The Hundred Years' Wardrobe

So this weekend I built myself a nice simple 14th century tunic based on the Herjolfsnes 43 pattern. I made it out of the same light green linen that I used for Adela’s kirtle (though I may chuck it in a dark blue dye bath). I hate finishing seams after they’re sewn and setting gores and gussets in by machine, so I did it all by hand. I needed frequent breaks to wake my sewing hand back up, but all in all it went pretty smoothly. Next up, some wool chausses!

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

I went up to visit Philippa on Saturday and help her with various bits of her Eleanora de Toledo dress. She also helped me put together a toga for this weekend’s Roman-themed May Tourney. I had bought 20 yards of $1/yd 45″ wide unbleached muslin, thinking that would be way more than I needed. It turned out that the toga took up three 5 yd. lengths of fabric, and the ankle-length tunica took up all but a single yard of the rest. Yay for overbuying! It’s pretty comfy and looks cool; we’ll see how it fares on Saturday.

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

After all the trimming, filing, and drilling, the buttons still had some rough spots and edges, and I didn’t want to spend a million years trying to find them all and polish them. Instead, I tied the buttons up into four bunches with hemp cord, stuck them in a sock, and ran the whole thing through the dryer. They came out shiny and smooth, with all the detail on the button faces still intact. Lacking a dedicated tumbler, this seems to be the next best thing.

Also, a picture of the large buttons:

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

I’ve been finishing a big pile of buttons, and I’ve decided that I need to make some serious design changes next time I make them.

1. While the fabricated shanks seem to be historically plausible, they’re a giant pain to do. I think I’ll make another mold back with integral button loops. It’ll be fiddly to make, but worth it for all the finishing time it’ll save.
2. I need to make the buttons thicker so they can have wider edges. Finishing the thin edges is annoying. Making things too thin is nothing new for me; I really need to stop it.

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

I mourn for all the years I wasted not wearing wool hose. These were by far the best hose I’ve ever worn. They fit so well that I hardly ever thought about them, were only hot when I was sitting in the blazing sun, and looked great. Aside from the inevitable wrinkles at the ankles, there was no bagging or sagging anywhere, even after a long day of wear. I think I’ll cut the next pair a bit higher in the crotch, but that’s about all I can think of. I put a doubled linen facing at the waist (and accidentally in the crotch curve, but that’s another story), which made a nice sturdy place to put in the eyelets.

As for the brache, they seemed to perform well, aside from a couple of seams blowing out. I think they may be a touch small, so the next pair will get an extra couple inches in each leg. Otherwise, no complaints.

Dreamstone was a lovely event, composed primarily of hanging out with friends and occasionally dropping in for field-side classes. The weather was beautiful.

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

This weekend was the first chance I was able to get together with both my new student Philippa and my apprentice Serafina. We met up at Philippa’s house to work on various projects.

A couple weeks ago I helped Philippa drape a body block for herself. We used that to work out patterns for a kirtle and loose gown modeled after a portrait of Eleanora de Toledo. After a few iterations of drafting and test fitting, we arrived at a pretty good shape.

Serafina brought along a new pouch that she’s been working on, and made good progress on it. It’s shaping up to be very close to the period examples she’s working from.

After we finished sewing for the day, we went over a few dances that Philippa wanted to teach her students later this week. Despite having to imagine most of the other dancers in our sets, I think it went pretty well.

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

In the course of preparing for an event, there are many things that require advance planning and work before the appointed date arrives. If there is to be a feast, a head cook must be selected, who will plan what dishes will be served, test the recipes, buy the food, and perhaps cook some things before the feast itself. Artisans may spend weeks or months creating decorations, site tokens, tourney prizes, and the like. Teachers must prepare their classes and create instructional materials.

Though it usually comes at the very end of the event and is a time for joy and relaxation, a dance revel benefits just as much from such attention. Just as the other event staff is chosen well ahead of time, your dance leader should be appointed early enough that they can plan ahead for the dancing. If there is to be live music, this makes it much easier for the musicians to be prepared, whether they are from your own group or from further afield. More importantly, if the dance list is created and posted along with the other event information, there will be ample chance for those attending the event to learn unfamiliar dances or refresh their memories.

Just as the populace of the hosting group may be involved in the cooking and serving of feast, the creation of decorations and prizes, and other tasks that contribute to the success of an event, so too can they be involved in preparation for the dancing. A pre-determined dance list is an excellent way to focus the instruction at your local dance practice, or to get a local practice started in preparation for your event. While it is possible to teach dances at a revel, it is far more enjoyable for there to be enough familiarity with the dances that no teaching is required, or simply a quick reminder of the choreography.

It is, of course, possible to contact one of the experienced dance masters in the kingdom at the last minute to run your revel, but this should be the exception rather than the rule. An experienced cook from another group may be able to produce a good feast on a moment’s notice, but far better to give the aspiring cooks in the hosting group an opportunity to hone their craft so that they may achieve mastery in their own right.

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

So the Barony was contacted a few weeks back by a homeschool group in the area that was looking for someone to teach them some dances that they could incorporate into a Robin Hood play. I drove down to McDonough this evening (along with my faithful apprentice Serafina) for the class, not exactly sure what to expect. Since they would be performing the dances without any ringers later, I decided to stick to some pretty simple stuff that would still be fun and look good on stage: Gathering Peascods, Queen’s Alman, and Montarde Bransle.

There were a couple dozen kids there, from about 6 to 18 (plus several spectating parents), and they were all very attentive and excited. We spent 3 hours learning and drilling the dances, with a little Ballo del Fiore thrown in to shake things up before the final run-through. By the end they were able to make it through everything with hardly any calling from me, so I think that if they get to practice a few more times they should have no problem. I had a really good time teaching, and hopefully a few of them will come see what the rest of our game is about. I think any of them would be great to have around.

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

So you may have noticed that I've started a new blog for my SCA stuff (which is most of what I post about anyway). I'll be cross-posting everything here, and still using LJ for non-SCA related things. Something the new blog has is static pages where I can put write-ups of projects in an easier-to-find format. I'm not sure how much of my old stuff I'm going to do new pages for, so I figure I'll take suggestions. Is there anything I've made that you would like to see featured on the new site?

After adjusting the armscye, I attached the neckline facing:

I basted the facing in at the top and bottom (with the edge turned under), then used the bottom row of basting stitches as a guide to topstitch the facing from the front. I used a back stitch with  two strands of cotton embroidery floss.

Next, I used the machine to attach the binding from the front and then hand sewed it down on the inside. After a pile of eyelets, the bodice was finished:

Here you can see the shoulder seams:

The neckline sits a little funny, especially in this spot, though it’s hard to see in this picture. I’m not going to mess with it until I get the sleeves and skirt on, and see if it works itself out.

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.