You are in the dark.

*clicks on the light*

For three weeks we have been off on a trip. Mainly to Colorado, but extendedly to all sorts of places. In order... Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico (I seem to think it's hilarious... we were in it for only a few minutes. It was on the freeway through the desert, at the Four Corners Monument or whatever it's called), Arizona, New Mexico (for much longer than before), Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota. :-)


Before the gathering, I sewed up my swimsuit which is mentioned in the previous post, as well as made the dress that was for Harry Potter 6 (which I declined to go to at the last minute for very complicated reasons) into just a skirt partly because the bodice wouldn't work and because I didn't really have time to figure out how it would work even if it didn't really fit. It's a nice batik skirt now, green blue and purplish pinkish with a leaf design on it. It has a buttony placket on the side and is half-circle, goes to about mid-calf. I wore it to the gathering, so lots of you will have seen it already in pictures, and some saw it in real life! :-D

I also made a brown calico skirt. It was light brown with pink-and-red roses on it. It's gathered, three-gored, with a placket on one of the front gores. It doesn't have the buttons on it yet because I couldn't get them put on, so I safety-pinned it shut for the hike at the gathering. It's a little too tight in the waist. It was rather hard getting it the right size, and then I find out it's a little tight... we'll see what I do. Never fear! I could just give it away, but I love brown calicoes strangely...

Hoping you know the details of my swimsuit (the fabric, and what it looks like), I won't go into that. It worked out very well, though I ended up adding sleeves... and people liked it. :-) I wore it at Oak Creek Canyon for the first time. So, some of you have seen it in real life, and others in pictures.

The days before Harry Potter 6 came out, I made a cloak, too. It's not hemmed. Plaid wool, not at all sweltering hot, with a yoke which I masterfully put together. Someday I will try to explain how I did it so others can try... I don't know if it's exactly easy or hard. It does take a good bit of calculations, though, and that's mainly how I made it. O.O It's very nice, and works in the rain very well. I mean to use it in the future.

So, for the future, I think I'm going to calmly not try to overdo things in my life. Not give myself too much to do. I will have much schoolwork, so I'll probably just make myself some skirts, and try to make myself some patterns for interesting mediaeval-inspired clothing. Mediaeval meaning the true style they wore then. No princess seams, and no annoying, modern sleeves. The sleeves will probably be near kimono-styled (which isn't really mediaeval, but it isn't modern and I don't like putting in modern sleeves), and the skirts will be rectangular with triangular gores in the sides. Few people probably know about that- it was how they made the fulness for skirts back then, though I find they used many triangular gores to do it, not just one, and I really, really don't want to use many. Anyway, it's not necessary.

Very soon I would like to make some more skirts, too. Since they're so simple, and if I have room to cut out and a machine to sew with, it will happen quickly (I think). I'll be looking for fabric very carefully... I love so much of it but have to pick only a few...

And I'll try to plan some Sunday outfits! I suppose I should try to get some Folkwear patterns to use for that and costumes. O joy. I shall try not to overwork myself, though.

Westu hal!

What this place is, and what I'm down to...

(...down is so much more descriptive, because it makes me see the semblance of a person down among a great heap of things, cross-legged and writing busily on a thing, with a candle nearby and a strange, dark roundabouts which would be all the other weird things the semblance of a person does...)

So, I wish I had some pictures to post.

This will be my crafty blog. Currently, it's under serious construction, as can be seen by the randomnity with which it is in essence... if that makes sense.

This is the fabric I bought for my circle skirt (arr, I'm going to kill Jo-ann's site... at least when I put 'stonehill green' in the search bar, it gets up the print as the first print. It's got tannish, green shades and yellow in it, fyi), and I would like to use this is what I want to bind the hem with. I'm not sure about binding it with calico now, but I really want to... so the skirt looks a little more exciting and colour-y. I want to use it for Easter day, and afterwards, since by then (I hope) it will be made.

I am also going to try to make a muslin shirt (unbleached) and a camisole out of the same muslin... I'm just a little bit creeped out that I actually did buy a whole yard of 120-inch-wide muslin. Which means I have to zig-zag-stitch up a whole 240 inches of fabric before I can shrink it and all. :o I really should just get it over with and cut out the fabric. :P

And I have lots of ideas! I want to make a gypsy outfit over time; really fancy-decorated and all, and weird. I'm still trying to find out how I'll make the skirt. I'm debating whether I'll just flare the skirt, or use the Mediaeval way of making a skirt wider and flaredish. (Eek, Gina's creaking... awfully...)

I also have other ideas. Many. My list of things to make for the future is:

For re-enacting and historicalness, ca. 1860:
2-3 pairs of drawers
2-3 chemises (both these two firstish... probably a pair of drawers and then a chemise, a pair of drawers and then another chemise, etc., depending)
corset (might need some serious fitting help with someone else in RL... I'll have to find out if Gina will sacrifice her time to help me.)
fool with a toile or more on Gina, to get used to toile-handling...
petticoats, hoopy-cages of some sort, and other skirt support things
an apron or more, bibbed and unbibbed (I'm planning to do these when I feel like it, maybe even before I've made my drawers and chemises, so I can do some gauging and practise more hand-stitchery)
sunbonnets (I want to experiment with different types, but it all depends on how much time I have)
random things in between everything... and I'll probably be knitting stockings in my 'spare time', and crocheting a shawl, maybe, once I figure out how...
jewel-necked, bishop-sleeved work dress out of plaid cotton, with tucks in the skirt (mostly for 'growth', apostrophized because I may not be growing any more)
a dress, like that. I'm planning to make it out of this calico (you can tell that I'm going crazy with the links... if I can't with pictures, well, I'll go other-technical!)
And probably some random calico dresses, wool dresses, paletots, capes and summer dresses. :-) That's all I have definitely planned out. It may look insane, but I'm guaranteed to go at it kind of carefully, in my own way. I can go overboard, but I feel the necessity to get hard at work on historical sewing, because I'm not going to be in my teens much longer!

As well as all that, I want to work on a patchwork quilt about the time. It will consist of random bits of fabric, probably just reproduction calico. I have only two prints right now that would be suitable for it (one is the fabric for my circle skirt, and if I get the pink calico, that will probably be in the quilt, as well, and then I have a foot of blue calico I got from Jo-ann's something around four years ago that would suit the purpose, imho), and possibly not just those. :) I mean to ask other historical sewers about it, or research it myself, and make sure. I would like to make the quilt like this because I want to use it while re-enacting. And I like old prints more than modern ones, anyway.

...all of that quilt by hand, too. :P I should have said that. I'm not yet daunted by that, but once I start, we'll see! It may take years to finish, depending on how miserable I feel in the weeks ahead. It will be my miserable-time quilt, probably. To make me feel brighter and all.

I also plan to do some other crazy things, like making myself modern clothes, from the same pattern as the circle skirt and the pattern I'm making the shirt and camisole out of. I'll probably also make other things, like dresses and other sorts of skirts, from different patterns (all of them modified, for your information... harhar), and make some patterns for myself with a toile. I plan to have lots of fun, though slowly.

Just pray I won't be too tired and confused to get these things done. I need energy and a good state of mind for it all! :D