peteyfrogboy

So we went to Magna Faire this weekend, and it was big fun. Camp Grandma wasn't available this time, so we ended up taking the boy with us For a 2-year-old, he was very well behaved, though he was still a handful.

( Recap )

I went to bed early last night (before 8:00), and for some reason woke up at 1:30. I tried to go back to sleep but my brain was on and would not shut off. One of the things it was thinking about was the Laurel "medallion" I wanted to make for Magna Faire. I plan to wear the current iteration of my Brueghel peasant outfit, so neither the big blingy medallion or the tiny pendant with the drop pearl were really appropriate. Instead, I decided to make a simple cloth patch to pin/sew to my hat or coat. This would involve embroidery, which I haven't done in so long that I honestly can't remember. I only know a few stitches, so I used the ones that I thought were the most fun. The stems of the wreath are chain stitch, and the rest is all split stitch (except for a couple of leaves where I was experimenting). The wreath is 3 strands of cotton DMC floss, and the monogram is 6. I lined the back side and top stitched the edge with linen thread. The whole thing is about 2" in diameter. It was kind of fun, but I still don't see any big needlework projects in my future.

I finished the eyelets on the Flemish peasant doublet last night, so all it needs now is sleeves. I just cut some leather points and tied the doublet and hose together to see how everything fits. It's so comfy! I have plenty of range of motion, no reported baggy butt, and no obvious stress points yet. I need to move the codpiece eyelets about an inch and a half inward, but other than that everything seems to be a go. I'll get pictures once I fix the codpiece, put sleeves on the doublet, and repurpose one of my old 15c shirts. Barring catastrophe, I should have it all ready to go well before Magna Faire.

Flannait posted her excellent pictures from MGT here. I grabbed the pictures of my elevation and put them over here. There are also some pictures with proof that I own armor!

I didn't get many pictures, but here they are for your enjoyment anyway:

( Pictures )

Many thanks to scribeo for digging up this gem, hidden in the very obscure V&A. ;) I particularly like the way the molding of the leather between the loops looks very much like they were held open with a round stick when it was formed. I am more hopeful.

Serafina and I went up to Silver Hammer this weekend. The weather was alternately wet and cold, but aside from that it was as lovely an event as I've come to expect from Thor's Mountain. I taught a dance class in the afternoon, which was well attended, and ran the ball in the evening. I was happy to see a wide variety of folks come out on the dance floor, and was quite impressed by some of the footwork I saw. In between the two bouts of dancing was the feast, which was excellent and tasty, not to mention promptly delivered.

I started the weekend by going to a step class at the gym with adelavanbrugge and getting a new membership. Between that and all the dancing I'm worn down to the bone, but hopefully repeated attendance will improve things. For now I am tired and need to get to bed early.

I finished putting the codpiece together tonight. The pattern was largely built of guesswork and hope, since there was no way to really know how it would fit until the whole thing was built and attached. The seams are only basted together, but it all seems to work and is quite comfortable. It's a bit bigger than strictly necessary, but not out of line with period examples. Pictures of the hose with codpiece installed below the cut.

( Pictures! )

I started on what I'm calling the "birdnester codpiece" last night. I'm building it out of one layer of heavy wool blend for sturdiness, one layer of squishy fulled wool for smoothnes, and a layer of the blue linen to cover it all. There are four pieces total: two in the center for the crotch and the front of the codpiece, and two for the sides. You can see some of them in various stages of construction here. After taking this picture, I noticed that I had made two left sides for my codpiece. This will be remedied. :)

I stayed up late again last night working on the feet of my hose. I took the legs in at the heel a bit and attached the tops of the feet. The entire edge of both feet is finished and ready to attach the soles. Once the feet are done I'll start working on patterning the codpiece. I may mock up the doublet body first so I can see how the hose work when tied up.

I want to use these hose for both early 16c Italian upper class clothes and later 16c northern European peasant clothes (e.g. Bruegel and Beham peasants), so I'll be looking at both sources for details. A lot of these will look familiar, as I've linked to them before.

( Image Survey )

So, from a cursory look, it seems that the codpieces of early 16c Italian and later 16c Flemish peasant hose are strikingly similar. I think this is justification enough to try the "birdnester" construction method, which I think will make the best looking and most comfortable shape.

So, when last we left the story, I had built a short foundation for my full hose. I tweaked that until it fit better, then took it apart and adjusted my pattern to match it. Or so I thought. I cut two legs from the lovely stretchy Pennsic linen and did my best to match it up with the green linen foundation. Nothing really matched up right, so I just made it fit as best I could and basted things together, letting the extra flop around until I was sure what needed to be cut away. I sewed everything up and tried them on.

Of course, it didn't fit right.

( Adjustments )

From Scribal Tools

The second iteration of the penner is technically successful, but still not quite the look I'm after. This time I used 8 oz. (I think) cowhide left over from back when I used to make armor. It hardened beautifully, though I had issues getting the skewers into the loops to hold them in place. That problem can be avoided with a simple change to technique, but I'm still not happy with the look of the loops themselves.

( Images and Issues )

I was given several gifts by my friends as I contemplated my pending elevation: a pile of black velvet, a 13th century Venetian grosso, and several other fine things, but the one that stood out among them was a hand bound book made by the lovely Margavati (aka happygoth). Those of you who have been here for a while may remember my forays into book binding, so I know how much work went into this piece (which is far nicer than anything I've made, to be sure). There are more pictures and construction details on her blog.

I now know how everyone else felt when I presented them with a blank book and asked them to fill it. I'm not entirely sure what I should put on these pages. The first few pages contain well wishes from people who came to the vigil. I think I'll use the next section to document the next few revels that I run. After that, who knows?

From Scribal Tools

So, a little more detail about the penner I mentioned in the last post. There are a number of different types of penner and inkhorn sets seen in period artwork. I decided to go with the tube-shaped style, made of leather.

( Details )

I spent the day up at the folks' house with the kids today, picking up adelavanbrugge's birthday and anniversary presents. alasais and logansilveraxe came by so I could help Alasais work out a pattern for her next cotehardie/GFD. Some draping and cutting and pinning and recutting and adjusting and eventually we had a functional pattern for the upper half of the body and a sleeve that didn't make anyone cry. Hopefully the construction will go well! All in all, I think we got quite a bit done considering the number of children that were running around.

Today was a very productive day, though most of it didn't come from me. My student Serafina made the long drive down to visit today so I could help her get a chemise started.
( Serafina's Dress )
( Also A Chemise )
( Adela's Shalwar )
( My Hose )

Dad posted the pictures he took at MGT.

We all managed to survive the weekend. It involved complicated plans and a cast of thousands, as well as divine intervention and improvisation.

( The Blow By Blow Recap )

This weekend we went to Red Tower, and it was wet. It didn't rain actively during the day on Saturday, but in the afternoon and evening it started up again. The event had a Roman theme this year, for which I was grateful, as it meant I got to wear a nice linen tunica instead of my usual sofa.

I spent the day wrangling the kids, with varying levels of success. adelavanbrugge got to do a good bit of socializing during the day, so hopefully I performed my duties in an acceptable fashion. They seemed to have plenty of fun playing with the other kids and wreaking havoc, and didn't get exceptionally muddy. I also kept them during court, which meant I missed Adela being inducted into the Order of the Red Raven, the baronial service order.

After court she and the kids went home, and I started in on my half of the event. Feast was tasty, if not exceptional, and the company was lovely. After feast, I set up the pavilion for the revel, which was my primary focus for the event (surprise surprise).

( The Masque )

I've been working on a new late 15c dress for my mother, who lives on the other side of Atlanta. This means I that I don't have easy access to do fittings, and therefore have been just plugging along with my sewing and hoping for the best. I took the finished bodice up this past weekend and tried it on her, and found that the best was not what I had. Fortunately, it was too big (too big being far easier to fix than too small), so I pinned the alteration I needed to make and took it home to fix it. I decided to take pictures of the process, just in case anyone might be interested. For those of you who aren't, I give you this convenient cut.

( Details and Pictures )