Linen! And sewing and scrolls Wednesday, Mar 26 2008

It appears after burning that the mystery dark wine-purple linen or linen blend fabric I picked up on the Joann remnant table for $5/yard a couple weeks ago (I think I got almost 8 yards) is probably 100% linen, and definitely contains nothing melty. It’s got a nice hand, much heavier than the linen/cotton blends I’ve bought before. Anyway, yay for nonmelting! I think I shall use it for a boned kirtle/basic camping dress, and I’ll have a bunch leftover I can use for lining things.

Definitely need to sit down and actually sew, stop buying fabric.

Today I finally got up the nerve to cut out the Anglo-Saxon overtunic pieces from the embroidered wool tablecloth. Whew. I need to wash the linen for the undertunic and cut it out, but it will be nice to do a genuinely quick and easy project. I have some lovely inkle-woven trim I bought to sew on by hand, but I may just do that on the undertunic and use the rest for a belt.

Last weekend I started working on a Dorothea-based pair of bodies. I did the first fitting of a mockup (based on the Reconstructing History pattern, modified to bring it more in line with the original in Janet Arnold) and it’s pretty off in some ways but should be fairly easy to fix. Once I have a pair of bodies, I shall ask a kindly local Laurel to fit me for a doublet and then I can make some serious inway on the fabric stash, I hope! In the meantime, I have a kirtle and cotehardie to put together. This cotehardie will be based on a Spanish painting in Anderson’s Hispanic Clothing, which has the open hanging sleeves like a bliaut. I imagine the sleeves will annoy me to no end, but I want something distinctively Spanish, and I don’t have any plaid in my stash to do the parti-colored plaid cotehardie. Someday.

Melchior put up the wire shelves, so I’m (slowly) working on turning the boxes and piles of fabric and craft stuff into something resembling organized. I think some of it will end up free to a good home. Yay for organization, slowly as it comes.

I have a scroll assignment for Kingdom A&S. I’m very excited–it will give me a chance to try some neat Ottonian stuff if I can get it to work. I really need to figure out a Gothic hand, though, since there’s a lot of illumination I really want to do that requires a Gothic hand. Bleh, Gothic.

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Calligraphy and illumination class! Monday, Mar 10 2008

I’m going to take a calligraphy and illumination class in May, which I expect to be fun. Here’s the class description:

Celtic And Historical Calligraphy

During this course you will learn the skills of the masters of European Calligraphy. We’ll cover historical inking colours, their origins and how they are made. Parchments and vellums, various papers, quill types, quill cutting, scripting tables, layout geometry, and related themes will be demonstrated and discussed. Period scripting and styles, including Celtic, Ottonian, Renaissance, and others, will be explained and illustrated. Skill in scripting, design, illustration, and illumination is used in historical reproduction work as well as modern art. The information presented will surprise modern digital graphic ad layout artists, enhancing their knowledge and depth in their own professional fields. Please bring $10 to class for materials.

It’s a two-day workshop taught by Dan Cheatham II, who’s clearly trying to spin it to appeal to modern graphic artists, but his real interests are historical. So more practice making period paints, AND he has genuine lapis and malachite to play with, which will be exciting since there is no freaking way I’m going to buy lapis to grind up myself at the current prices. So this may be my chance to find out how genuine lapis looks and handles differently from synthetic ultramarine.

Dan also teaches a longbow making class, which would really tempt me if I liked shooting longbows, which I don’t. But I am tempted by the leatherwork class, since several people have suggested tooling as an alternative to stamping for the Gothic-lettered motto belts I want to make from Dress Accessories, and Melchior and his boss don’t do tooling at work on account of things like profit margins. So getting some instruction in that might be a good idea. I’ll have to see how finances and time go.

There’s a baronial corset workshop coming up, so I need to do a mockup fitted as far as I can get without help on the modified Dorothea bodies.

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Quick corsetry thought Monday, Sep 17 2007

I need to attempt a corset soon so I can do proper Elizabethan and Tudor (I can almost get away with a doublet that’s lightly boned down the front, but that’s more work in the long run for a less accurate shape, and the corset should make pattern drafting easier, I hope).

I have some flat steel boning that I originally bought for a pattern from Drea’s corset pattern generator. I also have a pack of cable ties, which my lord has used to good effect for boning the front of a doublet. These are pretty wide, though, and I’m not sure how I feel about plastic.

Our friend Laura sent me this link to an effigy corset reconstruction. I have been intrigued by reed boning, although they seem fiddly. On the other hand, a Husqvarna Designer II can probably sew through thin reeds without a problem. I have also been wondering for a while if similarly-sized basketry reed would work (it is easier to obtain and perhaps cheaper). What about flat basketry reed (my suspicion is it might eventually get too brittle, but maybe not)

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