Moving Forward

Last weekend I spent some time working on my red cotehardie. I pulled about an inch or so in on various seams, and in a fit of madness decided that I needed to pull the front panels up by an inch at the shoulder seam. That involved pulling the sleeve off, pulling the neckline seam apart at the shoulder, then pulling apart the shoulder seams in the outer dress and the lining, then somehow putting it back together from the outside. I don't recommend it. I ended up just whacking it all back together in the most messy fashion, because I didn't know if it would work. I didn't want to cut any fabric, I just wanted to see if it would work. It did. So now I have to undo my messy work and spend some time putting it back together neatly. The shape of the dress looks a whole lot better as well, it doesn't do the bagging thing so much anymore. It still does a little bit, but I don't think I will ever be able to fix that properly.

Sunday trade starts next week, so we had an overhaul of the rosters at work. I ended up with an awesome roster, even though I reluctantly volunteered to work Saturday mornings. One week I work Thursday night and Saturday morning, and the next I work Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. This means that once a fortnight I get to go to St Basil A&S on Thursday nights at uni! I was thinking recently about how unmotivated I am to pick up any projects and work on them, and I realised that when I started in the SCA I was going to St Basil training every week, and always made sure I had some transportable work to do there. Lately I haven't been going to any A&S meetings, so haven't needed to work on a project to the point where I have handwork to do. So I'm going to make an effort to go to St Basil's every second Thursday and have something to work on. I've got plenty of projects in my fix-it basket now, which should keep me going for a while. Next week I'll bring my red cote and finish it completely. Then I can bring the wool one and fix that around my red one :)

I'm in the process of ordering some gold thread to use as a brocade weft for my awesome belt of awesome. I'm using this site, which sells gold foil wrapped around a silk core, which is very period and should be perfect for my belt. This project is getting a bit expensive, but I intend to do it properly and document it and in the end I should have an awesome belt of awesome :)  My silk is still in transit, it's taking forever, but that's ok because the girl I'm ordering the gold thread from is ordering me a continuous 20m skein of thread, instead of me buying four little ones, and that will take a bit longer. Besides, I haven't even figured out a pattern to brocade. I think I want to make it heraldic and put my little ivy leaf in a little shield shape thing, but I think to make that work I'll need some Latin writings, and I don't have a motto or anything I can use. So I need to think up a phrase or something. I really should continue reading Eccesiastical Pomp for some inspiration.

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.

Semi-success

It turns out that supermarkets sell fabric dye. Well, black fabric dye. I went to four different shops on Friday before I found some bottles of Rit navy blue and dark green. I got up early on Saturday to go home and try again with a whole bottle of navy blue and half a bottle of green, and pick up my linen and silk. I found a couple of yards of pre-washed white linen that I'd totally forgotten about, and my wool ended up coming out of the machine a slightly darker colour. Still not really what I wanted, but useable. I've come to the conclusion that my wool has taken in as much dye as it possibly could, because that last dye bath was so dark it was almost black. I think that if I'd used that colour dye bath first, I would have really super dark fabric. None of the green came through either, but that's ok.

Yay! Finally some success! I raced home to do some chores before Spoh and Rosie came over. We had a lovely afternoon making a mess cutting out fabric and stuff. Rosie needed some help with a cotehardie sleeve pattern, so I gave her mine and she worked off that. I cut out my wool and my linen lining, and now I am going to start sewing it all up. Since I'm short on time, I think I'll machine sew the seams and hand finish them. It's an overdress so it won't be doing any supporting and (hopefully) will be looser so it won't matter so much if I'm not exact with the seams and seam allowance, which i won't be with the machine because I'm impatient and isn't the point of machine sewing to be quicker than hand sewing? :P

I also found that even though I'd hung the fabric out on a straight line, it still stretched on the edges, making them all wibbly and difficult to cut out. I also discovered that the house I'm staying in doesn't seem to have an iron. So I just did the best I could, and hopefully since wool is sort of stretchy anyway it'll end up all dropping into place.

This surcote will be eight panels, half lined with linen with some gold silk lining the sleeves and tippets. Progress photos to come!

Another Dye Fail :(

I put my fabric through the wash again, this time with a packet of blue and half a packet of green. It came out... dun dun dunnnn.... the same colour as before. There is literally no difference whatsoever, it's still a boring as batshit plain light blue colour. [insert impressive swear chain here]. My underdress is crimson red, and if I wear it with this colour I'm guessing it'll come out looking a lot like that time I wore it with my green surcote

Not the best photo, but not the best outfit. In my defence I was wearing the red cote on its own all day, at Rowany Festival, and it suddenly got cold, as it does there, so I just threew on my warmest thing over the top. It was dark, no one was supposed to look too closely :P Anyway, the red is just too bright for the demure green, and I think the same think will happen with this very un-vibrant blue.

So, I was planning to make this fabric into a surcote to wear to the Midwinter feast next Saturday. I could still do that, but it would require a whole new underdress, because I don't think the gold one will go either. I could find a different brand of dye from the nearby shopping centre RIGHT NOW and use the house's washing machine, hoping that I don't somehow wreck it and also that it will have an effect on the colour. OR I could use some maroon wool that I pulled out of my stash and make a surcote from that, and wear it with my gold underdress. I need to go the the shops anyway, so I might see what sort of dye I can find and how much it will cost me, then if that plan fails I'll go with the maroon.

Except... I've just realised I've left my linen at home, the linen I was going to use to line the surcote, and if I use the maroon I'll need some fabric to line the sleeves with.... UGH FAIL

Dyeing Adventures #2 (Epic Fail)

There is only two weeks left of holidays. There is no way I'm going to get my list of THINGS done in the next two weeks. Work keeps wanting me to work. I've been working between 30 and 36 hours every week, which is awesome because I get to save up a whole bunch of monies for the proposed Pennsic 2013 trip, but not so awesome in that I have barely any free time and when I do I just feel like sitting and not doing anything.

ANYWAY I have done some things. Sort of. I made a set of arrows :) I wanted them for the Vallon d'Or IKAC since I only had 7 arrows left and you need 6, but my carefully planned plans were thrown off when I went to Achenfeld A&S to borrow the fletching jig and get working on them, but there was no taper tool except an old pencil sharpener that was way too small for my sticks. No taper tool, no nocks, and nocks are kind of essential for using the fletching jig. I really should've been more organised and checked that everything I needed was with the jig instead of just assuming, but there you go. I ended up just going to Vallon d'Or with my seven arrows, and promptly broke one in the first end. Luckily no more broke, not that it would've made any difference at all to my absolutely woeful score of 81. I made my new set of arrows the day after the IKAC :P. I shot in my man-cote with the slightly too-small sleeves because I didn't find time to make new ones.

However, I did make some adjustments to my green surcote. I detached the sleeves, opened up both side seems down to the gores, added in an extra inch-wide panel on both sides, then attached the sleeves again. I didn't get time to finish any of the seams, but that's ok because when I wore it to the feast I realised I would need some more adjustments. It's still too tight around the hips below where the gores start, so I'm going to take out the seams of the gores as much as I can to give myself a bit more room. It's also still too tight at the top above the armpit, where the new panel ends. After consulting with Catherine she suggested that I just cut the neckline down by one button, and since I have room to do so I think I will try it. That also means I can replace one of my lost buttons :P

Today I am dyeing my wool. Last time my selvedge didn't shrink, while the rest of the fabric did, so this time I cut the selvedge off

I'm also going to hang it on the hill's hoist in the sun, because the lines are straight. Last time I didn't want to hang it in the sun because I've had bad experiences with natural fabrics shrinking, fading and turning all stiff because our sun is a bit violent. Instead, I hung it under the verandah on some ropes that have been strung up, which sagged and stretched the fabric in places so it didn't lie flat. Anyway, it's winter now so the sun isn't so harsh, and I'd rather have fabric that wasn't stretched funny. It makes it a bit difficult to cut out and make into things if it's all stretched :P

The next step was to experiment with colours. You may remember I was pondering adding green to my blue dye to get a teal colour? Well, I decided to boil a little saucepan of water on the stove and add a tiny bit of dye to test the colours.

First try kind of failed. I meant to test the blue, then add green and test that, but I forgot my intentions almost instanlty and just added both blue and green. A little bit too much blue and green. This is a piece of selvedge that came out blotchy because of the weird selvedge weave thing it has going on. So I tipped that lot down the sink and tried again

I cut some bits of actual fabric instead of using the selvedge. The blue came out quite a nice blue, but as soon as I added the teeniest bit of green, the whole thing turned aqua. I decided I liked the blue, so I went with just using two packets of blue, and stuck it all in the washing machine. This is what I ended up with:

The strip on top is the colour I wanted. Underneath is the colour I got. I got the same colour as some wool I already have. Guh! I've hung it out to dry, and I think I might buy another packet of blue and run it through again with that to make it darker. I wanted that teal blue, but the next best thing would be dark blue rather than light blue. So frustrating! It means I need to get some more dye, then find a time to come home to use mum's machine because I'm housesitting from Monday and don't want to use their machine in case it all goes horribly wrong. It's a front loader as well, which is a different technique to the top loader, and besides, mum's machine is an industrial one which is a lot more efficient than these dumb water saver machines :P

The other thing I've done is order some silk! I've bought a skein if green and a skein of purple from Treenway Silks, and they should be finished dyeing in three weeks, then posted to me. I've been slowly pottering through Ecclesistical Pomp, and I've been developing an idea in my mind for my belt. I'd like it to have a ground weave of purple and green stripes, then I think I'd like to get hold of some metallic thread to brocade some sort of heraldic bits along it. I've been looking at getting actual gold wrapped thread from here, but so far I can't figure out how to order, or how much I'll need. I figure since I'm using proper good expensive silk for the ground weave, I should really use something of equal quality for the brocade. That reel is $14 for five metres, but I'm not sure if I'll need more than that. Any weavers out there know how much weft they use for a belt about a metre and a half long?

Tonight I'm intending to work on my geen surcote. I'll at least do the neckline and move that button. I want to wear it to the tournament that's on tomorrow because it's my warmest garb and it's generally pretty cold down at Wandi :P

Holidays!

I'm on holidays! I've written a list of THINGS and hopefully most of them will get done or at least started in the next five weeks before uni goes back.

NUMBER ONE
I need to make new sleeves for my man-cote. I finished the rest of it in time for Pencampwr, but my essay got in the way of making new sleeves. I ended up getting to site on the second day of the event with the sleeves from my first attempt and a sleeveless and hemless cote. I parked myself in the BBT with the Baroness and some ladies and finished the hem and attached the sleeves. The next day I wore it! Here's a picture:

I was really tired in the afternoon so I had a nap with a dinosaur in front of the thrones. This is the only picture if me wearing my man-cote :(. It is so much more comfortable than the first one, even though the sleeves were still a bit tight. It's really good for shooting in, I didn't get all tangled up in my skirts traipsing up and down the range to fetch my arrows. The brais take a bit of getting used to though. Last time I wore them I established that my hose were tugging on my belt as I walked because I had the brais up too high at the back, but this time I wore them a bit lower and tried not to worry about the feeling that they were falling off, because they weren't. I also wore normal undies underneath, which poked out the top by a lot because I'm just not comfortable wearing only baggy white linen brais that sit really low on the hips. They didn't ever come close to slipping or falling down, so maybe with some more wear I'll start to trust them more :P My new belt works good! Anyway, I need new sleeves, and I want them by next weekend because I think I might wear this cote to shoot in the Vallon d'Or IKAC before their feast. Although I think I want to wear a dress to the feast, so this probably means bringing another outfit and changing for the feast.

NUMBER TWO
I posted last time about my plans for the green brocade surcote. I think this is the dress I'd like to wear to the Vallon d'Or feast, which means getting it fixed before then :P I need to see if I can match the buttons to replace the ones I lost, or look at buying a whole new set of buttons, which is annoying. There's 20 on that dress, which makes it a bit expensive.

NUMBER THREE
I still need to re-sew the buttonholes on my parti-coloured surcote. Stupid buttonholes.

NUMBER FOUR
I need to fix my red twelve-panel-cote. I figured out last time I wore it that it flares out too suddenly, so it's just a matter of pulling in the side seams a little bit to make the flare more gradual.

NUMBER FIVE
I made the red twelve-panel-cote as part of an outfit, even though it's also designed to be worn by itself as lighter day wear, I originally wanted it to wear underneath a blue wool surcote. I have wool. I have blue dye. Those things need to be combined to create blue wool. HOWEVER whilst the original idea was for blue wool, I LOVE LOVE this teal blue colour wool. So I have two packets of brilliant blue iDye, which dyes 2.3kg of fabric. I have no idea what my fabric weighs, but I've got six metres. I dyed four metres of the same wool with one packet of green, and the colour came out quite nicely. But I'm thinking that maybe I could throw in one packet of green with the two packets of blue to attempt a teal colour. I dunno, it could come out more of an aqua than a teal. I'm not sure whether to risk it or just go with blue and buy some of the teal stuff at a later date and make something else.

NUMBER SIX
I've sort of already started this one. I want to weave a new belt properly with silk and make a fancy buckle and document it to enter it into the November Crown A&S competition. I've finally started reading Ecclesiastical Pomp, my first chance since I bought it in March, and so far I think I would like the ground weave to be purple and green stripes along the belt. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to tackle some sort of twill weave, or just go for the much simpler alternate S and Z threaded option. I am pondering the idea of metallic thread for the brocading, and if I do that I really should do it properly and use the real stuff. I haven't come up with a design yet, I could make it heraldic, since I'm going for my heraldic colours as the ground weave, or I could recreate some extant design. We shall see what ideas Ecclesiastical Pomp gives me. I think I'll probably end up doing the actual weaving once semester starts, since I'm looking at buying the silk from Treenway Silks, and they take 3-4 weeks to dye it. But I should be able to at least design it and start my documentation over the holidays.

NUMBER SEVEN

This was supposed to be my big project for these holidays, but I forgot about it :( I still want to make it though! I have the fabric and everything! It's something that I definitely want to take my time over and get it right, so I don't have a specific occasion in mind for it. These holidays I want to start patterning the bodice. I have some ideas of how to make it look right, but there's going to be a lot of trial and error going on with calico before I start making it in the proper fabric.

OPTIONAL NUMBER EIGHT
And finally, I also have some white fabric-store.com linen sitting in it's postal box under my bed. I've had it since last year and haven't touched it, but I intend to eventually make a white cotehardie to wear under the green brocade dress. This should be a relatively simple project since I already have the pattern (the one for 8 panels, not 12 :P) and I just need to cut it out and sew it up. If I have the time and inspiration these holidays, I'll make a start on it.

This may seem like a lot of stuff, but a lot of it is just adjusting and fixing up garb that I already have. I think this list is definitely achievable for the next five weeks :)

May Fail

I've had a very uninspired May. I've basically done absolutely nothing except the bare minimum of uni work and I've shown up to work and SCA training things. I did manage to get a bit of my embroidery done at the Anealan 25th Anniversary event. It's nearly two-thirds finished now. I went to a novelty archery shoot and wore my man-undies and hose with one of Nathan's old cotes. It was big and comfy, although I probably looked ridiculous :P

Last weekend I went to the Baroness' Fighter Auction tourney and added a couple of projects to my list. First of all there was a book floating around called Sweet Bags, which I WANTS. I've decided I need to make a pincushion or a sweet bag as an A&S entry. Secondly, I wore this dress:

 

This dress was my first surcote to go with my first four-panel gothic fitted dress. It's made from cheap Spotlight brocade, the same brocade that nearly everyone has a garment made out of in various colours :P. I originally made it in four panels and it had itty bitty little tippets because I was trying to be fabric thrifty even though I had a whole bolt of the fabric. It came from Sophie's stash. Anyway, the first time I wore it was to a feast, and when it was time for dancing I tried to pick up my skirt to swish it around, because it's fun. WELL there was almost no skirt, so there was no swishy and I was a bit disappointed. Then I put some gores in the sides. I made them so they started below my hips. It looked hilarious.When you put gores in a dress, the need to start above your hips, where your body starts flaring out. Anyway, before Festival 2011 I decided to fix it once and for all, and I made new gores for the sides, and also in the middle of the back. I also made completely new sleeves, and put the black guard aroud the bottom. I'm so glad I did, because it now looks awesome and the fabric has a great weight and drape to it, and it's warm.

I brought it with me to festival this year, and put it on a couple of times over my day cotes. It was really tight, possibly because I'm bigger, but most likely because I was wearing an extra layer, a chemise. I ended up popping the top button off, and losing it :(. I decided to try wearing it again last weekend over my gold cote which doesn't have a chemise, and it fit a bit better, though still quite tight. I popped and lost another button, which has made me decide that it needs some more adjusting. I think what I will do is add an inch wide panel on each side that goes from under the arm to the gores. This should mean the whole dress loosens up but still remains shaped. I do also need to have a look at the sleeves, they're cutting in a bit where they end at the elbow. I might see if I can let the seams out a little bit to give me some more room.

In other news, I finally got myself motivated enough to finish weaving that red belt for my brais. It doesn't have a buckle yet, but I did pick one up from Andre at 25th year. I just need to attach it :P. I also cut out and started sewing up man-cote take 2! I decided that since I have tons of that red wool and I'm unlikely to use it for anything else, I would just start again. I've made it longer and looser. Pencampwr is next weekend, and it's going to be cold so I'd like to wear it then. Hopefully I'll have time to finish it, but if I don't I suppose I can always wear the first one :P

And that's all. I have an exam on Monday, my last class at uni on Wednesday, an essay due next Monday and then I have two and a half weeks until my final exam. Then I'm on holidays! Holidays that will be filled with all sorts of SCAdventures!