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.

$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.