Cutting out the muslin for my new arming cotte.

Projects Started and Completed:

I started one new sewing project for Fall Muster: a new pair of linen trunk hose for my husband.  I also wanted to finish a linen fencing doublet that I had started for myself several months ago.

Coty wearing his new blue trunkhose.

I finished the trunk hose without any issue.  I have made at least 10 pairs of pants based off of this pattern at this point so putting them together went really quickly.  Something I did do differently this time though was to include a pocket!  He loved them and they looked great.  The only issue was that he has lost some weight since I took the measurement for the waistband and they were a little loose.  I’m going to have to find a temporary solution to take them in until he’s lost another inch or so since I don’t want to have to redo the waist band until he has lost at least 2-3 inches.  Eventually though I will take the waist band off, recut it, and pleat the pants back into the new waist band.

I made a noble effort on the doublet but I didn’t quite get it done.  I still need to tack down the lining at the armscyes and the waist, make buttons and buttonholes, and put in eyelets for pointing my armor for C&T.

Burgundy wool Venetians.

I did wear my burgundy wool Venetians though.

Non-clothing related projects I managed to complete were cleaning and rebluing my helm, gorget, and shoulders.  I’m not really happy with how my shoulders turned out though so I’m thinking about redoing them.  I also cleaned up my shoes, which were desperately in need of it.

Trip Up:

Our trip up was blissfully uneventful.  We stopped for a lovely dinner in Clarksville at Gino’s, a little local pizza place.  It was really tasty!

Drill:

We started the morning off with pike drill.  Thankfully at this point I do remember most of it although I do always appreciate the run through.  I was also very gratified that this muster’s drill proved to my husband that “jaunty hand” was indeed an integral part of the drill.  We went through all the positions, commands, and charges and then Master Hamilton proceeded to march us around the field.  I would say it was quite successful…we only hit a couple trees.

Goff:

Goff in the afternoon was by far my favorite part of muster.  Many of you may know it better as cambok.  Robert and Isobel had picked up some excellent leather balls for the game and Coty had made several new goff sticks out of red oak and ash as proof of concepts so he could see what he needed to change about his design.  I had a fabulous time playing goff.  Our games did get a bit rowdy but thanks to the 5 year old who was also playing things didn’t get too out of hand.

Target Practice:

This muster marked the first time I participated in black powder target practice.  I fired one of the calivers.  It was very cool but I think I’ll stick with pike.

Trip Back:

Sunday we helped with take down and stayed for the meeting.  Our trip home was as blissfully uneventful as our trip up.  We did stop for lunch again in Clarksville and this time we ate at The Lamppost Restaurant and Lounge.  It was really tasty!

To Do List for Next Event:

Things I need to do before the next event (although some of this probably won’t be done ‘til at least Pennsic):

1.       Purchase a breast and back

2.       Replace all my stockings-Ugh!  I hate them all and they MUST go!

3.       Make new silk garters

4.       Make an actual arming doublet

5.       Purchase new boots

6.       Make a new falling band

*Special thanks to Drea for taking the pictures!

1. Finish commission up to hem
2. Clean sewing room
3. Clean bedroom
4. Finish Mending
   1. Red trunkhose
   2. Blue fencing doublet
   3. Day shade
   4. Green doublet sleeves
5. Make Shirt
6. Make Brais
7. Pattern Pourpoint
8. Cut out pink doublet
9. Cut out Wool jerkin
10. Embroider on Jacket
11. Cut out Coty’s suit
12. Cut out Pluderhosen

I was going to finish the mending before moving onto anything else but once I had finished the day shade I needed to work on something else before finishing the blue doublet.  So I cut out and started assembling my pink fencing doublet.  I’ll finish the blue doublet sometime during the week.

1. Finish commission up to hem
2. Clean sewing room
3. Clean bedroom
4. Finish Mending
5. Make Shirt
6. Make Brais
7. Pattern Pourpoint
8. Cut out pink doublet
9. Cut out Wool jerkin
10. Embroider on Jacket?
11. Cut out Coty’s suit
12. 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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Well, I finally came to some conclusions about at least two of them.

eBooks

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it and I decided that it wasn’t writing the tutorials and eBooks that I didn’t enjoy (because I did enjoy writing them) but rather marketing and selling them as well as the self imposed schedule I was trying to keep myself on.  So, all the eBooks formerly for sale will now be freely available in the tutorials section of my website.  I will still continue to publish tutorials and eBooks (although without the self imposed schedule) but I have decided that selling eBooks through my site and blog is not a direction I want to go in after all.  I would much rather make the information freely available.  For those of you who purchased them and are unhappy with this change please contact me privately via email (alison [AT] elizabethanmafia [DOT] com) and I will do whatever I can to make it up to you.

Comissions

After enjoying a bit of a break I have decided that I will be taking up commissions again but I will be tightening up my schedule and instituting a strict “no more than one commission at a time” rule.  I will also be instituting a new set of policies for commission projects which I will be posting in a detailed “Commission Policies” section to my site.