Archive for March, 2008
Finished the smock I was working on for myself. Eight down, 42 to go. ;^)
Question for those doing a depth challenge, or anyone interested… ought I to count teaching costuming/sewing classes as part of my challenge?
Quite possibly…
I’m thinking about trying for the Arts & Sciences 50 challenge. I will be taking the depth option, for clothing construction, counting anything larger than a veil (anything with actual seams) as an item. That means 50 items of clothing between May 1, 2007 and May 1, 2015. I think I can do it; I already have 5 things done, I think – need to go back and check starting dates on some projects.
The kiddo and I did Ice Dragon solo again this year. Sadly, that means no fencing and no pent-ing for me. Next year I think we’ll work it so I can do some judging for the pent again – that was fun. We had a relaxing day, wandering, chatting, hearing stories. I think S is going to grow up to be a scribe – she was FASCINATED by the scribal playground and insisted that I pick her up so that she could watch.
Other excitement was getting to see my friend Ana Ravaya de Guzman, which was a total surprise. We managed to reconstruct that last time I saw her was when K&Q Bardic was in Bergental in December 2004. So we chatted a tiny bit, and I got to hear her sing greetings from the Crown of the East to the Aethelmearc Crown.
Got lots of compliments on her coat… she really did look disgustingly cute. I did not get to see the braies that Cori made for Otfrid’s elevation based on my instructions; I’ll have to arrange to see them some other time. We bugged out as soon as his elevation was over, because S was getting quite exhausted. She didn’t last 10 minutes in the car.
The coat for the kiddo is done! I’m going to write a longer, more detailed reflective page about it later, but for now I wanted to give a quick description and some pictures.
Basically what I did was take a standard tunic design, split the front & back panels, and leave the front one open. There are three long gores – one in back and one in each side. The front of the coat fastens with three enormous (1/2″) hooks and eyes. The outer layer is a cotton twill; the lining is polyester fleece. Color choice was a team affair – Shoshanna picked the lining and I chose the twill that worked best with it (we had this purple and a mustardy brown).
I did a little experiment with the structure of the side gores & gussets. The gussets are composed of two right triangles, approximately 3″ on their short side and 7″ on their long side (you can do the math on hypotenuse length; I’m too lazy right now). These were attached along their long edge to the bottom of the sleeve. The gores then extends up in between the two sides of the gusset. It’s a method that I definitely want to try out again in the future, but not on a heavy, lined garment – it puts a lot of unnecessary bulk in the armpit area. For a smock or an unlined fashion layer, though, it would work pretty well.
Alianor de Ravenglas' Web Depository 