Weekend, Sewing, Investment, and a bit of Brandee

[callistotoni]

Weekend: Saturday J/S and I and a bunch of The Usual South Bay Suspects helped helblonde and moriven move. J/S and I helped from about 9 AM to 3 PM, at which time J/S had tweaked his back to a state of unusability and I had to take him home. :-( Very sorry we couldn't help more. The rest of the crew, I'm told, worked until 8 PM. Oh, and I almost gave myself a shiner by dropping a craft drawer on my face. My face is a tiny bit puffy if you look hard, but it's nothing like I was afraid it was going to be.

Sunday J/S and I watched a lot of South Park and I got 14 button holes done. 35 total still to go. We also dropped by FP at leohtulf's and dropped off some stuff J/S had been working on. We didn't stay more than an hour or so, but it was nice to chat with folks. I got to talk to ?Bjarni?'s (he's in Sigurgata) wife and I'm hoping to get to know her better. They both seem very nice, and she has a grey parrot to boot. ;-)

Sewing: I swear I've had to do almost every seam twice on this cotehardie (Old School!) that I've been making for me. :-/ At least I'm down to buttonholes now.

(Side note observation: In my continuing efforts to educate myself about 14th C stuff and costume I've been looking at effigies. One of my Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince take-aways is that there is a lot of embroidery going on in the royal wardrobe, even though that's not something one sees in a lot (not all, but a lot) of the costume depictions in illuminations. However, now that I'm looking for it, you do see costumes in effigies that could have depictions of embroidery.)

After finishing this it's on to making up the sideless surcote I've posted previously about. Then I think I'll try my had at making some hats like the one I made for Leohtulf's condottieri outfit to sell. As I've written before, Klaus thinks that if I can get the making time down to 3 hours I could sell them for a realistic price. This effort I hope will be facilitated by...

The Investment: I bought a serger. I was able to get a floor model/demo machine -- a Baby Lock Eclipse DX -- for half off. Even at half off it was a chunk of change on my credit card. But it's a very nice machine, and has the jet-air threading feature. As part of the deal I picked up a package of extra feet for blindheming, ruffling, cording, and beading. Gianetta has one and highly recommends it. This model also got good reviews online.

I'd been doing some serger research because my experiance doing the few commisions I've had highlighted my need for a serger if I want to cut down on completion times. In addition to regular costume commissions and the aforementioned hats, I'm going to experiment and see if I can put together decent looking goffered veils (using the rolled hem and the ruffler foot options) for an acceptable price. I'm also looking forward to experimenting with the blind hem option which, in theory, will allow me to finish and hem edges at the same time.

Really hoping I can make this serger pay for itself. :-)

And, finally, some Brandee-stuff: We're doing well. Last Friday I got the saddle re-stuffed and my stirrup leathers fixed. Saddle feels much better now. Had really good rides last week. Like I said, we've gotten to another level. And for whatever reason Brandee was super lovey-dovey with me. So cute! She's not always this eager for head rubs and general hugging. Hard to describe 'cause she's not a super demonstrative horse.

Brandee had a day off and a turn out Saturday, and Marguerite had a somewhat exciting trail ride with her yesterday. Brandee took a leap from a bridge to the trail to avoid some oncoming bicycles. M said it was a good thing she had some jump lessons under her belt. ;-)

I'll get to ride tomorrow and Wednsday, the we leave for An Tir on Thursday. Plan is to be back Monday night. I'll miss my Paint Princess. :-( But it will be good to see folks up north and (hopefully) meet ornerie's gelding Raj. :-)

Oh, and Happy Birthday to all you September babies out there! Hope you all have (or had) great days and great years ahead! :-)

Comments

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

I promise all the pony kisses you can handle :)

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Ack! I cannot remember her name either, but I've met the parrot, who is lovely.

Congratulations for getting off the last riding plateau!

[aastg.livejournal.com]

YAY for buttonholes! YAY for the 14th century! BOO I may not have himself's new outfit done by Crown....

There IS a lot embroidery going on, if the inventories are to be believed. It's hard to see where/how it may be used, because a woven "all over" pattern is almost indistinguishable from an embroidered one. STILL, there are indications. For example, a pattern that's close to a known type of brocade pattern is of course probably woven. However, a very few extant examples + inventory evidence points to emblem-type patterns, like repeats of heraldic charges/badges are likely candidates for being embroidered. Single motifs are probably embroidered.

In the preceding couple of centuries, there was a surprising amount of embroidery that was done in imitation of woven silk brocade patterns, but this seems to change over the course of the 14th century.

I have books you need to see. I still dream of our having a play date...

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

I Wanna Aldith Playdate! Waaa! :-(

Fourth weekend in October, maybe?

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links!