Stupidity

A year ago I suddenly decided that I desperately needed period turnshoes for Rowany Festival. With something stupid like three weeks until Festival, my only option was to make them myself. I thought this was a good option since it would get me shoes on time, and it is significantly cheaper to buy the leather than to buy already made shoes. So I spent two entire weekends with Mister Nathan, who walked me through the entire process and listened to my constant whining because it turns out that making shoes is a tedious and painful business. My poor hands were sore for weeks afterwards. But I ended up with my very own pair of 14th century turnshoes which I had completely made from scratch.

The only problem was that the soles were too thin. I plastered a ridiculous amount of scotch guard and dubbin on them, but the damp just leaked straight through. With two weeks to go until Rowany Festival again, and with my man-cote outfit planned and the underwear almost finished, there's no way I can wear my gumboots. Gumboots under a skirt is one thing, or with a crappy viking tunic worn over a jumper and leggings, but not with hose and brais and a nice wool cote. But seeing as it's so wet in NSW at the moment, even more than usual, my thin little soles don't stand a chance. So I decided to take my shoes to a shoe repair place and get them to nail on a nice new thick sole.

I dropped them off today before work, and after work I picked them up. My medieval turnshoes now have rubber soles on them. Rubber. On my MEDIEVAL shoes. RUBBER. [Insert obscenities here]. I am completely aware that it is my own extreme stupidity that let this happen, because somehow I neglected to mention that I wanted leather soles on my medieval shoes. The thought didn't even cross my mind that they would use something other than leather. So I just paid for my rubber soles and headed straight for my car, where my stupidity started sinking in. I bawled my eyes out the whole way home, because all my hours of hard work have been wasted, because my medieval shoes now have rubber soles. I just want to bury them in the bottom of my closet and forget that they ever existed, but that will have to wait until after Festival. My feet may have a chance at staying dry this Festival, but I would much rather they got soaked.

I might just curl up in the corner and wallow in self misery for the rest of the evening.

Dyeing Adventures

I treid my hand at dyeing fabric for the very first time today. It was a very nerve wracking process. I wanted the wool I bought from Homecraft Textiles to be green, so I can have a cloak which is purple on the outside and green on the inside, since they are my heraldic colours.

Materials:

Blue-ish coloured wool, a packet of dye and some vinegar! IDye is a popular brand here in Aneala, I've heard good things about it, so I thought I may as well give it a try. The outside of the packet makes it all seem so simple, so I got a bit of a shock when I opened the packet and found a whole bunch of detailed instructions for different methods. There's two different kinds of iDye, one group for natural fabrics, and one for polyester. I had no idea what sort of blend my wool is, but it felt like mostly wool so I thought I'd just get the natural dye and if there was some poly in there that didn't take the dye it wouldn't really matter because most of it would be green and it's only for a lining anyway. The packet recommends buying one of each and putting them both in for blends.

Anyway, after dropping into the local supermarket for white vinegar, I started filling up the washing machine with hot water. The hot water thing worried me a bit, since fabric tends to shrink in hot water, but the dye needed hot so I suppose there was no other way. It was very exciting when the packet burst open and the water all turned green, and then the fabric went in:

Hot water with green and fabric! The fabric didn't want to get wet, so I spent a bit of time trying to dunk it all under and get rid of air bubbles. My fingers have a slight green tinge now :P. I let the machine do it's thing until it started thinking about draining the water, then I quickly reset the cycle to start from the beginning so there would be more time for the dye to soak in. There was a lot of flailing around and staring anxiously at the closed machine as it did it's thing.

When it had finished I was left with this! I then put it through another normal cycle with some detergent, because the instructions said so. I knew it was going to shrink, but when I pulled it out of the machine I realised that the selvedge didn't shrink. It's all wibbly. I hung it out and measured the length to see how much I'd lost. I started with 4 metres, and now I have 3.4 metres. I lost 60 centimetres! I think that is rather a lot to lose. I wasn't expecting it to shrink quite that much. Anyway, I should still have enough for a cloak, although there will be some epic pondering about how to cut it out and whether I need to piece it together.

The finished product, with some more of the same wool that I didn't dye. A before and after shot. The packet of dye was meant for only about 1kg of fabric. I suspect I had more than 1kg of fabric and it could possibly have done with two packets, but all the colours on the packet are a guide for fabric being dyed from white, rather than from this random bluish colour. Basically I had no idea how this would turn out, but I'm quite happy with the end result even though I would have preferred a darker green. Also, the whole thing seems to have taken the dye, so it must consist of mostly natural fibres. Stay tuned for turning it into a cloak!

I also managed to cut out some brais and a shirt and do all the machine stitching. Tonight I'm going to the Achenfeld A&S meeting, and hopefully I shall at least mostly finish the hand sewing. Tomorrow I need to pay some attention to my uni work. I tried working on my external unit while the wool was in the machine, but I couldn't concentrate, so now I have more that I need to do tomorrow :(

Stuff

It seems I've kind of lost momentum since I finished my cotehardie. Since then I have sort of finished my tablet weaving, as in it's just sitting there on the loom waiting to be tied off and unstrung. I might do that this morning.... or maybe not :P

I went to Mister Nathan's open house day on Saturday and made a new hose pattern, since it seems I have lost mine :( I keep all my patterns in individually labelled zip lock baggies, and I'm usually really good about keeping them neat, so I have no idea what could have happened to my hose pattern. The only thing I can think of is that I left it in the sewing room the last time I made hose, which was about a year ago. Since then the sewing room has been relocated and reorganised, and I'm pretty sure any stray bits of calico would have been thrown out by my Mum. It's happened before, I've had to rescue bits of pattern from the bin. Anyway, I made a new pattern! It took me most of the afternoon. I also want to make man-hose to go with my man-cote, and somehow I ended up trying on Mister Nathan's. They fit. They fit REALLY WELL so I traced out his pattern and then cut some out. Now I have a lady-hoe and a pair of man-hose cut out, and they're sitting in my projects basket waiting to be sewn up.

I haven't done anything since Saturday. Last night I had no motivation whatsoever, but I forced myself to get out my gold cotehardie and fix the stupid armhole. I did one and then put it on, and although it was slightly better, it wasn't good. I couldn't see how I could fix the other one, so I gave up. I might try again when I'm in a better mood. That whole cote looks so nice but it's so restrictive and uncomfortable for my arms. I have almost no arm movement whatsoever and I don't understand why. I even remade the sleeves completely from scratch again.

Over the weekemd my awesome Daddy built me a loom! It's now sitting in his shed soaking in varnish or something. I think it needs another coat or two, and then it'll be all ready for me to use :)

That's about it from me. I went to Spotlight yesterday and bought the very last two metres of white linen, some dye and some heading tape to use as a belt for my brais. This week I think I'm going to work on Cutting Out some underwear. I need a chemise, a shirt and brais cut out of white linen, and another lady-hoe. Only three weeks until I leave for Rowany Festival!

Finished!

I finished my cotehardie! On Tuesday night I finished sewing up the second sleeve, sewed on all the buttons on both sleeves, and even did three button holes before deciding button holes were just stupid and giving up. But I finished them today! Then I took a break from sleeves by finishing the hem, then I went back and attached the sleeves.

 Yay! The sleeves feel like they pinch a bit, but there's no seam where they pinch so I have no idea what's going on there. Usually I make the sleeve holes on the bodice too small so they pinch all the way around, but this time it's different. I tried the thing on before I sewed the lining in just to test it, and I couldn't quite figure out exactly what was wrong, let alone how to fix it. It didn't feel too pinchy, and I have quite a wide range of movement this time so I decided to just leave it. Ugh I hate sleeves so much. It's the attaching part that I am just ridiculously bad at, and it's so fiddly and tedious that I hate having to redo things, which is why I have garb that is perfectly good except the sleeves need to be fixed somehow so I just don't wear it instead.

Anyway, here's a sleeve:

I really like my gold buttons. They look awesome with the red. I got them from All Button Great and Small in Sydney when I was there after Rowany Festival last year. They have some really great buttons for relatively cheap, considering that they're metal and I can get plastic ones here from Homecraft Textiles for the same price. The plastic ones break when you dump your garb on the floor and then step on it. They also lose their paint in the wash.

Overall I'm not terribly happy with the way this cote turned out. When I had it on I thought I looks sort of... frumpy. I dunno, but when I look at myself in it it doesn't seem quite right, but I can't remember if my other cotehardies look the same or not, or what it is exactly that's different. I guess the same thing I was saying about the sleeves applies to the whole dress. It's not quite right, but I can't quite put my finger on what exactly is wrong with it, or how it could be better. I pondered putting my favourite cotehardie on to compare, but it's just too hot and I can't be bothered with all that lacing. I intend to wear it to WAMA fair next Saturday to try it out. I might see if I can get some second opinions, at the same time as testing if it's comfortable to wear for a whole day. Often I make something that seems fine when I chuck it on in my bedroom, but when I actually wear it an an event and do SCA activities and stuff I find it's just not practical or comfortable.

The next thing I'm pondering is a chemise. I want to make another chemise, because one is not enough for an undergarment that I intend to wear next to my skin under multiple outfits. Especially for camping events. What I can't decide is whether to make another short sleeved one exactly like the one I have, and make a proper sleeved shirt to wear under my man cote as well. OR I could make a shirt that has the low neckline so I could wear it under both cotehardies. OR I could make a shirt, and a proper chemise with long sleeves and a longer skirt, not like the short cheat one I have now. The correct answer is MAKE ALL THE THINGS but I'm a little short on linen and also funds to buy more linen. I currently have three metres of reall nice shirt weight white linen. I could potentially make a shirt and a cheat chemise, but I want to use the nice stuff to make brais too. Ugh. I might postpone this decision until after the 30% of everything sale at Spotlight on Monday and Tuesday that hasn't been advertised yet but I know about it because I'm on the inside *taps nose* and I might be able to get some expensive metro linen for not as expensive, or even take a trip out to Cannington to see if they have any special Premium Linen that we had only one bolt of at Innaloo.

Anyway, I'm rambling now. I didn't have my nap today because I took Nigel to visit Murray the Mechanic and I kept getting phone calls about how sick he is, AND I've been up since 7:30am, because I had to take Nigel to visit Murray the Mechanic, AND I was busy with the buttonholes and the sleeves. Also I did some tablet weaving.

I've been working on my Daddy for a while, trying to get him interested in making me a loom, and I think I have succeeded! He went to Bunnings and the Collie Shop to find some Nice Wood in short lengths, but they didn't have any. That took all weekend, but yesterday he visited the Billiard Table Business somewhere near where he works and talked to the boys about wood, and today he brought some home! It's just ordinary pine, but he went to so much trouble to try and find some fancy stuff and couldn't find any short lengths anywhere that I don't mind pine. We'll varnish it up all nice and stuff. I've requested brass screws, but I'm happy to let him do whatever he likes with all the rest, because I'm sure it'll come out looking nice :) Yay loom!

Sleeves

I didn't end up doing any more sewing on Saturday night. Instead I made a lucet cord for Isabel to lace up her new dress, and then I did some more tablet weaving. On Sunday I had a very uninspired archery training session. I'd gone to bed with a headache, not slept very well, and woken up with the same headache. I hate when that happens. The result is a tired, grumpy person who doesn't feel like doing anything. After lunch at the pub I went home. This is a very rare occurrence for a Sunday afternon, because usually I go hang out with Mister Nathan and Catherine at their house, because their house is way more cooler than mine :P But they went away for the long weekend, so I was left to entertain myself for the afternoon. I started with taking some drugs and having a nap. A nice, refreshing nap that got rid of my headache :D. Then I wrote some LISTS. I like lists. I like writing lists and then rewriting them in order to make them more organised and neat. Then I like crossing things off the list. Anyway, I wrote a list of all the things I want to do before Rowany Festival. Then I divided the things onto different lists for each week between now and festival. Then instead of working on this week's list, I decided to do something from next week's list because I'm a rebel and you can't confine me to lists, man! I do what I want, when I want. I still like writing lists though.

I eventually decided it was time to work on this week's stuff, so with my belly all full from delicious Chinese dinner, I parked myself on the couch and made A MILLION LACING HOLES. Ok, maybe not a million exactly, but I did thirty-six, and that may as well be a million. Thirty-six lacing holes is A LOT. What this means is I have finished the lacing holes on my cotehardie, and I can finally put it on! I didn't feel particularly photogenic last night, so I took photos tonight.

It fits! It's a little wrinkly under the bust, but not too bad. I've had much worse. Side view:

The overall shape is what I was after, and it feels like it's gonna be a comfy dress, but I don't think I like it. I don't like that the front panels are so straight and narrow all the way down, and the side panels look like they flare out a ridiculous amount. The second panel on each side looks like it flares forwards as well as backwards, which is weird when you look at the shape the panels started in. You can't really see the details of the seams in the crappy photos I've taken, but they look funny too, a bit bubbly. The whole thing may just need a wash and an iron, but the whole skirt feels like it hangs a bit funny. At first I thought it was really narrow, but I measured it against my other cotes, and it's the same width. Maybe it's because the panels all flare less, so there's less bias in the skirt. Anyway, I'm definitely going to finish it and I intend to wear it often, but I think I'll go back to my eight panel pattern for furture cotes :P

Today I had to go to uni. On a public holiday. But I spent my evening doing some more tablet weaving, then some Cutting Out.

Sleeves! The left is the top piece, with the bottom far left curvy outy bit being the very top of the sleeve that joines at the shoulder, and the far right straight edge of the right piece is the bit that goes around the wrist. I always sew the two pieces together and finish that seam completely, like this:

The photo's a bit dodgy since the fabric doesn't sit flat because the seam is curved. Anyway, next I fold the whole thing in half and sew in closed along the edge, leaving about seven inches from the wrist open for the buttons. I finish the seam and then do a rolled hem alll around the edge along the open bit.

Sleeve shape! This is called a hinge sleeve, and I totally made up my own method of sewing it together. I've tried sewing each piece indiviually and then sewing them together, but I found that incredibly tedious and didn't want to ever do that again. This way works for me just fine. The first time I made them I put buttons up all the way over the elbow, and that ended up being a really dumb idea. Buttons over your elbow don't look good, because there's always gonna be gapey bits as you move around. Besides, they're uncomfortable to lean on :P. Also, if there's not enough room to slide your arm in with half of your buttons done up, then there's not enough room for the sleeve to be comfortable.

Anyway, that's what I did tonight. Sleeves. One is ready for buttons, the other needs its edge sewn up and finished. Yay buttonholes :( My stupid long arms mean I have ten buttons on each arm, even though I sew half the forearm piece together :P

Success!

My cotehardie is all in one piece! It even looks dress shaped :D

Tada! I had the outside part technically in one piece by the time I went to bed last night. I was too tired to finish sewing the last ten inches of seam together and then finish it, so I finished that today while I was studying. And by studying I mean watching Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It's all about a linguist and proto-languages, so it must be relevant :P After lunch I started sewing the lining in, but my progress was slowed by SBS airing the Bolshoi's Giselle. I kept finding myself staring at the tv instead of sewing. It took the entire first act just to sew the lining in, then I had to wait until interval to quickly duck into the laundry to iron the seam flat. I sewed the front half seam during the second act :P But anyway, we got there in the end and now I has a dress! The next step will be lacing holes down the front. Unfortunately, I seem to be running out of thread already, and I don't think the rest of the spool will make 36 lacing holes :( I don't go back to work until Tuesday, and Monday is a public holiday so places won't be open, so hopefully I'll find some in Mum's stash of useful sewing-related things. If that fails, then I guess I'll just have to wait until I can get some on Tuesday.

You might notice that I have hung my cote on the end of a clothing rack. This is where my garb lives, and it is behind my bedroom door because I have no more space anywhere else. Anyway, the cote will live there on the front until it is finished, when it will get hung with the other garb. While I was fiddling with the cote for its photo-shoot, I heard a little snorey-purry noise.

Gratuitous kitten photo! He likes to sleep on my Italian chemise. I let him because a) I don't care about my Italian chemise, b) it kept falling off it's hanger anyway, c) it doesn't have a hanger anymore, I ended up using it for something else, d) it stops him from pulling down the garb that I actually like, and finally e) LOOKIT HIM HE'S SO CUTE!

Yesterday was an action packed day. I went to uni to pick up a couple of books at the book shop, and found out that The Broadview Anthology of British Literature is actually called THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD. In big bold letters like that. Printed in teeny weeny print above it is the title I was given on my booklist. That was awesome. Then I had guild sushi that was too cold for my teeth, waaaaaaaah call the wahmbulance. Then I discovered that even though you can go from the causeway to uni by following Riverside Drive all the way along the river until it becomes Mounts Bay Road, if you try to do that in reverse you end up on the freeway south. How have I never known this before? Anyway, eventually I made it across the causeway to the Stitchers Corner where I bought some more purple silk, then I went to Homecraft Textiles to take advantage of their awesome sale! I was meeting Rosie, but I got there about half an hour early and she got there about half an hour late :P So I had an hour to discover all the wool and get very very attached to it, so attached that I had to buy it all! Actually, I only ended up with twelve and a half metres all up.

WOOL PILE! Har har har I'm so hilarious. I'm kind of cheating here because the bottom two are the Melton wool I found at Spotlight the other week, but this is where my wool now lives, on my desk chair. I don't have any other space for it, so I'm just gonna have to make do with just a floordrobe instead of a floordrobe for worn clothes that aren't really dirty enough to be washed, and a chairdrobe for clean clothes. Anyway, at the top is a metre and a half of yellow wool that feels lovely and warm and cuddly and it also feels like it's mostly actual wool. The colour is really growing on me, although I did have plans to dye it a more goldy yellow and bind my cloak with it. Or I could make a ho, or I could make another hood. The burgundy stuff is definitely a blend, but I love the colour. I love burgundy. I bought 7 metres of it, so if I decide to make some sort of gown I will still have enough for small projects like another hood. The bluey coloured stuff looks like it's the same as the yellow, and I'm intending to dye it green and line my cloak with it. It's lovely and soft, so should be fine against my skin. The Melton wool is nice, but it is a tad scratchy which is why I wanted to line the cloak with something. That and I need the extra warm because I'm very bad at holding onto body warmth and I get cold ALL THE TIME. There was another whole bolt of the bluey stuff, and I might have to go back and get it because it's really quite nice wool and I think I could dye it an awesome colour and finally make the awesome wool surcote that I've been pondering for a very long time. This red cote was originally intended to go underneath the awesome wool one, but for now I'll just wear it on it's own with a chemise.

Well, that's where I'm at. All that's left is lacing holes, hemming, and sleeves. I hate sleeves. It also means more Cutting Out, then once that's done, button holes. I'd much rather do lacing holes than button holes, lemme tell you. I should get the whole thing done by the end of this week, then I can look at starting my cloak :D

This is going to be another post with no pictures because I've been slowly working on stuff but there's nothing yet to show for it :( This week's been pretty hectic, since it's the first week of uni so I've had to sort all that stuff out, but we also had a stocktake at work which was epic.

I shot an IKAC on Sunday and scored 101. My personal best is 105, so that's not too shabby for the first IKAC of the season. I managed to hit my elbow with my string though, which is bad, but this time the bruise actually showed up, which is good :P On Sunday afternoon Mister Nathan and I went to Hoddywell Archery Park to check it out as a potential site for Championship. I like it, it will mean roughing it a bit since there's no kitchen as such, but there are showers. Mordenvale manages to cook a pretty awesome spread at Festival with no kitchen, so why can't we do that too? The owners are semi-retired, and they're pondering whether they want us there or not, and how much to charge us.

On Monday I washed my wool. I have decided on the purple for my new cloak, so I treated it how I'm gonna treat it when it's a cloak (since Mistress Rowan told us to and she's awesome and knows Things) and I washed it on the regular cycle. I ended up with purple fluff EVERYWHERE. I almost chucked the purple and red in together, but didn't because it weighs a bit and the machine might not be able to cope, and I'm so glad I didn't. As it was I had to scrape purple fluff off the inside of the washing machine before I put the red in on gentle cycle. That seemed to work a bit better, there wasn't nearly so much red fluff as purple fluff. You should see our verandah, I tried to do most of the shaking out there and there is so much fluff everywhere. It was also really dusty when I bought it, so there was dust and fluff flying around everywhere. Now it is folded up and sitting on my desk chair, because I don't have anywhere else to put it :(

Tuesday and Wednesday was craft/party stocktake at work. We started at 7am each day, and we didn't finish so I was there until 7pm last night. So much tired in my faaaaaace. Anyway, I did some sewing on Tuesday night, but I was so exhausted last night that I came home, ate my dinner and then fell into bed at 8pm. Anyway, my cotehardie is in six pieces at the moment. I'm hoping to get it all finished and sewn together with the lining by tomorrow night.

Tomorrow is my very last Friday off work, since I've been moved to part time at work and the new roster starts next week, which includes Fridays. I am going to run errands! I shall go to uni and pick up some textbooks and hopefully find Dress Accessories in the library, then go past Stitcher's Corner for more floss for my embroidery on my way to the annual 50% off sale at Homecraft Textiles! It's moved to March, people! This means enough time to buy cheap fabric and make things for Festival! I'm intending to buy something green to line my cloak with. If I can't find any suitable wool, then I think I'll go for some flannel since it's only $1.99 per metre during the sale and it should be nice and soft and warm :D

Hopefully on Saturday I'll be able to post pictures of my cotehardie all in one piece! Next week I'll have to actually go to uni, but my schedule should start working itself out and we'll see how much time I actually have to do SCA stuff.