Well, not only did March kick my butt, but so did April and May. I did finish my projects on time. Ok, I was hand sewing in the car on the way there, but I still finished. And we wore the outfits. Ravenswar has declared the red linen doublet, "His Favorite Thing Ever" I have taken the red wool dress apart and am in the process of reworking. I wore it, but it was too long in the waist. WAY too long in the waist. I also got a new dress dummy. A nice squishy one. Which is much longer in the waist than I am, hence the dress problem. But I am still so excited. And I found a male dress dummy, but I have to save up my pennies for it.

And in other projects, I'm working on needlepoint pillows for my Kingdom, and embroidered handkerchiefs for my Queen and more embroidered underwear for me.

And that's more than enough costume projects with work and school.
Plus I am in two weddings between now and October and my sister's getting married next June. So I'm just busy, busy, busy.
I'll try and get some pictures so you can see all this stuff soon, but I'm going to bed now, it's been a long day today.
I'll try to be better about posting, but no promises. Life has just gotten too crazy lately,
Alliessa

OK, so March kicked my butt big time!! But Gulf Wars was divine, I and my house are still recovering. I have also learned new tricks. I've learned smocking, knitting, tablet weaving, and warping a loom. I taught a period cooking with herbs class. I met a lot of nice new people and hung out a bunch. It was relaxing and the lawyers did not call. YAH!! But I'm being deposed again, (BOOO) so my week long vacation means that I am quickly needing another vacation to relax from the catch up required for being gone for a week. Go figure that one out. And I bought stuff. Lots of stuff. A new helmet to go fight in, a new period basket to carry things in, proper silk and linen thread from the lace making shop that is perfect for embroidery....Oh yes, Laurels are a wonderful thing. Befriend them any time you can, because you never know when one will say, "ohhh I know where to get that" after a good whine session about the lack of proper materials for one's current obsession. YLI silk thread in #30 weight is perfect double stranded for embroidery and comes in every color in the rainbow. New favorite place to spend money- www.lacemakerusa.com Their shop at the war was fantastic. I just didn't tell the husband that I spent nearly $100 on thread. I'm not sure he would approve.

Well, on to new projects!! It can't be a new Month without new projects!!. A and I both need new garb for Coronation which is set in 1509 this year. Since I don't want to do English, it's going to be Italian. I get a new red wool dress with black velvet sleeves and guards and he's getting a new black linen coat with a red linen doublet if I can finish it all in time.
Mine should look something like this:


His should look something like this:


Ok, so his is a little later, bit I want him to wear is more than once and he likes REALLY late period
Well, off to the cutting table, I'm going to have to hustle to finish by April 21, yep that's 3 weeks away and I am back to crazy again. Sorry, I just can't help myself. It's not a real project unless I've cussed at it, bled on it, thrown it across the room, or created an unreasonable deadline for it. That's just the way this works.
Let's see how far I get!
Alliessa

OK, sorry for the long time between posts, but I've been sick and in depositions at work. That is a very nasty combination, trust me. Silk sewing thread is by a company called Clover and it's made in Japan. I used 2 strands, just like traditional embroidery thread. It worked really well on my mid weight chemise. I chickened out on the light weight chemise becasue I only have 2 tiny spools of it, and I thought the embroidery thread would be easier to get. And technically it is, but I hated working with it so I will be trying new brands AND looking for more silk sewing thread. If you have a source, I'd try it. It also washes beautifully, which the Krelik did not do.
But I have almost completed more camping dresses, and I've bought a ton of linen from www.fabric-store.com I love that place for linen and they have some new ultra sheer hankie weight liene cotten blend that I'm going to try for undies and partlets. My next fabric to find is wool. I need wool, lot's of wool. And I want a red wool dress for some reason. I am just on a red kick right now. But I am going to bed and hoping to post pictures of things before the weekend.
Bye,
Alliessa

Thank you so much Beth and Julie!! You made my day too!! Here is the picture of the underside, much closer. Sorry for the crappy photography, the cell phone will only do so much and husband has the camera cord (grumble grumble grumble)


But you can kinda see what I was talking about with the weaving back through and where the ends started poking out after washing. I now have a theory about washing these items and won't throw it in the machine with everything else anymore. Yep delicate cycle with Woolite for me, dang it. I think one of the reasons it started raveling is that I washed all of the wax out of the silk. Oh well, live and learn.
And I am still working on the red and gold dress, couching miles of gold braid on for the third (and final) time. That's my "can't think right now" or "riding long distances in the car" project because the pattern is drawn on with black ink, so it's just follow the line with the braid. And yes, I have couched the bodice 3 times with different stuff until I got the right look, but I'm only doing the sleeves and hem once:>) I am working on more complicated projects if I have the brainpower, so progress on the red is sporadic. But no hurry on that one, I want it to be as perfect as I can get it at my current skill level.
I am also very much a novice blogger, so bear with me while I learn all the ins and outs.

The Green Dress Calls from the sewing room........
Later,
Alliessa

Oh, and this is me. OK it's early period, but I spend an awful lot of time in the kitchen, so all other pictures look like I've been dipped in something. At least in this one I'm smiling and in daylight. I'll try to find better clothing pictures from other people. I know my Mom took some at one time....

Well, I actually finished the camicia sometime in November. Every. Last. Handsewn. Stitch. I have been debating about doing another line of embroidery to match the Eleanora portraits, but I think it can wait until I am sure this is what I want in the end. I did not enter this into competition. (I didn't get the documentation finished) but I am entering it in a couple of weeks. I am not totally thrilled with the whole thing, but was it a learning experience and I am something of a perfectionist. I have also discovered that my cellphone has a camera. Amazing that I never noticed that considering that I work for the cellphone company, SO NO MORE WAITING ON THE HUSBAND (who is traveling so much right now that the dog doesn't recognize him at times) OK, it's not the best film picture quality, but HEY I can do this myself without wanting to hit anyone over missing cords, dead batteries, or incompatible software. So without further ado.

Total Camicia on a hanger

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Closeup of interior and exterior of the embroidered sleeve. I think it turned out OK as reversible. And hey! I figured out the picture thing!! Yay me. So in celebration, I will post the pictures of the inspiration!!!


This is the camicia that I want, and that I made with the big floppy cuffs and the poofs through the slits in the sleeves. Even the embroidery is similar, but not exactly the same. I modified a pattern out of Il Burato by Paginino from the early 16th century. My Italian is not good enough yet to translate. But I can do numbers. (sort of)


This is the dress that I want. I have begun the embroidery process for couching miles of gold Russian braid on red cotton velvet. The portrait dress is probably silk, but I got to see this dress in person.

And I decided that I wanted velvet. A red velvet peticotte with gold embroidery. I've decided on black linen and silk pair of bodies for umm wrangling (although the peticotte itself is stiffened too) And I may make a Turkish gown after it's all over, I don't know.

But in the mean time, I'm working on the green overdress for the Pumpkin and I'll post more pics later. Right now is nasty canvas underlining to get the bodice to fit correctly but now that I have picture thing figured out, I'll do MORE!!!

Ok, so I am still handsewing the camicia. I have one sleeve left, the gores, hemming and seam treatment. I am aiming to have this completed by November 12 so that I can enter it into competition. It is as period as I can make using my abysmal hand sewing skills. I have learned lots though and hopefully the practice on the undies will make the dress go better. We are going to the Texas Ren Fest again next week and I just can't wait!!. I have my new Gold Venetian and my 1400 Italian, and maybe the Great Pumpkin. I don't know yet. As much as I love dressing up, there is the camping to factor in and the fact that I don't think the Pumpkin is really washable. The others can be thrown in the wash, easy. Well, back to sewing.....

OK, so I've been pretty lazy over the summer on the costuming front. But as fall rolls around, I am becoming more motivated. Once again the TRF is coming up and I want a new dress. I have a new Venetian Gold dress that I made over the summer that's fun, but I want the Green Overdress to go with the Pumpkin. I also have to finish my Sister's outfit and the PBI-L's outfit. I also want to make some progress on the EOT dress that is going to be entirely hand sewn and embroidered. There is a regional fair coming up and I'm hoping to enter at least part of thise outfit at the competition. I have embroidered the panels for the camicia, and I need to sew it up. I have the linen for the underdress/pair of bodies and I finally found a supplier for the gold Russian brain on the dress, so that project is ready to go if I can find the time to get it together. Luckily, none of my other project need to be sewn completly by hand, so those will go much quicker than the EOT. And then I have acouple of projects in mind for my lovely husband for KA&S next year, so we will be completly awesome together.
So the list is as follows
1. Finish E's dress and overdress
2. Finish M's doublet, shirt and hosen
3. Start Green Dress
4. Work on EOT for me
5. Green velvet Venitian for Eleanora
6. Blue silk coat for Cohair
7. Blue dress with tippets for Mistress J
8. Black and white Sir Walter Raliegh outfit for Ravenswar

Wow, that's a lot of sewing, so I better get started.
Hope to post more tomorrow and pictures would be good at some point.
Alliessa