Linen!

My linen arrived this morning! I opened up the box, dug through it a bit, grabbed out the sphinx and chucked it straight into the washing machine. Then I came back to my room to find this:

Cat in the box! He clearly decided that the package was for him, and made himself at home. I evicted him, then when the washing machine finished I hung the linen out to dry and left to do the errands that I was supposed to do yesterday. I've not been feeling well for the last couple of days, so Tuesday was spent doing some embroidery and feeling sorry for myself. Yesterday I felt better except that I was exhausted, so I slept all day and didn't get anything done. So it didn't matter in the end that my linen only arrived today, because I'd probably only be where I'm up to now anyway.

Speaking of which, I have cut out my lining and sewed it up with my zip to refit my pattern. I was secretly hoping that my pattern was ok after all and I'd just ballsed something up with my ginger cote, but nope. Here's my pattern, the only changes I made was to add more around the sleeve seam, because that bit was never right and it's easier to cut down than add more.

Yay blurry picture! Still need to clean my mirror. Also need to practice holding the camera steady with one hand. Anyway, you get the idea. The shape is right, but it zipped up waaay too easily for cold linen, and the whole thing is loose. I'm estimating it needs to be taken in by at least two inches. Anyway, that's all for today. Tonight I'm going to visit Nathan and Catherine to talk about flights for PENNSIC. Tomorrow I'll fix up the pattern completely, and hopefully get the rest of the dress Cut Out. I hate Cutting Out. But if I get to that point by the end of tomorrow, then on Saturday I can spend all day at the Taylors' open house sewing it together.

I've just conveniently remembered that I don't have any buttons for the sleeve of this cote OR the green one I want to make for Pennsic. Ugh. I wish I had more of those little gold buttons that I put on my red cote, because they look so nice, but they came from All Buttons Great and Small in Sydney. I suppose I could email them with a picture and ask if they could post me some more, but that could take ages and end up being very expensive, and I would like to be able to wear this cote to WAMA fair in two weeks. I guess I'll just go to Spotlight or Lincraft and see what I can find. I could always find some cheap buttons and then when I'm buying ALL THE THINGS at Pennsic, I could buy awesome buttons to replace them :P

Disaster

Ok, so there were no progress photos of my wool cotehardie. I had a bit of a disaster week and the stupid thing took me about three times as long as it should have.

Disaster #1
I think I mentioned that the process of dyeing the fabric made it shrink and go all wibbly? The outside edges were longer than the middle, and I ended up measuring out my panels wrong. My two back panels ended up significantly shorter than the rest of them, and after discovering this I pondered two options. Number one was to use either the leftover red wool from my man-cote or some black wool gabardine I have at home to make a guard around the bottom. Number two was to just add panels of blue to the bottom of the two short panels. I chose option number two. Then promptly stitched one of the extra bits to a front panel *facepalm*. I gave up for the evening after that.

Disaster #2
A few of my seams ended up all wibbly and weird, because of the wibbly fabric. It doesn't really matter so much in the bulk of the skirt, because there's so much of it you don't really notice. It does sort of matter a bit more with the front seam, because the front seam is supposed to be the only one with two straight edges touching. I can tell you, the front seam does not consist of two straight edges. It's all wibbly.

Disaster #3
Remember how in my last post I said I would be machine sewing and hand finishing? Well, I machined the whole thing together, but when I got to buttonholes the machine chucked a hissy fit and just stopped cooperating altogether. So I chucked a hissy fit and ended up just handsewing the buttonholes. It was significantly quicker than arguing with the machine. Something odd was going on with the bobbin, I don't know if it needed tensioning or if the case was loose or something, but the result was that the machine was useless, it wouldn't even sew a straight seam anymore. I ended up going home and using mum's machine to sew the sleeeves together.

Disaster #4
I managed to finish the whole dress with exactly enough time to shower and get to the event. But when I put it on I discovered that the whole thing was too big. Miles too big. Enormous. You could fit two of me in there. Also the back seam (which wasn't a wibbly edge, it was cut the exact shape of my pattern) did not follow the shape of my back. I had a little pouch thing going on. Needless to say I was a little upset, and more than a little frustrated. I spent hours working on a cotehardie pattern, and wrongly assumed that the pattern would at least be my shape, even if I was using different fabric. I know wool is stretchier than linen, but if I use my pattern, it should still at least be the same shape. Apparently I was wrong. Although looking back at other things I've made with this pattern, only my gold cote fits right. My ginger cote, also made out of the same linen as the gold one, also came out miles too big. It was still my shape, just big. I took it in by two inches and it's still a bit big. I think I may have to make a new pattern.

Anyway, here's a picture:

I've left it hanging in an effort to get the seams to drop a bit and maybe straighten out. Despite my disappointment, it has come out ok, and it's certainly fixable. Too big is monumentally better than too small. I'm going to do some work on my red cotehardie, because it didn't hold my boobs up at all, then ask someone to help me fit the blue one over the red one. Somehow the neckline ended up over an inch higher than the red one, but I want to fix the red one before I start cutting down the blue one. I also got a lot of comments at the event about how nice my dress was, so it obviously looked ok even if it doesn't fit properly. It can be fixed!

I've learned my lesson now. Just spend a bit more and buy fabric in the right colour. No more dyeing for me, especially wool! Now that I've added yet another thing to my fix-it pile, I think I might just work on that until it is gone. Once I've fixed everything, I'll do some work on my pattern and then start making stuff again. And by stuff I mean garb. My silk should be arriving soon, and I'm working on obtaining some gold thread to weave an awesome brocaded belt to enter in the November Crown A&S.

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!

12 Panel Cotehardie

I decided some time back that I NEED a twelve panel cotehardie. The first cotehardie I ever made that wasn't from a commercial pattern was four panels, and while it was fine, the next one I made with eight panels was significantly nicer looking. The two side gores on each side made for more boobie support and a nicer shape. So four side panels on each side should be EVEN BETTER. Yes? In theory. In practice, this is actually a Very Ambitious Project for me. Why? Extra sewing of long side seams? Nah, I can totally deal with that challenge, even though I prefer to hand sew my cotehardies. The problem is, there isn't very much of me to fit twelve panels around. But I won't let this stop me! I NEED a twelve panel cotehardie! My last cote is 28 inches around the smallest part, so I figure I've got to divide twelve panels into 28 inches, yes? So the eight side panels will be one inch wide each, at the smallest part. That's eight inches. That leaves five inches each for the front and back panels. Somehow it didn't exactly work that way. I have no idea how, but this stupid pattern has been giving me a headache for a while now. I cut it out in the first week of January, worked on it with gusto for a couple of weeks, then threw a little tantrum at it and tucked it away at the bottom of my projects basket. I didn't have much trouble getting it tight enough and getting the right shape, the panels just ended up all wonky. I managed to pull the back seam in so far that my arm hole came half way along my back, but the side panels were so tiny I couldn't pull them in anymore!

Anyway, I want this cote for Rowany Festival in April, and I had intended to do a whole lot more work on SCA stuff before my holidays ended, but they kind of disappeared somewhere and now uni goes back in a week! So I pulled it out again on Wednesday, with the idea that I would Get It Done so I could cut it out yesterday. Well I did get it out and I pulled it apart again and sewed in back up AGAIN to move the side gores up in order to give me some seam allowance in the arm hole. I also took my time carefully measuring each bit and trying to get both sides even. I suck at keeping things even on both sides, which is why I only use one half of the pattern, and cut both sides the same. I know we're all supposed to be naturally crooked, but I'm not crooked enough for it to make a difference if both sides of my cotes are cut out exactly the same shape and size.

So I pulled it apart and sewed it back up again, and somehow it ended up bigger. Whyyyyyy? That's when I gave up working on it for the day. But I made myself get it out again yesterday, and fiddled with it a bit, and ended up with this:

 

It's slightly crooked in the front, you can see the zip walking around to the right, but that will be fixed when I pull it apart and even up the panels. I'm wearing my little tennis dress chemise that I made as a first prototype to experiment with chemises under cotehardies. It used to be a tunic thing that the Baroness gave me because I'm small enough to fit into it, so I didn't have much fabric to work with, hence the shortness :P I like the short sleeves though, they work very well under the fitted hinge sleeves. I must mention that the zip isn't staying, it will be replaced by lacing holes later. The zip is just a usefull tool to see what the pattern looks like, because the damn thing is way too tight to pin shut. I even struggle to zip it up :P I will trace this pattern onto calico as a template to use next time, and this fabric will be my lining :)

 Notice that you can see my floor? Half an hour earlier you couldn't. The next step of this process is Cutting Out, and I loathe Cutting Out, so I decided I needed to clean my room. I even cleared out my sock drawer and threw out a bag full of old holey socks. Funnily enough, the remaining socks took up two drawers. I have no idea how they fit into one in the first place.

Anyway, here's the side view:

There's a lot of extra seam allowance now, but you can clearly see three of the side panels, the fourth ended up only half an inch wide, because I needed to bring in an inch, and the back panel needed to move across under my arm a little more to bring the arm hole closer to my actual arm :P I'm happy with the shape down the front, yay boobies! A lot of the time when I try to move my boobies up, they end up being flattened :( I need to clean my mirror. I don't think it's ever been cleaned.

Well, that's as far as I got yesterday. I did bring my fabric out to start Cutting Out, but I had to mark where the stitching was on my pattern so when I pulled it apart I'll be able to see where everything goes, but then my fabric marker started running out so I couldn't. I needed to have a nap instead :P Maybe I'll start Cutting Out on Saturday. I wish a little fairy could do it for me, I really hate Cutting Out :(