Coronet was fun, sick now, and sewing!
Oct. 19th, 2010 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callistotoniMists Coronet was a good event, despite having to pack down in the rain. Friday set up was edging towards hot and was windy and the site was super dusty. :-/ Saturday was a success all around -- yay! The day was cooler. The lists turned out well -- looking forward to our next P&P. :-) And my period dinner party for Gianetta turned out super well. Special added bonus was Vyncent unexpectedly stepping in to serve, which turned what would have been a good dinner into a fabulous experiance.
Dinner details: Besides the obvious reason of celebrating Gianetta's Laureling by cooking for her (since I had to work the day of her ceremony), I wanted to apply what I've learned so far with my cookbooks and the Peter Brear's book. I didn't have time to make bread trenchers, but Sophie pitched in and bought 10 loaves of Acme wheat round loaves. We used 7 of them, as I recall, and we used the unused cut trenchers for french toast Sunday morning. I wound up useing 3 slices per person for dinner, and 1 for dessert.
Dinner recipes came from the Scully Early French Cooking book. I used redactions, with a minimum of tweaking for taste. Dishes were all late 14th/early 15th C. I thought it would be appropriate for fall harvest season to focus on dishes with friut sauces. Dishes were:
Roast Pork with a fig/apple/raison sauce on the side. Probably the best dish. Had to substitute white pepper for grains of paradise, but it worked out. Roasted the pork and cut it into small peices and put them in vacumn bags and froze, pork separate from sauce, except for a very small amount of sauce in each prok bag in fear that the pork would otherwise get dry.
Chicken with Orange Sauce. Poached chicken breasts in sauce, then stored separately in boil bags. Cut up chicken as well, since we weren't going to have carvers. Quite good, but delicate taste -- maybe too delicate for a camping event.
Parsnips and carrots boiled in very little water, then added honey and reduced a bit. Simple but good.
Mushrooms and brie and "pouder fin". Was supposed to be "baked", but I didn't cook the mushrooms before hand and so they released too much water for my covered pot and the burner to handle. Still super good, though.
Closed the meal with a selection of candied ginger, candied peaches, and dates. All store-bought. Next time I'll candie my own stuff. :-)
Lessons Learned: Vyncent really helped with the handwashing. I think the next time handwashing will have to be planned more beforehand.
People don't want to eat off platters. People just used their trenchers as plates. J/S and I started eating with our right hands, but then devolved to spoons.
The trenchers were cool, but they leaked right through and stained my tablecloth. Oh well, the stains on this cloth came from the best food and wine. :-) If I want to protect future HE tablecloths I'm going to have to fix this problem.
Very happy about how this all came out. Many thanks to Sophie, my sous chef, and Guy, who stepped in and helped watch the burners and stopped the wind for me a few times. :-)
Looking forward to doing this again. I think we had enough food for 10 people, so I'll shoot for that next time. Note that I'm never going to be interested in cooking a feast. That's too much planning to be fun for me. But I like the idea of period dinner parties. :-)
Today I was home sick. I must have what some of you out there have -- sore throat, achy-painy, feeling wrung out. Poosers. Made J/S go to the barn today to take care of Brandee.
In other news, my car is failing its smog check. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I took it in, it failed, then I dropped it off at my mechanic and he did a carbon flush. Today I tried again, but it still wouldn't pass. In a round about way I found out it was probably the catalytic converter. OK, a $300+ catalytic converter is still cheaper than I new car, so I dropped my car off and had a new cc put in this afternoon. Tomorrow morning I'll try to pass the smog check again. Time is running out, I'm afraid.
One the sewing front, it's time to start working with my recent investments. Several people at Coronet were open to the idea of paying for shifts/smocks/chemises. I now have 12 yds of hankerchief wieght linen from Grayline. I'll be doing a test camica (using my ruffler, serging seams, and my stich-in-the-ditch foot for binding, for Marguerite. I'm also making a square-necked smock for Cin. I want to test how much more time it takes to do flat-felled seams with my new FF foot over the time it takes for serging.
Recent acquisitions: Given my money state I'm feeling guilty about this (it sounds bad, I freely admit), but I also think that if I'm going to try to make some extra cash sewing that it's worth the investment to make the job easier (time is money). Of particular interest to me:
The ability to make nice buttonholes and eyelets by machine (for 14th C clothes et all).
A ruffler capability (i.e. the ability to quickly make tiny pleats for camicas, simple frills and ruffs/cuffs, goffered veils.)
Flat felling pressure feet (to automate the process and eliminate pinning as much as possible0
Bias Binding attachments or feet (ditto above)
Stitch-in-the-ditch foot (for binding seams with now machine stiches showing.)
Serger capabilites, including blind hems and finishing in one step, and gathering and finishing, and rolled hem edges.
The latter I've written about before: I picked up a floor model of a Baby Lock Eclipse with an extra foot package. I'll be taking a class on Nov. 5.
The other big investment is that I traded in my Viking 1+ towards a Bernina 450. Between the store (I love Dublin Sewing Center!) sale and my trade in I paid a fair price, IMHO. In addition, for the Bernina I bought a ruffler (online, from the same factory that makes the Bernina one, but for 1/3 of the price!), 2mm and 4mm straight hem feet, flat felled for 1/8 and 1/4 inch seams, an edge stich foot, a jeans foot, and a straight stitch needle plate (for delicate fabrics and extra penetration power in thick fabrics).
Also, for my Viking Platimun 735 I picked up a stich-in-the ditch foot, a 9 mm flat felled foot, and a 1/2 bias binder foot.
The Bernina bias binder attachment is probably rediculously expensive. I've seen hints of that on the Internet, but my store didn't carry it and said they'd call me with info. I might be able to pick up an industrial one for much cheaper if I decide I need it. But It may just be that for non-fighting clothes the stich-in-the-ditch approach might be the better one for the historically-minded customer.
I got the Bernina 450 yesterday (it had been on order). It is an amazing, kick-ass machine!!! Strong, sounds beautiful, stitches are perfect. The bobbin winder is automatic (no foot pedal involved). Like other Berninas it has the knee lift attachment to lift the pressure foot if you need both hands. Even the attachments are brilliant. It comes with a attached flat slide-on "table" and sliding seam guide. The attachment case is a big box that can be clicked to the back of the machine for travel; it has hanging spots for feet, bobbin holders, and 2 drawers. So you have your accessories available to you without having to open up your machine -- nice. I got the eyelets to work pretty darn well without too much adjustment already. Very well thought out machine. It's Bernina's best-garment (i.e. non-quilting, non-embroidery) machine. A bunch of decorative stiches, but no embriodery. OK, for a lot of extra $$ one can upgrade this machine to do embroidery. But if I were to do that I'd take that money and buy the real 6 spool embroidery machine I'ver written about earlier. I am, however, going to try to use some of them to decorate the top and cuffs of a camica -- I think I can make that look reasonably period and cool. :-)
I've tested all the feet and they work well on the first try. Practice will be needed to make them perfect, but that won't take much. I'll be taking a class on Nov. 27 for this machine and I'll get some advice there on what I want to accomplish I'm sure. But the machine is, although computerized, pretty darn intuitive and straight forward.
So instead of Tea this Sunday I think I'll head home after seeing Brandee and sew. I've got a lot of work ahead of me if I want to get some back on this investment!!!
Like I wrote on FB some days ago, I did something that maybe was not the logical thing to do, but something about this purchase feels like it was the *right* thing to do. :-0
Underwear and goffered veils, ho!
Dinner details: Besides the obvious reason of celebrating Gianetta's Laureling by cooking for her (since I had to work the day of her ceremony), I wanted to apply what I've learned so far with my cookbooks and the Peter Brear's book. I didn't have time to make bread trenchers, but Sophie pitched in and bought 10 loaves of Acme wheat round loaves. We used 7 of them, as I recall, and we used the unused cut trenchers for french toast Sunday morning. I wound up useing 3 slices per person for dinner, and 1 for dessert.
Dinner recipes came from the Scully Early French Cooking book. I used redactions, with a minimum of tweaking for taste. Dishes were all late 14th/early 15th C. I thought it would be appropriate for fall harvest season to focus on dishes with friut sauces. Dishes were:
Roast Pork with a fig/apple/raison sauce on the side. Probably the best dish. Had to substitute white pepper for grains of paradise, but it worked out. Roasted the pork and cut it into small peices and put them in vacumn bags and froze, pork separate from sauce, except for a very small amount of sauce in each prok bag in fear that the pork would otherwise get dry.
Chicken with Orange Sauce. Poached chicken breasts in sauce, then stored separately in boil bags. Cut up chicken as well, since we weren't going to have carvers. Quite good, but delicate taste -- maybe too delicate for a camping event.
Parsnips and carrots boiled in very little water, then added honey and reduced a bit. Simple but good.
Mushrooms and brie and "pouder fin". Was supposed to be "baked", but I didn't cook the mushrooms before hand and so they released too much water for my covered pot and the burner to handle. Still super good, though.
Closed the meal with a selection of candied ginger, candied peaches, and dates. All store-bought. Next time I'll candie my own stuff. :-)
Lessons Learned: Vyncent really helped with the handwashing. I think the next time handwashing will have to be planned more beforehand.
People don't want to eat off platters. People just used their trenchers as plates. J/S and I started eating with our right hands, but then devolved to spoons.
The trenchers were cool, but they leaked right through and stained my tablecloth. Oh well, the stains on this cloth came from the best food and wine. :-) If I want to protect future HE tablecloths I'm going to have to fix this problem.
Very happy about how this all came out. Many thanks to Sophie, my sous chef, and Guy, who stepped in and helped watch the burners and stopped the wind for me a few times. :-)
Looking forward to doing this again. I think we had enough food for 10 people, so I'll shoot for that next time. Note that I'm never going to be interested in cooking a feast. That's too much planning to be fun for me. But I like the idea of period dinner parties. :-)
Today I was home sick. I must have what some of you out there have -- sore throat, achy-painy, feeling wrung out. Poosers. Made J/S go to the barn today to take care of Brandee.
In other news, my car is failing its smog check. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I took it in, it failed, then I dropped it off at my mechanic and he did a carbon flush. Today I tried again, but it still wouldn't pass. In a round about way I found out it was probably the catalytic converter. OK, a $300+ catalytic converter is still cheaper than I new car, so I dropped my car off and had a new cc put in this afternoon. Tomorrow morning I'll try to pass the smog check again. Time is running out, I'm afraid.
One the sewing front, it's time to start working with my recent investments. Several people at Coronet were open to the idea of paying for shifts/smocks/chemises. I now have 12 yds of hankerchief wieght linen from Grayline. I'll be doing a test camica (using my ruffler, serging seams, and my stich-in-the-ditch foot for binding, for Marguerite. I'm also making a square-necked smock for Cin. I want to test how much more time it takes to do flat-felled seams with my new FF foot over the time it takes for serging.
Recent acquisitions: Given my money state I'm feeling guilty about this (it sounds bad, I freely admit), but I also think that if I'm going to try to make some extra cash sewing that it's worth the investment to make the job easier (time is money). Of particular interest to me:
The ability to make nice buttonholes and eyelets by machine (for 14th C clothes et all).
A ruffler capability (i.e. the ability to quickly make tiny pleats for camicas, simple frills and ruffs/cuffs, goffered veils.)
Flat felling pressure feet (to automate the process and eliminate pinning as much as possible0
Bias Binding attachments or feet (ditto above)
Stitch-in-the-ditch foot (for binding seams with now machine stiches showing.)
Serger capabilites, including blind hems and finishing in one step, and gathering and finishing, and rolled hem edges.
The latter I've written about before: I picked up a floor model of a Baby Lock Eclipse with an extra foot package. I'll be taking a class on Nov. 5.
The other big investment is that I traded in my Viking 1+ towards a Bernina 450. Between the store (I love Dublin Sewing Center!) sale and my trade in I paid a fair price, IMHO. In addition, for the Bernina I bought a ruffler (online, from the same factory that makes the Bernina one, but for 1/3 of the price!), 2mm and 4mm straight hem feet, flat felled for 1/8 and 1/4 inch seams, an edge stich foot, a jeans foot, and a straight stitch needle plate (for delicate fabrics and extra penetration power in thick fabrics).
Also, for my Viking Platimun 735 I picked up a stich-in-the ditch foot, a 9 mm flat felled foot, and a 1/2 bias binder foot.
The Bernina bias binder attachment is probably rediculously expensive. I've seen hints of that on the Internet, but my store didn't carry it and said they'd call me with info. I might be able to pick up an industrial one for much cheaper if I decide I need it. But It may just be that for non-fighting clothes the stich-in-the-ditch approach might be the better one for the historically-minded customer.
I got the Bernina 450 yesterday (it had been on order). It is an amazing, kick-ass machine!!! Strong, sounds beautiful, stitches are perfect. The bobbin winder is automatic (no foot pedal involved). Like other Berninas it has the knee lift attachment to lift the pressure foot if you need both hands. Even the attachments are brilliant. It comes with a attached flat slide-on "table" and sliding seam guide. The attachment case is a big box that can be clicked to the back of the machine for travel; it has hanging spots for feet, bobbin holders, and 2 drawers. So you have your accessories available to you without having to open up your machine -- nice. I got the eyelets to work pretty darn well without too much adjustment already. Very well thought out machine. It's Bernina's best-garment (i.e. non-quilting, non-embroidery) machine. A bunch of decorative stiches, but no embriodery. OK, for a lot of extra $$ one can upgrade this machine to do embroidery. But if I were to do that I'd take that money and buy the real 6 spool embroidery machine I'ver written about earlier. I am, however, going to try to use some of them to decorate the top and cuffs of a camica -- I think I can make that look reasonably period and cool. :-)
I've tested all the feet and they work well on the first try. Practice will be needed to make them perfect, but that won't take much. I'll be taking a class on Nov. 27 for this machine and I'll get some advice there on what I want to accomplish I'm sure. But the machine is, although computerized, pretty darn intuitive and straight forward.
So instead of Tea this Sunday I think I'll head home after seeing Brandee and sew. I've got a lot of work ahead of me if I want to get some back on this investment!!!
Like I wrote on FB some days ago, I did something that maybe was not the logical thing to do, but something about this purchase feels like it was the *right* thing to do. :-0
Underwear and goffered veils, ho!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-10-20 05:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-20 05:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-20 06:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-20 01:39 pm (UTC)(sorry, it was just that the mushrooms were so delicious)
and thanks again. It was really delicious and super fun.
and on the other subject - I bought 2 serged t-tunics at West AnTir 3 yrs ago. The side seams are 4 thread overlock, they're a medium weight linen. Hems are double turned and stitched, neckline is faced. We use them almost every weekend we do an SCA thing, they go in the washer and dryer after each weekend, and they're still going strong. I can bring mine to sewing night to show you if you want. Nothing fancy, but they're real workhorses.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-20 01:57 pm (UTC)Then it was a good choice! I'd love to discuss a chemise or two, when you're up and running...
no subject
Date: 2010-10-20 02:44 pm (UTC)You dinner sounds lovely! That brie and mushroom dish from Scully is one of my favorites.
No fines, but tickets might
Date: 2010-10-21 02:35 pm (UTC)First hand experience :(
no subject
Date: 2010-10-20 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 09:21 pm (UTC)