This Is Good?

I was fully expecting this to be as time consuming, if not moreso than my coif, which is still in the works. Instead, my slips are being up quite fast, and I'm not sure what to do with myself.

The two slips thus far:

 And a detail:

I am in no mood to go back and rip out stitches, even if many of them are on the big side (by my standards, most are four to two threads wide.) My idea for now is to just keep going back and adding to the design, and hopefully this will end up being the leisurely time consuming project I intended it to be.

An Exercise in Recycling

This used to be a smock that I made for an outfit I wore to my graduation. I took a page from the Attack Laurel and use some lines of machine stitching to give the idea of embroidery. (See her commentary for her March 2004 photo.) I have no occasion to wear it again , as my persona then was Irish, and my persona now is early Italian Renaissance, so ruffs are right out. I now use this smock as a mine for linen accessories.

The gaps at the bottom are where I cut to make a couple of caps. The first cap I'm not thrilled with and will be taken apart for other projects. the second one is the coif I'm currently embroidering. After I took the top picture, I removed the wrist ruffs and had fun with my seam ripper:

Once I'm done with or tired of working on my coif, I'll embroiderthese strips, most likely to use one day to trim a pair of drawers. As there is at least one article saying that trim and embroidery got recycled between garments, I'm fine with having a separate embroidered trim for a garment. Also, since it will probably be for an undergarment, it's unlikely anyone will see and complain.

An ideal dress

I have not seen Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, and I have no intention to. However, I've seen this dress, and some costumers' recreations of this dress. In my mind, I decided that I wanted to one day make an outfit inspired by, but not a direct copy of it. The starkness of the stripes and the zone front grab my fancy, but I would do the trim differently and go for more historical accuracy than theatrics.

And then one day Demode's Kendra started her Robe a la Turque and an idea started to form. The top layer would be the stripes, the under layer and petticoat would be black, and the trim would be black white and silver. I already have in my stash similar striped fabric, a length of black and silver rococo trim, and some wide eyelet I can convert into fluffy cuffs. Having the proper undergarments and a basic sloper lying around somewhere also helps.

Here is a crude picture of what I'd like:

I intend for the sleeves to be short, so I whited them out on MS Paint and added lines to stand in for engageantes (the aforementioned sleeve ruffles.) However, I am in not much of a hurry to begin, as I have other more immediate projects to work on. I will try to have it complete by next Comicon.

Kit Musings

I have gotten it firmly into my head that I want to make a period sewing kit. I know that I can purchase one from Historic Enterprises, but much of the fun for me is in the planning, research and creating. Buying one fully formed from the head of Zeus would be a let down. Fortunately, I have the internet and Larsdatter's page on pictorial evidence of sewing tools.

From that page I learned that needles were kept in little vial shaped cases. This leaves me confused as I have heard of references to needlebooks, mainly from a project listed by the Atlantian Embroiderer's Guild. I think the problem lies in that the description is all text, and a photo or several would help clear things up for me. I believe the project is for a place to put needles into, rather than just a pretty book cover, but I can't tell.

Later, I consulted the Athena's Thimble Embroidery Guild. The consensus was that there was scant evidence of needle books being used in period, but there's an air of plausibility to them. Hence, If I am interested, I should go for it.

What is much more understandable to me is a case for scissors. As you can see here in the detail painting with the yellow skirt, there is a pouch for scissors. It seems like a dreadfully impractical place to hang a vital piece of equipment though, I'd be afraid of the things falling out.

Finally, the pincushion.There is at least one painting involving a soft place in which to shove the pointy things. While I'm not putting this eventual project's documentation on the level of a graduate thesis, I like knowing that there is precedent for what I want to make.

So between the needle book, scissors case and pincushion, I'll have some nice 'broidery projects ahead of me.