - my first year of teaching I was voted "teacher with the best shoes")

The patent leather candy corn heels. Because...candy corn. 

Last May, I decided I needed to make something more appropriate. Here's some examples:

From a Holbein sketch.

Cows Mouth shoe and last from https://northamptonmuseums.wordpress.com/category/shoes/shoe-history/

a sketch by Lucas de Heere

 

The "Virginia" shoe available for purchase at American Duchess

Actually, American Duchess has a gorgeous raised heel shoe that is de rigeur in footwear for 16th century reenactors. I don't have the $200 to drop on a shoe I will only wear to a few occasions each year. I know the designer. I have seen the prototype in person. But alas, it just wasn't meant to be last May (or right now for that matter). So I got crafty.

See the photo journey after the jump...