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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.
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Got most of the alterations done on the "party dress" last night, but realized that I need to take a couple inches off the hem. (It was a little on the long side originally -- now it's eminently trippable.) That means getting someone to mark it, which isn't going to happen this week. But that's ok, because if Collegium catches even a trace of the current heat wave, there's no way I'm going to want to wear two layers (both of them wool and lined). So I think I'll put it aside for now and plan on wearing just the new fitted gown.

I haven't gotten any nibbles yet on my ad for the show Thursday which is worrisome. (This is why I allowed a lot more lead time when I first instituted the Blind Date Project, but in the current case that wasn't possible.) I suppose if nothing has turned up by lunchtime on Wednesday, I'll throw it open for general non-date takers. But this would be a type of failure.
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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.
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I debuted the peacock-blue fitted Gothic underdress this weekend. (Props to [livejournal.com profile] thread_walker who did the original draping.) It seems to have worked well, based on all the commentary I got. (Including the now-standard "people who have never had two words to say to me previously who are suddenly deeply opinionated about my physical appearance". Is it really so wrong for me to consider this a little creepy?) If life runs true to form, there will be no photos of the dress available to point at, but I'll be wearing it again for Collegium at the end of the month.
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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.
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 For a bit there, it looked like today was going to be a lazy lay-a-bed day.  (And it sure is nice to have self-permission to have them.  Hmm, maybe I've finally managed to achieve that whole "year of me" thing.)  But after doing breakfast in bed and watching the last couple of iTunes-purchased episodes of Blood Ties (unsatisfying because there's no series closure), making my way out into the rain to get groceries, I actually made significant progress on two sewing projects.  I've gotten the supportive gothic gown (in peacock blue, by the way) up to the point of doing the lacing holes.  It still lacks sleeves and I'm waiting to figure out the neckline until I know how it's going to fit when laced, but now it's at a handwork stage.  Then I did the main seams in the re-fitted "laurel party dress".  (Have I mentioned that I hate hate hate remaking garments?) The re-fitting had to work around keeping the original buttonholes (all down the center front and sleeves), but that wasn't too difficult.  I need to refit the lining, then put the sleeves back in and redo the hem.  I'm also thinking of adding fitchets, since the inspiration I'm working from had them (as best I can tell -- it's a low-relief grave slab, so there's a fair amount of guesswork).  Having the Oscars on in the background probably helped in getting the sewing done.  Have I mentioned recently that I think Hugh Jackman is incredibly talented?  One thing bothered me that I've noticed at previous Oscars: excluding all the "special form/genre" awards, it seemed like all the nominees came from only maybe half a dozen different films.  And while I liked Slumdog Millionaire (saw it Friday, will try to review soon), it felt a bit like it had been adopted as the official "Oscar darling of the year" (of which there always seems to be one) that gets just a few more awards than its quality really calls for.
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[livejournal.com profile] 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 [livejournal.com profile] 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.)
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It occurs to me to mention that I'll be reprising one of the costume lectures from last August for Cloondara A&S night tomorrow. I'm doing the slide-show-intensive "Surviving Garments from the Iceman to Charles the Bold" -- basically a survey of the surviving garments project with a discussion of how and why garments survive and their uses for research.

Along with its sister-lecture "Garment construction genealogies" these are canned lectures I can do with essentially no lead time. Just in case anyone would be interested.
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(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!
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I didn't quite make it to tonight's lecture presentation goals. (It had something to do with getting caught up in data analysis at work and staying until 7pm because there was a correlation I wanted to confirm just for my own curiosity. I should try to avoid having involved work-projects at the same time as involved non-work projects.)

The basic layout for the handout exists, the text-only portions are in place, and the figures for the tunic-types part (about 3/4 of the graphics) are done. I still need to do the leg-garments figures and the little bits of joining text for the figures. I think I'm just going to freehand the leg garments and scan them in -- I still haven't quite gotten the hang of the CS2 version of Photoshop and I keep getting hung up on not knowing where the controls and adjustments are for functions that I know I've used in previous versions. And freehand drawing is one of the things I haven't gotten back yet. (Don't everyone inundate me with tips and hints at the moment -- I've picked up the sledgehammer and started swinging and anyone who starts explaining to me how to hand-forge a scalpel may end up as collateral damage.)

I did go off and pick up a new combo wireless presentation controller cum laser pointer (with built in presentation timer). And I just barely missed visual confirmation of the (flesh-and-blood) mouse but got a solid audio confirmation. If the cat has not done her duty by this weekend, I'm getting a trap.

ETA: And we have visual confirmation. Habemus rattus. An adolescent, to be sure, but not a mouse. I think perhaps a trap is called for sooner rather than later.
So tomorrow's lunch project is working up the leg garment sketches and drafting all the remaining text so that I only have to type it in tomorrow evening. Also noting reality-check timepoints in my thumbnail copies of the presentation slides so that I'll know if I start getting too far off schedule. (A problem with a two hour lecture.) That means the handouts get printed Friday after work (and it means I've eliminated the possibility of doing a movie any night this week). But it's all good.
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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 [livejournal.com profile] scotica?) and one to rehearse the presentation. Sounds like it'll work.
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Well, I have the slides set up for all three presentations. The survey of surviving garments has all it's images in place. The "construction genealogies" has all its images identified: 18 items need to be scanned but the rest just need to be placed. The "researching under-documented costume cultures" has the general ID of the images done and I've pulled all the books they'll be coming from, but I don't have specific images identified in all cases yet (and about a quarter of the examples will be text rather than image, so I'll need to pull those and format them nicely). I have to turn some of the existing images and text into a handout, but no really new material needed for that.

I just might be able to finish it all before going to bed tomorrow. Which would give me five whole evenings in which to practice timing and smooth things out. (Ok, four evenings, because at that point I get a movie night in there somewhere.)

And it isn't even 2am yet -- I'm being such a slacker tonight.
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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.
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1. Funniest thing said by the Honda Finance Guy: "We had to run your credit score even though you're writing a check. Nice credit score. Would you like to buy a helicopter? With credit like that, I could get you a helicopter."

2. This season's colors evidently do not include any nice, pure, heraldic greens. My plans to do a current sewing project in wool have faltered on the rock of a complete absence of good greens. I shall have to fall back on the silk, instead.

3. I have tv reception again, courtesy of a cheap Radio Shack set-top antenna. I may need something a smidge stronger to pick up the San Jose PBS station that runs all the good imported sf and mysteries, but I may just have to play with placement.

4. This week's mystery produce is ramps, a type of wild onion. (When I picked it up, I thought it was equivalent to the rampion of Rapunzel fame, but I find I am badly mistaken. At any rate, it will be fun to experiment with. Anybody have any favorite recipes? I'll probably be cooking it tomorrow evening.

5. The raspberries are ripe! I picked the first of the season this afternoon. Also all six cherries with which my tree has graced me this year. The cherries wanted to be a pie, so there's a tart baking upstairs at the moment. The berries are sitting here drowning in light cream.
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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.
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So while starting to clean up the sewing area I cut out the second pair of black linen joined hose, converted the old red wool hose (which I cut up to make the new pattern) into two pair of knee-length hose, and cut out the linen lining for the fitted gown that [livejournal.com profile] thread_walker draped for me back in March. Now I just have to pick the wool for the outer fabric of the gown, so here are the choices in the stash (specs are 60" width with at least 96" available length, medium weight with a dense finish):

* a dark strawberry/brick red flannel
* a slate-blue/white herringbone twill (probably not, it calls for a solid color)
* a bright peacock blue
* a dark charcoal gray
* the rest of the dark royal blue I used for the butler's gown

The herringbone isn't quite right, the gray is a bit boring, and I'd hate to be repetitive and use the royal blue for two projects in a row. So what do people think: the strawberry/brick red or the peacock blue? The red is almost exactly the right length, while the blue would have about half a yard leftover.

ETA: Oh, and I'd meant to get to bed "on time" after doing just a little clean-up. Well, guess I've just hard-reset myself back onto California time.
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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.
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Here's a picture of my new outfit -- the one I made to butler in at the feast. (The picture was taken at Costume Con the next day. I got a gratifyingly sufficient number of compliments and requests for photographs when I wore it. If I find links to other nice shots, I'll post them too.)
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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.
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I sewed down the pleat stay-tapes at [livejournal.com profile] etaine_pommier's sewing night tonight, then finished the hose lacing holes after I got home. So other than working the whole thing over with a lint roller (which it badly needs), my butlering clothes are ready. Which means I'm still on schedule for the week.

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