Today was my day off, and I was mostly productive! I slept in, then after coffee I sat down with these instructions to finish my belt. They popped up on the SCA tablet weaving email list a couple of weeks ago in a discussion about starting and ending weaving. Now I don't know if I'm incredibly stupid, but everyone else seemed to love the idea, but it took me ages to figure out exactly what I was supposed to be doing. I suppose the main thing is that the extra loops of thread don't stay in the band, they're used as hooks to pull the weft back through the previous pick. Once I figured that out then I was fine, it's a great way to finish! It only took me 20 minutes of swearing at it, but I got there in the end :P
Once I'd done that I decided to start on my documentation. I typed a bit about what I did and why and what I used and stuff, before it got to the point where I need to find myself some books to get some actual facts and stuff. I nearly impulse-bought Textiles and Clothing and Dress Accessories the other day because they're on saaaaaale and I NEED them, but I'm really poor and couldn't bring myself to do it :( early birthday pressie anyone? I also really really want some Nancy Spies too, while we're at it :P *hinthint*
MOVING ON. This took me all of the rest of the morning, so I decided to go out and get some ingredients for lunch sammiches and make a stop at Bunnings on the way to buy a D-ring for my belt. I really wanna nice buckle and point, but I'm on a budget and I can't be bothered anymore. Besides, I wanna buckle without a pin, and that seems a little bit difficult. Anyway, I have always known what a D-ring is, and I took for granted that it was one of those things of many uses and everyone would know what it is. I also assumed it was some sort of hardware thing and I'd be able to find it in Bunnings. Apparently not. I ended up asking about four staff members in various aisles who just gave me funny looks, obviously had no idea what I was talking about and sent me to look at D-clamps. Eventually I was passed to a manager person of some sort, who implied quite rudely that I was making things up and wasting her time. It was very frustrating, so I left. I also went to look in the Collie Shop, and although the man there was much nicer, he also had no idea what I was talking about. I pouted all the way home and asked my mum to reassure me that D-rings do indeed exist. She has a packet of them that are too small, but at least they exist. She also said they're used for curtains, so I should in theory be able to pick one up at work tomorrow. Although I talked to dad later, and he says they're used for parachutes so I'll have to go to a parachute shop :P
After that ordeal I had some lunch and decided that I needed a nap. Partly because I was full in mah belleh, partly because I was cranky about the whole D-ring thing, and partly because the next thing on my list of things is Cutting Out, and I had already spent my morning procrastinating and I'd run out of ideas for more procrastinatory activites.
Eventually, I got onto Cutting Out. Over the weekend I pulled apart the pattern, ironed it all flat and evened up both sides, so today I needed to start with tracing it out onto calico so I have a pattern to use next time.
Here is all my bits! I use the same panels reversed for left and right, so I only need one half of the pattern, which is only six panels. Yay less cutting out :P
Two nice neat piles of fabric :D The calico bits go into a labelled zip-lock baggie in a big bag with the rest of my patterns, and the red linen gets sewn back together, but finished this time and attached as the lining of the finished dress. I also cut out the outside bits, which are a bit longer since they have to go all the way to the ground. I didn't take ny pictures because they would just look like a whole mess of red fabric everywhere :P. I flared each panel out so that it measures ten inches wide along the bottom hem. This gives me a skirt which is 120 inches around, which is plenty. Twelve relatively skinny panels are very fabric thrifty, I have a lot more practical pieces left over from this pattern than my eight panel pattern. I also flare the panels so that one side is straight and the other side does all the flaring. The straight side I sew in so it is closest to the front, and the flare flares towards the back. This does two things, Each straight edge is sewn to a flared edge, which stops any hem dropping that you get when you sew two biased edges together for a gore. It also means the body of the skirt moves towards the back , giving a nice sillouette. The front middle seam is two straight edges joined together, and the middle back seam is two flared edges.
The fabric I am using is crimson 5.3 ounce linen from fabric-store.com. I found this weight is good for cotehardies, since there's a lot of strain on the fabric in such a tightly fitted dress. I made an earlier one from the 3.5 ounce linen, and while it was really nice soft linen, it just couldn't take the strain. Unfortinately, I won't be making any more orders to this site. The linen is good quality and cheap in a great range of colours, but had a bit of an ordeal trying to contact them when my last order took five times as long as it usually does to arrive. They ignored three emails and only contacted me when I wrote a scathing complaint through their feedback form, and that one attempt at contact was indecipherable, they clearly don't speak English. In a nutshell, the customer service was unnacceptable, so I am chucking a tantrum at them and refuse to give them any of my hard earned monies.
I can't start sewing the cote together yet because I don't have any red thread. I will pick that up tomorrow at work along with (hopefully) a D-ring, then I will finish off my belt and start sewing! Yay for getting past Cutting Out. I'm just going to ignore the fact that I haven't done anything about sleeves, which means more Cutting Out later :(
Once I'd done that I decided to start on my documentation. I typed a bit about what I did and why and what I used and stuff, before it got to the point where I need to find myself some books to get some actual facts and stuff. I nearly impulse-bought Textiles and Clothing and Dress Accessories the other day because they're on saaaaaale and I NEED them, but I'm really poor and couldn't bring myself to do it :( early birthday pressie anyone? I also really really want some Nancy Spies too, while we're at it :P *hinthint*
MOVING ON. This took me all of the rest of the morning, so I decided to go out and get some ingredients for lunch sammiches and make a stop at Bunnings on the way to buy a D-ring for my belt. I really wanna nice buckle and point, but I'm on a budget and I can't be bothered anymore. Besides, I wanna buckle without a pin, and that seems a little bit difficult. Anyway, I have always known what a D-ring is, and I took for granted that it was one of those things of many uses and everyone would know what it is. I also assumed it was some sort of hardware thing and I'd be able to find it in Bunnings. Apparently not. I ended up asking about four staff members in various aisles who just gave me funny looks, obviously had no idea what I was talking about and sent me to look at D-clamps. Eventually I was passed to a manager person of some sort, who implied quite rudely that I was making things up and wasting her time. It was very frustrating, so I left. I also went to look in the Collie Shop, and although the man there was much nicer, he also had no idea what I was talking about. I pouted all the way home and asked my mum to reassure me that D-rings do indeed exist. She has a packet of them that are too small, but at least they exist. She also said they're used for curtains, so I should in theory be able to pick one up at work tomorrow. Although I talked to dad later, and he says they're used for parachutes so I'll have to go to a parachute shop :P
After that ordeal I had some lunch and decided that I needed a nap. Partly because I was full in mah belleh, partly because I was cranky about the whole D-ring thing, and partly because the next thing on my list of things is Cutting Out, and I had already spent my morning procrastinating and I'd run out of ideas for more procrastinatory activites.
Eventually, I got onto Cutting Out. Over the weekend I pulled apart the pattern, ironed it all flat and evened up both sides, so today I needed to start with tracing it out onto calico so I have a pattern to use next time.
The fabric I am using is crimson 5.3 ounce linen from fabric-store.com. I found this weight is good for cotehardies, since there's a lot of strain on the fabric in such a tightly fitted dress. I made an earlier one from the 3.5 ounce linen, and while it was really nice soft linen, it just couldn't take the strain. Unfortinately, I won't be making any more orders to this site. The linen is good quality and cheap in a great range of colours, but had a bit of an ordeal trying to contact them when my last order took five times as long as it usually does to arrive. They ignored three emails and only contacted me when I wrote a scathing complaint through their feedback form, and that one attempt at contact was indecipherable, they clearly don't speak English. In a nutshell, the customer service was unnacceptable, so I am chucking a tantrum at them and refuse to give them any of my hard earned monies.
I can't start sewing the cote together yet because I don't have any red thread. I will pick that up tomorrow at work along with (hopefully) a D-ring, then I will finish off my belt and start sewing! Yay for getting past Cutting Out. I'm just going to ignore the fact that I haven't done anything about sleeves, which means more Cutting Out later :(
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