A list of things I want to get or Make

i've just been to Great Northern War and I'm all enthused. Last night I started a list and have decided to post so I may possibly do it.

Armour:
Coat of Plates (I have had all the bits for ages just need to do it)
Light weight Legs: Leather uppers with metal Knee cops
Light weight Body armour: thinking maybe a barbie bra and kidney belt

Thinking about maybe a new ackoton; something more flattering to my shape
Shoulders for my Tabard; not sure what I want to put on them yet but I want to make them interchangable. So maybe my device, Bart's and Tomas's devices

Clothes:
Spanish Head dress to match and complete my current outfits
A red and Black spanish like my gold and black and red and blue one
A german Red and Gold or Red and White dress

Bits and Pieces:
A purple or purple and white cover for my director chair and small wooden fold out table.

Elizabethan Covered Tall Hat

So I have a large amount of Buckram and Velvet siting around from my Tudor gown and French hood. I decided to make a hat in my spare time to wear with late period garb. I made a mens hat but that doesnt really matter perhaps I am borrowing my Lord's hat on a sunny day. I like to think it's ok to slightly mix late period garb. I mean in period people were travelling and adopting new dress. Perhaps when i'm wearing my spanish dress and an elglish hat it is because my lord has been travelling and brought me back a present.


Anyway enough Rambling. I desided to go back the tudor taylor. I chose to make a Elizabethan covered tall hat. The describtion did not explain what the material covering the hat should be so I used left over velveteen from my gown. God damn velveteen pills and goes everywhere.


Here is the inner structure of the hat; Buckram with heavy gage beading wire around the edges.

The fun job of gluing flanalet to the buckram for some padding. I didnt have any felt laying around and decided this hat was going to be constructed completely of left over materials.

Here is the outside face of the top of the hat covered in flanalet and the top has been attached to the side wall.
The inside lining has been sewn into place before the rest of construction takes place.
I did not take photos of the next stages as much of the fiddly stuff was done during my break at work. A circular piece of velveteen was pinned to the top then gathered into pleates around the sides. I pulled these down tight as I stitched them into place. The bright purple gathering threads were removed before the covered brim was fixed into place. The outside covering of the brim it attached to the base and the brim. I stiched through the brim, the brim covering and the side wall to attach the brim and brim covering. The underside of the brim covering is just attached to the inner layer of the hat.

The band is a 4inch wide strip of velveteen which I hand sewed. i attempted to machine sew the tube then turn it around the right way but the velveteen just fell apart at the stiches.

Here is the completed hat which looks totally silly on my head but very period.

English Gown Based Jacket

I have a massive bright orange/red wool cloak that was given to me by some friends many years ago. It is very warm but not very practicle. I have comfortably had two other ladies under it which hints at to how large the cloack really is. I thought it was about time I finally made myself a jacket.

After much searching of the internet I came up empty for patterns. I wanted something I could get away with wearing in late perriod and early period. So I went back to my trusty tudor taylor and desided to make a slightly modified English Gown. Rather than it toughing the floor I made it come to mid calf and rather than having a stupid amount of material just hanging from my shoulders I made it slightly less bulky.

The next issue was the material. I would like to have made a wool Jacket however the cost of wool from spotlight in Brisbane is stupid. I could not afford the amount of wool that would be required. I decided to cheat a little. The fabric is a wool/polyester blend that was on special at spotlight. The weave is a standard Tabby with purple and black haphazardly spun into the threads. The fabric is a rather open weave so I have lined the coat with black flanalet which is fluffy and soft and shall never be seen.

Here is a photo of it hanging while the seams were droping before the arms or colar was attached.
Here it is hanging complete. I used some cloth ribion I had lying around the house for the ties. When I wore it with my early period garb at Great Northern War this last weekend I overlapped it at the front for extra warmth rather than tying it at the front.

Armour Coiff

For almost a year now I have been getting tension in the muscles of my back, shoulders and neck. This tension causes tension headaches which mimic migraines. My shoulders and lower back hurt almost constantly. The tension in my neck is in the outer muscles; the outer muscles are doing more work than they should which has lead to a weakening of the core muscles in my neck which results in more pain and a weakened neck. I could no longer support the weight of my helmet with a chain drape on it. I have been to chiropractors, physiotherapists and remedial massage centres all these remedies relieve the pain for a short time and have helped to minimally strengthen the core muscles in my neck. I still could not fight; I just could not support the weight of the helmet and drape. So one painful afternoon I set to removing the heavy drape which left some unsightly holes along the rim of the helmet. With the help of Master Count Sir Stephan a strip of brass was added to the bottom to make the helmet presentable again (I need to take a photo). The problem with this however it the unweighted helmet was not hitting my metal gorget which made a really annoying clicking sound all the time. So I made a coiff.

A long story short I made a coiff out of white drill. Due to continued illness I have only worn it once so far when I was determined to test my new gauntlets no matter how much my neck hurt.

I plan on making a purple one to wear to tournaments; I will add some extra triangles to the neck piece next time so it sits correctly on my shoulders; it turned out pretty good for a quick job adapted from an internet pattern that was only A4.

Second Tudor Dress

One Tudor dress is never enough they are just sooo pretty although totally impractical. On my last tip to Canberra in February (I know I'm soo slack). I went to Sunday training in Polit only to find out it was Baronial day and everyone was in Garb. Bart who was going to put on Armour had completely forgotten and looked the part in Armour anyway so it didn't affect him. Me in my bright purple shirt, black jeans and bright while shoes felt sooo embarrassed and like a total newb. I've been in the SCA for 6 years and here I was at an event in mundanes. Then something out of the blue and completely unexpected happened (I had a friends tunic thrown over me which didn't do a great job in covering the mundanes) a lady came up to me and said "You are about the same size and age I was when I made this dress" this middle aged lady who I had never met was holding a gorgeous blue German velvet Tudor. She believed the dress would never fit her again so she got me to try it on; it was a perfect fit. I had gone from mundanes to high court. The biggest surprise of all was she was not just lending it to me for that afternoon she gave it too me. I was over joyed. It cost me $20 in excess baggage costs to bring it back to Brisbane with me. It needed a little work; it was missing some pearls on the forepart and some were discoloured. The fore sleeves were also missing so I made some to match the forepart.


The Dress as it came. A beautiful blue velvet with fur look sleeves. These are the the sleeves I knocked up from some white drill I had lying around and some 3mm blue ribbon I brought for $2 (for the first roll of 5 meters) and $1 (for the second roll of 10 meters; I ran out)

I added lacing rings to the inside of the sleeves so the fore-sleeves could be laced on and it means I can make different sleeves to change it around a little if I want. The lacing rings were the hardest thing to get; I had to drive to the other side of Brisbane to buy solid brass rings from a fishing and tackle store. Here is a close up of the sleeves attacked to the dress. Amazing how you can dress up the wrong side of drill with a little ribbon and a heap of little pearl beads.