More sewing...

So I haven't quit my job yet... even after working 40 hours before Tues was over... (if you count last week as having ended @ 5pm Fri). Actually I had a sort of realization about that, but I don't feel like writing about work at the moment. Guess I'll have to do that later.

I've been sewing like a fiend this week, but luckily (?) I have enough different aspects of various projects to work on that I haven't gotten burnt out yet.

The Great Cuisse Project was a partial success - Aradd's turned out great, though I still need to get the eyelets put into them. (The original plan was to take the cuisses up to Birthday with us, put them on him and mark them and do them there. Since that fell through I guess I'll just have to approximate and see how it goes.) Girard's on the other hand... well, the concept (rope reinforcement) is good, the studs are cool, but the execution? Failed miserably. I have a plan for fixing this, though - because I was trying to dag the bottom, and didn't want to hand sew that bit, I tried putting the rope in using the zipper foot to sew the channels. This was... full of fail. Full of a LOT of fail. So I'm going to try to do another version with the channeled, rope'd bit sewn as a separate part than the decorative dagged bottom, and see if that works - the seam'll be hidden behind the knee cop anyway. Still, that project can wait a bit since the next real fighting *event* is Ymir - or perhaps Ice Castles - and G doesn't practice in that set of legs. (Yes, one should practice in what one fights in, but when the substitution is for *less* protective armor in tourneys, it's not so bad...and does lead to slightly fewer occasions Welch's Grape Jelly Legs).

Anyway, so I've been focusing on 12th night garb. Tuesday, after marionred came over to get a GFD fitting, I cut out the lining for a Bocksten Man-type cloak for G, out of some red wool - the "fashion" fabric will be a charcoal gray. Haven't decided what the hem treatment - dags, embroidery, or a combination - will be, I'll probably make that decision closer to the event. This one isn't pieced like the Bocksten; the fabric is wide enough that that isn't necessary. The dart in the shoulder and the way it sort of hangs on the bias does make it deliciously rakish when flipped back over the shoulder though. Yay. Oddly enough, I realized in doing some of the research that I had thought about making this outfit last year, and then didn't. Well, a similar cloak anyway... I don't think I'm going to put a collar on it, instead the cote underneath will have a standing collar.

OH! I never said what I was actually DOING, did I? Nick's outfit is from the first pic, which is from Français 343, fol. 72v. (Images from the BNF's site Mandragore, which if you haven't seen is REALLY cool. And I probably shouldn't be borrowing them, but hey, it sends more people to their site...) Mine is from the second one, which is from Français 100, fol. 1, though I may make the hat from folio 57 of the same manuscript - that's the hat to the right, and it's a TRIP. 

Anyway, on Wednesday, pallasathene82 came over, to work on the sleeves for the dress we started last month. And I did something I've never done before! With some help from chargirlgenius's sleeve handout, and a little bit of pure luck / finally grokking how they're supposed to work, I drafted a sleeve pattern that Worked On The First Try - as in, I pinned it on S and only had to move 2 pins half an inch. Yay. ::happy dances all over the house:: 

Last night, my linen for new braies/smocks/shirt came in, and I got that washed and ironed, and after a tasty dinner at harleenquinzell's house, got a smock cut out and started hemming the pieces. And I even found some blue wool in the stash for hosen... I may be crazy, but I'm thinking about handsewing a lot of these outfits - I'm fairly quick, and it's only halfway through November...or maybe I'm crazy. We'll see...