Two posts in one day!
I just wanted to share with you all that the article I was working on last month for Foundations Revealed has been published! Please feel free to visit their site to see my new tutorial on 14th Century cloth hosen!
I’ve also had two other article proposals accepted for publication this fall and winter so you all will be hearing more about that in the coming months.
I have just turned in my second Foundations Revealed article. I am very pleased with the way both articles have turned out and I want to say a special thank you to the folks at Foundations Revealed for allowing me the opportunity to publish my work through their wonderful magazine. It has been a real pleasure to work with them.
This weekend sees us in Winston Salem. We had originally planned to attend Sapphire Joust but this past week we lost my grandmother in law so we spending time with family instead.
I’m not quite sure what the issue is but lately I’ve found that I’ve been feeling very distracted with regards to my various projects and I haven’t been feeling like I’m really getting a lot done. Oddly I’ve been feeling like I used to be able to get so much more done than I have these past few months. Logically though I know I must be getting something done because my FR articles are finished and free time seems to be at an even higher premium than usual. Years ago I used to keep yearly project lists of the things I was working on, things I had finished, and projects I wanted to start over the course of that year. I sort of stopped tracking them though in early 2009. Why? I have no idea.
So in an effort to really compare what I’ve been doing this year with what I had accomplished in years past I decided that I need to revive my old project lists. So far I’ve found one from 2008 and one from 2009. I’m fairly certain I kept ones for 2007 and 2006 as well but I’m still looking for them.
Here’s my list from 2008:
2008 Projects
Black silk suit Finished! Jan 2008
Red Wool Hood Finished! Feb 2008
Silver’s Gryps and Clozes Finished! Mar 2008
Linen GFG/Kirtle Finished! Mar 2008
Linen Surcoat Finished! Apr 2008
Second Linen Surcoat Finished! Apr 2008
Gamboised Cuisses, 2 pair Finished! May 2008
Arming Vest Finished! May 2008
Padded leather fencing doublet Linen Proof of Concept Finished! May 2008
Linen Suit Finished! June 2008
White Linen 63 Finished! July 2008
Scarletwork Coif Finished! Dec 2008
Swetnam Article One Finished! Dec 2008
Complete In Progress Silver Article Finished! Dec 2008
Not too shabby. I finished at least one project a month except for August-November when I was focusing on my coif. I don’t embroider very quickly.
I had to go back and use my blog to recreate most of it but in 2009 my list looked like this:
2009 Projects
Get my fencing in top notch shape In progress
Wool Jacket Finished! March 2009
Embroidered Jacket Started August 2009
Black Bias Cut linen Hosen Finished! March 2009
Green Bias Cut linen Hosen Finished! March 2009
Blue Linen Fencing Doublet Finished! May 2009
Scarletwork Forehead Cloth Finished! September 2009
I got some things done but I spent most of my free SCA time fencing and embroidering. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It was really quite enjoyable. 
But it does mean that I have finished fewer projects. Especially since my jacket was one of the things I was spending most of my time on.
So now that I’ve had a chance to go back and look at what I accomplished of over 2008 and 2009 I needed to create a list for 2010.
2010 Projects
Get my fencing in top notch shape In progress
Embroidered Jacket In progress: Started August 2009
Flander’s Gown In progress
Saviolo Dueling Blog Series Finished! June 2010 (Combined with class)
Silver Training Blog Series In progress
Swetnam Training Blog Series In progress
Early Modern English Dueling Class Finished! June 2010
Steampunk Gown Finished! January 2010
Wrapped and Stuffed Buttons @ Etsy Opened! January 2010
Grey Wool Bias Cut Hosen Finished! February 2010
Linen Kirtle Finished! April 2010
White Linen Bias Cut Stockings Finished! April 2010
16th-17th Century Stocking Tutorial Finished! April 2010
Blue Linen Bias Cut Hosen Finished! May 2010
14th Century Hosen Tutorial Finished! May 2010
Hmmm…no wonder I feel distracted. I’ve accomplished much more than I thought I had but I have let several “In progress” projects accumulate at once. Normally I try to keep it to one or two. Plus three of those projects are blog series. I should certainly be trying to limit those to one at a time. So for now, no more new blog series! I need to finish these first! I don’t have too many sewing projects going at once, just my Flander’s Gown and my jacket but they did get pushed to the back burner while I worked on some others. I definitely want to get back to back to work on them once my second article is turned in. I will also probably place my Saviolo dueling series on the back burner since it’s so similar to the class that I’m working on for June Univeristy. And I’m going to add a few more items to the planning list to start on once I’ve finished my gown and jacket.
2010 Project Plans
Get my fencing in top notch shape In progress
Embroidered Jacket In progress: Started August 2009
Flander’s Gown In progress
Saviolo Dueling Blog Series Finished! June 2010
Silver Training Blog Series In progress
Swetnam Training Blog Series In progress
Early Modern English Dueling Class Finished! June 2010
Steampunk Gown Finished! January 2010
Wrapped and Stuffed Buttons @ Etsy Opened! January 2010
Grey Wool Bias Cut Hosen Finished! February 2010
Linen Kirtle Finished! April 2010
White Linen Bias Cut Stockings Finished! April 2010
16th-17th Century Stocking Tutorial Finished! April 2010
Blue Linen Bias Cut Hosen Finished! May 2010
14th Century Hosen Tutorial Finished! May 2010
Green Linen GFG (pieces cut out)
French-Cut gown
Red Silk Bodies (have fabric and boning)
A new linen suit
Natural Form Gown
Postponed Projects
(HMA)
Di Grassi Series
Di Grassi Class
Swetnam Class
Arming Garments Class
(Sewing and Embroidery)
Blackwork shirt
Red Wool Suit
1530′s Tudor gown
1530′s petticoat
1530′s Kirtle
English Hood
1605 Gown
Embroidered Night Cap
Blackwork sleeves
Blackwork partlet
Doublet and Pluderhosen
Edwardian Lingerie Gown
This afternoon I finished my second Foundations Revealed article and I’ll be turning it in a week from Monday. This article will be a tutorial on 14th Century bias cut hosen and I’m very please with how it has turned out. This also means that I now have an extra week to work on my dueling class for Atlantian University.
We have just returned from our vacation but I wanted to share with you all that the article I was working on last month for Foundations Revealed has been published a month early! Please feel free to visit their site to see my new tutorial on 16th and early 17th Century cloth stockings!
A lot of times in historical sewing circles we get caught up in finding “the right way” to make a gown, doublet, or piece of clothing. It comes from a good place. We love historical clothing. We love recreating patterns, researching stitching techniques, and doing everything we can to make sure our piece is right. But many times that love and our very best intentions can lead us to place where we start to believe clothing was nearly always made the same way. “Gowns always laced up the back or fastened with hooks and eyes in the front”, “All jackets have 5 gores”, “Elizabethans only used two part sleeves”, “All embroidery was vine work and flowers”. You come across these ideas all the time. And in a way they are right. There are a lot of two part sleeves in Elizabethan Fashion and vine and flower designs were extremely popular in Elizabethan and early Stuart embroidery. But in the end they are not fully correct. Clothing was not only made one way. Gowns and kirtles closed several different ways including (but not limited to) lacing up the back, lacing up the sides, fastening up the front with hooks and eyes, buttons, and frogs.
A blackwork jacket in the Manchester Art Gallery
An excellent example is the embroidered jackets of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Many of the jackets you see in portraiture and museums are embroidered in polychrome silks in flower and vine patterns. However, that is not the only way they were made. One example of a jacket created using different methods is the gorgeous jacket at the Manchester Art Gallery. It is embroidered in a flower and chevron design rather than intertwining vines. It’s also a monochrome embroidery, embroidered in black silk, with the larger flowers filled with diaper patterns. Jackets also varied with respect to the number of gores, stitches used, and whether the closed with ties, hooks and eyes, or other methods.
There is a wide and rich variety to the way fashion was made during the Elizabethan period. Some methods were more popular than others but that did not mean they were the only methods used at all. When you are working on clothing projects take some time to enjoy and experiment with the wide variety of clothing styles and sewing methods used through out your period of study. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the wide variety available to you.
Well, at least the embroidery is all finished but since putting it together will go super quickly now that it’s done I just couldn’t help myself. I should have pictures up by the end of the week and with a little luck and a couple of free evenings they may even be pictures of the complettely finished forehead cloth!
