hrj

Finally finished the alterations on the "party dress", including completely re-hemming both the outer fabric and lining. (The alterations were, of course, designed around keeping the center front with its neck-to-floor buttons intact.) With the weather for coronation a bit uncertain this weekend, I figure I'll get in at least some time wearing both it and the Gothic underdress. Speaking of which, here are some pictures under the cut. ( Read more... )I'm currently going through one of my phases of "ack, I'm feeling overscheduled!" which should go away after Kalamazoo. It isn't just the events -- this is the week I'm doing the final write-up of the investigation I've been working on for the last ... hmm ... six months. Wow. I need to get it out to the reviewers before I go on vacation next week (ideally, by the end of Friday this week). This is going to be another of my 100+ page investigation reports. Maybe pushing 200 pages. Size counts.

It's being a glorious lazy weekend so far -- one of those where I don't have anything in particular I have to do or place I have to be. A weekend where each day starts with sleeping in, followed by breadfast on the deck, followed by lazing around.

Well, ok, the "nothing I have to do" part isn't entirely true. I need to make sure my classes for next weekend's collegium are ready. (Update and print handouts, review slide show, prepare outline and examples for philosophy lecture.) And if I'm going to reprise the newly altered "party dress", I'm going to have to actually finish the alterations. And I have new medieval shoes! (Haven't seen them yet, but Vyncent took my measurements at March Crown and the detail discussions and progress updates have been flying thick and fast.)

Also need to get some more yardwork done. I did some desultory pruning yesterday, but what I really need to do is finish the "first lawnmowing of spring" ritual, hitting the back yard this time. The fruit trees are very happy this year (as predicted, after removing the vast quantity of shadowing neighbor-tree last year). It looks like my cherry tree will produce enough for at least one full-size cherry pie this year (as opposed to the 4-cherry mini-tart which is all it's managed previously). I still haven't filled the available fruit-tree slot that had the late apple tree in it, although I've more or less decided to try a medlar there just for the shear novelty of the idea. It's probably too late to put it in this year, though. So I'll settle for a resolution to finish some more significant chunks of my brick pathways this year (which also helps with managing the mowing logistics, since they provide a buffer between the lawn and the Stuff That Shouldn't Be Mowed). I keep thinking longingly of doing some serious vegetable gardening, but I just don't have the consistency of attention span needed for that.

After Etaine's sewing night got rained out Tuesday evening I figured I might as well work on the same sewing project anyway, so I finished up the lacing eyelets on the gothic gown and tested the fit. It feels just about perfect (i.e., a little on the snug side when freshly laced -- I didn't keep it on long enough to see how it feels when the fabric has relaxed a little, but I'm advised that it will). Now I need to get together with someone to mark the neckline and armscyes for cutting, and maybe help drape the sleeves. (Although they're going to be short sleeves -- the kind you pin the decorative sleeves onto -- so not a lot of fitting is required.)

I've also re-sewn the main seams on the outer fabric of the "party dress". Still need to re-fit the lining, which would be easier if I had a functional dress dummy. I think I may re-do the front edge of the hood that goes with the "party dress" as well. The sculpture(s) I was working from clearly seem to show something like an extended hood opening that's been fan-folded back in on itself a couple times for a layered effect, but I have a hard time making it work for me, even with several dozen pins keeping everything in place. Mind you, this may be because I lined the hood with the same lightweight silk taffeta I used to line the dress, which makes the whole thing as slippery as all get-out. And on top of that I don't have the sort of hair you can pin a headdress to. I suppose I could baste the folds in place and see if that worked a little better. (I also cheated a little to get the right squarish shape by pinning a wire armature inside the folds, and I suppose I could baste that into semi-permanent place as well.)

It's not my preferred solution, mostly because I have a love affair with clothing styles that arise naturally out of their intrinsic structure. (Just like I have a love affair with fabric decoration that's woven in, rather than printed on.) Too much basting and pinning and cheating and it starts feeling like I'm wearing a costume rather than clothing (even if I'm doing the same basting and pinning and cheating that was done historically). It's the same reason why all my Burgundian chaperons are still functional hoods inside.

I rather doubt that I'll wear the new-and-remade outfit for March Crown, even if it's done by then, since that site is normally a mud-pit. But definitely for Collegium in April. Of course, I really need a new belt, too. And shoes. I really need to work on having decent and appropriate shoes for all my centuries. And I need to see if the chemise I made to go with the party dress works for under the gothic gown (in which case it needs to have sleeves added) or whether I need something from scratch for that purpose. Yeah, I think I'm getting my sewing momentum back.

klwilliams asked for a picture of the new (not-so-different) haircut. It's behind the cut. ( Read more... )

In other news, I've actually started a sewing project! (The 4-panel "gothic" gown that thread_walker fitted me for sometime about a year ago. I took it in about another 2 inches, but otherwise the draft still looks viable ... which is a good thing since I cut the fabric out about half a year ago.)

(Almost typoed "lesions".)

Reading all my friends' pre-12th night blogs reminds me of how sensible I am not to try to do new outfits for 12th night. Of course, it would be nice to have some new clothes. But I remember all that last-minute costume angsting back when I had a new 12th night outfit every year. No wonder I had a habit of getting splitting headaches every 12th night!

Peeps -- I'm sure you'll all look fabulous! Really!

I should note briefly that all these lecture preparations are going towards a set of costume-related lectures I'm doing next Saturday as a fund-raiser for the Vallejo Music Theater. ( Details here )

So I've completely finished the "garment genealogies" presentation. I've made serious inroads on adding the text examples to the powerpoint framework for the Welsh costume presentation, and now I'm sitting down with a pot of tea and a bowl of strawberries to identify all the visual examples for the Welsh presentation so I can do my scanning efficiently.

ETA: And the image-identification is done, with an organized list drawn up. I'll work on text on the laptop at lunch tomorrow and should be able to get all the visuals scanned and plugged in tomorrow evening. I'll probably need a bit more text time, so that brings us up to Tuesday evening. Plan Wednesday evening for assembling the handout. That gives me one evening to blow off (are you paying attention scotica?) and one to rehearse the presentation. Sounds like it'll work.

No, I haven't fallen off the planet lately. I've been working very intensely on my set of costume lectures for the Vallejo Musical Theater ... on which more later. Right now I just finished the slide-show for the "survey of surviving garments" lecture (just short of 120 slides) and need to get to bed. (But, hey, tonight I'm getting to bed before 2am, which is doing better than the last two nights.) Two more slide-shows to do. "Garment construction genealogies" (not the real title) should draw mostly on material I already have in electronic form, and "how to research under-documented costume cultures (e.g., medieval Wales)" (also not the real title) isn't as image-heavy. (Well, duh, note the topic of the lecture.) But I'll need to put some thought into how to illustrate the non-illustration parts of the lecture. I have detailed outlines for everything already, just need something to have on the screen to go with it.

So the only reason I went into Lacis was to get some nice silk-like white cord for couching down some applique. And it was five minutes to closing, so I wasn't going to even do a quick browse of the books section. So it was totally unfair of them to have on display, out in the front part of the store, Kölner Patrizier- und Bürgerkleidung des 17. Jahrhunderts: Die Kostumsammlung Hüpsch im Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt newly put out by the Abegg Foundation (and every bit as luscious and yummy as every other Abegg Foundation book). 23 garments described and presented in loving detail, with lots of diagrams and detail photos. I waved it at the saleswoman who was measuring out my cord and said, "I bet this is one of your $200 books, isn't it?" She grinned. I am so a sucker for surviving-garments publications. But I don't even do 17th century! Well, not really. Not yet anyway.

I'm skipping my lunchtime bike ride today to make good on my promised recaps of last weekend. First, the general post, then the feast-specific post.

( Costume-Con to the Perfectly Period Feast: Life in the Fast Lane )

And in the next post, the feast.

I'm taking today off work for the Costume Con/Collegium Crunch (hmm, sounds like an intriguing breakfast cereal), which is saving my sanity. I got everything put together for my contribution to the doll display last night, except for running out of glue-stick when pasting up the explanatory printouts on the display. (I gave up on the notion of having a booklet with more extensive research notes since it would have ended up being rather uneven.) Since I'm not taking any serious costumes (other than the feast outfit, which I could wear at the con, too, of course), packing is mostly a matter of making sure I have all the various random objects needed for the feast. I haven't run through the final checklist, but I think I have everything more or less assembled. One last project is to haul out the power tools and do the minor preventive mending on one part of the bench so the backrest doesn't fall off in the middle of dinner. And then it's all about packing the car.