Left sleeve as of 12/07/2009.
Current pictures of the Jacket project are finally up! Check em out! And for all you patience please enjoy bonus pictures of our Christmas tree. 
I’m officially back from one of the most lovely holidays I have had in a very long time. We spent our Thanksgiving up at the family farm in Como, NC. Don’t worry, I don’t really expect anyone else to know where that is as it’s about as rural North Eastern North Carolina as you can get. Despite our lack of internet access (I know. I don’t know how I survived either 
) we had an incredibly lovely time. I got to spend time with my family, bake and cook with my husband, sleep in, read, embroider, nap, and talk family genealogy with my cousin Janet. She’s done a TON of work with her side of the family and it really inspired me to get back to work on my own. I don’t remember the last time I came home feeling so relaxed and happy after a family visit.
Since I was late with my October jacket update I wanted to make sure that this month I was on time.
Although I made good headway on my sleeve I did not get it finished. I was a little bummed because I had really wanted to have it finished but in the end I think my biggest problem was setting a schedule that was too aggressive. I think perhaps I need to take some of my own advice and break it down a bit further and set some smaller goals. It does look really gorgeous though. I found my self just staring at it several times over the weekend thinking how lovely it will look when it’s done. I’ll be posting pictures tonight so stay tuned!
My PerCoFiMo this past month met with mixed success. I finished my black wool hood which I was very happy about but I found that I wasn’t really pulled to work on any of the other projects. I did a bit of mending but mostly when I had time to work on a project I wanted to work on the jacket so that’s what I did. Sometimes the muse is stronger than others and you need to take advantage of it when it is.
As for future projects, I discovered this month that I am in desperate need of new rapier armor. What I have doesn’t really fit well. My pants are too big and I’m not really happy with my current fighting doublet pattern. I’m not swimming in it like I was in the old one but I’m not really happy with the waist line and I like the neck line either. Plus the button holes are too big for the buttons and they keep popping out. So I’m decommissioning it into a practice doublet and starting anew. I’ll be placing a fabric order shortly after Christmas. I also picked up some patterns from Reconstructing History at Holiday Faire. I picked up their Flanders Gown pattern, their Pourpoint pattern, and their 14th Century Jupon pattern. And in addition to projects for me Coty has some things he’d like too. So I’m looking forward to a lot of sewing this winter. Looks like I need to sit down, make a list, and set some priorities! So what about y’all? Do you have any projects you are planning this winter?
Detail from the left sleeve of my jacket.
My apologies for being absent Friday. I was feeling a bit under the weather. The good news though is that I’m fairly certain it had more to do something I ate than any seasonal bug and after taking some time this weekend to rest I’m feeling much better.
While I was resting up this weekend I spent some time working on several of my current projects. I finished my wool hood and got in some good work on my jacket. If I can just stay on schedule I should have the left sleeve and the gores done by the end of the month.
This jacket is probably the most long term project I have ever worked on. I’ve estimated it will take around 1000 hours to complete and so far I’m only a little over half way through the first sleeve. While it’s my first major long term project (500-1000 hrs) I’m sure it will not be my last (I already know I want to do at least one other jacket…I know, it’s crazy) and I’ve been learn quite a lot about how to keep focused and motivated and stave off those pesky feelings of being overwhelmed.
Big dreams have lots of parts
At 1000 hours the jacket is a huge project and it’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’re looking at the whole thing. But every big project can be easily broken down into parts. The jacket itself is made up of 11 pieces (2 sleeves, 1 right front, 1 right back, 1 left front, 1 left back, and 5 gores) and each of those pieces can be broken down further into outlining, fill stitches, and spangles before we even begin to consider assembly. Just focus on breaking your project down into its individual pieces and set smaller goals for each of those pieces. The smaller goals will help keep you motivated and by breaking it down into smaller more manageable pieces you are less likely to become overwhelmed but the larger project.
Sometimes you just need a break
It’s true. No matter how focused you are on your project or how motivated you are to finish sometimes you may just need a break. And that’s ok! Take a day or too off. Relax. Work on something else if you want to. Read a book. No matter what you do just take some time for you. You’ll be able to come back to your project renewed and ready to finish.
Finishing a small project can keep you going
Sometimes just finishing a small project can up your motivation. A few weeks ago a friend of mine suggested reorganizing my project list for my PerCoFiMo so that I would finish my shortest projects first. The idea is that by getting shorter projects finished you feel more accomplished and boost motivation for larger projects. And you know what…it works! I felt much more accomplished and motivated after finishing my hood than I did when I was just powering through the jacket. Finishing it gave me a little boost and helped keep me excited about my other projects.
Sometimes you really just have to sit down and do it
Oftentimes the hardest part of doing something is just getting started. It’s been a couple days (or a couple weeks) since you last worked on your project and you find that your motivation and momentum have waned. That’s ok. Sometimes all we need to get going is to just get started again. Maybe you don’t have a lot of time and all you can spare is 15 min. That’s great. If you spend those 15 min working on your project you’ll be 15 min closer to being done. You also might find that after spending 15 min working on your project you’ve once again found your groove.
Large, long term projects can be hard to complete just based on the amount of time they take. It’s hard to stay motivated and focused for that long. But with a few simple tricks and maybe a break or two you’ll be on you way to finishing.
With October ending and November beginning I wanted to take some time update everyone on my Jacket Project progress, asses the status of my PerCoFiMo projects, set some priorities*, and estimate the amount of time I think each will take over the next month.
The Jacket Project
My jacket currently stands at 18 hours in with an estimated 35 hours to finish the current sleeve and gores (btw I have a couple new pics up of how it looks so far). Obviously this is my top priority for PerCoFiMo. I had two events last month that needed prep work and I let myself get side tracked on some other things as well so I really need to buckle down and get in my 10hrs a week on the project.
Black Wool Hood
My hood is very close to done. All the seams are sewn and all that’s left to do is the flat felling. This all needs to be done by hand but, based on the hood I made for Coty last year, I’m estimating it will only take me about 5 hours to finish. Since this should be quick to knock out I’m going to set this as 2nd priority for PerCoFiMo in the hopes that getting something knocked out quickly will help renew my inspiration to finish others.
Falling Band and Cuffs
The falling band and cuffs are my 3rd priority because I really want them for 12th Night. I’m not making new clothes for 12th Night because my black silk suit fits very nicely again but I do want to make a nice falling band and set of cuffs for myself to spiff it up. I’ll be sewing them completely by hand but I don’t really have an estimate yet on how long it will take me.
Green Linen GFG
Next to the jacket I expect this will probably take the most time. Everything is cut out but I need to take the pattern in a bit and nothing in sewn together yet. I really want to finish this gown because I love my red linen one so much and want another comfy GFG for spring and summer. It will be mostly machine sewn although all the visible finishing will be done by hand. I’m thinking about making this my 4th priority though since I probably won’t be wearing it much until the spring.
Complete mending
Part of me wants to take this one totally off the list because a PerCoFiMo is supposed to be fun and I hate mending. On the other hand the point of having a PerCoFiMo is to push yourself to finish all the things that you’ve been putting off and the mending definitely fits that bill. So I don’t really know what I’m doing with this one yet.
Begin Flander’s Gown
Now this is tough because it’s a project I’m really excited about but at the very least I need to get through my falling band and cuffs before I really get it started. So this may be bumping the GFG out of 4th place. I have my fabric and I have the fur. I need to order linen for the lining and make a decision about the pattern.
*Note: most priorities are subject to change based on the whim of the project executor.
Yesterday I spent sometime updating my website:
Reorganizing:
One of the big things that I did was reorganize the menu at the top of the page. I’ve removed the Weekly Inspiration feature. It wasn’t really working with the site the way I wanted it to and I think it would work better as a blog feature anyway. I also reorganized the menu items so that my hand sewing and embroidery projects are now under the clothing section.
New additions:
On the A&S 50 page I’ve added links to all the projects I could. I’ve also added two new modules: one displaying my 3 most recent blog posts and one listing the projects I plan to accomplish during my PerCoFiMo.
PerCoFiMo:
As I mentioned in an earlier article I have be thinking about declaring a personal costume finishing month to help motivate me to finish up several sewing projects that had been on the back burner. We’ll I’ve decided that November with be that month and I’ll be keeping a list on my website of the projects I’ll be working on which ones have or have not been finished. While I won’t be able to finish my jacket in one month I do think I can finish the sleeve I’m currently working on and all the gores. I may even be able to make some good progress on the second sleeve which would be awesome. (The monthly status post for the jacket project will, of course, be coming on the 31st.)
Tonight I’ll be working on the next Silver installment. It should be up this evening or tomorrow.
When I was baroness I had several projects I really wanted to pursue but I put on the back burner due to time constraints. Among there projects were training manuals for Silver and Swetnam’s systems of defense. Now I am ready to pick those projects back up. While I was finishing my recent article on Swetnam I spent some time thinking about how I wanted to make these manuals available. In the end I’ve decided to publish them in installments here on my blog. Starting probably next week but definitely by the week of the 19th I will be making them a weekly feature. I haven’t yet decided which day I will be publishing them but currently I’m leaning towards midweek. My current plan is to start with Silver and then do Swetnam. When they are finished I’ll be compiling them and making them available in pdf format on my website.
I’ve also be diligently embroidering my jacket to the point where I feel pretty good about taking on another sewing project. I’ve been enamored with Flanders gowns since doing the research for my loose gown in 2006. I have some lovely wool flannel that would be perfect for the project and I’ve decided to make it fully fur lined since I have wanted a fur lined gown since probably 2005. I know I live in North Carolina and am not likely to get to wear it very often but I don’t care. It’s going to gorgeous and it will ensure beautiful weather for Ymir in February. I have wanted to try my hand a working with fur for quite some time and I already have several coats for the project.
Jacket Sleeve (10 hours embroidered)
Since I posted pictures of my jacket on the 21st I haven’t really talked more about it. As we are at the end of the month I wanted to post an update of the progress so far. Sadly, it’s not as much as I would have liked. This month has been really busy. In fact I didn’t have time to work on the jacket at all last week and we are still at 10 hours embroidered. The good news is I no longer have to postpone working on it until after October. Sadly though I have not kept to my schedule of embroidering 10 hrs a week. I need to get back on schedule in October and stop putting off my embroidery to the weekends. I know I can only work on it for 2-3 hours at a time right now so putting off all 10 hours for the week to the weekend means that I only get 4-6 hours done a week instead of the full 10. So that’s kinda where things stand with this project.
I haven’t started anything else but if I can get to the point were I’m getting all my embroidery done during the week I may work on finishing some old projects on the weekends. I have a green linen gothic fitted gown that I started a year and a half ago that I’d like to finish. It needs to be taken in a bit but that would be very easy at this stage. I also have a black wool hood that I started last year that would be really nice to have this winter. And then there’s all the mending I need to do. Finishing old projects isn’t the same as starting new ones but it’s something we all always intend to do but never seem to get to. In December of 2006 a group of people on LJ started National Costume Finishing Month (a spin off of National Novel Writing Month). In 2006 the NaCoFiMo ran from December to January but it’s been a lot more variable since then. Maybe I should hold my own personal NaCoFiMo this fall.
This past weekend was Midnight at the Oasis and I had a great time. I will be posting thoughts on my fighting later today or tomorrow but until then I have pictures from the event (mostly of court) as well as pictures of my jacket (we’re currently at 10hrs embroidery time).
It’s not often that I have a three day weekend all to myself so when those little opportunities come along I like to take full advantage of them. This weekend will be no exception. While it may sound indulgent I plan on spending my weekend doing all the things I love to do and never seem to have enough time for.
On my To Do List:
1) Go for at least one, maybe two, morning runs at the lake with one or both of my dogs. I won’t run at the lake in the morning because it’s dark and lately I’ve either not had time for a run in the evening or it’s been raining. Really looking forward to this one. I also need to do some thinking about where I want to go with my workouts because I’m just not feeling it right now. A nice run or two should help with that.
2) Spend an entire day embroidering on my jacket while watching bad movies. I have not be able to spend as much time as I would have liked on this project over the past couple of weeks so I’m setting aside a whole day for it this weekend. And what sewing isn’t made better when it’s done on the couch while watching those deliciously bad movies we all know we have. Pictures will have to wait until next week though.
3) Work on my gown for our anniversary party.
4) Take my lap top to a local park or coffee shop and write for a few hours. I have articles that need finishing!
5) Go to the kberg cookout. Sadly I missed the last one.
Definitely not on my To Do List:
1) I will not be doing any cleaning. The house is already pretty tidy and I want to enjoy all my time this weekend. I may do some laundry but that’s about it.
Work continues.
I worked on several projects this weekend. I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished on any one of them but over all I enjoyed myself immensely and got quite a bit done overall.
Sadly I had to abandon JoomGallery. There was an update and I kept getting really confusing error messages that I could not find solutions to. I also started having issues with my Gallery 2 install again so I eventually switched this weekend to another gallery. I know, story of my life. Be sure to tune in next week when something new happens I have to do it all over again.
I am still working on transferring the embroidery design for my jacket on to linen. It’s been taking A LOT longer than I thought it would but it fun to finally be really starting on the project. It’s going to take me FOREVER to embroider but that’s ok. I’ll be able to do it all in front of the TV watching all the fabulous and awful movies that I love to watch while working on projects so it won’t be so bad. It’s not like I’ll be locked up in some sweatshop somewhere until it’s done. I did snap a few pictures thoughso you can see how the transfer is coming along and see the design. I’ve also been working on a brief write up of the project so far for my website (mostly a discussion of the design, my research, inspiration pieces, etc.) and I’m hoping to have that up soon. I’ve also put the first of many articles about the project up on my site. This first article is about the creation of my design and I hope you enjoy it.
I did some more embroidery on my forehead cloth Saturday evening. I still have about a third of it left to go and I need to decide how much fill work I want to do since most of it will be under my coif anyway. It’s so cute though and it’s been a really fun little project.
In other news I have decided to bring back a feature that I had on my site several years ago: The Weekly Inspiration. There will be some differences this time around. Rather than focusing solely on England and Europe during Elizabeth’s reing, this time I will be expanding the Weekly Inspirations to include the entire Early Modern period and including modern reproductions, household items, and arms and armor in addition to protraits and historical clothing. I have not yet decided which day of the week I’ll post updates on but Friday’s are high in the running. I have though already put up this week’s inspiration: a gorgeous blackwork smock from the V&A collections.