Elizabethan Mafia

Cleaning Shop

07. August 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Sewing · Tags: Pictures, Project, Sewing

While most of my friends are at Pennsic I’ve decided to take take this week to plow through some projects that have been sitting on my To Do list for a little too long. The first thing I did was to actually write the list down:

Finish commission up to hem
Clean sewing room
Clean bedroom
Finish Mending
Make Shirt
Make Brais
Pattern Pourpoint
Cut out pink doublet
Cut out Wool jerkin
Embroider on Jacket?
Cut out Coty’s suit
Cut out Pluderhosen

I finished the first 3 today and I’ve been making good headway on the fourth this afternoon.

While cleaning up my sewing room (it was so bad I couldn’t find anything and it stressed me out just to be in there!) I found my new Venetians waiting to be put away and I realized I had never taken a picture of them for you. So with out further ado here are pictures of the Venetians I finished in April/May. Please excuse the mess in the guest bedroom and fact that they were taken with my cell phone. The camera is still MIA. I’ll be taking better pictures for the website once I’ve found the camera.

Front view of my new Venetians.

Side view of my new Venetians.

Armour Report

22. July 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Fighting · Tags: Fighting, Pictures

When I was Baroness I took up spear so that I could fight with my troops on both the heavy and rapier fields at war. I had a lot of fun with it but at the time I didn’t have any real intention of going farther with heavy fighting. Several months ago that changed and I had a renewed desire to pursue heavy fighting in more depth. This meant I would need more armour and, since I had been borrowing a helm from my husband previously, the first thing I would need is a helm of my own.

We were over at Clare and Eldrid’s last weekend and one of the projects worked on was my helm. Gaston got some great in progress pictures of Master Eldrid working on my helm and they are now up in my gallery. Check ‘em out!

Finishing Touches

12. July 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Sewing · Tags: Fencing, Foundations Revealed, Sewing

I’ve spent the last several evening putting the final touches on my latest article for Foundations. I’ve enjoyed expanding my sewing horizons with this project but I am looking forward to finishing up some commission stuff once I get it turned in. I am on schedule to turn the article in by Friday and the commission stuff should all be done and delivered by the end of the month. Since I won’t be going to Pennsic I think I’ll spend my August making/finishing 3 new sets of rapier armor (the one I started for myself a couple months ago, one for my sweety, and one as a gift) for Atlantian 30 Year.

Embroidery Tutorial

07. July 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Embroidery, Fashion, Tutorials · Tags: Elizabethan Fashion, Embroidery, Tutorial

Well we didn’t make it out to Fort Raleigh after all but my tutorial on Elizabethan Monochromatic Embroidery is now available in the tutorial section of my website.

Happy 4th of July!

04. July 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Culture, Sewing · Tags: Foundations Revealed, Project, Sewing, Shipwreck

Happy 4th of July everyone! We’re spending this holiday enjoying the sun in lovely Nags Head, NC. Yesterday we visited the beach and the current resting place of the Francis E Waters, a 19th century schooner who’s remains are currently on display at Nags Head Town Hall.

I’ve also been spending my time experimenting with boning layouts and working on my next article for Foundations Revealed. I’m having a blast with that.

We’re planning on visiting Fort Raleigh tomorrow. I’ll make sure to take lots of pictures for you guys.

Enjoy the holiday!

Updates-New Job Edition

21. June 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Fighting, Sewing · Tags: 2011 Project Plans, Cut & Thrust, Fencing, Fighting, Project, Sewing

My new position has been keeping me incredibly busy. It’s just about all I can do to get take out on the way home before stumbling into bed. But it’s worth it and I’m really enjoying my new job.

Keeping up with my marshalate responsibilities has been taking up most of my copious free time but I’m sure things will be lightening up pretty soon. I know I still owe you guys pictures of my Venetians (I promise they are coming!) but I’m already moving on to my new doublet. Practice last week just reaffirmed that I’m really tired of not having my spaulders for C&T and my old fencing doublet is just too old to make adding points to it worth it. So I really need to finish my new one. Maybe I could ~~finish~~ start the alterations for my other doublet that I mentioned last month (or the new mending I picked up at Sapphire Joust…). Two new doublets!?! I don’t think I’d know what to do with myself.

New Foundations Article Published!

13. June 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Pictures, Sewing, Tutorials · Tags: Foundations Revealed, Project, Sewing, Tutorial

I missed posting this last week but my latest Foundations Revealed article, 1903 Savoye Corset: Patent 74093, was published last week. It’s outside of my usual area of interest but I’m very excited about this project and very pleased with how it’s turning out.

In other project related news I finally have pictures of my finished venetians. I’ll try to get them up this week for y’all since I’ve been so slack about posting recently. I did start my new position last week though. It’s keeping me very busy but I’m really enjoying it.

Alterations

24. May 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Sewing · Tags: Foundations Revealed, Project, Sewing

So just a few days after my last post I formally accepted a Regulatory Associate position with the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. I’m very excited about this new opportunity. Since accepting the position I’ve been working furiously to get everything ready in my current lab for the transition. I start the new position on June 6th which thankfully has given me just about a full month to make sure that everything is good to go. This has meant though that by the time I’ve been able to make it home from work and get something for dinner I’ve been pretty much completely exhausted and haven’t been able to get much work done on projects. But that should change in just a few more weeks.

To update you on the article I was working on when I last posted, I wasn’t able to get it finished during the week so I ended up skipping Tourney of Friends to finish it up and get it turned in. I was sorry to have to miss the event but it worked out for the best (plus my hubby was able to make it and had a marvelous time).

I did finally accomplish some sewing this weekend. I managed to finish a bunch of mending and alterations and I’m very pleased with how things have come out. The last alteration I need to finish is altering the sleeves on an older doublet. Sadly I’ve never worn this doublet because I didn’t notice the issue until after it was finished and by then I couldn’t bring my self to take it apart and fix it. I finally took it apart yesterday and I think I can fix the issue with a little simple piecing.

Alterations aren’t always easy. Over the weekend what appeared to be a quick pants alteration to shorten the waist band ended up taking close to 4 hours because both the lining and outer shell had to be removed from the waistband separately and then, due to the way the pants had be constructed, the only way to reattach the newly shorten waistband so that it looked right was to sew the whole thing back together by hand. But it was totally worth it because the new pants fit better and I was able to use this opportunity to take out the cartridge pleating I had used originally and replace it with knife pleating which I think will suit these pants better. Now it’s like having a whole new pair of pants! Altering the doublet is going to take more work and quite a bit of piecing but it will be worth it to be able to put that piece of clothing into regular rotation.

New Tutorial and Promised Links

09. May 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Events, Fashion, Tutorials · Tags: Elizabethan Fashion, Events, Foundations Revealed, Project, Tutorial, Website

My Recreating Elizabethan Bodies tutorial is now available in the tutorial section of my website. I got it uploaded over the weekend.

Grettir has also made the class notes for is I.33-Liechtenauer Symposium available online. You can download them here.

This past weekend was Atlantian Crown. I had a fabulous time but, as usual, I brought my camera and didn’t take it out all day. I really need to stop that!

Finally, I spent most of Sunday working on it and I’m now nearly finished with my current Foundations Revealed article. Now I’m hoping that if I really dedicate the rest of the week to it and don’t allow myself to get distracted I can finish it early and possibly be free to day trip Tourney of Friends this weekend. We’ll see how it goes.

Short and Sweet Update From Under the Weather

04. May 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Events, Fighting, Tutorials · Tags: Events, Fencing, Fighting, Foundations Revealed

Sorry for being so quiet these past few days. I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather since Monday but I did want to give you guys an update.

This past weekend Wistric, Letia, and I piled in the car and headed up to St Pyr’s (a small local collegium) in Black Diamond. It was a small, quiet event and I had an excellent time. I taught the C&T Marshal 101 class to a larger group than I was expecting and spent the rest of the day enjoying Grettir’s I.33-Liechtenauer Symposium. I thoroughly enjoyed his class and will be linking to his class notes once he’s had a chance to post them online.

I think the highlight of my day though was Letia’s now infamous creek incident but since I teased her fairly mercilessly on the drive back I will refrain (for now) from teasing her online.

Sunday was fighter practice and the baronial meeting. I did some teaching, worked on some C&T, stayed for the meeting, and all in all had a great time. We even went out for sushi with friends afterward.

In other news I spent last night working on my upcoming Foundations Revealed article. So far I’m ahead of schedule but I need to make sure I stay that way. I’m also working on getting my recreating Elizabethan bodies tutorial up on the website by the end of the week.