At Her Leisure

I made quite a bit this year, including four knit pinballs.



The rest is behind the cut.

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Yesterday I got to go on my first costumed outing since Memorial Day. jenthompson and I met up with our respective families at the opening weekend of the Texas Renaissance Festival. I haven't been to a Renaissance Faire since I was in college so that was something of an experience in and of itself. I've also never been with children.

The weather was good. The sky was clear and blue, there was a little breeze at times, and it was usually decent in the shade. Standing in the sun was warm, though. I don't know just how warm it got, but they were forecasting highs around 93. Maybe it got there, maybe it didn't, but I'm sure it didn't cross the hot threshold.

Only one of my daughters would dress up, and she insisted on changing into shorts before we'd been there an hour. She feels that she can't run in a dress. At least I got some nice pictures of her before she changed. I thought I got one or two of her sister, but I guess I didn't.

I didn't take many pictures and only got three worth posting. In order, my little white knight preparing for a mechanical joust, one of my daughters in her sister's Merida costume, and a lovely hobbit matron who showed us the ropes (and didn't look even remotely like a sausage, though the sausage in the quiver was a particularly hobbit-y touch when the young elf was too busy playing at lunch to finish eating).







Jen took a bunch of pictures of me and I of her while the children watched the jousting, but they're all on her camera so we must wait until she's ready to share. I hope I was able to take satisfactory pictures of her and do her justice. She looked great.

And then we can decide whether I looked like I was from "Little House on the Prairie" as I was twice told. Either I didn't look at all as I thought I did, or people can't tell the difference between early seventeenth century and late nineteenth century. I'm not sure which one would be more disappointing.

I tried on everything except the smock (substituting a late 18th century shift for it) today, and it all seems to work together just fine. Then I starched the cuffs and basted them in. Very well-starched.



I'm using the Tudor Tailor pattern for the smock, but the sleeves seem awfully big to me. The narrow sleeves are given as being 12" around the wrist, but they still have you putting an opening at the wrist. That was going to be way too much fabric to bunch up under my jacket sleeves so I took out about 2.5", which was an improvement. I still don't need an opening at the wrist. I'm hoping I'll finish the smock today, but I make no guarantees. I just need to set the sleeves, sew the side seams, hem the sleeves, and hem the body. It should be achievable.

After sewing for most of the spring and summer with absolutely no place to wear anything, it looks like events are finally in the near future.

First, there's an English country dance ball on 10/16. I'm not making anything new for it, but I'm going to wear my copper 1820's evening gown for it. That dress definitely deserves another wearing. And I've bartered with m_of_disguise for a tiara, which I'm looking forward to getting shortly.

Then on some yet to be determined October or November date I'm going to take the children to the Texas Renaissance Festival. I haven't gone to that (or any Renaissance faire for that matter) since I was in college. I always meant to go to the one in Virginia or Maryland with some high school friends who live in the DC area, but somehow it never happened. I'm nearly finished with my things for that, and I'm waffling on whether to try to make anything for the girls.

Hallowe'en is coming up in about a month (five weeks from today, in fact), and I'll get to wear my 1886 dress. My husband has informed me that it's weird that I tell people on Hallowe'en that I'm myself in the year xxxx so I guess I need to find someone to be. I think I'm going to go with Evelyn Emerson from Elizabeth Peters' Egyptological mystery novels. While I don't particularly identify with her, it's the right period, and I have similar coloring - I certainly don't have the dark looks of the protagonist!

Then we're still trying to get a Regency archery event together, probably in early or mid-November. I'm hoping to get a spencer made by then, but if it's chilly, I have a pelisse to wear so it's not of great importance. I don't exactly have a design for it yet, but I do have fabric. That's half the battle, right?

Then there's the DFWCG Georgian picnic the weekend before Thanksgiving. I've got the dress I tried to make for it last year, but it's not very exciting so I need to think of some kind of bright accessories. Or I could wear the green-striped dress that I made over. There's plenty of time to figure that one out, and the weather may ultimately influence my decision.

Dickens on the Strand is only a couple of weeks after that, and I'll need to decide what to wear. I've really only got two dresses from Dickens' working years so I'm inclined toward the wool 1860's dress. We'll see.

Anyway, the rest of the year is starting to look quite full among holidays, costume events, and the start of the opera season. I shall have to husband my time well. Don't be surprised if I don't do much sewing until after the new year!

Frogging is not fun. After finishing the ribbing at the waist of my 1930's sweater and knitting a few rows of the main body, I decided that I had used the wrong needle size on the ribbing. I had to go down a size for gauge in the pattern section so I went down a size for the ribbing too. Bad choice. Of course, I decide this after 3.5" of ribbing and 1" of pattern. It's sad to rewind all that yarn back onto the ball. It was only about 40-45 rows so I guess it could have been worse. On the plus-side it's now completely brainless knitting again - knit one, purl one, knit one, purl one, knit one, purl one........and there will be fewer rows to get to 3.5".

In happier news, I've nearly finished one of the sleeves for my 1610's jacket and have started on the second one. Would it be finished by now if I were machine-sewing it? Yes. Do I care? Not in the slightest. There really is something soothing about hand-sewing.

I love the way that the six different jackets that are patterned in 17th Century Women's Dress Patterns are constructed in six different ways. I can put mine together pretty much any way I want to. For those who are curious, I'm whipping the pieces together then putting the lining in and felling it to the outer layer. I hadn't been planning to line it at all, but my linen is a little too lightweight so it's getting a lining after all.

The gores are set, the side seams are sewn, and I'm putting in the body of the lining now. I'm pleased and rather surprised with my rate of progress.

I've been working off and on on the lace for an 1890's petticoat and finished the tenth repeat today. That was the point I had promised myself I could block and measure to see what kind of length I'm getting. It's 14" so I'm getting about 1 3/8" per repeat. That makes 26 repeats per yard. I don't know just how much I'll need because the body of the petticoat isn't finished yet, but it should be less than four yards so I shouldn't need any more than 100 repeats. It's still a lot, but at least it means I'm at least a tenth of the way through, right?

I'm also a tenth of the way through my (possibly Tolkien-esque) pinball. And I'm half done with my 1780's underbodice. I've done a lot of thinking about 1610's stuff but haven't cut anything yet. I might do that tomorrow, but I think I'll finish the underbodice tonight. I don't like UFO's, even if I have a lot of them right now.

I feel that I'm getting a better idea of where I need to go with the whole 1610's outfit, though I know I still have a lot to learn. Questions, questions. reine_de_coudre is being very helpful; I'm so glad I'm on her friends list.

In the meantime, I haven't really done any sewing in the last couple of days because I've been reading so much. So this morning I made the upper part of my last 1890's petticoat and worked out what I want to do with headwear to go with my 1886 navy faille dress. I'm going to make a bonnet along the lines of this one at the Met. The best thing about it is that the shape is the same as the base of my 1868 bonnet that I made last winter, just rotated 180 degrees. So I pulled out all the supplies for it, cut out the buckram, sewed the darts, and started wiring it. Wiring it by machine was NOT working, so I abandoned that and will wire it by hand tonight.

But first I need to take the children swimming. I really don't want to, but being a mother isn't about what you want to do.