I'm testing a construction theory that if it works, could revolutionize the houppelande.... I realize that's kind of a silly thing to say. Lets go with could revolutionize the recreation of the houppelande? I'm using a lovely light weight blue wool I was gifted with years ago when I thought I would make a Cranach gown out of it. (The wool is way to thin for rolled pleats so it's better off here.)
I'm trying out this theory where the body isn't made with quarter circles, but instead multiple "gores". I put these in quotation marks because it really isn't a gore without going into the fabric of the main body, but it's the way I've been thinking about it, since that's how I cut them out. I cut out 24 wedges from the fabric and assembled them for the main body.
I'll go into more detail later, hopefully today, but for now I need to clean up and head to bed.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Monday, December 24, 2012
Everyone knows if I promise something as a Christmas present...
not to expect it before March....
I cut out the roommate's apron-dress tonight. I'm hoping to have it all sewn up tonight or tomorrow and wrapped for her to open when she gets back on the 26th. The apron is a good probability, it's all cut out and made of a thick lush teal wool from Pendleton, so I don't have to finish the seams. I've also read somewhere the theory that Norse sewed their seam allowances on the outside of a garment and the decorative seam treatments are designed to finish the edges in a visible way. It's an interesting theory and I'm giving it some thought, although not for Wednesday. The garment is intended for An Tir's 12th night, so I also need to get the under dress cut out next week.
Also somewhere in the next couple months I promised The Boy a floor length, angel-wing sleeved houppelande as his Christmas present. I have the wool, I just haven't quite figured out the cutting pattern I want to use. The circle style has its advantages in simplicity, but isn't really fabric efficient. Also the extant example is believed to be made from multiple "wedges" cut much like gores are cut for other dresses. Of course I can't find the website I saw that on before... I'm thinking about doing the wedges because the fabric I'm using is a plain blue wool which means I don't have to worry about an up and a down on it.
I'd like to finish it before 12th Night, but I'm not sure. I've got a pair of braies mostly finished, and a shirt cut out and partially sewn. I'd really like to get a pair of hose to go with it finished, and a doublet to go under, since that would be most accurate, but I don't know how likely the doublet is any time soon. I have a heavy red linen that I think would look good for the hose, I just need to find the time to pattern them, and eventually I'll get them sewn. I'm thinking maybe a green or black linen doublet for under the blue houp, because those colors would look really good with the red hose.
My wifey sent me some gorgeous gold brocade and fifty bells to make himself a baldric out of. The Boy is a fan of the Tres Riches styles so I'm planning a shoulder drape like the one in April or August's miniatures, and I'll see how far down his back I can make the bells go. I might have to find some other kind of findings to spread out the bells.
I really should get back to the sewing. How to Train Your Dragon is on, some how I find that to be a perfect accompaniment to sewing Norse clothing.
I cut out the roommate's apron-dress tonight. I'm hoping to have it all sewn up tonight or tomorrow and wrapped for her to open when she gets back on the 26th. The apron is a good probability, it's all cut out and made of a thick lush teal wool from Pendleton, so I don't have to finish the seams. I've also read somewhere the theory that Norse sewed their seam allowances on the outside of a garment and the decorative seam treatments are designed to finish the edges in a visible way. It's an interesting theory and I'm giving it some thought, although not for Wednesday. The garment is intended for An Tir's 12th night, so I also need to get the under dress cut out next week.
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| Extant Houppelande 1396 |
I'd like to finish it before 12th Night, but I'm not sure. I've got a pair of braies mostly finished, and a shirt cut out and partially sewn. I'd really like to get a pair of hose to go with it finished, and a doublet to go under, since that would be most accurate, but I don't know how likely the doublet is any time soon. I have a heavy red linen that I think would look good for the hose, I just need to find the time to pattern them, and eventually I'll get them sewn. I'm thinking maybe a green or black linen doublet for under the blue houp, because those colors would look really good with the red hose.
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| April |
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| August |
My wifey sent me some gorgeous gold brocade and fifty bells to make himself a baldric out of. The Boy is a fan of the Tres Riches styles so I'm planning a shoulder drape like the one in April or August's miniatures, and I'll see how far down his back I can make the bells go. I might have to find some other kind of findings to spread out the bells.
I really should get back to the sewing. How to Train Your Dragon is on, some how I find that to be a perfect accompaniment to sewing Norse clothing.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Just a bit of a distraction....
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| The style Himself likes |
The trouble is, I don't know exactly what style it is that I want to make. I've never made shoes before, so I want something relatively easy to create for my first endeavor. I've been collecting images for a while, and I thought I'd put them up here to see if anyone had an opinion on which I should make.
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| 5th century womens shoes found in Egypt |
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| Photo by Mary Harrsch, located in the Getty |
If I choose the simple slipper style I'd want to figure out how to do the gold embossing found on both of these examples.
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| Shoes found at the Antonine Wall |
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| The Low Ham Boot |
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| Sara Kerr's pattern mockup |
I'm thinking about heading up to the Pendleton outlet before Jule next weekend to see if I can find some wool gauze to make "winter Romans" Since most of my Roman gear was made in Texas, it's mostly made of cotton or a linen/cotton blend. I'd like to make an outfit for that competition, but it's about a month away and I haven't made any of what I would like to enter. On the positive side, it's Roman, so it's not that hard to make quickly. But the wool would be more historically accurate, and it would be nice to have something that was more correct than what I'm wearing now, and it would be great to have something to wear in cooler weather that was my persona.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
A couple new projects in the works...
and just about a week to finish them. On the 15th, I'm headed up to Beaverton, (just outside of Portland) because a friend invited me up to dance, and I just happen to have that day off work.
I'm making new sleeves to go with my Florentine from three years ago. As with the vast majority of people who have made this dress, I was inspired by Jen Thompson of Festive Attyre, whose information is currently in transition from one incarnation of her site to a new one. The photos that aren't of me are from the website Sophie Stitches that has a collection of images for her research.
I did the dress out of Jo-ann cotton velveteen, and it's pretty enough that I'm still happy with the results. I made the corded corset, and the giant puffy sleeves, and the striped turban, just like Jen's. But I've had two yards of the velveteen floating around in my stash, and those matching sleeves with the beaded tassels have been drifting around in my head for years.
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| Jen Thompson's gorgeous dress |
I did the dress out of Jo-ann cotton velveteen, and it's pretty enough that I'm still happy with the results. I made the corded corset, and the giant puffy sleeves, and the striped turban, just like Jen's. But I've had two yards of the velveteen floating around in my stash, and those matching sleeves with the beaded tassels have been drifting around in my head for years.
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| The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist, 1520, Bacchiacca |
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| Portrait of the Artist's Wife, 1513-1514, Andrea del Sarto |
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| Me, photo by hubby for my portfolio |
So, I'm making the sleeves to wear next weekend. I'm down to just hand sewing, but that's flat felling internal seams, tacking down the chocolate silk trim, making the beaded tassels (still have to figure out what I'm going to do for the tassels, shredding the silk fabric isn't working well...), tacking down the bias facing on the sleeve heads and adding lacing rings. I didn't line the sleeves since I didn't have anything I thought would look good as a lining, and I didn't really want to spend any money on these sleeves.
However, the sleeves are on the back burner as far as sewing goes right now. I'm working on a gift for a friend's birthday, which is also the 15th. I'm working on a semi secret gift, I'll try to get pictures of the finished project to post, but right now I'm working on the embroidery that's a cross between between the Mammen embroideries and her coat of arms. It'll be pretty simple, dark blue silk outlines in back/stem stitch on white linen. I'm hoping to finish it soon.
The other project that I'm working on is an exciting development for my whole house. I was graciously gifted with a copy of Sally Pointer's book on cosmetics, The Artifice of Beauty, for a wedding present. I've been interested in historical cosmetics, specifically Roman cosmetics, due to my interest in the duties of an ornatrix. Sally Pointer's one of the few people that I've come across so far with information on Roman cosmetics.
For the Jule event on the 15th they're having a largess competition, and my super sekrit entry will be a batch of her Alkanet Lip Paint. It's interesting, right now I've got a jar of chopped alkanet root soaking in sweet almond oil to draw out the color, and The Boy has been playing with a variety of methods for creating a tincture of myrrh. Either Thursday or Friday this week I'll be blending the alkanet oil with some beeswax and a little myrrh tincture and then putting them in little jars. It's probably old hat for other herbalists, but I'm excited to be branching out into new realms for myself.
That's what I'm up to right now, I'm hoping for new pictures soon. Here's hoping...
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Realized I never posted pics of my Housebook dress....
Even though the dress was made nearly a year ago... Oops?
Outdoor photos are from the first wearing at Stargate Yule down in Houston; the indoor photos are from Midwinter's Feast in Adiantum (Eugene). Those last photos of the back of the dress are me being made the Barony's A&S Champion. It's hard to see in the photos just how long the train is, but as I've got the dress kilted up in most of them to walk, you can see where the extra six inches past my feet is all hiked up.I'm still not stuck on the neckline, and have tweaked it some, but need to do more with it. If we're still in the area in January, maybe I'll tweak it some more for An Tir's 12th night.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Thoughts on my teaching...
So this weekend I taught a dance class at the Ithra held in Terra Pomeria. Ithra is a highly organized, kingdom wide "college" that has funding and management set up to help groups put together classes based events. It has aspects both admirable and annoying, but this isn't really the time to go into it.
The class I taught was "Easy English Country Dance: Three Dance to get Your Feet Wet." I taught three of the easiest dances I know, all from Playford. I chose Rufty Tufty, Black Nag, and Gathering Peascods. These dances are relatively simple, all have similar structures. The handouts I put together included a brief set of definitions, some information about where the dances came from, and cheat sheets created by a Laurel in the East. Along with the handout, I gave out a CD with the music for the three dances on it. The Boy helped me teach, which was so helpful, not only because he compliments my teaching style, but we only had four students, and needed six people for the last two dances. The four students represented a wide range of interest and experience in dance, but they all worked hard to learn the dances, and performed them well. We went through the steps first, explaining what was common and what I would be likely to say when calling the parts of the dances. We then set up the first dance, walked through the steps, then ran through with music and minimal calling. Once they performed the dance without trouble, we went on to the second dance and treated it the same way. They also danced that one well without my needing to call the steps after a few runs through, and we danced the third dance. After running through the third dance we ran through all three dances as though they were a set at a ball. The students were awesome! They got the dances pretty easily, and seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Ithra has a student evaluation form so the class can let those running Ithra know if a teacher is any good. Since it wasn't a secure method, I got to sneak a peek and my students thought I was a good teacher, so that made me happy. However, one of the students asked me about something I hadn't considered, but when I told her I'd be happy to send the information her way, she told me she just wasn't that interested in the subject. I'm running into that quite a bit in the SCA, plenty of people enjoy dancing, they're just not interested in actually learning the dances. They're fine with a run through right before doing the dance, instead of actually knowing how to do it, and I'm not sure there's a way to change that. I have one or two people that really want to practice dances until they know them. But there aren't enough to change the local group.
Ah well. I'm excited to continue teaching, and I'll do my best to be upbeat and high energy whenever I'm dancing or teaching dance. I'm just feeling the frustration that my interests aren't shared by a majority of people.
The other subject I keep trying to teach about is hair styling. I haven't had much turnout for hair classes lately, but it's a topic that I'm passionate about. I realize that my specialty is Roman and therefore not everyone's interest, but I haven't taught a class on Roman hairstyles. I'm hoping to branch out into more specific hairstyles instead of generic medieval and renaissance styles, but without someone's impetus, I'm likely to look into it. I need to work on prepping more step by step tutorials for this blog, it's a way of getting info out without specific teaching events. I'm working on a step by step for my method of Italian Hairtaping. If anyone has any artwork or images they'd like help deciphering the hairstyles, shoot me a copy of the picture, I'd love to help!
I've also got an idea for a class taught in tandem with Miriam from The Sinister Spinster. She's known in the area for info about the Cap of Saint Brigit, and I thought it would be interesting to teach a class on Hairstyle and Headdresses. I'd work on hairstyles that form the base of some common styles, and she'd talk about the caps and veils used to create that style. I'm hoping that we'll get cross interest from each other's subject matter. I'm just not sure when we'll get to teach this, there's a bit of an upheaval going on in my mundane life.
The class I taught was "Easy English Country Dance: Three Dance to get Your Feet Wet." I taught three of the easiest dances I know, all from Playford. I chose Rufty Tufty, Black Nag, and Gathering Peascods. These dances are relatively simple, all have similar structures. The handouts I put together included a brief set of definitions, some information about where the dances came from, and cheat sheets created by a Laurel in the East. Along with the handout, I gave out a CD with the music for the three dances on it. The Boy helped me teach, which was so helpful, not only because he compliments my teaching style, but we only had four students, and needed six people for the last two dances. The four students represented a wide range of interest and experience in dance, but they all worked hard to learn the dances, and performed them well. We went through the steps first, explaining what was common and what I would be likely to say when calling the parts of the dances. We then set up the first dance, walked through the steps, then ran through with music and minimal calling. Once they performed the dance without trouble, we went on to the second dance and treated it the same way. They also danced that one well without my needing to call the steps after a few runs through, and we danced the third dance. After running through the third dance we ran through all three dances as though they were a set at a ball. The students were awesome! They got the dances pretty easily, and seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Ithra has a student evaluation form so the class can let those running Ithra know if a teacher is any good. Since it wasn't a secure method, I got to sneak a peek and my students thought I was a good teacher, so that made me happy. However, one of the students asked me about something I hadn't considered, but when I told her I'd be happy to send the information her way, she told me she just wasn't that interested in the subject. I'm running into that quite a bit in the SCA, plenty of people enjoy dancing, they're just not interested in actually learning the dances. They're fine with a run through right before doing the dance, instead of actually knowing how to do it, and I'm not sure there's a way to change that. I have one or two people that really want to practice dances until they know them. But there aren't enough to change the local group.
Ah well. I'm excited to continue teaching, and I'll do my best to be upbeat and high energy whenever I'm dancing or teaching dance. I'm just feeling the frustration that my interests aren't shared by a majority of people.
The other subject I keep trying to teach about is hair styling. I haven't had much turnout for hair classes lately, but it's a topic that I'm passionate about. I realize that my specialty is Roman and therefore not everyone's interest, but I haven't taught a class on Roman hairstyles. I'm hoping to branch out into more specific hairstyles instead of generic medieval and renaissance styles, but without someone's impetus, I'm likely to look into it. I need to work on prepping more step by step tutorials for this blog, it's a way of getting info out without specific teaching events. I'm working on a step by step for my method of Italian Hairtaping. If anyone has any artwork or images they'd like help deciphering the hairstyles, shoot me a copy of the picture, I'd love to help!
I've also got an idea for a class taught in tandem with Miriam from The Sinister Spinster. She's known in the area for info about the Cap of Saint Brigit, and I thought it would be interesting to teach a class on Hairstyle and Headdresses. I'd work on hairstyles that form the base of some common styles, and she'd talk about the caps and veils used to create that style. I'm hoping that we'll get cross interest from each other's subject matter. I'm just not sure when we'll get to teach this, there's a bit of an upheaval going on in my mundane life.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Sorry folks, haven't had much to say lately...
Although I just found out Janet Stephens is planning more hair styling videos on YouTube, this time around with live models in period style clothing! Here's the video of what she's planning for the future with exciting tibits about which styles she's going to show! There are some styles she's already done on mannequins and some styles she's discussed in her article and some styles that are "new" from her.
And she's planning to do the Livia style I did for Midwinters! I'm giddily excited for that video to come out, as I can already see some differences in her version from the way I interpreted it. I'm hoping that one comes out soon.
The Cleopatra style she put up a month ago oddly disappoints me. I look at the images she shows to accompany the style and give the basis for her recreations and I see a vastly different style. She even comments near the end of the video that people will be confused that the style isn't more difficult. And I have to agree with hypothetical other viewers, I think the hair should be twisted sections like a melon hairstyle, similar to the technique used to create the Plautilla hairstyle (the Hundred-Strand Braid style). There is also more of a pouf to the hair along the forehead that she doesn't address at all, and an impression of a twist along the hairline near the ears. Stephens credits all this to naturally curly hair, and does use a model with natural curl to her hair to produce the style, but I think that if the texture present in the coin is accurate, the model's natural curl needed to be emphasized somehow. I need to do more research into oiling hair, I think that might be useful to create more defined curl instead of stretched-out, slightly frizzy curl.
As said before, I'm SO looking forward to new videos. I realized earlier during my nerdgasms that I'm lusting for her work more than I've ever lusted for any man. (Sorry honey) I think I might end up "reviewing" them as I notice they come out. I would love to have a conversation with her about why she chooses some things over others, I would so love to be her apprentice!
And she's planning to do the Livia style I did for Midwinters! I'm giddily excited for that video to come out, as I can already see some differences in her version from the way I interpreted it. I'm hoping that one comes out soon.
The Cleopatra style she put up a month ago oddly disappoints me. I look at the images she shows to accompany the style and give the basis for her recreations and I see a vastly different style. She even comments near the end of the video that people will be confused that the style isn't more difficult. And I have to agree with hypothetical other viewers, I think the hair should be twisted sections like a melon hairstyle, similar to the technique used to create the Plautilla hairstyle (the Hundred-Strand Braid style). There is also more of a pouf to the hair along the forehead that she doesn't address at all, and an impression of a twist along the hairline near the ears. Stephens credits all this to naturally curly hair, and does use a model with natural curl to her hair to produce the style, but I think that if the texture present in the coin is accurate, the model's natural curl needed to be emphasized somehow. I need to do more research into oiling hair, I think that might be useful to create more defined curl instead of stretched-out, slightly frizzy curl.
As said before, I'm SO looking forward to new videos. I realized earlier during my nerdgasms that I'm lusting for her work more than I've ever lusted for any man. (Sorry honey) I think I might end up "reviewing" them as I notice they come out. I would love to have a conversation with her about why she chooses some things over others, I would so love to be her apprentice!
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