cuff # 1

The design proceeds apace:

 


Laren very rightly pointed out (thank you!) that I should have tested the silk floss for colorfastness before beginning. Oops. Anyway, I took my hideous test swatch, doused it in soap, and scrubbed it under hot water for a good bit. This got rid of the pink transfer pencil but didn't seem to cause any bleeding of the black. I got lucky I guess. Hopefully I won't do anything worse than that in laundering it, so I think I'm ok to go on.

As Laren also pointed out, this isn't a good choice of design for non-counted work. I agree completely, but I really wanted to work Julie's design. I tried counting threads and it didn't take very long to give me a headache, so I think that's out. I made a few changes to the design, mostly because I couldn't really get the fine detail to work out. Too many stitches in the same area just kind of made a mess. This is just boring ole backstitching (because double-running drives me mad). The Soie d'Alger is sort of slubby and annoying, but for backstitching I think I can deal. I'll just go ahead and pretend that this is the reason my other stitches looked so poopy. Julie, don't buy this stuff. Buy the one Laren recommended.

 


It goes reasonably fast. It would go faster if not for my newly renewed obsession with knitting socks. Something about the leaves turning makes me want socks. Which has nothing to do with period costuming of course, but should make the Niter happy. Yes, Niter, I'm knitting. And your birthday present is finally done.

artigranites and flaming pinapples

So a long long time ago, in a state far far away, Julie designed for me several very exciting, somewhat mutant-looking blackwork edgings, like so:

 


These were supposed to go with my Venetian outfit, and I believe at the time, I selected the middle one. I thought I was going to do counted blackwork on my camicia. Yeah. Har. Har. So that didn't happen. However, this time around, for Aaron's shirt I'd like blackworked cuffs and collar, and I'm not counting. Thank goodness. Counting on linen that fine is an exercise in minding one's temper. This time I'm actually doing the one on the left, which was originally my least favorite of the bunch, but it somehow seems to fit Aaron's style. He likes the slanty-twisty columns too. He was smart enough to have no opinions on which of these designs (and various others that I was trying out) he preferred until I had already decided. And then he wisely chose that one. Such a smart guy.

Anyway, this time I'm actually using silk embroidery floss, which is a first for me. I got it from Hedgehog Handworks. It's their Soie d'Alger, which according to their website is a 7-strand divisible silk, even though I thought I counted 8 strands. It was chosen from the options pretty much at random because it had pretty colors. Although how important that is when I'm only using black, I couldn't say. Many thanks to Laren for her advice on the marking pencil and use of the hoop. Both seem to be working out really well, although having read her post this morning, I'm starting to have "is-this-pink-stuff-going-to-come-out?" anxiety. I'll find out soon enough I guess! (What, you say that I could try washing the horribly crooked samples I did yesterday? Come now, that's not sporting!)

Julie - I know you were wanting to know what I thought of the silk floss and I have to say that I'm not sure yet! It's not really what I expected somehow, although I'm not sure what I expected. Something silkier I guess! It's actually a bit rougher than plain ole synthetic DMC floss, and is not so shiny. It took me quite a while to figure out a stitch and corresponding number of threads that would go down smoothly. Part of that was me and my lack of skills of course. I wanted to try some new stitches: chain stitch, stem stitch, satin stitch...something, anything!!! In the end, I did get to where I could do chain stitch reasonably, but I think I'll save it for something more freeform in design. This one just looks best in Holbein (well, backstitch really, as I'm a cheater, but the back will be hidden anyway). And may I say that I'm just plain disappointed not to be doing it in some new-to-me stitch? I think the next thing up may just have to be some little accessory type object for me simply so I can play with stitches. I'm looking around for historical designs that are less counted-looking so I can play with that.

So I know, all weekend fooling around with thread, and all I have done is one motif, and no picture. I'll work on it this evening and see if I can't snap a shot. Blame it on Niter for having a birthday this week; I was trying to finish her present. Yes, Niter, if you're reading this, that does mean I'm working on a present for you. Present present present!!

three for me, one for him

So I did some thinking over the weekend, and I think I really am going to follow the "three for me, one for him" rule that Julie instituted. Actually, I think it was going to be "two for me, one for him" originally. And considering that, I suppose we could go for the 4-1 ratio next, which is tempting.....but no. No. Certainly not. We're going to be good and next make updated outfits for our loyal husbands, who have to put up with all of this costuming stuff strewn about our homes. Right Julie? Um....Julie?

Ok then, so the plan for the guys is for them to have sort of generic late period doublet/slops/capes ensembles with pinking and embellishment and fun stuff like that. With any luck, these will be sufficiently middle-of-the-road to be wearable alongside our existing Venetians and various planned English and Spanish stuff. Which we are definitely not doing until the husbands get their new duds. Definitely not. Right Julie? For Aaron, the faithful dress engineer, I'm planning on using as a basis on of the outfits from Patterns of Fashion. It's the first doublet and slops in the drawings section, one of the Medici kids. I can't for the life of me remember his name at the moment. At any rate, I'd like to scale that up and then see what sort of waist and shoulder treatments I'd like. That sort of thing. For the cape, I persuaded him to look at various styles in PoF, and he prefers something circular and about hip-length. He particularly likes the dark red velvet one with yellow satin appliques. I happen to have some dark red cotton velvet (or maybe velveteen, I don't actually know the difference, sadly), so he might be getting it in that. I think I'm going to hold off on deciding, though, until I can find some appropriate fabric for the rest of the get-up. I am having some difficulty deciding on a color scheme, so it'll probably just be whatever I find. Adam's "thunderhosen" will be in a severe black and cream combo, so I want to make sure I pick something quite different. Aaron's pretty partial to color anyway.

It may take me a bit of hunting to find fabrics that I like, so in the meantime, the first step is going to be a new blackworked shirt. He likes his old shirt, but it's on such a heavy linen that it's rather warm and drags down some. Also, while I do like the blackwork on his first one,

 


 


I also don't like his old doublet due to a lousy fabric choice; I'm kind of bummed about that, since I do like the couching and the thread-wrapped buttons. I digress. Hopefully this evening, I can swing by and pick up some linen to start on the shirt. And also perhaps whatever supplies I need to transfer designs....many advance thanks to Laren, who is being so kind as to tell us how she does it! I've always either counted or free-handed before, so I'm looking forward to trying this.

venetians take 2

 

As I mentioned in the last post, we decided to spend one day at the Maryland Renaissance Faire (in Flemish garb) and one day at the Pennsylvania Faire (in the Venetian outfits we'd worn once before to the Virginia Faire. We were a little iffy on driving to PA, since it took two hours, but by doing it in our period underwear, we were able to survive the "little red oven," as we fondly called Julie's car. We both loved the PA event. We both recalled it as having paved walkways and had the idea that this would really detract. However, the lovely scenery, presence of water fountains, and (now here's an idea) abundant shady seating more than made up for the pavement. For that matter, it was pretty nice not getting so much dust in everything. We were also impressed with the quality of the shows and the street acting (my favorite part). The team does a great job and are really friendly! The jousters are just plain nuts. There was actual falling-off-of-the-horse and bloody-nose-streaming-on-face. Not to mention blowing-up-of-stuff and really-hot-fire. The fight was to the death. And nobody stopped that for the kiddies. It was kind of appalling, which I thought was great!


 

As you can see, we pretty much wore the same thing as last time, except that since I still haven't gotten around to making a replacement partlet, I just wore the Flemish one from the day before. I actually really liked it. I think the shape is good, and I'm considering doing the same shape in a finer fabric for this costume. Perhaps with some embroidery. I think it made a pretty substantial difference in how I felt wearing the outfit.


 

We didn't have a photographer along with us on Sunday, so we tended to find a pretty spot, then take a picture of each of us. We did, however, do a decent job of not taking pictures with trash cans sprouting from our shoulders this time!


 

I really liked Julie's hair and veil combo this time. We won't mention that there was sewing going on in the car on the way. No, definitely not. We don't do things at the last moment, right?


 

Here's Julie with her new basket. We were really pleased with our new baskets. So pleased that we traipsed out to the car to dump our old baskets.


 

And of course, the obligatory "laughing like an idiot" picture. I think I'm laughing because Julie narrowly missed taking a picture of me with my tongue stuck out.

So then, we shall have to see what is next up. I think it might be time to make the dress engineer his new outfit if I'm going to keep to the "three for me, one for him" rule.

peasanty pleasantries

 

Aren't Julie and I cute? Here we are at the MD Faire last Saturday. We're pretty pleased about the whole "getting our dresses done on time" bit, although to be fair, we were up until 2 the night before sewing up sleeves and hems and so forth. Much to the dress engineer's disappointment, we seemed to be enjoying it. I actually put together a pair of black linen sleeves using Julie's pattern, after midnight, and without sewing them together backwards! I was pretty amazed. Here are some shots of us with sleeves, squinting in the sun. Julie's hat is very cool, no?


 

As Julie mentioned in her post, although some of the faire folks recognized our Flemish-ness, several non-costume types pegged us as Amish. This was kind of funny, but actually, considering the back view, I can rather see it:


 

Here's another shot showing our headgear from the side.


 

And one last shot of us laughing about something. Probably the pinching gesture I seem to be making.


 

We definitely enjoyed wearing these for the day. They were very comfortable. I'll post later on day two of our adventure: Venetians in Pennsylvania.