Linen! And sewing and scrolls Wednesday, Mar 26 2008 

12c and 14c and 16c and Ottonian and anglo-saxon and corsets and elizabethan and english and fabric and illumination and sewing and spanish Melissa Barton 10:01 pm

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. :D 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.

 

Mmmmm, silk Sunday, Mar 9 2008 

fabric and fiber arts and projects Melissa Barton 6:57 am

Today I went to the annual bolt end sale of super-expensive men’s tie and waistcoat manufacturers Carrot and Gibbs. Absolutely stunning 100% Italian silk brocades and prints, many darn close to period and probably mind-bogglingly expensive, for $5 or less a yard (almost all 28″ wide, though, with rarely enough on the bolt end for a full garment).

I got a lot of bits I could make doublets or hoods or corset outer layers out of, and hopefully enough of a gorgeous purple and red brocade to get a cotehardie out of if I piece extremely carefully. Melchior bought some silk and also snapped up the last yard of a brown 100% cashmere that feels like a dream. C&G isn’t going to make any more cashmere scarves because the fabric’s too expensive, so alas, none of that next year.

I shall post pictures later! Melchior is thinking of making a swatch book of his fabric stash, and given that our collective stashed take up half the hall closet and a large chunk of the living room, I think he is onto something. It will certainly make it easier to see what I have when I’m working on a project.

And after a few years of this sale and projects from the fabric, I may have enough silk brocade scraps left over to made a crazy-quilt dan-gawari kosode! :-D