To-Do List #1

I've been sewing like a fiend lately. I have been bitten by a bug and that bug's name is "Make New Stuff NOW."

So , just to keep track:

Finished/In Process:

• Finished the Prize Play Cotte, need to remove the collar and sleeves and fix the sleeves so they button down the forearms, and re-set the collar to be slightly off-center to account for the buttons.



• Started and finished the Scarlett Cotte in about a week. So named because not only is it red, but it used to be curtains. \o/ I have discovered only this evening a solution to my hemming/turning problem that I will no doubt bitch about when I write up that entry.



• Started and nearly finished the Silver Hood. I need to finish the final seam.



• Started the Muslin Smock. I have it about 25% assembled. It's more a test than anything, as I have always sucked at undergarments. Maybe I'll start taking pictures tomorrow of the construction.



• Fit Thayne for the Thayne Gambeson. Right now it is only a cotte-shaped pattern. Soon it will be a cotte-shaped pattern with Charles de Blois sleeves. Muah ha ha.

Still to begin:

• Test gambeson for the Thayne Gambeson.



• Roger's Purple Houppelande.



• My Purple Cotte.

The Great Grappling Gambeson Project, Part 1

EDIT: This entry has been updated as of 3/8/08 @ 1:15 pm to add pictures and details.

For a good length of time now, I have been promising Roger a fighting gambeson/jacket/coat. Something he can look all kinds of spiff in while he's teaching and that will hold up to the amount of sparring with swords and grappling unarmed that he does.

And by good length of time, I mean years.

Well the time has come to actually get off my ass and make it. Except I have no idea what I'm doing. But! I have a solution! Roger has a handful of students who just achieved the rank of Scholar within the Chicago Swordplay Guild program. Locally they are the Rocky Mountain Swordplay Guild, but they were born as a study group of the CSG. None of which has anything to do with clothing, outside of the fact that it's because of this I started sewing again. When the boys passed their Scholars tests they took a trip out to Chicago to "play for their prize" - basically they had to do a series of bouts with other Scholars to prove they had earned the rank. I guess? I don't know I wasn't there. But Roger wanted a new cotte to wear to the prize play and thus the Prize Play Cotte was born.

And I discovered I am still able to sew, and in fact seem to have gotten better at it. (Which I attribute to my eleven year old and the infinate amount of patience the little snot darling has taught me in the last two and a half years. *G*

( So it's time to conquer the gambeson. (mom, click here) )

The Scarlett Cotte

I can't actually remember the last time I made anything for myself. And since I've been on this sewing binge, I decided to take advantage of my energy and make myself a pretty dress.

It just so happens I had these really pretty red brocade curtains laying about that we aren't using anymore. *G*

So, um. There's only one problem, right? I need someone to actually fit me for the cotte. But I am made of awesome and so I shall do it myself and...get the kid to pin the back for me. \o/

Uh. Yeah. No.

Fortunately Maria showed up just in time to fit the back for me and pinned it nicely in a straight line and then once she left I lay myself down upon the floor and fit the bust. Um. Kind of? I did a good enough job.

This project was one I never expected I'd actually be able to wear. I really didn't. I just wanted to see if I could do it. Fit myself and make a dress from curtains and bits of fabric I had laying about, and get some practice in.

So I managed to get a decent pattern out of it, except no one was around to fit the neckline, so I had to guess. The end result when I did the test was...not pretty. I may take a picture. It was awful. I was embarrassed for myself. I also forgot seam allowance ENTIRELY and. Heh. Yeah. Not good.

So I said screw it, and laid out the pattern, ignored the neck entirely, decided to fit the armholes later and started cutting out the curtains.

Once I had the basic pieces I sewed them together and started messing with the neck line. I put the shell on and got an approximation for where the neckline should be and took it off again and started cutting. And then I trimmed some more, and then I trimmed the armholes and ... basically there was a lot of trimming. Once I was happy I started cutting out the lining.

I used an old skirt I don't think I had ever actually worn, made of linen-like fabric. It was SO BAD I can't believe I actually made it. It was...horrific. That's a good word.

I just started cutting out pieces here and there and wound up with an inner shell that looked like a puzzle. It's awesome. ( I wound up cutting out the top in one piece and then the skirting in another and then sewed the two together. (mom, click here) )