A Little Bit of Norse

The event this weekend has a Norse theme, so I’ve spent the past week hard at work in a new apron dress. More details and photos to follow after the event.

Black Widow Doublet

Elfsea Baronial College was at the end of September. I was intrigued by the prospect of a full day of A&S classes (like a mini King's College!), but I was really hooked when I learned that they were having a "Disney your garb" costume contest. Any Disney-owned character was fair game. Some friends and I decided to go as Avengers. Chris was Dr. Strange, Franchesca was Pepper Potts, and I was Black Widow. The pockets, and the to-be-made sleeves will have their own posts, later, but here I'll show the doublet I made. It was pretty, functional, and carried the theme of the character well.

I did not win the costume contest, but I enjoyed playing with the techniques and exploring how the dress in the painting might have been made.

Landsknecht for Robert de Bray

This was my first time making Landsknecht, and Robert was my very patient guinea pig. The project started with a lot of research, since I didn't really know much about the style (other than a general impression that the aesthetic was "MORE is MORE!") He wore this outfit to Coronation in October of 2017.

Hot Little Project

If I’m camping at an event where I expect cold weather, I bring a pile of little chemical handwarmer packets. This quick little bag will now keep them organized and find-able in my luggage in the tent.

Islamic-style book with gold silk cover

A few years ago, at Gulf War I took a class in Islamic-style book binding. It was taught by Margavati Bai (who is now a Laurel), from Meridies. A few aspects of the style are particularly appealing: the completed books are lovely, with a wrap-around flap that holds the book shut. The pages were often made of cotton paper (much more economical for the reenactor on a budget). And the covers were often made leather or cloth over pasteboard, rather than leather over wood as was found in European bindings.
When I got home I excitedly mixed up a batch of wheat paste and used it to glue together multiple sheets of cotton resume paper, then dried the sheets between blotter paper and weights to keep them flat.
That was an adventure in itself, and I'll make a separate post about it in the future.

Then I set the dried sheets aside and got sucked into other projects, and forgot all about them.

Until a winter gift exchange paired me with Behiye Bint Kismet, and I realized that a book would be just the thing to give her.

Intro to Tailoring

Intro to Tailoring

taught by Lady Simona della Luna (Star.Maddox@gmail.com) at King’s College 2014

Andrew's New Doublet

At the very end of 2015, I realized that my 12-year-old son had outgrown all his nice garb. 9 February was the date for our annual Candlemas event, which serves as an excellent excuse for everyone to wear nice clothes. I had some sewing to do. Because he's in the throes of puberty, I knew I'll need to make him a new one soon. He may only get one wearing out of this before he outgrows it completely (a fitted doublet doesn't leave much in the way of "room to grow"). So I took every cheat I possibly could with this project. All the materials are stash except the buttons, which he picked out. The fabric was also his choice, for his first doublet a few years ago. It's 100% dead dinosaur upholstery fabric, but it's pretty and the price was right. Even with all the machine cheats, it took about 40 hours to make this garment (not counting the time to make the pattern).