$2 Christmas hanger

So I still have not gotten around to doing any SCA arts and science stuff; I still have a growing list of things I want to make though.

Over the last three days I've been playing with a $2 counted cross stitch christmas tree hanger that mum brought for me. It isn't perfect but I'm probably the only one who'll pick up on the mistakes. I have a newish baby cousin (7weeks old) so I added 09 Liam to the bottom of the hanger and will give it to his mum for him to keep. The back got a little messy with all the backstitch all over the place so I copied the idea from the bookmark I did ages ago and stitched a piece of craft felt on the back to hide it and hopefully increase it's life span.




Last holidays I spent the majority of my time making a scarf. I've started working on it again and here it is. Who knows wher it is from? :) It still has a long way to go.

Reasons For no Activity

I'm not sure how many people actually read this but some of you may be wondering why I havn't posted anything. I am in my second semester of my third year of University so everything is geting serious and a lot harder so I decided before this semester began that as soon as the Tudor dress was done that I would not start any new Garb or Arts and Science type stuff. While I've been inactive my list of things I want too make is growing. The good news is in 5 weeks I'll have 3 months with no University work at all.

Mundane Creativness

So I finished my dress and the event went great. So what do I do with my spare time now. On Friday night I unpicked two pieces of what was once curtains. From these two pieces I made two curtains one for each window in the "bungalow" aka the Shed up the back. Here is one of them; looks much better than the towels that have been pegged over the windows for years.

So what to do Monday? I dont have uni on a Monday so I was home all day. Mum had told me she was sick of seeing the cushion on my bed that my grandmother gave me when I was little. It is a hot pink Barbie cushion that looks really out of place. My curtains were made for my room and I had a small off cut that was just not wide enough for the cushion. However last year I made a blue spanish dress; the blue was close enought to look ok.

Here is the finished project. I tried to make it like a pillow case withouth a zip of buttons but it wouldn't sit closed so I attached two press studs to the back to hold it closed. I am really pleased with it and it looks much better in my room now.

French Hood and the Night

The French hood was looking a little naked in my last post. The gold beads did not arrive in time so I used the left overs from my belt. I think it turned out really nice and it matched my belt :) The peals and gold beads are threaded onto beading wire then I stitched inbetween ever single bead; they are well and truely sucured to the had. Close up :)

When I tried it on in the mirror the front edge seems to be lost with the focus on the beads which were further back so I added a row of tiny plastic seed pearls to the front edge.
On The Night :) Here is what everyone has been waiting for this is the complete outfit on me. Here I am standing in front of the High Table.
Here is the King and Queen of France possing for photos before their guests arrived. There was much good wine, rich food, music and dancing had that night. There were so many pretty dresses and outfits.

Pears and Gold Beads.

It was finally time to use those pearls and gold beads that I brought so long ago now. I have finally made my girdle belt. It actually did not take that long to complete. The hardest part was geting the wire to sit right inside the spliter. The spliter I used is actually a spacer which I had my dad drill 4 more holes in so that I could get the wire to changed direction through it. The drop is 60cm and the waist sections is slightly bigger than the waist of my dress here's hoping that it is big enough on the night. For ages I looked for something to hang off the end of the belt in the end i just used three left over 12mm pearls from the bodice and a few seed pearls.

The pearls for my French Hood arrived today but the gold bead have not so once I finished attaching the veil I moved onto something I thought I might do if I had time. I had the time so I did it. I added a row of pearls around the cuffs of the dress. Fingers crossed that the gold beads arrive tomorrow otherwise I'll have to use the left over gold beads from the belt.

French Hood of hoodness

Since
On Sunday I started to work on my French Hood. I did not think it would take too long to cut out the buckrum and stitch the wire to the edges. I was saddly mistaken. It took me four hours to get to this point. The wire I end up using is copper 18 gage craft wire rather than 18 gage millinery wire which I was unable to get.

The Cresent on it's own.
The cresent siting on the brim.
Once the wire was attached to the buckrum I moved onto glueing felt onto the two pieces to add body to the hood. If it were made without felt in the construction the wire would show through the outer layer and the hood would be flat much like a piece fo cardboard. With the felt the end product is fuller and softer.
The felt once the glue had dried and the multitude of pegs were removed.
The outside of the hood is covered in satin and the inside is covered in broad cloth. The satin is too slipery to be on the inside the hood would slide straight off. The outerlayer was carfully handsewn on.
Here is the mostly completed hood. The Veil has been attached all that is left is to attach the pearls and gold beads once the gold beads arrive; the pearls finally arrived today. Below is the view from the back looking at the veil.

Sleeves, Eyelets, Skirt

I've been busy working on my Tudor gown. Look it now has Sleeves :) I opted for straight sleeves rather than double sleeves with turnbacks because I didn't want to try and source fur for the turnbacks and this was the quicker option but still looks nice. I am going to add pearls around the cuffs if I have some left over from the girdle belt and french hood. Next I did the eyelets. There are 36 eyelets along 4 seams (9 on each seam). The eyelets were slow and painfull; I completed them over 3 days. I watched 3 movies and some MASH. I first created a hole with an Awl then I forced a 5mm knitting needle through that hole then whipped stiched the hole open. Forcing the knitting needle through was the hard part and caused a fair amount of pain to me and frustration. I bruised my plam and hurt the muscles down the outside edges of my hands. Here is a close up of 3 of the eyelets

Once the eyelets were out of the way I started attaching the shirt. I had to get almost 3 meters of fabric into my tiny waist section; times like these make me realise just how small I am. Pinning the catridge pleasts didn't take that long and the process of actually sewing them was fairly quick and painless except for needle pricks and such.
The view of the catridge pleats from the oustide of the dress. The are so pretty and full. I sewed two layers of flanelet into the skirt before doing the pleats which added body.
Here is what the dress looks like now :) All that is left on the dress is to hand sew the front seam and the bottom hem but that will have to wait until thursday when I have someone to mark the hem for me.
I have been trying to source the materials for the french hood; it is looking to be the most expensive piece of the dress. I cheated and went for synthetic satin over silk because the silk was $30/m and a matte rather than shinny (It really didn't look worth the price). The buckrum that goes inside I couldn't cheat with it was also $30/m. My major issue now is that I can't seem to find a store that stocks/sells millinery wire (a coated/covered wire used in hat making) to create the frame for the cresant.

Tudor and Pearls!!

Tudorness Tudorness I know it's not a word but I am sooo excited. There have been many delays in the patterning of the dress but now the pattern is done and the dress is progressing very quickly.


On Sunday we did 3 more fittings of the pattern taking the total to 5 fittings and patterns in total what a nightmare. That afternoon I did not have the denium or any drill with me for the lining of the bodice so only the outer velvet layer was cut out on Sunday. Nothing went right on monday at all until that night. In the afternoon I went to Spotlight to buy some black drill to line the bodice however I could only get a navy oh well no one should see the lining anyway.


Well after dark I finally got the denium and drill layers cut our and machine sewed the sides and shoulder joins. I then worked until midnight carefully closing the neckline and base seams by hand. Here is what I had done on Monday night: Front Side of the Tudor Bodice.

The Back of the Tudor bodice: notice it has a diagonally lacing V shape :)

On Tuesday around lunch time I started attaching 12mm Glass Pearls onto the front of the bodice. I can't remember what time it was but when I got to the point in the below photo I wasn't sure if I liked how it was turning out. I considered cuting them all off and starting again with a different pattern. I walked away and then hung the boidce on the back of a chair and looked at it from a distance then in a miror hung over my shoulders. The pattern grew on me and I decided I do like how it looks so I kept going.
I didn't look at my watch as to when I got to this point but it was well before 10pm which i think is pretty impressive. Sadly finishing it now means I dont have anything to do on it tomorrow luckly I'm meeting with the sewing group tomorrow.
Hopefully tomorrow I will get the skirt and sleeves sorted and work out how to do the eyelets; I've never done proper eyelets before. I normally use rings or metal eyelets in my aweful "Vikking" pants.

Boxes and Pearls

Here is the latest box I've painted. I have painted five others previously but neglected to take any photos before giving them away as presents. The first one I painted was a thankyou presents to Siridean who sponosored me at festival last year. The box I did for him has the St Florian device on it as he was the champion at the time. I did one for Ysambart with his device on it. Then this festival I did one each for the King and Queen. The king got Lochac's colours and the Queen got one in her favourite colours. I then did one for Berenger seeing as he had been king previously. This latest box is for Bethan in her favourite colours which just happen to be the kingdom colours. Another view. Saddly I can not get the boxes I used to from the same source. This box is rounded on the top unlike the other ones which were just square. I actually prefer this style and it works out to be about the same price. I would like to one day be able to make my own boxes then paint them up.
This is one of my earlier boxes. It is larger then the other ones I've done. I painted it up for myself for in my room.


This is the inside of the box: I lined it in purple felt. Most of the boxes I've made have been lines with felt. Yay Pearls. I havn't created any of these pieces myself. I brought them or were given them. Below is my pretty pearl earings that my mother gave to me for christmas which were intended for use with my SCA dresses (thanks mum).
This is just a simple necklace with pearls that tapper in size. It is not as nice as my long necklace though; this one is made from plastic. It does not sit as well as other necklaces because of it's lack of weight. You can't go past a bargin though :)
I love this necklace. It is made from glass beads so it has the weight and shine of real pearls without the cost. I brought it for use with either my venitian or my tudor maybe both :) the idea is you wrap it around you neck like a chocker once then let the rest of the chain hand down at the front. Where it reaches the bodice it is tucked in.

Tudor the Beginings

In November I bought a remnant piece of material for my tudor forpart. Well after all this time I have finally beaded the forepart. Althought the beading really did not take that long it has taken a long time to find the time to to it and then construct the underskirt. Here is a close up of the beading: I used nasty plastic beads that I got for $1 a packet at BigW.

Below is the complete skirt. All the machine sewing was completed on mothers day weekend but with assignments and just life in general I did not get around to finishing it until yesterday. After many weeks of constant assignments and sickness I decided to do nothing uni related yesterday. I sat in the lounge room watching 3 doctor who dvds with Tom Baker (from the 70s) and hand sewing all day. With the forepart the skirt does not look that impressive from the front.

From the back however you can see just how much material went into it. There is 3 metres of material gathered into that little waist band. It took me two goes to gather one side; the other week I almost had it gathered all the way when the gathering threads snapped. Yesterday it all went smoothly and worked first time. I was going to use a large hook and eye to close the back but when I tried the skirt on it seems it is not long enough to sit that high up on my waist so I sewed on some satin lace so that it is adjustable and can therefore be worn lower.

Cookies

For Knights of the North I cooked some biscuts based on some articles I had read on perriod biscuits. Although I did not follow a perriod recipe the flavour of the biscuits was based on perriod ideas. I made three lots of perriod biscuits: cinnomin, nutmeg and ginger bread. I also made chocchip biscuits so that I had four batches.How my table looked at ht event, isn't it pretty? I prepared everything bar the bacon bread which one of the fighters bought along.
Mmm choc-chip cookies; I should find out if they are perriod or not.
Mmm the choc-chip batter.
The mess I made :)
Cinnomin cookies with cinnomin dusting sugar over the top.
The Tart shells; you get them from the freezer section at coles and just bake them for a few minutes. Add caremel from a tin and you have caremel tarts in seconds :)
This cake was not for the event; it was a caremel sticky date cake that I made one night. It was yummy but didn't cook in the centre.

I have a recipe for shortbread but ran out of time to make it for the event. I'm going to try and make it soon. Last time I tried to make it I failed misserably.

My tabard all pretty

As promised earlier in the blog I have finally embroidered my tabard so that no one can confuse me with either a St Florian Marine or Malitia. Just because it's purple and white does not mean it's a baroinial tabard people.


Here's the tabrd with the bottom Rose complete. I applied embroidery thread over the opposite coloured drill. I attached the opposing colour drill to the tabard with a heat bond material; you iron it too the material and it sticks which also seals your seams which is cool. The down side however is the instructions tell you to cut the excess off after you've ironed the heat bond to the cut out piece; DO NOT DO THIS. It should be the other way around, cut the excess off before ironing the heat bond to the cut out piece. Sorry mum I ruined your ironing board cover; yes the excess heat bond is now bonded to the ironing board cover but it's ok we found the exact same one as she had already on there.


The stitch I used was split stitch. Then I couched a craft "ribbion" around the outer edge of the roses. I dont really like the effect of the outer edge becuase the ribbion is so thick you loose the detail of the curves of the rose. Although couching is a hell of a lot quicker than split stitch. Here's a close up of my white rose; it was the first one I completed. I completed the first rose over two days.
Here's the finish product with all three roses finished. The last two roses took a day each to complete. The first of the two purple roses was completed over two sessions on the same day and the last rose was completed mostly in one session it took about four and a half hours (I was most of the way through 2 discs of the making/extras of lord of the rings). So it's all done and ready for the tournment on saturday. Although it needs an iron (heaven forbid touching the iron again) as the embroidery hoop left marks as you can see.

Mum's Present

I ended up timing the completion of my project to conenside with valentines although that was never my intention, but don't tell mum that. I started the project in january so it either took two or three weeks I'm not really sure. It's from a shop bought kit. I had to buy the mid purple though because it had a blue thread in the pack instead of a third shade of purple. Over all I think it's really pretty. I bought a roses kit for myself I just havn't gotten around to starting it yet. In case you can't tell it's cross stitch by the way.