$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.