14thC Wardrobe

I ended up making only two new chemises for Rowany Festival, but I'm glad I took the time to make proper ones instead of quick and dirty ones like I usually do. I followed the basic smock pattern from the old version of the Medieval Tailor's Assistant which has been uploaded as a free pdf online since they published a new one. I cut a big rectangle for the body which got folded in half and a hole cut for the head so there's no shoulder seams, and added gores from the shoulders to flare it. I could have just cut the body as a tapered piece but it's not very economical fabric-wise. I used a tapered sleeve though, so I didn't have to deal with underarm gores. For my second one, I added the body gores from the armpit instead of from the shoulders. Both smocks worked fine, but I think I like the shoulder gore one better and I'll be making more of those. I'd also like to try the technique where you cut each piece, do a rolled hem all the way around and then whip stitch them together, because the run and fell technique I used left me with some places that had exposed edges and sewing over seams which left bulky bits. Eventually, I'd like five of these type of chemise, and a couple of sleeveless chemises for hot days.

I've had some thoughts about refurbishing my 14thC wardrobe. I have a bunch of dresses that are just hanging in the closet that aren't quite right but I can't bring myself to throw them out. My cotehardies are also looking a bit second hand. The pink one is fairly new so it's ok, and my gold one is holding up quite well considering it's the one I wear the most. My teal coloured one is the one I always bring as a backup. The lining has been pulled out of one of the sleeve holes since forever because every time I fixed it, it just ripped out again and now it's all frayed. The hem has all come apart at the back as well. I've been hesitant to spend the time fixing it because I can't quite lace it closed since I put on a bit of weight and it's quite uncomfortable. I think I have the solution now though! I'm going to take the sleeves off and make it sleeveless. Hopefully then it won't pull around the neckline and it will be more comfortable. When I've done that I'll re-evaluate and decide if I need to add any extra fabric anywhere in order to lace it shut. Once that's done I'll make a new pattern and turn some rust linen I ordered into a cotehardie, and then maybe pull apart the parti-coloured linen overdress I never wear, line it, re-shape it and turn it into a lace up kirtle.

In terms of my overdresses, the red one is awesome, the green one needs the buttons all re-sewn because every time I wear it I end up with a button in my hand instead of attached to the dress when I take it off. I suppose it's good that I'm not losing the buttons, but it does get tedious! I wore it twice at Festival and had to do emergency sewing each time to replace the missing button, and it's always a different button! I'd also like to look at the green brocade dress again, I spent a lot of time adjusting it only to have it not quite fit again, but it drapes so nicely that I want to make it work.

I also have plans for a Kampfrau wardrobe. I've ordered some stripey cotton stockings from www.delpstockings.com to get me started before I figure out how to knit my own woollen ones. May Crown is in two weeks and I'm hoping to fix the armholes of my yellow Kampfrau, make detachable sleeves, a gollar and a proper hemd. I feel like this is a bit ambitious since there's only one weekend left and I'm already busy all day Saturday. I'll start by cutting out the hemd tomorrow after work. I'm planning on making a very quick one out of a cotton/linen lend fabric, based on a simple Italian camica pattern, like my polycotton one I wore to Bal d'Aneala but with proper sleeves. So I should be able to run it up very quickly.

I think these projects should keep me busy for a while before I think about working on something new :)

Rowany Festival Recap

Rowany Festival has come and gone for another year. It has inspired me again to do stuff, and this year I'm hoping I can actually ride the wave of inspiration instead of going back to ordinary day to day life.

This year Lady Helen and I were privileged enough to be invited to camp with La Parentiara (or The Family). I really enjoyed being in a camp instead of staying in a dorm, it gave me a place to hang out and relax in company between doing things, and it was nice being part of a small group. We also got to borrow a period round tent, which was awesome. I don't think I could ever go back to camping in a dome tent! The camp setup has inspired me to work on my own setup here in Aneala.

The weather was pretty much perfect, not nearly as cold as I expected, and it only rained on the setup days. The days were sunny and warm enough for me to wear just my linen cotehardies without my wool overdresses (but with leggings and woolly socks and my hood!), and the nights were cold but not stupidly cold like the first year at the Mittagong site. This year I bought a pile of disposable hand warmers for $2 a pair from Priceline and they were pretty awesome. They stayed warm for at least 12 hours and I spent my evenings with one shoved down the back of my dress and another tucked into my shoulder. I was a very happy chappie.

I had a fairly relaxing festival, only made it to a few A&S classes. I did go to a class about period sewing kits which has left me with some things to ponder, and a class about how to sew fur which will be useful for when I make my gollar. I also went to the WCoB meeting which has inspired me to work on getting some of the things I've already made graded. Mostly I just sat and relaxed in good company and caught up with people I only see at Festival.

I've been thinking about going to Canterbury Faire next year instead of Rowany Festival, but ideally I'd like to go to both! I suppose it all depends on finances and whether or not I have a job or leave to take. At this stage my current contract has been extended to Jan 7 2018, so who knows what will happen after that! My wayfaring plans may have to wait until I have a more stable/permanent job, so hopefully that's not too far into the future!

I have lots of thoughts and plans for SCA things, but I'll leave them for my next post :)

Update

It's been so long since I last posted that my computer has forgotten the web address for blogger and I had to do a google search to get here. Also when I got here I discovered my whole dashboard has changed and I had to learn how to navigate all over again. I know I always say I'll post more often, and so far that hasn't worked. I now have a bullet journal with goal tracking and stuff so I do have the best intentions. Not that I've not had the best of intentions every other time I've said I'll post more often :P

So what's been going on since my last post? An awful lot has been happening in my life. So, let's do a list by numbers!

1. Tablet weaving.
The last post I made was in September and I had just conquered the Hochdorf pattern of complicated in the big meanie silk. I'm ashamed to say that it is still on my loom and I've only woven about a metre of it. I did take it to the Hyde Park Fair demo in March and it drew a lot of interest. It was cool to be able to tell people all about the extant band and I think that really communicated to the public the kinds of things we're trying to achieve in the SCA, and that it's not just about being flashy with armour and swords. I will eventually get that band off my loom, mainly because I'll want to weave something else.

2. In October I attended Bal d'Aneala, which had an Oktoberfest theme. Spoh came to visit me in Albany and we spent a weekend sewing! We trashed my house but ended up with the beginnings of kampfrau outfits. Here's a photo that Nathan took of me!

I was really pleased with how it turned out. It's just made of cotton drill because it was cheap and brightly coloured. I didn't end up with time to make a proper hemd so I just wore an old polycotton Italian chemise that I had from my early days in the SCA. The socks are awful placky cheap stocking things from ebay that felt awful but looked great, and I ended up finding some shoes that were close enough in an op shop, but were slightly too small and I needed to improvise with some elastic to stop my feet slipping out the back. I also managed to cut the arm scye too small so it was a bit uncomfortable to wear, but that's easily fixed. Overall I think it looks great, and I think it will be my new ball dress. I would like to make a whole wardrobe in this style too at some vague point in the future.

I had a great time at the ball, and a great rest of the weekend exploring Rottnest with some visitors from over east.

3. Probably the biggest thing that's happened since I last posted is that I finally found a job in Perth and I have moved back to the big smoke! I found a lovely little three bedroom villa to rent, which means I have a whole room dedicated to SCA crafty/sewy stuff. It's too small. At the moment everything has kind of been dumped on the floor because I've still not found the time to go out and buy appropriate furniture and organise the room. It is on that list of things to do in that magical ~after festival~ land. Also on that list is creating my very own herb garden. I have lots of ideas for my house and I'm a little miffed that I've been here for two months already and I'm still not fully settled. I thought it would only take a couple of weeks to completely furnish a house :P

The most excitingest news is I adopted my very first furbaby!

This is Jones. He's very cute and I love him very much even though he's a complete and utter asshole.

4. Lady Mery is running a series of banner making workshops and I've almost finished a new silk banner for myself. It ended up taking up a lot more weekends than we originally thought, and because of restrictions with space and the amount of people able to work at a certain stage at any one time, my banner is going to be one of the last finished.

Mery took this photo of Ant and I finally working on the outlines of our banners last Saturday. Now all I need to do is the painting!

5. In less that a week I'll be off to Rowany Festival! Back in January I really wanted to enter the A&S competition with a new woollen Kampfrau outfit, but that project never got off the ground. Then I decided I would just make a proper hemd, some sleeves and a gollar for my yellow kampfrau. That also hasn't happened because my banner has been taking up all my weekends. Now I'm going for just basic needs and I'll be bringing my usual 14th century with a new set of long-sleeved chemises. I'm aiming for at least three new chemises, but I only have this weekend left to make them and I also need to go paint my banner.

I've been struggling quite a bit with fatigue lately, which is another reason I've not posted in so long. When I first moved back to Perth I was all excited about being able to do all the things I used to love like regular SCA events and social activities and lots of ballet classes. I kind of jumped back into it and ended up crashing completely, waking up exhausted and barely making through the day at work. So I've pretty much stopped all evening activities and have just been trying to get back into SCA things on the weekends. More often than not I don't have the inclination to do anything at all because I'm just so tired, and I'm really struggling to find the enthusiasm to start and finish SCA projects. I've already had all the tests and been told by doctors that there's nothing wrong with me and I just need to suck it up. The fact is I've never coped well with being tired, it's my kryptonite. So I'm working out what rest I need to get the most out of my days, and working up to adding things back into my lifestyle within those boundaries. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to ballet into SCA projects in the next few months, even if they progress at a slower pace than they used to.

Here's hoping I can stick to my goals and get back on track with SCA projects and updating this blog!

*Hysterical Laughter*

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

SUCCESS! I finally figured out the stupid pattern with the stupid threading and the stupid twining direction. It only took me two months to get to this point, with another seven metres worth of warp ahead of me. I'd just about given up on it and was just ignoring my loom sitting in the corner gathering dust because I didn't really want to waste that much silk warp, but someone else on the internet had the same problem as I did and I just kept an eye on the thread until the right bit of information popped up that inspired me to try something different. In this case it was a threading diagram that was different to all the others. Each pair of tabletsacts as one, with the same threading direction and all four holes threaded between them. So tablet 1 is threaded A and C, tablet 2 is threaded B and D. THEN HERE'S THE CRUCIAL BIT! THE NEXT PAIR IS THE OPPOSITE! So tablet 3 is threaded B and D, and tablet 4 is threaded A and C. None of the other threading diagrams I saw were laid out this way. Anyway, here's the entirety of the last two month's tears and tantrums:




I figured out the threading thing, but the pattern didn't come out (also I lost track of some tablets so the end of the motif is a complete mess), so I flipped all the tablets and realised the pattern was coming out wrong AGAIN and I needed to flip all of the tablets back, so I did that again but swapped which tablets had the threads at the top and then it finally worked. Also I've gone back to my usual double face two pack method, but I've stacked some books underneath my packs to support them so they don't flip onto the diagonal. It's still really easy for cards to turn without me realising, no matter how careful I am but I'm so familiar with how they're all threaded now that I can fix it. I still refuse to do any unweaving though, so any mistakes are staying. The band is exactly 18mm wide, which is too narrow, but it's unlikely I'll get it finished before the end of the reign. I might just gift it to Their Majesties when it's done. and they can do whatever they want with it.

Anyway, I'm off to Anealan Championship tomorrow where I'm going to have a nice relaxing weekend with naps and drinks around the fire and lots of yummy foods. The weaving is not coming with me because I'm not moving it from my kitchen table. This is not a transportable pattern.

A Story of Tantrums and Woe

I'm still finding it a bit difficult to find motivation for SCA things. So back in May when there was a call for people to help make ThrolfR and Halla a new wardrobe for their reign, I jumped at the chance to try some viking tablet weaving for one of His Majesty's coat. It took some time to figure out colours and what fibre to use, but eventually I got some 20/2 silk from Treenway in gold and white, to make a one inch wide Hochdorf band. Hochdorf #39 to be precise, using Amalie's pattern.

Two weeks ago I finally got around to making a warp. Since only two holes are threaded for this pattern, instead of the usual four, I had the BRILLIANT IDEA of putting both of my skeins on my yarn swift and making a continuous warp! The back of my mind was saying WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! because everyone knows string is evil, and string in skeins is exponentially more evil, so two skeins at once is a millionty times worse than the evil of just one skein.

Somehow, the string gods smiled on me and it worked! I have photographic evidence of two skeins on one yarn swift and a whole warp all neat and everything :D

That was two weeks ago. By now I should have finished the band, yes? Well, I think I'm paying my evil string debt or something, because it behaved during the warping process but as soon as I tried to move it to my loom it just tangled up into the most epic tangle ever tangled. So I have spent the last fortnight trying to untangle my 8m warp. There have been many tantrums, complete with swearing and throwing stuff. No photos because tantrum.

Yesterday I finally untangled my tangle, and I've used clothes pegs as bobbins to keep all the string separated and neat. So I tensioned the warp, wrote down the pattern and started weaving.

The first bit is where I tried to do the doubleface thing where one colour is on top and one on the bottom, because really this technique is the same as doubleface except there's just half the number of holes threaded. Obviously it wasn't working for me. After some searching on the internet I realised that every pair of tablets needs to have a thread in every hole. So it's like two tablets make a cord instead of one card making a cord. So I did some flipping and it started working! Kind of, my dimples are bigger than all the pictures of other bands and they're kind of in a line instead of being zig zaggy. Buuut I figured close enough, so I tried the pattern. The tablets are threaded alternating SS and ZZ, so I just guessed whether to start with S or Z. The first attempt of the pattern didn't have smooth lines, so I flipped all the tablets and tried again. STILL NO SMOOTH LINES AAAAAAAAAGH.

The other trouble I'm having is that since only two holes in each tablet are threaded, the tablets won't sit straight, they keep wanting to turn 45 degrees, which would be fine if they all wanted to turn the same way. But they don't so I've had to use one of my raddle clips to keep them all together, but I can't turn them while they're clipped, so I've been using the one pack method and turning my cards one by one, because I can hold them all together that way. It's very tedious. ALSO it's currently 2cm wide instead of 2.5cm because I didn't take into account the fact that I've only got half the amount of threads so of course the band will be narrower. DUH.

I'm not quite throwing another tantrum, I'm just taking a break because I'm on the verge of throwing stuff again. I have one more idea, and that is to swap which holes are threaded in each pair. At the moment the first card in the pair is threaded A and C, the second B and D so I'll try swapping them. Also I'm really hoping my calculations are correct and if I ever get this stupid thing figured out I'll still have enough warp left to get 6m of trim, because I refuse to do any unweaving with this. Unweaving will definitely lead to hulk smash and throwing stuff.

Honestly, this has just been a complete nightmare. I've never had this much trouble at every step of the process while tablet weaving, and usually if something goes wrong it kind of makes sense and I learn something. If anyone has any ideas of what I could be doing wrong and how to fix it, I'm all ears.

I live!

I don't really have any excuse for not posting for the last six months, except that not much has been happening. I'm still down in Albany and my contract has been extended until at least September, so I'll be here a little bit longer. I've been finding it difficult to keep inspired to do SCA stuff down here all on my lonesome. I'm connected by social media of course, but as everyone knows there's an awful lot of whining on the internet and it's difficult to keep enthused without the balance of seeing people regularly at training and A&S days and things like that.

Since I last posted I did connect with a couple of people interested in SCA down here, and discovered it's not a matter of supporting stuff that's already happening since there isn't actually anything happening. There's also a bit of a toxic vibe so to start a group down here would involve starting completely from scratch on my own and would be a long term investment. I'm not sure how long I'm going to be down here so I'm just laying low for the moment. I've been keeping busy with the choir I joined and my dance classes at the one and only local dance studio. Also Royalties for Regions is an awesome thing and the WA ballet came to visit for a day of FREE CLASSES which was all very exciting, except it was the week after festival and guess who got the festival lurgy! It was me, I got the festival lurgy.

Festival was pretty great again. I had the ultimate festival last year, what with awesome bunk mates (did not realise how awesome they were until this year) and learning to weave on a table loom for the first time and all the other great A&S classes. This year wasn't as good, but I guess you can't have two amazing years in a row :P. I didn't sleep very well because I was sharing with snorers and there was an extra person crammed into every room so it wasn't as comfortable space wise, but I acquired some ear plugs for the last few nights which were both weird yet awesome. There didn't seem to be as many A&S classes as last year either, or at least not ones that really interested me, like weaving :P.

But I still had a great time catching up with people and getting all enthusiastic again. At the WCoB meeting I picked up instructions and some red wool for a mouse pouch, and my very first patch for the Pelican Cloak.

Then I discovered that there is no embroidery shop down here in Albany. I'm not sure where all the crafty little old ladies who retired down here get there embroidery supplies from, but surely it can't be Spotlight. They only have the basics. Anyway, I already had black and white silk so I could get started, but the cost of postage costs more than the cost of a few packets of silk from all those online embroidery shops, so my lovely awesomest friend Spoh is picking some up for me from the Stitchers Corner, and I'll get it when I go up for Autumn Gathering next weekend. I'd like to actually enter some WCoB competitions this year, and the one for Midwinter is beadwork so hopefully I'll finally start working on that beaded goldhaube for my saxony gown (which WILL happen... eventually).

I found some spools of natural linen in the markets! It felt so fine and nice that I had to buy four of them, and I will use them for attempt #2 of the Double Weave Apron project.

I need to do some more research, Mistress Caristiona mentioned sometimes aprons had patterns woven into them which I would like to try. I need a mangler too, for mangling. Also I think it's time that I pulled apart my loom and gave it some much needed maintenance. Google tells me soaking my heddles in vinegar for a few days will be good for them, and I should get some pumice to scrub my reed but I need to be careful because reeds are precious, and maybe lemon oil is good for the wood bits. I'll do some more digging before I try anything, and I was thinking of even contacting the Spinners & Weavers guild down here for advice. I've not contacted them before because they meet on a weekday morning when I'm at work, so there wasn't much point. Also I now have a car in which I can transport my loom! That's right, I traded in poor old Nigel who I still love very much for a hatchback with cruise control for the long country drives I occasionally do. Then I discovered that the cruise control was broken, and I was Very Annoyed. After a millionty phone calls, John Hughes has organised for it to be fixed under warranty down here, but the place I took it needs to order in parts from over east, so it doesn't look like I'll have it fixed in time for my next drive up to Perth :(

I had great plans to make two new cotehardies for festival this year. I decided I need a purple cotehardie and a rusty orange brown cotehardie. When I visited fabric-store.com they had a colour called Purple Wine on sale, and it looked like it was just a bit lighter than the purple purple colour they have, so I thought I'd take advantage of the savings. Well. It arrived and it wasn't any sort of purple, it was PINK. I would've called it fuschia pink, and it was the exact colour of the PINK thread I used to sew the lining of my hood with, You know that obnoxious PINK lining? Anyway, now I have a pink cotehardie, and although it wasn't the purple that I wanted, it is a pretty garishly amazing colour and I got lots of compliments at festival.

I don't have a rusty orange brown cotehardie, because I had some small disasters in making the pink one. First of all, not sure if I've mentioned on here before, but I've put on some weight. It must've started during my last semester of uni in 2014, because at festival last year my cotehardies were a little tight, enough for me to be a little uncomfortable for the whole event, but not enough for me to abandon my cotehardies and wear my viking jammies instead. Anyway, then I went and lived for three months in Katanning where it was freezing and the only thing to do was cook delicious food and eat big servings because it's difficult cooking for one and there wasn't enough room for me to store leftovers in the fridge shared by five girls. Anyway, by the time I got down here to Albany I was about 10kg heavier than in 2013 when I made all my cotehardies. I'm not saying I'm an unhealthy weight, but my favourite jeans are a struggle to get on and uncomfortable to sit down in, and I can't actually get my arms into most of my cotehardies. I've had some comments about how I always wear the same thing to events, my gold cotehardie and red overdress, and it's mostly because it's the only outfit that still fits and is mostly comfy, if a little bit tight. Anyway, I thought I would make two new cotehardies for festival, and obviously I needed a new pattern to fit my new size.

I don't really wanna talk about what happened, but by the time I got to a week and a half out from festival, I had a pink cotehardie (minus sleeves) that was COMPLETELY WRONG. There was much swearing and throwing stuff. After stewing over it for a day or so, I abandoned the idea of making a second cotehardie (the original plan was to wiz up a second one in a week once I'd confirmed the pattern worked and remembered how to sew) and started making stupid fiddly adjustments to the stupid pink stupid cotehardie. I ended up with something that looked fine and although the neckline was not at all what I wanted and it wasn't nearly fitted enough to support my boobies, it was actually really comfortable. Comfortable ended up being a REALLY GOOD thing because along with the pink one, I'd packed my gold cotehardie, which is mostly comfortable, digs into my shoulders a bit and is a bit tight, and the only other cotehardie that I could actually get up over my arms, the teal green one. I wore that one for one day, and even though I didn't tighten the lacing all the way, by the end of the day my ribs felt all bruisy and tender, like when you have a crease in your sock, except all around your ribs. I was able to wear the nice loose pink cotehardie the next day to let my ribs recover.

ANYWAY I've started making some more adjustments to the pink one to make it just a bit more fitted, because I prefer the support, and to change the neckline a bit. I nearly cried last night when I unpicked the sleeves, because I sewed them on SO GOOD and I loathe sewing on sleeves and now I have to do it again :(

Autumn Gathering is next weekend, and I'm looking forward to it. Spoh is back in town and we sweet talked my dad into making us a new rope bed, since we broke the last one at Championship last year. And by sweet talked, I mean bribed with mango sorbet and cider.

So I've got a few different things up my sleeve to work on, we shall see if I keep up the motivation.

New Adventures

Time for my monthly report! I always have the best intentions to do more SCA things and blog about them, but my life is a little too topsy-turvy at the moment. My last post was about the last thing I made, the double weave cloth. I ended up turning it into a pleated apron and entered it into the open A&S at Championship, where it came second, Yay! I don't have any pictures of it and I left it in Perth, so that will have to come at a later time.

Championship weekend was really great. Spoh came back from the snow so we set up our big tent again, this time with added improvements! I didn't take any pictures but it's looking pretty great now that the spokes have been lowered to the correct spot at the top of the valance, and with the extra painting we did along the valance. I spent the weekend keeping busy as lady in waiting for Sir Eva and later for the B&B, and relaxing the rest of the time. There was good food and good weather and I really didn't wanna go back to Katanning afterwards.

In other news, I'm not living in Katanning anymore, I've moved further south to Albany. I was poached from Katanning and offered a contract in the Subacute Care ward down here at Albany Hospital, and I jumped at the chance because it's pretty much my dream job. For those who don't know where all these places are in WA, I has a map!

I have amazing Paint skillz. So as you can see, Perth is a 4.5 hour drive away, and that's only because it's pretty much a straight line all the way up at 110km/h. The nearest SCA group is Vallon d'Or up in Balingup, which is a 3.5 hour drive away because it's all twisty roads. BUT there are a few members of Vallon d'Or who live down here in Albany, so I'm in the process of getting in contact with them to see if we can get some stuff happening down here.

So far I've been down here for a week and I'm staying temporarily in nurses quarters, which is actually a massive house with lots of rooms and a really nice ocean view. It's way nicer than the hospital house in Katanning, it's even got a spa in one of the bathrooms. Technically I don't think allied health staff are supposed to use the house, but I was given six weeks to find my own place, which I've done. I'm moving into my very own rental next weekend, and I'm looking forward to it. Once that happens I can unpack my loom and get going on another project. As far as my job goes, I'm on a rolling contract until the department gets around to advertising all the positions in my unit, which could take anywhere between three and twelve months to finalize. Then I'll have the option to apply for my job as a permanent position. So at the moment it looks like I'll be down here indefinitely, and once I'm settled in my own place I'll make a push to get SCA stuff happening.

Albany is at least way more happening than Katanning. There are shops open on a Sunday and more to do to meet people than just playing hockey. Watch this space!